Here's a little thingy I made for my work friend Mary. She's having a baby, and it's due next week! I started this on Monday, and finished it today. It's cute, except for the scarily huge french knot eyes. They're the undead toys from the toybox beyond the grave... It was one of those Dimensions daydreams kits that comes with the mat and glass and everything so you can frame it yourself. I think it actually came out very nicely.

Labels: Eyecandy, HAPPYDANCE, Stitchiness

Firstly, Fudgey wanted to know about Cookie's fabric. He's 2 over 2 on 32 count white linen. I'm doing the writing 1 over 1.

For this week:
How do you secure your thread when you begin a new one? Specifically, do you or have you ever used a waste knot?
I usually do a loop start, because it's dead easy, and I'm laaaazy. I hate waste knots. If I'm only stitching with one strand, I sometimes do a waste knot, but more often, I just take the needle down leaving a tail about 7 or 8 stitches ahead of where I start, and then come up and stitch over the tail at the back. It's the same kind of thing as a waste knot, but you don't have to snip the knot and rethread the needle and weave it under yourself. Does that make any sense at all? This page kind of describes what I mean.

For all my pay it forward recipients, a couple of things:
I had to remove a couple of people from the list because it appears that they're already receiving from other people, so I'm very sorry to them :(
For the people who are still on the list (Nicki, Kyrie, Virpi, and Ann) I need each of you to email me (tashage@hotmail.com) with the following things:
-Postal address,
-date of birth,
-favourite colour(s),
-favourite styles of stitching,
-a link to your wishlist (if you have one),
-and anything else you want to tell me about yourself.

And lastly, I still have one more place left on the list. If you're interested please please please comment and email me :)

That's all for today, I'm off to stitch, but hopefully tomorrow I'll have a finish for you, and another one the next day! (yay)

Labels: SBQ and memes

Isn't he a handsome boy? I scanned this a few days ago. Since then I've done the backstitching and I've started on the words. I think I'm actually going to have this done on time! Yay!

Guess what my mummy is buying me for Christmas?

She came up yesterday. I was telling her about it, and she said she'd buy me the chart AND materials. What a lovely mummy she is :)

I'm so totally and completely in lust with Mystery X. Listen to this:

The topic is a "Secret Victorian Garden" -think of brittle old walls,ivy and roses -lush greens and delicate shades of flower colors...gold,beads, crystals and a Victorian feeling all over....
You will be able to "wander" around in this garden as if it were your own! Touch the old trees and sit in the green grass...and dream of gentler times...

It sounds so utterly delicious... but I'm not meant to be spending money. Not that the chart is that expensive, I think only $30AU-ish. But then there's the materials. I think that when the materials picture is up I won't be able to resist. I just know it's going to be too good to pass up. *sigh*

I signed my mortgage papers today. I now own my house. Yay! I now owe the bank $334,974. That's 334,974 reasons not to buy this chart. I must grit my teeth and resist!!! I'm going to need all the help I can get for this :(

I finished my biscornu for the biscornu exchange on Friday evening... but unfortunately, I can't show you pics yet :( That's so frustrating!!! I'm really proud of it, because I've never finished anything before, not even a pincushion. I don't know how you guys who do tons of exchanges can do it all the time. Oh well, hopefully it won't be too long until I can show off pics.

So instead, I'll show you some stash pics :)
The first pic is $350 worth of stuff, that I only paid $100 for at Stitched From the Heart.

The next picture is just some random stash I've accumulated over the past couple of months. I've developed an obsession with hand dyed fabrics and threads... but sooo expensive.

As you notice, my little bubba has to get in on the act, in both photos! I swear, she thinks she's a model. She has to get in every shot!

Labels: Eyecandy, Furbaby, S.E.X., Stitchiness

I am 8,621 days old! That sounds like a lot... I can't really think what I've done with them all.

Just a couple of items of business:

for this week
How did you decide on the title of your stitching blog? Was it random,or does it have a special meaning to you or about you?
Uuuum... well, first of all I tried to think of something witty, then I tried to think of something funny, but not being born naturally witty or funny, I decided to go and eat chocolate for inspiration. (I do that a lot... eat chocolate... not always for inspiration, sometimes just for fun...) Anyway, as I walked past the living room, I went to see what my brother was watching, and it turned out to be Romeo + Juliet (the Baz Luhrmann version). I've always loved that bit in the prologue that says "A pair of star-crossed lovers take their lives." It's just so... dramatic! So, even though, I'm certainly don't consider myself literally star-crossed, it still sounds pretty :)

And: a note to all those naughty rascals who think they can leave comments for me without receiving goodies... you know who you are. Don't give me that rubbish "I don't want you spending your money on me" excuse... you're not fooling anyone. I've gotta pay it forward to someone, it might as well be you. Give me your addresses, at least so that I can send you Christmas presents! And also, it's really hard to stalk people if you don't know where they live!

Labels: SBQ and memes, Small talk

So yesterday, I said goodbye to my lovely RR, before it winged its way to America, and I won't have it back again for a whole year!! But when it does come back it'll be filled with lovely pictures stitched by me new friends :) This is how it looked when I sent it. Unfortunately I didn't have time to finish the border, which I feel terrible about, but I really wanted to get it out on time. I also left a black 'square' for me to stitch when it comes home, because hopefully I'll be able to choose another favourite by then. The theme is black and white by the way, and all of the designs are from HAED.

I'm just in love with this whole idea of round robins and exchanges and everything. It's wonderful to be able to have stitchy friends all over the world... especially when most people I know around here think I'm a bit mad. I started my biscornu for the exchange. I wish I could show you pics, because I love it. The colours are so gorgeous! I've had fun shopping for extra little bits to put in with it too :) I keep finding such lovely goodies , and I just want to send them to everyone!!

In the same vein, I was seriously tempted by the Pay It Forward idea I saw on Mel's Blog. I wasn't going to do it at first, thinking I've already got enough on my plate, but then I saw that someone mentioned a one year time allowance, and in the end I caved. I'm such a sucker! So here we go:

I'm going to put together a cross stitch 'care package' for the first five people to respond to this post in the comments below. I'll stitch you something small, and include some little fabbies, threads, charts, whatever I can find that I think you'd like. Hopefully I'll be able to make it personal; things that I think you'd appreciate from what I read on your blog. Also, I'm giving myself a one year allowance to make and put together all five packages. So if you’re interested, comment away. Next, email me (tashage@hotmail.com) letting me know your snail mail address and you blog URL, and I'll be in touch :) Psst... and even if there is already five comments, you should email me anyway... you'll probably get lucky. The catch? You need to blog this too, and 'pay it forward' in your own way. Go on… it'll be fun :D

Labels: Eyecandy, New Start, Stitchiness

So... here are last month's goals, I didn't do very well. Oops!

Finish 'S' (M Designs) - Nope! Didn't do it. I'm still only about halfway done. I have other things to do now, because this doesn't have to be done for a couple of months.

Finish the HAED RR border - Nope! I did as much as I could, but I just ran out of steam :( Anyway, I'll be posting it off tomorrow. Yay!

Start and finish Aussie RR square (if it arrives in time) - Nope! I never received the robin for this round! I don't know what I'm meant to do, I emailed the co-ordinator and the girl who it belongs to and the girl who was meant to send it to me, and no one seems to care!?!

Do some more of Firefly Fairies - Nope! I forgot. Oops!

Start SOMETHING for Jaxon. No more putting it off!!!! - Yes!! I did do it! I started cookie monster. True, I have not yet provided proof, but I will.

Spend no more than $150 on stash - Nope! Damn 70% off at Stitched From the Heart. I blew my limit by $100. But I'm going to get a lovely stash parcel in the mail :)

So, I only completed one of my goals! Pathetic!

November:

Finish Jaxon's birth sampler

Start and hopefully finish round 2 of HAED RR

Have a biscornu ready for mailing by 20 November

Do some more of Firefly Fairies

Finish my Green Hardanger Cushion into a cushion

Spend no more than $200 on stash

hopefully I'll have better luck this month!

Labels: Goals, Stitchiness