I have not been idle

I know it has been a long time since I posted but I have not been idle I promise. I have discovered Pintrest, and I am having a lot of fun looking at all the ideas that come thick and fast on there.

Back to stitching, here are some of the things I have been doing....

My first one here is 'Skeleton Shadow Box' by Prairie Moon and you may notice on the second photo that I have also done the scissor fob also from Prairie Moon but in my typical fashion have not sewn it together with all it's charms yet!

Here is my long awaiting finish of 'Houses of Hawk Run Hollow'. You can see on the second photo that I have made a few changes, I spelt Isaiah how the correction came out and I have taken out the flag from the City Hall block.

Once again I have done the cross stitching but as yet haven't sewn it together, I know, I know, I can here you saying it. I will get there one day. This is the Little House Needleworks Pillow and no changes made to this one.

I did however make a colour change to the Travelling Stitcher as I bought the blue version of the purse, I changed the colour of the house and the dress so that it would match the purse that I bought rather than the original. I did stitch the little Needles patch as well but I will make it into a fob as the blue purse doesn't have room for the patch. Perhaps it could be a Christmas present for someone that I end up forgetting to get a present for???

I have also been keeping up with my Stacey Nash Primitives. I still have one more to go and then I am all caught up with them. 

Hey, if I keep going like this there will be a really good reason to get the sewing machine out, now won't there?

On a personal front, our eldest boy has started University and is doing an Engineering Degree. The first year is an all round Engineering subject and then for the second year they start to define which area they would like to concentrate on. He has a couple of part time jobs (at long last), one is at Pizza Hut in the call centre and the other is tutoring some students in Math. 

Our Second boy is working hard in his final year at school. He is House Captain and he also made Swimming Captain for the school, not bad for a boy that only started there last year! We are very proud of him and he seems to have made quite a few friends. It has been very busy for him, he has had his formal already, um now that reminds me, I still haven't seen the professional photos come home from that, note to self. The year 12's also have a fashion parade which the parents of the school organise and yes I put my name down to help organise the whole thing, which at the time was quite stressful as we only had 6 weeks to do it all. Needless to say it was a great success and I was so proud of DS as his group started the show and for the first 30 seconds he was on the stage by himself miming and acting out to LMFAO's "I'm sexy and I know it". I had nothing to do with the start and I had said that I would have preferred someone else to do it as other parents would think that because I was helping organise the show that is why my son is out there, but I was denied my request as they said there was no-one else that had the guts to do it but DS!!!

DH still continues to travel to Chile every month, good job the wine is nice that comes home every trip.

I could have gone into great lengths about how poor DS1 wrote of our car only having had his license for 3 weeks, but the main thing is that he is fine, so the less said about that the better. It wasn't caused by him speeding which was a blessing, he didn't see the stop sign.

I am currently working on one of the Prairie Schooler Santa Kits, 2005, I think.

Well I am glad that DH was home this weekend so that he could take the photo's again for me.

Until next time, not 7 months this time...

ABCxxx

Pin Keeps

Here are the pinkeeps that I had talked about in my last post. The Halloween one is a freebie from (stay tuned on this part and I will add it in when I find the pattern again). From this angle I love the colour of our dining table, anyway back to business.

This is a Stacy Nash Primitives Pinkeep and came as a kit. I put my name down to receive these pinkeeps as they arrive, and so far I have 3 I think. There is this one, another that I have finished stitching but haven't sewn up together yet, a familiar story of mine and I know it is getting tiresome. Perhaps this will give me enough pressure to get it sewn up for next time. And my favourite so far is the one I am working on at the moment, it is a little more detailed than these and a bit bigger too.
This isn't a great angle of the pin keep but you get the idea don't you?
Now I have also been thinking, yes, yes, I know that is a dangerous thing but...I was wondering if you like the blog just being about my stitching or would you like to hear more about what happens in my life with the family and things? I visit a lot of blogs, as you can tell by my list on the side and not one of them is just about stitching, they all add a little about their lives.

I don't have a lot of followers and I was wondering is it because I am completely boring, don't post enough or that I don't let people in to what happens in my life? So I would really like to know what you think, for better or worse, that is the roller coaster of a blog.

ABC

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Happy New Year and Merry Christmas

I know it has been over 2 months since I posted but that doesn't mean I haven't been stitching. This photo is of my finished advent calendar that I was working on earlier in the year, I posted a photo about it in August 2011. Unfortunately the pattern is no longer available and I have already passed on my copy to someone that wanted it. I am going to re-thread the loops for the hooks as they haven't all worked out the same length but I have a whole year to do that.....right?

While we have had a couple of relaxing days watching DVD's I have managed to sew up a couple of finished works, but that I will save for another post as I don't want to leave it so long before posting again.

I do hope you have all had a relaxing break and please stay safe on the roads.

Computer Crashing and Stitching, of course.

My computer crashed this week, so now all the websites that I had saved and favourite places are gone. DH didn't quite understand when I said that I needed a moment to grieve. Just thinking of all those hours gone, poof.

On the up side, a friend from Adelaide was up for a conference and so we got together Wednesday night and it was so much fun, a bit too much fun as I couldn't take DS2 to swimming at 4.30am the next morning. Sorry Coach.

I would also like to thank Mary, Terri, Leah and Babs for your continued support in leaving comments. I know there are others of you as well but these four ladies are my most frequent commentators and so I would just like to give you a special mention.

Now onto stitching, this first one is a freebie, I think...I have been trying to find the pattern as I did do it a while back. So if you are really interested keep popping back as I will edit the page and have a link to the designer. It is going to be made into a pin cushion and that is why there isn't much margin. The ornaments are a couple of my latest Halloween additions that I bought from the 'Nightmare before Christmas' range, they are just too cute, in a Halloween sort of way.

This is one of the Stacy Nash club stitches that I have managed to do while by the pool watching DS2 do his laps. I am now on the second one, but the third has already arrived...

I went to a small local craft and gift fair the other week and when I say small I mean small. After paying my entrance fee I spent around 15 minutes going to all the stalls and I was finished, that included the time buying these sweet bobbins. So I thought I had better go around again just incase I had missed something, but I hadn't! It was worth it though as I do love my bobbins.

DH is in the U.S. this week so I have sent him off with an empty suit case so that if he sees any good Halloween decorations he can squeeze them in...boogidy, boogied, wahhahha.

He gets back on our Wedding Anniversary and I have booked us, including the boys into the 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' night at the cinema's. We won't dress up this year as it is the first time our boys will see the movie and experience the antics but hopefully they will enjoy it enough to go along next year and join in on the fun.

Have a safe week,

ABC

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Mother in laws table cloth

This is one of my most prized possessions. It comes to me under sad circumstances, my mother in law had it with a lot of other stitchery and since the family knew that I was very much into my stitching they thought it was best it came to me. You see the family had to put her into a nursing home because she is suffering from Dementia and no-one could safely look after her any longer at home. With this piece also came a tapestry chair, firescreens, cross stitch table runners and napkins.

I don't know if it is from her days in nursing or it was her mothers or her sisters and unfortunately now that she can't really string a whole sentence together I will never know.

I love the names that can be found on it, like Gertrude, Ethel, Mabel and Constance. There are also male names on there too and the hand writing is beautiful and flowing. Most of them have been stitched in off white and they do look like they have used silk threads.

I thought there was a date on it but for the life of me can not find it now. My mother in law trained as a nurse in England and wonder if it is something that they use to do at the end of their training?

Anyway I thought I would share this with you today, I have also had a small finish but I will show you that next time.

ABC
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Another square in VOHRH

These are the latest photo's of my progress on VOHRH. Can you tell the DH is back from OS and is taking my photo's for me again? I feel a touch of relief now that I am over half way through.

The wooden buildings that are in the photo's are actually South Australian buildings. We use to have them above our door frames when we lived in Adelaide but for some reason we haven't put them up in the new house. The new house is a minimalistic style house, one what I call a sugar cube house. Those in Queensland would know what I am talking about.

I would really love it if you could leave a comment, perhaps you could tell me where you live? Not the actual address of course but the country and town perhaps? I would like to know who does read my blog.

Cheers
ABC
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WIP update and a finish

This is the latest photo of my VOHRH, I know the Mill looks like it is crooked but trust me it isn't. I try and work on this project in between other small ones just so that I keep going. My next HRH will be done on a smaller count and I will use silks instead as I love the look of silks with large projects. I do try and work the hardest blocks first so that the last blocks finish quickly.

This is my Just Nan, Bluebird Alphabet and was extremely quick to stitch. I wouldn't mind doing this again and change the greens to different shades of blue and the blue can be tan colours with even some charcoal.

This afternoon we are off to watch our DS #2 in the Queensland state swimming championships, we hope he does some personal best times, especially after the rotten year he has had with injuries and sickness, hopefully it is onward and upward for the rest of his school swimming.

For me personally I find out if I am diagnosed with Coeliac disease on monday. Now that will change my eating habits and I will have to buy a whole bunch of new cookbooks!

ABC

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Long Absence...Sorry

I am sorry that it has been so long since I last blogged but once again life got in the way, oh and DH was OS so he couldn't take my photo's for me.

I could go on about swimming coaches, teenage boys, school years 11 and 12, husbands being away, blah, blah, no-one listens anyway!!!

I will have a little soap box moment though, I was quite disappointed with one of the shops on the internet that I order from quite regularly. Anyway, they forgot to enclose part of my order and had to send it on separately, now it was only a couple of packets of fancy pins, which if had been sent with the original order would not have cost me any more in postage, but did they apologise and pay for the postage themselves....no, they charged me over $8.00 for postage and not a sorry anywhere. You should have seen the size of the box that they came in, you would have thought I had ordered 100 packets! It isn't so much the cost of the postage, though it was their error and customer service and all but it was that there was no apology, plus they took over a month to get here? Things normally take around 10 days to get from the US to here in Australia.

I feel very naughty as I hadn't even checked my stitching email account until today, and whoah there were over 150 emails. I still haven't checked them all. Oh don't go and get excited, that isn't how many people send me comments (I wish) it is the emails that come through the groups that I am a member of.

Now for Stitching updates:-

This was Lizzie Kate's Merry Friends - Santa '03 but since we don't have cats I tried to change it into a dog! I am adding a bone button where the rabbit is meant to be or perhaps if I can find a dog house button just the right size that might work too. Once again I have worked it on a 7ct so that I can make it into a bit bigger cushion.

I just love this pattern and I haven't finished yet as I still have to make up the little Advent bags and stitch on the ribbon and buttons to hold the bags. You can get a better idea of what I am going to do by looking at All the beautiful things and have a look under her Christmas tag and you will find it in there.

I hope this post finds everyone in good health and cheer.

ABC

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Family

These are a couple of photo's of my boys. I don't like to put family photo's on my blog but it was his formal. I can't believe he is almost finished senior school, where did the years go? The first picture is of him and his girlfriend, who came up from Adelaide to be with him and the second photo is with his brother, who just got his braces off and isn't quite use to smiling with his mouth open.

The photo isn't great as they don't have red hair but with the colour of the light that is the way it appears. We do call them Australia's version of Harry and Will, I know they don't look anything like them but their nature is very similar.

We had the pre-formal party at our house and had 3 limo's out the front waiting for them all to go to the formal. The younger children across the road thought it was great. Now DS2 wants the pre-formal party at our house next year but he would like the stretched 'Hummers'!

Now on the stitching front, do any of you get 'The gift of stitching' magazine? I was shocked when the latest one arrived to find that there was my 'Ort' jar. I showed DH as he was the one that took the photo, there is no way that it would have been published if I had taken the photo. It is surprising who reads my blog or perhaps they just googled the word 'Ort', I hope they read the blog!!!

ABC

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All sewn up

I would really like to thank you all for the lovely comments from my last post. It is really nice to know that someone out there is reading my blog. You have made my week.

At long last I used my 'Be Merry' from Shepherds Bush and stitched it to the 'Christmas' wall wearable from Trail Creek Farm. I stitched it on Klostern 7ct so it is a bit bigger than intended. I also used Wisper 88 for the beard, I find using it on the 7ct is really easy as you can use a large eye needle for threading.

I have had a good stitching day today as both my boys are studying for their exams next week so DH and I sat and watched some tv and of course I can't sit and just watch tv so I got to stitch at the same time.

ABC

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