Treasures from Turkey

Life... Happened. That's the best I could come up with to explain my disappearance for the past months.

Within the course of a few short months, on top of the numerous personal emotional issues I had to deal with, I also had the chance to visit Melbourne, Australia and Bangkok, Thailand. In the blink of an eye, it's already June.

Anyway, it's long past time I showed you what Nurdan, my talented friend from Turkey, made for me.

Aren't these handmade crochet drawstring pouches gorgeous? My initial favourite was the glittery blue one with surprising accents like these flower bells (for lack of suitable term to call them)...

But now I've since fallen in love with the blue and brown one not to mention that elegant golden one with lace. Luckily, I don't need to decide which is my favourite as Nurdan has generously given all three to me. Thank you again, Nurdan.

Along with the pouches, she has also included these treasures:

First, the lace... So delicate and pretty. It's made by Nurdan's mum and I'm honored that she deemed me worthy enough to receive them. Did you know they're fifty two years old? Then, there's the lovely blue yarn and adorable babushka dolls.

As to what I've been up to, I've not gotten a lot of stitching done lately. I did finish this piece a while ago however.

Design: Singing the Blues

Designer: Little House Needleworks

Fabric: 28 count Zweigart Cashel

Fibers: Hand Dyed Fibers silk

As usual, I've made my own conversion from Crescent Colours Belle Soie to HDF silk

CC Icing - HDF Examplar White Chocolate

CC Tulip - HDF Dragon Blood

CC Ocean Tide - HDF Old Blue Eyes

I couldn't remember the colour of the linen I used other than the fact that it's a Zweigart stock linen.

It was quite a quick stitch.

As usual, I love the subtle colour variations of hand-dyed floss.

And as an apology for being away so long. Or an incentive for visiting my blog. Or a bribe to leave a comment whichever way you choose to see it. Mostly a bribe :P I've put together a kit for Singing the Blues.

If you like how my Singing the Blues turned out and would like to stitch one like it, please leave a comment that you'll like to be included in the giveaway in this post only. I'll draw a name on 20 June 2013.
Until then, happy stitching!

Dreaming...

Firstly, today's my mum's birthday. Happy Birthday, Mum!

It's surprising how hard it is to get back to blogging once I stopped. They say life is full of ups and downs. That accurately describes my life for the past few months.

My grandfather on my dad's side passed away peacefully in his sleep on 2 November 2012. Even though his health has been gradually deteriorating, it was rather unexpected and was quite a shock to the family. I didn't know my grandfather well as he wasn't an easy man to get close to. However, he had always shown us, through his actions, that he loved us.

He had been living with us for a few months due to his health prior to his passing. When he was living in Sungai Petani, Kedah with my grandmother, we would visit them annually, especially during Chinese New Year. He'd always buy us a lot of seafood. If the rambutan tree in his garden is bearing fruit, he'd also climb the tree at his own risk to harvest the fruits for us to bring home. I was told that one time, he accidentally fell from the tree (I was still too young to realize what had happened). Luckily he recovered from his fall.

I'd mentioned before that my favourite food is petai. Every time we visit, he would buy a bunch of petai from the local market for my grandmother to cook for me. Only for me because no one else in the family loves petai as much as I do.

Another food I love is a type of shellfish also known as blood cockle. This love was cultivated by my grandfather. One of my most vivid memories with him was me standing on a stool at the kitchen sink while he painstakingly opened the shells before popping the boiled cockles into my mouth. I was perhaps five or six? Still too short to reach the kitchen sink, hence the stool :P

Wherever he is now, I hope he is at peace and pain free. We miss you, grandfather.

Also in November, I had the opportunity to visit Sungai Lembing with my church group. A lovely place for some well needed R&R, it boasts wonderful views like this:

 

Taken at Panorama Hill. And this:

Aptly named Rainbow Waterfall, it was the highlight of the entire trip. There's nothing like seeing a rainbow up close and personal. Have I ever mentioned that the rainbow is my namesake? Yup, my Chinese name is named after the rainbow ^.^

Then, in December, there was my birthday. I've been interested in photography for over a year now. Before investing in a dSLR though, I did a lot of reading and research. Finally, this is what I got for my birthday:

Yup, a Canon EOS 650D aka Rebel T4i in US. Believe me when I said I've been debating between Canon and Nikon for months now. The decision wasn't easy but the 650D along with its touch screen and hybrid AF system won me over. Hopefully, you'll see an improvement in the quality of my photos overtime.

And me, being me, a complete and total girl, I just gotta get my camera one of these:

Epiphan!e's Lola in red. Can you believe this is actually a camera bag? Or camera purse as I call it. I fell head over heels in love with it the moment I saw it. It spots the cutest, most adorable camera tag too.

I figured what better time to buy it than Christmas? Hehe... Special thanks to Mikey for shipping it to me all the way from US.

Of course, there were also a lot of World of Warcraft and Diablo 3 gaming involved in between. Don't worry, my needle hasn't been completely idle the whole time. There are stitching updates in this post, which I bet is what you're here for :P I'll admit it has been a struggle to get anything finished. In fact, this is all I have to show during all those months I was MIA.

Design: The Dreamer

Designer: Mirabilia

Fabric: 32 count Silkweaver Solo Opalescent Belfast

Fibers: DMC

Embelishment: Mill Hill Beads

This final square is for Renée's RR. This is actually the second time I've been in an RR with her. Oh, how impatient she must be by now to have it returned to her. I apologize again for the delay, Renée.

As you can see, I've flipped The Dreamer around to mirror Enchanted Dreamer.

She has such a sweet face. Perhaps that's the reason the frogs wouldn't leave her alone?

Not a very blingy design but I think the bright colours more than make up for that.

I feel that this is perhaps the hardest Mirabilia I've stitched to date with the sheer number of colours involved. Tons of colour changes and confetti stitches do not make me a happy camper.

Not to mention the amount of blending involved. If you're planning to stitch this design, consider yourself forewarned. Of course, if you have truckloads of patience and determination, go for it. After all, The Dreamer is absolutely one pretty lady :)

Until next time, Happy Stitching!

My First Mermaid

First things first, My Memories Suite Giveaway winner

• Melanie

I'll be sending you the code to download your free My Memories Suite software shortly. Thank you for entering.

Once again, I've been busy round robin stitching. In this instance, it's Leslie's Mirabilia Mermaids RR. Here's the square seashell I contributed.

Design: Shimmering Mermaid

Designer: Mirabilia

Fabric: 32 count Silkweaver Redyed Opalescent Belfast

Fibers: DMC & Kreinik Metallic

Embelishment: Mill Hill Beads

That's right, Leslie redyed the Silkweaver fabric that she received as it was too fushia and purple to suit this project. Amazing result, eh?

I certainly think so. That's one yummy fabric which goes pefectly with mermaids. Love Jacqueline's Mermaid of Atlantis too.

I picked Shimmering Mermaid because I think she has one of the sweetest face Nora has ever designed. Can you believe she's the first mermaid I've ever stitched?

She has quite an amount of glitter on such a small portion. How much more would she sparkle in full? That question is tempting me to stitch her again. Must resist...

On to the next and also last RR of this round. What will I stitch? Care to guess? ^.^

Winners & Giveaway

It's time to announce the winners for my pincushion giveaway :D I truly did not expect this many participants. Thank you for entering. Random.org has spoken:

(Click to bigify)

And here are the two winners:

• Sally
• Catherine

Congratulations, ladies. Please email me your address so I could send those pincushions out to you as soon as possible. Those that didn't win, fret not, I have more giveaways lined up for you. In fact, scroll down for another giveaway right at this post.

Before I mention the giveaway however, please let me show you what I've been up to. I've been busy working on Jaqueline's Mirabilia round robin.

Design: Garden Beauty
Designer: Mirabilia
Fabric: 28 count Polstitches Jobelan
Fibers: DMC
Embelishment: Mill Hill Beads

I've only seen three finishes of her so far. I think she deserves to be stitched. After all, she is pretty, don't you agree? However, I admit that I did give her a slight nose job ^.^

Unsurprisingly, with the amount of confetti stitches she has, (darn roses!) frogs plagued me from the beginning till the end :(

Only a little beading on her so she's not as blingy as other Mirabilia designs but overall, I'm happy.

Here's Jackie's RR so far. I think the fabric is real pretty and perfect for it.

On to the giveaway.

I was given a free copy of My Memories Suite over a month ago (Aiks!) to use and review. It was only today that I managed to find the time to try it out. Sorry Liz!

Installing it was a breeze. Unless you're like me and didn't have Quicktime installed on your computer. After I had that installed, I was good to go as the software needs it to run.

Loading My Memories Suite for the first time, I was greeted with easy-to-follow instructions to create a new album. Once that was done, I was taken to an interface rather similar to Adobe Photoshop. I got the hang of it pretty easily and was immediately immersed in it.

Everything is pretty much self-explained. It was all trial and error for me. Don't like the result? Just undo and try again.

I figured I'll use my previous Garden Beauty photos as my basis for this review. You know, similar content, different approach? These are what I accomplished in a few hours.

My first try. Is it just me or does this have a retro feel to it? LOL! It must be the black lace, me thinks.

Second effort. Wavy stitches are the bomb, in my opinion :P

Third time's the charm. I'm in love with those flowers. Fitting companions to Garden Beauty.

What do you think? Which is your favourite?

I couldn't resist playing with Stargazer as well, my favourite finish to-date. I was going for the dramatic here. Did I achieve it?

So, would you like to win your own copy of My Memories Suite? All you need to do is:

• Check out My Memories.
• Leave a comment telling me which is your favourite kit.

The deadline to enter this giveaway is 25 September 2012, ten days from today. The winner will be selected at random. Good luck to all who enter.

Pincushion Exchange

Where has August flown to? In the blink of an eye, it's already September.

First and foremost, I need to apologize to my fellow bloggers. I'm so behind in visiting your blogs that I have no idea how I'm gonna catch up. My Google Reader is exploding with 1000+ unread posts. I think I just might clear it and start over.

Let's see, what have I been up to? I was pretty much incapacitated by migraines near the end of July to the first half of August. For some reason, during that period, my migraines intensified from once or twice per month to once a week, lasting two to three days each time. It wasn't pleasant to say the least. All this while, doctors have only given me painkillers which didn't help much, if at all. Finally, I went to the hospital and was prescribed Metoprolol. The pain stopped and once again, I can function like a normal person again. Thank God!
As a result, I don't have much to show. First off, here's my TUSAL update. My ort jar is posed with the Coca-Cola Olympic glasses offered by Macdonald's. I managed to collect them all and meant to post this in August. That didn't happen. Sigh! Best laid plans and all :P

I did, however, participated in NNC's Pincushion Exchange. My partner was Bee Ee (no blog) and she sent me not one but three pincushions along with a cut of fabric. Lovely, aren't they?

For my part, I went on a Cathedral Window Pincushion making craze and ended up with a stack of four.

I think they're so pretty. Do you agree with me?

This is the one I picked to sent to Sally.

I sure hope she likes it. I gave one to my mum too ^.^

And guess what? For returning to visit my long neglected blog and sticking till the end of this post, I have two more to give away.

Just leave a comment letting me know you'd like to be included. That's all. Winners will be drawn on 15 September 2012.

Also, watch out for My Memories Suite giveaway next post. I've been given two free copies. One for me and the other for you :D Now if only I could find the time to play with it. It sure looks fun.

Happy Stitching!

Stella

Finally, my July WiPocalypse update. Might as well make it my IHSW update too. I know it's still the weekend but I can no longer wait to share...

Design: The Stargazer

Designer: Mirabilia

Fabric: 32 count Silkweaver Starquest Reflections Belfast linen

Fibers: DMC

Embelishment: Mill Hill Beads

Stella's done. My first Mirabilia. Woohoo! Took me a little over five months. I started her on Valentine's Day. Not too bad considering she wasn't the only project I was working on during that time frame.

Stunning, isn't she? Her skin is stitched one over one. Love the effect.

As usual, this will be a picture heavy post with close up photos so brace yourselves ^.^

Swirls of beads... My absolute favourite part. I made some changes to the huge star, switching the DMC to Kreinik. What can I say? I can't get enough glitter.

My conversion for the star if you're interested:

DMC 3747 - Kreinik #4 9294

DMC 3756 - Kreinik #4 1432

My least favourite part. This particular area gave me a lot of trouble along with a throbbing headache. Not fun but the result sure is though.

More beads. Seriously, this design is so heavily beaded I'll be hard pressed to take a photo without beads.

Which isn't surprising. I estimated over 2000 beads on this baby.

What is surprising is the fact that the swirls on her dress beaded up much quicker than I had anticipated.

Since it's a WiPocalypse and IHSW update post, you don't need to ask what's next. My July TUSAL update too :D I think that should be my trademark from now on.

This month, my ort jar is modeled by the world's cutest bear.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love the Forever Friends bear. This particular one was a birthday gift from my best friend, Adeline, years ago. Note the cupcake he's holding :)

Friday the 13th, a supposedly unlucky day. That was the day I bought my first floor stand. Turned out to be one of the best decision I've ever made. It arrived five (yes, five! Miracle indeed) days later. May I point out that this was shipped from the UK?

This is the Stitchmaster Floorstand made by Daylight Company. Easy to assembled and perfectly well balanced. The Q-Snap you see on it measures 20" x 17".

Along with the floor stand, I also ordered the Stitchmaster Seat Stand. On this one, I've placed a 6" x 6" Q-Snaps but it can easily hold a 11" x 11" Q-Snaps or any scroll frames along that size.

Can you tell I'm in love? I ordered it from Sew and So. Altogether, it cost me £40.16 (US$62.74) excluding shipping. Shipping was £33.00 from UK to Malaysia. Very reasonable. Excellent customer service too, I must say. So if you, like me, have been looking for a stand that does not require any adjustment of knobs to flip your work or more importantly does not break the bank, I highly recommend these.
Happy Stitching!