Wipocalypse and TUSAL update - July 2014 (two months worth)

Hello all,

I have internet again! Feels very strange to be able to access emails and other necessities of life in a few moments. I am going to move South in September, so desperately trying to find a place to live. It is harder than I originally thought. Oh well, persevere, persevere, persevere.

This is belated (nothing new). So hopefully I can get all the late July posts out of the way and move on to the promised giveaway. But before I can do that I do need to look at my stash again, just to see what I no longer need.

First up is TUSAL ... with the baby orchid. Remember I have mentioned that one of my orchids had a baby (or keiki as they are known), well this young plant that has been potted on its own for only 5 months has now flowered!

Wipocalypse:

Christmas Candle (HAED)

May 2014

July 2014

Almost there. A bit more on the hair and leaves and a page finish is slowly coming along.

QS Poisonous Beauties:

May 2014

July 2014

Cabin Fever

September 2012

July 2014

There is not much progress on this one, but some progress is better than none, and after almost two years of no stitching this is now hopefully turning into a wip.

I have a few starts as well:

MSherry SAL update:

'Spring bouquet' by Margaret Sherry from CrossStitch Crazy issue 174 (March 2013):

July 2014

I feel a bit light headed by Judy Rossouw (Anchor kit)

July 2014

A close up if you can't see what I have stitched

Brollies (Heritage Crafts):

July 2014

Venice Palazzo by Michael Powell:

July 2014

and thats how huge the entire design is!

I know my starts are a little pathetic, but hey ho maybe they will grow by the next update.

Till soon,

P.S. in view of Wipocalypse question (always forget them). I haven't started any Christmas stitching. Not sure when (or even if) I will get around to that.

Smalls #6 - very late

Hello all,

Encouraged by the relative success of the last post I have decided to update you on my last month's Smalls progress. I was sad to realise this morning that I missed last month's TUSAL, oh well that's what happens when internet goes off for almost a month.

Last month I have finished another letter by Nancy Turner of the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. It is another A.

It was done on evenweave dyed with onion skins (aluminium mordant) by my mum. Stitched using Nancy's hand dyed floss: 1765 Burnt Russet, which I won in one of her generous giveaways. Speaking of generous giveways... I was also lucky enough to win more floss from Nancy. And I would obviously brag (but sigh I am updating from the phone). So I will share a photo of the chosen threads soon (along with a gorgeous new quaker sampler start).

I will update this month's Smalls (I do have a finish) and TUSAL in the next day or so.

Till soon,

Lija

Stitch from Stash #7 (attempt post from a phone)

Hello all,

Sorry for a very long gap. Hope I haven't lost anyone in the process. I do have a good excuse for not posting (and even missing last week's Wipocalypse post - and I never do that). I have no internet! No internet and no phone line for 3 weeks and 2 days! I have spend about an hour on phone to EE tonight apparently the most 'reliable network' and also with whom you can check an existing fault online. The first adviser put me on hold for over 20 minutes and once the phone got taken off hold somebody else was asking what company I am calling from! And then hung up on me! The second adviser was a little better promised not to put me on hold, so I spent a further 15 minutes in silence. Apparently I will have an update in 24 hours and someone will start digging (again) tomorrow. How many times have I heard this over the past 3 weeks! Oh well maybe this person will actually follow through and update me. I also spent (on top of paying for line and internet that isn't working) £5.99 to have some internet on phone. And attempting my 1st post via the phone! Soooo proud.

Onto nice things... you'd think after my spree month I would not need to buy anything, well actually it turns out I did:

I bought 2 charts from love thy thread (half price) and I just had to have all three in my collection. And also I bought a metre and a bit of evenweave at a pretty good price when I was down south.

So a total of £22 spend this month. And so that makes a $/£ 21.28 to carry through to next month!

I hope this works and I can do few updates over the phone while internet is getting fixed.

Also as a small apology and a sign of joy (I have some changes going on in my life at the moment - will share later) I promise to have a giveaway soon.

Till soon I hope,

Lija

Stitch from Stash report #6 ... this is my skip month, get ready to drool and faint ...

Dear all,

Get ready to drool ... ready? Well this is my skip month, so I have spent loads. Some women love bags, others love shoes, me ... I go for cross stitch. Lets say I am not looking forward to my credit card bill next month.

Some of you might remember the free postage offer Maja of the Snowflower Diaries had. Well, I contacted the lady to enquire about a few charts, then thread, and fabric. She is so lovely!

chart, fabric, and threads

charts, fabric, and threads

By then I spent over the monthly budget and needed to decide whether I was not going to buy one of the fabrics and replace with one of my own ... or use up the skip month. And as per last month's advise. Use skip month wisely and buy, buy, buy ... 

chart and threads

I bought one more. Click here to see all charts available to buy. And don't forget Maja has loads of free charts too on her blog here.

And I can actually share what arrived! As the package came yesterday, while I was at work and it was a lovely surprise to come to.

some threads Maja offered to send along with the purchase

And oh my goodness, she also sent me an extra chart! She is one generous lady.

But my shopping did not stop here!

I bought a chart from Gaynor of the Stitchers Anon Cross Stitch Designs

click here to go to her website. It was 3 Euros on sale. I just couldn't resist. 

Then there was a purchase from Love Thy Thread:

Maiko

After I purchased it, I was offered a 20% discount for registering with the website ... so of course I had to buy a few more:

Bewitched Park

Geisha

New Age Cross Stitch e-zine

All available to buy from here.


I bought 4 charts from Tilton crafts, 'Alice Series (Mizoguchi)':

Click here to buy or view.

I bought three charts from Livia Rovaris. The sheep have made an appearance on HAED page on facebook (not that they are extremely relevant to HAED stitching .... but sooooo cool). 

All available from here with reasonable postage.

Some more charts from Nancy of the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe:

All available to buy from her eBay shop (there is a sale on at the moment). Click here.

I also made my first purchase from 123 and although I have an eye out on some kits and charts I felt I could not justify anymore stash in those departments ... so I bought some fabric instead (sigh I know I know this is a mad spree).

32 Count 18 x 27
Vinatage Country Mocha Belfast Linen

32 Count 18 x 27
Country Vintage Pebble Belfast Linen

32 Count 18 x 28
Vintage Cork Belfast Linen

And finally 32 Count Vintage Autumn Field Belfast Linen 18 x 27 which is now unavailable on 123 so I cannot copy an image over.

Available to buy from here.

Oh and I almost forgot ... also some Anchor threads enhancement:

50 anchor threads for £6.94 not bad

Oh no, no, no ...  last minute I could not resist and bought 3 kits from Michael Powell:

I will stitch them as one. There is a sale on until Sunday (up to 20%). So I saved on that and will get 2 extra charts (Greek Village and Mini Cottage 1) - as per what the email said, plus as I am registered for emails so I got an extra 5% discount. 

I better sign off before I remember a last minute purchase that I needed to make.

TUSAL #6 ... late ... and some orchid photos

Dear all,

I have an extremely belated TUSAL post (don't ask by how much it is late ... dreadful). Note in the background my mum's orchid that has been moved into my room so it can get encouraged by other orchids to bloom. It now has 6 flowers (so the plan worked), and is one of 5 flowering orchids at the moment (2 of which were bought so probably should not be counted). 

#1-#5 and #6 in front

2014 so far!

The purple one I mentioned in earlier posts has had an extra flower and still going strong after 2 months of flowering. I own an orchid in a similar colouring to mum's and it has now 2 flowers (almost 3). The baby has now a spike too! It would be very exciting to see its flowers (I don't even remember what colour that particular orchid is). So fingers crossed that the process goes well all the way. The parent looks a little worse for wear, but its roots keep coming out in all wrong spots (it likes to grow them into the plastic support), so I think its getting better.

Two of my other flowing orchids (yellow/peach is my relatively recent half price purchase from tesco and purple was bought about a year ago and has only just been nursed into flowering state again):

Orchids posing with bird houses for Etsy

I can't believe that two months ago I cut off a spike from the only blooming orchid I had (still no spike but a new leaf beginning to form), and now three other ones have blossomed (+ 2 new flowering additions).

Speaking of bird houses and Etsy. I want one for my room. Need to find perfect fabric. It will be so handy. The yellow/peach orchid is right in front of me on the desk and if I had the bird house in it I could put the pins there any time I needed to instead of attempting to find the pin box.

Is it really Wipocalypse time again? - post #5 - a month later I manage to finish this post

Is it really that time again? It seems I have posted my progress only yesterday.

Oh well the blogging feed says what it says so be it. [please note I wrote this bit a long while ago, its seems it along with photos has been in drafts forever]

Let start with a biggie ... I have a finish wooohooo (I was going to share it in a separate post in advance, but the time has run out it seems).


I recently had this finishing mode. Where I had one finish after another. This, the Snowflower Diaries' one, I also completed my input on the latest doll in progress. Hair sewn, and body stuffed. She is looking gorgeous. Then I picked up my knitting (a project being stored for a year or two). It is a jumper that I almost finished and only had half the sleeves to go. It has a mildly complicated pattern so once you put it down picking up and figuring out what line of pattern you are on amidst what to increase what to decrease. Anyhow it isn't done yet, but getting close. I am now beginning slowly to decrease the sleeves, just above the armpits essentially. The confusing part is that I think the pattern is telling me to decrease too slowly, and judging by my tension I will have a rather long shoulder. I need to find my original tension sample. I have decreased the amount of stitches according to this, but as most of pattern tells you how much to knit in length rather than rows I don't remember paying too much attention to that.

Christmas Candle

you saw this progress a few days ago in the Tuesday post:

April 2014

May 2014

But I am actively stitching on this project at the moment. Getting through all that confetti hair. It isn't too bad to be honest I imagine the golden leaves to the right will be a lot harder if the first leaf that I had on page #1 is anything to judge by. Threading just for one stitch! common this is just plain cruel. I think I'll leave for last that way I can start gridding next page and move on the threads to next page.

Ember II

After a large input in April, May saw little stitching:

April 2014

May 2014

I have finished the first flower and started working on the next one.

QS Poisonous Beauties

April 2014

May 2014

Since the photo has been taken back in May, there is actually a little bit more stitched on this one.

And for the big finale ...

Lean on Me:

April 2014

May 2014

It is finished!!! Mind this was meant to be mentioned in the promised 'finishing mode' post, but that was back when I was ahead. And now I am a little more that behind.

Anyhow till soon. There is still TUSAL update from last month to go ... and almost time to begin afresh with this month's updates.

P.S. The questions of the month were: what designs or themes do you really wish you could find? What do you think is missing among stitching designs?

Well to answer I'd have to say I wish I could find Judy Rossouw work easier. They either cost a fortune and then a fortune in postage, or just nowhere. 

I wish I could buy kits for cards. The sort with pre-printed card blank. I am including 2 examples. One was a free kit with World of Cross Stitching. And the other I have created myself around the design. There is only a few I came across in this style.