The Softest Silk
In the last year or so I've had the opportunity to stitch with quite a few different brands of silks. Last night I sat here at my computer catching up on my BB's and while I waited for the pages to load I was organizing my silks for Chatelaine's Mystery VI which will start on Christmas Day.
In the kit there are silks from : Caron, Needlepoint Inc., Vickki Clayton, and Gloriana. I've also worked with Rainbow Galleries, Kreink, Gumnuts, Eternas, and I'm sure I'm missing a brand or two there. I have to say the best feeling silk, the most sentuous and yummy feeling silk is from Gloriana! Nothing feels as wonderful as a Gloriana silk!
I can't wait to start Mystery VI
The erratic life of a busy stitcher
Sunday, December 21, 2003
I'm FREE!
Oh geeze, has it been since Tuesday when I last blogged? I didn't realize so many days have passed! I went through the week in a daze with a very bad cold trying to make it through this last week of work! It took a lot of my energy but I managed to do it without taking a sick day! But it was oooh so tempting!
Here I am enjoying my first day of freedom from work! I'm now officially on holidays and don't go back to work until January 5th. What did I do on my first day? I slept for 15 hours... this really seemed to help my cold, I feel better... not 100% but better today. I went and picked my Mum up (she's sick too so we were in good company) and we went to her bead lady. I wanted to get the book she had asked for for Christmas and she needed some more beads. After a very nice visit with Carol we continued on to the Prior for lunch. We then bombed on back to Mum's house and were surprised to find my Nephew had been there for 2 hours while we were gone... we were expecting him at 4pm not 2pm. I stayed for a bit of a visit until I started feeling tired again.
I've managed not to take a nap today, this is good. I also actually stitched! Up until this point I had only managed to stitch maybe about 6hrs this past week. That is not normal for me so that gives you an idea about how crappy I've been feeling. Every day I'd get home from work and go straight to bed for about 4 hours get up for a couple of more hours then be back in bed until the next morning. So my model is not as far along as I would really like it to be since it is due in January. Which means I really need to bust a move on it! Tonight I've managed to put in about 6 hours on it so were at a grand total or 12 hours on the model so far this week.
Stitching and laundry is all I plan to do on Sunday.
Oh geeze, has it been since Tuesday when I last blogged? I didn't realize so many days have passed! I went through the week in a daze with a very bad cold trying to make it through this last week of work! It took a lot of my energy but I managed to do it without taking a sick day! But it was oooh so tempting!
Here I am enjoying my first day of freedom from work! I'm now officially on holidays and don't go back to work until January 5th. What did I do on my first day? I slept for 15 hours... this really seemed to help my cold, I feel better... not 100% but better today. I went and picked my Mum up (she's sick too so we were in good company) and we went to her bead lady. I wanted to get the book she had asked for for Christmas and she needed some more beads. After a very nice visit with Carol we continued on to the Prior for lunch. We then bombed on back to Mum's house and were surprised to find my Nephew had been there for 2 hours while we were gone... we were expecting him at 4pm not 2pm. I stayed for a bit of a visit until I started feeling tired again.
I've managed not to take a nap today, this is good. I also actually stitched! Up until this point I had only managed to stitch maybe about 6hrs this past week. That is not normal for me so that gives you an idea about how crappy I've been feeling. Every day I'd get home from work and go straight to bed for about 4 hours get up for a couple of more hours then be back in bed until the next morning. So my model is not as far along as I would really like it to be since it is due in January. Which means I really need to bust a move on it! Tonight I've managed to put in about 6 hours on it so were at a grand total or 12 hours on the model so far this week.
Stitching and laundry is all I plan to do on Sunday.
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Oh ick!
That's it, its happened! I have a cold! I started sneezing yesterday ... today I have a sinus thingiee going on. I just knew this was going to happen, figured it would the first day I was off of work for the holidays. Oh well... a couple of days early. Hopefully this cold will get out of my system by Christmas so I can enjoy my time off!
Well that much enjoyed snow yesterday became a curse today! The part of my drive that I thought might be a pain turned out just fine. It was the second half once I hit the main highway that was the problem. It took me about 50 minutes to go 3 exits! My entire drive usually only takes 20 minutes!
I finished the ornament I started yesterday Snowflake from the 2000 JCS issue by Margot Cook. The fabric is blue silk 32ct. Permin linen. The outer white border and inner white block are stitched with Gumnuts Silk from Australia and the blue/white varigated thread is silk as well, Ice Dragon from Vikki Clayton. Also mill hill beads. I'm very happy with how it turned out considering I totally changed the colours!
That's it, its happened! I have a cold! I started sneezing yesterday ... today I have a sinus thingiee going on. I just knew this was going to happen, figured it would the first day I was off of work for the holidays. Oh well... a couple of days early. Hopefully this cold will get out of my system by Christmas so I can enjoy my time off!
Well that much enjoyed snow yesterday became a curse today! The part of my drive that I thought might be a pain turned out just fine. It was the second half once I hit the main highway that was the problem. It took me about 50 minutes to go 3 exits! My entire drive usually only takes 20 minutes!
I finished the ornament I started yesterday Snowflake from the 2000 JCS issue by Margot Cook. The fabric is blue silk 32ct. Permin linen. The outer white border and inner white block are stitched with Gumnuts Silk from Australia and the blue/white varigated thread is silk as well, Ice Dragon from Vikki Clayton. Also mill hill beads. I'm very happy with how it turned out considering I totally changed the colours!
Sunday, December 14, 2003
Christmas Trees and Snowy Days
It seemed right when I looked outside this afternoon as I put up my Christmas Tree ... the white fluffy stuff was coming down... and its still coming down I think. There's nothing like the true feeling of Christmas being around the corner. I put up my new artificial tree, its beautiful. Its all decorated with hand made ornaments, there's nothing breakable this year on the tree because of the kitten. Who to my surprise hasn't tried to go up the tree yet. But he did try to chew on the lights as I entangled them and plugged them in to find any bulbs that needed replacing... bad kitty, kitty.
After the tree was put up, and other Christmas paraphenalea put out I sat down to figure out who was getting one of my stitched ornaments and which one. With that task done I feel a little more ready for the holidays. I preceded that with baking my famous soft ginger cookies. Out of all the goodies I baked last year these were the most popular so I made ALOT of them to go with the ornies.
With some more domestic goddess-like chores to follow I finally sat down to stitch tonight, and I decided to do one last ornament. I've been feeling the urge to stitch an ornament ever since I had that big finishing session! So I finally gave in. Its a small one and should be finished by tomorrow no problem. With this design I've played with some Gumnuts Silks and some Vicki Clayton silks, both very pretty.
I worked on my model on Saturday, and finally feel like I'm getting somewhere. I probably put in about 14 hours on my model last week. Hopefully I can put in more this week.
Five working days left...
It seemed right when I looked outside this afternoon as I put up my Christmas Tree ... the white fluffy stuff was coming down... and its still coming down I think. There's nothing like the true feeling of Christmas being around the corner. I put up my new artificial tree, its beautiful. Its all decorated with hand made ornaments, there's nothing breakable this year on the tree because of the kitten. Who to my surprise hasn't tried to go up the tree yet. But he did try to chew on the lights as I entangled them and plugged them in to find any bulbs that needed replacing... bad kitty, kitty.
After the tree was put up, and other Christmas paraphenalea put out I sat down to figure out who was getting one of my stitched ornaments and which one. With that task done I feel a little more ready for the holidays. I preceded that with baking my famous soft ginger cookies. Out of all the goodies I baked last year these were the most popular so I made ALOT of them to go with the ornies.
With some more domestic goddess-like chores to follow I finally sat down to stitch tonight, and I decided to do one last ornament. I've been feeling the urge to stitch an ornament ever since I had that big finishing session! So I finally gave in. Its a small one and should be finished by tomorrow no problem. With this design I've played with some Gumnuts Silks and some Vicki Clayton silks, both very pretty.
I worked on my model on Saturday, and finally feel like I'm getting somewhere. I probably put in about 14 hours on my model last week. Hopefully I can put in more this week.
Five working days left...
Friday, December 12, 2003
You Find it When You're Not Looking For It...
Isn't that always the way. You find something when you're really not looking for it. That's what happened to me tonight. I met up with some friends from Cornwall and a friend of mine in town. We stopped into Michael's, Chrisanne needed to pick up some stuff. We're wandering through the frame section... there it was THE frame for Peacock Tapestry! The colour, the size the shape all perfect! I was drooling! Not only was it the perfect frame... it was 50% off. So the framing job I was expecting to pay $500+ for has just cost me 29.99 CDN. Better than that Christin says "here give that to me." She bought it for me! You can't have a better friend!
So now I'm going to see if my usual framer will just stretch the piece for me and I'll put it all together (I'm terrified of stretching even though I've taken a class on it!).
Here are the pics of the frame with PT under it
Full View
Corner View
Isn't that always the way. You find something when you're really not looking for it. That's what happened to me tonight. I met up with some friends from Cornwall and a friend of mine in town. We stopped into Michael's, Chrisanne needed to pick up some stuff. We're wandering through the frame section... there it was THE frame for Peacock Tapestry! The colour, the size the shape all perfect! I was drooling! Not only was it the perfect frame... it was 50% off. So the framing job I was expecting to pay $500+ for has just cost me 29.99 CDN. Better than that Christin says "here give that to me." She bought it for me! You can't have a better friend!
So now I'm going to see if my usual framer will just stretch the piece for me and I'll put it all together (I'm terrified of stretching even though I've taken a class on it!).
Here are the pics of the frame with PT under it
Full View
Corner View
Thursday, December 11, 2003
Six Working Days....
The countdown begins to Christmas Break! Boy am I ready for it! How do I know? I'm to the point of hoping... Wishing I'd get the stomach flu or a cold or something to stay home sick for a day or two! Or hoping for a day where the weather conditions are so bad that I cannot safely make it into work! Man oh man I'm ready.
Tonight I've gotten in maybe 3-4 hours on the model. The "sign" in the corner is done... now I can move onto the figures in the design.
Man this time of year is killing me! Killing my bank account actually. I always try my best every year to pay for Christmas in cash. I've already broken that rule by putting Todd's gift on my credit card! But so far I'm doing well on the rest. Not only do I have Christmas to contend with, I have two family birthdays within a week of each other in November then two more this week! So not only do I shop for Christmas I shop for b-days as well. Then after Christmas I have one b-day in January... one in February then I'm in March! These next few months are often fairly expensive and keep my account on the low side. Once again I'm down to gas money until my next pay day. Sigh... the Christmas shopping is on hold again. But at least I got those last couple of b-day gifts this week!
Sometimes I really hate this time of year!
The countdown begins to Christmas Break! Boy am I ready for it! How do I know? I'm to the point of hoping... Wishing I'd get the stomach flu or a cold or something to stay home sick for a day or two! Or hoping for a day where the weather conditions are so bad that I cannot safely make it into work! Man oh man I'm ready.
Tonight I've gotten in maybe 3-4 hours on the model. The "sign" in the corner is done... now I can move onto the figures in the design.
Man this time of year is killing me! Killing my bank account actually. I always try my best every year to pay for Christmas in cash. I've already broken that rule by putting Todd's gift on my credit card! But so far I'm doing well on the rest. Not only do I have Christmas to contend with, I have two family birthdays within a week of each other in November then two more this week! So not only do I shop for Christmas I shop for b-days as well. Then after Christmas I have one b-day in January... one in February then I'm in March! These next few months are often fairly expensive and keep my account on the low side. Once again I'm down to gas money until my next pay day. Sigh... the Christmas shopping is on hold again. But at least I got those last couple of b-day gifts this week!
Sometimes I really hate this time of year!
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