Wednesday, December 24, 2008

UFO update

As promised - WIP pics of one of my big UFO's that I did some work on during 2008.Marty Bell's The Abbey, as it was at 31 Aug 2007 (on the left) and as it is now (on the right):

















So I've now done 3 corners.
That lower right corner was a pain with a gazillion colour changes - but the effect is worth it.
It will be so awesome when it's finished.

Justin Knickers...



...as my mum would say when something got done "just in the nick of time".

They were mostly small, but I have reached my goal of 12 finishes for the year - woohoo.
This one is O for Owl from the UK Cross Stitcher's Margaret Sherry designed alphabet.

Maybe next year I'll get more.
What I didn't achieve this year was a UFO finish, but I did make some good progress on one of them (Marty Bell's The Abbey - pic to follow soon).

Monday, December 22, 2008

Happy Holidays

Best Wishes for the Season, with illustration courtesy of one of my fav websites...

Small Finish


I haven't been stitching much at all still. Which is why this small thing took 11 calendar days to finish. It actually only took about 3 stitching sessions. Nevermind, it's done, and done before Christmas.
Dimensions' Princess Alphabet, without the bead crown embellishment, done over one on navy 25ct lugana with a Dyepot perle 12 backstitched with a DMC light effects.
Please send vibes so that I can finish one more small piece before 31 Dec (25 Dec preferably!).
KTHNXBAI

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Y6 Leaving Assembly

It's Jessica's last year at primary school, and she can't wait to start intermediate next year. She will be attending the all girls Marist College in Mt Albert along with her bff and several gym friends.
Today was the annual Year 6 Leaving Assembly at Mangere Bridge School, where all the Y6s have to say some words and prizes are given out.
Bad momma stayed at work, but had arranged for deputies to attend (Nana, G'ma, Grandad and DH) and my spies on the spot have just reported in.
Jess, along with her very bright friend Brittany, jointly won the Academic Award.
I'm stoked. Jess has worked very hard on bringing her maths up to standard, and had started beating Britney in some recent English tests. I'm so pleased her hard work has been rewarded this way.
She had also been nominated for the Citizenship Award - this one the kids decide who should be nominated (2 from each class = 6 nominees) and then it goes to a vote. They are encouraged to vote for the person who they feel is responsible, fair, helpful, basically a role model. She didn't get it, but that's ok - just to be nominated is pretty damn great in my opinion.

Way to go Jessica!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

lotsa leos

Since I had the sewing machines out to "finish" Tis the Season, I thought I really should finally stitch up the leotards I'd cut out for Tamsin weeks ago.



And I did, yay me! I'm still working on getting the elastic around the legs to go properly - so don't look too closely, LOL.



These two leos I bought yesterday from Active Kids Sportswear. They're made by the mum of Jess' team mate Sophie and they're gorgeous.
Jess had gone over to Sophie's house to play/swim after club display and prizegiving yesterday and I took the opportunity to treat the girls when I picked Jess up. I'm hoping Tamsin can use her one for Rythmic comps. It has the most beautiful blue velvet on the bottom half.

That should set the girls up for training in 2009 as both have 4 classes a week and it saves me having to wash every day.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Finishing update

I actually finished my last finish.
Wha...?
I know I know, us stitchers need some new words to differentiate between when we finish stitching a piece, and when we actually get it finished into its presentation format. Any suggestions?

My last post was to show that I had finished the stitching.
Now, I can say that I have finished the presentation. No photos sorry - I was in such a hurry to give it to the friend I made it for that I didn't take the time to photograph it.
Anyhoo, I found some fabric that complimented it to my satisfaction yesterday afternoon. Last evening was spent putting a border and backing on it. Late last evening was spent delivering it (and enjoying a looooong gossip with my friend - a fellow ballet mum).
Why was I in such a hurry to give it to her?
Rachel LOVES Christmas, and all the decorations that go with it. I wanted to give this wonderful gal a special pressie this year, but as it has a Christmas theme, I wanted her to have it for Advent so that she could enjoy it for this season. Advent was Sunday just gone, so I was 2 days late.
She forgave me cos she liked the piece so much.

Merry Christmas Rach - may next year be better than this one, chick.