It has been the hottest week on record in Melbourne this week, with I think 5 days in a row over 40degrees. It has been way too hot to stitch, even with the air-conditioning, which is struggling to keep 3 rooms cool. Even today, at 37degrees, I'd normally be feeling too hot, but it is so much more manageable than the past few days.
I do feel guilty though, because I had promised myself that I'd start nothing new this year, until I had finished a WIP as a trade-off - aida for aida, evenweave for evenweave............and...........
Yep! you guessed it... I broke my own promise to myself.
Wednesday evening I had to pick up a needle again...I was suffering withdrawal symptoms....
I started 'The Garden" - a Marily Leavitt-Amblum chart from 1986. I had found this in a thrift shop for all of 50 cents and It was time to stitch it.....
Now It's saturday afternoon and all I've put into it is about 100 stitches..so no WIP photo yet - perhaps in a day or so, when I feel that I've made a better start to it....

Australia Day stitching - and finish!

Finished at 11:55pm on Australia Day - my little bit of Aussie Stitching.

Taken from Jill Oxton Magazine - Volume 1; Issue 3

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Happy Australia Day! - celebrations!

After a long day of birthday celebrations, I was free today to sit and stitch to my hearts content.


As it is a public holiday to celebrate AUSTRALIA DAY, I chose to celebrate it by beading Emerald Queen.

I also did a bit of stitching on an Australiana item, but before that, did get a fair chunk of the beads done. Pretty much all that is in her hair is done - and her choker. Next weekend, I move onto the bodice.

Happy Birthday dear John - 16yo today!!

Today is John's 16th birthday.

We had a massive, joint family effort, and cleaned the house so that we could have a nice, relaxing family lunch for John. The house does look nice and clean and I wonder how long before the 'flat surface syndrome' strikes again!!!!

Martin cooked a lump of pork and some potatos in foil in the webber...mmmmm tasty. I rustled up a few salads and we served everybody buffet style. Very little salads left for tomorrow's lunch and absolutely no cake!

We're all feeling rather stuffed full as a goog. John played his guitar - he's happy.

Tonight I sat and stitched - finished off yet another 'My Aunt's Attic' freebie. It's another little flower - this time in varigated DMC greens. It's also on what is possibly 18ct aida, so used only one strand instead of 2.

Tomorrow, AUSTRALIA DAY, I hope to sit and stitch - essentially putting some beads on my Emerald Queen. More photos tomorrow....

A quick finish in-between........

An itty bitty finish - something to stitch at night while I can't stitch my mermaid. I've got quite a few scraps of aida and this freebie found on "My Aunt's Attic" seemed as good as any. I used a rust DMC varigated on the scrap of pink aida. I'll probably finish it into the cover of a needle book, or a birthday card, or a scissor fob, or an ornament of sorts...something will inspire me.

I have no idea what I'll stitch tomorrow...but I'll find something smallish again...

Later that same day.......................

It's amazing what you can achieve with peace & quiet and concentration.....

Emerald Queen is now up to the beads and backstitching, but with a bit of a headache coming on, I'll leave that for now.

I didn't have the Kreinik 02 cord in pale blue 014, but I had blending filament - so I used 3042 and the 014 blending filament to make the sparkly blue bits in her treasure box. Does the trick fine!

Out of the UFO pile and into the WIP pile!

It's been a week already since my last post! That's what happens when you work full time and stitch part time - how I wish I could reverse the hours spent on those activities!

I started stitching "Emerald Queen" at a patchworking club in May 2007. She is stitched on hand-dyed evenweave (thank you Karen), and since mid '08 had been sitting in the pile without a face. Yesterday, I dragged her out of the "Not-quite-but-nearly-UFO" pile and put needle to fabric. She so very soon had a face! How simple it was! What had taken me so long to do that little bit of stitching?

I know....stitching Ornaments! I stitched a bit to excess last year, but I'm determined this year to not start another project until a WIP is finished. (yeah right! - and I started a LK on New Year's Eve! - WOW! - that resolution lasted - NOT! ) So until an Aida project is finished - i'll not start something similar. I really want to move onto something else (not sure yet, but something will leap at me), so I have to finish Emerald Queen first.

Oh yes...nearly forgot - for the sake of stitching something while I was bored out of my brain - I started this little santa on a scrap of aida on Friday night - finished him on Saturday. He'll go live in a pile of ornies, waiting for a flurry of finishing later this year.

Here is 'Spooky' - by Val's Stuff - I finished him in Nov last year, and must have put him somewhere safe - found him yesterday too - so he can keep Santa company while they are waiting to be finished!

SMILE & POINT YOUR TOES!

Two finishes in one day!!

Finished tonight at 11pm - my little stitch started on New Year's Eve!

It is a Lizzie Kate - Sunshine Sampler and certainly a quick stitch!

My first finish for 2009 - and a WIP!

Here we go - hot off the needle - I've finished Jeremiah Junction's 'Hang your Quilts'.

I started it a couple of months ago, looking for something to stitch on a bit of aida - a no-brainer as it were. Aida to evenweave is like Mills & Boon (penny romances) compared to a John LeCarre novel. Both are books that I don't like to put down, but read through to the bitter end. M&B books are not taxing on the brain and I don't have to think too hard to follow the plot. (Although there have been a few characters in the M&B that I would cheerfully thwack across the back of the head!) Unlike M&B books however, I don't finish a design and say 'Ugh!' in disgust.

This one can be found in the December 1997 issue of Cross Country Stitching. I have a couple of these magazines and always seem to find at least one chart I can stitch out of it all.

I didn't have the shiny charms pictured on the original design, but I think my mini bugs suit the design quite well. I'm not sure yet how this will be finished off - it's likely to end up as yet another wall-hanging. I'm not even sure that I'll keep it yet - I may give it away to the local quilt shop.

My other WIP, started on New Year's Eve bolstered by a bottle of very nice Australian White is a Lizzie Kate. I may have this finished in a day or so ....it is a small Summer Sampler...

My Collection of Pink Depression Glass

I'd mentioned in my bio that I am a collector of Pink Depression Glass.

It was my Mum who started her collection of Pink Mayfair, when she received 6 water goblets as a wedding present in 1950. Over the years, she picked up the occasional piece and by the time I came along and was old enough to be trusted in an Antique shop, her collection had really grown. I learnt to identify the glassware and as I grew older and would browse in junk shops for my own collections, would pick up the occasional piece and add it to her collection.

Many years on, I picked up a piece of Old Colony and kept it - this was the start of my collection, as I was married now and Mum was a bit far away to drop another piece into her cabinet. As with all collections, one piece led to another, then another and another.

Always on the lookout for 'Mum's patterns' - I'd pick up what I could. In the '70s, pink was reasonably plentiful, but now it is difficult to find and most local glass collectors would recognise the qualities of green glass. But it is pink that draws my eye.

Well, Mum died suddenly in August 07 - and her pink glass collection came my way. I guessed she had about 40-50 pieces and that I had about 20 pieces - so decided in May 08 to combine the 2 collections. That meant pulling all of my collection down from the cabinets, washing them and itemising them as I went before adding Mum's collection to mine.

I found out that my collection was more extensive than I thought and was almost as big as Mum's collection of 70+ items. I now have a collection of over 140 pieces of pink glass. Some is in better condition than others and there are a couple of yellow, clear and green pieces. The majority of the collection is Mayfair (59) and Royal Lace (23). I have a dozen pieces each of Old Colony and Princess.

I do have multiples within these pieces and there is only one piece of Mayfair that I would consider having the handles ground down due to a break in the handle. As I have a few of these plates, it is worth the drop in value for the increase in usefulness.

As I live in a very male household, the pink glass does not come out often, but last Mother's Day, I invited my MIL for lunch and set the table entirely using my pink glass. Harry made pink place cards and it was a lovely meal. I served water in the decanters and we drank out of the water tumblers, the trifle was in a berry bowl and the cream and custard were in a sugar bowl and creamer.

The only items of tableware I do not have in pink glass are salt and peppers with tops. Perhaps that is something to look for in the future.

I hope you've enjoyed this little look at my collection.

My holidays are near an end...

I've had a lovely day - spent most of the afternoon in my recliner in my now clean post-christmas loungeroom - doing what I love most....stitching!

I haven't unburied the Emerald Queen mermaid, which is something I'd rather be stitching, but I was working towards a finish of a Jeremiah Junction sampler - "Home is where you hang your quilts". Today I stitched the roof of the house in the middle, the three hearts on the right, all the back stitching for the middle section and all the stitching shown on the top section.

I'd also like to show how far I've gone on the LK summer sampler that I started on NYEve - this one is a part-time project - I'm trying to finish the quilt one first...

Tomorrow I return to work and my stitching will by necessity slow down again as my lamp has given up the ghost and I can't stitch at night without it.

Let's see what this next week holds for us all!

Welcome to 2009!!

So much for not starting anything new until something on my WIP list was finished.

Courtesy of a couple of bottles of fine Australian Wine on New Year's Eve, and encouragement from a couple of friends (who shall remain nameless) on a chat board at 9pm - I started stitching a quick Lizzie Kate - Sunshine Sampler.

I had some aida about the right size, and I grabbed my box of DMC numbers 3801-3880 (+ a few variations), threaded a needle (without mishap) and stitched an ice cream cone.

I'll leave this chart sitting at the computer and it can be my 'stitch-at-night-when-i'm-too-tired-to-see-linen' stitching.

For those disbelievers...I've shown the back as well.

Admittedly not as neat stitching as when I'm sober, but hey-it works for me!

I've spent today stitching and sleeping and nursing a slight headache. Happy New Year everybody!