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? ^.^

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!

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!

Stitching Again

Slowly but surely, I'm stitching again! I recently went through some of my oldest WiP and came up with this:

Granted, this is technically not a WiP since it's released separately and I've finished four parts so far but it's been a three year span since I started this series. Hence I decided to pick it up again.

Design: Iced Tea

Designer: Little House Needleworks

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

Fibers: Crescent Colours Belle Soie

Five down. One more to go. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the last one before the year is out.

All but one of my giveaway scissors fob have arrived at their destinations. (What's going on with Canadian Post? Sigh!) Among those that are now residing with their new owners are the three surprise fobs so now I can finally show you what I made.

Princess Ivy for Hazel

Liberty's Dream for Deborah

Scarlet Jinx for Carin

I've been trying my hand at new things recently. Beading, as you know, being one of them. I bought my first tatting shuttle along with some thread couple of weekends ago. I managed to get the basics down... Double stitch, Picot and Close Ring. Still trying to figure out the rest. Will see how that goes. If not, hopefully Faizon, our Malaysian Needles & Crafts group tatting guru and Zarina, will be able to shed some light this coming Saturday during our December Stitching Bee.

On top of that, I went on an all out splurge this past Saturday and bought a sewing machine. My birthday is coming up and this is the present I gave myself – among other things :P.

It’s a Bernina E82e, exactly like the one shown except that it’s silver instead of purple. I was told that’s because it’s imported from Europe (hence the E). It only differs from the one available in USA in appearance (and voltage, I think). Since I prefer silver over purple, I’m happy with that.

I’m not a novice to using a sewing machine. After all, I’ve been taking part time tailoring lessons for quite a while now but this is the first time I have an electronic sewing machine with all these fun features to play with.

I look forward to exploring different finishing techniques and perhaps venture into patchwork/quilting and maybe even bag making. It’s a whole new world of possibilities that has just been opened to me!

Thanx for stopping by. Happy Stitching!
P.S. To Karen who asked about my scissors, they’re Gingher’s silver Lion’s Tail Embroidery Scissors. I wish I own a Dovo though. They’re so pretty but too expensive for me.

StarZanite Webshop is Up!

After nearly two weeks of being sick, I'm well on the road back to full recovery. It started two Sundays ago with a slight fever and sore throat. Come Monday, I was pretty much down for the count. Took the day off work and visited the doctor which I was given antibiotics, painkillers and a couple other medicines for my fever and throat.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, I’m allergic to painkillers similar to Aspirin and I had specifically told the doctor that. She had even assured me that the painkillers she had prescribed me are not Aspirin. So I went home, took my medicines after eating and went to bed. I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Lo and behold, I woke up with both my eyes swollen as big as saucers – allergic reaction from the painkillers. Luckily it wasn’t worse than that.

Went back to work the next day since I was only given one day of medical leave. My eyes were still slightly swollen but not noticeable with make up on ^.^ Spent the week finishing off the remaining antibiotics and I thought I had recovered. Alas, that was not the case. Friday, Saturday and Sunday was spent sniffling my head off. I figured it’s only a flu/running nose. I can handle this. Monday was when the diarrhea started… While I was at work nonetheless!

Left work and went to see another doctor (family specialist doctor this time) and was told unfortunately, antibiotics not only kill the bad bacterial but also the good ones which resulted in diarrhea due to bacterial imbalance in my body. Yet at the same time, it had not done its job properly hence my prevailing symptoms.

That was the reason I took so long to send out my giveaway prizes. Thank you for being so patient with me. Finally, thanks to my dad who braved the post office for me, the packages were mailed yesterday.

I’ve never had so many packages sent at one time. I kinda felt like Santa Claus. Hehehe… So winners, start watching your mailboxes soon. Don’t worry, your last name and the first line of your address has been taken out of the picture to protect your privacy.

30 October was Needles n Craft (NNC) Yahoo Group’s Stitching Bee meet up. Coincidentally, it was also the group’s 4th year anniversary. The group’s founder, Nik Ainun has prepared special gifts for all who attended the Bee. This was the package I received.

I can assured you, the contents are as scrumptious as the presentation.

It’s a machine embroidered pincushion with a beautiful matching piece of fabric. Nik is very talented with her sewing machine. Do check out her blog. More photos of the day (along with ugly pictures of me :P) can be found here.

I haven’t been stitching much, hence no stitching updates… Not a good idea to stitch when sick. I won’t be able to complete my goal for the Mirabilia Stitchers Competition :'(

However, I do have more beaded scissors fobs to show :D

Prismatic Night

Caribbean Breeze

Serene Ripples

Sandy Shores

Summer Mist

Pictures of the three surprise fobs will only be posted once they have been received.

Last but not least, I’ll like to announce that my StarZanite Webshop on an alternate page of my blog is now up and running.

I’m so excited. Please do check it out. This is the first time I’ve set up something like this so please let me know if you encounter any problems. I really appreciate it.

Thank you for sticking with me through such a long post. Happy Stitching!

Beading & Stitching Along

First off, wow! A huge THANK YOU to everyone for the wonderful comments you’ve left on my Giveaway post. You’re awesome! I’ve had over 50 comments which is an all time high for me. If you’ve yet to participate on my “StarZanite Giveaway”, do drop by. I’ll be drawing the winners on 1 November so there’s still plenty of time to join in the fun.

Well, your interest has spurred me to make more fobs. This is what I came up with so far:

This time, I’ve decided to take the close up pictures on a white background as I think this shows off the colours much nicely. (Should have done that the first time round.)

Ice Storm

Mango Confetti

Mike and I have been having trouble agreeing on whether the colour on the beads are yellow or green. Which do you think it is?

Amber Voyage

Chili Pebbles

Yes, the “misspelling” of Chili Pebbles is intentional. It’s a word play on Chili Peppers because I think the brown beads look like pebbles.

Frosted Sapphire

Cathy asked if I have any prices in mind. I’m thinking US$15–US$18 per fob plus shipping. Opinions? Do you think that’s asking too much? I plan on setting up a Paypal WebShop on a separate page right here on my blog. Have yet to get around to that but if you see something you like, feel free to email me.

On the stitching front, progress on Garden Verses has been slow. (Gee, I wonder why?) Here’s a photo to give you an idea.

I don’t think I’ll be able to complete my goal in time for the competition unless I buck up and stop messing with my beads.

Thanx for staying with my ramblings this far. I truly appreciate it.

StarZanite Giveaway

Lately, I've been lagging on my stitching. Thus, there is not enough progress on Garden Verses to warrant a photo. Instead, I’ve a newfound obsession hobby – beading. To be exact, I’ve been making beaded scissors fobs.

The stitching community has been more than generous to me and it's my turn to give a little back. Hence, of the five scissors fobs I made, I’ll be giving them all away. Yes, that’s right! There will be five winners :)

To be honest, I’m thinking of making more and perhaps selling some in the future if there’s enough interest. So I guess this giveaway is kinda a blatant “testing of the waters” if I may. I even have the name of my shop already in mind – StarZanite. I think it suits the glitter and sparkle of beads, don’t you think?

With that said, this will be the StarZanite Giveaway!

To be eligible for this giveaway, please...

1. Leave a comment on this post only that you would like to be included and also state your favourite fob/s. (I rather the winners receive one to their liking if possible.)
2. Post about this giveaway on your blog with a link to mine for a second entry. You can use the picture above.
3. Become a Follower or let me know that you’re an existing reader of my blog for yet another chance to win!

Please also remember to leave a way for me to get in touch with you if you win. This giveaway will close in two weeks. Names will be drawn on 1 November 2010.

Here are more detailed photos for a clearer view. As you can see, I also gave each of them names ^.^

Tropical Jade

Grape Ink

Winter Cherries

Ocean Waterlilies

Desert Rose

This is my first attempt making beaded scissors fobs. As such, they are by no means perfect. I chose to use cell phone straps instead of lobster clasps because they are more flexible. (Think flash drive fobs, cell phone fobs, rear view mirror fobs, camera/camera case fobs, ornaments, etc... the possibilities are endless!) Moreover, it would not wear away your fine scissors finishing due to friction.

I really hope you like them. Opinions and comments welcomed.