Stitch Maynia Update

As you will know from a previous post I am doing the Stitch Maynia 15 day challenge (15 starts in 15 days) this month.  So far I have managed to do 9 out of 9 new starts so I am on track!  I showed you the first two days on a post earlier in the month.  Below are pics of the Start 3 through to Start 9.

Day 3 - ABC Chats - F: Les Brodeuses Parisienne

Day 4 - Star Wars (Original Trilogy): The Cloudsfactory

Stitching the design as a bookmark with 2 or 3 characters and light sabers
note the Star Wars needleminder in the photo!!

Day 4 coincided with the "May the Fourth be with you" SAL on 4th May... so this is my Star Wars stitching that event :o)

Day 5 - ABC Chats  - G: Les Brodeuses Parisienne

Day 6 - Faces of Joan Elliott SAL (Dragon): Joan Elliott

I started that tiny bit of grey 3 times on Friday night.... I miscounted and didn't realise til I reached the top, then after stitching it again I realised it should have been the darker grey! So not a lot to show for a Friday night of stitching....

Day 7 - Christmas Test Drive: Mosey n Me

Just Cross Stitch Christmas 2015 issue

Day 8 - Queen of Peace: Nora Corbett (Mirabilia)

Day 9 - Trick or Treat: Pickle Barrel Designs

Just Cross Stitch Halloween 2016 issue

Well over half way there with the Stitch Maynia starts.... probably I will be back onto my ABC Chats tonight but who knows!  I must admit I am itching to get back onto the last three starts so I am counting down til 16th May and all 15 starts are down and dusted!

That's it for now... I have no idea when or if this will even post as there are issues with blogger... so fingers crossed you will see it and it won't end up in the great wide world of nothingness!!

So til next time, happy stitching
Hugs xx

TUSAL.. Bling... Stash...

As they say a picture paints a thousand words.... so who wants to see lots of pictures?

I have a rather boring TUSAL photo... then some bling... and then some stash acquisitions!

TUSAL
Well here they are... my ORT's for the last month.  Lots of gorgeous colours in that tin!

Essentially TUSAL posts are all about stitching and saving our ORT's (Old Raggety Threads) and every New Moon those of us participating in the TUSAL post a picture of our ORT's, and then leave little msgs for Daffycat on her blog to show that we have been stitching and have posted our wonderful pics. 
Next New Moon - 4 June 2016

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As my credit card will reliably inform you I have been on a bit of stash/bling buying frenzy!  And slowly all my purchases are landing in the the mail box!

First up I have Bling...

Gina (Gina's Unique Boutique) was having a moving sale so I just had to indulge... to be honest I do not know what I will do with them all (except have them in the craft room collecting dust) as I tend to only use them when I am stitching on large projects!  But they were so pretty.... :o)

I have a couple more coming from Julie (Nifty Needle Nannies) and once they get here I will show you a pic...

Next up I have some new pretty Stash Acquisitions.....

I am the first to admit that I am normally very boring when it comes to threads... DMC all the way! Occasionally I will branch out to Weeks Dye Works or NPI Silks or Caron Waterlillies as required by a specific chart but I haven't ventured very far into the world of hand-dyed variegated threads before! Until now that is!

Have a look at these stunning threads that I ordered from Jodryi Designs in the UK.  I also bought the April Limited Edition Fabric (Cairn's Birdwing Butterfly) and the matching thread (thread is the one on it's own on the right).  It helps that she was having a sale which meant that I could order twice as many as I might have normally ordered!

Next up we have a Mira added to my stash....

One of the many Mira groups that I am in on Facebook is having a "Queen of Peace" SAL and I have always wanted to stitch that gorgeous design.... but as it is an Out of Print chart I was not able to find it in Australia.... so I when I did find someone (Hawkins Hobbies in the UK) who had it for sale I just had to buy it (along with the Krienik, beads and treasures).  The kit also came with the fabric but that went into my stash as I am doing this on something else.... as you will see very shortly!

I am hoping to have this stitched and ready to take with me to the Mira Retreat next May (yes I did say next May - 2017!) in Katoomba.... after all I don't want to be the only one without a Mira lady to show at the retreat!! :o(

So that's it... my credit card has melted now from overwork!

So til my next post, happy stitching
Hugs xx

The Alphabet Club - Detention for Letter "J"

"They only met online, but it changed their lives forever"

It's time for "The Alphabet Club" (TAC)

Well, it's that time of the month again... the first Saturday of May has now arrived which means that it is time to head for detention and do up a post for the next letter of the alphabet... "J"

There really isn't a lot of "J" words that are unique to Australia... and to be honest I think I am taking a couple liberties with the list below... but here goes!

Jackaroo: a male trainee station manager or station hand (a station is a big farm/grazing property)
Jelly: a flavoured water based gelatin desert (jell-o) - Aeroplane Jelly is the best!!
Jiffy: a very short time eg: I'll be back in a jiffy
Jillaroo: a female trainee station manager or station hand
Joe Bloggs: an average person in the street
Joey: baby kangaroo
Journo: journalist
Jumbuck: sheep (as mentioned in the song "Waltzing Matilda")

I must admit that I struggled this month trying to find something iconic to talk about for "J".. but I did come up with Jaffas!

Jaffas is an Australian registered trademark for a small round sweet consisting of a soft chocolate centre with a hard covering of orange flavoured, red coloured confectionery. The name derives from the Jaffa orange. The sweet is part of both Australiana and Kiwiana.  Through association with this sweet, Jaffa is sometimes used to describe a chocolate-orange flavour.

James Stedman-Henderson's Sweets Ltd released Jaffas onto the Australian and New Zealand markets in 1931.  The confectionery is currently made in Australia by Allen's lollies, a division of Nestlé and in New Zealand by Cadbury. The Cadbury Jaffas are also exported to Australia.

I haven't had a Jaffa since I was a kid... but I do have fond memories of them, especially when we were at the drive-in movies as they were great to throw at the people sitting in front of you!! :o)

Now I am pretty sure that other countries also have Jaffas or something similar.. but I couldn't think of anything else that started with a "J" except Aeroplane Jelly and that's a real stretch for a J word!!

As you have seen over the last couple of posts I have started back stitching on my ABC Chats.  With a bit of luck I will soon have another one to show on the Alphabet posts!

So that's all for today.... it's back to my Stitch Maynia starts now!



Hooroo for now!  Happy Stitching!
Hugs xx



If you would like to join in the fun of "The Alphabet Club", pop over to Chiara's blog (The Grey Tail) to see what all the fun is about and link up your post for the Letter "I".  Posting is generally the first Saturday of the month.

April SAL Updates.... May Stitching Goals....

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Hello! Well another month has passed us by... and it went by so quickly that I forgot to post my update/goals on 1st May!

Firstly I have an update on my April SAL's... and then I will list all of my May Goals...

April SAL Update:

**JCS SAL (FB Group) - April: "Very Merry Christmas" (Designer: Medina Originals)  ü

**Christmas Ornie SAL Blog April - Theme: Ornaments & Decorations - "Christmas Bauble" (Designer: Jody Rice / Satsuma Street)  ü

**Halloween Ornie SAL Blog April - Theme: Ghost - "Halloween Portraits - Ghost" (Designer: Blue Ribbon Designs)  ü

**Lainey's Christmas Ornie SAL: posted ü
**Smalls SAL: posted ü

**Stitch Maynia (FB group)
Monthly SAL's:
- Monthly SAL: "April Showers Bring May Flowers" - stitch on any design that contains water and/or flowers:  ü
With Love bouquet - Lesley Teare (Mother's Day Gift)
Snowflower Diaries - Joyful World SAL - February

- Colour-A-Day SAL (24th of month) "Purple Haze"   ü
Started new fairy on Faces of Joan Elliott SAL - stitched all the purple in her wings

Year Long SAL's:
- Year of Starts! (at least 1 start/finish each month): ü
I had three (3) starts and finishes in April (Very Merry Christmas; Halloween Portraits Ghost; Christmas Bauble)

- Brooke's Books Year Long SAL: No progress 
- 2016 Chatelaine Shenanigans SAL: no progress on my Chatelaine WIP.....

**Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge 2016 (DUCJC2016):
Modified to 31 starts & finishes 2016: as at the end of April I have 16 finishes for 2016 of which 13 were new starts for 2016 ü 

Miribilia, Nora Corbett Designs SAL: (Nora Corbett Passions FB group)

ü Mira, Nora Corbett SAL (21 March - 3 April): stitched on Christmas Eve Courier - Prancer
ü Mira Ladies SAL (3 April - 17 April): stitched on Queen Anne's Lace
-  Fairytales / Fairy Tales SAL (18 April - 1 May): didn't take part in this one

May SAL Plans:

JCS SAL (FB Group): "Christmas Test Drive" (Designer: Mosey N Me)

Christmas Ornie SAL Blog May Theme: Reindeer

Halloween Ornie SAL Blog May Theme: Spiders

Miribilia, Nora Corbett Designs SAL: (Nora Corbett Passions FB group) 
- Favourite Colours SAL (2 May - 15 May)

Stitch Maynia (FB group) 
- "Stitch Maynia!" - the original SAL - 15 starts in 15 days in May

- "May the Fourth Be With You" (stitch on a Star Wars theme design on 4th May)

- "Colour-A-Day SAL" - "Stitchers in Red" - work only on the red sections of a design on 24th May

Remember to post for:

Lainey's Christmas Ornie SAL

Smalls SAL

So that's it... another good month of ticks on my monthly goals.... just have to keep the momentum up now!  Til next time...

Take care and happy stitching

Hugs xx

Spoilers Sweetie!!

I so love that saying.... I don't really have any spoilers unless you haven't seen the latest Game of Thrones episode... which in that case, please look away for a second while I do a happy dance!

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Jon Snow is alive!!  

Not that we doubted that he wouldn't be back one way or the other... 

Did we?

Ok... GoT happy dance is done for today!! :o)

Back to the stitching update....

Friday Frolics
Last Friday night I carried on stitching on the Joyful World SAL "February" by the Snowflower Diaries.  When I showed you "February" last Monday it looked like this:

as at 25th April 2016

I stitched on this most of last week so that on Friday night before I started stitching it looked like this:

After Friday night it looked like this:

I forgot to take a photo of what it looks like after stitching on it on Saturday but I can tell you it is almost done!  So expect another finish soon :o)

Stitch Maynia - 15 starts in 15 days
The (now) annual Stitch Maynia event started on 1st May.  This is a FB event on the Stitch Maynia group.  I tossed up whether to do it this year given all the things that I am doing but then I decided to be smart about it... (hard to imagine I know... but occasionally I do have good ideas!)

I am going to be doing 15 starts in 15 days.... (this is the base model mind you - others are doing more!) So my thinking behind this is:

3 SAL starts that need to done this month....
1 start - Halloween SAL theme (Spiders)
1 start - Christmas SAL theme (Reindeers) - also JCS start is a reindeer (2 for 1)
1 start - Star Wars stitching for May the 4th be with you on 4th May

only 12 to go....

ABC Chats - my Alphabet Club stitching is way behind... I have only completed 3 out of a possible 9 cats! (ABC are done... DEFGHI are late - so there is another 6 starts!)

only 6 more to find now....

Joyful World SAL - Jan is done.. Feb nearly done... Mar, Apr and May are waiting to be started... so 3 more possible starts there..

which leaves only 3 more to find!

Not sure what I will do there but I could get an early start on next month's SAL's... or start 3 new Brooke's Books Advent Animals or a Nora Corbett that I am itching to get on the Q-snaps! Lots of choices for the next 3 starts so stay tuned!

I have pics of the first two starts in May below:

Day 1 - ABC Chats - Les Brodeuses Parisiennes - D

Not a great start... after a day of fiddling on Sunday I finally sat down to start stitching around 4pm and this is as far as I got as I had to take Hubby to Emergency... and that was the end of Sunday!  (I must admit I did think about taking my stitching with me as I knew we would be there most of the evening... does that sound a bit mean??  BTW he is ok now.... just had a reaction to the pain relief that he was taking after his knee operation last week)

Day 2 - ABC Chats - Les Brodeuses Parisiennes - E

A bit better progress yesterday on my "E" start... and after some frogging (which you can see the red glow of...) this is what "E" looked like when I put it down last night.

Before I go I have to show you what my hubby made for me the other day.....

A new project bag!!! The orange embroidery doesn't really show up in the photo... but the front side is "Keep Calm and Stitch" and the back is a kitty! Love the purple batik fabric :o)

That's it for today.... see you again real soon!

Happy Stitching
Hugs xx