I really should post more often

Sorry, I know its been more than a week!

I'll list the projects I've worked on, and comment on each of them, since I can't think of any other way to do it!

Mystery X:
I got thoroughly fed up with the beading, and haven't really stitched much on it this week - bad Kyrie! I'm so close to finishing part 3, but I have other pretties to distract myself with and I haven't worked on it since that picture until today. now another of those beaded borders is almost done, and I've half frogged the one that I wasn't happy with. Frustrating, but worth it. If I work at it this afternoon and tonight, I might even get it done today! Part 4 is gorgeous and not big - mostly backstitching, with some corners in the same beading pattern as these borders, and a little bit of cross stitch. Shouldn't be hard, and will look great. I'm very curious as to what part 5 will be - Troy's mum and I reckon it will be a hedge between the corners and above the borders, but we'll have to see!

From the Ashes:

I worked on her for the SAL, which was most enjoyable until I finished the top 30 rows and discovered I didn't have a lot of the threads I needed for her wing - *sigh*. I did do a lot of the background confetti though, and filled in some of the solid colour background as well, and stitched most of the wing that I could leaving the gaps to be filled when I get the floss. This new method I've discovered for stitching her seems to be working really well, which I'm very glad of! It's sad to put her away for the time being, but hopefully I'll get a chance to work on her again before the next SAL, if when I get my threads.

Tranquility Mystery:
I've got almost all of page 2 done, except for some of that massive red thing - I like the design, I hate stitching it. I am going to have to grit my teeth and get it done too! I really need to catch up on this... the yellow motif is my favourite of all of them so far, and I love the yellow colour too!


Japanese Octagon Box:
I got my finishing kit from Judy the other day, which was very very fun, and I got the old key from Martina as well which meant that I could stitch on the grass this monday. I frogged all the incorrect stitching, and added some more, and it looks wonderful. Photos really do not do justice, but I will try.


apart from all this, I also did lots of fabric dyeing for prac 1 for craft this year too - with Peta (future MIL) and was MUCH FUN! We got dye everywhere and the acid ate the foil off her reflector thing that she puts in her car....but it was worth it, even the clean up! See?


Also, I've discovered somewhere that sells 100% cotton sheeting...white, 2.5m wide, for about $7/m which is GREAT, and I bought 4m. 2m of that got used for the dyeing, and 2m I have kept because I will use it to make the mockup of my dress, the patterns for which should be sent today by the people I ordered them from - I sent them an email inquiring and they're sending them *now*, about 3 weeks later!!! grr. Oh well. I will get them and then have fun making the dress. What Peta and I have decided is that I'll make a proper mockup, with long sleeves, then cut the sleeves short, make an underdress, and dye both. I want the underdress a solid colour, but the overdress dark at the bottom shading up to light at the top, thinking a turquois-y blue with a dark blue underdress or a deep pink with a purple underdress, and then stitch cutwork dragonflies all over it. Sounds like fun! I can't see the point of making a dress, even a mockup, that I wouldn't be able to wear, so I'll get a nice summer dress out of it too. And dyes mean that if I buy some nice ribbon we can dye the ribbon too to match the dress...*grins*

I also want to use the sheeting to make underthings for the doll I've been meaning to dress for years. It's cotton, so it should be good! It's also good for petticoats, which I may have to do something about. I love the rustle and feel of petticoats, and they look good under full skirts.

Oh, and if you're wondering what I look like while stitching, here I am:


I was putting a hoop on the aida for the samurai that Troy has just started stitching. He's almost finished something else too (just needs to finish the backstitching) and when he does I'll post it :) it looks really good!


EDITED: to add photos

Photos and things like that

Here's a photo post, given I haven't posted photos in a while.

First, first day of school:

this is one version of school uniform - basically, that tshirt (or a white otherwise identical one) and pants, or the school skirt, or my school dress (which I don't have photos of yet) or a combination of the aforementioned. Yes, people wear tshirts over dresses - and dresses over pants ocassionally, but you don't often see that. We do have jumpers (sweatshirts) too, but it's mostly been too hot to wear them. They're green. The white long sleeved shirt technically isn't school uniform, but they don't really care - I was warm that way! Mornings are cold, but they warm up quickly, and long shirts under tshirts works well - I can always just take the undershirt off later in the day.

Next, Tumbles (fat cat) finding a comfortable bed...me:

He was heavy though, so I had to shove him off after a while. I was not popular, but my back didn't hurt.

And the stitchy photos.

From The Ashes after the challenge SAL:

I've beens struggling with this one - I don't feel that I'm achieving much, mostly because the stitches are so small. I think I need to set stitch count goals, and achieve them, and then I'll feel better. It's mostly confetti background at the moment, and slow going, but the effect is worth it.

And Mystery X -Part 2 WIP. This is a big part, and is taking me FOREVER, but Martina's promised us a smaller part next month *phew*

I'll catch up on the rotation next month!

Challenge #2

Well, weekend's over. I did get quite a bit done on her, though not nearly as much as I would have liked *sigh* everyone always seems to get more than me done!

I've also got about 1/4 done on my mystery. It's so big this month that it's taken me ages to do, and I might have to fudge my rotation this time. My goals were about the mystery and about the rotation and it seems that i'll have to sacrifice one to do the other! I think it will be the rotation that gets sacrificed, just until I catch up. Hopefully next month is a small part, so I can catch up the space that it would have taken up next month.

I'll post pics when bindi gets home and I can steal her camera :)

Challenge SAL #1

...and other things.

Well, the weekend started well. I got my charts and my threads on Thursday, and happily set things up to stitch. I worked on Hope for the rest of the day and got another 300 stitches or so done, which was good, and then changed the fabric on the q-snaps and frame before I went to bed.

Friday I got an insane amount done, about 600 stitches I think. Saturday was looking good, and I worked happily on it until about lunchtime when my stomach started to hurt in a couple places, and gradually got worse as the day progressed. I was feeling a little ill as well, so didn't get much done in the afternoon. By the time it was 10pm or so and we were watching Twister on tv, it was starting to hurt to sit and I'd curled up in the same chair as Troy because I was so miserable. My parents were worried that it was appendicitis or something similar, so over to the district hospital we went.

The nurses prodded and poked me and asked questions, and gave me a shot of something that was supposed to help stop the cramps if it was a cramp problem (it wasn't, so it didn't work) and Troy looked the other way because while needles don't bother me, he's petrified of them! Eventually the head nurse rang the doctor and asked what she thought should be done, and the advice was that I would be kept in for observation - fun!

I haven't stayed in hospital since I was about 4 and had an operation on my ears (I was almost deaf) though I've been an outpatient often enough with my Ichthyosis, and it was sort of a novelty for about the first half an hour. After that, it was bland and boring and lonely. Mum had grabbed my pyjamas, meds and creams etc for me, and she was lovely enough to grab my stitching too - threads, fabric in q-snaps, scissors and the pages of chart I was using... but no colour key. It's the thought that counts, right? I ended up blanket stitching the edges of my fabric, given that I hadn't had the chance to overlock them before I left and they were starting to fray, and it's now a glorious multicoloured edging. I could have just used one colour, but that was boring, so I ended up just using lots of colours and it was fun. Not productive towards the SAL though!

The town is built right near the sea, and the hospital is on the front street so that all the rooms have a sea view and it was nice to hear the sea, but I got cold due to the obsession that all hospitals seem to have with freezing temperatures - even though I was wearing thick winter pj's in the middle of summer! and I got woken up every 3 hours for the nurses to make sure I wasn't dead or in agony. Apparently I was neither, because in the morning they told me I had a urinary tract infection that just happened to have weird symptoms and sent me home with antibiotics to be taken 4 times a day.

Monday I pretty much spent packing, and my stitching got packed up carefully in my tote bag to be stitched on on the bus home - riiiight... we left at dusk and I'd forgotten that the lights on the bus are absolutely horrible for stitching. Oh well, best laid plans and all that. So I probably got about 1000-1200 stitches (haven't counted yet) done for the weekend, but nowhere near what I'd like to have got done. I'm thinking I might just keep stitching for an extra two days to make up for the days I missed, and then put her away to go back to hope again.

I'm home again now, after the 10 hour bus trip - we got in at 5am this morning, ugh. I cannot sleep properly on busses, and Troy has this habit of falling asleep on me which is fine normally but not on a bus because parts of my anatomy end up going to sleep - my entire left leg last night, which hurt like mad when it 'came back to life' at the end of it. Oh well. Got some serious sleeping done this morning, but an earlyish night is sounding good to me.

I don't have photos because all the cameras are with my family - argh! I'll take some at Troy's if I get the chance, and I might just have to try out this whole scanning stitching thing and see how that goes.