Stitching Diva

stuoid service provider.. my internet is back to its old tricks and driving me nutty..
i sort of threw a tantrum about it this morning…. and i don’t feel guilty at all, maybe something more proactive will be done now, yes i could find a new one myself, but i know then he would endlessly complain about it say we could have had a better deal at x, y or z so i want him to find the new service provider etc so he has no chance to moan about it…
and there is no chance for arguement on the issue ..
Hopefully this will post or i will have another grump!

below is my first half of the tribal biscornu stitched on 36 ct abracadabra from silkweavers using belle soie eggplant

next is my proof i can stitch 1×1 on 55 ct
the first itty bitty pic is the HDF 1×1 and 1×2 i didn;’t do 4 rows of the 1×1 cos it became obious very quickly that the hdf was too thick the second pic has gloriana stitched 1×1 and 1×2 the 1×1 was a bit tight , the 1×2 was really nice, ( it is the pale blue) the second one is using glissen gloss colourwash silk and that was perfect 1×1… the pain is they only do varigated and i am not sure i want variegated for the jane Rees sampler… yes i know i am actually considering it ….
      
i am testing the 48 ct at the moment …
i also love the 40 ct alba maxima from legacy and at some point i will test stitch that too, you would not know it was the same as zweigart 40 ct … newcastle linen in other words
So you can all sign me up for the loony bin.. i do not know why i am doing this insane thing but the challenge seems to great to ignore …
 

couldn’t think of a mind blowing heading.. never do but i was particularly un inventive today.. sorry
i have been lazy i could scan my half a biscornu on the pretty purple fab stitched in eggplant belle soie.. but i haven’t..
bad fudgey…

actually i did start the second side though it was only 60 stitches.. so it doesn’t really count.
I also got stuck into Sharon’s RR yesterday.. i am being bad i decided to do the face, i always feel bad if i tak ea good bit.. but i know sharon is busting to see the head done, so really i am helping her…lol
of course it was me starting the section so it did not go without potential disaster.
for some unknown reason i got it into my head that the stuff already stitched was from the bottom of the chart… EVEN though it looked worng.. i could not work out how those bits related to the bottom and i was truly going to start stitching her head where the legs are…
and i wasted 10 mins trying to make sense of the chart . SIGH thankfully my brain resumed normal transmission and i turned it around.. guess what, it made sense then… sigh BLONDE BLONDE BLONDE though lately i have been giving blondes a bad name even.
As i said to sharon .. if i had stitched the whole thing uside down i would have discontected the internet and moved and changed my identity… i could not have faced another royal stuff up.. bet the rest of you are scared now when i get your RR’s….
Ihad a lovely parcel in the mail yesterday, Sonya sent me a piece of La crema opalescent 32 ct linen from Sugar maple fabs… if you ever want a really nice antiquey looking cream linen but still with some bling, i say go for it thankyou precious one {{{hugs}}} i think it would look good for Purple sampler ( the one from Ink circles).
I saw this the other day an dam rememebering to post it now..
Coq au pins how cute is that??
I am hoping some of my linen appears today i am literally bursting to test stitch some of the higher counts to see what it is like, AND i want to see what the legacy linen 40 ct is like to compare to newcastle linen ( zweigarts 40 ct) as so far IMO legacy linens are the best linens by far with graziano second and zweigart somewhere below those two ( except their cashel and dublin which i refuse to even put on a scale..they are so awful)
on that note i am freezing as it is STILL raining raining training so i am off to have a shower to warm up

hello everyone…I hope all my dear friends who have been sick, sad or feeling low are starting to feel a bit better , i have been terribley worried about so many of you.. we need some fairy magic sprinkled around i think, some really high powered stuff.
                                      

i went really well with this page of the sampler this week i finished it by about 9 o’clock on saturday night , about 26 hours after it was released, and there was sleeping, gyming , grocery shopping, dog walking and general fudgey like time wasting factored into that.
i really need football played every day of the week  or something i just seem to stitch faster when it is on.
the new purple motif i have started bemuses me, i can not work out what it is going to be at all.. usually i get what is happening when i have stitched that much of a motif, but not this time…
as usual there is a little picture , so i put some pretties in my blog, then there is a link to a bigger picture, cos i can not work out how to do clickable thumbs… sorry

The Bigger Picture
oh lok when i see the tiny picture i do get a sense of what that motif will be… cool.. don’t feel so dim now..
for the record the silks i have used so far from HDF are….
Nosegay 2105 and 2109 ( the darker purple i used this time)
Lager
Colonial teal
Azur 2441
Sea pinks 1351
Enchanter Rose 1323
Heartbreak
Turquoise
Water Blue
Phlox 1335
another purple i have lost atm.. its in the bag SOMEWHERE.. lol
Rose Quartz
and just peeking out is velvet Midnight 2159
for the rest of the weekend i am doing a mini biscornu sal with Vicky.. i am of course making it as hard for myself as possible by stitching 1×1 on 36 count linen… i can not help myself it would seem..
if you read this Vicky chances of me getting both sides done seems remote so it will take me two sal blocks to do it.. sorry

I insanely signed up for another martina SAL , her Quaker one.. i will not be doing it like i am th tranquility one, that would be insane, i just oncve again could not pass up an 11 euros chart from her as they are usually over 20 euros… ( 11 euros works out to $18ish  AUD)
Especially as i am putting so much effort into sorting out my Jane Rees Sampler
i have ordered 40 and 48 ct legacy linens and some 55 count linen, one of them will be for the Jane rees sampler… but i need to test stitch to see what i can cope with.. the 40 ct i would assume will be 1×1 but the 48 and 55 count would be 1×2 i would guess, i doubt i will like the look of 1×1 on the 48 ct and i know i am not patient enough to try 1×1 on 55 count at the moment i am leaning towards Belle Soie or Gloriana silks as i think they are a bit thinner and i do not necesarily want the high gloss sheen of the HDF for it.. but colour wise i have no idea
i am thinking about kitting the quaker sal chart up with the 36 ct magnolia lakeside linen i have , and the new HDF Attar of Roses either monchrome using the 1235 or using the whole range
and this will make people chuckle.. i have been so bad this fornight i ended up with a dilemma .. do i order more silks etc from SB&B this weekend OR do my order to lush for more moisturiser and soaps ( oh no we are nearly out of soap!! i never thought i would reach the of my soap pile, but i think paul sits in the shower and eats it.. he goes through soap so quickly i think i will have to ban him from using it again) it is a real dilemma

thankyou for all the comments for the last entry!
re the scarf i can’t take a pic unless paul brings home the camera Scarves do not scan very well lol
after i wrote the blog entry yesterday .. truly like 5 mins after i hit send my Jane Rees repro sampler turned up, so another company to recommend especially for OS girls who are sometimes wary, the postage was $6 USD which i have no problems paying , for a big thick A4 sized booklet .. unlike a few companys who will charge $11 plus for one leaflet or $20 plus for 1 fat quarter of fabric
i am going to sign up for the new wiehenburg quaker sal, but i will not be seriously sal’ing..

i think of all the big quakers i have seen this is my fav, as some of you know i have an aversion to the really trad style quakers, and at 11 euros which is about half the price of her charts i really think it is worth it.
i have spent the morning playing with my silks trying to help nancy find colours for some of her samplers.. and can i say if anyone is looking for a lovely combo of soft golden browns the spice girls ( as i call them ) would be perfect of pale cream or ivory linen… the colours are HDF  coriander, ginger and cardamom … just beautiful , dragon oil looks good too , though not quite as clear and perfect,  i reckon atm coriander would be my fav non purple colour,
and finally i think we need a new stitchers group, the restless stitchers.. a lot of you seem to be good candidates for core membership!

i am a restless stitcher atm..
i can’t settle iwant to stitch everything, but i don’t want to stitch anything..
i e i want to stitch things i don’t have started , and for some reason can not focus on the things i do have started
i know it is a phase and it will pass, but it is an expensive place to be in at the moment, in that i keep buying stuff to satify the want to starts need , rather than starting something.
some reasons why this is happening i think…
It is cold and rainy and  i am very susceptible to seasonal change it really mucks around with my depression i have been better since we moved from hobart in relation to SAD as we don’t get the endless days of grey cold weighing down misery which they get down there…. days were the temp goes from -4 C overnight to 5 C during the day and sunlight is a mere memory and the wind off the mountain cuts you like a knife… can you tell i do not miss this part of living in hobart.. i never did get used to it in the 12 years i lived there..
I am also busy using up the printer cartridge for paul at work.. he is in his last month in his current position and the equipment in his office is just being left as obsolete ( wasteful imo) and as he will be back in a college and having to justify a majority of his printing so i need to get any i might want printed from the fullsize charts as 30 plus pages for a chart is pushing it as far as the fuzzy bit of his printing allocation would go . Soeveryday i choose a few charts and he prints them… which means i am looking at lots of charts and daydreaming.. this makes me restless for obvious reasons, i want to start them.
i got Blueberries and Cream  from JBG printed yesterday and i sooooo wanted to start her right then and there
today i spose i get Capricorn from JBG printed as i still can not decide which would be best to do , i had Luna printed the other day.. and we all know how she screams at me lol.
I also have this desire atm to try high count linens i think this comes from the Jane rees reproduction sampler i am waiting for from th Scarlet letter.. as she stitched the original on 70 count. I think that is insane not even sure such a count exists anymore, but i did order some legacy dower quality linen alba maxima which is a 40 ct and some legacy linen 48 ct from the Twining Thread who i nmust say is on the ball ordered my sunday and posted my tuesday and postage was not horrific  so i look forward to checking them out.
i must admit a leon Conrad chart fell into the parcel too Stars of Glory
i also emailled a store about 55ct kingston linen , but they have not replied… pout and they are a great company i often use so i will re email them , after all i know how stupid cyberspace is.

my next big dilema once i choose a fab is which colour to go with…. i know it is traditional to do a repro in the similar colour to the original .. but its me… i am not good at traditional.. and i think i want to use the Belle Soie silk i think eggplant might be a bit too dark.. i am leaning towards fresh raspberries, BUT i would like to check the other reds and the plum as well from the range before i commit and i had a strange twinge about using colourstreams yesterday and that opened up a real dilemma as the colours are totally different to any other range

i have plenty of time to muse though
I finished the scarf i was knitting for Pauls work colleague  yesterday.. and iwas like 9 days ahead of time.. i think i deserve a medal.. me getting something done well before the due date.. is unheard of i am always the girl skidding in on her heels still tying off ends etc…
strange really cos i am always early for appointments meetings etc…
anyway it is done and i must again say thankyou lindy, that lace pattern is brilliant so easy and so quick.
i have heaps of the red left so i will knit someone a scarf for xmas with it i guess.
below is my picture of my Tranquillity mystery sampler which i am upto date on again…
i have included a link incase youwant to see the bigger picture, i have to make things so small to fit on this page.
i frogged out the hot pink hibiscus and changed it to Turquoise.. which is bright, but fits my colour scheme which some how has turned into pinks, teals,turquoisey/aquas and purples and purpley blues. i also started my new motif with the lighter of the sea pinks which is a lovely colour.

and the link to a bigger picture..

big hugs to all my friends too.. so many of you are sick and sad atm.. and i wish i could wave a wand and make you all better

This weekend is the Character Creations SAL..
depending on how i am going with my CC model as to whether i just stitch that, which means no pics, or if i start Birch fairy… which would be norty, but i have startitis and that might stop me from any more starts… and if you believe that you believe babies grow in cabbage patches
I didn’t get to participate last month cos i was away and well frankly the last 6 weeks of stitching have been a disaster .. i am hoping i can make the next 6 weeks bettter
I got my biscornu charts from Volarium.. they are the fastest international deliverers hands down.. now to find the time to do them… of course Vicky and i are stitching one next weekend in the ornie sal, then finishing it in the next ornie sal.. well that is the plan, if anyone else wants to join us….
ithink i am meant to be stitching the one in the latest Gift of stitching.. which means i need to get Paul to print it…..
unless I go with one of the two that arrived yesterday
to answer judy’s question the Crescent Colour belle Soie silks are available at a fair few ONS i actually ordered mine from SBand B  i have some elegant eggplant calling my name atm.. and i would love to add a few more to my stash, like the Mer Blue, Plush Plum and Sister scarlet
and finally here is my little green kitty..

to refresh your memories, he is stitched on a 32 ct jobelan solo 1×1 and he will be a story keep one day i must give him ears next time he is in the rotation..

not much to say today..

thanks to those people who said nice thigs yesterday.. when i questioned whether anyone was reading my blog, i meant more.. given i had been so erratic in the past few weeks and so grumpy and then nothing for a week that people might have forgotten to click on the link
anyway here are some more pic…

firstly my darling Sugar…
instead of sparkle thread for her cheeks, nose and chin i used white stranded eterna silk…

secondly is my patchwork sampler.. one of the days when my head was so bad i could not concentrate on HAEd i treated myself to some patchwork sampler.. i had been bursting to try the crescent colours belle Soie.. and can i tell you they stitch up marvellously.. i am really tempted to buy a heap for that scarlett letter repro sampler..
i finished 2 motifs and did 90 % of another.. i worked on the bottom setion the belle soie is the rich red pink.. fresh raspberries is its name

how long for i don’t know, so don’t fret if i disappear again..
yeah i know most of you didn’t notice i was gone.. if any one is even bothering to look at my blog now..
what have i done whilst our service provider has made our internet a random thing..
spent money .. true if i found an ons i could access iwould buy stash..
i bought a number of charts , mainly quakers and samplers.. can’t say what some are as they will turn into gifts for people, but i did order the Scarlett letter sampler chart i have been waffling on about the Jane Rees Reproduction Sampler and NO despite what a few crazies i know think i will not be hunting down 70 count for it
i also finally ordered the needleprint ackworth Quaker post charts 
and again … no i will not be stitching 20 envelopes.. i wanted to look at them and see hwat they were like and play a round a bit sometime.. you know when i have all this spare stitching time..lol
ummm i also bought some midnight stitching samplers including the dragonfly one i have been coveting for a while..
it was pauls fault.. he would be on the phone to some person on the other end claiming to be a technician and they would be saying to me load up a site from x country, load a site you could get onto yesterday, load up one you couldn’t.. and i was using ons and then i had to try paypal, and then… well you ge the drift, they were enabling me..
i also bought some plain coloured jobelan and belfast linen and a grab bag of evenweaves  (think it was evenweaves) and … no i will stop now, i think you are all in shock anyway
so my defence is they made me do it, i was sick, i was buying charts instead of eating too much chocolate ummm i was lonely… i am nearly out of jelly belly beans so i was substituting..
i have a picture of Elenia to share, i also did some more patchwork sampler… not much but i wanted to test out the belle soie silk and it is LOVELY fresh raspberies is good enough to eat, i sdon’t have a scan of that.. i have not stitched much i have actually been really sick, foirstly the sinus thing some of you know about but secondly another virus grabbed me and chewed me up and spat me out and concentration was monimal due to headaches and such like..

i seem a bit better this week so maybe that along with the browser seeming like it is working ok i am heading in a better healthy direction again.. she says fingers crossed..

so below is the second last pic of Elenia…

and finally..

happy birthday Sue

just to let everyone know i am still alive..

somethings are better, somethings are worse.. somethings get better then get worse…
I went to Agfest yesterday which is a massive 3 day farming expo run by rural youth tasmania…
why was I going to a farming expo i hear you ask… well they grow a lot of food on farms, and a lot of farms now have cottage industries attached to them like my favourite caramel in the whole wide word made by a lovely lady down the south of the state who uses the milk/cream/butter etc from her own farm to make her wares .. so i have yummy homemade caramel and nut caramel ( no she didn’t grow the nuts lol)..
the people who now grow herbs as a side business and make amazing natyural soaps scented with blue gum ( state floral emblem) and rosemary which is a fav scent combo of mine..
so i get to check out lots of stuff like that , eat yummy food from the food produce tent, nibble lots of local cheese, grab a cadburys showbag ( an essential every year)..

didn’t get to browse as much as i would like which meant no nice skin products or looking at the alpaca wool etc cos my sister, BIL, nephews and mum came too so a lot of time was spent looking at goats/sheep/alpacas/sea creatures in tanks ( marine farming) and scary cows… you do remember i am mortally fearful of cows…
and also there were SO many people it was packed ,biggest crowd ever for the final day so i was pretty stressed…

we came away with the above mentioned caramels, chocolate, a dairy showbag full of yummy milks/yoghurts etc, 3 fullsize king island cheeses ( the aus girls might know how decadent that is) and  some really nice bread, but the winner on the day was my muffalupagus.. she now has a wonderful new bead with a soft fuzzy cover on it, a new toy , and a big show bag full of puppy treats.. beetle and fudge now have a new smart litter box too
i also managed to get well over half way in the scarf i need knitted by the end of the month.. this lace pattern of Lindy’s is so fast and creates a wonderful scarf…
i am hoping i can get my photobucket account to work later in the day so i can post my pics of the mystery sampler and my meagre bit of lovenotes, and tomorrow night i will have my next Elenia installment to post i think
After a few days of not being able to i got back on to the HDF site.. firstly the silk price increase has finally happened… sigh.. it is still great value though so i won’t sook
secondly some one had posted a wip of a gorgoeus quaker sampler by Samplers and Such and i should not have gone searching as i had forgotten about this designer and now i am all wanting to order stuff again….

because it takes so long for each page to load up here are all the ones Stitching bits and bobs has.. the one this stitcher is doing is the Quaker style friendship sampler and it is glorious stitched in hdf , but i also love Bright Spots sampler… which one little fairy already knows cos we have chatted about it before, A Spot of tea and the Rabecka kleinsasser one..

off to glare at my email some more and try and get photobucket to load up so i can post a pic of jan’s Enter a New World pic… which is soooo close to being finished the clever possum

My internet coonection is insane…
and consequently it is driving ME insane, who knows whether this will even get posted it may shut off, the connection may break, or it might time out when i hit publish…
OR it will be fine…
sometimes it takes about forty minutes to open, read, reply to an email, sometimes it is normal pace,
there are some websites i can access easily and immediately and have no problems at all…
like the HAED BB and  ( and this will make sharon laugh cos she knows the saga) the Dragononfly dreams website, others like the HDF site will not load up no matter what i try, others if i load let it sit there silently spinning for 5 -10 minutes, then hit refresh, work fine.. for a while..
i can’t open any of the lovely ecards people sent me cos they will not open the links  waited one out for 40 mins and then gave up… but thankyou dear people they are all sitting there and when the service provider finally gets back to us i will open them…
so i can read emails in about 10 minute turn around, i just am not answering them atm cos it takes too long , so feel fre to tease me via email safe in the knowledge for now i will not be able to retalliate..lol
poor paul he was on the phone for 2 hours last night… finally they shamefacedly admited it was a problem their end not ours… after 3 earlier dismisive responses that it was fine their end..
they did not bargain for talking to someone who knew it was not the computer and knew something about computers and finally realised he had to be put through to a technician rather than a call centre person ( which they did not realise until about 10.45 pm)
Sue i did read your email to the RR girls, but again i am waiting for the computer before answering….
Sonya i am still alive just incredibly grumpy!
Before i could no longer access the HDF site i did order 5 hanks in their hank sale… i totally recommend you give them a try… $4.00 for 50 yards of HDF silk and so far in all the ones i have ordered i have only had 1 i will not use and one i might not ever use..
my offer of 50 yards of middish grey silk still stand for anyone who wants it..
in my last lot which i got with my posting points i got the most amazing variegated red… and a lovely soft green sort of 503ish
in that order i also got 3 skeins of the new Enchantress.. if you love red silk, treat yourself to a few skeins… it is divine
next as i can’t really email people successfully..
{{{{sue and sonya}}}} the norty pixies sent me the floss for leaf.. which leaves the dilemma ( giggle no pun intended)… am i meant to start leaf or Pine Dryad ( no both is not an option)  i will send you thankyou cards one day…
next … when we were experimenting last night to see if we could crack the code as to which sites would and would not load up and if there is a common link… ( there isn’t so far) i played on Dragonfly dreams and LOVE the cover of the new
Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly – Vol 47 how wonderful is that redwork.. hmm i have some good red silks atm.. lol and of course bundles of space in my stitching time NOT!!
finally, thankyou for all the nice comments on my stupid boo boo, especially to sharon who offered to fix it for me when it gets to her..
but i will be able to face her again when she returns to me and it really is only 2 days worth of stitching …
i just feel bad that there will be a gappy section as it goes to everyone else
hugs everyone…