Mirabilia Seasonal Queens

Over a month late. Yikes! Way past time to announce the winner for my Singing the Blues kit.

Congratulations, Edgar!

Please send me your mailing information so I can send this out to you as soon as possible.

A year ago, I joined my first Mirabilia Round Robin. My finished RR has actually returned home early this year. Here it is now in its completed splendor.

 

Design: Seasonal Queens Round Robin

Designer: Mirabilia

Fabric: 32 count Picture This Plus Crystal Fresco Belfast linen

Fibers: DMC & Kreinik Metallic

Embelishment: Mill Hill Beads

I just had to showcase each queen individually.
Here's lovely Winter Queen.

She's stitched by the very talented fabric dyer Leslie.

I absolutely love the trailing strand of beads.
Here's my Spring Queen again.

 

Click here for more detailed pics of her.
Stunning Summer Queen.

Thank you, Jaqueline for such a gorgeous RR square. 

Her hair is almost totally covered with beads.
Last but not least, beautiful Autumn Queen.

This square was contributed by Renée. Thank you! 

I think she's the blingiest (is that even an actual word? :P) of them all.

A while ago, I talked about how Silkweaver, after changing ownership, has failed to live up to its previous reputation and service. You can read about it here. I guess someone tipped them off about my post and they made up to me by sending me a properly dyed Aegan Aqua.

Now this is the colour I'm talking about. Pretty, isn't it? Perfect for a mermaid. Last I checked, shipping is still kinda pricey if you're only buying a small amount of fabric but more reasonable if you're buying more so I'm definitely contemplating buying from Silkweaver again.

I haven't been in the mood to stitch recently until suddenly, this past week, I couldn't stop. What have I been working on? It's another new start. Yup, with numerous WiP still unaccounted for, I started another project. At least it got my stitching mojo back so that's good, right?

Say hello to Lady Alexandra. 

Gosh, over one skin certainly takes a lot of patience. I'm so glad that's done and over with. I'm stitching her on Polstitches Taboo opalescent cashel. I didn't stitch her in all the recommended colours. Can you spot the differences? I've more changes in store as well. Wait and see ^.^
Til next time, happy stitching!

Dreaming...

Firstly, today's my mum's birthday. Happy Birthday, Mum!

It's surprising how hard it is to get back to blogging once I stopped. They say life is full of ups and downs. That accurately describes my life for the past few months.

My grandfather on my dad's side passed away peacefully in his sleep on 2 November 2012. Even though his health has been gradually deteriorating, it was rather unexpected and was quite a shock to the family. I didn't know my grandfather well as he wasn't an easy man to get close to. However, he had always shown us, through his actions, that he loved us.

He had been living with us for a few months due to his health prior to his passing. When he was living in Sungai Petani, Kedah with my grandmother, we would visit them annually, especially during Chinese New Year. He'd always buy us a lot of seafood. If the rambutan tree in his garden is bearing fruit, he'd also climb the tree at his own risk to harvest the fruits for us to bring home. I was told that one time, he accidentally fell from the tree (I was still too young to realize what had happened). Luckily he recovered from his fall.

I'd mentioned before that my favourite food is petai. Every time we visit, he would buy a bunch of petai from the local market for my grandmother to cook for me. Only for me because no one else in the family loves petai as much as I do.

Another food I love is a type of shellfish also known as blood cockle. This love was cultivated by my grandfather. One of my most vivid memories with him was me standing on a stool at the kitchen sink while he painstakingly opened the shells before popping the boiled cockles into my mouth. I was perhaps five or six? Still too short to reach the kitchen sink, hence the stool :P

Wherever he is now, I hope he is at peace and pain free. We miss you, grandfather.

Also in November, I had the opportunity to visit Sungai Lembing with my church group. A lovely place for some well needed R&R, it boasts wonderful views like this:

 

Taken at Panorama Hill. And this:

Aptly named Rainbow Waterfall, it was the highlight of the entire trip. There's nothing like seeing a rainbow up close and personal. Have I ever mentioned that the rainbow is my namesake? Yup, my Chinese name is named after the rainbow ^.^

Then, in December, there was my birthday. I've been interested in photography for over a year now. Before investing in a dSLR though, I did a lot of reading and research. Finally, this is what I got for my birthday:

Yup, a Canon EOS 650D aka Rebel T4i in US. Believe me when I said I've been debating between Canon and Nikon for months now. The decision wasn't easy but the 650D along with its touch screen and hybrid AF system won me over. Hopefully, you'll see an improvement in the quality of my photos overtime.

And me, being me, a complete and total girl, I just gotta get my camera one of these:

Epiphan!e's Lola in red. Can you believe this is actually a camera bag? Or camera purse as I call it. I fell head over heels in love with it the moment I saw it. It spots the cutest, most adorable camera tag too.

I figured what better time to buy it than Christmas? Hehe... Special thanks to Mikey for shipping it to me all the way from US.

Of course, there were also a lot of World of Warcraft and Diablo 3 gaming involved in between. Don't worry, my needle hasn't been completely idle the whole time. There are stitching updates in this post, which I bet is what you're here for :P I'll admit it has been a struggle to get anything finished. In fact, this is all I have to show during all those months I was MIA.

Design: The Dreamer

Designer: Mirabilia

Fabric: 32 count Silkweaver Solo Opalescent Belfast

Fibers: DMC

Embelishment: Mill Hill Beads

This final square is for Renée's RR. This is actually the second time I've been in an RR with her. Oh, how impatient she must be by now to have it returned to her. I apologize again for the delay, Renée.

As you can see, I've flipped The Dreamer around to mirror Enchanted Dreamer.

She has such a sweet face. Perhaps that's the reason the frogs wouldn't leave her alone?

Not a very blingy design but I think the bright colours more than make up for that.

I feel that this is perhaps the hardest Mirabilia I've stitched to date with the sheer number of colours involved. Tons of colour changes and confetti stitches do not make me a happy camper.

Not to mention the amount of blending involved. If you're planning to stitch this design, consider yourself forewarned. Of course, if you have truckloads of patience and determination, go for it. After all, The Dreamer is absolutely one pretty lady :)

Until next time, Happy Stitching!

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.

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!

Still Alive...

My poor stitching blog has not been feeling my love lately. In fact, it's been flat out ignored and neglected. Rest assured though, I'm still here and well. To those of you who emailed/commented, thank you for your concern. Let's just say life, as usual has a way of sidetracking our intentions. Where, oh where, do I start? Let's see, as I mentioned, my partner came here again during Christmas and my dad finally went through with his heart bypass surgery (he is now well and fully recovered, thank God). Also, I am currently unemployed :( The upside to not having a job however, means I have more time to stitch but it also means I won't be able to join in exchanges as much or stash as often due to money constraints. Then again, I have enough stash to last a lifetime so... :P
Anyway, with all that said, the main reason you've not heard from me for so long however is because *gasp* I completely lost my stitching mojo. Not surprising with all that's been going on but it's no excuse either for being behind on my round robins. Thus, my sincerest apologies to Janet and Chris whose RRs I'm still holding. Good news is that I got it back recently and has been diligently working on them together with my other WiPs. I've finally finished my square for Janet's Seasonal Cottage RR.

Design: Summer Cottage
Designer: Maryse
Fabric: 32 count Natural Linen
Fibers: DMC

Just one more square to go then it'll be on its way home to its owner.

Janet, I've emailed you and will be sending it to Charlene once I get the go ahead from her. Chris, I'm still stitching on your RR and will send it back as soon as I finished. Once again, I'm truly sorrie.
Next up is something I've been dying to share with all of you. 3 years, 4 countries, 12 stitchers later, look what has returned home completed in January...

Design: 12 Days of Christmas
Designer: Margaret Sherry
Fabric: 28 count Cream Lugana
Fibers: DMC
Source: October 2005, November 2005 & Christmas 2005 of British CrossStitcher Magazine

Thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU! to Allison, Sarah and Marilyn from Canada, Angie, Lynn, Kirsty, Priscilla and Marion from UK and Chris, Dawn & Renée from USA. What started out as an ambitious round robin on the British Aion Needlecrafts forum (which is sadly now closed) was returned to me with three empty squares for I had to pull out halfway. It stayed in that state for more than a year until Renée decided to organize a round robin last year and they graciously let me use this as my RR. Words can't describe how I felt when I opened the package and saw the finished piece. This is why I love RRs because whether they realize it or not, every single stitcher leaves a part of themselves on the piece through their stitches for which I will forever treasure.
One last update before I end this post. Ladies and gentlemen, come dance with me because we have our first finish of 2009...

Design: Voice of The Shepherd
Designer: Told in A Garden
Fabric: 32 count Silkweaver Golden Promise Belfast Linen
Fibers: DMC

Yes, yes, I know it's already March but that's beside the point. I just love the fabric, don't you? I think I'm gonna submit it for the Silkweaver Showcase 2009. I've already submitted a couple of entries. Do you recognize them? Think I have a chance of winning? Good luck, to all participants :)