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!

Bling

I finally finished my Mirabilia round robin Square last night. Here's my Seasonal Queen in all her finery.

Design: Spring Queen

Designer: Mirabilia

Fabric: 32 count Picture This Plus Crystal Fresco Belfast linen

Fibers: DMC & Kreinik Metallic

Embelishment: Mill Hill Beads

It's astonishing how much bling she has in her hair. Photos I've seen so far have never managed to portray that fact. Hopefully these close-up shots will give you an idea.

Her sleeve is choked full of beads too.

And these are only portions of the design. I wonder how much more blingy the entire design actually is in real life.

Now it's ready to be mailed out. Not a moment too soon either for I have received Jacqueline's round robin. Now comes the hard part of deciding what to stitch for her.

Today, I received the cutest gift in the mail from Melanie. The fabric in the background is Polstitches' Tiger Eyes - July's Limited Edition which also arrived today in case you're wondering.

Back to Melanie's gift, all I did was offer to send her my Voice of the Shepherd chart when she mentioned she would like to stitch it for her mother. Since I no longer need it, why not, right? After all, I've been on the receiving end of other stitchers' kindess many times before.

Well, she reciprocated my offer with this Blue Heart Fairy!

Isn't he adorable? Can you spot his transparent wings? He's now my official stitching sidekick ^.^ He needs a name though. Suggestions?

Melanie has a real talent for making beads. Do visit her Moonraker Lampwerks store to see for yourself.
Until next time, Happy Stitching!

The All-in-1 Post

Not a few posts ago, I said I gotta stop doing this. Now I'm doing it again. Since I'm late for everything, this is the mother of all all-in-1 posts.

First up, I spent IHSW two weekends ago and most of last week working on the borders for my first Mirabilia Round Robin. I'm no strangers to round robins but it has been years since I've joined one and certainly not a Mirabilia one before. Took me a while to settle on the Seasonal Queens.

Seeing as how borders are the bane of my existance, it shouldn't come as a surprise that my stitchy update ended up being so long overdued. Now for the fun part. I'll be stitching Spring Queen for my square.

At least I made progress on Monday's 6 Fat Man SAL...

...and ended with a mini happy dance.

Design: Snow House

Designer: Lizzie Kate

Fabric: 32 count Picture This Plus Tarnish Belfast linen

Fibers: Hand Dyed Fibers silk

For WiPocalypse, I also finished two more motifs in my Magic Garden Sampler.

Lynn, however, has nearly completed hers. Sigh! Anyone else wanna SAL this design with me? LOL!

Since I've been on a Mirabilia craze lately, here's my TUSAL orts jar with Seaside Kingdom behind it.

Yes, I managed to get my hands on this hard-to-find, out-of-print chart! All because of Carin.

I found a shop in Netherlands who still has it in stock but the owner refused to send it overseas. Carin agreed to order and ship it to me. I reimbursed her the cost of course but really, if not for her, I'd still be searching high and low for it.

So thank you, once again, Carin, from the deepest bottom of my heart.

I'm convinced that my fellow stitchers are the kindest and most giving souls out there. Here are two more examples why... I've been pretty lucky lately and won a couple of giveaways. Here are some lovely vintage patterns I received from Melissa.

And a lovely piece of Silkweaver fabric from Melanie.

Isn't the colour yummy? It's in my favourite count too!

Thank you, Melissa and Melanie.

I see I've just hit 300 Followers! I'm a little overwhelmed. 300! Never in my wildest dreams. I'm really not that interesting, you know.
In light of all the kindness I've received lately, it's my turn to have a giveaway so stay tuned. I'll set it up as soon as possible. Gotta take care of an exchange and finish my Spring Queen block first.

May you find joy in your stitches!

11

My poor, poor neglected blog. I have been stitching yet have nothing to show. I've been having the attention span of a fruit fly so it seems like I've not gotten anything done :(

Anyway, I'm it, tagged by Tammy to answer her 11 questions :)

Favourite pattern ever stitched - show a picture if you can.

I guess WiPs don't count so it would have to be Voice of the Shepherd by Told in A Garden.

Favourite junk food to have while stitching.

I don't eat while stitching. However, I like to have a glass of Ribena (blackcurrent juice) at hand.

Your Favourite Blog to visit

This is a tough one. However, I'm sure these three are probably at the top of most stitchers' list to visit.

• Rensel Studio (Don't you just love Jill's talent?)
• Random Ramblings (No introduction necessary for Joyce, creator of IHSW)
• Stitching Dreams (I'm always amazed by Carol's stitching and finishing)

Do you leave comments on blogs?

I try to as much as possible.

Do you reply to your comments on your blog?

Usually only when a question is asked or I have something to say. Mostly I just leave a comment in return :)

Your favorite thread to work with ie. DMC, Anchor, sampler, weeks ect.

Vikki Clayton's Hand-Dyed Fibers (silk)

Do you know a male stitcher?

Yes, Paul, who is a member of my local Needles n Craft Yahoo Group.

What is the biggest stitched piece you have stitched?

Angel of Hope by Lavender & Lace

What is the farthest away you have traveled to go to a stitching store, what was it called?

Only to Haby & Wools in Kuala Lumpur. Not that far away. I mostly purchase online.

Favorite tool to use with stitching.

Tacky Bob for beading.

Do you like stitching for others or yourself and why?

Both. I give my stitched pieces to friends and family to show how much they mean to me. To me, a dose of love is put in with every single stitch I make. The rest I stitch for me to enjoy.

Now make up 11 questions and tag fellow stitchers.
The 11 friends I tag...

• Anne
• Carol
• Catherine
• Dani
• DJ
• June
• Kelly
• Nia
• Nurdan
• Tatyana
• Valerie

And their 11 questions (which I answered too in case you're curious). I figure I'll alternate between stitchy and non-stitchy questions to make this more fun.

What is your most favourite DMC colour/code? (Yes, you can only pick one)

DMC 336 - Navy Blue

If you could go to any country for free, where would you go and why?

Ireland. It's wild, it's beautiful. My first childhood penpal is Irish. She, along with Nora Roberts, have fuelled my love and curiosity for Ireland. On top of that, The Giant Causeway is in my places-I-must-visit-in-my-lifetime list.

Fabric, floss or chart? Pick one.

Fabric, preferably hand-dyed. A girl could never have too much fabric. God knows I already own too many charts I could ever stitch in my lifetime.

If you could ask God for a non superhero ability/talent, what would it be?

I'd like to have a green thumb. I managed to kill the cactus I bought. Apparently it could survive in the desert but not my room :/

If you could ask a designer a question, which designer and what would you ask?

I'll ask Nora Corbett why some of her designs are Out of Print :(

Besides stitching, what other hobby takes up the most of your time?

It's a toss up between reading and playing computer games for me. Difference is, I can read anywhere, anytime but computer games can only be played at home.

Hardwood floors, tiles or carpet for your craft studio?

Hardwood floors for sure.

Are you a morning or night person?

Definitely a night person.

If you could only shop in one needlework store be it ONS or LNS for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

Probably Needlecraft Corner. Drema is a real sweetheart and most of her items come with a 20% discount.

How long/short is your hair? Do you keep it that lengh because you or someone else likes it?

Mine's pretty long, past my shoulders down my back. I think I look better with long hair. It's a bonus that Mikey likes it long too. Longer if he had his way.

What is your all-time favourite design?

I have so many but right now, it's Mirabilia's new Dressmakers' Daughter. Can you tell I'm a sucker for four season designs? (And the bling, of course. Oh, the bling... It's gonna be spectacular. LOL!)

Hopefully I'll have stitchy pics to show next post.

Happy Stitching!

Frogs

When a WiP is screaming at you to work on it, it's generally wise to take heed and listen. Ignoring it and continuing stitching on Magic Garden Sampler has landed me paltry progress.

This is because the offended WiP will throw a massive tantrum and heap frogs your way, making it a one step forward, two steps back situation.
The culprit? None other than Stella of course.

I had wanted to take a short break after finishing all the stitching before starting the beading. After all, I gotta give some love to other WiPs. My time shouldn't solely be monopolized by her, right?

Apparently she disagreed and the Frog Prince concurred with her. Who could blame him? She's as pretty as a princess. So without further ado, let the beading commence.

About time too. See how a couple of the plastic containing the beads have turned yellow? Yeah, that's how long I've had Stargazer kitted up. Luckily, the beads appeared unaffected.

Happy Stitching!