Pictures at last.

Well I am finally able to show you the progress on Lizzie Kate's Daughters. Not too much more to do on this, just another flower, finish the verse which is Daughters are a special joy, and finish the border. I thought that I would have been able to finish it this time but it just didn't happen. There is always its next time in my rotation.

Next up in my rotation is for my son Luke. He asked me to show him designs of dragons and he chose (asked for me to stitch) Desert Guardian, by Character Creations. Here is a link with a picture if you would like to see it. http://www.dragonflydreams.com.au/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=2688 I will stitch on this until Sunday night as per my rotation.

This next lot of photos is something that I have been stitching on for years, possibly as long as Luke has been on this earth, 12 years. It was started when he was quite young and I was on maternity leave from work. I found this pattern and another one, which will be a birth sampler for DD Caitlyn, in a knitting and craft book that I bought. I finished the stitching last year sometime. Luke saw me stitching on Joel's birth sampler, a Dimensions Chart and Charms pattern with a design of Noah's Ark, which has a 3 stitch wide border. He asked what would his look like with a border. I told him that if he would like a border on his that I would stitch it for him. I got him to choose the style, funny enough the same as Joel's, and color. He chose DMC variations thread color number 4050, I don't think a better choice could have been made as alot of the greens in that thread were already in the design. So earlier this year I stitched and finished the border, it didn't take too long, perhaps 5-7 days of off and on stitching.

Here is the full piece. It is quite large, not sure of the exact measurements off hand. On the bottom Luke only wanted one row of stitching as there is already quite alot of green in the grass.

And here are two closer shots of each half.

Now just to get it framed. I am thinking of just a fairly plain wooden frame without any mats as there is so much detail in the design, that it doesn't need anything too fancy. And after all it for a 12yo boy, who is also very keen on telling us that he is almost a teen-ager. Where has the time gone?

Well I will leave it at that and go and continue to do that bear of an assignment of mine. Whose idea was it for me to do a Uni degree? OOHH that's right, it was mine!!!!

Bye for now everyone, and happy stitching.

Quick update.

Sorry no pics yet hopefully soon if I can make some head way with my assignment.

Well I didn't finish Daughters, such a small piece, kept getting interupted by my @#$#% assignment.

But I did start Desert Guardian. The colors are not very appealing to me, but my 12yo son likes them and as the design is for him, and chosen by him, that is the main thing.

Just thought the I would do a quick post, bye for now.

Joanne

Second for the day.

I haven't stitched much this week, I think I have missed 2-3 nights so far this week, and I can't remember why!!! So I don't know if I'll get Daughters finished or not.

Hubby hasn't heard anything regarding the job that the he had the interview for. He thinks that as he hasn't heard that he hasn't got it. Oh well, there will be others for sure.

This afternoon we are heading to Bendigo to see a production of Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat. The in-laws are baby-sitting our two younger ones while DH. DS and I go. I love live theatre and have seen many productions, just wish that the timing was better for me as my assignment is due on the 28th and I STILL have about 1900 words to write. I should be doing that instead of updating blog. MMMM.

Would like to thank everyone for their kind wishes for hubbies interview and for visiting.

The rotation changes on Sunday night and I will be stitching on a new start Desert Guardian by Character Creations. This one is for DS who is 12. I am doing it on a pale blue hand dyed fabric.
Will give more details later on.

Bye for now, I hope everyone enjoys their week end.

Joanne

I have been tagged

I have been tagged by Lana:

Here are the rules: Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules.At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names.Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I lived in the same house that I grew up in, in Melbourne, until I got married.

2. This is my second marriage. My first husband left when our son was almost 2 and he decided that he wasn't happy any more and that he missed his freedom. He hasn't seen our son, now 12, since.

3. When hubby is away, I always leave a hall light on.

4. I had a miscarriage 5-6 years ago and fell into a deep depression which lasted for about a year.

5. I have only had one operation. On my tongue, of all places, to remove a lump which developed as a result of me burning myself on hot food. There is a possibility of the lump returning, but as yet it hasn't.

6. Our third child DD, was a surprise package, we did want another but just not when she came along, as there are only 16 months between her and DS.

7. I have only ever had two jobs. One at a newsagency while I was still at school, and the bank when I left school.

8. I met my hubby while working with his brothers wife in a Victorian country town called Castlemaine.

That is it. I think most people have done this by now, if you haven't done it, and would like to consider yourself tagged.

Celtic Banner Update.

Here is my update on Celtic Banner. I don't feel like I achieved a whole lot on this during this rotation, oh well maybe next time there will be better progress. If you want to see where I started this rotation from, just scroll down a few entries.

Hubby has gone back to work tonight. He works in finance and has to present end of financial year reports as part of his job. He wants to catch up a bit as he will be away from tomorrow lunch time and all day Thursday as well. His boss has told him that is ready for the next step in his career and is driving six hours for a job interview. The interview is on Thursday morning at 9am and he wants to be fresh for the interview so he's leaving the day before. If he gets this job it means of course a move for us, but it would place us near some of the premier snow skiing fields. I am not hugely into skiing, have been twice in my life time, but I think it would be amazing, not only for hubby and I, but I can just imagine the fun that we could all have in the snow. We would only be about an hour from our nations capital, Canberra, and there is so much to see and do in the general area. Please could everyone keep their fingers crossed for us.

Back to stitching, next in my rotation is Lizzy Kate's Daughters. Here is a pic of it so far. I am sorry for the blurry picture, it looked much better through the screen on my camera. Hopefully I should be able to finish this one this week. I might replace in with something else small or I might not bother replacing it in my rotation, we will see what happens.

I would just like that thank everyone who visits and leave comments, it is wonderful to read what people write.

Well that is all for now, catch up soon.

Joanne

Mother's Day

I would just like to wish all Mums a very happy Mother's Day, with lots of pampering and love from those close to them.

Today we went to Echuca (pronounced E-chew-ka) and met the in-laws for afternoon tea. We just had take-away coffee and some biscuits at a huge play ground so that the kids could play and run off some of the excess energy that they always seem to have an abundance of. It was a bit chilly temperature wise, but it was lovely being able to see the in-laws and Echuca is about half-way for both of us. We would have tried to meet my parents as well, but they are having a holiday and will be home tomorrow, so I rang and spoke to Mum this evening.

I have finished my rotation on Celtic Banner, managed to complete the band I was on, finish another little one, and start the next one. Next up is Daughters which is a Snippet by Lizzie Kate. I am planning on making a pillow and starting a smalls basket with it, that is if my family will leave it alone (the pillow that is) and not use it to throw at one another, which is what happens to cushions which I have at the moment. I should finish this easily this week and at some stage will think of another small design to replace it with.

At the moment I am supposed to be writing my 3000 word assignment for uni which is due in two weeks time, I have done about 800 words so far. The biggest hurdle for me is procrastination, blogs and bloglines on my computer and knowing what to write. My lecturer this semester has been very kind and set out a plan for each of the questions that we had a choice of answering. And she also said that it wasn't necessary for off-campus students to research topic to supply 'outside' references, just to use what was given to us in our readers. Yay for her.

Now that I have bored you all silly with my study I had better get back to it.

Again Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there, and happy stitching.

WIP update

I would like to thank everyone for stopping by and for your comments. Yes we are extremely proud of DS12, he has worked hard for his achievements and deserves the recognition.

Last week I was stitching on HAED Bubbles. I stitched pages 26, 27, and almost half of page 28. Before you all faint they were not very big pages, normal width but only 20 stitches high. I did enjoy her, but I think I'll get more enjoyment when I can stitch the fairy or some bubbles.
Next in my rotation is Butternut Road's Celtic Banner. It has been a while since I stitched on this piece, but I still love it. The colours and the motifs are wonderful.



This is I where I left it the last time I stitched on it. There are four pages to this design. At the bottom is page D. It changes to page C near the bottom of the W and the E . When I made my working copy I managed to leave off two, read that TWO lines of the chart. I compared my stitched piece to the photo and it just didn't look right. When I finally looked at the original chart I realised what I had done. So the frogs visited and I re-stitched it.

Then the next time I stitched on it, I had forgotten about the frogs visit. looked at my working copy and thought I have made a mistake. So I again pulled out the stitching and again re-stitched. How I did this for a second time I will never know. Do you think I was happy when I again noticed the error? No way!!! So I ripped out the stitching, and re-stitched it and it has been smooth going ever since, thank goodness.








Here is a close up of where I am up to.









As I said in my previous post I received some stash in the mail yesterday. Here is a picture.


Told in a Garden - Amish Wedding
Kreinik Very Fine Braid #4 032 Pearl
Lizzie Kate - Bless Our Home
Just Nan - Quilted Bear
Little House Needleworks - Rose Sampler
Prairie Schooler - Autumn Leaves
M Designs - Believe Tree Ornament
Cat's Whiskers - Birds Of A Feather Dilly Bag and Blessed With Happiness
Needleprint - Ann Trump's 1797 Sampler From Ackworth
With Needle & Thread by Blackbird Designs
Country Cottage Needleworks - Geranium House and A Place We Call Home
And some freebies from Blackbird Designs: Savior Faire, Thistle Manor, Springs Notice and Blackbird Sampler.
The only thing that I haven't got yet is With Needle and Thread by Blackbird Designs as this item is a special order from my ONS.

Hubby will be home at about 10pm tonight. I expect him to be very tired and grateful to be home.

I think that this post is long enough so I wish you all well and happy stitching.

Proud Mum

My DS12 ran (3 km or 3ooo m) in his schools cross country last week and came home and told DH and I that he had made it to Parkes, which is where the next level race is held, and is a six hour drive away. He came first in his age group, Under 13s, and overall for the school he came about 5th. Usually he is not really competitive so this was joyful news, but also a surprise for us.

The next dilemma, to get him there. Since he was racing on a Monday, and I had just started back at work, I was reluctant to ask my boss to change days, then as my two littlies have pre-school, kindergarten, on Mondays, I would need alternative arangements for them to be minded. I was out of the question, unfortunately, to take DS. Hubby has a work conference on the NSW coast at a place called Woollengong (SP), he left home lunch-time on Saturday and doesn't get home until late Tuesday night. The conference was already booked and paid for, and he needed to attend to maintain his accreditation. He was able to get a ride with another family who were taking their daughter and another child. Thank goodness for the kindness of others.

DS just rang and he has secured a place for him to compete in Sydney in the state championships. He said that he was the only one in his age group to compete. I told him that it doesn't matter how many kids there were, that he should just be proud of his achievements. So it looks as though we will be heading for Sydney in June.

I am so proud of him. Last year he was diagnosed with mild ADD and was put on a low dose of dexamphetamine, and it has totally turned him around from a low achiever, no confidence to someone who is more confident with improved grades. The end of last year he received a Principal's Commendation Award from school, a Scout's Leaders Award from Scouts and about 93% in his piano exam. He has done an amazing job to earn these rewards.

I hope you are all still with me after that. With regards to stitching, the rotation time for HAED Bubbles has finished, and will begin on Celtic Banner tonight. Will post wip pic of Bubbles tomorrow.

I have also received some new stash, more about it tomorrow also.

Better go and get some dinner. Bye everyone.

A quick post...

Hi everyone, just want to say a thank-you to everyone who has left a comment, or visited, my blog.

In my comments Carol wrote about AAFG being a magnificent stitch. I have to agree with her. Some of the motifs can be a little fiddly with a few thread changes, but over all it is a very enjoyable stitch. The chart is easy to read, and when I made a working copy, there was no need to enlarge it.

Dee said that seeing my progress on AAFG gave her incentive to work on her Four Seasons. Glad I was able to help you out Dee. LOL.

Today was my second day of work, my feet are not as sore today which is good. Though I did actually sit a bit more while I was doing training on the computer. After having had about 20 years of experience and then five years away from work, I feel like a 'new' employee because of the vast system changes. Though I must say that the changes are definately for the better. Transactions are now much faster to complete, of they will be when I get used to the computers LOL, and much more efficient, being able to perform all operations from the one work-station.

Okay enough talk about work. I just wanted to add that I love getting your comments, they make me all warm and fuzzy, and I didn't think that I would enjoy blogging so much, but the stitching community and the people in it are wonderful.

Thanks for making me feel so welcome everyone, and happy stitching.

And A Forest Grew.

I would like to thank everyone who lefts comments regarding my return to work. I really enjoyed my time there yesterday, though not being used to standing for long periods of time, six hours later I was really ready to go home. The people at work are fabulous and extremely helpful. DH knows everyone there and they all told him that he wasn't to come in while I was working. LOL He came in three times all up, and each time they all told him to get out. Though I didn't mind too much, it just shows that he was concerned for me. And he also took me out to lunch.

Here is where I finished up with AAFG. The second page is now nearly complete, the tree on the bottom right hand side actually overlaps onto the next page, and the same goes for the bird and trees on the top left hand side.

The next project in my rotation to get some attention is a HAED design and is called 'Bubbles'. I don't have a WIP picture as this is a new start. Whoo hoo, I love a new start. This will be slow going as there is alot of back ground with only a few different colors, but loving it just the same, it is still stitching after all. Here is a link if you would like to look at it http://www.heavenandearthdesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=28. I thing she is just gorgeous.

Well I had better go and do some tidying up, as a girlfriend and her son are calling in later on just to catch up and have a cuppa. Her son gets married this week-end in Canberra and as she is leaving on Thursday this will be the only chance that we will be able to see other. She is a stitcher also. Yeah for me for having a stitchy buddy.

Bye for now and stay safe.