Charity stitching

OK, I finally bit the bullet today, after seeing a post a wee while ago by Barbara about charity stitching. I followed her link to Quilts4Kids, and realised they’re based here in Australia, and thought I’d try hard to get some charity squares stitched this year. I have to admit to having no real maternal instinct, and not being greatly ‘kid-orientated’ (although in saying that I enjoy time spent with the kids of my close friends), but the stories of what these poor wee mites have gone through in such a short life-span is heart wrenching. So, it’s time to finally put my needles to good use - my first charity squares (if they’re accepted) will be for wee Emily T, who loves butterflies. I’ve chosen to stitch two different flowers and butterflies from the World of XSing magazine, and will change one of the flower colours to purples as Emily loves pinks and purples. The squares are due by 15 April, so I should have plenty of time to get them stitched up and posted out. Then I hope to continue stitching one square a month, or at the least every 2 months. Unfortunately a lot of my stash that would be useful for this sort of stitching is still sitting at my parents home in Auckland, so Mum’s task when she gets home is to plough through all the folders to pick out some that would be useful, and see how much it would be to post some over (otherwise my suitcase will be getting jammed full of stitching charts when I go over for her 70th birthday in May!).

Aside from that, yet another non-stitching day … still hideously hot, and I have no real desire to pick up a needle - hence all the stitching planning instead It’s ‘Friday’ for me today, and I have the next two days off, and very very grateful - people on the phone were extremely cranky and outrageous with their demands today … I think the heat’s getting to everyone! With any luck, though, the temperatures are due to drop a bit next week, and I’ll get back into my stitching routine

Hope everyone’s been enjoying their weekends. Thanks for all your supportive comments as always - they’re wonderful to come home to

What does a needle look like?

I’m starting to forget what a size 26 Piecemaker tapestry needle is - or in fact any needle! Yet another non-stitching day … although I did end up finishing up some more kitting up small projects for ‘down the track’. Hallelujah it’s my final 6am shift tomorrow, then two days off again so I can go to bed at a ‘normal’ time again yay.

Spent the night in tears tonight … finally got around to watching The Notebook tonight (can’t remember what it was that stopped us watching it the other night) - oh crikey, what a chick flick that is! So I couldn’t help but shed a bit of wet stuff at the very end, even though I’d guessed what was going to happen … what a lovely movie - and makes a nice change from the psycho thrillers and action movies/comedies that I usually watch LOL.

Rightio, off to bed again - and only 2 more sleeps before I get to finally meet some fellow bloggers here in Melbourne … yippee

I want some snow!!!

I just made an offer to Bine in Germany, if I pay for the courier cost, would she be willing to send me some snow? And I’m not joking … apparently the hottest January in Melbourne’s history, quite frankly I can’t wait until this heatwave is over!! Last night I got about 3 hours sleep compliments of the humidity and heat, and the heavy storms - it’s very draining on the energy levels, that’s for sure! Mind you, it gave me an excuse to sit for almost 7 hours on the computer yesterday, in front of the electric fan, catching up on all my blog feeds … always a silver lining somewhere Mum got a chicken breast out of the freezer and chucked it on the back of my neck on the way past … it was sheer heaven! I suggested turfing all the frozen food out on the floor so we could roll around on it to cool down, but she didn’t think it was a good idea LOLOL.

No stitching progress, as it’s been too hot, but I accidentally found out today that the girls at work are having a ‘whip-round’ (ie collection) between them for my birthday, seeing it’s a ‘big one’. Ali asked where you buy “that stuff that you do” (she’s miming a sewing motion with her hands as she’s asking haha) - I reply, it depends what you’re looking for. She repeated the same question - to which I once again reply, if you want just basic cheap stuff you can go to Spotlight, or if you want more specialised stuff you can go to a LNS … she then wanted to know which one I went to blah blah blah. Anyway, she finally blurted out why she was asking - then said if I prefer she can give me the money collected, rather than getting a gift voucher, so I can get what I want. I thought that was a wonderful idea, as I could do a splurge online at Stitching Bits & Bobs - I’m in heaven already, just thinking about it (especially when I assume there will be a 25% sale around Valentine’s Day or some time soon). And Mum wanted to give me my birthday money the other day too, when I was trying to find my pearl cotton for “Marine Elegance” (yes, Isabelle, you have started a trend, and blue/apricot elegance has now been officially renamed LOL). So I’ll be able to combine the two amounts and hopefully get some of my prized Gingher’s scissors again
As for my birthday ‘bash’, Dracula’s has been cancelled due to grape grazing being on the next day - and I’m not sure whether I’ll wait until closer to the other guy’s birthday date, and still have a dinner combined, or whether I’ll just organise a dinner closer to my date … I suppose I’d better hurry up and decide seeing as there are only a couple of weeks left - yikes!! LOL.

Well, off to contemplate picking a needle up, although it’s still stinking hot, so I doubt that’s going to happen. Over the last couple of days we kitted up some small projects from my stash, reading for taking to Embroiderers Guild meetings - that’s my only resolution for 2006, getting along to the meetings for stitching company and camaraderie I can say, though, I managed to stay on top of all my blogs today and cleared all posts as soon as I walked in … woohoo!!

Good mail day!

It was a semi-decent stitching day for me today - the temperature dropped to about 25C during the day and was fantastic for sleeping last night. I actually woke up feeling human today, and couldn’t wait to pick up a needle again! I managed to catch up with assignment 3 of the Apricot Elegance SAL from the Stitching Smalls Yahoo group … I was surprised, though, with the colour of the pearl cotton I’m using - on the skein it looks quite turquoisey, but when you stitch it up on that fabric the mint/pale green shows up more. I had my heart set on using a brightish turquoise for my filling stitches etc, but now I’m a bit stumped, as the colours just won’t go! Oh well, it means we’re off to the LNS tomorrow to try to find a colour that will substitute. Even though it wasn’t my ‘perfect’ choice of colour, I have to admit that I really like it … it now reminds me of Monet’s waterlily paintings, which I adore It just means I might not be able to finish this week’s assignment yet, until I decide on colours.

Usually on my days off, I don’t go anywhere near my PO Box, as it’s a 1/2 hour drive away … but I knew I was expecting some parcels, so curiosity got the better of me today and we took a trip out for a couple of hours to grocery shop and collect mail. And what a wonderful lot of surprises were awaiting me! I had some fabric from Country Stitch from their sales, as Linda is selling off all her plain colour linens etc and will just be selling hand-dyeds from now on - the two stash expenses I haven’t given up yet have been my FOTM clubs with both Country Stitch and Silkweaver. Anyway, my last FOTM of plain linens arrived from Linda late last week, but my mail today was ‘extra’. I also received my December FOTM from Silkweaver last week, a lovely colour called “Desert Sky” - a very nice neutral colour

The other exciting mail was some fabric from Dawn, that she dyed herself - and it is the most scrummy colour turquoise … serious drool material! Thanks Dawn, for a fantastic trade - Dawn got a Mirabilia chart, and I got the fabric … me thinks I got the better deal! LOL. Thanks again Dawn! And then last, but certainly not least, I received a chart from Karen - Quaker Huswif by Sampler Cove, that was on my wishlist … Karen, you’re a sweetheart - thanks again so much! I won’t be starting this one for a while yet, so I have plenty of time to drool over it in the meantime - and there are week-by-week SAL instructions on the Legacy BB, which will come in mighty handy when I do start it

I forgot to mention that I also had a nice surprise at work about two weeks ago - one of the guys that I’ve only just recently started working with on the Hotline, was watching me XS at work on the late shifts a couple of times, and mentioned that his Mum had left some stitching ‘bits and pieces’ after she’d passed away, and he’d try and find them for me. So, a few days later he trotted into work and gave me a few packets of needles and DMC threads, plus a piece of natural linen, and some beige/tan aida and hardanger fabric. Also a magnetic chart holder, and two charts - one of them is a chart full of alphabets, which is going t0 be oh so useful - how wonderful! I have to admit that I probably won’t use the beige/tan aida as it is, but I’m thinking of practising my dyeing on it. I felt very very touched that he thought of me - as he said, he’d rather it went to someone who would appreciate it, than just throwing it out … thanks Craig!

Rightio, off to watch the some more of my mail … “The Notebook” on DVD from Homescreen - what a dreadful night we have instore for us again … a bottle of chilled Marsanne wine, stitching and DVD’s - just awful!

All shopped out …

Today was a very productive day in some ways - I had my hair cut over at my old neighbourhood, so it’s exciting that I can actually see again from behind my fringe! Then I made the effort to finally get my eyes tested, which was really worthwhile - I had PRK laser surgery on both eyes ab0ut 10 years ago (wouldn’t recommend it to anyone in many ways, but now it’s out-dated technology anyway), and it seems my shortsightedness is returning … I’ve been having difficulty seeing for night driving, and with my ‘odd’ shifts, this has probably been causing me some stress, and I wonder if it’s been contributing to all those headaches I have been plagued with before Christmas. Anyway, my ’script is pretty mild - I think only .5 in my left eye, and .75 in my right, and I don’t have to have glasses, but boy oh boy what a difference it made to reading the charts back … so that 4 hours overtime I did yesterday will likely go towards buying some glasses for driving/long distance.

Then Mum and I spent three hours combing the streets and shopping malls of Melbourne for electric fans! You’d think we’d been trying to find gold bullion!!! With this intense heatwave, all the shops have sold out, literally, not even an empty box anywhere to be had! We finally took a punt, and went to The Warehouse (which is huge in NZ, but not so well-known in Australia) at Moorabbin, and found a huge display area for fans … with only about 6 small ones left for sale, and about the same number of stand-up ones … as Steve Irwin would say - “Crikey!!”. There actually weren’t any left on display when we first walked in, but we saw a staff member carrying one and asked if it was already taken … I could have screamed with delight when he answered no! Then as we were walking back to the till we noticed he’d brought another 1/2 dozen out, so we snapped another one up too. So, we’re totally over the whole shopping experience today - but very VERY happy that we managed to get not one but two desktop fans, one for each bedroom.

The heat has been so bad there have been bush fires here in Victoria, not too far away, with 1500 fire fighters apparently on duty fighting fires last night. And with temperatures set to soar again by the end of this week, the worst may not be over yet … yikes! I’d better hurry up and get some stitching done tonight while I can!!

I’m melting… & Twilight Zoo

Yup, just like a scene from the Wizard of Oz, I feel like the wicked witch, calling out “I’m melting!” … another high temperature day/night - managed to sleep for 2 hours, but have woken up and can’t get back to sleep again due to the intense heat and lack of air in the room

Had a fantastic day today (although no stitching) - I got a call from work at 8.23am asking if I could come in for 4 hours overtime, which I accepted. The temperature was due to be 43C today, so we’d decided to go to Melbourne Zoo later in the afternoon, which worked out well - I could go to work for 4 hours in airconditioning (LOL) then it was home to pack the picnic ‘basket’ and off to the zoo. After wandering around for about 2 hours, we settled down on our blanket in front of the band rotunda, for a free jazz concert. It was incredibly relaxing sitting with a bottle of wine, and some antipastos to nibble on - and a local dancing group called “Swing Patrol” got up and danced to the music, then did a small dance presentation during the band’s break (mind you, they said they’d tamed their show down a lot due to the high heat, as it was too hot to do their normal energetic routine … can’t blame them!) - it was a wonderful and glorious evening. I’d definitely recommend the “Twilights Festival” experience at Melbourne Zoo for anyone who hasn’t done it yet - just lovely. And to top it all off, I didn’t have to miss the nightly lorikeet fly-over ritual … as the zoo is one of the places they must go to roost We opted to just walk round about 1/3 of the animal displays due to the heat, then just blobbed out in front of the band stand for the rest of the night. We really enjoyed walking around the monkeys - and the only photo I’ll share, since I didn’t take very many, is one of a gorilla sat very patiently near the glass of the viewing area - can’t say he/she looks too thrilled about the temperature either!

OK, now it’s time to drag the big stand-up fan into the bedroom - I think that’s the only way I’m going to get any sleep tonight for the 2nd night running … I think we have to go shopping tomorrow to buy two smaller ones for the bedrooms (the large one is usually in the lounge).

Thanks to everyone who leave comments - it’s really lovely to receive and read them

Still alive …

… but not getting much stitching done! Been very very tired this week, and ended up with dizziness and throwing up compliments of a 24-hour virus (which also knocked Mum out yesterday too) - that meant a day off work yesterday, but back in again today. Sat here in a pool of sweat, with a temperature of 41C (if I’ve worked out the temperature correctly, that’s approx 109F!!) - seeing as we don’t have air conditioning in the flat, there will be no stitching done tonight/tomorrow!

I’ve been getting a lot behind with blogging yet again … having Mum here has upset my usual routine a bit (although I’m still loving having her here) - and she sees my time on the computer as being ‘time wasted’ … I may wait until she’s back home before I get back into the swing of things again with blogging …

One thing I’ve been loving over the last week or so, and that’s that the rainbow lorikeet population has been increasing in its fly-overs at the end of the day. There was one day during the week that there was a flock of what must have been at least 100 lorikeets - it was incredible! These are the most amazing birds to look at, although they fly over with the speed of a bullet, and an incredible squawking racket! They’re a really beautiful sight to behold That’s one thing I love about being in Aussie - the amazing bird life. It amazed me to be driving down the road on the main roads, to see Gallah’s feeding on the median strips - and this morning we had a couple of sulphur-crested cockatoos squawking on the next door neighbour’s roof - just wonderful!

As far as my stitching’s been going, the only progress I’ve had is on my Le Jardin Silk Sampler - I just have 1 hour left before I finish my 10-hour slot in my rotation (I’m trying hard to get back into the rotation habit again!). Now I’m off work for a few days with Mum, so some more sightseeing is on the menu (although, we’re praying for an easing off in temperatures). We’re supposed to be going to Melbourne Zoo tomorrow during the day, followed by an open air jazz concert at the zoo in the evening … at an expected 42C again, though, we might only go to the zoo for a short time, and hide indoors for the rest of the day LOL.

There is an Angel out there …

… and her name is Tobie!! I hope Tobie doesn’t mind, but I have to share something that happened to me today … Work today has been exceptionally difficult, in that I started at 4am - that means the alarm went off at 3am … and I’ve really really struggled to get through my day until 2pm this afternoon. They were needing people for overtime from 4am-7am to help with handling ex-London calls … deciding I really need the money for my birthday dinner, I put my hand up … never, ever again will I do that! My rostered 5am starts are bad enough, 4am is just WRONG! LOL.

So, today I left work like a rat up a drainpipe as soon as the clock hit 2pm … I felt like death warmed up, and probably looked it too! Anyway, my PO Box is a short 5 minute walk from work (I figured that was a more stable address than my home living situation when I first moved here, so that made more sense having one near work … but I digress …) - I made my daily pilgrimage to post my mail, and pick up the day’s bills … only to get the surprise of my life - sitting in that little PO Box was a parcel … thinking it was my Silkweaver FOTM finally arriving, I thought ‘that’s nice’ and wandered out the PO again. Then I started looking at the envelope thinking it was quite large for SW - then I looked more closely … it was NOT from SW - it was from an angel in the name of Tobie. Now I have to admit I knew a gift was coming from Tobie … which you can see from the following piccies:

Before (my current snippet ‘bag’)

After (my new, beautiful snippet bag!)
However, that envelope seemed awfully large for a little snippet bag (and if you haven’t seen these on Tobie’s blog beforehand, you’re really missing out!) … Sure enough, Tobie didn’t stop there - inside that envelope/parcel was a little stitcher’s treasure trove, and my jaw hasn’t been removed from the floor ever since I opened it! Inside was the snippet bag (in a beautiful blue, of course!), along with a kit of the Thistle Bag from M Designs (which was on my wishlist) - not only that, but also the fabric that is suggested on the chart (a lovely Lakeside linen) … but she didn’t even stop there - tucked inside the snippet bag was the most adorable hand-dyed threads by an Oklahoma designer called Windy Hill Designs … WOW!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t know what I did to deserve all that spoiling, but I feel very very blessed. Thanks again, Tobie, from the bottom of my heart! You’re a real sweetheart!! {{hugs}}

I did manage to pick my jaw up for 1 1/2 hours tonight, though, to take me 1/4 of the way through my 10 hour rotation slot for a new piece - Le Jardin Silk Sampler from some 1998 JCS magazines … just to prove it, here’s the progress piccie - not too much to show for it though - I think I was so boggle-eyed with tiredness tonight, I was stitching at about half speed haha. And I’m an hour late getting to bed, so I’ll be moaning again tomorrow when the alarm goes off at 4am … {groan}

I met the challenge!

I was a bit slow off the mark, but today I took part in a 24-hour stitching challenge on the FGBB - we had from 7pm last night to 7pm tonight to stitch something small … I was so exhausted last night I didn’t even choose a project never mind stitch on it - so today I started a bit late at 2pm … and finished 5 minutes late at 7pm - I’m pretty amazed I actually met the deadline (well, pretty darned close anyway!). I decided to do my Xmas ornie that is due to be stitched ready for posting 16 Feb, so it was a good excuse to get a ‘commitment stitching’ project out of the way early I stitched “Merry Yule” by Erica Michaels designs from the 2005 JCS ornie magazine. As part of the same group, I’m committing to stitching one Xmas ornie every month, and we’ve allocated a different designer each month to give us a bit of flexibility of stitching designs for the SAL - the designs I’ve chosen for the year are as follows (all from JCS ornie issues):

• Feb - With My Needle - Star of Wonder (2002)
• Mar - Prairie Schooler - Herald Angels (2003)
• Apr - Homespun Elegance - Holly Noel (2005)
• May - Full Circle Designs - Perfect Gifts (2004)
• Jun - The Workbasket - Quaker Christmas Bulb (2003)
• Jul - Jeannette Douglas Designs - one of her needlerolls
• Aug - Threads Through Time - Reindeer Garden (2000)
• Sep - The Sweetheart Tree - Merry Christmas Bellpull (2004)

‘Blue Elegance’ update

I finally managed to finish this week’s stitching assignment for my Blue Elegance piece (officially “Apricot Elegance” by Cindy Valentine) - I’m using Blueberry Watercolors thread on 28ct Cashel linen in an unknown blue colour from my stash … I thought it was quite ‘chunky’ on the 28ct linen, but I’ll keep persevering with it as I think the colour really blends well with just a bit of subtle shading. I’ve really enjoyed stitching this piece so far - it’s a nice change to stitch with some chunky threads and having something that grows so quickly!

The rest of the week has gone in a bit of a blur really … I finished my night shifts at 5am Monday morning, but only managed to get 4-5 hours sleep again … and was back at work again for 11am Wednesday - feeling very tired and very cranky! LOL. The only way I can explain it is that it’s like going from Australia to London (totally opposite time zones) to work for 3 days, then flying home to Australia again and going straight to work off the plane! Usually we get 4 days off after the night shifts to recover, but because I was covering the Hotline for two separate staff members, I ended up with split shifts and only 1 1/2 days off to recover … never ever again! I’ve felt like death all week - then Fraze came to stay on Thursday night (which was lovely to have his company as usual) so I didn’t get quality sleep again - now it’s my weekend and I feel like a train wreck

Mum made me laugh last night - she knows I hadn’t been feeling great, so I walked in the door to the following greetings - first of all a bourbon and L&P all ready to add ice (sheer nectar!) … and the 2nd thing is she’d lined up my ‘lounge ducks’ in a row on the floor along with Bukta in front of the TV, saying they’d been having a lovely time watching cricket with her as a family night in - she’s a crack up! I swear she’s going through her second childhood! LOL. Poor Bukta (on the left) belongs to Fraze … it’s his childhood toy that we’ve tormented dreadfully since I moved to Aussie. It’s a long story how it all happened (and it was initiated by his best friend Scott), but we decided Bukta was a closet transvestite and dressed him in a dress, made him boobs, and a wig and he feels so much happier … you had to be there at the time, but it was hysterical to see Fraze’s face when he saw him (we attacked Bukta while he was at work). When I moved out I told Fraze I’d really miss Bukta in his little pink outfit (it never got removed, ‘cos it made us laugh) … so Mum and I hijacked him to play a joke on Fraze - we took him for a walk up to the beach here and I made him a little hammock out of chopsticks and a handkerchief … then we took a photo of him and sent it to Fraze from Bukta saying he was having a lovely time on holiday at the beach with Auntie Anne … we howled ourselves silly! And to this day Bukta still resides happily here - I keep telling Fraze to take him home, but he says he likes it here! So he sits permanently on top of my computer desk keeping my printer company Can you tell I haven’t done much stitching this week? Not much to show at all, really - hence the other pictures haha. I don’t have much energy today, so stitching will be the best thing for me to chill out, I think (actually, I was told by Mum that’s my best relief, so I have to put a DVD in and get stitching - gee, I’m gonna miss her when she goes back home!). Am trying to talk Mum into staying an extra couple of weeks to the middle of February so she will be here for my birthday. I wasn’t going to do anything this year, but seeing as it’s a “decade” birthday, we’re going to go out to Dracula’s for dinner - it a theatre restaurant, and is fantastically funny! It’s not cheap, but it’ll be a good way to say goodbye to the dirty-30’s and hello to the naughty-40’s The food is usually pretty good, and the show is absolutely side-splitting … then there is a big group going “grape grazing” the next day, which is a wine tasting tour on buses - they’re trying to talk me into going to that as well, so it will be a very unforgettable weekend all round if that’s the case! haha. Anyway, enough driveling on about nothing - off to wake up and try stitching again …

But a quick reply for Cathy … yup, I really do work for an airline, and yup you guessed the airline correctly! We’re apparently the ony airline worldwide that has a call centre open 24 hours a day/7 days a week - aren’t we lucky? LOL. I worked for them in Auckland for 3 years, then moved to the ‘mother country’ where I’ve continued to work with them for another 2 1/2 years so far … and most of the time love it! I’m an international consultant there, but also do relief cover on the Supervisor (staff assist) Hotline, where we help consultants out finding information when they get stuck, taking escalated calls (not my fave part of the job), and trouble shooting … it can be very interesting, to say the least!