Tag Archives: teresa wentzler

Confession…

As I confessed on Christine’s blog recently… when I set goals for myself (particularly publicly), inevitably, I succumb to some kind of weird reverse-psychology thing. Suddenly, whatever it is I have decided I should do, is the last thing I actually feel like doing. And so it was with the TW October stitchalong. I managed to scrape in a mere 7 hours of stitching for the whole month of October. Thankfully, that 7 hours was all on Storyteller, so all was not completely lost. Here are the before’n’afters:

Here:
Before Oct stitchalong

Aaaaand here:
After Oct stitchalong

So. Now you see Mssr. Cuthbert, my storyteller (the dragon is Claude. You know, like ‘Clawed’. I know. Sad. 😛 ).

And now ST is likely to return to the box from whence it came… hopefully not for all eternity!

Later That Month…

The Blogger’s block continues. But I have been stitching. A few secret things – more on those later. And, surprise, surprise, I dragged something out from beneath the mountain of unfinished-finished-things:
Bookmark-1

I stitched this Teresa Wentzler freebie bookmark back in 2004. Finally, I actually made it into a bookmark! And used it, what’s more:
Bookmark-2

I used this stuff to fuse the fabric together:
Bookmark-3

I don’t know how kosher that is with regards to longevity of the stitching, but watch me not care. Also not caring about the lumpy seam up the back of the bookmark. The front looks good, and it does what it should, and that’s all that matters 🙂

Also in the interim since my last post, I spent a lovely afternoon meeting some fellow Melburnian stitchers – Junette, Anne and I descended on Tannia’s house where she plied us with food and wine, and we whiled a few hours away chatting and getting in some quality kitty time. Niamh came along, and made short work of befriending all and sundry, except perhaps Banjo, who remained unconvinced. It was lovely, and I hope we do it again sooner rather than later.

Then, we spent this weekend just past away for a couple of days with Dermot’s (large) family. Annually, on the weekend following Queen’s Birthday, we hire a school-camp facility (dorm rooms, communal showers and kitchen – you know the kind of thing) and spend two days eating, drinking and being generally merry, all in celebration of his grandmother’s birthday. She was 87 this year, and we all had a wonderful weekend. Here’s to many more like it 😆

Hatched at Last

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 🙂

Almost Hatched

TW-Hatched-2

As would be expected, my stitching time is somewhat limited lately. It generally comes down to a toss-up between housework and stitching. Stitching usually wins, of course! But still, I have far less time than I’d like. Lucky I stitch fast 🙂 Unfortunately, I only have backstitching left… and I think housework might be ever so slightly preferable to backstitching!

Something(s) New

One of these days I’m going to have to round up all my WIPs and come clean about how many there are. Not today though! Here’s a couple of recent startsTW-Hatched
:
Firstly, here’s where I’m up to with You were hatched. While I love this design, I grew a little discouraged after stitching the first border corner. The particular skein of ‘Fantasy Blues‘ floss I have seems quite different from the one the model was stitched with – and I’m not convinced it goes as well as it should with the dragons’ colours. I’m thinking that when I come back to this I might frog that corner and find (or dye) a more closely matching fiber. (Sidenote: I’ve been thinking about trying to dye some silk floss, next time I get out the dyes – silk is just so delicious to stitch with)

DragonflyJewels
And now this is what I’ve been working on the last week. It’s Dragonfly Jewels by the wonderful Australian designer Janie Hubble of The Cat’s Whiskers. I fell in love with this design at first glance – the colours (all Dinky Dye hand-dyed silks) simply glow. The text in the centre is my first ever over-one stitching – on 32-count linen, no less 😮 It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be – now I’m not quite sure why I’ve been avoiding over-one all this time! You can see what the finished design will look like here. Isn’t it lovely?

Like a Machine, I Am!

Or so said OtherHalf last night… and before minds fall into the gutter 😛 , what he actually said was “you’re a cross-stitching machine”! Here’s why:

Friday-Sunday: Elizabeth’s Designs Little Leaf Designs – Butterfly
ED-butterfly
Sunday-Monday: Teresa Wentzler’s Intermediate Whitework Ornament (free on her website)
tw-int-whitework
Monday-Tuesday: Indigo Rose Four Little Hearts freebie
indigo-rose-freebie
Hopefully I’m about to become a dyeing machine again, because as of 8 this morning, I am in possession of a lot of floss 🙂 🙂 🙂