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!

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!

Hand-Dyed Obsession

What does one do when she has been deserted by her stitching mojo? In my case, stash acquisition and stash fondling always help.

Last time, I showed you my HDF silks in a chocolate box. As yummy as that was, alas, my collection has totally outgrown it. So here's my new storage system.

This is actually a plastic file folder that can be found in most bookstores.

Colours make me happy. Yet, that wasn't enough to lure my mojo back. So I moved on to my fabric collection.

Here are my Lakeside Linens.

That is what happens when you join a year's worth of Fabric of the Month Club.

These are neutral linens from various hand-dyed fabric companies.

Picture This Plus

Polstitches

A couple of Sugar Maple Fabrics and the rest Silkweaver.

Hi, my name is Veronica and I am a stashoholic...
Anyway, I need to clarify that all except two of Silkweaver fabrics were bought before the change of hands to Needleworker's Delights. This is because after they took over, many stitchers, including me have experienced a drop in the quality of their products and customer service.

I've only ordered from them once since the changeover during a free shipping promotion. Never again! (I won't go into how ridiculous their normal overseas shipping charges are.) This was what I got:

Bright solid turquoise with no colour variations. I can't imagine stitching anything on it. This was what I was expecting to get.

I wasn't the only one who encountered this problem either. See TJ's complaint here. With this same order, I had also included a piece of Scattered Leaves. The result?

You gotta be kidding me, right? Both were supposed to be fat quarters - 18" x 27". This piece of Scattered Leaves measures only 15 inches wide. Note how small it is compared to Aegan Aqua.

If you were wondering, no, I didn't report my grievances to Silkweaver. Many before me has done so without any result. What's the point? Well, I'm done with my gripe. Thanks for bearing with me.

*Edited to add: Please see update on Silkweaver here.*

Moving on, here's my May's WiPocalpyse report. I know, I'm so late! A single, lonely stitchy pic of Lilliput Village. Hopefully, I'll be forgiven after the number of stash photos I've shown above ^.^

This is the first time a project from my original WiPocalypse list has made an appearance. Poor Lilliput Village hasn't seen daylight for over a year. Wish me luck that I'll be able to complete a significant amount of it this year.

Last but not least, to all mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day!

Purple Paradise

After being on time for my last TUSAL update, here's my prompt report for April's WiPocalypse. What is going on? I'm usually the world's first class procrastinator. LOL!

Until a few days ago, I stitched one project and one project only. I hope you're not bored with seeing Stella again. Here's my progress so far.

Have you noticed she has so much purple on her gown? Hence the post title ^.^ Alas, I had to put her down due to an exchange commitment. Can't show you the whole project yet but here's a glimpse of what I've been up to.

Yup, silk ribbon embroidery. Let's hope this project turns out exactly as I've envisioned it. Wish me luck.

Happy Stitching!

March WiPocalypse

It's full moon again. Time for another WiPocalypse update. I could have sworn we just had one.

I've been stitching Stella. Made some progress on her which I'm rather happy with.

Then I had to put her down because my Magic Garden Sampler SAL partner, June (no blog), emailed me with a photo of her finish.

Whoops! I've not touched my Magic Garden Sampler since my last update so I scrambled to put some stitches into it. I guess I'll be stitching this piece alone now.

Here's my rather pitiful progress.

Hopefully I'll have more to share in my next WiPocalypse post.
Happy Stitching!

First 2012 Finish

Yikes! I'm more than ten days late for my WiPocalypse update. Where has the time flown to? At least I have a finish to show.

Design: Home of A Needleworker (Too)!

Designer: Little House Needleworks

Fabric: 32 count Lakeside Linens Navy Bean Belfast linen

Fibers: Hand Dyed Fibers silk

I'm really happy with how my HDF conversion makes an already pretty design so much more vibrant.

This dear little cottage is in my favourite colour - blue.

If you're interested, this is my HDF conversion:

• CC Bamboo - HDF BeCreamed
• CC Brandied Pears - HDF Examplar Fire Thorn
• CC Cocoa Bean - HDF Examplar Old Maid of the Soil
• CC Hickory Sticks - HDF Examplar Hearthstone
• CC Old Blue Jeans - HDF Magpie Warbles
• CC Razzleberry - HDF Examplar Crushed Berry
• CC Weeping Willow - HDF BeFrogged

I gotta say this is one of my favourite design to stitch. I'm almost sorry to see it done... Amost!

It's IHSW this weekend. Will you be hermitting with us? I've already started a new project and am anxious to get to it. Stay tune for details ^.^

Happy Stitching!

New Year, New Starts

Happy New Year, dear readers. Yes, I'm late with my WiPocalypse update. Still, better late than never, right? I've had two new starts. I figured January should be a guilt-free month.

First, as planned, is Magic Garden Sampler by Shakespeare's Peddlar.

I'm stitching this with HDF on Lakeside Linens Navy Bean. I absolutely love how the silk glides through the fabric.

Next, I started Home of A Needleworker (Too)! by Little House Needleworks as well.

It's stitched on the same fabric as Magic Garden Sampler. I've also converted the colors to HDF. It's not an exact color conversion as I'm only eyeballing the floss and choosing what I deemed fit but I'm loving the results so far.

Last but not least, I've joined the TUSAL and this is my first update:

Have a great weekend, everyone and happy stitching!

Goodbye 2011

This will be my last post before the new year. As mentioned in my last post, I manage to have one last finish for 2011.

Design: She Tends

Designer: Shepherd's Bush

Fabric: R&R Reproductions Alabaster 30 count linen

Fibers: Crescent Colours, Weeks Dye Works & Sampler Threads

Embellishments: Shepherd's Bush Silver Shepherd Charm

Here are all four blocks together.

2012 will be a year of SALs for me.

Most of you already know about the TUSAL organized by Daffy Cat. Well, I've joined in the fun.

Next up will be the WiPocalypse organized by Measi. There's even a WiPocalypse forum for it. Which means I need to buck up and list down my projects for 2012. So far, this is what I have in mind:

• Abi Guden - Tree of Stitches (New)
• Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks - Spring Song (New)
• Lanarte - Lazy Afternoon (WiP)
• Lilliput Lane - Lilliput Village (WiP)
• Little House Needleworks - Home of A Needleworker (Too!) (New)
• Little House Needleworks - Singing the Blues (New)
• Mirabilia - Garden Verses (WiP)
• Passione Ricamo - Romantic Stitcher (WiP)
• Papillon Creations - Love With A Capital L (WiP)
• Shepherd's Bush - Sail Away (New)
• Stickideen von der Wiehenburg - Rose Quaker (New)
• Valerie Pfeiffer - Chorus Line (WiP)

That's my WiPocalypse list. However, I make no guarantee that it won't change. After all, you know what they said about the best laid plans and all.

I'll also be starting Magic Garden Sampler by Shakespeare Peddler in January. This will be a private SAL with my friend June (no blog).

End of February is the due date for the Friendship Bag Exchange on NNC so I'll be busy with that.

Tentative start date for Lizzie Kate's 6 Fat Man SAL will be in March. Anymore of you out there who's interested to join Katica, Tammy and me? I believe there are a few more takers over at Kat's blog as well but hey, the more the merrier :)

NNC's Anniversary Meet has been scheduled in April so I'll need to prepare for the Anniversary Gift Exchange and the challenge. This year, the challenge was a Gingham Heart. For 2012, the organizers have come up with the Bird Challenge! What that is, you'll have to wait and see.

That's my plans so far for 2012. Have I bitten off more than I could chew? I certainly hope not.

Happy Stitching!