An attempt to keep track of my addiction to cross stitching, my stash, my occasional finishes and my meanderings around the on-line community of stitchers...
I can't believe it's already the ninth of January. This crazy stitching caper is helping to make the days fly by!
Day Seven was pretty much a write off. I think I managed maybe an hour, hour and a half perhaps. We took the kids to see Cars 2 at the twilight cinema at Sydney Olympic Park. Great fun. If you've never seen Cars 2, it's well worth watching. Only problem, most of my stitching is achieved at night after the kids go to bed and we didn't actually come home to put the kids to bed. We all had a "sleepover" at the house of the friends we went to the movies with. They live on the other side of the city and it just made more sense for us all to crash there.
Ok, here we go..
Day Seven
Joan Elliott "Hope"
Vintage Blue Whisper Belfast Linen
DMC floss
Day Eight
Joan Elliott "Imagine"
Vintage Blue Whisper Belfast Linen
DMC floss
Days Seven and Eight
Hope and Imagine are vertically below
Believe and Dream on the same piece of
fabric.
Hmmm, now on to Day Nine... I'm feeling spoilt for choice today. Should I start a Shepherd's Bush sampler or a Nora Corbett pixie? Maybe I could be brave and jump into Train of Dreams? I need to find a piece of fabric for my Sweetheart Tree "Dragonfly Dreams" or I could finish sorting the thread for the Enchantress. Oh what to do? *insert dramatic Scarlett O'Hara swoon* LOL
I'm taking my little fishies to their swimming lesson this morning. They've had three weeks off over Christmas and New Year and now it's time to get them back in the water. I'll decide what today's stitchiness will be before we go, then if I'm lucky, I'll put a few stitches in during the day as well as tonight.
Happy Stitching Everyone - I'll be back to make my first WiPocalypse check-in some time today too! How exciting!
Day six... not so much stitchiness yesterday but still well and truly acceptable as CJC start.
I didn't pick up my needle until 10:30pm!
I wanted to start Nora's "Lilly" but discovered I am actually missing ecru! What colour turns out to be smack in the middle of the chart? Ecru of course. I'd already kitted this up a couple of weeks ago but somehow missed this important fact.
D'oh!
*smacks forehead*
I sat down with my box of crazies at 9pm and decided to do couple of floss tosses with Lilly before I started. I bought the chart and fabric (antique white, 32ct Jobelan) for Lilly ages ago, long before I discovered the Mira/JE forums and the amazing hand-dyed fabrics so many of you use. I don't have a stash of hand-dyed fabric - yet - but I do have some other beautiful pieces of linen and evenweaves. I settled on a lovely piece of antique ivory permin linen. It's a gorgeous pale buttery yellow and sets off the colours in this particular Pixie beautifully.
So I was all set to go...and then, no ecru. Poo.
I could have counted across and started with another colour but the plague of rabid rip-its has been hovering so closely over this crazy 15 that I wasn't going to chance yet another miscount!
By this time, it was now after 9.30 and I was no closer to getting started. I grabbed out the kit of the Enchantress instead. Figured I could start a BAP. It would mean starting with half stitches which would mean fairly speedy progress and then day six wouldn't be a total write off.
*sigh*
Forgot I hadn't yet sorted the floss bundles in the kit. It's not difficult, just time consuming. It's an excellent Dimensions Gold kit. The floss comes in four bundles. The floss cards make it very easy to sort them correctly but after one bundle, I checked the time and put it all away again.
Alright, I'm getting to the point!
I ended up starting "Dream". Should have sat down with it from the beginning being that everything was there already, because I'd worked on "Believe" the day before.
Ahh well... so 10.30 rolled around and I finally got going. Stitched until 1.30am and this was the result:
Day Six
Joan Elliott "Dream"
32ct Belfast Linen Vintage Blue Whisper
DMC floss
There was a minor amphibious attack around 1am but I was able to fix it with minimal trouble.
*
I now have "Believe" and "Dream" on the one piece of fabric.
Day Five and Six
To minimise time wastage today, I'm just going to continue on with the theme and start "Hope." Should be safe with that! I have this whole piece on my small scroll bars. They will all need beading before they're done so I thought the scroll would be safest in the long run. I can bead from the top and roll each one away.
Onward into another stitchy day - no stitching tonight. We're going to see Cars 2 at the Olympic Park Twilight Cinema - but I'm hoping to get a couple of good hours in during the day. I'm going to be a bad Mama and let my children be amused by electronic devices.
I wish the camera would capture the colours more accurately. They are such jewel-like shades. It's gorgeous. I'm missing the two colours I needed to finish the letters. I placed an order at 123 stitch before Christmas and a three week wait is usual before my package will arrive in Australia - so fingers crossed they'll arrive tomorrow, ready to work on day six!
These designs have plenty of beads but no braids or filaments. I wanted a bit of sparkle, so I've started adding some Kreinik 032 BF to the stars. Just one strand of BF with two strands of floss, I only want a hint of sparkle.
Day Five
Joan Elliott "Believe" 32 ct Vintage Blue Whisper Belfast Linen DMC floss. Kreinik Blending Filament
Well, off to bed. Onward to day six. I intend to start JE's "Dream" but there will be far less stitching time tomorrow as we have visitors coming for the day. I won't get to stitch at all until the kids are in bed.
OMG!!! There were swarms of the croaky pests last night!
I spent several hours on my Day Four start. Was congratulating myself on making such great headway in one day when the chorus started: Rip-it. Rip-it. Rip-it.
I'd once again failed to double check the chart against what I'd already stitched and I ended up leaving double coloumn of empty space where empty space shouldn't ought to be.
*insert rude words here*
Lucky for me, I realised sooner rather than later. I lost about an hours work I think so it could have been worse. If it had been a mistake at the beginning of the day I think I would have chucked it and started over.
Well, without further ado, 'cause I want to get onto my Day Five start, here are my Day Three and Day Four starts:
Day Three
Ink Circles "Here Comes Treble"
32 ct antique white lugana
Crescent Colours floss
Party animals that we are, we were all in bed asleep by 10:30pm! Boring!
I managed to stitch whilst away camping glamping. Not great for the back or the eyes but sacrifices must be made after all, when one is afflicted with a stitchin' addiction!
We made it home today. I have photos for days one and two of the Crazy 15 but I'll post today's with tomorrow's as I haven't taken the pic yet.
Day One
Ink Circles "First Bass"
32 count antique white lugana
Crescent Colours floss
Day Two
Lots of frogging. Got pretty cranky before I downed tools for the day. I'll blame it on bad lighting. (If I'm completely honest, I just didn't look at the chart properly and then lost the ability to count to four.)
Ink Circles "Alto Gether Now"
32 count antique white lugana
Crescent Colours floss
Lots of fun. Looking forward to showing you day three - the colours are great. My fingers are itching to get onto day four but right now, even though it is the early hours of day four, I'm off to my bed.
Goodbye 2011. You've been a year of all sorts of ups and downs... To be honest, it has been "The Year of the Emotional Roller Coaster."
I'd have to say there have been as many ups as downs this year - unlike last which was definitely more down than up. There's nothing like some terrible downs to make you appreciate the good stuff, that's for sure. Not wanting to dwell too much on the bad but earthquakes and miscarriage made for a lousy start to the year and the ongoing 'quakes in Christchurch and the consequent constant fear for my family meant I slept very little and was pretty darn cranky for a good part of the year. Like I said though, the good stuff has been really good and I am more than able to count my blessings and thank God that he is there in the valley as well as on the mountain tops!
Stitching wise, this was the year of finishing the UFO's and WiP's. I pretty much finished everything I set out to finish and even had extras that I started and finished! I'll update my "2011 finishes" page in the next couple of weeks when I'm adding the daily photos for the Crazy 15.
Tomorrow morning, we're heading off camping - or "glamping" as we coined the phrase last summer. LOL. We pitch the tent in our friends' back paddock and still enjoy all the "conveniences" of the house. Perfect. As long as it doesn't rain tomorrow when we want to pitch the tent, it's all good.
I'll be starting my Crazy 15 while we're away! *Gulp* Hope I don't forget to take anything important!!!
Happy New Year to you all. I don't make resolutions. I do plan on stitching lots, using up lots of my stash, adding to my stash, spending more time with my kids, actually using my gym membership and losing a stack of weight. Not resolutions. Just ideas for next year.
To all of you who have been following along with my blog for the past few months; Thank you :) I look forward to sharing lots of "stitchiness" with you in 2012.
My kids announced this late Christmas afternoon: "This is the best Christmas ever!" I have to admit, I'm inclined to agree with them.
We had an incredibly laid back day. Summer finally arrived in Sydney - it was a beautiful sunny day. Lily woke up at 6am, Jacob shortly after 6.30. They found their stockings, unpacked them and arranged themselves in the middle of the lounge room floor. I got up around 7 I think. We puddled around for a while, started getting organised for breakfast and suddenly realised it was almost 9am and Guy's sister and her DH would be arriving any minute. Quick showers and a run of the vacuum cleaner LOL. They arrived about 9.15 and had her BIL with them also.
The kids by now were busting to open their pressies so after moving their "stocking stash" we gave them the things from under the tree.
Late Christmas Eve - Ready for Christmas Morning
They were both totally thrilled with their gifts and didn't have any complaints at all. By the time the in-laws left, we realised it was 11:30 and we hadn't had breakfast! I got cooking and at noon we sat down to Pancakes with bacon, banana, strawberries, maple syrup, lemon and cream and fresh squeezed orange juice. So good!
Being that breakfast ended up being at lunchtime, we weren't fussed about lunch. LOL. We all chilled for several hours - the kids played with their presents, Guy slept for a couple of hours, I stitched!!!
We eventually thought more food might be in order around 4pm - We ended up having "mouse traps" - glorified cheese on toast! LOL. Actually, we had cheese, salami, ham, onion, mushroom and tomato - baby pizzas really. Seriously yummy but not really standard Christmas fare I suppose.
We had good friends and their three little ones arrive around 7 for dinner. Our DH's took the kids to the park (Summer here, remember, so still warm and daylight) while Bianca and I got the salad ready. Dinner was cold roast turkey, roast pork and roast chicken with a huge salad. I'd cooked the chook Christmas Eve and the turkey and pork roasted during our lazy afternoon.
Dessert was the highlight of the evening's menu. I made it up as I went along after seeing a couple of things in the week running up to Christmas...
It really was a wonderful day. Quiet but very happy and one I think we will remember for a long while to come.
I hope you all had a wonderfully blessed Christmas.
Miss Lily Santa brought her a new dress and matching hair ribbons - and of course other things to make her smile.
Jacob with his stocking stash. Santa brought him Lego, a set of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and "Uno" along with other assorted bits and pieces.
Can you believe it's the night before the night before Christmas? I can't!
For day 23 of the Advent Calendar I thought I'd show you my advent calendar.
I started this a few years ago now but this year I managed to complete all 25 little pieces.
Next year I will finish the actual calendar so we can hang it for Christmas 2012.
The Calendar itself is on 28ct ivory jobelan. The daily pieces are on 14ct plastic canvas.
Dimensions Advent Calendar
14ct plastic canvas.
We've been a bit behind schedule for Christmas at our house but we finally got some decorations up yesterday.
Our Christmas Shelf
The kids set this up. Most of these ornaments have special significance to at least one of us. The tree up top was a present from one of my students as are the two angels in the centre. The snow globes belong to Jacob and Lily and Santa leaves them each a new one on the shelf each Christmas. There's a Santa driving a golf buggy - top right corner - he was my MIL's, she's been gone four and a half years this Christmas and we still haven't got used to her not being around for Christmas. The snowmen on the left were carved by a very talented lady - Kelly - from the about.com cross stitch forum.
Our Tree
Sadly, we've never had a real tree. I'd love one but they're just so darn expensive that it's much better for our pockets to spend money on other stuff rather than a real tree. Even so, our real fake tree is special to us. The first Christmas after we got married, we had no money - lol, nothing's changed, we never have money at Christmas, it's the nature of both our jobs. No teaching, no income - but I was determined we were going to decorate anyway. Well, this is our 11th Christmas and the tree has certainly given us our money's worth. Again, we have a bunch of ornaments that are special to us as well as some that are just "pretty little space fillers". Yes, that's a train running round the base - We all love Thomas the Tank Engine so I bought a Christmas Thomas set which has a carriage that plays jingle bells!
For us Christmas in Australia is all pretty laid back and casual. We usually alternate Christmas one in Australia and then one in New Zealand. This year, we're staying in Australia. Tomorrow night, Christmas Eve, we'll go for a drive to look at the lights. When the kids go to bed, Luke (oldest Stepson) will run outside to shake the sleigh bells - the kids get into bed like lightening 'cause I tell them Santa's flying over on his way to New Zealand to visit their cousins and will be back to us very soon! I'm sure they'll be up early to see what Santa has brought them. We'll have pancakes, maple syrup, bacon, bananas and fresh orange juice for breakfast. Then we'll open pressies under the tree. We'll try to make it to church. Lunch this year is only us, so we're having home made garlic prawn pizza and lots of fresh salad. Dinner we'll be joined by friends for cold roast chicken, turkey and pork, again with lots of fresh salad.
We all love Christmas Carols and we listen to them at every given opportunity
My Best Friend knows me very well :) She posted me this clip on Facebook a couple of days ago.
Oh Holy Night is my favourite Carol and men singing amazing harmonies just reduce me to mush. So, first of all, this raised all the hair on my arms and then had me in floods of tears...
Please enjoy Straight No Chaser's rendition of Oh Holy Night.
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone. I feel very blessed to have met so many new stitchy friends this year. Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope to get to know more of you in the coming year.
I wish you all joy, peace, prosperity and God's richest blessing for you and your families for 2012.
Oh, and if you want to check out all the entries for the on-line calendar, hop over to Jo's blog to find the link for each day.
I'm finally understanding why so many of you choose to stitch your Mira's on 28ct instead of 32ct.
"L" has a tonne of beads in the vine wrapped around itself. For me, though, I'm going to continue with 32 count. I've found if I skip a bead here or there, it's no big deal. I prefer to stitch on the higher count fabric, so the trade off is to fudge some of the beading.
I'm almost done - another night or two should see my final HD for 2011!
I feel like I had a rather productive stitchy weekend! Not at all the norm, LOL.
Saturday, I didn't get started until late but like I posted previously, I finished my exchange ornament - to the dulcet tones of Mr Michael Buble.
Have just returned from the post office and said ornament is now winging it's way to Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere. Pictures will come when my person receives her ornament. Actually, it's only just occurred to me that I will also be the recipient of an ornament, sometime soon! How exciting! I forget that an exchange goes both ways, LOL. I get so much enjoyment out of stitching for my person that receiving something in return is always a bit of a shock!
IHSW December 2011
Exchange ornament: Done.
Mapping and gridding for JE Believe/Dream/Hope/Imagine: Done. (Part of CJC 2012)
32ct Belfast.
Vintage Blue Whisper The fabric is actually a much prettier blue than it appears in the photo.
Spend some time working on Letters from Nora; L, for Lily...
Before After
Map and Grid fabric for Ink Circles First Bass/Altogether Now/Here Comes Treble: Done! (Part of CJC 2012)
This will hang above my piano in my music room when it is complete.
32ct Antique White Lugana
Floss Toss for Mirabilia Christmas Elf Fairy. (Also part of CJC 2012)
32ct Opalescent White Lugana
It's so pretty and sparkly. I wish the photo could do it justice.
So all in all, I feel like this was a good end to the IHSW for me for this year. Thanks to Joyce for your organisation this year. I look forward to participating again in 2012.
I'm hoping to have one more happy dance before the end of the year - I'm so close to done on "L." If the weather stays cool instead of hot and humid, then it will be possible.
Have a great week in this run up to Christmas. We'll be putting up our tree in the next day or two - better late than never I suppose.
I worked most of the day today but managed to get in several hours anyway.
Achieved a little Happy Dance - a little late but better than never. I was supposed to post my Christmas Exchange Ornament yesterday but I didn't actually finish it until tonight. I kept getting to a point where I think "done!", then I'd look at it and think "Oh, but this would look really cool right there!" and so I wasn't finished at all. I'm pretty happy with it. I'm very happy with the stitching, I'm just not so sure about my ornament finishing skills.
Sorry, no piccie tonight - I can't post until my person receives it.
The rest of my evening consisted not so much of stitching but of planning and then having a couple of those "Eureka!" moments, where everything just falls into place!
I mapped out what I want for my JE Believe/Dream/Hope/Imagine set and then basted said mapping onto my chosen fabric.
I played around with my fabric stash and decided I'm going to stitch the Mira Christmas Elf on a piece of white opalescent lugana I have. Debated over it for a bit but by the time I'd measured and counted and floss tossed and imagined, there's just no other option in my mind.
I changed out the dove grey 16ct aida in my Woodland Enchantress kit for a piece of 32ct stoney point linen that I'm not so fond of. I bought it for Titania but I don't want to stitch her on it, now that I have it. I figure the WE is wall to wall, so I won't be seeing any of the fabric when she's all finished. I would just use the aida but I think the piece is a little skimpy and I like to have plenty of margin for framing.
I'll post a pic of my layout for JE tomorrow - need to charge the phone so I can take photos. I'm planning on getting some stitches in on the NC "L" for Lily... how many IHSW's have I voiced that intention? This will be the first time I actually get around to doing some! . . . unless the lure of L*K is too much and I end up putting in some more little exes into the ABC. LOL.
I hope you are all having a lovely hermitting weekend. I look forward to stalking the blogosphere for updates tomorrow!
If you haven't participated in the "International Hermit and Stitch Weekend" yet this year, click on the cute little "Hermie" button in my sidebar. He'll direct you to Joysze's "Random Ramblings" and you can sign up.
Now, I've realised I'm going to have to make some decisions regarding my Crazy 15 for January... As much as I would love to start everything I have on my current list I really must re-jig it once again.
I think I'll separate the multiple part projects that I counted as one piece and count them as individuals - like the IC Treble/Alto/Bass clefs. I counted them as one but they are actually three single pieces. The same with JE's Hope/Dream/Believe/Imagine - They are four single designs. Already, this makes seven individual pieces!
I'm thinking the new list will look something like this...
Ink Circles: Here Comes Treble
Ink Circles: Alto Gether Now
Ink Circles: First Bass
Joan Elliott: Dream
Joan Elliott: Believe
Joan Elliott: Imagine
Joan Elliott: Hope
Shepherd's Bush: Road to Bethlehem
Shepherd's Bush: Holly and Ivy
Nora Corbett: Lily Pixie
Nora Corbett: Christmas Elf (Mirabilia)
Sweetheart Tree: Dragonfly Dreams
Randall Spangler: Train of Dreams (HAED)
Ruth Sanderson: Woodland Enchantress (Dimensions)
Ellen Maurer-Stroh: Garden Alphabet
Hmm... Yes... this is making me feel happier...
I've been over to Measi's blog and signed up for the WIPocalypse, I'm going to need to participate once I get into the CJC, that's for sure! LOL.
Oh my!!! I just checked out the signup list to make sure I actually did remember to sign up. Do you know there are now 231, yes that's two hundred and thirty-one participants???
Wow.
So, if you're not signed up yet, what are you waiting for?!?!
Oo, I must remember, a quick thank you to Jo of Serendipitous Stitching - I'll be posting day 23 of the advent calendar.
Usually, I love beading. I have no trouble with the YLI invisible thread, in fact, I love it. But not tonight.
I can't get my needle threaded. I can't see the eye of the needle. I can't see the hole in the bead.
Aaaaargh!!!
I'm desperately trying to get my one and only Christmas ornament finished in time to post for an exchange. I've still got a couple of days up my sleeve but my eyes are driving me nuts.
Ok. Whinge over.
The positive side of things - I'm really rather chuffed with how the ornament is turning out. Can't show photos of course... which reminds me - I don't believe I showed photos of the scissor case and fob I made for the last about.com exchange.
Hold on a mo and I'll see if I can rustle up a couple of pics...
Scissor Case and Fob.
Stitched on 28ct black Monaco.
Gloriana Silk "Twilight"
Lining 28ct Lilac Cashel Linen
Mill Hill Glass Beads
Stitched design is mostly my own with a few "borrowed" elements from here but the finishing instructions I found in an excellent tutorial here. This was my first attempt at real hardanger, ie: cutting, my first time stitching on black and my first time using silk! The case is lined with lilac linen to match the gorgeous variegation in the silk.
Ooo - I've just noticed I've got some new followers! How very exciting!
*Waving* Hellooo! How lovely to have you. Thank you for joining me here!
Well, I'm off to bed to give my poor eyes some rest. It's almost 1am. Again.
Night, night. Sweet dreams.
xxx
K
Back view.
I made the centre of the back to match the back of the fob.
Both cut sections are lined with purple satin.
My Best Friend was a cross stitcher in her dim and distant past - she hasn't touched her stash in years and years. A couple of years ago she hauled out her finished pieces to show me and we discovered her advent calendar.
She is now a web designer and the discovery of said advent calender got all her geeky creative juices flowing... so, this year sees the third annual roll out of the Web Princess' Advent Calender, complete with clickables in the banner (check the angel on the mantel, the book, the mousehole, the stockings...) and animated characters for each day. My apologies, I don't know the designer - If anyone is able to enlighten me, I'll add in designer details.
And seeing as we are now firmly headed down the path to Christmas; A friend of mine posted this on Facebook a couple of days ago. I love Queen. I think these guys have done a fabulous job. Whoever is doing the vocals did Freddy and the boys proud.
Hmmm... Only a couple of days left of school for the kids now - they finish on Thursday. I finish up the bulk of my teaching load on Thursday too. Then it's onto the holidays - bring on Summer and loads of time to stitch!
Saturday evening, we were blessed to share Thanksgiving Dinner with friends. Thomas hails from Dallas and even though he has been here in Australia almost 12 years - all his adult life - and has an Aussie wife and Australian born children, like me, his heart will always belong to his homeland.
Wow... so much food!
16 adults and six children sat down together this year.
Ham, Turkey, cornbread dressing, mashed potato, green bean casserole, baked beans, cream peas, green salad, gravy, cranberry jelly...
This is the fourth time we've shared Thanksgiving and for the first time ever, we made it past dinner to dessert! LOL! Pumpkin pie, candied yams, apple pie and ice cream.
Oh. My. Goodness.
Most of this is food that is completely alien to an Australian/New Zealander's table. Ham and Turkey of course are fairly typical Christmas fare but more likely to be eaten cold than hot. Mashed potatoes are normal every day food but the rest... you're unlikely to ever find them gracing our tables. I love the Boston Baked Beans - Thomas laughs at me cause I love them so much.
I have to admit, As much as I LOVE the main meal, the savory side of the spread, I wasn't so thrilled with the dessert. The pumpkin pie was nice but the candied yams produced a collective "What the???" around the table. LOL. We are more used to eating our sweet potato roasted and sprinkled with salt and pepper. To see them served crusted in brown sugar, maple syrup, spices and topped off with marshmellows... My teeth hurt just looking at them! The Apple pie and ice cream, well I think that's "normal" for any Western table :)
All in all, a wonderful night. Of course, it's not an Australian holiday, that's why we had our meal Saturday night. We return their hospitality at Christmas and set an utterly non-traditional table.
I had planned on showing you some photos of the amazing spread but I appear to be unable to operate the camera under the influence of such an over-abundance of food! LOL... what's that you say? No, definitely not under the influence of anything stronger than lemonade! I was driving.
I did get a photo of the ham - this thing was HUGE. It tasted utterly divine...
So, my compliments go out to the chef. Amazing work Thomas.
A belated Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I hope it was a blessed holiday for you all.
Finally, five minutes to sit down and make a blog post :)
The kids and I had a fabulous time in New Zealand. Spending time with my parents, my sister and my nephews was wonderful.
Now, before I get sidetracked, I need to say a big thank you to Sharine. She drew my name as the winner for her 123stitch voucher giveaway!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I have a 123 shopping cart filled with the floss I need for the January "Crazy 15" so it will be going towards that. Yaaaaay!!!
Now, being on holiday and having nothing that I had to do, meant I was able to get a wee bit of stitching done! I took the L*K ABC with me and managed to stitch a little on the plane, quite a bit over several evenings and one morning, when Lily decided it was a good idea to be up at 6am, I got a fair bit more done then too.
Before Trip
After Trip
Yes, I did stitch on the plane. Yes, I was allowed my embroidery scissors and No, customs officers have no idea what a needle threader is. LOL. They stopped me to search my bag, not for scissors but for this:
Jacob and Lily were absolute angels at the airport and on the plane, both directions. I'm so proud of them.
Have just realised I missed IHSW this month but I did get a satisfactory amount of stitching done anyway. I'll endeavor to catch up on all your blogs over the next few days.
Nothing like leaving things until the last minute!
I freely admit I'm an expert in the art of procrastination. I've been "almost finished" the Sweetheart Tree sampler for months. I'm leaving for New Zealand on Saturday. So when did I finally get it done?
Monday.
Typical.
Thank you Dear Minnie for providing the final impetus to get it done. She told me to hurry up and "pee, or get off the pot."
LMAO!!!
So, done it is. (BTW, Minnie started stitching this same sampler after I did and finished it long before me, so she knew exactly how little time I needed to spend on the thing to get it done.)
Now, without further ado... for my Mum...
The Sweetheart Tree
June Pearl and Roses Sampler
32 ct antique white Belfast linen
DMC floss, Mill Hill beads
... and seeing as it's time for show and tell, here are Dad's framed fishies:
Kreinik (freebie)
Freshwater Fish
32 ct mint green Belfast linen
DMC floss, Kreinik #4 & #8 braid
and my sister's "T":
Nora Corbett
Letters from Nora
T
32 ct waterlily Belfast linen
Crescent Colours overdyed floss.
Mill Hill beads and treasures
Kreinik #4 braid
and to finish off tonight's show and tell; All three framed pieces. Ready to pack in my suitcase to take to New Zealand on Saturday.
