Belated October IHSW

Yes, I know, I'm more than a week late in giving my IHSW update. Bad news, I barely stitched so I didn't have anything to show. Good news, I stitched quite a bit AFTER that weekend and guess what? Romantique Sampler is now finished!

Wait, hold your horses and bear with me. Before I show you the completed project, I just gotta show you Part 16 first.

And then Part 21 ^.^

Okay, I'm done torturing you with the suspense as I could hardly contain my own excitement. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you Romantique Sampler!

Design: Romantique Sampler

Designer: Angie Designer

Fabric: 32 count White Belfast Linen

Fibers: Hand Dyed Fibers (Examplar Fleckstone & Velvet Midnight series) silk

I started this is February 2011 which means it was stitched over a period of nine months. Now that it's done, I'll definitely miss stitching on it for sure. Then again, that means I'm allowed to start a new WiP, right? :P

On to the second SAL. Here's my iStitch Mystery SAL to date.

That's a cute willow tree. Still having fun with this SAL :)

One last thing, I recently won Hannah's Holiday Giveaway. The package she sent me has arrived.

Now tell me that isn't the most adorable autumn pillow you've ever seen? It's highly hugable as well and I especially love the felt edging. She also included some WDW threads too. Thank you so much, Hannah, for the lovely gift.

Happy Stitching, everyone!

Finally An Update

My September stitching schedule was completely unsuccessful. I didn't stitch on Love With A Capital L nor the Mirabilia and Passione Ricamo SALs. In fact, I only managed to finish Part 20 of Romantique Sampler last week. I had wanted to show the photos way before this but my computer went down not long after that.
Finally, after a long, arduous process of troubleshooting and reformatting which I would rather not go into, here's my long overdue post. So glad the computer problem is all behind me. Phew! Let's hope it stays that way for a very, very long time, if not forever ^.^
Here's Part 20 :)

Only one more instalment which will be sent today! I'm so excited to get this done.

Of course, there's also iStitch's Mystery SAL which I finished last weekend.

I recently got an Android phone thanks to a friend in Australia so I've been playing with it too much some. Hence not much stitching done this past week.
I'm currently working on the second block of Shepherd's Bush's She Tends. Now, wanna hear something funny? If you recall, I had a Birthday Giveaway last year which included some Crescent Colours floss? I had completely forgotten that I still need a couple of those for this design. Sigh! This is why Mikey calls me his goofball. Had to reorder them from 123 Stitch so I won't be finishing this anytime soon until my floss arrives. Double sigh!
Dear Anonymous who left a comment on my last post, please do not be embarassed to leave your name and link to your blog. We're all stitchers and there's no such thing as amateurs in my book which I'm sure many other stitchers will agree. I personally would love to have another blog to admire or as Joyce like to say, stallk :P As to answer your question, I usually buy my supplies online, be it linen, floss or charts. You can find the various links to the ONS I frequent, especially for hand-dyed fabrics at the sidebar of my blog. Please do email me if you have anymore questions. I'll be happy to answer them.
Happy Stitching!

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!

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?

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.

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!

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!

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.

Birthdays

I've been reading Stitch Bitch blog for a while now and her stories of her grandmother, Maggie, have always amused me. So, when she put out a call for birthday cards to be sent to Maggie on her 89th birthday, how could I say no? After all, this is a lady whom I hope to emulate when I'm her age ^.^

Two weeks before the big day, I put on my thinking cap. Once again, I went on my trusted Stitching Cards website for inspiration and made this.

I really love this design. The basket is stitched with metallic gold thread and gold beads are added to the flowers for that extra sparkle.

I think the card arrived a couple days late but at least it didn't go missing which I'm grateful for.

22nd March was once again my best friend, Adeline's birthday. As with years past, I had a kitty design stitched and framed for her.

I, for one, think it would be perfect in the baby's room but that's for her to decide, of course.

Dede, another good friend of mine's birthday is also coming up in April. Remember my Passione Ricamo piece I had stitched? It was first intended for her birthday last year and then postponed to Christmas... It is now framed too and finally ready to be presented to her.

Other than that, I've also been working on New Birth of Spring sporadically and this is where it stands at the moment.

However, it has now been put on hold while I try to catch up on Romantique Sampler. Part 2 stitched.

First month is now complete.

Working on the second month. Here is Part 3.

Onwards to Part 4... But I have a Birthday Exchange due in May...

Talk about a full plate! I have only myself to blame but I'm enjoying every single minute of it :D

I've Been Naughty

Yes, I have been. Remember back when I said I'd like to concentrate on some WiPs? All that is out the window now. I started not just one but two new projects! First one is a SAL you might have seen popping up on many blogs.

Romantique Sampler designed by Angie Designer. Here's my progress so far.

I'm using HDF Examplar FleckStone in place of DMC 3046 listed by the designer. I absolutely love the subtle color variations.

I finished Part 1 before the Chinese New Year holidays.

The lacey effect from the backstitches are awesome.

Part 2 is still in progress mainly because I misordered my silks. I had to reorder and am waiting for them to arrive.

Instead of the mauve recommended by the designer, I'm gonna stitch it in shades of HDF Velvet Midnight. Once again, if you have yet to stitch with HDF silk, I highly recommend it.

One other thing I'd like to bring to your attention, every single time I ordered from Vikki, she always includes extras in my order. This time was no different. She took into consideration that the silk I had ordered might have been too similar in shades from what I wanted so she included two extra micros of a darker shade in my order AT NO EXTRA COST! In case you didn't know, that's 300 yards of free single stranded silk! On top of that, she switched my order from minis to micros.

I had ordered four different shades of Velvet Midnight. Five minis of each color. Let's do the math...

5 minis = 261 yards (52.2 yards each)

2 micros = 300 yards (150 yards each)

That's about 40 yards extra silk for each color. If that's not great customer service, I don't know what is.

Moving on, I have wonderful news. My best friend, Adeline, is pregnant and I've been told that 90% it's a boy! It's her first child and this is something she's been waiting for a long time. Now what's a stitcher to do but start stitching a birth sampler for her son? ^.^

Many birth samplers I've seen out there are too girlish or babyish. I know, I know, it is after all meant for a baby but I wanted something that could last. Yet, I didn't want something too grown up. So I searched and searched and searched and had nearly given up when I came across this Stoney Creek design.

New Birth of Spring by Stoney Creek

Technically, it's not a birth sampler but I think it's perfect, especially since he will be born in the rabbit year. I plan to change the words to "A Beautiful Miracle". This is my progress so far:

The similar colors and color changes are driving me crazy but I will persevere. LOL! Let's hope I can finish it around June for the boy will be a June baby.

One last thing, have you seen Martina of Chatelaine's newest design?

I think I'm in trouble! I've never owned or stitched a Chatelaine before even though Alpine Garden is on my wish list mainly because even though I find them lovely, I can't see myself stitching four identical corners over and over again. I know some designs have different corners but they just don't capture me as much. Now this... This Chinese Garden Mandala completely blows me away. Maybe I'm bias since I'm Chinese but I think most would agree with me that it's gorgeous. Definitely gonna sign up for the Chinese Garden Mandala Yahoo Group soon.

Wish me luck that I'll be able to handle all the specialty stitches this design is sure to contain.

In the meantime, happy stitching and if you celebrate Chinese New Year, Gong Xi Fa Chai!