Hello lovely readers, 

Here's to you having a fabulous day. No doubt, if you have been following my blog for a while you would have seen dozens of photos of my large cross stitch project from last year, The Four Seasons by Marjolein Bastin.  I had an inspired idea to put a montage together of these photos so it's progress from start to finish can be seen. I hope you enjoy watching it!!!

 You can watch this montage by clicking on the link below:

Marjolein Bastin Montage Video

 

 

 

I have a busy few days away (daughter is dancing and we are having family time with hubby too) so will be absent from blogging until next week.  Have a great week and hope you get lots of stitching done...

                                                                                     Jan x

Marjolein Bastin's Cross Stitch - The Four Seasons...

Happy weekending everyone...

This reveal post has been a long time coming.  I have finally framed and hung Marjolein Bastin's cross stitch, The Four Seasons.

It is framed in a deep pine with no matt which is simple and suits our modern home. I am deeply in love with the design and would stitch another Marjolein Bastin in a heartbeat.  It came as a kit and is stitched on 32 count evenweave. A similar design can be purchased here.

I have been absent over the last week due to my daughter's dancing eisteddfod which finishes tomorrow night.  So far she has placed 3rd in a tap solo (pictured), 2nd in a ballet group and 3rd in a song and dance group.  Four dances are left to perform over two days.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Thanks for wandering through my flower garden...
                                                                    Jan x

What you have been waiting for...

 

 "The Grand Girl" (my Marjolein Bastin English garden sampler) is finished. Her last stitch lovingly placed in October.  How proud of her I am. This project was my main WIPocalypse agenda for 2012. It was a big milestone to tick off. Stitching it brought back many memories from my journey through England years ago.

I have plans to carefully wash her then take her to my local framers so she can hang proudly in my home. She is stitched on 32ct evenweave using two strands of DMC thread.

I have been missing in action attending to my photo memories. Little boy Tom (not a toddler no more) needed a baby/toddler album and my precious overseas trip photos (from cough 6 years ago) needed a home so they can be perused. I have enjoyed my scrapbooking comeback and even was lucky to find a DSLR camera from the man in a red suit under my Christmas tree. Oh what joy!

 

 

 So what stitchy/crafty thing has been happening in your life? I have missed my bloggy friends and felt it sure was time to say hello again.

 

Well I'll be sure to pop in again soon and show you what other cross stitching projects I have been working on and what crafty plans I have for WIPocalypse 2013.

 

May 2013 be filled with much thready goodness...

 

                                      Jan x





June 25: A Photo A Day & WIPocalypse

A Photo A Day June 25: Something Cute

I think this stitch counts as something cute. Also it is WIPocalypse time!!! I am nearly across the line with the Marjolein Bastin Four Seasons sampler.

The outer border has been completed and I have stitched boxes around the ladybugs, spotty eggs, and nuts (that one is almost done).

I have a one stitch wide border left to stitch around the inside and outside of the main border.

The biggest decision was choosing what colour to stitch that as the kit suggested a yellow border. Anyway who knows me knows that yellow ain't my colour so I am going with DMC 644.

Thanks for walking in my garden...

                                                        Jan x

June 24: A Photo A Day and Theme-alicious

A Photo A Day June 24: "On My Mind"

July has arrived (I am behind updating my Photo A Day posts but I don't care) and updating Theme-alicious has been on my mind.

My Marjolein Bastin sampler fitted perfectly with the Jumangi Jungle theme as there have been many animals and birds to stitch. It am so close to the two borders joining up. I have counted perfectly as well so I am one happy girl.  Tonight will be the night they will meet me thinks.  I then have two one-stitch wide lines to stitch on the inside and outside of the main border and it will be completed.

Happy stitchy week.  Thank you for stopping by...

                                                                        Jan x

June 17: A Photo A Day & TUSAL...

A Photo A Day June 17: "In Your Bag"

Dear Readers,

A big Aussie wave to my new followers. I have hit the magic "100" followers so I hope you can imagine me doing heel clicks in my happy dance.

Like most women there is always a pencil/pen in my handbag and usually more than one.  Stitching this pencil on the Marjolein Bastin sampler fitted in perfectly with today's photo theme organised by Fat Mum Slim. This post shows where I have progressed from.

Such a small area left to stitch!!! Just two little sides of the border. Watch my blog for a finish very soon.

My TUSAL...lots of orts this month.

I hope you enjoy lots of stitching this weekend and if you can't stitch may you have time to daydream about it...

                     Jan x

June 16: A Photo A Day...And IHSW

A Photo A Day June 16: "Out And About"
A warm hello to you all,

The "Out And About" for A Photo A Day (run by Fat Mum Slim blog) allowed me to stitch the lower border of the Marjolein Bastin cross stitch as I have been so focused on the bowl of pumpkins.

So here is both the bowl of pumpkins, which will be completed tonight and the lower border of the Marjolein Bastin cross stitch. Compared with my usual weekends filled with my children's sport and dancing practice during IHSW, I achieved so much. 

I also worked on Noah's Ark cross stitch (see the previous post about this here).

Thank you for dancing in the rain with me...
                                                                Jan x

Theme-alicous update and Blog Clean-up...

Hello fabulous readers,

Mid-June equals a Theme-alicious update. It is Jumangi June, so some of my stitching time has been devoted to stitching animals.  I have stitched the outline of these camels and their background on this Noah's Ark cross stitch. The cow outlines are next. Stitching this is uplifting like dancing a jig (and yes, I can do an Irish jig).

A before picture of Noah's Ark.

A current close-up photo of Noah's Ark:

My MB English sampler cross stitch has the addition of 2/3 a bowl of pumpkins. The colours have the richness of Autumn.

It is school holidays in Tassie which means more home time. I stumbled across a practical blog that gave tips for female bloggers on how to give a blog a facelift. It hit me that my blog was looking like my sewing room: m e s s y. I feel guilty now that I didn't actually spend the time cleaning my sewing room but at least I cleaned something (even if it was just virtual). 

Women Get Social  made me contemplate my blogposts are tagged. So gone are my two hundred different tag titles in a jumbled cloud.

How do you tag your posts? Do you have a tagging system?

There are also some new pages on my blog. An About Me page and a Links page to fun, blogging things like Theme-alicious and WIPocalypse.

Do you surf the net on how to improve your blog and blogposts?

Enjoy your time picking the bluebells in my garden...

                                                                                      Jan x

June WIPocalypse update...

It's time for the June WIPocalypse check in!!! I am thrilled to be able to show you...wait for it.......

a pumpkin.

This pumpkin is one in a bowl of pumpkins near the lower border of the English garden sampler designed by Marjolein Bastin. I feel I am progressing much faster having finished the squirrel.

Happy WIPocalypse!!!

Thank you for wandering through my veggie patch...

                                                                               Jan x

Theme-alicious...from May to June

I made the Theme-alicious May Memories theme fit so I could keep stitching the Marjolein Bastin sampler.  I want to remember May as the month I finished the squirrel! It was so relaxing to be able to wind down by working on the squirrel after a busy day at work or sorting dancing costumes for the big dancing eisteddfod which starts today!!! Here is progress on the bowl of pumpkins and the lower border of the MB sampler.

Theme-alicious has a new theme for June of course:

"Jumanji June "
Is it a jungle out there in your stash? Give some love to the projects with animals or birds.

I have the perfect project to fit this as I have stitched all of the animals and birds in the MB sampler. It is The "L" in the Prairie Schooler Alphabet featuring a gorgoeus deer. I am kitting in up and stitching it in a SAL. 

I also have a UFO that a friend gave me called Promises Kept by Designs with Scissors. 

It will be perfect on Toddler Tom's bedroom wall. It fits in perfectly with this theme so I will work on that too. Here is the progress so far:

                                                         

Thanks for visiting my flower beds...

                                    Jan x

Help! How to wash my cross stitch...

Hello to all in Blogland and a royal wave to my new followers. Thank you for your "squirrelly " comments. It seems that my blog readers like squirrels! And no, sadly there are no squirrels in Australia; just wallabies and lots of rabbits!

As I near the end of the Marjolein Bastin sampler my mind wanders to how I will handwash it.  It is a large cross stitch (see previous post) and as such it has some light dirty marks from fingers and the hoop.  So to you my trusted cross stitch friends I have some questions:

What is your favourite method of handwashing cross stitch?

Do you leave your cross stitch in to soak and if so for how long?

What water temperature do you use?

What do you wash it with?

Any other tips?

 Photo sourced from Old Picture of the Day

Thank you in advance of your fabulous tips!

So I have left the red squirrel to stitch on  a bowl of scrummy pumpkins and the lower border...

Don't you just love finding new cross stitching blogs? Check out this adorable German blog called Kissy Cross with some freebie cross stitch designs.

Thank you for soaking up the sun in my garden...

                                                                             Jan x

All about squirrels....oh yeah and IHSW..and mustn't forget my TUSAL

IHSW provided some much needed stitching time to finally finish the squirrel.  Hooray I hear you say!!! Finally Jan will have new pictures on thread garden that don't feature a squirrel.

So close to finishing...watch this space over the next month (yes I will allow you to blogstalk)

Well I have learnt something whilst surfing for cross stitched squirrels.  There are squirrel haters. One blogger at Beware the Squirrel, even blogs about her love/hate relationship with them. Can you believe there is a whole blog dedicated to this?  I admit I don't live amongst squirrels (living in Asutralia would have something to do with that) but when I visited the UK I couldn't believe how utterly adorable they were with their little nose twitches and acorns between their tiny paws. 

So in the interests of the cross stitched squirrel let your mouse do some blog hopping:

1. Another Marjolein Bastin squirrel stitched by June King
2. The Victoria Sampler Winter Squirrel stitched by For The Love of Cross Stitch
3. A darling squirrel at pieKnits which is a freeie (link on the blog)
4. A cross stitch squirrel purse
5. A 3D embroidery squirrel at The Floss Box. I know it's not cross stitched but it is seriously impressive.

Finally...stitching means orts. So here's my TUSAL.  It was irresistable to little fingers.

Thanking for singing in the rain in my garden...

                                                                       Jan x

Theme-alicious update and GIANT cross stitch

My "May Memories" Theme-alicious involved working more on my Marjolein Bastin design. It doesn't fit perfectly into the theme but I figured why stop stitching when I am on a roll. That squirrel scene is almost done!

I plan to get back to the Christmas House (as Christmas evokes so many cute memories) so will hopefully post progress on that on the next update.
I've had busy fingers decorating these black tutus with feathers. I hope the costumes will evoke happy memories for the dancers wearing them at the Southern Tasmanian Dancing Eistedffod in June. My DD is so excited for the competition which runs over 9 days. She will be dancing in 11 items and that means 11 costumes (lucky me)! Did I tell you she was excited?  Dancing is about 90% of her conversation so I take it she adores it. As she put it "dancing is my life".
                                                        

Have you seen GIANT cross stitch used as wall decor?  Take a look at these links here , here and here. I think it looks pretty cool. Tell me what you think?

                                                                     "Make it Rain" by Jessica Decker

And by the way the IHSW (International Hermit and Stitching Weekend) is on this weekend and I'm trying to finish that jolly little squirrel picture. There will also be some dancing costume sewing thrown in (if that counts).

Enjoy beavering away on your stitching!
Thank you for dropping by...
                                             Jan x

An Australian Mother's Day...

Hi to all and especially a warm welcome to my new followers,

I had a day that made me feel loved and that is all any mum could ask for. It started with my daughter making me yummy pancakes using a Gary Mehigan recipe.  For those not in the know, he is one of the Australian Masterchef judges). Yummo! Then hubby and eldest son cooked eggs and bacon. Topped with two beautiful schoolmade cards, a bunch of flowers, chocolates and the 3am "mummy" call from toddler Tom it was a day that memories are made of.  SShhh... I also managed to do a sneaky coffee with a friend and listened to live jazz.

Being Mother's Day I had less after dinner duties so I started stitching much earlier than usual. I have so nearly finished the squirrel on the scrubbing brush.  Drats - I have run out of thread in one colour so will hopefully match it tomorrow. As there is no number or brand on the thread I will match it with DMC thread.

Thanks to those with advice about my HAED from my previous post. It's all food for thought...

Surfing can bring the most amazing discoveries.  Can you believe a little house like this exists? Isn't it dreamy? It would make the most perfect stitching place.  Where would you put it?  Somewhere in the hills near a river is where I would locate it.

Thank you for playing hopscotch on the stepping stones...

                                                                                      Jan x

It's "Super Moon" Wipocalypse Time...

Did you have the buzz talk about the "Super Moon" last weekend? Maybe this phenomena only happened in Australia. I had never heard this term before and suddenly I heard this term used the media 20 times in the one day! Well I wish this Super Moon had had some gravitational effect on my quickness with this squirrel picture, but alas it hasn't. It's just plodding along. The scrubbing brush is slowly appearing...I want to start on the pumpkins already! Yes I am being impatient.

Well I have come to a realisation.  I don't like stitching my HAED ("LOVE"by Marta Dahlig). Here are some reasons:
* it is really hard to get neat stitches 2 over 1 on 25 count (I am a perfectionist)
* my DMC thread gets very worn and breaks
* I cannot stitch it sitting on the sofa
* it is really hard to end the thread into the back of the tiny, tiny stitches

I think I will not continue it...convince me otherwise HAED lovers or offer any suggestions to get me back on track. I have done about 1/2 of the first page.

On a brighter note I have bought some patterns I have admired for a while -The Prairie Schooler Alphabet and have joined a blog site, The Prairie Schooler ABC Stitching Bee with fellow stitchers. I think I will stitch some of the letters individually especially the "L" featuring a deer - I am so into deers at the moment like the rest of the world. I also think I need to stitch a mermaid so "M" is on my list too. I don't have all of the letters but I am sure I will accumulate them over time.

Thank you for dropping on by and sitting in my garden...

                                                     Jan x

Bunking down...

A warm and hearty hello!!! Yes I'm back from a super holiday. As I live on an island (it does sound more exotic than it is!) DH, three children and I travelled for 5 hours by plane to Western Australia. 

Holiday highlights included:
- sitting on the most amazing beach, Bunker Bay which would rival Wineglass Bay in Tasmania (although since returning home I have found out that Bunker Bay is known for a shark attack so Wineglass Bay might win the more friendlier beach competition)
- being part of my sister's 40th party
- learning the art of archery (that would make Katniss proud - if you have read or seen The Hunger Games)
- hearing Tom's new words: "gink" for drink, "wogga" for water, "oh no" (which are frightening words to hear on a plane)

Yes I did squeeze in some cross stitch. I took Marjolein Bastin with me and even found time to stitch her name. I will share that next time. Here is the little squirrel with all but his bushy tail done.

You will be proud of me as I did the holiday on crutches. Let's say, I didn't walk great distances and I got to ride in those special lifts onto the plane.  My leg injury is purely muscular so it is mending quicker than a broken bone.  I cannot say I even did the injury in some amazing, sporty way; I did it running down steps. Who knows? Maybe step running will be in the Olympics some day. I have obviously hit middle age.

Thank you for frolicking in my garden...
                                                           Jan x

Squirrel Nutkin...

Welcome to new and old readers.

This is my Marjolein Bastin sampler for those that have just started reading my blog. I have named this little squirrel Nutkin. Isn't he going to be cute? He will really come alive when I have stitched his eye as Marjolein Bastin sure knows about eyes.

I am getting so close to finishing this piece. It had humble beginnings. I would highly recommend it as a stitching BAP as the pictures are fairly quick to stitch and are really beautifully detailed. This is what I have left to stitch: a pile of pumpkins (so appropriate as I am about to pick mine in the veggie patch), the "Marjolein" on the other side, a pencil, half of the lower border and a 1/3 of the right border. Once completed I have a one stitch wide border to do around the whole stitching. This border is meant to be in a buttercup yellow but I think I will stitch it in a mushroom brown or olive green.

I will be away at Easter so I want to give you an early Easter treat with my TUSAL posing amongst my childhood soft toy collection (all of which are bunnies).

Happy early Easter!!!

Thanks for making a daisy chain in my garden...
                                                                          Jan x

Bird making...

Crafting for a fair is something I enjoy. This afternoon I have whipped up some little birdie ornaments to go on the school craft stall. They are fussy cut from Spotlight fabric. Easy peasy.

The last few days has seen more progress on the Marjolein Bastin cross stitch design along the lower border of the Winter section. Click here to see my progress this week. Soon I will be stitching pumpkins.

I forgot to post my TUSAL...here tis. I think the jar is looking quite healthy and very pretty. Who knew that the ends of threads could make such a lovely collection.

Theme-a-licious update and a local history snippet...

This summery month has seen me stitch according to the theme-a-licious  Fangirl February theme. Of course Marjolein Bastin is a favourite of mine so it has been the project with the most obvious amount to share with you. I am excited to announce I have started the lower border! You can see my progress from my previous update here.

I have done a little more on my HAED project ("Love" by Marta Dahlig) but not enough of a difference to warrant taking a photo. I have to confess I haven't started The Prairie Schooler Halloween sampler yet. Hopefully I will have something to show on those two projects at the next update.

Having the older two children back at school, Tom and I enjoyed a walk around the oldest suburb of Hobart, Battery Point, this morning. As I couldn't get Tom off this swing without tears and back arching, I soaked up the place I was in - Arthur's Circus. Can you see the circular street surrounding this green with quaint cottages (circa 1850s) lining the street.  How I dream to own a cottage here one day!

Sssshhh...don't tell anyone but the house with the red roof in the centre of the lowest photo is haunted according to local legend. 

WIPocalypse time...

My kids were suitably loopy yesterday. A sure sign it was a full moon. A full moon I say? Yes, time for ....drum roll....the WIPocalypse update number 2!!! You can compare my progress with the last WIPocalypse update here.

My laptop and I are not friends this week so I have only one stitching project update today.  I'm hoping we'll repair our relationship over week and I can get back to normal blogging next week (rather than having to take photos on my iPhone, posting to FB then uploading onto my son's computer). And yes, it is sad but true that my 11yo son's computer is better than mine! How did that happen?

The Marjolein Bastin English garden sampler has progressed alot since the last full moon with the addition of the holly basket and finches. Next up I am working on the lower border. This sampler has kept me interested the whole way through. I can't wait to start stitching the next picture; a pile of pumpkins just in time for Autumn in Australia (and picking my real pumpkins in my veggie patch).

I have a dedicated page to the projects on my WIPocalypse list which I am keeping updated as new projects jump the queue.

Thanks for walking through my garden...

                                                                           Jan x