Combined March/April catch up.

 Hello Stitchy friends,  I admit it has been over a month since I posted.  March was an unbelievably busy month, with most weekends taken up with activities.   As I work full time, weekends are usually given over to thinking about my blog and stitching.  I did create a draft post on 8 March, but just did not complete the entries, so have added today’s entry to try to catch up.

Blog Post 8 March 2021

Instagram – I’ve finally stepped into the hash-tag brigade this past fortnight and learning as I go.  I don’t yet follow too many people and am careful with the hashtags I’m using.    Of course, I have become inspired to join yet another SAL – and I’m way behind on this one. 

Dreaming Girl by Barbara Ana has caught my eye – some like -minded stitchers have been posting their pics on Instagram and wow… so many different versions..  Of course, I see this stitched with Blue Hair and I ‘m eager to find the right variegated floss to start this as soon as possible.

Wipgo 21 – March is well underway.   My 2 projects called are the Jeremiah Junction Stitching Panel - cobbled together from 3 patterns released about 2004 and have been waiting all this time in my 'to-do' pile

There is also my own Halloween design.  So I have been able to put some time into stitching up my model stitch.  – stitched on vintage Murano 32 count 

My last post showed a lovely bunch of flowers received for my birthday – Liliums have the reputation of staining if you let the stamens fall on the table.  I trimmed them all as they appeared, and thought to experiment and make the stamens to make a ‘tea’ and dye some fabric and floss.  I don’t have access to any mordant such as alum – particularly cost prohibitive as I was only going to need about 2 tablespoons – so I winged it.   

The fabric and floss I used to dye will not be used for anything permanent and it will be interesting to see if my fingers stain when I use the floss in particular. 
So this is the result of my efforts - I discovered that the lilium adheres well to the fats on my fingers and the fats that remained in the cracks of the plastic bowl (note to self - next time use glass)  Although there is not much colour on the fabric, the floss appears to have coloured up well.. 

Watching Off the Grid Needlearts floss tube – I noted the use of a timer app  - to track and regulate how much time you can put towards individual WIP’s   - interesting concept and I’m going to have a go at this.  I like structure and setting aside dedicated time to several projects may be useful to keeping track of how much time I stitch. 

Blog Post 5 April

Looking back at my draft post from the beginning of March – and leading up to today – 5 April will see what happened – it has been a busy March.

March 12-14 I was at a group Scout camp.  It was dismally wet.  I hid for 4 hours on the Saturday during a downpour and stitched.  I took the Kingfisher stitch and was able to add to that design.  A number of stitching days were taken up with other functions which, although important, do cut into valuable stitching time.

A bit of a wind up to WIPGO 21 – I worked on the 2 numbers called. 

10 is my own design – stitching on the model for Robert Burns Halloween, so understandably, I cannot show too much of this until I have finished and am ready to release the chart for sale. 

I feel this will not be to everybody’s taste, but this spoke to me so strongly when I started.  There is a lot of backstitch – and am happy with the lettering and have almost finished the verse and will be moving onto the pixies.

24 is listed as Jeremiah Junction Stitching Panel.  I can’t remember stitching the whole 5 allotted days on this but am happy with my stitching progress on this. 

JJ designs are notoriously backstitch heavy and the little section I did complete has now got definition.  I am now aware just how much stitching is involved in such a deceptively simple chart.  Like all my projects, this will be heartily satisfying when finished.

Of course, now I remember why I ran out of days to stitch.  I stitched a small project for Allan and that remains a mystery until I can finish it properly – thinking now a small banner rather than a pillow…  I should have a flurry of FFO’s shortly.

Part of my own discipline is when stitching the 2021 Meteo de Moutons, that the previous month is completed before the end of the current month – ie; February temperatures HAD to be finished before the end of March.  This was the project I took with me to Queensland for my quick 60-hour turnaround trip to visit my Grandchildren. 

I am really happy with the colours chosen for the temperatures.  Last year, using one colour for 2 degrees and blue fading into green shows a soft transition through the seasons.  This year, by using one colour per degree and defining the range of 10 degrees by a simple shade, using pink for the teen degrees, this design is showing a massive variety of colours.  This is helped by a wider variety of temperatures, particularly in February.  I hope to have the time to stitch the temperature index as well as the March temperatures this month in April.

I’m still learning my way around Instagram and have yet to start Dreaming Girl.  All the parts have been completed, so there is no pressure to have this stitched with everybody else (and I sort of miss that concept of SAL pressure), I still have to be happy with the colour of fabric to stitch on and may have to wait for my start for my Etsy order to arrive.

Did I mention a trip to QLD to see my grandchildren? 

Both Allan and I made plans to head North on a flight, arriving 8pm Thursday evening, but having to depart 60 hours later as Allan was scheduled to work Sunday night.  It was going to be a rush trip, but as Lachlan was turning 1 on the Saturday, it was important that he met grandparents before that milestone. 

We arrived in time Thursday to surprise them with the opportunity to read a bed-time story and tuck them in.  Claire will be 3 at the end of May and knows our voices and faces due to many video chats this past 12 months, but it was almost overwhelming for us to be there in person. 

We spent Friday with them, giving them a chance to play with us.  Saturday, my nephew Andrew, who lives in Brisbane joined us for the picnic in the park and that was good for the cousins to meet up.

Brisbane had a minor outbreak of Covid and because of that, was declared an Orange Zone.  This meant we had to apply for a permit to return to Victoria on Sunday and on our return had a Covid test and arranged our isolation until the test returned negative.  This meant no return to work for Allan until Monday evening and I returned to work on Tuesday.     A couple of busy days at work and next thing we knew it was Easter weekend.

I had received some stitchy stash during March – an order from 123stitch arrived.  I had ordered some John James needles and of course, some charts to travel with them so they wouldn’t be lonely!

One chart in particular, The Stitching Bee by Little House Needleworks spoke strongly to me on arrival, so of course I started stitching this at 10.30pm on 31 March. 

I used a scrap of evenweave (possibly 28 count Berlin) and grabbed some overdyes.  It is charted with only 4 colours – I kept to the basic 310 black DMC and added Stitches and Spice ‘Gold Rush’.  I originally went with Needle Necessities 119 for the ecru shade but found that it blended into the fabric.  I really like blue with yellow and swapped it out with Stitches and Spice ‘Pacific Dreams’. 

The small amount of green in the pattern was an unmarked overdye – I suspect it might have been an old 6 strand sweets.    The wings and petals I used Dinky Dyes ‘Ice mint blue’ and Kreinik blending filament. 

I had so much trouble capturing the sparkle in the photo, but believe me, it is there!  Although there is no outlines on the chart, as the wings and petals melted into the fabric colour, I chose to outline both.  I used Kreinik very fine braid on the bee wings and am really pleased with the result.

Trying to take closeup photos of the sparkle, I found a stitching error but am not going to change it out.  There are 6 stitches in a row, where I’ve stitched \ before I stitched /       

This does not make any difference to the finished stitch, but I know where it is.

I have been making up some teeny tiny ½” hexies to make something to FFO this small chart and then it will be time to move onto my April WIPGO

 

Numbers 3 & 21 have been called this time.

3 is my Boothy 12 days of Christmas kit.  I hope to get at least the grid of outlines completed and a good start on the first square during April

21, I return to Shores of Hawk Run Hollow and I hope to finish squares 6&7, to finish the boat.

I’m not sure if I will use the timing app.  I did run this for about 3 weeks, but found it annoying that the countdown of the timer stayed active on my phone.  I’m not really one to count how many minutes/hours I stitch.  I am happier to set a timer for an hour, and then re-set it once it goes off, to delineate a set time for a task.   I’m also finding WIPGO a bit limiting, in that deciding in January, what I wanted to stitch, almost precluded finding great designs and starting them as they took your inspiration.  I almost felt guilty about starting the Stitching Bee and seem to be putting off starting the Dreaming Girl SAL

 

My plan for April is therefore :

Meteo de Moutons – stitch March temperatures and the temperature index

Wipgo 3 – Stitch the borders of the Christmas Kit

Wipgo 21 – Finish the ship block on SOHRH

Bonus stitching:

Start Dreaming Girl

FFO – banner for Allan

FFO – The stitching Bee

 

I’ll also do my best to keep you up-to-date and leave less of a gap between blog posts.  Life changes in a heart beat.

SMILE & POINT YOUR TOES

 

 

Stepping into Spring and Stitching

Hello Friends

Gosh in these times a week is screaming through so quickly – it is now a week

into September and well past time to update you on the life in lockdown.

I have joined Steptember, a charity program encouraging all to walk 10,000 steps each day to raise money for Cerebral Palsy.  My work is running with teams of 4 and our team is named Thunder Pandas – random name picked out of a hat by a 5 year old.  That works for me!   I am 12 months out of a knee replacement, so my personal goal is anything over 6000 steps each day will be good.  I started the first 5 days with over 8,000 steps each.  Yesterday I walked around my neighbourhood and looked at gardens.  I found this cute flowering gum – no idea what type, but it was pretty enough for a photo. Today is a rest day and have spent it catching up with technology – weeding out emails etc…  

Stitching and sewing has been busy.  I have been working on the Halloween Quilt – as shown last post and have now finished the top.  This was a methodical process of quilt, rather than organic and I have enjoyed putting this one together - particularly as it is the first one made using my new cutting desk.  I plan to use a simple 2” border on it and bind it using strips from the leftover fabrics.  I’ve lost the intensity to finish this and might move back onto my bee quilt while I figure out the next quilting project.

On the stitching front, I have finished ‘O’ on my Floral Sampler – Oriental Poppy – This is slowly, but surely progressing towards a finish – Only 11 more motifs, so surely I can finish it sooner than 11 months away…. Perhaps as the 2020 Sampler is now winding down, I can increase the rotation time on the Floral sampler. 

I have started the August row of the 2020 Temperature sampler, it is part of this week’s rotation.  I am looking forward now to stitching the end of August and beginning of September because Spring certainly has Sprung, with kookaburras in our garden.

 

I have also made a start on my Christmas Heirloom Tablecloth for the 2019 square.  I’ll reveal the whole design later this month when it is finished.   It is a quick stitch, but there are so many other stitchy things that have a deadline.

 

 

 

One thing that does not have a deadline, are my scrappy hexies, all in a box for when I’m waiting for an appointment, or taking part in an online meeting.  They are growing steadily and when I run out of templates, will have to look at just WHAT I plan to make with them.  

I must also stop rummaging around in my basket of finishes, because I keep finding things that need framing, made into a cushion or similar.  While I have my Halloween fabric out, have found a couple of old Halloween finishes which need contemplation…  I think one will become a cushion and the other a notebook cover.

 

I hope you have enjoyed your visit today – please come back again soon.

As July 2020 comes to a close - a roundup of Stitching events...

Hello Stitching friends… 

Not much progress in July

I do not appear to have much stitching news to share this past week or so. I, like so many Australian stitchers have been putting my time into sewing cloth masks for family and friends. I am fortunate in that I do not need to run a cottage industry to gather spare coins to pay my bills. My household is still employed and the Covid crisis has not impacted us greatly. For this I am thankful and I know there are a lot of people out there who are doing it tough.

 

I recently celebrated 15 year work anniversary. I have been a contractor at the same site since 2005. I was gifted some (amazing) chocolates and two bunches of flowers, one from my employers and one from the business I have worked with for such a long time. Work practices have changed substantially since I first started as a junior with an accountancy firm in 1981. Few people seem to want to hold onto a job for more than 5 years, leaving to acquire more experience with multiple companies. I just have a talent at longevity and am good at the role I currently hold. Along with the flowers was a very lovely bonus gift card. I have put the $$ to good use and have ordered the final components for my sewing nook

 

I love my little vintage laminex dining table – it seats 4, but has extending panels to seat 6 comfortably, and was perfect for my little flat when I moved in 8 years ago. It moved with me to this house, and as I did not intend to need a dining table, designated my little table to my sewing area as a cutting table. Now most of you quilters will know that a dining table is not the best surface to stand at for any length of time cutting fabric. This little table has made-do for the past 3 years, however when I decided at the beginning of this year to organise my life – I put a lot of thought into replacing this table. I looked at work benches at both IKEA and Bunnings, as they were the right height – but golly they were industrial in finish and just not quite right. Lo and behold, in OfficeWorks I discovered a manual high-low or sit-stand desk. It is the right length and perfect depth to hold my cutting mat. I can still store my fabric tubs underneath it. The hole cut into the edge for computers is perfect for the ironing power cord to feed through neatly. I can fit a small pressing station to the side of it, leaving plenty of cutting surface – best of all, I will be able to set the height correctly so a tired back will be a thing of the past. To round out the purchase, I have ordered a new ergonomic chair to replace my current chair which will sink down at the most inconvenient times.

 

I have also ordered a pressing mat – to make the pressing station, so my ancient concave ironing board can hide back in the cupboard waiting for me to iron clothes… I’ve been making do with an old towel folded and covered with a linen tea-towel as a mini pressing mat, but am looking forward to trying out something a bit more professional. I’ll give an honest review, once I’ve used it for a short while.

 

I have been able to make a few more ¾” hexies and am loving my little project box. There is no plan yet just what to do with these, but I’ll keep making them. Not sure if I’ll use these as the centre of grandmother’s garden flowers or as the outside petals, keeping one central colour. It all depends on how many I make and just what colours I have when I’m ready to stitch them together. Or they might become something else….. I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not sure…

 

I am proud of myself this weekend, for putting some serious time in and working on my online Scout Training. I’d been putting it off for months, but set myself this weekend to work on it in earnest. I still have some hours left to work on this, but have broken the back of the training.  Once completed - I should have earned my Wood Beads as a Leader of Adults

ready to sail!

Checking my stitching rotation – this week I will bring out Shores of Hawk Run Hollow. I’m up to stitching blocks 6 and 7 – the sailing ship in the middle. This has been a long time WIP – as most of the projects I’ve been working on this year.

 

As a result of my recent fit of tidy – sorting through my specialty floss I do have another alternate WIP – this scrap of fabric fits three of these hearts nicely. I am using Colour Streams silks and am enjoying the process. I’ll adjust the patterns to suit myself as I go along. I do know I have a wide range of beads in my stash to choose from This will most probably end up this life as a pillow.

 

I hope you have enjoyed your visit with me today. Whether you have dropped in though Bloglovin’ or through your reading pane on Blogger – or even followed one of my unashamed links on various forums – please leave a comment – introduce yourself. Please leave a link to your own blog – are you a quilter, a stitcher, an organising guru? What is your passion? Let us get this blogging community a little tighter and get to know one another…  I leave you today with a closeup of my lovely flowers - a bottlebrush and a sea holly in particular

Mid Month roundup and progress.

Hexies.

OMG - I've finally succumbed

I bought 1/2" and 3/4" laser cut hexie papers and templates to start. Now remember, these are measured by the SIDES of the hexagons, not the width. How people can work with 1/4" hexies is beyond me - let alone complete full on quilts

Anyway... have been having fun using up my 2-1/2" squares that I've been cutting up out of my scrap buckets to make my beginning stash of 3/4" hexies. I have no discernible project for this yet. I am pleased to discover a new use for my 1-1/2" square scraps - they fit the 1/2" hexie papers nicely.

Hexies - not exactly a NEW craft, just a sidestep from Patchwork and a method of handstitching that does not need the intense concentration of cross-stitch.

On a facebook forum, the question was raised about left handed rotary cutters.  I shared a pic of my cutters and thought to show it here too.

The green one a Clover brand is my favourite, swapping the blade also swaps the seating, from R to L, meaning the action to open comes out on the better angle. The purple one was my first, and the blade comes out the top. The blade is reserved for non fabric cutting and the handle is marked as such. This and the red cutter are Birch cutters. The blue one is an ergonomic Fiskar won in a competition. It has a thumb button on the other side of the handle when set up as right handed, to retract the blade.  I don’t use it much, have to get used to handling it – more like a bike handlebar than a pencil grip.

 

I have stitched up one version of the July SAL, and will show that on the 20^th, so have freed up this weekend to continue tidying up my sewing area

 

I have embroidered 6 bees on my Honey-B quilt.  I may or may not get around to working on the back for this quilt this weekend.  The car is on order, so there is no rush.  I want to really time the finish of this quilt to match when the car arrives…..  Each bee is slightly different.  I might go back and add antennae – or may not..