Happy Dance

This Dimensions cross stitch project is finally completed. Towards the end i admit i stitched this like there was no tomorrow!! Happy Dance indeed 

Few pics showing the stages.

And here is floss of my next project, sans one Anchor 936. Thanking all my friends in the US who had sent me floss over the years (thanks to the 123stitch board), all the DMC in this pic is courtesy you:) almost half of them. Thank you so very much!

I have started stiching this one, the first colour being cream.

Some pics from my garden: Tomatoes my own!! and look at the blooming gardenia plant. Ever since i have put the pot on a pebbled tray, the plant has been my friend. She is always having buds and almost all buds flower. There is an occasional bud going brown and withering. Hope to nudge them also to a healthier life.

Loving Graham Swift's Last Orders. Loving it, loving it, loving it. Reading it slowly, and relishing it too

School started in June. My son is comfortable, all teachers set, new friends made (all sections were shuffled this year). Comfortable for me too - so far in June i have stitched a half hour or so in the evening till he came back from playing with neighbors. What with gardening, stitching, reading; now i just need to pitch in the occasional baking tray and be happy and say i am truly happy.

Wishing you all a great time with your hobbies and with your family and loved ones.

My plant has a name!!

Hope you all are doing good. My stitching time has become limited edition now!! I have a new hobby which is of interest to some of you I am sure - Gardening!! Of course i am taking it slow, and have increased the pots gradually in my terrace garden.

Recently got some pots off  my friend, and there is one i am not able to identify. It is a foliage-only hanging plant and has very fragile branches. The leaves are tiny and oval, and i am thinking they become light green in direct sunlight. I am in love with this dainty damsel! Because i have no idea what are the specific care details, I am all the more in a rush to identify this sweet little heart. Is there anyone out there who can help?

I put this on twitter, i put this on PlantSnapp app and so far have been unlucky. Here is the pic
Update: This plant is Tradescantia fluminensis / Small-leaf spiderwort. Appears to be a flower-less cultivar. She prefers shade and moist soil:)

This originally being a stitchy blog, I am posting here my latest adventures!

Footprints in the Sand (Leisure Art) was completed in February. I had loved stitching this!!

And my current project from Dimensions. I am not stitching as much i am reading or watching cricket on TV. I had told myself in January i will read very little to make room for stitching. But that is not what is happening:(

Currently i am almost at the end of Laurie Graham's The Unfortunates. Her best book for me will always be Gone With The Windsors.

This makes for an occasional post for me? Apologies i am not around much in blogland. I am in twitterland more these days...

Wishing you all a very happy Friday and a great weekend:) Thanks in advance for the gardening help!!

Happy Dance!

So here's my completed Western Barn. I loved the timing of stitching this and reading Sue Gee's Earth and Heaven. I could even tell myself this is a design off a Cox sketch, lol. I loved the wheel thrown here and the ducks wandering there. The calmness epitomized by the barn is just the right feel you get in her books where she explains farm life in her trademark lucid writing.

I am half-way through my next book, Inga. I am liking the way the story is evolving via journal entries. 

I have selected my next project, there is a catch though. My next is LA's Footprint in the Sands. I have even kitted the project - have the fabric cut and the floss readied. There are a few of them floss which are near-numbers (as usual, you say)

Now the catch is, i had promised my son the next project would be his. So yes before i even stich the first cross for Footprints, i will be doing a pencil pouch for him. Started it last night in fact.

That is all from my end, ladies. Thanks for visiting my blog. Continue with your stitchalia, humming your favorite song, showering love on your family... Let us all be healthy, peaceful and wise.

And done!

Here is my completed Serenity Prayer project!! I dont know what the fabric is, but it is not Aida. Very smooth and close to crinkly. I had bought it from a lady in the US via the 123 mb if i am not wrong.

Started in December 2013, and hibernated from end-May to November of 2014 (as checked from my blogpost), have finally completed this in April, on the 17th which is my Mother's birthday. Roughly nine months, but i know there were weeks of not-even-seeing-the-project.

Instead of french knots, i used beads as the fabric had quite big holes, LOL, and i was not confident to match them with bigger-than-my-usual french knots.

I have started my next project too - which was one of my very earliest ebay buys. It is a chart cut out from a CSCC magazine, called Western Barn. The only pic I could find in the internet is this.

This is part of a 3-chart series, and i have two of these three charts:) While i bought this one, the other i got via a giveaway (must be on 123 mb)

It has been ages since i was active on any of these boards (and also the blog), and i have very vague remembrances of how i got these:( which is  a shame.

Happy stitching!

Lurker, almost

It's been ages!! Apparently both my stitching and blogging mojo have been AWOL.

I have done some stitching though. Hummel the Postman was finished last year, the Pillow Cover embroidery too.

I had started the Serenity Prayer sometime in December. I used fabric which i had purchased from US - but i don't know what fabric it is (what a shame). The fabric is slightly a challenge to stitch on than Aida as it is smoother. Most of the threads i am able to get here. 2 colors had to be substituted (quite poor substitutes, but never mind). After all, i am doing the Serenity Prayer!!

I think i have finished close to 20%. Since the fabric was smooth, i put it on the stitching frame to make it taut, but it is possible this is delaying the whole process. Frame makes it less portable somehow!

Psst, psst: In November last year, i did some 90-odd stitches on Page 16 of Monet's Water Lilies, and not touched it since... God pls help me find the time and frame of mind to take this up again.

My hero

This is a pic of my son, taken in December. He is now all of 6 years. Having his summer vacation now. He is learning skating these days. He and his friends are busy visiting each other - the boys will be in each house for not more than 10 minutes. They will play some games, they will argue, take sides, argue some more. Before long, they will all get this notion at the same time to visit another house. The favorite sport for the boys is, of course, cricket. These boys are being 'inducted' by the slightly bigger boys, and understanding cricket in more detail it appears! All in all, having a good time, he i mean! Me, not having a bad time. Tightrope at times, but that is fine largely because he is happy and engaged. 3 more weeks before school starts.

Book-wise

I am reading my 6th book of this year, and it is the second best book i have read this year(first being Eve Green). The Stranger's Child is the first book i have read by Alan Hollinghurst, and I am loving it. I mean second 'best book'. I do not mean 'Second best' book. The Novel (James Michener) and The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) were not adaptable books for me. Hannah's Daughters (Marianne Frederiksson) was also good to read, and so was The Reading Group (Elizabeth Noble). TRG however was tough to latch on, halfway through was okay and i started liking it. I have some 15 books in my to-be-read pile. Hope to finish a good many of these before I buy some more.

I have visited blogland of late and added few more blogs to follow. Those blogs must have got my blogging mojo back at least.

Here's to more stitching and blogging, friends!, and reading:)

Happy Dance!

Here's my Adriana B finally finished! Planning to give it for framing tomorrow.

 

I have taken over 2 years to do this. A Sticklounge project, i am happy i had enrolled for this one. Thanks Sticklounge for giving us such a wonderful project. In my last post (ahem that was in May), i had backstitching remaining. It took me till my son's Dussehra holidays to finally get to it. I had done some bird backstitching with a much darker blue and then decided to remove it because it spoilt my heron #1. I finally picked an Anchor shade which was quite near to the suggested DMC shade and worked on the heron #2. After which i 'cornered myself' to remove the darker blue on heron#1.

The backstitching was a challenge. With my black and white prints, i was not able to figure out a backstitched edge from just the grid. It sounds weird as i read this, but that is how it was. Believe me. Am glad this bridge is crossed.

Here's a closeup of the herons.

 

Happy now:)

 

Have now picked Hummel Postman. In May, i had other plans - and these plans were both involving kits. But come October, my mind kind of picked Hummel Postman. And i hope i stitch 15 minutes every night, LOL. This being a small project, hopefully will not daunt me. My son's vacation and with that mine end on this Wednesday. I have bought all the threads i need barring a few (3) non-Indian Anchor shades for which i am going to rely on the Lilies set.

 

 

 

Currently reading Zhang Wei's The Ancient Ship, translated from Chinese. I am finding it very tough to 'understand' the tone, but am determined to read it.

 

Hope you all are doing great. Have a great time stiching your favorite project and spending time with your family!!

One more finish and split-rail dowel help

Purple Garden is a project designed by Angie of Angie Designer blog, tilted El Jardin Purpura. This is the original design.

For me somehow the inner piece was 'calling' constantly, and that is the piece i stitched. So here is my version. I am still undecided on the lavender/brown situation, so i have left them untouched.

Most of my readers have suggested lavender, and I agree with you - this brown is not going because all others are making brown kind of a black sheep, LOL. So, i will give it some time, some other 'family' color might flash to my mind, and then i will replace both OR probably go with lavender-to-replace-brown compromise. At the moment, no action taken. So that was the finish.

Heart Note Alley sailed along this month with the Lilies going into hibernation. I have now completed part 5. 15 more parts to go, and i think Part 8 is now the most current one. I am loving this longish fella.

Yes, fun can be had in many ways. So i present to you one more angle of HNA

I am going to mount (is that the right word for what i am saying?) this on the frame. I have split rail dowels, and i am trying to figure out how best to put the fabric on to the rods. So if you have any tutorial or any tips for me, pls HELP!!! And I did it!!

I worked on Adriana for a week this month, and will resume stitching her for another week starting tonight. Again i have taken the recommended colors, luckily MOST of the colors were available locally. 3 of the colors could be 'borrowed' from the Lilies treasury(!), and for 1 or 2 colors, i did a close-call. This is where i am at the moment. Whatever is she stitching???!! Wait till the herons come, you are going to love this one!

So, these are my current projects HNA, Adriana, and Lilies once i resume her next month. Frederick is still 'inside'. For those of you who are wondering what i am talking about i have a confined-to-closet project Frederick the Literate (Dimensions, Charles Wysocki) who has hardly seen any light of day this YEAR.

Coming to books, I had a great journey reading The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey. A wonderful book on a person suffering from Alzheimers. Recommended read for all you book lovers out there. Currently reading Rosie Thomas's Moon Isalnd.

Wishing all a great weekend and sanity through stitching!

WIPpy post and a finish

I had a wee bit of Purple Garden to finish and now i can start on Part 4 of this mega piece of which i decided to take up only the inner 40% or so... I promise that the next PG pic will have purple in it!!

And then Part 2 of the Friendship Heart completed. I am loving this project... Sticklounge always gets me wonderful projects to work on:) There is one more i have started this weekend, but not much done yet. I plan to bring up some eye-candy during my mid-month milestone post. That one is a biggie, at least in comparision to the sticklounge projects I have taken up.

Not the best of pics, but here is Freddie with some back stitch you cannot really see:( He looks better in person though seriously...

And finally, this is how my Oberhunden sampler looks *all grins!* This piccie did get the main page honor(!!!) on the Sticklounge yahoo group. Hmmm. *feels nice* Thanks Suzanne!

Today's priceless photo:)

Wishing you all happy stitching time!! Thanks for all your comments ladies and the visits, feels nice:)

Mid-month Milestone and some Memorabilia!

March has been a drowsy month for me. I have this great urge to just sleep, sleep and sleep. Something inside me nudges me to let go stitching for the night, and there are nights i have listened to that voice. So there has been relatively less progress on Page 13. As you will see, i have not been able to discipline myself with the 10 by 10 area stitching. Stifling innumerable yawns, i have stitched the same color thread ever so often, so as to hit my '100' sooner and then go to sleep land. Oops.

Here is my next SAL with Sticklounge. The name is actually Purple Garden, but i am using Red. Also i am doing just the center part of the actual huge design. When it gets near completion, i will tell you why;-)

And here is the needle-roll completed. All you experts pls tell me what do you fill in your needle roll, and how do you make the roll look taut? Mine looks limp, eh?? Any suggestions are welcome! Thank you.

I have also won two giveaways in the past week. I will post their pics as soon as i receive them. Both are to come from the US, so i guess it will take some time to reach me. With 14th March being my birthday, i am looking at these as wonderful gifts meant specially for me:)

Not sure if you knew, my son and I share the same birthday:) He completed 3 years on 14th March!! Here are the pics taken some in his school and some at home! I had taken the day off, and the two of us had a great time together. Husband was missing in action, as he is gone to drop my in-laws to their place. Now it is my parents' turn at home:)

I will end this post with some Tanishk memorabilia:)

A First with Beads, among other things!

My first dating with beads went fine, LOL. The needle roll project that i started last week, looked this way when the canvas-work was completed.

This is how they look with beads, and i am loving them!!One charming thing is i do get beads here locally, so whenever i need a bead-diet, i can now go headlong. I loved putting the beads, and can now understand how my other stitching sisters go crazy about these. I am now considering this project as completed although the finishing is not yet completed. BTW, this freebie was found here. Pls do visit, you will be immersed in a world of goodies!!

I am now working on the finishing bit, but instead of concentrating on that I worked on a project that will travel to a different home, and its final destination being another home. Since it is to be under wraps as of now, this is the best i can show of this quickie project. So, this is project #3 that is finished.

I also did a bit of back stitching on Freddie, but nothing to warrant a pic. Tonight i am thinking i will work some on Freddie, and then tomorrow onwards is going to be aLilies journey yet again. Fingers crossed wrt my son's sleeping early;-)

Saturday, 26th February was our 10th wedding anniversary. This is what i gave my husband. I think he liked it, as he was turning the pages every now and then.

And finally about my son - some photos i took on Friday - he was dressed up for his first Annual Day in school:) On 14th of March, he is going to be 3, and i am sure will have a lot of fun at school. The celebrations at home are likely to happen on the 19th. More on that when i post my next milestone pic.