One step closer to Sampler....

I'm cheerful this afternoon - I spoke to the antique dealer who has THE sampler for sale, and he's assured me that it will not be offered for sale for the next 3 months and he will hold it for me - without deposit. At the worst outcome, he will contact me before he brings it back out for sale - if he's not heard from me, because he now knows how much I really need to be the new carer for this piece of art.
I've not mentioned that I've done a bit of research on the stitcher. I've not mentioned that I intend to also chart the design. I have a photo of the sampler as my desktop picture at work. I fully intend to list more things on ebay to go towards my 'Bronny needs to buy a sampler Fund'.
If any of my blogger friends end up being a winning bidder for any of my items, be it stitchy or glassware - I ask that they identify themselves at the close of auction. I have a lot of bonus items that could be slipped into the envelopes....

My favourite floss is....

Weeks Dye Works - Ultraviolet !

It is such a wonderful colour. Although I don't celebrate Halloween in Australia - I have always been drawn to the more funky designs. Last year I was fortunate to be gifted the JCS Halloween ornament issue - and several small charts and freebie charts. I was also given some lovely fibres - including Ultraviolet.

I stitched Val's Little Design - Bats in my Hat last year, and from the Ornie issue - fell in Love with La D Da's 'Trick or Treat' and this week picked up another Val's Little Stuff - 'Boo' (featuring the lovely ultraviolet in the hat!- and because I was stitching on black aida - I changed the cat from black to ginger. After all - Pyro could be a halloween cat! (pictured last week when he tripped over a sunbeam and fell asleep instantly)

I also stitched Carosel Creation's 'Spook when Spoken To!' last week. This was a fun and easy stitch - stitched on a moss green soft aida - I've plenty of this and it lends itself well to Halloween black and orange designs.

This morning I picked out ouf my filing cabinet, a Lizzie Kate chart - possibly a freebie - called Spooky Patch. I don't know where this came from, but I stitched it up quickly - no picture yet - sorry.

Hopefully, I can put a few of these Halloween designs behind me for awhile - I need to get the machine out next weekend and have a fit of finishing I think.

I've also had a fit of ebay and have listed a lot of charts - all monies raised to go to the "Bronny needs to buy a sampler stitched in 1840-Fund"

Counting Yellow Cars

It seems the consensus is to add bits of my waffling to my stitchy blog, after all, istn't that what I'm reading on everybody else's blog.
Of course I love to watch the stitchy progress, but I'm learning more about my new friends as I read along.

My first offering is something that I do on regular drives.
I was a courier for 15 years, driving the same run morning and afternoon. It was a great way to look after the boys, never having to put them into child care, and I was able to work around their school times. In the afternoon, I devised this counting game, to try to pry them away from their game-boys and get them to take an interest in what was outside the car window.
I love maths - I calculate fuel/speed/time/distance in my head for fun. I didn't realise that was such an unusual thing or that it was a skill. I often stun people by calculating expected change in a transaction before the cash register does.
Anyway... I picked YELLOW as a colour to count. There are too many white and red cars. Blue and Green can be difficult to differentiate. But there is no mistaking a YELLOW car. The points are as follows:

1 point for a yellow car
2 points for a taxi
3 points for a yellow van (like a Hi-Ace)
6 -8-10 -12 points for a truck. There are all sorts of sizes of trucks - a cement mixer is a 10 pointer - a Semi is a 12 pointer
15 points for an emergency vehicle - police/fire/ambulance
unless of course it has it's lights on... then they count for a whopping 40 points!!! (woo-hoo!)
No points for police helicopter - you are supposed to be watching the road, not scanning the air while driving!

Of course sometimes you get desperate, but a cream car does not count - even when you try to justify it by calling it buttermilk (butter is yellow right??? ...therefore a buttermilk/cream car is yellow????) Orange cars do not count either.

At the moment, my average trip to work is 137 points. I drive 37km to work and in the morning it takes about 50 minutes. The lowest morning was 41 points, the best was 288 points (3 police cars at an accident with flashing lights and I drive past a firestation that had it's doors open and 2 trucks flashing their lights) I drive past a car yard that up to last weekend, had 3 yellow cars. You get to know where a yellow car should be parked.

So tell me, am I totally nuts? Or do you want to try this game?

A question to ask of my blog followers.....

I'm in a quandry.........
I started this blog as a visual stitchers journal - I admit I was very new to blogging and did not understand the compulsion to collect other blogs and read all the interesting tattle which is going on in other people's lives - admittedly, we all had the one thing in common - Stitching - and I could feast on other people's WIP's and share in the joy of completed UFO's.
I've joined in with competitions - and run a couple of my own. I'm not quite ready to dip my toe into the exchange or RR world yet. I really do not like stitching to obligation deadlines. I've found when I'm committed to something, then life has a way of throwing obstacles in the way which in turn makes the stitching experience unpleasant.
I thought I'd start a foodie blog - and keep forgetting to take photos of splendiferous family meals, but that is not a main focus blog.
It takes me nearly an hour to drive to work, and home again, and I have odd thoughts at times that I think I'd like to share, but then I think this is my stitching journal, but then, I think of all the bloggers that share their family events and triumphs.
My quandry is... should I start yet another blog - just to deal with my daily life and obscure observations and thoughts - OR include my wafflings within this stitchy blog?
What do my followers think?

Seek and ye shall find a GIVEAWAY !!!

I found another giveaway - and whoops - nearly forgot to let everybody else know......

Celebrating her blogaversary (and a LK flipits finish) Lori is having an absolutely splendiferous giveaway.... of course I could have kept quiet and hoped that less people would enter.......but that would not have been fair - would it??
Good Luck everybody!

A couple of photos of recent finishes

Firstly, 'The most Patterns - 2nd time around' - Still stitched on hand-dyed aida - more a creamy yellow than appears here - using varigated and hand-dyed threads - I also used beads for the halo. This one will be finished into a wall hanging and the original one will possibly be finished into a pillow for a friend. (No names in case they read here so ...nyah-nyah!!!)

The next was a quick stitch - a freebie from Plum Street Samplers - I used Caron Waterlillies (hyacinth?) on hand dyed aida again. I also changed the wording to make what will be the finished item more compact. Once again, this is to be a gift for a friend!

Thought Provoking Questions - About this great ART of Cross Stitch.....

OK - to start with, these are not even my questions, but thanks to Melissa, I'm going to pass them along - get us all thinking (as hard as it may be at times). Answer them on your own blog - get other readers thinking..... Refer back to Melissa's blog to see how these questions originated... it's food for thought.

6 Questions about Cross Stitch....

1)Why do you stitch? To release tensions, to create something, to make gifts for family and friends, to indulge my artistic side.

2) On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being least important and 10 being most important what is your cross stitch passion level? 10 can we spell O B S S E S S I V E ????

3)If you're only option for cross stitch supplies and patterns happened to be the major chain craft stores would you just walk away from the little X? Kiss it goodbye? I believe I am SABLE enough now to exist with what I have. I could NOT walk away from that little x now. I don't have a credit card, never will - I only have a major chain store to purchase my supplies from in any case.

4)Also are you so passionate about cross stitch that if indeed your only option was the major chain craft stores, would that inspire you to create your own cross stitch pieces because you have to stitch and you've stitched your way through the whole of Dimensions catalog--because you must stitch and the thought of life without a relationship with the little X leaves you feeling empty? If I don't have a needle and thread in my hand for more than a 2 days in a row, I get antsy. Sure, I'll design my own stuff. I'm not keen on what's available in my chain store (what is left after all the dedication to scrapbooking and knitting) - I look online for inspiration.

5)Finally what do the cross stitch magazines on the market offer you? Do they relate to you as a cross stitcher? Do you look at them and think to yourself, who do they think buys this magazine? I guess what I'm asking, when you see the current cross stitch magazines do they make you feel like they know their readers or do you find it's more of the same? What could they do to be ambassadors for the art of cross stitch other than putting a sampler on the cover with "F-U" on it? What are we missing on a PR level that could change the opinion of cross stitch itself? Magazines have changed drastically and while they offer interesting charts, on the whole I find the designs too 2-diemensional. While witty sayings on new style samplers may appeal to some younger stitchers, new to the creaft, I don't feel that they are lingering styles that will hold the attention beyond the first 4-5 small items - oh and leave out the mandatory button or bead that 'must' embellish the chart. Not always available to overseas stitchers on a budget!

6) And finally, finally, do you do other crafts and if so what are they and why do they pull you away from cross stitch? I drift into stitchery and patchwork, they pull me away for a short time, only if it is a quick and easy pattern. I will not step into attempting intricate patchwork patterns - rather leave that to the experts. I make my own FIMO buttons when time allows. I knit when I get the urge, but not anything specific.

Refer back to Melissa's blog to see how these questions originated... it's food for thought.

Vintage Sampler and Hyacinth Update

Firstly, I'll start with the hyacinth. All the blooms have gone from the first plant, and the others seem to have slowed down a bit. It's still early yet for any other blooms, I just think the first one was eager to see the light of day.

And what do you think of this sampler? Found at an antique fair and I'm trying to work out how to pay for it. I think I'll be hitting ebay with a bit of my excess glassware over the next couple of weeks. I really feel the need to have this piece of art in my house. All stitched by a girl of 9 - makes you wonder how good their eyes were in later life. If I am able to purchase it, I will endeavour to chart it - long term plan, and find out what I can about the stitcher.

Celebrate with a competition - not mine!

I found another competition by gum!!!
To help celebrate the birth of her new grand-daughter - my newest friend Jan, is having a wonderful giveaway on her blog. Look at all these goodies!

Keep a lookout here too - I'm hoping have another giveaway this week - just didn't quite get myself organised last week.!

Inspiration - Hyacinth and TUSAL update

It's about time I posted again - fancy that! nearly a week without me blathering on about .....well there's not much to blather on about stitching-wise.

I don't seem to have made much of an impression on 'Inspiration' - although I did stitch on it exclusively over the past weekend. I'd forgotten how time consuming stitching 3 stitches in one colour, then perhaps 24 in another colour, then skip to yet another colour for 8 stitches........ I'm also doing the backstitching of the vines as I go, which helps with placement of the flower buds. At least I can see what I've achieved with the back stitching.....

I have also picked up again the 2nd copy of 'Too much Stash' - finishing that before I start another. No pic's of that 'till it's finished.

My hyacinth for all it's early promise, has flopped. Too much too soon! Perhaps the other bulbs will put in a show.

Nearly forgot my TUSAL contribution for this month. I found a little bell and put that around the neck of the container, but there are threads in there from Poppies, Inspiration, Too much Stash, Liz's Cushion and the birdhouse sampler - that I can think of. Behind it is the ex-rosebowl/fishbowl - as you can see, it's nearly full and time to empty out and put away all the extra bits that have accumulated the past few weeks. I do tend to use the threads that are in the bowl as first preference when stitching itty-bitty hap-hazard ornies that leap under the needle.

Lazy stitching in practise! Oh you can also see my GPS bag I made for myself - rather proud of myself for that one, 90 minutes from idea to eventuality! Protects my GPS from knocks and bumps in my handbag and glovebox. I have to be nice to this one, it's my 4th in six months!!!

Happy Stitching!