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

Blogoversary prize pics - year long and June

These have arrived safely, so I can share what I sent Carissa & Kay:
Kay's prize

2 x purple evenweave, a floral borders leaflet, a mini tuck pillow & assorted  charts from  a "pattern-a-day" calendar

Carissa's prize

2 x purple evenweave, a spring banner leaflet, a mini tuck pillow  & assorted charts from a "pattern -a-day" calendar

Stash haul from the Craft & Quilt Fair

I was in two minds about going to this and finally decided to go on Thursday - however Thursday turned out to be the next level of the inter-school t-ball competition and my son wanted me to watch him play again. I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not but he was chosen to be in his school's "A" team for the inter-school competition. On the day they played 7 games against local schools and blitzed all 7 to win very comfortably overall. This meant they were the only team to go on to the next level, where they played one match against the winner of a nearby region. The blitzed this game too - something like 23 to 14 so they now go on to represent our region at the next play-offs with the winner going on to the state championships - fingers crossed! My son played really well both times, in fact the opposition's teacher made a special mention of his ball skills. He played on 1st base and his team worked really well together, the "pitcher" or short stop would retrieve the ball and throw it to him and they caught out several kids in this way.
Anyway, I'm getting distracted - today was my only real chance to go to the craft show so I made a last minute call to go after taking my son to karate. I'm glad I went as I bought more than I thought I would and my son was awesome despite the fact it was so not his thing. Here's my goodies:

 And a few close ups:

guitar & sort of snowflake earrings, "bottle brush" opalescent fabric

"uluru" opalescent fabric, "pond ripple" valdani thread

lime green evenweave banding, 2 x mini pom pom trims, small q-snap

leopard & guitar key rings

"orange blossom" valdani thread

mauve & pink scissors, white "snowflake" print evenweave, dusty pink evenweave banding

I have still been crafting!

But I don't have much to show for it. The first thing I have been working on is an exchange piece for the "Birds, Bees and Butterflies" exchange I joined a while back. The international mailing date has been and gone, but domestic items need to be mailed by tomorrow so I can't post a pic yet, nor tell you much about it for fear of blowing my cover - it's a secret exchange.

The next thing is the hibiscus flower cross stitch, I have been working on it here and there between other things but don't have much progress to show. It will be put on the back-burner for a while as I have one last hand towel I need to finish - um, and start! - and have committed to a quilt square for a woman on the 123 message board  who sadly lost her husband to Creutzfeldt Jakob disease within 2 months of his first symptoms. He was only 40-ish. So very sad and heartbreaking - especially as he had 2 children. (who are similar ages to mine)

I've also started a new mini project today that will double as my free choice design on the Christmas-all-year-long blog, as well as it being the selected design to stitch for the monthly freebie challenge over on the 123 message board. I figure it's only a quickie - I might even finish it today - and there's not much of July left to complete it. It is "Cozy Christmas Wishes" from Lizzie Kate. Not usually a designer I choose to stitch, but this one I don't mind.

I've also been sequining a leotard for calisthenics. This one is a design I came up with last year and Robin, our trusty seamstress, whipped up a set of them which I sequined. A new one was required this year, so I'm finishing that off too. Here it is:

So you see I have still been crafting - bear with me and I'll post pics when I can.

Birds, Bees & Butterflies exchange

A while back I joined a secret exchange - meaning the person I sent to didn't know who I was, and the person who sent to me was someone different. The theme was "birds, bees and butterflies" - we had to send one stitched item and 6 other things, a mix of cross stitch and general items on theme if possible. I had trouble finding things with birds on them - my partner really likes birds - and things in blue or autumnal shades - her favourites. I did however seem to find some things pertaining to the theme.

Here's what I stitched for the exchange. I could easily have stitched a butterfly, as I love them and there's so many pretty patterns around, but I chose to incorporate all three creatures. This pattern is a "cut & paste" mix of 4 different ones - a series of 3 from an old copy of "Cross Stitch Crazy" magazine, and a flower I found *somewhere* which I tweaked a little. Here's the end result:

Here's a pic of all the other bits and pieces I sent:

I included some gold plated needles, 2 skiens of variegated thread in autumn colours, a bird/autumn chart, some bee embellishments, butterfly ribbon, butterfly notepad, butterfly stickers, butterfly cake decorations, an owl pendant & some writing paper & envelopes featuring birds.

An old finish in a new tuck

The butterfly is a smidge too small but I'm making it work. I love the look of them together, but I'm not sure what to do with it. Living in a male household makes it hard to enjoy pretty pink things.

Stash purchase #3 of 3

I was worried this one might not make it as it took 3 weeks in transit from the USA. That's Australia Post for you. Also, I've also long suspected our postie just delivers when it is convenient as we don't get anything for days on end then suddenly quite a lot of mail all at once. Anyway, here's some beautiful silk floss from Carrie's Creations. From left to right is "aquamarine", "love always", "electric blue", "bubblegum", "cherry", "lagoon green", "boysenberry" & "orange zing". I'm pretty sure each 8 yard skein is only $2 USD - how cheap is that?

Blogoversary prize pics - year long & May

Both of these arrived safely so I can now share the pics here. Here's what I sent "Beauty Bonnet", the May winner:

A Christmas leaflet, Christmas ornament booklet, 2 pieces of random evenweave and a skein of Carrie's cotton thread

Here's what I sent Carissa, the year long winner:

A floral/butterfly leaflet, a teddy bear kit, some random evenweave and 2  Carrie's cotton thread

June blogoversary contest winner is.......

is Kay Eyles - congrats! You were one of two new people who commented and hadn't already won prizes so you had a 50% chance of winning! LOL. My contest is only half way through and I'm struggling to give stuff away :-(. Anyway, I will email you in a minute Kay. I'd also like to post pics of the prizes I sent last month but I'm still waiting to hear if one arrived safely before I do.