This post reminded me not to neglect my stitching this year...so far I'm not so successful, although I did finish a cushion cover with the Sublime "Marcel Wave" pattern on it, I'll post a pic when I'm not so lazy.

Oh my golly galoshes

I love the Feeling Stitchy blog, but haven't been up to date with reading it really. So I just came across two pieces of embroidery that I LOVE, from their competition here.

photo source here

photo source here.

Really inspires me to start stitching again.

Oh my giddy aunt!

Delilah the Beautiful, by Badbird, originally uploaded by giddy99.

Sometimes you find something on Flickr that really inspires you. I can't believe I hadn't found this girl's photos before! In this case it's the embroidery by Giddy99... I have no idea who she is, if she blogs, or anything really, other than that she lives in the USA and her embroidery is PHENOMENAL!! This gorgeous version of Badbird's Delilah pattern puts my weak effort to shame.

tapircraft

Once upon a time, the lovely Ruth drew a tapir, and it was cute. So Steph offered to embroider it for her. And some time around Easter, a tapir pillowcase was born. And Ruth was pleased. And Steph was happy.

Stitched postcard swap

Alas, I have no creative mojo at the moment, and after a couple of hours embroidering a clock that I later decided was crap and chucked away, this simple effort ending up being my stitched postcard:

Plus I was running late, but I hope my partner liked it.

The text is from the following quote, as the theme was Time:
“Time is too slow for those who wait,
too swift for those who fear,
too long for those who grieve,
too short for those who rejoice,
but for those who love, time is eternity.”

~Henry van Dyke

More on the swap over here.
In the meantime, I check the mail hoping that the post gremlins haven't devoured mine.

I very much liked

this post on the Craftzine blog as I realise I'm not the only one who has a whole mess of FLOSS waiting to play with. And why I can never find the colour I want. Yay Jenny!

[photo from Craftzine]

It's hump day

Yet again, although all day yesterday I thought it was Wednesday and was most perturbed when SYTYCD wasn't on at the right time. Or at all. At least I didn't wheel the rubbish bins out this time though. Yes I'm wishing my life away, hopefully that will slow down in a month or two.

Crafty wise, as this is the point of my humpy post, I've been trying to sort the troublesome granny problem...think this is the fault of the yarn. I just don't like the yarn I started with... so I'm thinking the first lot will become a dog blankie. I've made a few more with the prettier coloured yarn I bought at Lincraft two weeks ago, so I'll see if I'll keep that one going.

The only other thing I've done is read my little Japanese embroidery book ("
Scandinavian little embroidery") and was inspired to stitch this doiley:

Obviously the design is from there, I just added the text, as I don't believe Japanese people tend to say "cuppa".

Hump Day Roundup

Indeed, it is that time of week again, for me to tell anyone that may be interested of my crafting endeavours of the past seven days...although for the life of me, I'm having trouble recalling the past seven days. Thursday is a blank, Friday was a write off, and Saturday, also a blank. The rest of the time, I set myself a goal: to finish my chair cover embroidery project as a matter of urgency, as Ninja has had a fine old time ripping the "naked" chair, and I was a bit sick of the trashing.
So now he has a pretty thing to rip up instead:

The pattern is of course, Sublime Stitching's designs from The Black Apple. I'm not 100% sure if this one is finished, I don't know if it needs the little banner saying "hello" or an extra bird or two. (Edited to add - when I was putting the link in, I realised I meant to add in the bunny and the teacups - to the upper left of the trees. So I'm not finished!) But I'm pleased with my row of wee housies on the back of Ikea chair. I have similar plans for the other chair (maybe using the Julie West sheet)...but right now, I can't be arsed.

Other crafty thing this week...started a little lunch time project:

Just something else for the wall.

As an aside, am I the only one who finds that the camera on the i-phone shite? Might have to ask the universe to send me a new camera soon. Apologies for the bad photos of the chair, I took them with said i-phone at 11pm last night.

Why my stitching output is somewhat slower lately...

aka "When Ninjas attack".


Bad kitteh.

Love - Day 11

This was one of last week's crafty projects, but I didn't want to mention it yesterday, lest I spoil the surprise for the recipient. They have now received their pressie, so I can share. (Pattern from Sublime Stitching.)

LOVE your guts.

Hump Day crafty life roundup

You know, making myself do this round up is rather good really, as it sort of forces me to have something to show you for the week, thus giving my wont-to-procrastinating-self the proverbial boot in the backside. No humping this week but definitely crafting. (You probably didn't need to know that, but given the three people that read this blog are used to my ways, I am not afeared of offending anyone.) Anyway, I digress.

So I finished Miss Delilah:
She's feeling spiffy in a Reject Shop frame, but needs another press.

Started new project using The Black Apple embroidery designs from Sublime Stitching:
This one might take longer than I thought, because the fabric I'm stitching is quite thick and hard on the hands. By the way, am I the only one that "under-presses" Sublime designs? I'm not really keen on the fact that the ink doesn't wash out, and so I like to make them as feint as possible to allow for my stitching vagaries. 'Tis why I always need to fill everything in with my trusty water soluble marker.

As detailed ad nauseam in earlier posts, been working on granny malarkey:



I've also been perusing Etsy more than is healthy (y'know I don't allow myself to e-bay any more?) and in happy news stumbled upon a wife for Percy. (Those who know me/have been to my house will know what I'm on about.) Now to find a vintage frame for her. The op-shop beckons, methinks...

Also via Etsy, this morning I bought this cuteness to stitch up from Wild Olive. I'm on a bit of a mission to add to my pattern collection with original designs and have no qualms about paying such talented designers. I also grabbed all my old embroidery transfers from the old house last night, so there may be the odd post in the works at Stitchy Britches too...I've found a big owl that's begging to be stitched.

Happy Hump Day! What's been your favourite project of the week?

Too much?

Cutesy kitschness, we all love it. Just browsing the Morris and Sons website and came across this cushion kit...not it's not vintage, it's brand new. Part of me wants it, the other part is saying "Steph, get a grip!"
Any opinions?

Hump Day Crafting Roundup #2

...aka the post where I attempt to avoid all "humping" innuendo. (and fail).

Speaking of humping, as I write this, the news on the radio is telling me that "Tiger Woods is undergoing treatment for sexual addiction"...pfft, I'm sorry but personally I think that's a load of bollocks. He could, so he did. End of story. Now there's an ad on the radio for "Total Tools"...how apt. I don't know about you, but I get a bit fed up hearing about how "hard" celebrites have got it. Gimme a break.

Anyway, the craft, not the humping. The past week has mostly been about a visit from the Fella, so the craft has been a bit neglected...but not the humping. (Okay I can't help myself! Sorry... TMI.) The project of my week has been the beautiful Delilah, who appeared in my inbox last Wednesday afternoon and has been providing me with stitching joy ever since. I'm actually at the stage where I just want to finish it off and hang it up as I want to move onto something new. (Am I the only person with this problem? Once my crafty thing takes shape and I can picture the end result, I lose interest.) Here's Delilah's progress to date:


Alas I will not be able to finish her tonight, as I have fallen victim to a suburban affliction ~ hosting a Tupperware party. Like every hardcore op-shopper, I love vintage Tupperware...but I'm also partial to a nice Rock'n'serve too. Plus Ninja will love the visitors.


[image from here. Yay.]

Hump Day Crafting Roundup #1

For want of a better title. My lovely bud Cam commented the other day that I appear to have my crafting mojo back and I'm tending to agree. I'm actually out of the doldrums a bit and interested again. I attribute my 2009 crafting FAIL to this theory:


So for my own self-indulgence, I'll try and remember to regularly post a round up of my endeavours for the week.

Tally this "week":
- semi-finished the deer embroidery (I still want to fill in its antlers and add a bit of a border.)
- pieced together my cutesy Japanese quilt-top (this project is at a temporary standstill...do you know how hard it is to sort quilt batting and a quilt-top with a 9 week old kitten trying to help? I think I might ask the fella to help me on the weekend with the assembly.)
- started a deery pillowcase embroidery (using this pattern.)

This post at Pip's made me gasp! So pretty! She's all about granny squares this month, which reminds me of my Granny Malarkey. It's currently safely stashed in the spare room wardrobe, after the Ginja Ninja unravelled some knitting recently. I'm trying to work out how I can crochet without piquing a small kitten's interest. I take my hat off to all of you crafty mums out there, how do you get crafty creations done with kidlets around full time?
For a bit of eye candy, from the same Flickr in the link above, a pic of grannies and a ginger! Easy to see why it appealed to me:

And of course, never letting the grass grow...(actually that should be my motto!)...I etsy'd this pattern today from Badbird. Oooh I love Delilah! I'm impatiently waiting for her to arrive in my inbox so I can start.

I'm also having the urge to go scope out Savers. This is bad of me because a) I can't afford it b) I should go and clear more of my stuff out of my old house rather than buying more and c) I really should try and curb some spending. But Murphy's Law... if I go there today, we all know there'll be a $25 art pottery vase that wants me to buy it... if I don't go... hmm... what treasures will I miss? (The pillowcase stash needs replenishing.) Am I a greedy pig? Argh!

I like this

This sweet pic I found on Flickr this morning has given me an idea for a project.

Image source.

Speaking of Flickr, I started a new account yesterday. My Drewzel pro-account had run out, and I'm a wee bit...well VERY annoyed that they hold you to ransom by making lots of your photos unavailable unless you renew. Grr.

OMFG

...is not a phrase I often utter, but it was the one that came to mind when I saw this incredible tattoo on Flickr this morning! EEP!

Link to pic.

No this is not my tatt, but I so wish it was! Apart from the gorgeous design, the ink is excellent.

And in a similar vein, look at this tattoo design:

This one's by Sunny Buick. So much love. (A pic of the finished ink is here.)

Rainy Day

Today as supposed to be catch up on housework day, but as it was cold, overcast and rainy, it became couch day. I had grand crafty plans, but then decide that my lounge room wall needed a portrait of a deer.

Sublime Stitching came through for me of course. ('Forest Friends' pattern.)

So this was the view most of the afternoon for me:


And for Ninja:


As I write this, the wind is threatening to blow us all away, and the rain is coming in all directions. And I'm trying to keep the cat from destroying the kitchen. Hopefully I'll get the deer finished tomorrow, and maybe I'll do some housework too. But I wouldn't bet on it.

Currently...

Working on this pillowcase, a design from a Vogart Transferprint that some nice person shared on Flickr. I'm not sure when this pillowcase stitching obsession will end.

A quick stitch

If you know me, you'll know I arse around on Facebook a lot. And love an application called "Courage Wolf", where it gives you a "random" piece of wisdom. Lately every time I click it, it gave me this one, so I figured it was a sign. And embroidered it up one evening...December 11 to be precise.

Pressie (rude word warning)

After a brief silly FB chat one evening, I offered to stitch up a pillowcase for a mate. This was his suggestion for his affirmation. And an 'I heart'... well cause he does heart them.


Lettering from Sublime Stitching Craft Pad, girlie bits from their Vital Organs patterns. The rooster is from Vogart.

Now he just better appreciate the effort, or I'll kick him in the bag.

PS. How SUPER COOL is this?! I just rushed and bought the meat and roaring twenties patterns. Mmmm embroidered meat.