The Singing Mermaid

has until the last week or so still continued to be my focus piece of stitching. I took a break to stitch the Halloween exchange I was in (and forgot yet again to take a photo of it before sending).
Unfortunately due to the stupid frog spending far too much time at the house my progress has not been as much as I had hoped and has indeed caused a bit of a lull in my enthusiasm to continue to only stitch on this piece. Sooooo I decided that it was time to start doing my rotation again.

The Singing Mermaid is in the number one place in the rotation. My rotation has 10 projects. I have a very short attention span so I usually just put a length of thread in each one at a time. Sometimes I might put several lengths into a project before going onto the next one. It works for me and it keeps me stitching for hours.

So today I am going to show you the updated photo of the Mermaid and as usual Millie decided she needed to get into the photo. So not only does she need to walk all over the stitching, lay on it but add some of her fibres to the piece as well.

Another Update on the Singing Mermaid

Well a long overdue update on the Band Sampler that is a mystery by the gorgeous Martina Dey of Wiehenburg fame. Just as a reminder this mystery is a very cheap 11 Euros and for that you get 3 different versions of nautical type samplers. One is a bellpull type sampler with a gorgeous saying by Sheakespeare in A Midsummers Night Dream. The second is another bellpull type sampler without the words and the arrangement of motives is a little different. The third is a square sampler 350 x 350 with lots of nautical type motives including sea monsters. All are stunning and you can apply to join at this http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mermaid_mystery-sampler/.



I have stitched on this since the photo was taken but with sick family members and wedding dress shopping and all the other things that go with everything I have just now had time to do this update.

More Mermaiding

Not sure if Mermaiding is a real word but if not it is a Janine word. Well despite being a stall holder at a 3 day fair last weekend and then having to go back to Wyalkatchem today I have managed to stitch on my Mermaid's Song. I just love this sampler. I really feel that I may finish this one. It is an unbelievable fun stitch and when I pick it up I find it hard to put down. I am not really doing it in page succession as Martina has sent me the whole lot of charts to try and get them stitched before the girls on the mystery group do. So now I have completed pages 1 & 2 and part of 3 and part of 5. I really want to do the square sampler as well to compliment this band sampler.

So here are the pictures and as usual Millie has to get in on the act. I promise it is me stitching this and not her. She likes to inspect my stitching to make sure I don't make any mistakes. Now I must go and add more to this spectacular sampler and if you are intrigued enough please go to the group and find out how you can also stitch this gorgeous sampler.

A Small Contest

I have just received my first Mystic Stitch design. If you can guess which one it is I will send you a prize. I have extensive stash so it will be a good prize. First one to guess right gets the prize. Make sure I can get in touch with you.

So The First Page Is Done

On Friday I got a phone call from my dear friend Martina telling me she had sent me an email with a picture of a new sampler that she had designed. Would I look at it and tell her what I think. Oh my, she has out done herself yet again. I am always amazed at the designs that Martina does and I cannot believe the amount of them that she does. Anyway, I was totally in love with her square sampler and was, as usual, very impatient to know when it was coming out. She said she needed to make it better. I then got a phone call an hour later with her saying she had designed a band sampler using a lot of the same motifs using a saying by Shakespeare from A Midsummers Night Dream. One of her friends had told her the quote and wanted a band sampler.

So I nagged and I nagged and then I promised that if she allowed me to have the chart immediately then I would get a move on and continue stitching her diamond chart called Vierlanden Sampler - Hilke. I put in remarks like "I have nothing to stitch" & "I am waiting here with my needle threaded waiting". Luckily for me she gave in. So I am now uploading a picture of both samplers

You can get the Mermaid Song in a group that will be created in the next few days. The cost is 11 Euros and there will be 3 options. All are just stunning and if you don't want to stitch all 3 of them then you will have difficulty choosing which one. There is Mermaid Song with the words. Another band sampler featuring the symbols in a slightly different composition and a most gorgeous square sampler.

So the first page of Mermaid Song is completed by me. I am using Weddingen 30 count in an Antique White, 2 over 2 stitching with Dinky Dye's Down Under Blue. Jo's silks are just gorgeous to stitch with and Down Under Blue is an almost navy blue colour with a slight variegation of a royal blue colour. Perfect in my opinion. LOL



The 2nd picture is Hilke. I am again using the same fabric and again 2 over 2 stitching with Dinky Dye silks. The black is Black Coral and the red is Desert Pea.

Updates are long overdue

and what is my excuse. Well my camera and I had an argument and I boycotted it for a few months. I decided to give it another chance tonight and it decided to behave itself. In the meantime I have lost the chance to get whatever the chance of getting was on 2 SAL's. Oh well, such is life, and truthfully I probably needed getting that chance thing is not needed by me and more needed by others, which is why I never enter competitions on blogs because I have far too much stash and others are surely in need of it any prizes far more than I am. Anyway I will add some catch up pictures for you all to see.

Oh I forgot to add that the Hot Air Balloon wedding is this Saturday. So far I have managed not to think about said ride in the balloon and hopefully I can keep it at bay until I have to get in the damned thing. I took Megan Marie to get some wedding finery today. She bought a lovely outfit. I will pop some photos on the blog after the event.

So here is some stitching.

I am doing a SAL each week with Paula. We are stitching on a HAED design. Luckily Paula is like me and we don't have to stick to the one design. It all happened one evening when we were chatting about how gorgeous we think HAED designs are. She then tried very hard to enable me by sending me a hundred links of gorgeous designs. I, however, did not cave this time. This week I chose to stitch on Black Cherry. This is one SAL that I have stuffed up so wont get the other quickie designs in the SAL. Oh well..... Anyway, I am still on page one even though Fudgie has sent out the 3rd page. I am really enjoying this design and I will gift it to my great niece Caitlin when I have finished it.



The next photo is of the Welcome Band I am stitching. It is a Wiehenburg sampler and just stunning. I was going to gift it but I am afraid I don't think I will be able to part with it. I am now on page 5 with 3 more pages to go after this one.



Millie and Harry decided to come and check out what I was doing when I was taking the photos.



I have had a few finishes this year and my finisher finished them to perfection like she always does. I am forever grateful that she does my finishing as I just hate finishing with a passion.

These are a couple of Blue Ribbon freebie designs that I stitched up on some of my reject hand dyed fabric.



These are some Whitman Chocolate tin designs that I stitched. Aren't they cute?

And on the Stitching Front

It has been such an up and down time for stitching with me. I have had some good weeks of stitching and not so good weeks. Last week was not good and so far this one has not been spectacular. Here are a few updates of stitching progress.



Mary Thompson so far. She should have been finished by now.


A Haed Design it is an Oriental lady with an iris.


Haed QS Black Cherry


Bent Creek Snapperbet


Jarrad's & Megan's Wedding Sampler Black Swan Dragons Heart


The Beatrix Potter SAL so far

Millie

On the scratching post

What a Week

Last week was a shocker. Firstly I had my handbag stolen. I always think it wont happen to me and it did. I lost my new handbag that Marilyn bought me in Melbourne the beginning of February so it is back to the tatty old one for now. I lost my GPS, Prescription Sunglasses, Mobile Phone and my purse with all my cards in it and a cheque for $800 that I had written out a couple of days before and $30.00 in cash along with numerous other things that I guess I will lament over in time. Nothing seem to go right with CDU and I have a mother of a toothache and I have to wait for my new HBF cards to come because yes they were in my purse and my right hip is going into spasms like nobody's business. It my sciata nerve (I think) and travelling down my right leg. Kenric was very busy and when he came over I got him to treat his father's back (as he has to go and do such physically hard work everyday). Tomorrow he is coming over for his 26th birthday (Kenric that is) so I will let him treat me then.

I have heaps to blog about but I couldn't be bothered taking photo's to begin with and then when I could I couldn't find my card reader so I could upload photos onto the computer. Today I finally gave up and went out and bought another one. I bet the other one will turn up now.

My first photos are of 2 of the cats. First one is Harry. We call him Helpful Harry. He loves it when new stock arrives and large boxes and parcels arrive. A couple of weeks or so ago Martina Dey's (of Wiehenburg fame) order arrived and he was straight on the box.

Stitching for our Australia Day Weekend

I have had a fairly good weekend of stitching.

On Saturday I didn't end up stitching. I spent the day looking at others stitching.

Sunday my DIL, Marilyn came for the day as Kenric had to work at the local hospital. They both stayed for a BBQ and Jarrad and Jacob and my MIL came over as well. Anyway, Marilyn, wanted to watch the CI channel on Fox so I sat in with her and stitched on "The Hunt". This is a SAL I am doing with one of my groups. I am using a white fabric with a HDF silk. I have no idea of the colour name.



Sunday evening I mucked around and then I stitched on The Unicorn Sampler by Sampler House. I forgot to take a picture of it for this session so I will take one next time I stitch on it. I started it last year.

Today I had my friends over for a GTG. It was a lovely day and I managed to stitch a bit more on The Unicorn Sampler. I had a nap and then I woke and stitched on Wiehenburg's Welcome Band. This is just a gorgeous sampler. I am stitching it on Weddingen linen with my most favourite colour thread "Mingenew" dyed by Dinky Dyes. I just love this colour. Here is my progress so far.



I just love this sampler.

Lastly I stitched on "Sew Cozy". I absolutely hate stitching on this. Anyway I am determined to finish it and it is one of my UFO picks for the year. Today I managed to completely finish a small piece that was on the top of the blue cupboard in the left hand bottom cupboard. I also added some stitches to other bits of the cupboard and also backstitched some parts of the cupboard as well. Here is the result.



Last picture is of Chatelaine's Convent Herbal Garden. I started this when it was Mystery II. I really want to finish it. So I have also nominated it to be one of my UFO pieces for 2009. I stitched on this during last week.

It's Been A Long Time

And I get so disappointed when I go to my blog and I discover that I have not magically added another blog to the last one. I have come to terms with the fact that it is just not going to be done by some others hand like a blog fairy. Wouldn't it be just fantastic if you could think your blog and decide what photo needed to be taken to go with the thinking and then you logged onto your blog and there it was all done for you?

Anyway I had a great year for 2008 on the stitching front I managed to complete 20 projects. I believe 2 of them were from previous years and the rest were starts and finishes.

I have started the year with quite a few starts. I believe, that this year I will out do myself with starting. How come we never celebrate our starts like we do our finishes? Some weeks, I could be Happy Dancing quite a few times a week. I think we should do this or create a happy little signal that signifies a start. Well we know when we read a subject line that says Happy Dance that a stitcher probably has finished something. So I think suggestions would be a great idea for a happy signal that will signal a start.

Okay I need to show you my 2 photos I have taken today. The first one is of Dark Cherry which is a HAED QS (although how anyone can call any HAED chart a QS I don't know)SAL pattern. Have you been to the HAED BB and seen some of those progress pictures of this particular SAL? Crumbs they leave me for dead. One of the stitchers looks like she has finished the first page. I thought 400 or 500 stitches over 2 stitching sessions was doing well. LOL




The second picture is of that dratted Paula Vaughan's Good Neighbour. I think I will be really proud of this when I eventually finish it and I can tell you I am holding a ball (as in dancing) when I finish it. So you will know I have finished the thing when you get an invitation to come and have a dance with me. I started it in 1999. I can remember one year I stitched on it heaps. How come I didn't finish it then? Anyway I have made a commitment on my UFO group that I will try and put some stitches into each week. So ya never know I might even finish the project. But don't hold me that one please.



Okay well that is enough of the prattle now.

Saturday's GTG

How blessed am I that I can have 3 days of the week getting together with my cross stitch friends. Different lots of friends as well. Today's blabber is about Saturday's GTG. I know that JM would just love to be here to GTG as well but it is a bit far from Tasmania so she couldn't come. Susan or Cathy (can't remember which one) forgot to bring their camera and with that a light bulb idea came upon me. I have a digital camera. I do forget that the purpose of this camera can be for other things besides taking photos of cross stitch. Imagine that!

Anyway JM here we all are. I am not really going to blabber about the GTG on Saturday as I know that Cathy has and so will Susan when she gets to do some blogging. Well they wont blabber they will, in fact, write some intelligent stuff that actually flows. I tend to have a mind that skips and jumps all over the place and I find it hard to write in any sort of logic. The reader has to know that I have changed subjects without actually having announced that I have and all sorts of other junk that I just can't write.

So here are the photos


This is Cathy, Diane and Susan


This is Diane. She is showing someones's HAED RR that she has finished stitching on. A stunning piece.


Susan & Cathy are looking at another of the HAED RR


Janine & Susan discussing a pieced of fabric


Janine, Susan & Diane's response to a bit of wisdom I am giving them


Diane telling the girls which Dragon bit stitched from which Dragon HAED design is stitched on this RR.

Kenric Charles Smith

This is a photo of my second son Kenric and his fiance Marilyn. Kenric and Marilyn met when they were 16 and even though their relationship has had it moments of rockiness they have grown together are very happy. They have been engaged for over 4 years now and tell me that they plan to marry in 2010. Well you can't hurry these things can you? Actually they have been busy studying. Kenric qualified as a Physiotherapist 3 years ago and then Marilyn started Uni the following year. She has 2 exams to go and then stints at 2 different hospitals (4 weeks each) and she will be a nurse. Exceptional for a girl who never did her TEE (needed for University entrance here in Western Australia) and certainly didn't study any sort of Maths or Science in her last 2 years of High School. She has achieved all distinctions and high distinctions at University. We are so proud of these 2 kids.

Today we got news that makes us even prouder. Kenric has been offered a place at Notre Dame University in Fremantle to study Medicine. His father & I are so over the moon. Kenric has worked so hard to get into Medicine. The Navy phoned him this morning to ask him if he had got his letter yet? He is doing Medicine through the Navy (if he gets into the Navy). RAN have intimated that he will get into the Navy. They will pay all the University fees, all his personal costs like books, medical equipment he needs and lots of other things like a percentage of a mortgage when he gets one, all medical, dentistry, glasses etc. Also rent until he gets that mortgage and then match the first home buyers scheme. And then to add to this a very good starting wage that will go up each year. He then has to give them 5 years after he qualifies. He gets to study at the University of his choice. This is the only way he can afford to do this and continue to go forward in this life.

I had to share the news. On top of this these 2 kids are the most caring young couple you could ever wish to meet. And we are going to live with them when we are too old to look after ourselves. hahahahahaha

An Update on the Welcome Sampler

Well it is a band sampler in the quaker style. I am stitching it on 34 Count Fawn Weddingen linen using Dinky dyes Mingenew. Mingenew is my all time favourite colour from the Dinky Dye range. I do however love a lot of them but if I had to choose one colour only this would be it. So page one is finished and I am into page two. I wont to try and do a fair bit of this one before I put it down.

So as I Procrastinate

I make excuses from stitching. Now why I don't know because I am actually enjoying stitching these days. I have played Pogo and then looked on eBay and I shouldn't be as I am trying to break the habit. Haven't managed to yet but have reduced the buying.

Anyway I thought another cat picture would be good. This one is of the new cat enclosure that we have built. I say we when it really should be Alan as I have done nothing towards the actual physical building of it. I did do the planning. The cats love the new enclosure so now they can run up and down the side of the house and through the house and now they can sit out in the sun and roll in the dirt. In fact, I had words with Ruphert tonight about how dirty his feet were. As soon as the weather warms a bit and roll on lawn is available with green on it then the kids get some lawn to sit on. They need lawn to eat and roll on and then when that is down the hammock goes in. Well they need a place to laze in the sun.

Anyway the picture is of Millie, Harry and Ruphert in the new enclosure.




This next picture is of Harry & Millie

Well I Am Going to Bore the Pants off You

By introducing my family. Well I thought I would. Firstly I thought I should introduce my cats. I will do this gradually over the weeks. I love my cats. I call them "The Kids". I am very happy with the 5 that I have (well the 15 year old says I only own 4 as he owns 1 of them).


This is my beautiful Harry. Harry is a Somali. My dear MIL Beryl bought him for me for my 50th birthday last year. He is a very naughty boy that likes to be in the thick of any activity that is going on in the house. He likes to help with housework, sorting out things, greeting visitors and anything else you don't want him doing. Actually he is gorgeous and has a lovely personality. He has not really chosen me as his human. He prefers Jacob. Jacob doesn't even live with us but comes over 4-5 days a week. Jacob loves Harry and says when he gets his own house he is getting 2 Somali's (now there is a person who likes trouble) and he is going to call them Tom & Dick so then we will have every Tom, Dick & Harry. Got to love that boy's humour. Harry was 1 on the 30th January this year. This picture is taken of him on his cat bed. It is heated for him so he wont be cold.

I Know, I know

It has been awhile since I last blogged. As with everyone if I don't have a picture I feel I can blog. I can never be bothered taking pictures and then when I do I don't upload them onto the computer. Anyway I wanted to tell you that I have already set up up some stitching commitments for next year. Well one can never be too organised can they? Here I am chuckling to myself because those who know me know that not only am I not organised, I hate organisation. Which, of course, means that I constantly live in mayhem or in another word a mess. Anyway I digress....My organisational skills for next year's stitching. I have joined in essence 2 SALs.
The first one is the Needleprint Beatrix Potter Quaker SAL. I picked this up on ebay from Jacqueline as a PDF chart as I was stupid and didn't buy it when it first became available. A PDF chart is not the same as an original Needleprint and this is the only Needleprint chart I didn't own. (At least I think it is.) Anyway as luck would have the lovely Becky from the Needleprint Yahoo group offered hers for sale and as the luck continued I was on the computer when the email came through and even more luck we agreed on a price so I am going to be the proud owner of a chart I never thought I would get.
Digressing again....The 2nd SAL is the most perfect RR I have ever heard of. It is called Me, Myself & I and I am in the second group. It is a neighbourhood RR and boy have I ever salivated over some of these most gorgeous RR and the finished product. But really would they ever come back that way and now that I have my stitching mojo back do I really want to lose it again by committing to a RR that I may or may not be able to keep up with. This RR is perfect because I get to design my RR and then I don't have to hope that someone will stitch something I like cause I get to stitch it and I don't have to post it off and hope it comes back, cause I keep it in my possession all the time. a

Last Post for today

I know it has been a long process but if I don't do it now I will forget. The Bee by Just Nan. I know it is not the official name but I can't remember what it is and I can't be bothered going for a look. I stitched this and made it up Good Friday. I keep forgetting to take a photo of it. I thought it was cute.

A New Finish

Sunday night while I waited for the youngest lad to go to bed. (He sometimes needs to sit with me if he has a few anxieties and apparently he did that night. Probably to do with going back to school (it is school holidays here at the moment) because he is in a specialist performing arts program and they are getting ready for a big production.) Anyway, I digress. So I put down the wiehenburg stitching I was doing and picked up a Bent Creek Zipper kit I had laying around the room and decided to stitch it. I love doing these kits as they whip up quickly and I love the sensation of the textures of the fabric and #5 Perle in my hands. I think that is why I love fabric. Any fabric really (well embroidery fabric as I am not into sewing, sewing.). I finished the kit last night. I think it was about 3 1/2 hours of stitching all together. Might have been a bit more. Cute I think. It is called Summer House and yes I have the other 3 houses to stitch to make the seasonal set.

Prairie Schooler Pinkeep Exchange

Today's mail bought me a gorgeous Pinkeep made by Linda from Oregon. It just lovely and the stitching is perfect. I am so pleased with this exchange. It is my first pinkeep I have and I couldn't have asked for a better one. I also got a gorgeous postcard and one of those tiny PS designs. I love those and some gorgeous bath soap. Thanks Linda.