It's my birthday - again!

Or so it seems. I had some birthday money to spend and decided to order some more hand dyed monaco fabric (a recent discovery and now my favourite fabric) . I was going to order from www.enchantedfabrics.com but before I got the chance, I learnt they were having a 20% off sale the first week in September. Needless to say I held off so I could get more bang for my buck!
Here's what I chose:

From left to right, my rainbow of colours are hocus pocus flair, fairy kisses painted (I bought this colour in flair last time and have already stitched on it - I wanted to compare the flair to the painted), fairy tears painted, fairy blush flair, eire flair, pumpkin pizazz flair and margarita flair. Most seem a little duller in person than the pics on the website, but a couple seem more vibrant. Either way I'm happy with what I chose.

Charity stitching finishes

Here's a couple of cross stitch finishes that just need washing, ironing and mailing. Of course I will cut the evil masking tape from the edges first :-). These are to be made into a quilt featuring just designs from Ellen Maurer-Stroh's animal baby series. It will be donated to the CFA (Country Fire Authority) to raffle off for much needed funds. This project came about after the devastating bushfires that hit Victoria earlier in 2009. Our upcoming bushfire season is also being tipped as potentially horrific too.

• Names of the designs are "Ladybug Baby" and "Bunny Baby"
  
• Charts were purchased from www.patternsonline.com and are designed by Ellen Maurer-Stroh
  
• Fabric is a 28 count white evenweave
  
• Thread is DMC cotton
• Stitch count 80 x 94 for Ladybug Baby and 86 x 90 for Bunny Baby
  
• Completed in September 2009 for Ladybug Baby and July 2009 for Bunny Baby
  

A whole lotta stitching goin' on

At least it looks that way. I have accumulated quite a few cross stitched pieces that need "finishing". They are all for Nise's bushfire survivors project, you can see the album of finished ornaments here. (Stitched items to be distributed at a Christmas lunch to those recovering from the deadly bushfires of early '09) I'm hoping that I'll soon be able to post the "after" pics, when they are all nicely completed and ready for mailing. Yeah, right, LOL!! They are due early November so I do have some time up my sleeve, and it is school holidays so maybe, just maybe I can get them done in the next fortnight?? Don't hold your breath!

Finally back to cross stitching

After some busy weeks where I had to concentrate on making and decorating bits and pieces for calisthenics, I can go back to cross stitching. At the moment I have a few things on the go. Somewhere I have a WIP of a welcome banner to be donated to the bushfire survivors. I'm not really liking the shading, a little too harsh for my liking but I'll keep plugging away at it I guess. The other is a quilt square to be made into a quilt to go to the CFA (Country Fire Authority) for fundraising purposes. That design is the ladybug baby from Ellen Maurer - Stroh and has caused me headaches as the key, symbols and chart did not match. I have it worked out now though and should be finished soon, especially considering it's due at the end of Septemeber! Speaking of September, I'm also organising a stitched cupcake exchange, due to be mailed about now and I haven't started. ARGH! I have a clue on what to stitch but just need to do it, it really shouldn't take too long.

Calisthenics Championships!!!!

What a crazy few weeks! With 2 weeks to go until the Calisthenics Victoria Inc. State Titles, our team lost it's 8th member. 8 is the minimum number for a full team, any less and you lose points. We were lucky enough to have one new lady join about a week beforehand and she filled in for 1 1/2 items. We also had another lady learn a bit more of 2 items, and the principal coach of the club learnt the remaining 2 1/2 items. All in all, a lot of stress building up to the big day! Not too mention I was still finishing off costumes.
We worked really well (the DVD is proof of that!) and gained 2nd place for all our items, except rods. Unfortunately we received a penalty due to a timing error and came 4th. Without the penalty we would have been equal 1st!! We came 2nd overall!!!! It's my 3rd year coaching, and our first year with a full team in every item. I am still on cloud nine! Our scores were really high and the crit papers encouraging. I got near perfect scores for my choreography and wonderful comments too.
Here's a picture of the trophy our team received.