Stitching Diva

Sorry..
i promised pics to a number of people today of my SAL piece and then have decided since i missed heaps of time laying around in bed in a darkened room again that i would stitch her for the rest of the week.. i am on sick leave from model stitching …lol
So no pic for another day or so…
as to what she is… if i said paul got to chose , and he is a boy, would that help anyone who still had not worked it out?
Darkened room, yes another mega sinus episode, i tried toughing it out for 24 hours but got to the throwing up stage again and spent another day in bed , except for two feeble efforts to rearrange wips etc on the BB, so another day on diluted lemonade..
and after a long consultation with my mum, who is the mega sinus expert in my life ( i inherited that, the joint problems the reproductive problems etc from her… lucky me) we decided the elimination diet was making it worse as my body was so stressed and given a lot of my problems stem from my depression and anxiety issues i was just exacerbating everything.. so i am off the diet .. clearly dairy is not an issue with my sinuses as it is for some people as i was dairy free for more than ten days as that was something i did in the lead in to the diet, cut out dairy, my joints were almost unmanageable as the stress spiked my fibromyalgia … so thats that…
BUT i am cutting back on caffiene now anyway.. 2 cups of coffee a day and lots of herbal teas… one of my lovley fairies sent me a herbal tea pack which has arrived as i am typing and it smells devine.. the lavender chamomile will get a work out to night for sure if i can find my tea ball… ( i am worried it has been lost…… and i will have to wait until the weekend to get a new one!) and the vanilla spearmint is demanding attention now
the teas come from T2 which is an awesome place , there is a japanese tea place in Melbourne i love too , but i can never remember the name of it
the T2 online shop is stupid, it is full of silly loading images , but HERE it is i swear some companies go ot of their way to make sites as user unfriendly as possible!!
i think i will order some rose tea soon… i thnk i would like it.. though it looks like pot pourri to me lol
thankyou my little tea fairy ( also doubles as the chocolate fairy!!)

oh and some monet colourstreams silk fell into the pack as well!

Stitching stuff… well i have quietly been working on charting my own piece.. i commissioned an  ACEO from my dear cyber friend Michele Lee phelan of Art of Empath /Art of faery and she very kindly gave me permission to chart it for personal use , i would show you the ACEO but i can not work out how to watermark the image , i could ask Paul, but he tends to get cross with me when i don’t understand computer speak… which i never do.
i am sort of torn atm whether to chart as an ACEO qs sort of size 180 x 240ish sort of size or to go bigger at 300x 380-400 sort of size.. what ever i know i will be using a lot of colours as i want her to be perfect i am using the wonderful software sent to me by Cole and lana for my birthday from Hobbyware ( too lazy to link…lol)

oh and i have a new top twelve  to be stitched before i die list… surprise surprise..
excluding starts ..
Her special Place .. selina fenech
Love Me Not …Selina fenech
Leaf .. Selina Fenech ( would be replaced by Dance of the Graces if charted)
Keeper of Secrets QS.. Selina Fenech
Purple Dragonfly fae.. CCKuik
Crimson Glamour …CCkuik
Blueberries and Cream … JBG
Last Leaves ..JBG
Ruby QS … Meredith Dillman
Pine Dryad .. Annie Rodrigue
Curly Tailed Rosie… Annie Rodrigue
Marshmallow Dragon ..lisa Victoria ( would be replaced by Luck if he is ever charted)
i know i am a fickle soul, but we all knew that , some are still constants, and it is funny how i have fallen back in love with JBG’s last leaves, and i am still bemused by my desire to stitch Her Special Place … i have fab coming for her…
well i will stop rambling now..

hope no one was bored by that …lol

word press is not happy, who knows if this will work!!
i finished tranquility page 22 yesterday late afternoon/early evening, the picture is below…
i really have painted myself into a bit of a corner with the way i did the colours , but so far i have not had to frog out anthing to introduce a new colour.. fingers crossed!

i found an awesome website yesterday… Called Creative Poppy it is a site where you can download the charts after you pay.. and there are already some wonderful samplers monogrames etc including some Dessins ones , and i know that is just the start..
and Sharon , Vicky and i have been indulging ourselves in one of our favourite  gothy artists work as charts , Misty Benson has had HAED chart some of her artwork which she sells from her website.. and we bought some ( not owning up to how many ) though i will admit to Calico Cuties ( of course in honour of Beetle)  … at some point i might ask her to have Moon Flower charted . Misty is a lovely person and as a fan of Big Eye art ( there is a book coming out soon on that topic i discovered) i had to have some of her charts

i started my SAL piece.. not telling what it is though… giggle
ok fingers crossed this one publishes ihave done this blog entry three times in full and had 3 attempts where i could not load the write a post page …

well…

The elimination diet did not start well, 24 hours in and i was hit by a sinus related, migraine type, throwing up thing which i guess was a sinus migraine..
so i had 24 hours of nothing but soda water diluted clear lemonade ..
common sense told me to put the diet on hold for a few days so I am back on it today as i survived the gym last night but i do still have sinus problems so i would guess dairy does not cause my sinus as even though i was not REALLY on the diet i did not have any dairy, chocolate, etc etc etc.. and actually probably only had about 3-4 things i should not have had if i was on the diet seriously, including a coffee ( i needed some sort of comfort food after i recovered !!)

My serenity sampler arrived today woohoo… but of course i do not have the silks i want…
well i might have some , but until i get the ones i ordered i don’t want to commit ..
i want a green and pink theme.. i have three pink sereis on their way to me from HDF as well as 2 green series, and i have 2 full pink series here at home..
yes i have a pink silk fetish.. feel free to feed it any time lol. It is funny but i would have thought if i had a silk fetish it would be for purple silks, but apparently not
the pain with all this is i have been casting around all week wanting a new start and realised it was a sampler i wanted to start but didn’t want to start one when i knew Serenity was on the way ….at least tonight i will hopefully have my tranquillity page to stitch unless Ina forgets again lol..

below is my Lady in the Meadow QS model…
i have worked out some colours stitch faster than others.. yellow stitches slow… slow slow slow..
my aim is to have the torso done by the next update

now i will go back to casting around vaguely trying to commit to a chart for the haed new start SAL…
i have something kitted, but i am waiting for something else, and three others are saying what about me i have a feeling when i have done my tranq page tomorrow i will be as surprised as anyone as to what i start
Her Special place can’t be started as i ordered fab from silkweavers so that will be a fortnight … i really am a prevaricator!!

not so much about stitching today, though there is a tranquility update first..

that isn’t blech, but it is testing my colour placement mojo somewhat atm..

this is the latest picture with the secondlast full row started… I am wishing i had used a clear blue like the mermaid blues sommewhere early on, and i am thinking about frogging back a few smaller motifs above and adding a blue in… i will think about it more after page 22 is released

 and before i get distracted with my diet sook, i love this new release by Stitch’inspirations … Christmas Tokens 1 i will definately be looking out for it in the various ONS i haunt

so BLECH…
some of you know about my fibromyalgia, connective tissue disease/circulation/depression/anxiety related skin and health problems including the evil sinus problems , apparently everything is feeding off each other and exascerbating each thing significcantly, adding on to that i keep losing GP’s so have no continuity of treatment at all ( rural health in tassie is a joke at best)
so i have been seeing a rheumatologist 6 hours away by car… yay ( not)
one thing he wanted me to try was the elimination diet , firstly on my own and if it looked like it did improve my skin/sinus/headaches/tiredness etc i could maybe be brave and go see a naturapath ( i think there is one on the coast that has a good rep … or there was anyway)
so today is day one of at least 2 weeks of NO coffee, chocolate, coffee, tea, chocolate, milk, cheeses, coffee, potatoes, mushrooms, bananas, chocolate, butter/marg, fruit except peeled pears and delicious apples ,citrus of anykind…
did i mention chocolate and coffee.. and i still have haighs stash from Vicky and Nancy and i have Anver ’s stash from my sister , sob…
i can eat..
rice and rice products that have no additives of any kind, so that means plain rice cakes, rice flakes, plain puffed rice, rice milk … … rice oil, rice syrup ( yummy) rice noodles

kumara ( orange sweet potato), celery, iceberg lettuce ( which i loathe) cabbage, leeks , garlic, swedes, spring onions some people call them green onions or shallots and chives i can have bamboo shoots , but i can’t find any that do not have something added in the processing
chicken, pork, lamb, fish  , no beef but that is fine it is my least favourite of all mainstream meats, and of course no processed meats, but i rarely have any of those anyway
peeled pears and peeled delicious apples,  100% nothing added pear juice , and i found 100 % pear concentrate, water

golden syrup, sugar , salt … and i never use sugar or salt  ever , we had to buy both
cashews and 100% cashew nut paste…
buckwheat, millet , red and brown lentils

then after two weeks i start introducing stuff back in slowly and seewhat happens
so this morning i had ricecakes with cashew spread and golden syrup ( tasted fine but was werrry dry), and a mug of hotwater with pear concentrate in it.. YUK
i am about to poach pears yum… and make a big pot of home made chicken stock so we can have some flavour in our meals without using salt as i really am not a salt fan, but stock without carrot, onion and herbs will be a bit boring… thank goodness for celery and leeks i say
i did start preparing over a week ago weaning myself off coffee and using decaf , except for my real coffee Paul makes every morning, so this is my first morning without that
on the positive side when paul is in the house he is following the diet as well… except he is having milk … but out of sight… he can eat what ever he wants
and for the record.. no matter what results the diet produces.. unless it can be proven scientifically that it will seriously harm me i am not giving up chocolate and coffee
so i am sooking and feeling sorry for myself right now…
i know it could be worse… a lot worse… and it is my choice to do it, and i will stop sooking now i have gotten it off my chest
might treat myself to a new start or something…lol

Lordy two posts in two days!!

what is going on..

I have my Tsunami sampler… and immediately my mind started ticking over as to what i could use colour wise.. i am thinking all colours tropical, so ocean blues and greens with splashes of yellow, orange and turquoise….. what do you think??
Nikki asked me what colours i am considering for the Serenity sampler ( i think it was nikki)  and i have been thinking two colour combos.. one is choose a full range of blues from HDF and stitch it on my 40 count lakeside linen in cornsilk ( pretty pale yellow)

the other is a combo of a green colour group and a pink colour group.. but i am having trouble deciding on a green… i have problems with green i either love it or loathe it.. ( be quiet norty imps in the back row… yes you know who you are), so it might end up being the blues by default

anyways.. Sugar magnolia , i did a lot of her.. i used the wednesday qs sal and then the weekend managed to do heaps, again a lot of it you can’t tell is stitched as it is in the glissen gloss which does not show up on a scan..

now unless something is released in the next two week it looks like my new start fo r the new start SAl at the end of the month will be

Her Special Place … she is on the August page of the fenech calender and she has been calling me everyday… WHY is no one Stitching her??? i need to find the perfect 32 ct lavender washed out purple jobelan in the next few days to stitch her on…

and a reminder to everyone involved , it is the CC sal this weekend……

i had one of my blanks, i get them occasionally about passwords atm numbers, phone numbers..

i have this mantra i have to repeat every time i accidentally read or say out loud a sequence of numbers. It  involves all my important numbers etc otherwise i will forget them…

i know i am insane… but when i am at my worst with stress/depression/anxiety that is what i forget..
and as you can imagine in relation to my atm card it has caused problems in the past when i forget
so anyway i worked out how to get back in here today so here i am…

mischief first.. i have a new sampler on its way from martina dey she released a new patchwork sampler… she is the designer of Tranquility ( new pic below) and when i saw she had a new one and for 2 weeks it was only 18 euros to her yahoo sampler group members  instead of 22 euros.. of course i had to order it….
Serenity Sampler  also at the same time the SANQ ( sampler and needlework quarterly) released the issue with Martina’s original Tsunami sampler ( tranquility is its companion) so i had to have that too, lol, and Dragonfly dreams had it and a chart i wanted both available at the same time so i ordered them both..
Picture of Tsunami Sampler  lol you need to scroll past the serenity picture to the tsunami one..
the chart i ordered was from The Primitive Needle called Of Female Arts 
now add into this finally all my 40 count lakeside linen fabs arrived and i have been busy lol..  i ordered Patina, Cornsilk and vintage light examplar i have no idea what to stitch on what at all but i knew i wanted those colours and it was so wonderful to be able to order them in Australia that i thought i should go for it and store them away for future reference
i love all three colours, the Cornsilk is calling out for blue to be stitched on it

below is this weeks Tranquility sampler update, i finished the fourrth row , and that means i am well over half way now, i breezed through this page, would have been finished by dinner on Saturday except Ina forgot to put the page up so i did not get my 2 hours on a friday night in.. thanks to Judy for emailling Ina and asking where the page was so i had it on Saturday!!

there is a bigger picture HERE

before i forget… an answer to a question from my last post by Lisa..
nancy is the wonderful clever talented person who fragments our charts for us in the RR group… she has an amazing eye for proprtion, and is really good at counting ( which i am not… poor girl had to hold my hand to get me through splitting up my Seabreeze chart for my RR piece  because counting above defeated me….. trust me only a slight exaggeration)

now onto my rambles 

 2 sampler pics today..
I did my page 19 of the Tranquility Sampler it woiuld have been faster if i did not first discover in the last row of the dk blue sampler that i made a boo boo in the second row…
It was the footballs fault ( sharon will chuckle there) i should not try and count when the saints are being run down in the last quarter of a game…
then i decided i didn’t like some colour chooices so tested and frogged about 4 colour combos over about half a day, THEN i got it finished early sunday morning, paul was quite surprised when he got back from the gym at 10.30 am on a Sunday morning and i had finished as he knew i had a colour to do today from scratch…
i added in two new colours, the old version of lavender and Aquamarine 2435 .. i am trying to work a paler blue in and it just not working atm and it is frustrating me, i may frog out a colour further up to add it in yet… … yes not only is my middle name Fickle, it is also crazy …

and the bigger image is HERE

next up is my Patchwork Sampler, i worked on it for a while this weekend as a tribute to Jan Houtman, as his memorial service was on Friday… So i got to play with my belle soie’s a bit more and again was reminded of how lovely fresh Raspberries is, and i stitched Colourstreams Carnivale as well which is really pretty as well as the most stunning Dinky Dyes Colour, Violet.. all you purple lovers if you do not have it , you NEED it… i have mine thanks to some pixie’s from the North

and a bigger picture HERE

I really enjoyed stitching it again and playing with all my silks , rather than just the colours for Tranquility sampler..

and as for being Fickle..
i wanted Pine Dryad, got her  charted… moved on cos then I knew Indigo was being charted..
KKitted Indigo, started her and then , Ching Chou started painting awesome portraits and mermaids..
and yesterday i scrapped Indigo, unkitted her and started Kitting Blue Eyed Fairy.. Sharon insisted ( can i blame her??) as she said.. it is me, pale blonde hair, pale skin , blue eyes.. AND i am not stitching anything of hers even though we chat 3-4 times a week !!

thats seems wrong somehow..  and the thing is if Crimson Glamour is charted or
Purple Silk or Purple Dragonfly Fae which Ching Chou painted with me in mind… well then what will i do??
i think it could be said i am having a weakness period…
lol

yesterday the chocoalte fairy came… except she was a really over worked choc fairy and she delivered two packages !! haighs of course and all favourites , the choc fairy is very wise… though i know she did enlist the help of two delightful pixies..

Nancy and Vicky

Kerry … Character Creations .. had a wonderful dragony August release this month, including 20% off dragons for the week…
she has charts by Nicole cadet, Sylvia Koerner ( was polster ) and two more of the wonderful Lisa Hunt Tarot  charts, i especially love Judgement all the new charts are on this page and it is easy to check out the other dragon patterns from there

Kerry also mentioned to me that Dave is working on the New Message board for us, so hopefully we can kick our SAl back into the public eye after a few months of behind the scene stitching

finally here is my extremely ebarassingly late RR piece, i think Sharon had given up on me

it is Sara Butchers Loves Me Loves Me Not, or as i call her Daisy.. I stitched the face, the other pieces were stitched by  nancy and Jan… it is 2×2 on 32 ct opalescent fab from SMF ( i actually have another piece of this fab )

now i am on to stitching Vicky’s Turquiose ( Ravenscroft) for the next RR piece.. and of course i have forgotten what the due date is, i know it was extended.. but who knows what to…hopes sue answers this vague pondering

this weekend i am stitching Either my patchwork sampler or starting My Rainbow sampler … the third ofSAugust is the Jan Houtman memorial service so i have orgainised a SAL on the haed BB to pay tribute to him…