IHSW - a great success!

[Sorry that this post is late but it has taken me four days to get the photos onto the post.  For some reason iPhoto and my camera are not talking to each other, so I have had to find a roundabout way to get my photos onto blogger.]


Well, I hibernated all weekend after having such a busy week at the conference and, lucky for me, this coincided with IHSW!  Yay!  Great motivation and I actually had 11 finishes!  Yes, count them  - 11! Now, these are all of varying degrees of work required but nevertheless, I am very pleased with what I achieved this past weekend.  Would you like to see?

Finishes 1 to 4:

I finished four pom pom scissors fobs - I had great fun choosing which buttons to use as I searched through my Grandmother's button tin.  Do you like the lid?  It is a scene of the city of Melbourne - probably from the 1950s, you can tell if you look closely at the cars.

Last time you saw these pom poms they looked like this:

Now they are four beautiful scissors fobs - which are going to be sent away to bloggy friends around the world:

Side 1

Side 2

Finish 5:  

I finally finished the Summer Garden Travelling Pattern!  It has taken a while as it was literally a Travelling Pattern as I stitched it on the train to work!  It also took a while as I had to stitch the border four times!!!!!  That frog prince has a lot to answer for!

Now, I have stitched my version with much more colour than the suggested pattern, so I have opted for a plainer border with not leaves or flowers in the corner. I hope that you all like my choice:

Needless to say, I am very pleased with my finish on this piece.

Finishes 6 and 7:

Now there are four - I finished two more little bunnies:

I think that I am done with Little Bunnies now (four may be enough!) - so watch out for a post about sending this Travelling Pattern on.

Finishes 8, 9 and 10:

I am going to either finish the Little Bunnies as needle books or as flat finish ornaments.  Either way they need a back  - so, as I want to give some of these away as gifts, I stitched some initials for the back:

Finish 11:
You may remember that the other week I finished stitching Birdhouse Alphabet, well during IHSW I fully finished it as a cushion, I am very pleased with the result.  This cushion will be sent off to a stitchy friend, too.

So, that is all from me for now.

love to you all,


P.S. I have so much more I want to post about so please come back for a visit soon.

Long, long weekend wrap up including FNSI..

I have been very lucky to have had a very long weekend this Australia Day weekend - four whole days of fun, friends, exercise and, of course, stitching!  Do you want to hear what I have been up to? I hope so, because I am about to tell you!!! lol!

Day 1, Friday, 25th Jan - FNSI:

1. Water aerobics in the morning
2. Lunch with TraderVic at the Tassal restaurant at their Salmon shop in Kew, where we had the best salmon fish and chips that you could imagine. (Tassal are a company from Tasmania who breed beautiful Atlanitc salmon for the Australian market).  If you live in Melbourne and get a chance to go there for lunch I can highly recommend it.
3. Then off to do some Stitchy shopping (mainly at my LNS, Lazy Daisy although I did pick up a frame at a local gift shop). Here are some pics of my Stash Empire Building:

I am going to be part of a Joan Elliott Round Robin later this year.  So, I am trying to get organised for it so I picked up some JE designs - I have decided that my theme is going to be Fairies and Angels.

Then I really lashed out and bought these Sajou scissors which I have had my eye on for a while (they have been marked down in the shop for months now and every time I went I would drool over them and now they are all mine!  They are so beautiful and have a lovely, precision cutting blade.

Some fabbie for my stash - this is 28 count Meadow Mist (although the pic does not do it justice). I did buy some 28 ct Mocha Lugana, too, but I must have missed taking a pic of it.

Various threads for various projects:

A needle threader for those nights when my eyes are tired and that darn hole is invisible!

Birdhouse Alphabet by Little House Needleworks (which I finished last night but pics further on in the post) which I started stitching for FNSI.

Some more new lovely patterns from LHN and JBW - and aha! - there is that Mocha Lugana!

... and, of course some needles as I have a pathological fear of running out of them so I buy at least two packets every time I go to my LNS.

4.    FNSI - Well, I started on Birdhouse Alphabet - using some overdyed fabbie I already had in my stash, my new scissors and this lovely Belle Soie silk which came in the kit.  Now, I have never stitched with this silk before and it is absolutely wonderful to stitch with.  I think that I am going to have to buy some more in other colours for my stash.

 ... and this is what I accomplished in one afternoon - I was pretty pleased with this progress for FNSI.

I did this whilst watching one of my all-time favourite movies "Shenandoah".

I just love Jimmy Stewart and his six sons!

 ... and this final scene when "the boy" finally makes it home, always makes me cry...

5. Off to dinner with DS1 and TraderVic and then we went to see the new Tarantino movie "Django unchained".  It was good, very Tarantino but very violent - I had to cover my eyes quite a few times in the movie because there was just so much blood!

Day 2, Saturday, 26th January - Australia Day:

1. Up early and off to Carnegie to do Deep Water Aerobics with DS2.  Now, I have never done deep water before and I am here to tell you it is HARD!  Of course, it didn't help that I had forgotten to take my inhaler with me ( I don't know whether I have mentioned that lately I am having a lot of trouble breathing - my inhaler has been working overtime.  The air quality has not been great in Melbourne lately because of the bushfires, etc.).  The class was taken by a lovely young Russian lady who in her charming accent kept exhorting us to "Keep Going", "Turn around and go back again" (another 25 metres doing an impossible exercise) and "Keep Moving".  I can tell you, I have had spaghetti arms and legs and have been absolutely exhausted ever since - must have done me some good then!

2. DS2 and I then had a lovely lunch together - so good to catch up - and did a little bit of shopping (I needed to buy a birthday present for a friend). Once I arrived home again - it was straight to my stitching chair and I stitched away on Birdhouse Alphabet some more.

3. Saturday night, TraderVic and I caught up with some friends at a dinner party held at one of their houses.  Now, Robyn is a retired Home Economics teacher so I can tell you - the meal was magnificent.  For example, her dessert comprised a whole poached white peach (poached in champagne) with a rose jelly and a vanilla bean panna cotta.  Delicious!  The conversation was sparkling as well 

Day 3, Sunday, 27th January

1. Sunday morning it was off to brunch for the aforementioned friend's birthday.  Now, you have met Heather and Franca before as they are the ladies I go to the St Kilda sea baths with every few months.  We had brunch at the Fairfield Boat house and Tea Gardens.  We had a lovely time down by the Yarra River.

2. That afternoon I went home and stitched and stitched and stitched until I finished Birdhouse Alphabet:

What a Happy Dance I had!  All around the house!

Day 4,  Monday, 28th January (Australia Day Public Holiday):

More Happy Dances on Monday:

I framed Spring Heart, which is going to my secret exchange partner in the Initial Heart Swap, so I can't show you the finished piece but here are some tantalising glimpses:

I also chose some fabric to use with Birdhouse Alphabet to make it into a cushion:

Fabric for the front of the cushion:

Backing fabbie:

Then I got really productive and made four, count them four!, needle books.

I have never made them before and while they are not perfect I am really pleased with these, my first attempt.

So, in all a very satisfying and productive long, long weekend.

hugs, 

P.S. Don't forget to enter my Mystery Giveaways, closes Feb 1st, you need to comment on my Grow your Blog Party post to be in the draw.