Awards, Silk & Framing

I got two blog awards within days of each other. First is the Beautiful Blogger award given to me by Jan. Thank you, Jan.

As with each award, there are certain rules:

• Accept the award
• Thank the person who gave you the award
• Add a link to the person who gave you the award
• Put the award on your blog
• Write 10 things about yourself others might not know
• Pass the award on to 10 others

So here are 10 things about me:

1. I love both coffee and tea. And Gummi Bears.
2. I play the piano. In fact, I have a Grade 8 qualification. However, I am ashamed to say that I have not touched the piano in years.
3. I have a HUGE thing for Forever Friends bear. Cutest bear in the world!
4. I am a complete bookworm and my favorite books are romance novels. I also collect books. If I have a book from a series, I usually end up with the whole series.
5. I love watching Stargate TV series.
6. I visited Phuket, Thailand for vacation three times within the last two years. My partner loves that place!
7. I speak three languages (English, Mandarin and Malay) fluently and two dialects (Cantonese and Hokkien) not so fluently.
8. I love assembling jigsaw puzzles. The more pieces, the better. I like the challenge.
9. I met my partner online through a dating website.
10. I play World of Warcraft and my main character is a druid.

My second award is from mbroider. Thank you!

Once again, here are the rules for this award:

• Put the logo on your blog or within your post
• Pass the award to 12 bloggers
• Link the nominees within your post
• Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog
• Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award

I'm gonna bend the rules a little. For BOTH awards, I nominate the following bloggers:

• Andie of Stitchitandie
• Chiloe of Chiloe's Corner
• Christine of Mtrl Girl's Material World
• Cindy of Stitching Corner
• Dani of Dani: Black Belt Stitching Wizard
• Dovilė of Žydinti svajonių pieva
• EeKoon of CraftyPretender Projects
• Elizabeth of Sew in Love
• Hazel of Quietly Stitching
• Helen of Stitchery Nook
• Lillie of Home of a Little Needlecrafter
• Lisa of Lisa's Blog

As to what I've been working on, I'm two thirds done with Berry Time.

Did I mention I love silk? Especially variegated ones which this project shows off to perfection? If I didn't, well, once again, I LOVE silk!

I've switched back to stitching on Love With A Capital L for now. This is the progress so far:

I would like to personally thank Christine here for bringing to my attention some discrepancies in the bottom half of the design which the stitches were not centered properly. She has recorded the errors on her blog here if you need more details.

Now that's done, look what came home from the framers last week.

This was presented to Adeline on 22 March, her birthday. I'm happy to report that she was trilled with it though I gotta admit I mentally facepalmed myself when I had to literary explained to her that the kitties represented her two cats. She unwrapped it, took one look and went "Oooooh... a black cat and a white cat! So cute!" >.< In her defense, we were in a karaoke room with dim lights but still...

And here's Esperanza again.

She is awaiting the arrival of my partner. Hence, I won't be online much for the next couple of weeks. He will be here in Malaysia as will his brother who is visiting Malaysia for the first time for the Formula One race this coming Sunday.

A Couple WiPs

After finishing Rose in Morning, I figured I'll stitch something more complicated. "High Hopes" by Just Nan which have been languishing in my WiP pile fits the bill so I picked it up and started plowing steadily away on it. It wasn't long before the constant colour changing started to drive me bonkers. Soon after, the project started stalling and finally came to a screeching halt.

That's when I decided something a lot simpler is in order before my stitching mojo vanishes. Going through my WiP again, nothing caught my eye this time so... yes, I was naughty and started a new project. In my defense however, there's nothing like a new start to ensure the stitching mojo stays.

This is "It's Berry Time" by Blackbird Designs. Knowing my fondness for silk, I'm sure you have no doubt that's what it's stitched with. The floss is HDF (what else?) Examplar Crushed Berry. In my opinion, it's perfect for the design. Even the name matches it. As for the fabric, this is the first time I'm using Vikki's 32 count hand-dyed linen. The colour is Jackalope and I gotta say I'm loving it. The design calls for about four skeins of floss and exactly one skein has been used here in this picture. Judging from the amount stitched, I should have more than enough, which I'm thankful for.

The Rose in Morning

I don't post frequently. In fact, I sometimes go months with nothing to show. Hence, I'm always surprise that there are people out there still visiting my blog, some even taking the time to leave me encouraging comments. To all of you, thank you.
I know I promised a Mirabilia WiP pic in my last post but sadly, I have yet to make any progress since. Reason? I've been gobbling up House M.D. by the seasons and stitching something that requires a lot of counting while doing that is generally not a good idea. Hence, I picked up a much simple WiP and this is the result...

Design: The Rose in Morning
Designer: Little House Needleworks
Fabric: 32 count Silkweaver Desert Sky Belfast Linen
Fibers: Hand Dyed Fibers silk
Embellishments: Mill Hill Beads & Charms

Notice any difference from the original design? Let's take a closer look.

Hummingbird charm in place of a stitched bee.

HDF silk with beads.

Bee and dragonfly charms in place of the remaining stitched bees.
Yup, I'll say changes have been made alright ^.^
The conversion is Vickki's own, which she sells prepacked here along with the conversion list...
DMC Ecru - HDF Ecru
CC Country Lane - HDF Chocolate
CC Dandelion Stem - HDF PennyWort 3443
CC Petite Maison - HDF Magpie Twitters
CC Second Hand Rose - HDF Examplar Pressed Petals
CC Tufted Yellow - HDF Lemon Creme
Now I'm off to find another simple WiP along with another episode of House M.D. Happy stitching, all.