Holiday Stitching

I've spent the first few days of the holidays just unwinding.

Which means I've pretty much stayed home, after all why would I want to go anywhere near the shops with Christmas shopping mayhem. I've done lots of stitching - probably about 30 hours or so across 4 days whilst watching episodes of Dexter and the Tudors.

I also finally succumbed to the Dragon Cave and here is my first incubator and then after a few more days:




I've also had the chance to get my diet back on track - I'm not waiting for New Year this year. I'll allow a small blip on Christmas Day, but this way I won't put on a few kilos over the holidays that I have to shift next year. It is bad enough having to shift the constant conferencing kilos (about 6 or 7 I think) from Term 4. It also means I won't get a gall bladder attack and feel awful for a few days.

So stiching wise here are some of my recent projects:

My Teresa Wentzler Guardian at 78 hours after the Monday SAL December 15th


Shannon's Winter Neighborhood RR (I stitched the house bottom left from merged "By the Bay" patterns) December 18th


Cari's Band Sampler RR (I stitched the orangey tan band of leaves and wheat from Teresa Wentzler's Harvest Sampler) December 7th


Kristin's Santa for the UFORR December 6th


Debbi's Winter Neighborhood RR (I stitched the house at the top left from a Prairie Schooler Pattern) November 25th

Another hectic month and holidays are in sight - YAY!

Well just like last month I worked frantically. In fact between October and November I worked 40 days straight with only a few hours off on Sundays to spend time with my son, catchup on housework etc.

Stitching during that time was minimal if at all. However this week with the massive reduction in workload I was able to finish off Krisitin's UFORR piece

Some Round Robin Progress

I've been flat out at work so very little stitching has been done lately. I've mostly been working on Round Robins if I've had time.



My Band Sampler Round Robin which is on the way to the USA now.



Allie's Fairys as they left me.

Stitching Update

I've been busy finishing off Round Robin pieces so they could be mailed.

The Winter Neighborhood one went on Monday. It is Tami's and it's winging its way to Arizona



I've been working on my piece about to start a Band Sampler RR. I'm doing a Teresa Wentzler Band Sampler. No photo yet but hopefully I'll finish it tonight.

I also collected my nephews' stockings whilst in Sydney. They are ready to go to their respective new owners.

Frightfully Busy

I can't believe a month just flew by. I've been so busy I only just realised.

Things I've been busy doing:

• 1 week of preparation for a 1 day workshop for 160 teachers
• Cleaning up loose ends after the teacher workshop
• Editing powerpoints and audio files to make vodcasts of the workshop for those unable to attend and reminders for those who did attend
• 2 weeks of Spring Holiday in Sydney with Family
  
• Visiting and getting to know 3 new babies in my family / friend network
• 1 day workshop with 40 teachers
• Wading through emails, mail, voicemails that piled up while I was doing the above things

I think that's it. I know I didn't do much stitching during this time but I've learnt a heap of new technologies such as audio editing, Powerpoint Producer, mpeg to avi conversion which will make these jobs faster in the future. So back to getting more stitching time :)

Danger broken glass!

Angus accidently knocked my very large shell vase off the kitchen bench this morning. It made a huge crash and big mess. He was very upset for most of the day despite me assuring him that accidents happen. Luckily I have a spare vase and after a bit of glueing of the shell balls I'll be able to put it all right.

The scene of the mess. I had glass splattered across four rooms and it took nearly an hour to ensure it was all gone. Luckily no tiles were cracked either.




This afternoon I did a few more hours of stitching and my TW Guardian is at 60 hours

I need sleep!

After a couple of unsettled nights I'm really tired. Seeing as Angus has gone to his Dad's for the next 2 days I'm thinking of going to bed shortly and then sleeping in.

No stitching today but I posted the RR off to Canada. Maybe tomorrow I'll do some more on Guardian.

It's Monday and the first day of Spring

Started the day well with my weekly weigh in and have lost 3kg :) so diet is working and will reward myself as promised with a Pandora bead. I'm thinking this one:

Another bead at 95kg - so 3 more to lose.

It was a busy day at work, lots of paperwork the usual emails, phone calls and faxes to deal with. Then I got to play with a Primary class as they quizzed me about Space and Gravity.

Had a brief nap before picking up Angus and getting into the usual evening routine. Angus chose to watch a David Attenborough episode of "Life in Cold Blood", lots of pretty froggies. I finished off my Winter Neighborhood RR piece for posting tomorrow while watching it with him. Here it is:



After Angus went to bed I did an hour or so on my TW Guardian. Monday being the TW Stitch along day. Here he is at 48 hours:



Only 2 more hours to go on the border then back to stitching the main picture. I've decided every 10 hours to work on the border for 10 hours. The border is actually quite easy to stitch I think.

Finished Fergus's Stocking

I've finished my 10th Shepherd's Bush Stocking. This one is for Fergus my 3 week old nephew born August 8th. It would have been done last week however I ran out of one thread :( It's now off to Sydney for finishing.

I've also uploaded the progress on my TW Guardian - here he is at 44 hours on the 8th of August.



And finally here is my TW Regal Peacocks finished on August 17th.



So with Fergus's Stocking I've now completed 33 of 50 in my Stash reduction challenge.

Why did I avoid it for so long?

I've been updating my blog all day. Listing all my things in one place is such a convenience.

Which got me to wondering why I didn't do this earlier?

I also did 2 hours of weeding, in preparation for putting the house on the market next month. Still more weeding and lawn regeneration required. Also planted the spring veggies but have no idea if I'll get to eat them.

Found two baby water dragons in the veggie patch.

Watched "The Goonies" earlier and now "Muriel's Wedding" as I start stitching for the day.

I'm finally blogging

Well after many years of watching and reading blogs I've finally succumbed.

This is just one of the technologies I'll be learning this week. My other goals are to learn to use a digital video recorder, then how to edit video and audio segments and finally how to embed video segments in powerpoint.

Last week I learnt how to record and download digital voice recordings and how to save you-tube and other flash videos.

Stitching wise:

I'm about to finish my 3 week old nephew Fergus's Christmas Stocking and I have to grid fabric ready for a Winter Neighborhood Round Robin.