Canvaswork rotation over

I’ve been sat up since early this morning stitching the rest of my rotation slot for this piece - I was up early to drive out to the airport, but Mum’s flight has been delayed due to the late arrival into Auckland from Los Angeles, so she’s now approx 6 hours late leaving, and consquently arriving. Seeing as my plans have been upset for the day, I just decided to keep on stitching on Pacific Pohutukawa until my slot finished, or until I got fed up … which just so happens to be right at the same time! The main reason I’m feeling fed up is that the thumb on my right hand is quite red and sore from pulling that damned rayon through the threads on the back to hold it secure - so now it feels a bit uncomfortable to stitch with. Oh well, at least I got my rotation commitments finished for this piece, and now I can move on with the next thing on my agenda … Bordeaux Sampler, followed by my next (and final one with a deadline) charity block, which is due to be received 15 August. After that I have my redwork exchange, needleroll exchange, and round robin to complete … me thinks my rotation won’t be looked at for a while again now hmmm …
Time to go check the arrivals info again, and see if it’s time to start driving to the airport

Psychedelia is back …

Yup, my canvaswork stitching has just got even more psychedelic - oh boy, those colours are bright!! The photo is very poor again, as it’s taken without the flash, just under my ott-lite … I’ll wait until it’s finished, then I’ll try taking a daylight shot to get the colours and stitches nice and crisp. I’ve managed to get a wee bit done tonight, to keep my awake after my 6am start this morning … Mum arrives tomorrow, but I’m hoping I’ll get more chance to finish my rotation slot for this piece before we go to ‘Honkers’
This piece is definitely interesting with the threads used - there is Colour Streams silk (the variegated thread), pearl cotton #5, DMC metallics, rayons and cotton floss (all with 6 strands used of each) … the rayon is a challenge, that’s for sure!! There is a wonderful sheen that isn’t evident in the photo

Glad my pal has just left …

… Well, to be honest, I’m not “really” glad on the whole, but my liver certainly is! haha. We had a reasonable ’session’ last night (and an inhouse session the previous night at home) and went into the city to the Transport bar and had drinks and dinner with another couple that used to work in Auckland with Jenny (and now in Melbourne with me) - had a great night out, with much laughter, then we got home at about 11.45pm, and had a ‘nightcap’ of Glayva for me and whisky for Jen that turned into a couple and we didn’t get to bed until 1.30am oops … we’re up early this morning for Jenny’s cab arriving to take her to the airport, and I’m trying hard to stay awake for another hour before I head off to work … perhaps I’ll go in early and get a very large cappuccino before I start haha. It’s been lovely having Jenny here for this short visit - and it was a great opportunity for her to spend the day in the office seeing our procedures etc, and catching up with news from people I used to work with and have high regard for.

The nice thing is that Jenny really likes my little flat … I don’t know why, but I do feel a bit self conscious about it, and it’s taking me some time to invite people back here from work - it’s not that it’s not ‘nice’, but it is very old, and certainly not ‘flash’ compared to where a lot of other people I know live, so I guess I’m a bit self-conscious about it … mind you, I have made an effort to make it a home, and the more people that have been coming and saying how lovely it is, is making me more comfortable about having other people here from work … and I’m even in the middle of organising a dinner and cocktail party for half a dozen of my absolutely favourite people from work over in September … a big step
As for stitching news, I only managed to get 2 hours done into my current rotation slot of canvaswork and specialty stitches on Monday night - I’m working on the Pacific Pohutukawa piece by Jen’s Jems (a NZ designer), and it looks like a relatively quick stitch overall. In fact, I think only two rotation slots will see it all finished woohoo! Then it’s a toss up between the Golden Garden Sweet Bag by FMNIS, Walk the Gentle Path by Cross ‘n Patch, and Onyx by Paw Printings to jump into that rotation slot … ooh, decisions decisions … Anyway, here’s my progress to date (excuse the threads showing through that are carried over on the back - they’re covered by other stitches that I haven’t put in yet!). The colours are extremely bright, and I just love them - unfortunately not a great photo due to the flash, but once it’s finished I’ll try to get a photo in daylight. Probably no stitching now until Friday afternoon, when it will be time to pick up Bordeaux Sampler for the week - then Mum arrives on Saturday, and we’re off to Hong Kong for a few days … we’ve agreed that even if we have to live on plain boiled rice every day due to no money, we’re still going! haha.

Another rotation slot finished

I finally put the final stitches into my 10-hour slot for smalls/ornaments etc today, and had two small finishes. First of all I finished the stitching of my ‘draft version’ of my Melanie’s Exchange stitched in April - it was already half-stitched, so I just had to finish it off … I just have to do the actual finishing yet. Secondly, I finished off the Christmas ornie I started during the week - I think I actually liked this one better without the beads, but I couldn’t be bothered frogging them off again - this design is Christmas Tree by Elizabeth’s Designs, from the 2005 JCS ornie issue. I’ll have an ornamentifying session next month with Mum to get some of our ornies “finished”.

Aside from that it was an uneventful day - I was very keen and made a big pan of pumpkin and potato soup, as well as a tuna pasta bake for dinner … finished by a total disaster - let’s just say it’s been such a loooooong time since I cracked open my breadmaker to make fresh bread, that I didn’t think to check the yeast expiry date etc … yep, you guessed it - my bread turned out to be a solid mass in the bottom of the breadmaker, and didn’t make my little flat too aromatic this afternoon haha. Oh well, I have to do a big lot of shopping this week, so I’ll have to pick up some more flour and yeast and try it again … oops.

Probably won’t get much chance for stitching this week, with Jenny arriving from NZ on Tuesday night for two nights visiting, then only a couple more nights before Mum arrives again on Saturday - yippee

Annemieke Mein … bliss!!

I’ve just returned home from the most wonderful day out with a lady from work (Wendy) - we left my place just before 9am, and set off for Sale in the Gippsland area of Victoria. It was a gloriously sunny day, only marred by some heavy fog about an hour away from Sale. We met a close friend of Wendy’s called Deb there, with her 7 year old son Andrew, who’d driven down from Paynesville to join us. We had a toasted sandwich and coffee in a small coffee shop in town, before heading over to the Gippsland Art Gallery for “Annemieke Mein - Wildlife in Textiles Retrospective Exhibition” … oh boy, I can’t tell you how amazing it was to see almost an entire gallery filled with Annemieke Mein pieces!! Unfortunately photography wasn’t allowed, but I ended up buying her book from the Gallery before leaving … the book has a number of pieces in it that were on exhibit, so it will be a wonderful souvenir for years to come, and it will always make me relive my happy memories of the exhibit today. Here are a couple more of her pieces from a Gippsland tourism website that were on display:


My jaw was permanently dragging along the floor from one piece to the next - it’s a shame Mum couldn’t be here for it … just mind-blowing! Annemieke includes machine embroidery with textile painting, and her pieces are three-dimensional and exceptionally life-like. Some pieces on the walls are over 6ft tall, and it just blew me away … There were also some ’samplers’ on display which showed step-by-step the designing process Annemieke follows, and it’s awesome to see the original black and white pencil drawings gradually coming to life as the “real thing”. Wendy doesn’t do embroidery at all, but was extremely enthusiastic about it all, and it was a joy to spend the day with her today - all in all, it was a wonderful day out, and I’m so glad I made an effort to go out of my way to get there. Admittedly, now I’m home again, I’m quite weary, as it’s about 3 hours each way driving, but I’ll be smiling sweetly in my sleep tonight
I even managed to get one of my bedroom curtains fixed last night … I’m doing you out of a job, Mum haha. I’m too tired to do the second curtain tonight, so that’ll be a job for me tomorrow - tonight I might just kick back with a glass of port and ‘veg out’ for a bit

Very contented …

The title describes my mood today … I got up early and vacuumed most of the flat (still have to do the lounge, and that’s it), then mopped the kitchen, bathroom and toilet floors, cleaned the bath, and started a bit of a tidy-up effort in the spare bedroom - until I can afford a new bookcase and storage cabinets (my latest plan for the spare room … one day), I made use of the file boxes I freighted my last lot of books over in, and turned them into a makeshift book storage area - not very flash, but it’s a lot tidier than having them all piled up on the floor!

Today is a most glorious day in Melbourne - it’s still a bit nippy, but the sun is shining, and it feels good to be alive After my morning housekeeping, I treated myself at lunchtime to a walk into St Kilda and a brunch of bacon, eggs, and mushrooms at a local cafe, plus a couple of lattes to wash it all down … it was glorious to sit outside in the sun, with a gas furnace heater taking the chill out of the day, and reading a book, sipping lattes without a care in the world (insert contented sigh here …)
Then I took my time and strolled up the St Kilda Pier, which I’ve never done before, and dawdled off home again taking the beach route. I really do feel very much ‘at one with the world’ today - and it feels good Catching the train this week has been very beneficial - it’s got me back into the mode of enjoying walking again, so I’ll have to keep it up … better bring your walking shoes, Mum, ‘cos you’re coming with me! haha (yeah, I know you love walking, which is a good thing!). The next photo is a street very typical of my area with elm trees lining each side of the street - they’re looking very bare at the moment, but it won’t be very long before they’re starting to sprout spring leaves again - I just love these avenues of trees, and they make me feel really peaceful to see them (And with my flat being on the 3rd floor, I get a birds-eye view of the ones on my doorstep!)
Nothing else to report, really - just felt like blogging about what a wonderful day it is I only managed an hour of stitching last night, so nothing new to report. I actually did 2 hours on a Christmas ornie a couple of nights ago, but decided not to post a piccie until it’s all finished … hopefully next weekend that’ll all be done (won’t have much stitching time this week due to visitors) - but then I have 2 1/2 weeks off work when Mum first arrives woohoo … just think, it’ll be stitching heaven at my place, now there are two of us stitching haha (we might be fighting over the Ott-lite, though haha).

Bordeaux Sampler

I’m supposed to post my update piccie on Fridays, along with Carol, but I’ve decided to cheat and put it up a day early, as I may be busy tomorrow. I managed to get a good night’s stitching (4 whole hours) into this last night, and I just have the over-one lettering and bottom band plus the rhodes grapes in the side borders to do, then part one is all finished yippee! I’m soooooo tempted to sit and do some more tonight, which would probably see part one finished, but I’m going to resist the temptation. For our SAL I said I’d stitch for one day/night or a total of 3 hours each week, depending what my shifts were like, so I guess I’ve already stitched my quota on it for this week … I have to admit, though, I really enjoyed stitching on it and I’m looking forward to finishing part one next week some time (mind you, I’m not a huge fan of over-one stitching, so that lettering band might be slow going).

I also have more stash to report - this is yet again from an order that was made a number of weeks ago, in a 30-75% off sale from Margaret Lee’s website … I never had confirmation of the final cost, or that the order was complete, so I totally forgot all about it … I was surprised to come home to a LARGE box with a postage cost of US$29 (ahem!!), just for a few charts, fabric and two pairs of scrollbar side frames - there was a long piece of ‘plastic bag’ stuff filled with air to fill out the box … would it not have been better to just parcel the damn stuff into a flatter box to save postage? It’s not as if a couple of charts etc are breakable! Oh well, the main reason I placed an order was because they had selected aida fabric on sale at 50-75% off, and I wanted to order some for Mum’s stitching stash, seeing as she’s still on a mad Christmas ornie stitching spree (go Mum!!). Still, that extra US$20 spent on postage costs has really marred the savings on the other items … oh well, c’est la vie! At least you have some more fabric, Mum

The charts in this haul were The Gathering Room by Little House Needleworks (not in the photo); Those Darn Accessories by Hillside Samplings; A Little Blackwork by Drawn Thread; Sitting Pretty by Valerie Pfeiffer; Birdie Holiday by Lizzie*Kate; Stitching Friends by Lizzie*Kate; Honey Bee by Elizabeth’s Designs; Life’s a Stitch by Lizzie*Kate; Bluebells and Violets by Shepherd’s Bush; and Teenie Hardanger III by The Sweetheart Tree.

For Mum … I also got the following aida for you - 14ct lambswool, 16ct antique ivory, and 16ct navy. This lot was all pre-Wagon spending

Now it’s time to get the washing out of the machine and hang it out before settling down for the night - it’s day 6 of work today, and I feel pretty wrecked (especially as I was stitching until midnight last night oops haha), so I thought I’d give myself a good start to the weekend, by getting some housework out of the way quickly … now I’m going to be self-indulgent while watching Big Brother (sad, but true, I do enjoy it!), followed by Medium and Lost … ah, bliss!

Over the hump … almost

Today is day 4 of my working week - and with any luck I’ll be allowed to take Friday off as an optional RDO (rostered day off) … if that’s the case, then I’m officially sitting on the 2/3 mark of my week … if not, I still have 3 days left. Saturday I’m heading off with a lady from work to Gippsland Art Gallery in Sale (about 3 hours drive away from Melbourne) to visit the Annemieke Mien Exhibition. This is exciting for two reasons - 1) I’ve never been to Gippsland before, and 2) Annemieke Mein’s work is absolutely stunning, and it will be fantastic to see it first-hand. I’ll take my camera with me just in case we’re allowed to take photos Here are some links to her works: here and here (this is the exhibit I’m going to)
Another quiet night tonight, but I feel really relaxed - on the 9am-5pm shifts the traffic to and from work is horrific … with no traffic it’s a 20 minute drive, but on this shift it can be 1 whole hour - I got so fed up and uptight in the traffic yesterday that I decided to leave the car at home today, and walked to the train station to take the train to work … how wonderful, I arrived at work totally unstressed, and feel the same way after coming home - I think it’s going to be a permanent arrangement on this shift yippee! (It also means I have to get my fat bottom in motion and get a bit of walking in to and from the station, so yet another positive! haha)

Today more stash arrived in my mailbox - my subscription to the Australian Inspirations magazine from Country Bumpkin (actually, my subscription must be due to expire soon hmmm) … this month has a lovely surface stitchery bag on the cover - I probably wouldn’t have the patience to stitch it myself, but it’s absolutely gorgeous! And not just that today, but my magazine arrived complements of KarenV from the UK, with the Margaret Sherry booklet I wanted - including the 12 days of Christmas charts. But there was an added treat, with some gorgeous Egyptian designs in the magazine as well - a definite added bonus! Thanks again Karen, for helping me out - your blood is worth bottling!! {{huge hugs}}

Now I’m off to do a spot of stitching for an hour before I hit the hay for the night - seeing as I didn’t get chance to get any of the Bordeaux Sampler done last week, I want to get an hour each night for the next 3 nights so I can post a progress piccie on Friday for my SAL with Carol

You’ve got mail !!

BUT it’s not stitching related … it IS related to my OTHER passion, though … welcome to the Annie household three more little treasures - compliments of the Big Brother TV show … from left to right “Outback Duck”, “Darling Duck” and “King Duck” - woohoo!!! haha
It’s only a quick post, as I have a few things to do at home tonight - I am celebrating, though, as today is the first day since Friday (ie 4 days ago) that I haven’t been chewing Nurofen all day - I’ve had a splitting headache since stitching those racing cars, so no blog reading etc being done. I’ve also just received the news today that my favourite person at my old place of work in Auckland is coming here next week for two nights on business (same company), and she’s staying at my place … the spare room looks like a tornado zone, as it’s got my boxes unpacked all over the place - um, time to get it all squared up a bit sooner than I expected … hmmm. It will be wonderful to see her again - and it will be awesome to be able to show her ‘my office’
Rightio, off to do a few chores - time to put the laundry etc away before bedtime …

Peace …

The title doesn’t mean anything profound … just that I’ve finished the Peace ornament from the 2004 JCS ornie magazine - finally one finished in line with our designer SAL on the Friends Gather BB … this month was Jeannette Douglas Designs A HUGE thanks to Jenna for sending me the Needle Necessities overdyed braid I needed to finish this one - muchly appreciated!

I’m now halfway through my smalls/ornaments/SAL rotation slot … just have to decide what to stitch in those last 5 hours - perhaps another small ornament … I’ll have to decide later, ‘cos it’s time to run off to work. Hope you’re all having a lovely weekend

(Sorry, but the scan doesn’t show up the lovely stitches very well - I might try and take a digital photo later some time.)