Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

What’s the largest project you’ve ever done? What’s the smallest?

The largest project I've ever done - I shall say the 'Days of the Week' bellpull which I have not done with the finishing touch and don't have the updated pic as well. The finished bellpull size is approx. 8"W X 40"H.

The smallest project I've ever done - I did lots of small projects actually. Most of them are stitched cards, apart from them I shall say the smallest project I've ever stitched is the scissors fob.

scissors fob

Happy Day

Something in the mailbox yesterday simply made my day. Received 'Words of Love' chart from San-Man Originals.

I'm the lucky winner for the month of July (2005) in San-Man Originals contest. Thank you Sandy & Sanman Originals for this 'love'ly chart :)

Words of Love Sampler

A visit to a LNS is a must for me, I need some metallic threads for this chart (run out of gold metallic). Will stitch 'Words of Love' for DH *wink* (p/s... DH, I know you're reading this. Act surprise when you receive the framed piece from me, will you hehehehe)

Back to Stitching ...! (part II)

My stitching friend, Azie and I decided to go for another one-evening Lizzie Kate SAL after finishing the L*K Snug as a Bug.

L*K Snug as a Bug

Snug as a Bug ~ a total colour conversion stitched on rustico aida. I added the border since I'm planning to finish it off as a cushion cover. See the matching floral print cotton *wink*. Embellished with a ladybug button. I'm running out of stock now! Need to buy extra ladybug buttons next time since I love them as embellishments very much.

As for the other one-evening SAL, I particularly chose L*K Reach for the Stars (a.k.a Believe Imagine Dream) coz I'm a dreamer *wink*. Yes, I do have a dream and hoping that one day it will become a reality (I'm working on it).

L*K Reach for the Stars

Stitching on black aida in the evening was a challenge. Furthermore, I used the glo-in-the dark blending filament when stitching the stars, 'believe' & 'dream'. I was supposed to stitch 'imagine' with the blending as well but somehow I forgot about it. Being lazy to do the frogging , I just let it be.

Azie stitched both L*K Snug as a Bug and Reach for the Stars according to her preference. You may visit her webshots album to see her works. She took the pics before embellish the stitched pieces with buttons as she was using a scanner to capture the pics. Azie will upload more pics of the stitched pieces with embelishments later.

Back to Stitching ...! (part I)

Since last Friday, I had not been productive ~ stitching wise as well as blogging wise. Apart from making some pincushions which were quick to finish, I spent my time reading books and magazines.

Apparently my stitching friend, Azie was not in the stitching mood either. After a chat in YM, we decided to revive our stitching mood with Lizzie Kate SAL. We've been talking about this SAL for quite some time but never make out time for it.

L*K Love Bug

L*K Love Bug was quick to stitch and merely took an evening. Azie finished stitching earlier than me as I couldn't take my eyes off the TV screen *LOL*. The funny part was when we 'exchanged' our SAL pics, we realised that we went for the same colour theme except for I stitched on pink aida whereas Azie stitched on white aida. L*K gives freedom to stitchers to choose colour, type of flosses and fabric to stitch Love Bug.

Guess what, we are on 2-evenings L*K SAL ~ Snug as a Bug, which I've finished it just now. Azie has not text/SMS me yet about her stitching status. Will upload our pics of L*K Snug as a Bug later. I feel that both of us really back to stitching mood now *wink*

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

How often do you wash your fabric for each project? Do you wait until the very end until to wash it or do you wash it more than once?

Yes, I will wait until the very end to wash the fabric for each project. I'll hand wash the fabby gently before the finishing off. I never try machine wash coz I haven't stitch anything wearables except for baby booties. As for stitched pieces using the overdyed materials, I won't wash them unless I can see some spots which I'll give them 'in situ treatment'. I will usually be extremely careful when stitching using the overdyed materials *wink*

Cardmaking Revival

To some people, they've been involve in cardmaking for a long time, to others, cardmaking is a whole new thing. To me, cardmaking is a revival. I was into cardmaking during my school years. Sadly, I began to 'leave' my favourite pastime when I had too many things to do in campus.

LHC's cardmaking revival (i)

I entered the new beginning, last year. Started with XS cards. And then I tried some simple embroidery cards. The most recent is, 'playing with papers, scissors & glue' just like the good old times.

LHC's cardmaking revival (ii)

I really enjoy cardmaking especially nowadays we have lots of gadgets & supplies to choose & use as long as the time & budget permit :)

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

What do you do with the framed stitching that you keep? Do you hang it up and leave it in one place, never to move it? Or do you have a rotation, where you have one place for stitched pieces and switch them out according to mood or season? Maybe a mixture of both?

Well, I don't have many framed pieces actually. So far, what I have are those small in size and I simply put them on the dresser. I have wallhangings as well and hang them ocassionally. If I were going to hang the framed pieces, i would definitely leave them in one place and never to move them (we have issue with holes in the wall). Let's say, if I would like to remove the framed pieces from the wall, I will replace them with the wallhangings or family photos.

Haze-over-dose

Peninsular Malaysia has been blanketed by haze for a week now. And 2 places have been declared in a state of emergency ~ Port Klang and Kuala Selangor. Other areas e.g. Kuala Lumpur, Shah Alam, Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya show high API readings. The said cause for haze is from forest/peat fires in Sumatera and Kalimantan. Sumatera is the neighbouring island (in the west) which is as big as Peninsular Malaysia (ooopss it IS bigger). Reports said, the traffic in the Strait of Malacca is also affected by the haze.

For API reading, you may visit the DOE's website. For health concerning info, you may also visit the MMR website.

Everybody is praying for rains to wash away the haze (apparently dry season is forecasted to end in October). Cloud seeding is also considered by govt. I feel lucky that API in Miri is still below 100 at the moment.

Finally, a pincushion for me...

I have made pincushions & needleroll for exchanges and friend, but I never make a decent pincushion for myself hehehehe...

Last week, my stitching friend, Margaret, sent me the instructions on how to make a pumpkin pincushion. She has lots of pincushions in her collection. I came to know about it when I was her partner in Craft Exchange last year - I made a patchwork pincushion for her. Recently, she showed us (in MYS) a picture of her latest pincushion. It looks so lovely & yummy. I was so tempted to make one for myself.

pumpkin pincushion

Decided to make my favourite ladybug button as the central, I embroidered little flowers on the dark green colour cotton fabric. I can say, it's quite easier to make than it looks. The trickiest part is when to section the small round cushion into 8 segments. I took an extra time to embroider and do beaded edge whipping. It is actually up to our preference - to embroider or not.

Finally, a pincushion for me. Wait until DH knows about it, I'm sure he will be very happy *LOL* (no more needles lying around on the dressing table hehehe)

Stitching For Love

Stitching for Love project is a quilt-square stitching project organised in Malaysian_Stitchers YG (MYS). The quilt will be our pressie to a little girl, who suffers from leukemia

I've promised Aida (the organiser) that I will contribute some cotton fabric strips as I have quite a number of them in my collection (I was overwhelmed when visiting the LNS last time hehehehe). But I didn't give her my words on quilt square coz I was worried that I couldn't finished it before dateline. When I visited Katrina's blog couple of days ago, I saw a nice Stitchy Kitty pattern - Meow Spoken Here. The first thing that came to my mind was to stitch the pattern for 'Stitching For Love' project.

Meow Spoken Here

Yesterday, I spent the entire morning to stitch 'Meow Spoken Here'. I omit the border bcoz I think it is more appropriate without the border since I was stitching a quilt square. Anyway, I will stitch the border when I stitch for my daughters (maybe a framed piece or a cushion).

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

Have you hand-dyed your own fabric? Why or why not? Would you like to try to do so?

This question made me rummaging through my fabrics collection coz I remembered I did coffee-dyeing before. It was merely experimental when I coffee-dyed the fabric last time. Coffee-dyeing & tea-dyeing will give an antique & country look to the fabrics. I think samplers and country stitching (e.g. Jeremiah Junction designs) will look great on these coffee/tea-dyed fabrics. I have't try using the dye (colourant) yet. I've actually bought a purple colour Dylon. Planning to dye some fabrics with the Dylon colour after I finish my UFOs.

Good Time Frogging & DOTW Update

orchid awaits

Have fun frogging? NOOOOO....I hate frogging! It is the least thing I like to do when stitching...yucks!

Well, last Friday we were overnighting at the hotel located on the other side of the city. It is the same hotel we stayed when we first came here 2 years ago ~ located on the rocky shore of Miri overlooking South China Sea. Was under a different management last time, Marriott has took over the management several months ago. They revamped the interior look of the rooms. The ambience is as serenade as I wish, reminds me of hotel rooms in Dubai. Our kids were over-zealously excited and forgot their afternoon nap. Really glad that I brought nothing (WIPs) but my UFO which I had to do some froggings. With the calmness surrounding that I longed before, froggings seemed to be fun *LOL* . Never came to my mind that I would have a good time frogging hehehe. Wished we could stay longer in the hotel...ooppss DH is staring at me hehehehe



DOTW Update

I continued my 'Days of the Week' project (DOTW) when we were home. Managed to stitch 3 more days. Hopefully, I could finish stitching the 'Saturday' & 'Sunday' by end of this week. I think 'Friday' is every stitcher's favourite (shall I say every needleworker) - 'Buy more stash'. Apparently, I usually go to the LNS on Fridays (not every week though ). Will finish off this DOTW as a bellpull.

Card for a Birthday Gal

stitched card for Sue

This is one of the stitched cards I made for August birthday gals. I took the pattern from WOCS magazine (The World of Cross Stitching) freebie - 101 birthday charts booklet. I made a minor adjustment to the pattern and done some colour changes to suit the card blank. I put some wadding/batting under the stitched piece to get a slighlty padded/plump look but it didn't show in a photo. I got the card blank from my stitching friend, Nik. I always like round/oval/heart-shape aperture card blanks but I don't have the right gadget to make one. Nik who has lots of card-making stuff sells her own range of card blanks at reasonable price.

I have another pics of stitched cards for August birthday gals but they have not reach the recipients yet. Will upload more pics once the cards are safely in the hands of the birthday gals.

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

What is your most unique/interesting stitching quirk? (This could be something concerning the way you stitch, how you organize your stash, etc.)

This is such an interesting question :) I remembered when I told my stitching friends that normally during my 1st & 3rd trimester of pregnancies I will become less productive in needlework, some of them asked me why. They said stitching is supposed to help us to minimise the stress. And couldn't anwer them coz I didn't really know the reason why I will become less productive during those periods. Anyway, there are few of my friends experienced the same thing during their pregnancies.

Recently when I took an online survey regarding needlework, I realised why I experience this kind of situation. I actually regard needlework more likely as a way of expressing the creativity & artistic in me rather than a way of minimising my stress/dealing with mood swings. In another word, when there are too many things bogged my mind, I would 'leave' my needlework projects for another option such as listening to music, web browsing, window shopping and etc. This also explains why at times I stitch/embroider/sew more than usual e.g. several projects done in a week. My stitching time is quite volatile, I have nothing like 'regular daily/weekend stitching time'. It actually depends on my mood. So, it is nothing peculiar that I stitch less during pregnancies since the mood is like roller-coaster. Yeahhh, I found the reason is a bit amusing but I guess, everyone has a different stitching quirk.