A Christmas tree finish

I'm getting in early for Christmas! Here's something I stitched just because it caught my eye:

• Name of the design is well, another unnamed design
• Chart is a freebie from a French blog that no longer exists it seems
• Fabric is an off cut of white opalescent evenweave
• Thread is "Boysenberry" silk thread from Carries Creations
• Stitch count is 93 x 82
• Started on August 17th 2013
• Completed on August 21st 2013

More karate news

As you may have figured out by now, there's no exciting news from Nationals to report. DS was feeling confident, felt great and performed well, but not well enough to beat his Queensland opponent in the very first round. He was quite disappointed - after all he had been working since February towards this goal - but soon put it behind him and had a fun weekend socialising with his friends from other clubs. Victoria did go on to win with 40 gold medals - many of those from our own club!

Who are we? Team Victoria! 

Sadly he didn't make the kumite team this year either (he was first reserve) so that was it for his competition. We did make time the day before the 3 day tournament to go to the top of Mount Wellington to see the views over the harbour and Hobart. Boy, was it cold! My fingers instantly went white and numb and I had to keep retreating into the indoor viewing shelter to warm up again. There was even snow/ice on the ground, even though it was about 4pm. 

View from Mount Wellington

Snow/ice on the ground - at 4pm!

We ate out a few times and made time for the Salamanca Market on Saturday, even though the weather was pretty bad. Cold, wet and windy, except for the times we came back to the venue and the sun shone through the windows meaning I needed sunglasses! LOL. A whirlwind weekend, but a great opportunity to represent our state again and wear the tracksuit with pride. He is going to start doing an elite sparring class instead of the basic one, as well as a strength and conditioning class which will improve all aspects of his karate for the future. 

The above pics are of our accommodation - Quest Trinity House

Then, just because we don't get enough karate, DS attended another "local" tournament the weekend after. He did well to gain 2nd place in kata (missed winning by one vote). He was also able to compete in kumite in this event as he has recovered fully from an injured wrist. He again did well but points were drawn on 1-1 at the end of time. 5 judges then voted on who they thought was the better fighter and again he lost by one vote - 2-3. Sadly this was the first round so he was out in that. Here's the BIG medal he won for kata:

2nd place in kata at Alan Murdoch Cup

I can now reveal my exchange piece

A while back I joined a "Birds, Bees & Butterflies" themed exchange. The idea was to mail one stitched item featuring at least one of the creatures, and 6 other items on theme - both cross stitch and general items. It was a secret exchange so the person I sent to was not the same as the person who sent to me. Here's what Dawn, my partner, sent me:

Dawn also sent a butterfly garden ornament, some needles, embellishment pack featuring bees, a honey bar, 4 skeins of floss, a butterfly notebook, 2 pieces of fabric, a bee scissor fob, a butterfly charm and 3 charts as well as her 2 stitched pieces, a cute bee ornament and a pin cushion featuring a bird.

Here's what I sent my partner, Cath W:

Here's a close up of the stitched piece:

I chose to incorporate all three critters in my design. This is a re-charted design featuring parts from 3 matching patterns from a Cross Stitch Crazy magazine. I also used another flower design as a base for the flower I stitched. I chose a lightly mottled blue and white opalescent evenweave fabric for it and finished it with some blue cord that I won as part of a craft prize, and a blue tassel I had on hand. My partner liked Autumn colours and birds so I did my best to find items that would fit the bill to send to her. I chose some gold plated needles, 2 skeins of Autumn shade floss, some bee embellishments, a writing set with envelopes featuring birds and butterflies, some butterfly cake decorations, ribbon featuring butterflies, an owl pendant, some butterfly stickers, a chart featuring birds and autumn colours and a notebook with butterflies.

Meggie, where are you?

Boy, it's hard to give stuff away! Meggie, can you please contact me at jakt70 at gmail dot com within the next few days or I will have to pick another winner. Thanks :-)

July Blogoversary winner

is a new follower.... Meggie. Congrats, I will be in touch shortly. I am going away shortly so will hopefully be able to get to the post office before I leave but I'm not making any promises!

A quartet of hand towels

Just because, here's a pic of all 4 hand towels together. I plan on giving these, along with a thank you card and box of chocolates, to the 4 ladies who help at state training. They stay at training all day Saturday for 6 months of the year, fill in books, answer questions and do a million other things for the team so I'd like to show them a little appreciation. I would also like to get the coaches something, but there's so many of them it would be impossible. We do all put in money and get them joint gifts from the whole team so they don't go without. Now, to just stay calm and sane until next week when nationals are on.

Killing two birds with one stone

...so to speak. I have another finish that ticks two boxes. It was Honeybee's chosen free design for July in the monthly freebie challenge over at 123 stitch. It was also a free choice month on the "Christmas all year 'round" blog challenge so I decided the above-mentioned design would fit the bill. Here it is. Note that I actually "finished" it too! :

* Name of the design is Cozy Christmas Wishes - Cozy with a Z that is

* Chart is a freebie from Lizzie Kate

* Fabric is an off cut of lightly mottled lemon evenweave

* Thread is "Turkish Red" Weeks Dye Works for the wording, border and trim on the mug. DMC cotton for the rest

* Stitch count is 49 x 48 plus the border which I added

* Started on July 21st 2013

* Completed on July 24th 2013, using brads and braid to finish it into a mini pillow

My final hand towel is done

with 4 days to spare! I'm not really happy with this one for a few reasons. I think it needed to be a little deeper to fully fit the cross stitch area and I think it looks too chunky. I started doing it with 2 strands but that didn't give good coverage so I changed to 4 and now I think that's too much. Oh well, it's done now. Being that it's a gift, my taste doesn't really come into it. What I like, they may hate, and vice versa.
Here it is:

* Name of the design is, well, I don't think it has one
* Chart is a freebie from my aunt's attic, but the website seems to have disappeared. I did manage to find it on this website though
* Fabric is a dusty pink pre-finished hand towel
* Thread is 4 strands of black DMC cotton
* Stitch count is 27 x however long the towel it
* Started on July 23rd 2013
* Completed on July 30th 2013