Mel's Sunday Update

Well I spent the majority of this week with a migraine, so not much output.  Also going back to work today so oh well, holidays are always fun while they last :)

One big personal milestone for me this week was making the final payment and closing the personal loan I have had for nearly 10 years.  The loan was first taken out to finance my car, one month before my marriage ended. Not the nest timing in hindsight. It's also been rejigged to cover various house moves, interstate moves, furniture acquisition etc, but now at long last it is gone from my life.  Now to pay back the interest-free loans and the credit card. The plan to be debt-free by October is working.

Also I have lost another kilogram (2 pounds) this week. So far, the diet and exercise are working; I'm not following any particular diet, just eating meat, veggies a little fruit, dairy and nuts. I've removed all processed food from my diet and combined with getting on the wii fit each day, this is working to the extent I need it to.

Another milestone was my first finish for the year.  The Britty Kitty piece annoyed me so much (Listen to Auntie Mel: NEVER put your pieces away with the mistake still in it, ALWAYS frog out your mistakes!) that I spent far too long in frogging and putting it right as it turned out there were multiple mistakes and in hindsight (glorious hindsight), it would have been easier and faster to have just started the project again!  Anyway once it was back in shipshape I decided to devote another day to it, and I finished it off. This project will plague me no longer!  The progress album is here and my 2011 Finishes album is here.

THe majority of this week, I was stitching on Rosanne's Round Robin.  Code named Big Blue Beast it certainly is big and has gorgeous blue/green floss choices.  I'll include a pic when I have more stitched on it.

While at Colours Down Under on Friday an order from a supplier than had been sent sea freight had finally landed.  So I bought a couple of charts and kitted them up there and then - so that was my splurge for paying off the loan.  No chatelaine's, just a couple of charts I admired from an Online Needlework Show last year,

One of them demanded to be started right away, so it now has a couple of stitches in.  I'm currently trying to smother it down the back of the lounge while I'm working to get the Round robin finished and onto the next person, but it's screaming loudly.  Anyway the floss toss is here in case anyone would like to guess what it is :)

Mel's Sunday Update

OK it's the first Sunday for the year and I'm starting as I mean to go on.

Here's my progress on Kay's Round Robin. I'm behind on this RR but I've made all of this progress in the past few days so I think this is a good start to the year.

Julie's Round Robin

Julie's Round Robin is Alchemical Romance by Inkcircles.

As you can see she has changed the background quite considerably.  She has also asked us to use whatever floss we feel best fits each alchemical symbol. Julie asked me to work the middle to allow everyone that comes after me the widest possible choice :)

This was so much fun to work on!

The middle nine symbols are all varying symbols for gold. So I took the project to Colours Down Under where Janine, Kathy and I played floss toss with just about every gold shade of floss in the shop :)

I wanted a variety of shades of gold: yellow gold, white gold rose gold etc.  I wanted a variety of matt vs shiny threads and I wanted a variety of textures - metallics, silks, cotton and wool.

Janine and Kathy put their considerable colour-matching skills to work and selected the shades that work best together.

So the threads used (left to right, top to bottom) are:

Top Row:
Rainbow Galley Petite Braid 01 Bright Gold
Gentle Art Simply Wool 0420-W Gold Leaf
Rainbow Galley Petite Braid 37 Dark Antique Gold

Middle Row:
Madeira Silk 2208
Kreinik Cord 102C Vatican Gold
Thread Gatherer Silk 'n Colours SNC 175 Straw into Gold

Bottom Row:
Rainbow Gallery Tiara T119 Peach
Gentle Art Sampler Threads 0420 Gold Leaf
Rainbow Gallery Tiara T118 Gold

The Tiara thread was quite thick, as its used in needlepoint, not counted cross stitch. The Kreinik Cord, although I used two strands, was quite thin and may need to be re-done with three or four threads or perhaps back-stitched.

Either way, I feel I've achieved my range of colours, faceting and textures that I was aiming for.

This project is now winging its way to Sisu.

Round Robin - time to move on ...

It is September, time to send those Round Robins on (if you haven't done so already) :)

I believe we have Laura joining us now so the rotation is:

Mariann -- Rosanne -- Kay -- Julie -- Mel -- Sisu -- Laura

Is this correct?

I finished off my part of Julie's RR last weekend and posted it onto to Sisu on Friday.  Julie's ideas on Alchemical Romance are lots of fun.  I admit I spent far more time choosing floss and doing floss tosses than I did actual stitching!

I'll write more when I can get my freaking laptop and my freaking camera to freaking talk to each other {pant, pant}. And I will have some photos to share.

So how's everyone else going with their first round?

Mel's Sunday Update

Yes I have actually been stitching!!  It took throwing in a part time job *and* getting the flu to do so - but I have finally been stitching.

I stitched up a segment on Lyne's RR And a Forest Grew.  I basically did a hodge podge of motifs to finish off page two and do all of page three up to the surrounding for the wording.

Close up of motifs including mine:
Progress on Lyne's RR as it was posted onwards:

I also finally finished Part 5 on Vienna Ball.  This was a simple piece of six shades of grey with just a touch of backstitching around the vases, but it took me all month to find the time to get it done.  I finished it 2 hours before Part 9 was released :)

Part 5 Close up
Whole piece at the end of Part 5.

And that's it for this week.  Hope everyone else had a productive week stitching.

Mel's Sunday Update

Well for a while there it looked like I wouldn't make a Sunday update yet again :)

I've been far too exhausted after work and haven't done any stitching week nights for nearly a month now.  However I put in some dedicated effort this week and I do indeed have an update - YAY!!

Mariann's RR
I have *finally* gotten my bit done on Mariann's RR.  This is a beautiful project and I only wish I could have done more on it.  It will be posted out to Laura tomorrow.

BTW - Happy Birthday Laura !!!!!

Vienna Ball
Many of you on Twitter would have heard my wailing and gnashing of teeth ion the backstitching on this part.  However Part 4 is now completely finished.  I'm not entirely happy with it - and I am deeply unhappy with my individual backstitches in some places, so please don't look too closely :(  The best thing I can say is - its done.  Onto Part 5.


Present from Kay
As can seen in the pic above, I received a fantastic gift in the mail Friday!  Thank you so much Kay !!!!   Kay sent:

• a lovely beanie frog (which Mr S thinks is soooo cute)
• a luxurious pair of thermal gloves which are soooo warm!
• a gorgeous stitched bookmark - I adore the sentiment!
• two great pieces of hand dyed fabric!  I have so many ideas for those fabrics already!

Thanks so much Kay !!!!!

Mel's "What day is it?" Update

Well life has had its downs recently and now it has a few ups.

I've landed a part time role at my local library as a skills librarian - a training role.  This is quite different to anything I've been formally hired to do before so I'm actually looking forward to it.  I start on 15 June 2009.  Its only part time and very poorly paid, but any money is better than no money.

I've also been stitching a lot lately.  As the above pic shows, I have two main forms of therapy and I get depressed when I don't pay attention to both of them. 

I have updated my finished album.  I have three pieces finished so far this year and they are all Inkcircles designs.  This is pure serendipity!

I've finished my section on Claire's RR in our private round robin. 

I've finally finished Part 2 of Vienna Ball.  On the day that Part 7 is released!

But I'm making progress and life looks like it might be on the way up.  I even got half of my books unpacked and on the shelves yesterday.  Now just to get the unpacking fairies to unpack while I sleep so I can spend the last remaining week of unemployment stitching.  Unfortunately that is not likely :(

Unhappy stitching news

The lighting at Mr NTB's place is not good enough for me to reliably stitch on black or stitch to a great enough degree of accuracy and uniformity on any other colour.

So Black Bloomers and Claire's Round Robin will be put to one side until we move and I can set up my usual stitching spot.

I hope this doesn't upset too many people - I just really feel embarrassed if I do a shoddy job on either of those projects.

I'll stitch on some of my own projects where uniformity and quality of work is not great :)

I'll hopefully get back to these in a couple of weeks .....

Mel's Sunday Update

OK so its Monday and this is actually the first one I've put up for the year - I'm a slacker :)

Finishes:
Well I've only had one finish so far this year and an almost finish. BoInk is finished a scant couple of weeks ahead of the pack and Moscow I'm waiting on replacement threads from Vervaco in Belgium.

Round Robins:
Well the International Round Robin is off to a good start this year.  Mine is now with Laura and I've just finished my part on Kay's.  Kay's was quite fun because its all speciality stitches. Not a standard cross stitch in sight!  Of course I shouldn't have tried to stitch it with a head cold .....

Chatelaine's:
Well thanks to the vagaries of International mail (and an incompetent nincompoop who actually delivers the mail)  I've only received one of my Christmas presents this week.  So Chatelaine Workshop 1 will start at some point in the future even though the actual group is now closed.

I have however started Vienna Ball.  I'm still not 100% happy with my fabric.  But I'm using it anyway.  Part One is the border and I'm less than half way through - but I've got a while to catch up, we're only on Part 4 in the group ....

Black Bloomers:
You've all seen Tracy's pastel masterpiece Bloomers?  Well Tracy has sent me a variation to stitch called Black Bloomers.  I hope to be starting this tonight.

Gifts:
Speaking of International mail, a gift Kay sent back in September 2008 arrived this week!  I had been sent here, never delivered, never found by local postal staff, eventually sent back to the UK, repackaged by Kay and posted to my new Post Box and ta da! it is here. 

I adore the stitched dragon in the frame!  This sits next to my monitor every day!  Surprisingly the chocolate was still edible (urp).  The Socks look so kewl and I adore the Devil keyring :) The cat toy squeaks as well as being filled with catnip and on an extra long elastic.  I can't wait for Trubs to wake up to try this!

After Tracy showed a computer mock-up of Black Bloomers I decided I had to stitch it.  I begged Tracy for the conversion and put in an order for the chart (and the Celtic Ice ornament kit also fell into my basket),

Tracy added the fabric, all the threads and a copy of the Twisted Heart chart to my package.  Isn't she the sweetest!



Stitching wise that's about it from me so far this year - I know I'm a slow stitcher :)  The picture at the top of the screen is a type of pigeon that I'm now getting to my feeder station.  Sorry for the blurriness of the picture its taken through a screen door and a glass door.  The little things are still fearful and fly off as soon as I poke the camera out the door.

OK time for dinner and then to prepare my clothes, resume etc for an agency interview tomorrow morning.

Mel's Sunday Update

Wow - I think this is the first actual proper Sunday update I've done for the year!

Lets see so far I have one finish which I can't show until late next month.  I have finished the Inkcircles Mystery Book of InkCircles (BoINK).  You can see all the sections that have been officially released so far here.

For those who want to join in, the parts can be found here.

I didn't get to join in the unofficial Chatelaine SAL this month, but I am itching to join in next month!  As soon as my 2009 RR piece is finished and on its way to the next person.  I haven't done much on my RR yet, but photos can be seen here.

The only other piece I have worked on this year is a Vervaco kit called Moscow.  Anyone who remembers "Black Beauty or Something in Red" dresses from last year will recognise this as a similar style.  This kit was a gift from Chele.  Pictures here.

More Vervaco kits can be seen in my temporary Lust List here.

And that's it from me so far this year.  Except to ask the same question I ask every Sunday evening - why do I have to go to work tomorrow?  Oh yeah that's right, because I haven't won Lotto yet.  Maybe I might buy a ticket this year.

Today's picture du jour is Alison on Christmas Eve.

2009 Round Robin

Progress on mine and other RRs in 2009.

RR for next year?

Long Dog

These are my options for next Year's RR

Mel's RR for Next Year

Which project do you want to stitch on?

Long Dog Beautie Spotte

 

 2

Inkcircles Garden Stars (only if Claire doesn't use this for her choice)

 

 1

Pako Historical Dress Sampler

 

 1

Long Dog Opus Magnussen

 

 1

Papillon Historic Mystery Sampler (via Gift of Stitching)

 

 0

Long Dog Sunne Spotte

 

 0

OK ladies,

What would you prefer to stitch on?

Going with Claire's Spotty Stars theme - I have chosen only Spot Samplers for 2009.

(therefore no TW or afghans or chatelaines)

Pictures of each of these projects are here.

Mel's Sunday Update

Eben and Snooch?  Garfield and Nermal?  No just Trouble and Hemingway sitting in front of mum's fireplace :)

Well this is my first Sunday update in a while - and might be my last for a couple of weeks :)

I'm driving to Melbourne tomorrow and it could be another two weeks after that before my Internet is connected at the new place.

Stitching Update:

Corn and Beans by Inkcircles designs
This is the last of the stitching I did on the train commute.  There isn't much progress, but it is the very last of the "stitched on a train" production, so I wanted to commemorate it with an update.

Sisu's RR - Friendship Tea Sampler 
A difficult project - I hate blending thread and metallic filaments :) :)  But I did a good 10 hours and got this little bit done after mucking around with a previous bit that had a a few problems.

Garden Cat by Cross Stitch Art
This one was in mum's stash.  A recent acquisition she showed me.  I loved it so we looked through her stash and mine and we kitted it up.  I started it Tuesday evening and finished it Saturday evening.

As well as the pics in its own album - I also have a pic on my 2008 Finishes folder.

Finally I've also got another section of BoInk finished - but pics for that will have to wait until this part is released.

Mel's Sunday Update

I leave home at 6:30am tomorrow morning to go on holidays - so I'm posting my update early.

This week I finished a small part on Bird in the Hand, Lyne's project in the Round Robin we are in.

I also cut a new piece of fabric and restarted Black Beauty. Unfortunately I left the old skein of GAST Black Crow in the bag and when I got near the end of her dress I kept confusing which was the right skein and which was the old skein, because the old skein is much darker than the new one- completely different dye lots. I've stitched the bottom inch of her dress at least four times now - each time with the wrong floss.  I've put this project away until my eyesight is clearer. The infection in my eye is gone, but my eyesight is still going on me, and getting blurry within 20 mins or so of stitching or reading fine print, so I have an ophthalmologist appointment for the end of next week.

Also this week I received a wonderful RAK from Sisu.
* some lovely black fuzzy socks ...... (Goth Bed Socks !!!!!!)
* Fractal 10 by Cross Stitch Collectibles
* Undo what you did by Susan Saltzgiver Designs
* 22" x 23" piece of 28ct antique white evenweave
* and .... a package called "Mel's Sex Slave Audition Kit"

This picture is of the whole group.  But those of a sensitive nature may not want to look at the next two photographs in the series.

Finally this week I received Kelley Armstrong's new book "The Summoning". This is her first YA book and was very easy and engaging to read.

Like the first few books in her "Women of the Otherword" series, it is written completely from the point of view of the main character.  We only learn what she learns and as she learns it.

The first half of the book or thereabouts I was unsure whether this book was set in the "Otherword" universe, or our Universe or a completely new world.  I wont spoil it for anyone else :)

Unlike her Otherword series, this book is unfortunately not a stand alone.  It is obviously the first book of a series and the ending leaves us with more questions than answers .....

I read this in a couple of hours and I cannot wait to read book 2.

Mel's Sunday Update - On Saturday

Well tomorrow is looking pretty busy what with heading off to the airport at 10am.  I wont be online or home until very late Friday night - so probably Saturday before I reconnect with any of you again :) :)

So I thought I would post my week's update now.

I finally finally finally finished off my Gemstone Dragon RR  and sent it off winging its way around the world.  I did most of the border, Onyx dragon and placement holders for the others in the RR. 

This took most of the week.  I had hoped to finish the border but it was not to be.  I simply ran out of time.  (Which is ridiculous I know - but I admit to having been disorganised for this one).

Last night while trying to rest and recover from a hectic work week and arrangements for this coming week interstate, I decided to relaxing with some stitching.  Egged on by Denise (yet again) I started a new piece ....

I stated Excellence by Szulet Creations.  I managed one whole letter before the one-day cricket test ended early.

Today has been cleaning house, preparing for next week and generally catching with life. 

In other news all sent RAKs and birthday presents have now arrived (except one).  The financial dieting is going well although quite a few charts have been added to the Lust List.

Including the new Rosewood Manor Seasons of the Trees.  This wont be released to after Nashville.  It has everything I love about AaFG and leaves out the bits I don't like (the verse).

Oh speaking of things I simply *must* have.  I *MUST* acquire one of these.  Next time someone wins the Lottery please consider RAKing one to me.....

In personal news, the food dieting is going well - I'm now back under 90 kilos (I'm now 196 pounds).  The psychological impact of being back in the 80s instead of the 90s is tremendous !!!!

Have a fun week all and I will catch you this time next week .....

Mel's Sunday update - an almost finish ....

Well its been awhile since I posted a Sunday update....

All of my 2007 finishes, including all of the pieces I gave as gifts are all now listed in my finished album.

I've updated and added to my Lust List.

I spent Christmas with my Dad and New Years with my mum and will be going back to work on Tuesday. 

Christmas was quite fun this year.  I received wonderful gifts and lots of cards and threads from my stitching buddies on the BAPXS list.  I received a new microwave from my Dad, a set of really good cutlery, ovenmits and socks from mum.  Jewellery and CDs from Paul. Oh and chocolate, chocolate, more chocolate and two books on chocolate (one from mum and one from my non-stitching friend Alison).

I've been working on a new piece since New Years Eve.  Spotted Butterfly by Szulet Designs.  It was a chart mum had in her stash, and I bought enough fabric (28ct Monaco "Sky" by Dreams with Angels) for both of us to stitch this one up.  When I was at mum's I pulled out her chart, checked I had bought enough fabric for two, cut it in half and then promptly nicked the chart and some of her DMC threads and started to stitch it.

Wasn't planned - just happened.

I brought the chart home with me spent a half day scrabbling around my local Spotlight and Lincrafts stores for a spool of Kreinik #4 Very Fine Braid in 001 Silver.  Finally found one spool in dubious circumstances in Lincrafts.

The plastic casing had been opened and it looked like the thread had been unwound ... possibly some removed ?????  Anyway it was the *only* spool available so I took it to the front counter and explained the circumstances.  No reaction from the staff and no discount on the cost of the spool. I took it anyway as I wanted to finish this item before I went back to work on Tuesday.

I finished all of the cross stitching while watching the cricket yesterday and then ran out of Silver braid (used for the back-stitching) this afternoon.  So no finish yet for me.

It feels silly ordering one single spool of metallic from Karen@Dragonflydreams so I will put this one away now and get the thread delivered with my monthly fabric of the month club in February.

Tomorrow its onto  Gemstone Dragons from Dragon Dreams.  This is needed for an RR to go out so its the first priority.  Then if I have any time left in the week - I might work on my The One.

Especially as I haven't worked on it at all since last July when we started this SAL.

.... or I might have to start Peridot from FireWing Designs. This was a birthday present from Laura that thanks to the vagaries of International Mail arrived a couple of days ago ( 5 months late).

I'll see after I work on my RR ......  time to go and get some dinner now and then relax for the evening.  Tomorrow will spent washing cleaning ironing and doing everything else needed to facilitate an easy return to work the next day.

Mel's Sunday Update

Well this week I spent most weeknights exhausted from work and helping a friend care for a little black stray called Lothario who we took to the vet and my friend is adopting.

Stitching wise I did five hours on Laura's RR last Sunday and then a whopping 10 hours concentrated stitching yesterday (and another couple today).  And the irony is that you have to look really close to see what I did.

Well I finished off the little girls skirt on the right hand side - that was five hours.  Then I went back through the bottom right quadrant of the chart and I filled in all the missing stitches so that quadrant is completely done.

Then I still had some time left so I went to the left hand bottom quadrant and filled in all the gaps.  Then I filled in the bright spots on the skirt and then I spent an hour and half poring over the bottom portion of the chart making sure that I picked up every last missed stitch - regardless who stitched the rest of that bit.

So I feel I can confidently send this back to Laura with the bottom part completely finished!

Mel's Sunday Update

Morning all,

Well I have lots to show today.  I've stitched up a storm after my slump for the past few weeks.

I stitched up Snoopy for Hilary's UFO project Peanuts Directors, a kit from Permin.  It was a quick stitch, but the non-linear backstitching on Aida was a pain :) :)

I also went back to Dogwood Square for the rest of the week.  I finished the border-work that gave me such huge cane toads a couple of weeks back and I actually completed all motifs.  The only work left on this project is to do all the background colouring in stitching.  Mind numbing and really good to do when you have no energy and your brains have leaked out your ears due to working long days.

Finally I've added some pictures to my Finished Album.  I have pictures of Tutankhamen which I framed and gave mum for Mother's Day this year.  I also have photographs of framed Livres Chat Rouge and framed Gothic.

So a good week for stitching and a lot of time spent on photography - god I wish I was better at it.  Oh on the Livres Chat Rouge picture, I could not get the mat visible without glare off the glass reflecting the scene behind me - so I deliberately photographed it half in shade.  The right side is in shade, but the top left corner shows a true representation of the colours of the frame and matting.

Stitching !!!!!

Yes I finally have been - yes this is a stitching update !! although not a BAP :)

This is a section I've done on an UFO for Hilary .... I love Snoopy !!!

So I guess this calls for a Snoopy dance ????  Pics in my Round Robin album.