My First IHSW

So I finally caved and joined in September's IHSW. However, before I showed you what I've been up to this past weekend, here's Part 3 of iStitch Mystery SAL as promised.

Anyway, last weekend was a long weekend for me as Friday (16 September) was Malaysia Day. Unfortunately, I didn't stitch as much as one would expect. I've yet to put in a single stitch on Garden Verses for the Mirabilia SAL. I hope to rectify that soon.

I worked on Romantique Sampler instead. This time round, Angie has sent three parts rather than of her usual two. I managed to complete two parts so far.

Part 18:

Part 19:

I'm now working on Part 20. Once I get that done, I'll move on to Garden Verses. Luckily, I took Monday and Tuesday off too (Yeah, it's a very long weekend for me :P Five days!). I guess I had overestimated my stitching speed when I allocated five days for Romantique Sampler on my stitching schedule. Then again, that's supposed to act only as guidelines, right? ^.^

On Saturday, Carol sent out Part 4 of her Mystery SAL. It's small so it was done in no time at all.

I hope you've all had a great weekend. Happy Stitching!

Autumn

I've always love the rich palette of autumn. In keeping with my stitching schedule abeit slightly late, I completed Spot of Autumn.

Design: Spot of Autumn

Designer: The Drawn Thread

Fabric: 32 count Cream Italian Linen

Fibers: DMC & Weeks Dye Works

Stitching this has been a work of frustration and trial of patience. Have you ever felt like you did more frogging than actual stitching on a piece? This was one such case. Other than the red flowers on the bottom left, I must have stitched everything at least twice and the pumpkins three times! I'm reminded once again why it nearly became a UFO two years ago.

So has all that fuss been worth it? I certainly hope so. It sure is pretty, isn't it? Only winter left :)
I also managed to complete Part 2 of iStitch Mystery SAL.

I actually finished Part 3 last night as well but have yet to take a picture. Now it's on to Romantique Sampler.

Happy Stitching!

Coffee or Tea?

Which do you prefer? Me, I like both equally. So it comes as no surprise that I fell in love with Little House Needleworks' Coffee and Tea series. Last weekend, I decided to pick up Herbal Tea.

Took me about five days to finish it.

Design: Herbal Tea

Designer: Little House Needleworks

Fabric: Zweigart's Vintage Country Mocha (Marbled) 32 count Belfast linen

Fibers: Crescent Colours Belle Soie

All three of the tea series are finally done.

The Coffee and Tea series has been an ongoing WiP spanning four years. Can you believe that? If you look closely, you'll see that I finished Cappuccino in 2008! I'm glad to finally have all of them done.

I normally don't make plans when it comes to stitching but I really want to have more finishes before the year is out. Sometime last month, I made a schedule for the remaining months. Here it is in table form. I hope it makes sense. What do you think

Dates	September	October	November	December
1st - 3rd	Little House Needleworks - Herbal Tea	Shepherd's Bush - She Tends (Block 2)	Shepherd's Bush - She Tends (Block 3)	Shepherd's Bush - She Tends (Block 4)
6th - 8th	Drawn Thread - Spot of Autumn	Drawn Thread - Spot of Winter	-	-
11th - 15th	Angie Designs - Romantique Sampler (SAL)	Angie Designs - Romantique Sampler (SAL)	Little House Needleworks - Little House Neighbourhood	Little House Needleworks - Little House Neighbourhood
16th - 20th	Mirabilia - Garden Verses (SAL)	Mirabilia - Garden Verses (SAL)	Mirabilia - Garden Verses (SAL)	Mirabilia - Garden Verses (SAL)
21th - 25th	Passione Ricamo - Romantic Stitcher (SAL)	Passione Ricamo - Romantic Stitcher (SAL)	Passione Ricamo - Romantic Stitcher (SAL)	Passione Ricamo - Romantic Stitcher (SAL)
26th - 30th	Papillon Creations - Love With A Capital L	Papillon Creations - Love With A Capital L	Papillon Creations - Love With A Capital L	Papillon Creations - Love With A Capital L

On the dates not listed, I figured I'll stitch on whatever captures my fancy or work on those that I couldn't finish in time. As for iStitch's Mystery SAL, I'll stitch it when new parts are released. I should be able to finish it in between stitching other projects as the parts are pretty small.

So far, it's been successful. Hence Herbal Tea's finish. Guess we'll see how well I'm able to keep that up. Wish me luck :)

By the way, have you heard of Measi's 2012 WiPocalypse? It's an ongoing SAL for the entire year 2012. I mentioned how much I love SALs in my last post and seeing it, Measi suggested I join hers. I'm so in! Do check it out. There are no obligations, just fun. I'll post my list later depending on how many WiPs I can get done by the end of the year. Hope to see you there too.

Happy Stitching!

Stitch A-Longs

I love Stitch A-Longs, aka SALs. I love the community feeling one gets of stitching together with a group of stitchers online yet at the same time, it's all on my own time, at my own pace. No pressure. I find that very motivating.

For the month of August, I've participated in three SALs. First is the Mirabilia & Nora SAL over at Love 4 Stitching from 16th to 20th every month. Some of you might remember that I started Garden Verses back in September 2010. With this SAL, I finally finished her yellow dress.

Next, I signed up for iStitch's Mystery SAL organized by Carol R. Here's the first part. As you can see, I'm stitching it with Vikki's Examplar Black Iris. It's a lovely, subtly variegated black/maroon in real life which unfortunately the photo doesn't really show. The fabric I'm using is Vikki's 32 count linen in Jackalope.

I'm actually late in this SAL as I went to Phuket, Thailand for a three day vacation last week and couldn't complete it in time. Hopefully I'll receive the next part from Carol soon after I send her the picture.

Last but not least is Romantique Sampler again.

Part 15 was finished ages ago. I'm late as usual with the update.

I just put in the last stitch for Part 17 earlier today. At least for once I'm prompt :)

It's really coming along beautifully if I do say so myself.

Hard to believe this SAL is nearing an end. Two more installments. I doubt I'd have gotten this far with this design had it not been an SAL. What about you? What are your thoughts on SALs?

Back to Love

While waiting on the next two parts of Romantique Sampler, I decided it's way past time to pick up Love With A Capital L again. I had last stitch on it in March 2010. It's been more than a year! Where has the time gone?

Anyway, I finished another section of it last Friday. There were some charting errors so I had to make some minor adjustments to centralize it.

I love this motif.

Always Protects, Trust, Hopes, Perserveres.

Another close up.

Now it's back to Romantique Sampler and the new iStitch Mystery SAL that just started.

Happy Stitching!

Beiges & Blues

I should have, could have posted my Romantique Sampler progress weeks ago but only gotten around to it today. Well, I am famous for my procrastination skills ^.^

Anyway, here's Part 9.

Part 14

And as before, a photo of the whole sampler. I'm still in love with the beiges and blues I picked for this sampler.

The end is nearly in sight. Only three more installments to go. 10 August is coming up. I'm looking forward to stitching the next two parts.

Colours

My friend, June, has been wanting to know how I store my floss for a while now. I'm sorry it took me so long to post the photos. So, this is for you, June.

I store my DMC floss in a two tier craft box. Lucky for me, it's big enough to fit my entire set of DMC in.

As you can see here, I had the floss wound on plastic bobbins. So much easier for storage.

I've been building up my collection of HDF Solids. My micro bobbins are stored in a clear Ferrero Rocher box.

Of course, my box is now overflowing.

What better excuse could one ask for to buy more chocolates? I used to joke with Mikey that silks are yummier than chocolates. Don't you agree with me?

I've also been asked to show my scissors collection. Now, my collection isn't as extensive as some stitchers I see out there but until I put them all on display like this, I never realize I've already accumulated this many scissors. LOL!

One last thing, I received this gorgeous scarf from Radha a few weeks back. I've neglected to show it off until now. Radha knows my favourite colour is blue so she made me one in a brilliant shade of blue. Thank you so much again, Radha. I love it!

That's it for now. I'll show more piccies of my Romantique Sampler next time. I'm working on the next two parts at the moment.

Happy Stitching!

I Caught Up!

This post's title says it all. Finally, finally, I caught up on my Romantique Sampler.

Part 10

Part 11

As of 26 June 2011

Part 12

Part 13

And here's how it looks like currently.

I managed to beat the deadline by four days too. (I had completed Part 13 couple of days ago but didn't have the opportunity to take a decent photo until this morning). Can you tell my needle's been busy? ^.^

Guess what's I'm stitching at the moment while waiting for the next part?

Happy Stitching!

I've Been Featured!

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by Scott of Be @ Home, a home decor blog. He asked if he could feature my blog in his weekly Best of the Web series. I agreed immediately. How could I not jump at this opportunity? I've never had a request like this before.

Today, I received another email from Scott. The article has been posted!

Best of the Web: Be @ Home #29

I'd love it if you would go over and take a look. Gotta scroll down a little though. I'm sure my regular readers would be able to recognize my journal cover ^.^

To my friends, readers and fellow bloggers, you all have been phenomenal with your encouragements, inspiring me to keep creating. Thank you so much!

Romantique Sampler Again... & Blue Rose Freebie

Time flies. It's been almost a month since I last posted. Yikes! I hope my readers are still around ^.^

First things first, I asked in my last post whether you would be interested in stitching my Blue Rose Stitching Set. A number of you replied in the affirmative. Well, your wish is my command :D I've just finished converting the designs into .pdf files. (Partly the reason for this long overdue update). You can find the link to download them on my Freebies page. I hope you enjoy stitching these. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

So, are you tired of my Romantique Sampler yet? I hope not because unfortunately, that's all I've got to show. That's all I've been stitching for the past few weeks and that's all I'll be stitching until I catch up.

Part 6

As of 29 May 2011

Part 7

Part 8

As of 18 June 2011

I'm now only a month behind. Think I'll finally be able to catch up?

Happy Stitching!

2011 NNC Birthday Exchange

If you've been reading my recent posts, you'd have seen me mentioned about an upcoming birthday exchange that I've been diligently working on. Well, today's the day. Happy Birthday, Jo!

This past Saturday, I was able to meet up with Jo during NNC's Stitching Bee, held at Sally's lovely house. (Thank you, Sally, for having us.) However, I was too lazy to take any photos while there so I only have my exchange pictures to share.

For this exchange, I was required to include one handmade craft item along with two related handmade or store-bought items and of course a birthday card.

Here's what my package consists of:

• A Tilda's Summer Ideas book
  I figured Jo might find it refreshing and enjoyable as she is into sewing/bag-making. At least that's what I was hoping for.
• A Blue Rose Pouch
• A Birthday Card
  The design for the birthday card was from Form-A-Lines. I love its simplicity and added the layers for a 3D effect.

My main handcrafted item is this blue rose pouch. I wanted Jo to have something she could use often if not on a daily basis. Since I knew she sews, (in fact, we had first met at the school where we both take tailoring lessons) I made this pouch with multiple pockets especially for her tools.

The general idea was taken from Butterick B5006 pattern but once again, I challenged myself to try something different. As you can see, I've modified the center to incorporate a simple patchwork pattern and cross stitch roses. I've also binded the edges with pink bias tape.

I then endeavour to fill up every single one of those eight pockets for the "related items requirement". I gotta say I sure had fun coming up with ideas.

I included charms, pearl and wooden buttons, a ceramic thimble with Jo's birth month on it, a couple of vintage bobbins, a pair of golden peacock scissors (which I was "paid" 10 cents for in order to ensure our friendship ties were not cut ^.^), a scissors case, a biscornu pincushion and a scissors fob filled with emery for sharpening needles.

Love this picture of the accessories sitting cozily in their individual pockets.

Wanna know a secret? The stitching set was designed by me. I stitched it in blue because that's Jo's favourite color. I named it "Blue Rose Stitching Set".

It all started with one biscornu side.

Then the other.

And the rest...

Design: Blue Rose Stitching Set

Designer: Veronica's Vault

Fabric: Cream Italian 32 count linen

Fibers: Hand Dyed Fibers (Velvet Midnight) Silk

Why roses, you ask? Well, not only are roses beautiful, they are my absolute favourite flowers. Besides, I wanted the design to match the pouch. As you can see, the scissors case and fob can be personalized with an initial, in this case, J for Jo.

So I have a question. Would you be interested in stitching this Blue Rose Set as well?

Thank you for dropping by. Happy Stitching!

Romantique Sampler Update

Just a short and sweet update on my progress on Romantique Sampler.

Part 4 is completed.

Romantique Sampler as of 3 April 2011.

And the newly finished Part 5.

Yes, I'm still trying very hard to catch up. However, I'm also still working on my upcoming birthday exchange which unfortunately can only be revealed end of May.

Hope everyone have had a wonderful weekend and Happy Easter to those celebrating it.