Stitching... Among Other Stuff

Mikey's sister, Marjorie, celebrated her 35th birthday this year. He bought her one of my scissors fobs as a birthday present (Thank you, Mikey ^.^). I decided to make her a birthday card as well.

I was told that she likes cats and her favourite color is purple. So I came up with this. The design is from Form-A-Lines. Aren't the cats cute?

On top of that, Marjorie loves reading. With that in mind, how could I not tat her another bookmark? :)

The design is modified from Part 2 of Faizon's Foldover Bookmark.

I haven't gotten the hang of two shuttle tatting yet so I figured I'll keep it simple this time round.

Not much progress was made on the stitching front however. I'm still working on my Little House Neighbourhood and here is how it stands as of 20 January 2011.

Building of the third house is completed, the trees have sprouted leaves and people have moved in!

Two of my Birthday Giveaways have also reached their destinations. Nina took lovely pictures of her package here. If you've yet to check out her blog, please do. I promise you'll find lots of eye candies. I don't know how she takes such gorgeous pictures.

Thank you for dropping by. Happy Stitching!

Making Plans

HAPPY (Belated) NEW YEAR!

I'm not one for making New Year resolutions. Especially not when it comes to stitching. After all, a hobby should be enjoyable and setting goals and targets would only make it seem like an obligation. That opinion is completely mine though and I have nothing against stitchers who do.

However, I do like making stitching plans because fondling fabric, threads and charts is always, always fun in my book.

With this post, there are a few things I hope to accomplish. Firstly, with as few words as possible, I'd like to summarize what I have in mind for 2011. Secondly, this would serve as a reminder that I have more than enough stash for now which hopefully would help curb my itchy finger from clicking on all those wonderful sale items out there :P

Also, I love drooling over pictures of stitchers' stash. To thank all of you for sharing pictures of your stash with me, here's a portion of mine which I hope will serve as eye candy for the day :) So be prepared... Picture heavy post coming up.

Here are some of the projects I would like to get started on this year. Do keep in mind that my plans are always flexible. Changes are bound to be made at a moment’s notice ^.^

I've noticed that I've been accumulating a lot of CCN and LHN charts. Hopefully, this year I'll be able to reduce this pile you see here.

Not to mention those I've kitted up such as LHN’s Brave Hearts with my conversion of Vikki's silk and Vintage Lentil from Lakeside Linens.

Same goes for LHN Home of A Needleworker (Too!) which I'll be stitching on Sassy Fabbys' Spun Sugar.

Then there's LHN Sea to Shining Sea. The fabric I've chosen is Pansy by Picture This Plus.

I'm also dying to stitch Martina's designs. Two in particular.

Spot Sampler Victoria with HDF Ethereal Ice on PTP Fog. The fabric is 36 count linen which is something I’ve yet to stitch on so I’m rather apprehensive about it.

But dang, isn't the silk yummy?

Rose Quaker which I've been drooling over ever since Martina posted it on her Yahoo group front page. Once again, I couldn't resist converting it to HDF, this time in premium silk.

I've also vowed to make something with my charm packs and jelly rolls instead of having them sitting oh-so-prettily in a corner gathering dust. Gotta admit they make lovely decorations though ^.^

Don't worry, I've not neglected my poor WiPs. Here are a few which I've decided I would like to concentrate on this year, especially that Drawn Thread piece... If I ever get around to frogging most of Autumn out, that is. Most of it is off by one stitch :(

I did spend some of my New Year weekend stitching instead of just playing with my stash. I’ve been working on Little House Neighbourhood.

Not much progress since my last update but I'm having fun with... what else... the silks! LOL!

On the tatting front, I made another bookmark for my mum for Christmas.

A Clover Bookmark, again an online freebie. It’s kinda wonky though as I messed up and attached the picots of the clovers differently from the pattern :(

This year, I also hope to try my hands at something different. Couple things I look forward to are Silk Ribbon Embroidery and Bag Making. Guess we’ll find out how well that went come December.

So what are your plans for 2011? Happy Stitching!

Renato Parolin

I've been stitching up a storm this week and what's more, I actually have a finish to show! Let me introduce you to Camille...

Camille turned up real prettily in HDF BeCreamed.

This is Paul.

Paul is dressed in HDF Examplar Fried Pickles.

And last but not least is Myrtille.

Myrtille decided to make its appearance in HDF Old Maid of the Heart.

All three of them, ready to party!

Design: Camille, Paul Et Myrtille

Designer: Renato Parolin

Fabric: Natural Italian 32 count linen

Fibers: Hand Dyed Fibers Silk

Four pairs of scissors that I bought from Ebay arrived in my mailbox last Friday. I've been drooling over these Retro Scissors when I first saw them appear on stitchers' blogs.

I finally treated myself to them. My excuse? For my birthday! Aren't they pretty?

Recently, I won some tatted ornaments made by Cathy's mum. Don't you think these are just so delicate and exquisite? Huge thanks to both Cathy and her mum for having the giveaway. They'll definitely be treasured.

I had a BOMB on Saturday, attending NNC Yahoo Group's Stitching Bee. Wonder why it's called a Stitching Bee... never got around to asking but I digress. Anyway, thanks to Faizon I got a better understanding of tatting. I left the Bee with these...

The book is written by Faizon with clear, concise and easy-to-understand instructions. The threads are courtesy of Zarina. Two balls of size 50 threads and a yummy skein of "Orchid Garden" hand dyed by Zarina. In order to be able to use them, I must first master tatting :) Zarina also sells her threads on Etsy. Check out her Etsy shop here. Thank you so much again, ladies.

I'm planning to have another giveaway again soon so do drop by again in the next few days. Happy stitching!