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?