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.

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.

Seasonal stitching

Which I don't do very often due to my snail's pace stitching meaning things started for one Christmas are highly unlikely to be ready until a successive Christmas, years later.
For example:

this Historical Sample Co pattern was in the October 2005 issue of The Cross Stitcher. Although I put the magazine, kitted up, in my stash pile at time it arrived - I didn't start stitching it until a month ago.

Amazingly for me, it is now finished. "All" I have to do now is make it into a hanging.

Christmas fabric stash run to Spotlight coming up...

...a day after their sale ended.

Quick update...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SfRQjq65vk

Don't know if the above works. It's a link to a compilation video clip of Jess during comp season this year. I put it together to learn how to use the editing software that came with the camera.
I had tried to post it to the blog, but anything bigger than 10Mb just choked everytime.

It's been quietly busy here. Jess is busy working on L5 skills and looking forward to her new school for next year. She went to the orientation on Friday and was all buzzy when I picked her up cos she knew more girls who will be there next year in Y7 than she thought she would.
Tamsin is enjoying her beginners Rhythmic class, and has managed to get a place in the competitive squad for next year. The rhythmic coaches at TriStar are really sweet - and organised! They handed out a great info pack that was perfect for the control freak info junkie that is the Evil Gym Mom. She's also moved into the big pool at swimming and is now a junior Squid.
Guy Fawkes was good - the pyromaniacs of the family got together at my sister's place again and happily combusted their way through several boxes of fireworks while the rest of us pigged out on brownie and chocolate fondue.
I'm even getting some stitching done. I'm never as fast as I'd like, so there's not enough time in a day to get the progress I want. Oh well. I also have 4 leotards cut out ready to sew for Tamsin. She's grown a smidge in the body and all her leos are now showing way to much knicker for my (and her coach's) liking. The last batch of sewing I did only produced one for her and 3 for Jess so I needed to rectify that.

Please send me stitching vibes so that the next post will be about stitching finishes (plus photos to prove it, LOL).

Small, but pretty

Well, I like it :)

Finally, a finish:
Just Nan's My Fair Ladybug.

Now, that eternal question - how to present it? I have thoughts of it as a box topper, but where to find a box? I've not had much luck finding a source here in NZ.

The Ribbon Rose are now stocking Framecrafts lovely bowls, but they're quite expensive (try $98 for the large one).

I will just have to keep my eyes open in my travels for inspiration.

Long time, no post

And not much stitching either

And there are many in the WIP pile (one with a need to be done by date - yikes!), and even more in the stash pile, all waiting patiently for me to get stitching again.

So much for a finish a month

Ah well, as an Amway business owner once said: when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. Off to Ribbon Rose and Spotlight it was for a stock up on petites (needles) and DMC to kit up some of the charts in my stash.

Y'know - I did feel better afterwards and I have done a teensy bit of stitching...but not enough yet for a progress pic, sorry.

But cos I like pictures in my posts, here's more from the archives:

That's Cheetah in her favourite spot for overnight snoozing.

Yes,well. Burma just has to sit on/in something...

Kids, cats, leos

Finally got around to making the girls some more training leotards.

They'd actually managed to start to wear them out just as the leos were just beginning to be a bit small.

Plus Spotlight had nylon lycra on special....

Love the fluoro colours. The girls are really easy to spot when I arrive at the gym to pick them up!

So took photos and transferred them onto the PC, finding some others on the camera while I was at it.

The cats are Burma (she who brings home others' laundry) and Boodle (the youngest, now bringing home rats and skinks).

The kid is Cinnamon, a Nubian cross that my niece Laura is raising ready for school Calf Day mid October.