Pie anyone?

Feeling hungry? This pie looks good enough to eat! This is also looking for a new home, another craft stall reject :-( . This came from the Incredible Edibles leaflet, very life-like. I think the cake design might be calling my name in the future, or is that the biscuits? Or perhaps even the freshly baked bread, toffee apple, or burger and fries? YUM

• Name of the design - it doesn't have a name but I've called it "Cherry Pie". I left out the blue checked border and the plate.
  
• Leaflet is titled "Incredible edibles" by Stitchworld XS
• Fabric is a pre-finished white pot holder
• Thread is DMC stranded cotton
• Stitch count is 61 x 45
• Completed in July 2008.
  

Stitches and Craft Show

I went to the Stitches & Craft show in March when it came to Melbourne. It's being run by a new company and at a new venue, which is closer to home for me! I usually drop the kids at school, spend the day there and pick them up on the way back. This year they promised more vendors, but to me it seemed smaller. It was at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds, and set out so there was heaps of room to move. There just didn't seem like a lot of people there, so I even had time to go home before picking the kids up from school. I did manage to buy a few bits and pieces (of course!). My favourite place to buy from is www.sewitall.com - they have fabric at reasonable prices, and I took them up on their offer of 4 pieces for $45, usally $14 per piece. I can't recall the sizes, but they're probably about 14" squares. Here's a pic of what I got:

The pic isn't great, so here's a list:

• 4 pieces of evenweave fabric, 28 count. I chose a soft mint green, white, a mottled opalescent salmon and a pretty pink.
• A printed calico Christmas design, for embroidery. I've already finished this, it worked up quickly in an afternoon. I've never done hand embroidery before so kind of made it up as I went along. I used mainly backstitch to complete it.
• A gold music note brooch.
• A silver "K" charm.
• A silver sewing themed brooch with charms.
• 2 pretty "flowers" made from sparkly beads. I chose black and a pink that matches the fabric perfectly!
• A personalised bag tag for my son.
• A strand of pink plastic flowers, that matches the pink fabric. (I'll have to work all these pink things into one project!)
• 2 skeins of hand dyed cotton floss, in a burgandy and a pink (yep, you guessed it, it matches the fabric!! LOL)
• 6 assorted matt boards. I think I'll use a few of these as gifts.

The birth announcement is finally done!!

For details on this design, please see my first ever post on this blog.

It is finally done! Although in reality it didn't really take that long. Now to wash it thoroughly, iron it and frame it. I might even get the confidence up to enter it into a show or two around this area, just to see what happens. Hopefully I won't get laughed out of the building, LOL.

I've now got the project for the ANZAC day exchange in the car for stitching on the go, and have started a simple Christmas tree design for Nise's project (stitched gifts for the bushfire victims, to be distributed closer to Christmas.) Hopefully by then they'll be in their new homes and needing all those little things to make a house a home. 

Celtic Knot

This is another design I stitched for the craft stall. I mounted it in a cheap frame from the Reject Shop, which came complete with matt board. I managed to find 2 variegated threads to match in with the board nicely.

• Name of the design is "Celtic Boxes"
• Design is from "Cross Stitch Crazy" issue 106.
• Fabric is an off cut of white evenweave, 28 count.
• Thread is 2 variegated blue/green colours from DMC
• Stitch count is 39 x 39
• Completed in August 2008.

Black Saturday

By now everyone has heard the horror stories of the Victorian bushfires that swept through entire towns, wiping them out in minutes. It's so hard to comprehend what the poor victims and survivors went through, but I feel for them all. The Kinglake area is/was so beautiful, I have visited the Kinglake National Park numerous times, and used to play tennis in Kinglake West when I was younger. I have been so pleased to hear of the way Victorians, Australians and even International friends have supported the bushfire appeal and given of their time, money, goods and services. Makes me proud to be an Aussie! And they say the economy is shot, with a recession on the way, yet we've all managed to dig deep and donate close to $100 million dollars!!

Due to this tragedy, my stitching plans have changed somewhat. After the birth record I'm working on is completed, I'll move onto the ANZAC day piece for the exchange. Then I've commited to stitching a square for a quilt that will be donated to either the CFA (Country Fire Authority - A volunteer firefighting organisation for those of us in country/rural Victoria  - who are always looking for funds) or one of several wildlife rescue organisations, who also run on mostly donations. They will be able to raffle or auction off the quilt for much needed cash. I've signed up to do an EMS baby, they are SO CUTE!! More stitchers are needed for the 4 themed quilts being made, and the due date is the end of June '09. If interested in helping, please email Terry Louise at terrylouisetas at yahoo dot com (please put Fundraising Quilts in the subject line).

I've also commited to stitching some bits and pieces for Nise who is collecting stitched items to be distributed to the survivors once they have a new home. The original idea was to stitch Christmas ornaments, but has grown to include basically anything! I'm going to stitch a few yellow awareness ribbons which have come to symbolise the tragedy and maybe a welcome sign or two for the entrance way of their new homes. Not sure what else, only time will tell. If interested in helping out in this project, you can email Nise at dmazzan at gmail dot com

I'm BBBAAACCCKKK!

I survived the heatwave! The weather is still in the 30's, but it feels like winter compared to what we've been having. It's now February and that means the kids are back at school, for a brand new year. DS #1 is in grade 6, DS #2 grade 2. Scary to think I'll have a kid in secondary school next year. Surely I'm not that old?
Yesterday I managed to get a piece of tissue in my eye and it was sooo sore and annoying. I have been getting hayfever/allergies quite a bit this summer, and let me tell you, adding tissue to the sinus mix does not help! It was very interesting at one point, my eye was watering like a tap, one nostril was blocked, and the other running like a tap too. Thankfully today is much better, although I did have to pry my eye open upon waking this morning. Nice!

Summer is here with a venegance - and a new freebie!

and what a summer it is! Last night was the hottest night in over 100 years, and the 3rd hottest night in history, with the temperature not dropping below 28.7 C (about 76F). We have no air con, just a small portable unit that you have to sit on top of to get any relief. Our rooms are big, and the house open plan, so it has it's work cut out for it! Today the top is expected to get to 43C (about 108F). Wish me luck!! If I don't post to my blog again, you'll know I've perished in the heat!

Here's another freebie I designed, nothing flash but it's a start. I stitched these in variegated thread on a couple of pre-finished baby bibs. These were to sell at the craft market, but no-one wanted them either :-( Here's the finished product:


And here's the chart:

WIP Update

This is my progress as of January 27th. We just celebrated the Australia Day long weekend here and I managed to get in close to 800 stitches. I also did another 150 yesterday. I stuffed up somewhere around the bears legs, but I'm not sure where. I'll worry about it when I come to it, for now I'm working from the head down. I also have a smallish project started for stitching on the go. It's part of an ANZAC Day exchange I've organised for Aussie & New Zealand stitchers at http://stitchingunderthesoutherncross.yuku.com/directory . We are exchanging a small patriotic stitched item and a small gift, either stitching related or not. The kids start a brand new school year on February 2nd, so I'll take this project with me when I go to pick them up, when they have karate etc.
Not sure what's next for a bigger project. I am thinking maybe a beautiful blackwork butterfly design I bought a while ago. I can just see it stitched on some sort of deep mottled pink hand dyed fabric. There's pages and pages of instructions, so it's kind of daunting. I think it's actually designed as free hand embroidery as it comes with a transfer sheet. It mentions spangles, stem stitch, copper twist etc. I think I'm in waaay over my head. This is what it looks like:

Blue Gingham Heart Freebie

Not sure if this is going to work or not. If you know how to make a design uploadable, please leave me a comment . I need all the help I can get!

My WIP

This is my progress to date, January 20th 2009. Not only has the bear on the right got a head, he's got an entire body now, lucky him! I just need to finish the left bear, the balloons, a couple of ducks and then the backstitching and personal details. I might even get it finished while my son is still 7. Is that a record I wonder?

Pretty in Pink

I really like how this turned out, very delicate and pretty. Too bad I live in a house full of males or else I might have kept it! I also stitched this for the craft stall. I had a price tag of $15 on it, not bad I thought. Oh well, I'm sure I can find a home for it somewhere.

• Name of the design is "Flowers"

• Designer is Banu Demirel. Her website is www.sebadesigns.com or she has a blog with freebies at www.sebablackworks.blogspot.com

• Fabric is a pre-finished cushion cover trimmed with lace and ribbon. I bought this on ebay, along with a pale blue one.

• Thread is DMC, a light and a dark shade of pink.

• Stitch count is 88 x 88

• Completed in August 2008.

Breast Cancer Ribbon

Here's another project I stitched for the craft market. I liked the design, but had no-one to stitch it for but decided just to stitch it anyway. I eliminated the border around the design, I thought it looked a little too much. I used a cheap frame from The Reject Shop.

• Name of the design is "Pink Ribbon" a freebie for message board members at http://www.maurer-stroh.com/cat_free.html
• Designer is Ellen Maurer-Stroh
• Fabric is 25 count white opalescent evenweave.
• Thread is DMC stranded cotton.
• Stitch count is 64 x 37
  
• Completed in July 2008.
  

My baby is 7 today!

Happy Birthday Baby! We are going bowling later today and out for dinner. Yesterday my family came over for a celebratory lunch. I made a caramel mud cake and decorated it like an army tank, his choice. He went through a heap of different cake books, narrowing down his choice until the army tank won out. Although not a great result, it proved pretty easy to do. Of course it didn't help that it was a hot day when I decorated it, and the icing was setting before I could even get it on the cake! It's not one of my better efforts, I have made many fancy cakes over the years with much better results. Thankfully it doesn't take much to impress a 7 year old, LOL. Here's what it should have looked like:
And here's what it actually looked like, LOL:

And just to prove I can do better, here's one I prepared earlier. This was for the same son, when he turned 4. It's Humphrey B Bear:

Here Fishy, Fishy

This one is going begging, a result of the dismal craft stall. (That's another blog entry altogether!) I had it marked at $6, surely not too much? Especially considering the frame itself retails for about $3 or so. In fact, most of the items were probably on the cheap side, but still no-one bought anything. Is it my work? I know I'm not the best cross stitcher in the world, but surely not that bad either? Want to join my pity party? I'll bring the cake!

• Name of the design is "Funny Fish"
• Designer is Lucy who designs the
  "Challenge Lucy" charts in the UK magazine "Cross Stitch Crazy". As usual I forgot to take note of the issue number.
  
• Fabric is an off cut of cream evenweave.
  
• Thread is stranded DMC cotton
  
• Stitch count is 34 x 39
  
• Completed in October 2008, using a flexi hoop frame.

"Blackwork" Stocking

Our should it be "red and green work"? I feel silly calling this blackwork, because I never use black thread when stitching these type of designs. There's sooo many pretty colours out there, why limit myself to black? This was another one of my first efforts at finishing my work into an ornament. I cut the fabric a little too small so that made it that bit more difficult.

• Name of the design is "Christmas Stocking" (a freebie)
• Designer is Karen at www.cross-stitch-directory.com
• Fabric is white 14 count aida
  
• Thread is red and green stranded cotton, backstitched with gold metallic thread, all DMC
• Stitch count is 40 x 22
• Completed in November 2008.
  

Finished off with gold ribbon.

By the way, the bear on the right in my WIP now has a partial head. I'm sure he'll be pleased!