Tag Archives: exchange stitching

Windows, Lights… Pillows?

Posted on December 18, 2007 | 4 comments

‘Tis late. We’re not long back from ‘doing’ the Myer windows and the Boulevard lights – two Melbourne Christmas institutions if ever there were. With a stop off at Haigh’s on the way. Yum. Two happy but tired kids fell asleep on the way home. I thought I’d show you a couple of recent finished objects before I do the same.

This cushion:
Finn's Cushion

which is a long awaited finish (remember the work in progress?) from Finn. He finished it in time to show his teacher last week at his (sob! sniff!) last Kinder session.

The proud boy (since having a new camera – early gift from Mum, thanks Mum 🙂 – necessitated taking new playground shots of kids):
Finn

And a finish from me, which I probably shouldn’t really be showing off yet, since it’s still en route to the recipient:
Ornament Exchange 2007

This was for an ornament exchange on the Aus Xers yahoo group. I joined up before I realised what a slump in stitching I was about to experience. Blah. So I have to confess… I probably broke the rules a little bit. This stitched piece (a Drawn Thread freebie) was sitting in my ‘to be finished’ pile already(!) When I realised I had zero chance of getting something new stitched for the exchange, I picked this out and finished it up as a pillow ornament. Is that bad? Anyway, I’m not counting it as a finish for the year, but I do plan to restitch it for myself, because I think it’s really pretty. If I manage to kick myself in the butt after Christmas is over, I might just get it done before ’08!

4 Comments

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Finished, General Ramblings, Kid Crafts, Other Craft, Sewing

Tagged , , ,

Oops

Posted on October 10, 2007 | 1 comment

Ahem. Sorry about the unscheduled broken-time. A stupid mistake – I was upgrading my WordPress installation and then went to bed without actually testing it properly, and hey, turns out I missed that teeny tiny .htaccess file that makes it all work. So Million Stitches was broken good and proper this last 24 hours. Never mind. We’re back in business now. And I have part two of the Smalls Exchange to show you. Here are the pretties which Christine stitched for me – an Ellen Maurer Stroh biscornu (beautiful beaded edge Christine 🙂 ) and fob:

sm-exchange

Aren’t they gorgeous? You can see more images on Christine’s post, including a photograph of the extra goodies she sent me – a lovely handmade card, highlighters (staple of any stitcher’s toolkit!), doggie post-its which Finn very much fancies for himself, and the very beautiful Drawn Thread Cloister Garden kit. This is me on opening my gifties: 😆

1 Comment

Posted in Blog Blather, Counted Stitchwork, Finished

Tagged , , , ,

Smalls Exchange

Posted on October 8, 2007 | 7 comments

Indigo-Rose-front-l

Many many years ago, when I was in my early teens, I was the recipient of a chain letter which promised a ten-fold return in new undies (aka knickers/panties/smalls, take your pick) – you simply had to send the letter on to several friends, purchase a new pair of undies and send them to the person at the top of the list. Haha. I think this was the only chain letter I ever actively participated in. Can’t remember how many pairs I received, but there were certainly a few.

Every time I think of the exchange I just took part in, it makes me think of the undies chain letter and giggle :giggle: But this was not that sort of exchange! It was the ‘open themed small exchange’ on the Rotation Stitchers’ BB. We were to stitch up any ‘small thing’ for our recipient. I stitched these Indigo Rose pretties for Jen Harper. Here is the back of the fob:

Indigo-Rose-inside-l
(click pics for embiggening 🙂 )

This is the first time I’ve stitched the spider’s web stitch, the first time I’ve beaded the edge of a fob, and the first time I’ve finished anything as a needlebook. I procrastinated a little bit on that last thing, but eventually got the fiddly little book done, and I love the results! Happily, Jen does too 🙂

Now… time to drum up some motivation to work on my TW Storyteller, seeing as I have ‘committed’ myself to the October TW stitchalong on The Wagon.

7 Comments

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Finished

Tagged , , , ,

Hardanger-y Goodness

Posted on April 24, 2007 | 9 comments

With good intentions, I sat down after my last finish to work on an existing WIP – the Wee Beasties dragonfly. I think I managed about three hours or so before I gave in to the temptation to start something new instead :giggle: To be honest, that dragonfly is not fun stitching. It’s full of finicky little fractional stitches and lots of blending filament. I need more concentration to work on it than I usually have in the evening after the kiddos are asleep, so it’s slow going at the moment.

So, I started, and then finished, Teenie Hardanger I by The Sweetheart Tree, instead. Pretty, no? The chart for this was a gift from my Secret Stitcher last year, Allie. She sent me II and III as well (among other wonderful things).

Teenie-Hardanger-I-lg

I’m much happier with my cutting this time. Well. Except for that one bit. That bit where I snipped one thread too many. Whoops! I ended up having to reweave a piece of linen so that I could do the woven bar properly. But all’s well that ends well, hey?

Hardanger-y goodness part two is this:
HardangerExchange-Haze

Haze stitched me this lovely candle wrap and mat for the Hardanger exchange on the Rotation BB. It’s taken a little while to arrive, it’s been on a bit of a world cruise, actually 🙂 Thanks Haze, I love it!

9 Comments

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Finished, In Progress

Tagged , , , , ,

Show & Tell

Posted on February 28, 2007 | 15 comments

Far overdue, may I show you in full the hardanger exchange which I stitched for Jenny. You can see it hanging on the wall in her post – here’s a slightly different angle for interest:
Hardanger Exchange

Or, you can get up close and personal with the stitching here. Although I thought finishing it as a ‘wall ornament’ was kind of uninspired (hey, I was really tired!), I was really happy with the quality of my finishing. I have a bag (or, um, three) of finished-but-not-finished projects which I’d really like to start making a dent in – Anne and Karen have started up the Focus on Finishing blog, have you seen it? That should provide me with some inspiration.

The reason I’ve taken so long to post this is because my ‘spare’ time (insert maniacal laugh here) has been taken up with Suz’s UFO for the Round Robin. She sent around Black Swan’s Lily Pond Dreams. Confetti stitching ahoy! It kicked my butt, and once again I didn’t achieve as much as I would have liked. Here are the before ‘n’ afters, clickable for biggering.
UFO-RR-Suz-1UFO-RR-Suz-2

And, just in case you aren’t all pictured out, here are pics of the three pay-it-forward packages that I know have arrived. (Should check up on the other two – Angi, Debbi, are yours there yet?). I dyed a fat 1/8 of linen or evenweave, and some stranded cotton (plus a perle for Jenna) for each person in their colour preferences. So far, so good, everyone seems to like these:

For Jenna
PIF-Jenna
For Tash
PIF-Tash
For Jinger
PIF-Jinger

Phew! I think that’s about it.

15 Comments

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Dyeworks, Finished, In Progress, Other Craft

Tagged , , , , , ,

SBQ 25/10

Posted on October 26, 2006 | 1 comment

SBQ: The Halloween edition

If you were to come across a sampler chart that caught your eye and appealed to you, would you or would you not stitch it if it had a morbid or “creepy” saying on it? If not, why?

This question immediately brought to mind the Monsterbubbles design Lizzie Borden. Not a sampler, but definitely morbid! I remember a bit of a hoo-hah on the BBs when this came out – is it or is it not in ‘poor taste’? Personally, I find it kind of amusing. The Monsterbubbles designs don’t really appeal to me, but I appreciate their whimsy. Anyway, to answer the question… I’m not really in the habit of stitching samplers or anything with ‘sayings’ on. But if I did, I seriously doubt creepiness or morbidity would be offputting to me at all :giggle:

And, because I feel like answering another, this, from way back in April:

Do you do obligation or deadline-based stitching? Why or why not? If you do, do you tend to get in over your head and why?

I have done a handful of exchanges, yes. And of course there’s the UFO round robin I’m in now. I don’t really look upon these as ‘obligation’ stitching in a negative light though. Part of the reason I join these things is to motivate myself to stitch (and more importantly, to finish!). Also, I enjoy the community aspect of them. I don’t tend to get in over my head, I usually choose only one or two at a time to join.

While we’re on the topic, I recently relinquished my membership to the stitching bloggers’ exchange board. Amongst other reasons, I felt that I couldn’t really guarantee the required amount of participation while Niamh is small. There was a waiting list of people wanting membership to the board, so I hope whoever got my place enjoys it. So to all the SBEBB stitchers reading, thanks for making my stay there a good one, and… goodbye, I guess 🙂 I plan instead to take part in a few exchanges on the Rotation BB as I find the time.

1 Comment

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Memes

Tagged , , , ,

Hatched at Last

Posted on August 13, 2006 | 7 comments

TW-Hatched-3
It feels like so long since I’ve had a happy dance just for me. It’s just a wee one, but here it is – my finished You Were Hatched by Teresa Wentzler. Some of you may recall that Niamh ‘claimed’ this design, by deciding to arrive as I was stitching on it in the beginning. But it’s mine, I think. It’s a birth piece for me, not for her 🙂 I have adored this design since I first saw it, so I’m really pleased to have finished it. I have toyed with the idea of making it into a wall hanging, but I’m not sure yet.

ScissorFobExchange1
In other stitchy news, I have pics to share from the recent Scissor Fob Exchange on the Rotation BB. This first one is the fob I stitched for Allie, who, coincidentally, was my (very generous) Secret Stitcher in the last SS round. I hope to be starting one of the projects she sent me very soon. I can’t for the life of me remember the details of this design – it was a little kit I received from Annette in return for some CSS help I gave her. Those Colonial Knots making up the bee sent me a bit bonkers, but I love the end result.

ScissorFobExchange2b
And this is what I received in the exchange – a gorgeous Sweetheart Tree fob stitched for me by Jenny, plus some fiber-bling in my favourite colours! Thanks Jenny 🙂

7 Comments

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Finished

Tagged , , , ,

Behold

Posted on July 13, 2006 | 12 comments

MelaniesExchange2
My first ever proper grown-up needleroll! With hemstitch and a French seam and everything 🙂 Okay, so the hemstitch needs work, and I stuffed up my French seam slightly (even though I know how to do that). But still, it came out pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself.

I stitched this for Karen after she was let down in “Melanie’s exchange”. It’s stitched with one of my hand-dyes, delica beads to match, and some plain ol’ dmc greens. This is a free design – Victorian Silk Needleroll by Liz Navickas, and you can find it on Kreinik’s site, here. It was loads of fun to stitch. I was so unsure about the colours I chose, but they grew and grew on me as I was stitching… so much that I almost wanted to keep it for myself! I may stitch it again some time.

12 Comments

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Finished

Tagged , , , , ,

Two Cats

Posted on July 6, 2006 | 4 comments

FshipExchange-CC

I was so caught up in my triumphant night of sleep (which has not been since repeated, and lets not talk about it) the other day that I forgot to post a happy dance – Leslie received her Friendship Exchange from me, so I can now show you a pic. The photo comes courtesy of Leslie, since I forgot to take a picture (for the second time in a row now). This is Calico Crossroads ‘Tale of two Kitties’, dedicated to Leslie’s two lovely black furkids, Zoe and Cooper. Check them out sitting on the windowsill in this post on Leslie’s blog. A perfect match for this design, don’t you think?!

I framed this up into a standard sized frame (without glass, obviously, since it had to travel the world) – I haven’t done any custom framing in ages – long enough that my DIY framing shop has started sending me notices about taking a refresher course. I’d love to have the space and money to set up my own framing equipment, but somehow I don’t think that will happen in the forseeable future. Meanwhile, click on the pic for a closer look – and try and forgive me the carried threads that are visible 😳

4 Comments

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Finished

Tagged , , ,

Friendship Exchange

Posted on June 26, 2006 | 3 comments

Well, I finally posted off my exchange for Leslie this morning… ten days late 😳 I feel a little guilty about that, especially given my recent gripe about non-participating-participators (one disappearing act has turned into two disappearing acts, by the way, but I’m trying to let it go).

Anyway, I digress. I’m excited by the fact that was my first post-Niamh finish (and start)! I’ve also finished the scissor fob for my next exchange, but I have to confess that was a pre-Niamh finish. I hadn’t even received details of my exchangee, but it turns out I picked a great design for the person I’m sending to (based on her wishlist, anyway). Pictures, of course, will have to wait until each gift is received.

fship-exchange2
I also received Leslie’s gift to me, a couple of days ago – click to see what a beautiful job of one of Mirabilia’s cherubs she did for me. Leslie also included The Sweetheart Tree’s Baby Shamrocks Fob with embellishments, and a skein of GAST and one of Kreinik Silk Mori. What a delicious mail day!

3 Comments

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Finished

Tagged , ,