A card or 50

I've been making a lot of cards lately as they are quick and easy - if the creativity is flowing! It's nice to start and finish a project in an afternoon, not something you can easily do with cross stitch. Most of these are for sale on my facebook page if you're interested. Feel free to like and share my page. Here's a selection of them.

 

Another finish or two!

Here's a few quick stitches I did for some friends in the lead up to Christmas. The stocking was a pre-made one I added the name to using gold metallic thread and waste canvas. The bookmarks I designed myself using alphabets and designs from the internet, finished on aida banding with felt backs.

I'm still here!

And I have another finish to show, this one has been in the making for months. I haven't done a lot of stitching on this one for a while due to other stitching commitments and card making pursuits. Here it is, although it is showing sideways for some reason:

• Name of the design is "Hearts & Butterflies"
• Chart is a downloadable one from "Love Thy Thread"
• Fabric is a limited edition monthly melody piece from Colour Cascade fabrics
• Thread is silk from Carrie's Threads in "light raspberry"
• Stitch count is 241 x 193
• Started in about October 2014
• Completed in March 2015

Another XS finish

This one was done a few months ago using a scrap of perforated paper leftover from another project that I am yet to post about as well. Oops!

• Name of the design is, well, penguin!
• Chart is from an old UK magazine
• Fabric is leftover perforated paper
• Thread is DMC cotton
• Stitch count is, well, small!
• Started in November 2014
• Completed in November 2014

A web site to check out

I just wanted to let everyone know about a safety equipment business that a friend of mine runs at http://www.workplacesafetywarehouse.com.  You can get a lot of great workplace safety PPE (personal protective equipment) there, so you might want to give it a visit.  Feel free to link to it or share with your friends. Thanks

Frozen Fever

The world has gone Frozen mad, and I've been taken along for the ride! A friend asked me to stitch Elsa which she would turn into a pillow for her niece's birthday. This proved not as easy as it sounds. There weren't a lot of patterns out there, and even less halfway decent ones that were small enough for me to stitch in time. We settled on one, and I got to work. The problem was it appeared clear that the picture had just been thrown through a conversion program without any tweaks. The colours were awful and not realistic at all - yes, I was aiming for realism in a cartoon character! Far too much time was spent tweaking, stitching & ripping. Don't even get me started on her hair. I almost admitted defeat! Anyway, it did turn out cute - in no small way in thanks to my friends sewing skills - and the recipient did like it. Here it is:

• Name of the design is Elsa
• Chart is a freebie I found online somewhere
• Thread is DMC cotton
• Fabric is 28 count white opalescent evenweave with a pale blue snowflake pattern. I used this same fabric for my snowman finish from January
• Stitch count is
• Started in October 2014
• Completed in November 2014

Another crafty catch up

This was a commissioned piece for a customer of my facebook page. It is a cottage that appeared as a chart in a magazine years ago that she had kept. She lived near it in Mt Gambier, South Australia and wanted it stitched for herself as a keepsake. It was originally charted for an unusual thread, so I converted the colours to regular DMC cotton and added some more flowers to the garden to make it like she remembered. I also organised the matting and framed it myself, before sending it to her. It was a big hit!

• Name of the design is Frewville Cottage - or that's what we chose to nae it!
• Chart same from a very old "Handmade" magazine
• Thread is DMC cotton
• Fabric is cream 28 count evenweave
• Stitch count is
• Started in October 2014
• Completed in November 2014

Belated Merry Christmas!

Oops, I'm slacking again. Better late than never, right? I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas spent with loved ones. I spent Christmas Day at my sister's place and had Boxing Day lunch at home with hubby's brother and his wife.

As promised last time, I'll add crafty pics until I'm up to date, and then hopefully keep on top of things. This is one I don't think I've posted in its complete form yet. It was a WIP for a while, then became a UFO because I don't know what DMC thread I used and after trying unsuccessfully to match it I put it in the "too hard" basket. I finally made myself match the colour (somewhat unsuccessfully I think) and finish it. I think it became a birthday gift for my mum.

• Name of the design is "L" I guess
• Chart is a freebie from this blog
• Fabric is 28 count lime green evenweave fabric from Stitches and Spice
• Thread is DMC something or other. I think it might actually be 2 different green threads
• Stitch count is 82 x 118
• Started in October 2011 I think!
• Completed in August 2014

I'm still alive!

I can't believe my last post was from August!!! :-/ Oops! I'm finding I'm posting most of my finishes on facebook these days. I've been into card making a lot lately but still keeping the cross stitch up too, in fact I've had a few commissioned pieces I've been working on. I'll have to go through my pictures and start posting some of my finishes since August. I'll be back later to do just that.

A Pikachu finish

I have another very quick finish, it only took a few days. This one will become another no-sew cube for my nephew who loves Pokemon. I found some Pokemon ribbon online and I'll just use some co-ordinating fabric for the cube. Here it is:

And here it is, fully completed:

• Name of the design is, well, Pikachu
• Chart is a freebie I found by googling
• Fabric is an off cut of white opalescent evenweave - my photography skills suck
• Thread is DMC cotton
• Stitch count is 40 x 39
• Started on August 25th 2014
• Completed on August 27th 2014

3 finishes in one!

Yes, I'm still alive - and yes, I'm still stitching. So little time and so little energy, it will kill your speed at which you finish I have found. Anyway, here's my latest one - or three. It actually has a run in the fabric which occurred during stitching. I'm thinking I'll just go over it with ric-rac or something but I am open to suggestions. Again, I'm not sure what will become of it but I really liked the designs so decided to stitch them altogether.

• Names of the designs are, from top to bottom, Gingerbread Sewing Basket, Gingerbread Sewing Machine & Gingerbread Thread & Buttons
• Charts are freebies from 2009, from San Man Originals but I don't believe they are still available
• Fabric is 28 count pink evenweave
• Thread is DMC cotton
• Stitch count is approximately 58 x 55 for the smaller 2, and 110 x 60 for the middle one
• Started in June 2014
• Completed on August 22nd 2014

Some of my handmade cards

Card making has taken my fancy lately and I've been churning a few out. I've opened a facebook page so I can try and sell some. Feel free to take a look, like my page, and share with your friends. :-D. Here's a few pictures of some recent finishes:

Many of these are still for sale, so feel free to come by my page and purchase. Thanks.

No-sew cube x 3!

I have a few more finishes to show, all no-sew cubes. The first one was a gift for hubby's niece. It's a "Sofia The First" design, not that I had heard of her before I knew she liked Sofia. Nothing a little googling can't fix though, and I found myself a pattern and off I went. Here it is:

I don't have details of the this one but it didn't take much googling to find it, but I chopped off the bottom half to make it fit. I finished it with some pink trim and some Sofia ribbon that I got on another facebook de-stash page. I bought some iron on letters and stuck them on the back, spelling out her name. It's stitched on white opalescent evenweave fabric using DMC cotton.

The next one is a cube for the niece's twin brother. He loves Minecraft, which is on my radar due to my son's love of the game. Again google was my friend and I found this design:

My son loved it too, so I made 2 exactly the same so he could have one for himself. No point adding another picture exactly the same though. I also used the iron on letters to add their names on the back. This was stitched on white opalescent evenweave with DMC cotton. The fabric is just a mottled green and the minecraft ribbon I found online too.

Check out my son's blog please :-)

My 12 year old DS has just started a blog about minecraft and LOVES getting traffic. If you'd like to make a little boy happy, stop by and leave a comment. His blog is here. Thanks :-)

It's been a while.... and a karate catch up

Yes, I know - I've been quiet on the blogging front for the last few months. I do have a few finishes to show but they will eventually get their own post. I have been spending far too much time on facebook lately and have started up my own page to try and sell some of my homemade stuff. I've also joined a few crafty buy/sell groups and am buying way more than I'm selling which was not the intent when I joined :-/. I've also been dabbling in making greeting cards which is fun and quicker than cross stitch.

However....on to the karate news. On the Queen's birthday weekend DS & I carpooled with another lady and her 2 kids and headed to Mount Gambier in South Australia for the S.A Training Camp & Open Tournament. We were to share a 2 bedroom cabin and let's just say I've seen bigger bathrooms! We got inside, looked at each other and thought "where's the rest of it?" LOL. The bathroom/toilet was through the bedroom that I shared with the 3 kids. Thankfully we managed alright and didn't want to kill each other after 5 minutes.

Saturday was the training camp for the kids so we dropped them off, stayed for a while, then headed out for lunch. When we signed up for the camp it was to be 1 1/2 hours in the morning, and the same in the afternoon. However, by the time things were finalised it became 9.45am-4.30pm with a lunch break. The kids thought we were trying to kill them! Afterwards we headed out for dinner to a place that had been recommended to us. We ordered simple pasta/pizza/calzone meals and waited. And waited some more. Finally we asked about our food after 45 minutes - it was coming. My son's pasta was the first to arrive and because it was late and everyone was hungry he started eating. He'd finished by the time the calzones and pizza arrived and we were half finished by the time the final pasta arrived. My calzone was tasty, although burnt on about 1/4 of the top. By this stage the kids were exhausted so we headed home.

Sunday was the tournament and both myself and the other lady volunteered to help as the call went out for parents who knew what they were doing. Haha! There were only 2 mats, plus a 3rd one for a few hours in the morning. She requested mat 1 and I requested mat 2 as that's where our kids were competing. Let's just say we had our hands full from start to finish! I hate being responsible for the scoreboard, but got to do it for all the events on my mat, including some of the more full on events such as the mens and male veterans kumite. You can not tune out for a second as you'll lose the plot - or is that just me?

Ok, so to DS's results. In his kata division he had the 3 time national champ, and in kumite the 4 time national champ to contend with. Awesome! However he had good draws and both boys were in the other half of the draw. There were 8 in kata and DS won his first round 3-0, but lost the next round 2-1 in a decision not everyone agreed with, including a coach and referee. Had he won he would have made the final against the national champ. However, he was able to win one more round 3-0 to gain third place. :-). In kumite there were about 14 kids. DS did really well, winning his first round 2-0, and his second 3-0. Next up was a boy I never wanted him to fight. He's a fellow Victorian and very strong and powerful and far better than DS. It wasn't pretty to watch, with this boy knocking DS off his feet and slamming him down onto the mat several times. DS put up a good fight, but pulled out with a few seconds on the clock after consulting with the medics. He lost this fight 4-0, which was a good score considering. It was pointed out to us that it took half the match for the other boy to score. Had he won this match he would have faced the national champ in the final. However he was able to fight one more round to try for 3rd place. He was still  feeling the effects of the last fight and not in great shape but decided to fight anyway. He did well, although you could tell he was hanging back a little. He lost this one 3-0. I was very proud of him for his efforts on the day and giving it his best shot.

Afterwards we had a quick dinner and headed back to our cabin as we were all exhausted after a loooong day. The next morning we had planned to do some sight-seeing and head home at a leisurely pace. However our plans soon changed when my friends daughter woke up and vomited. Then vomited again. DS woke up complaining of a sore tummy too. We soon learnt that at least 14 South Australians, 95% of kids from our club (and a few adults), and several other Victorians had come down with some sort of gastro bug. All had to travel at least 4 hours to get to either Melbourne or Adelaide. We put the kids in the car and headed off, thinking we may need all the time we could get. We did have to make a few stops along the way for the kids, for obvious reasons. We got ourselves some bags which we attached to the head rests just in case and my friends 6 year old DD used hers with perfect aim, while travelling at 100km! Thankfully it turned out to mostly be a 24 hour bug, and none of the rest of the family got sick. At least the bug hit everyone AFTER the camp and tournament or it would have been a disaster of a weekend!