Wipocalypse - January

Well here we have a new year and hopefully....on my part.....a newly envigorated blog.  Got a bit sidetracked at the end of last year with all the Christmas stuff and just got tired...as if the year was taking its toll....Anyway few days off....and a lovely family Christmas and the warm weather returning to Sydney after weeks of rain.....I am ready for another year.  And Wipocalypse.  I have not made a list but I have it in my head....so here is my first post for the year.  I have made progress on Golden Wood (the reason for this blog) and that is going to be my first entry in Wipocalypse.

Have also finished a couple of quilts.  One for my stepdaughter Tina and one for me which had been around for years as a top.  The  Flying Geese started life as a jelly roll which my daughter Bee bought at a quilt show.  Rather surprisingly she offered to take me to the show and she got sucked in by the lovely jelly roll.  She used to stitch when she was little and I have hopes that her craft side will spring back to life (she is now nearly 20 and it does not seem to be cool to stitch) but I have faith that it will rise to the surface again at some stage....it is in her blood, my mother and grandmother and I are (and were) addicted to craft -- so I say "Blood will out".  When Bee bought the jelly roll she said she would make something for Tina and I swore that I would not do it for her.....well you know how that went.  After the jelly roll sat in my sewing room for nearly 18 months I capitulated and made this quilt...just got it finished in time for Christmas...........

The trouble with making a quilt as a present, by the end of the process you want to keep it for yourself....I particularly loved this selection of fabric.....oh well!


So to all who happen upon this blog and read, may we all have a positive and creative New Year and may we all be able to throw off the sorrows and difficulties of last year (if we had them) and start afresh.

So Close to Finishing I Can SMELL IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When the Crafty Princess (God Bless Her) got me back into cross stitching and I started Golden Wood could not realistically imagine finishing anything (least of all Golden Wood) - Golden Wood has been on hold as I wanted to finish the Wedding Sampler and BLOW ME DOWN - I can actually see the end.  All the detailed stuff in the middle is finished and the border is pretty nearly there.....a big bit of fudging had to be done as I had to dodgey up the border when I made my original mistake....have had to add some stitches.....and as my head is not one that easily gets itself around mathematical numerical things there was also a bit of unpicking.....but I am hoping that all the border lines and all the flowery vines will meet up at the bottom right hand corner.....stay tuned should meet up sometime today....if I can drag myself away from the computer....then all I have to do is finish all the flowers along the vine, and they are quite quick.

I had a bad day a couple of weeks ago, where I had a horrible thought that because I had stitched the date on the sampler something fatal would happen to my husband and the sampler would be a tragic and ironic waste of time.  Roll on 12 October - anything can happen after that.....OH AM I A BAD WIFE OR WHAT.....having said that now, a plane will drop on me when I am out walking or something.....should this happen Crafty Princess I would like you to update this blog with a final post - thanks lovie

Look at that vine creeping around the bottom - cannot decide if the big birds are peacocks or turkeys??



HAPPY MAY DAY EVERYONE

Slow Stroll through the Woods of Gold

Have to say that stitching keeps me sane.....home life does weigh heavy upon me on occasions....(only occasions).....too many things to do and to think and to organise, and not enough time to do them.....but when it gets too much I escape upstairs to the very small sewing room that I made out of the walk-in wardrobe....turn on the ipod and have an audiobook read to me and sew.....and it is good for recharging.

Have not done as much as I intended last month...but then never do....but the sampler is looking good, and I will really have to get it finished this year because I have stitched in the date (2011) - not to mention our anniversary date.  I am reasonably confident it will be done before 12 Oct.

And the stroll through the Woods has slowed....mainly because I left my thread box at work for 6 days....I was a bit concerned at one point that one of the loons at work would throw it out in disgust at someone who does craft rather than the mindless computer games they play endlessly for 12 hours....but it was safe in my pigeon hole and I could stop worrying about replacing about $100 worth of thread.....nearly up to starting the sixth page....wahooooooooo!!!only a gazillion to go.

 

Hope everyone has a great April and you all enjoy Easter in your own ways...rabbits, eggs, peace and quiet, public holidays.....whatever.....and that you all get a chance to do a lot of quiet stitching, and maybe some of us will finish something.   I have a quilt that just needs the binding handsewn...so there is a chance that that will get done...all those chocolate eggs will energise me!!!

Photographic evidence of my Complete Insanity

Well here are the pictures stitchers....what I bought at the Craft Expo....not bad for a woman who only went to buy a magnetic magnifying thingy for my pattern board - this I hasten to point out I did actually buy.....along with all this lot.......................

Well now you can see what I mean.....I never do anything small or uncomplicated....or likely to be finished in a lifetime......the sampler at the bottom by Jeannette Douglas is not just cross stitch it is all sorts of stitches I have never seen before and thankfully it comes with a very good booklet of directions for each little section....but when compared to the other things I bought the sampler will be blissfully easy and quick.....told you.....sheer MADNESS....my 19 year old daughter used to stitch when she was little, hope the bug bites her again when she is a little older or when I am dead because I would like to think that all these kits and charts will be finished by someone in my family....maybe I could leave them to you Crafty Princess!!!???

We are going to finish something - we have promised

Well the Crafty Princess and I went to the Craft Expo at Rosehill the other day - with Jen B and the Crafty Princess' Mum (does that make her the Crafty Queen??) - anyway, it was very much quilt oriented which was not good in a way, as we were looking for cross stitch stuff - there were really only 3 stalls exclusively cross stitching and then one fabric stall.  This stall sold precut Aida and Evenweave and Linen in a whole range of colours, and is run by two knowledgeable and charming men who are business partners and partners in life as well - William and Peter.  They have both done cross stitch themselves and William's brain was lightening fast at working out inches to centimetres and back again and could calculate whether a pattern which was quoted in 25 count could fit on this piece which was was 22 count....a genius.  They were so charming and helpful and they sell online sewitall.com.au  - would recommend them to anyone.......ANYWAY the upshot of it all was, that they were rather aghast at the fact that I was restarting my cross stitching with a Heaven & Earth Design....and then when they found out that the Princess had about 15 projects on the go and 50 or so waiting in the wings they were.....WELL!!!!!!!   Anyway somehow we found ourselves (mainly instigated by me in a effort to appease them I suspect) promising to come and see them at the Darling Harbour Show with something finished.....so I actually have to finish something.