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Wednesday 30 January 2013

Blog Changes and a movie

I have been having fun fiddling with my blog again. I made lots of changes with the layout. I used the my memories software to fiddle around and work out what to do. I will probably fiddle more but this is the colour scheme I'm going to keep with. I would still love to work out how to make a logo to match one that suits the whole look. Some day I will have a look that is my brand but I will get there slowly.

On the movie part I won tickets to see Zero Dark Thirty. It's the story about how they caught Osama Bin Laden. It's very raw and very violent. I won't go into the story line or into any details but I know I won't be rushing out to watch that again. Since I spent last night tossing and turning because I kept having nightmares. There is a reason I watch Disney and fantasy and never touch horror. It wasn't exactly horror but being a 'real' story it was kinda horrific.

So just pick and choose whether you are going to that movie I know I really didn't want to go but I did.

Caitlin

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Funny Things

Sometimes something funny comes from a flood or natural disaster. This video was taken by someone up the coast who was watching a bus go through some sea foam when something appeared.

Please enjoy the video.


The flood in Brisbane is meant to peak today at about 11 am. But only at 2.3 - 2.5m which is nothing like what it was 2 years ago. Unfortunately that is what happens when you build a city where you had beautiful farm land that used to flood and get lots of water.

Other parts of Queensland and New South Wales are in a worse position.

Stay Safe,
Caitlin


Monday 28 January 2013

WIPocalypse January 2013

Well I'm very happy about my WIPocalypse post for this month :D I have MANY awesome updates.

To start the year I did the Crazy January Challenge though I'm not going to post about those in here. Here is for all my lovely big projects for this year.

I will start with my really exciting project. Last WIPocalypse Afternoon Tea looked like this

A few days ago I posted this update :D

Since then I have been stuck at home inside because of awful weather and I'm getting really close to a page finish.

If I continue in this vein I could have a page finish before the next update. I have two coloums left of the page.

I think I have finally worked out a slightly quicker way to work this project and it stops me from worrying over which colour to start. At the very least I want to finish this whole row of pages by the end of the year. I think that is a very doable goal.

I have also put a couple of stitches in Winter Fairy since last time.

From this to now...

I should have a finish of this sometime this year. It would be nice well before mid year so I can enter it in one of the shows.

These are going to start as my two main focuses but I will also have '99 but I can't show you a picture this time around. Same reason as always Phill is sitting in the same room.


Happy Stitching :D
Caitlin


Sunday 27 January 2013

Happy Australia Day! Stay Safe!

Well it was yesterday though it was very wet and miserable. Most of the fireworks were cancelled and most people stayed in hiding.

It hasn't stopped raining for a couple of days. Unfortunately as much as we need rain this is bringing floods again. Thankfully Cyclone Oswald didn't come down too far south to Brisbane so we haven't had quite as bad a weather as we could have. Also we carefully picked a house in an area that doesn't flood.

Anyone around the Queensland/ New South Wales area please stay safe from the flood water. If you don't have to be out just stay safe at home.

stay safe,
Caitlin

Friday 25 January 2013

Half page finish!

I'm really really excited. I finished another half page of Afternoon Tea.

I've been trying to seriously park my stitches block by block and I think I am faster as I don't spend ages agonising over what colour I am going to start. I think I always spend longer thinking than stitching.

Now I realise as well that I haven't given you an update for over a month!

This was in my last WIPocalypse post. Which I will admit I have been stitching on this a bit in the last month.

There are so many colours in this blue gem and around it it was crazy!

You can kinda see all the beautiful colours. There is purple and pink and all sorts of wonderful stuff.

The colours in this star are stunning. There is so much around the star, bits of colour everywhere.




I am thoroughly enjoying this at the moment so ta-ta I'm going back to it.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin


Tuesday 22 January 2013

Monday 21 January 2013

A finish and a start

I have another crazy January finish. I figured since I finished my last start I should finish my first. There is a kind if symmetry to that. So without further adieu here is my day 1 start 'Roaming Reindeer by blue ribbon designs. 



I love this piece. The only reason it took me so long to stitch was because I was so distracted by new starts. I should be able to have another finish with the Joan Elliott house but you will have to wait to see.

Which reminds me I did start another project. This one is kinda a cross stitch project and kinda not. It's an owl pillow that you buy in a quilting panel. The shop where I bought it from the lady had added a lot of beads and sequins to add something to hers but I didn't want to do just that. 

So I decided to enhance the pattern with cross stitch!

You can see in this close up that I have traced over the brownish outlines with little black crosses. This project will take a while but I love the effect and I like the black better than the brown and it's fun to do at night because I don't have to think just follow the lines.

I will be writing a post about this shop soon but if anyone is in Brisbane on the northside I would recommend dropping in to Make It Hobby 'n Craft.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

 

Friday 18 January 2013

I have a finish!!!!!

I managed to finish the hedgehog keyring. I managed to finish finish it to.

It was really quick once I settled down to it and decided to finish.

At least it is one project off my list.


It's such a cute little project. I really don't know what I'm going to do with it now. I will probably give it to my mother. She gets a lot of my projects.

Happy stitching,
Caitlin

Wednesday 16 January 2013

I give UP!

As much as I love the idea of starting a new project every day of January and I have all the materials ready to go, it is too much. My head doesn't like having that many projects currently on the go. I can't keep track of them in my head. I find myself wanting to FINISH something.

So I am changing the rules. I will eventually start all the projects on my list BUT I won't start another one until I have finished at least one project on my list. This should save my sanity.

Though while protesting starting I have managed to make some decent progress on Winter Fairy.

 I'm starting to reach the bottom of the white on the left and can play with some other colours there. I love working on this piece. The whites are very close in colour and then I step back and see the clever shading. So beautiful.

I love working on this piece, and I think if I continue as I am it may be finished in the not too distant future.

Though I do have back stitching and beading coming up and I've never tried that on cross stitch before.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin



Monday 14 January 2013

Day 14

If you have been very observant of my posts for Crazy January you may have noticed I have missed Day 13. I have decided that day didn't exist because I forgot to do a new start that day. I did do some cross stitching and I now have an update on Winter Fairy by Joan Elliott.

In December it looked like this...

and now it looks like this...
and an artistic view ...

Now although I didn't start a cross stitch project do you think it counts that I started a new knitted toy?

It will end up being a duckling, that is it's body there. It will be very psychedelic but I couldn't resist trying out this yarn.

Now to the whole point of this post I do have a Day 14 start. It's a hedgehog keyring that I bought ages ago and I finally decided to start it to have a break from Christmas ornaments. Actually I've had lots of breaks from Christmas ornaments the last two days.

Now I'm going back to Winter Fairy because it's calling me :D

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin





Saturday 12 January 2013

Day 11, & 12 and two OWLs

To start with I couldn't put down day tens start so I have a lot of progress on this one since Thursday.

I did manage to START no. 11 but it isn't really much of a start.

I started so I could say I started!

Day 12 is a really small start a poinsettia pattern from the Joan Elliott book which I felt like starting because it was smaller than the other ones. It will make a tiny cute ornament.



Now to the important stuff in this post. Back in October I bought an toy owl pattern from Funky Friends Factory. Just after Christmas I had a go at making one.

And here is Ollie owl ... I made lots of mistakes though it's not noticeable here. I had to unpick the wings and recut a side piece. I wasn't happy with what I did. SO today I made another one and took some progress pictures.


I used a variegated purple/blue thread to add the detail to the wings, tail and face.

Inside out and ready to turn :D

He's feeling very deflated.

Then tonight both owls are sitting together on the bean bag watching TV.  It was much better the second time around I didn't make as many mistakes. I love them both and I don't know whether they will ever leave this house. They are too cute.

So that was my day. I was very busy for most of the day and avoiding doing any chores around the house. I will need to attack them tomorrow.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Thursday 10 January 2013

Day 8, 9 & 10

I am being very very lazy with posting but here are 8, 9 and 10

They are all on the same fabric starting with 8 and 9 along the front. The last two angels. I have only managed the borders with these ones.

No. 10 is one of the circle ones.

You can see the outlines of two little houses appearing

I love this little one and have found it difficult to put it down.

I think this fabric is an 18ct.

In October at the quilt fair I bought a couple of fabric packs with oddments of aidas so I have just been picking interesting ones to use for the ornaments. So none of them are really going to match perfectly but that will be fine.

I am wondering how many more starts I will actually make, it is a lot of effort to start something new each day and I keep wanting to finish.

Oh well you shall find out later, at the moment I'm up to date at least :D

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Monday 7 January 2013

Days 5, 6 & 7

Day 5 saw me start the last gingerbread man

If you can't tell this one is in blue instead of the red. I like that each one is going to be a different colour.

I had every intention of posting each day but the weekend got in the way but it didn't stop me making a new start each day :D

Day 6 saw another Joan Elliott Angel

I got more time to stitch on Sunday so there is a finished border on this one and the start of the tree.





Day 7 has been a small start, though I have been home alone all day I haven't felt like stitching. Probably because I have been home alone! Phill went back to work today after 2 weeks off for Christmas. The house has been so quiet!

This is the companion piece for roaming reindeer my day 1 start. It's on the same piece of fabric that I used for that one. So lovely purple sparkles.





Well Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Friday 4 January 2013

Day 4

I am so exhausted today it's not funny! I have spent the whole day destroying bricks. Before Christmas we had a red brick fence at the front of our house and a small gate and more brick and wood between the side and the fence.

As of today we now have no red brick fence, no brick and wood at the side of the house and a set of big gates that a car can drive around. The side area was, about 5 owners ago, a greenhouse area. This means the previous owner decided to create brick steps with concrete and all sorts of other stuff in it. That took 2 days to pull out with a crowbar and a hammer.

See that white area to the right? That was brick and concrete. Very hard and very annoying brick and concrete and the gate wasn't there.

It's a very awesome gate. I love how it look now. It has gone from being a space we couldn't use that was full of stuff to a place we can now park cars or anything.

Through all this I did manage to make a start today, I didn't start until about 6.

I decided to mix it up and start one of the Joan Elliott angels. I picked the angels over one of the others today because it had a border and I didn't have to think.

It's not this angel but it gives you an idea. I am enjoying making new starts it is forcing me to stitch every day which is great. I also feel I am getting a head start this year and won't feel quite so stressed by it's approach.

Anyway it's bedtime. I think I will sleep very well.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin




Thursday 3 January 2013

Day 3

Quick post. Another gingerbread man. I changed the red for green. Just to change it up.

Trying this from my phone so not sure how it will post. I'm going out to dinner tonight so bye bye.

Wednesday 2 January 2013

Day 2

I don't know whether I will be organised enough to keep posting each day but I am going to try to.

My Day 2 start was one of the gingerbread men. The one with the hearts

This fabric is very very exciting for me. I had my first go at tea dyeing for these gingerbread men and I love the result. This was a white 25ct evenweave that I cut off Maskerade Pale Dawn the piece I bought was way too big. I have 3 pieces dyed from this batch for the three gingerbread men. I will experiment with different amounts to get lighter browns.

On other awesome news I went to see the hobbit and WOW!!!! I loved what they did with it. Such an awesome way to go with it. I love the way they hint at the story for LOTR. It gives you an idea what really turned Saruman (he didn't believe and was already feeling defeated before the fight began.) Then the battles were awesome. You can definitely see why they need three movies as they have barely touched any of the book.

I loved reading the Hobbit but I didn't enjoy it as much as LOTR because I found it too empty of the detail that I love in LOTR. This movie has added some of that detail. It gave more back story and information. I am going to have to go through LOTR and see what was in the appendixes that may give a bit more information.

As always the MUSIC was STUNNING! Just as awesome as last time but different. There were elements the same. When the ring was in play the music had some of the same elements. The music in Hobbiton was the same as well. There were the same elements in many greetings that I loved. Basically I have to get my hands on this soundtrack.

The costumes were wonderful and the what they created took from LotR and made it better. I can't wait until next year!


I would love to hear what anyone else thought of the Hobbit particularly if you are a big Tolkien fan.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Day 1

Well this year I decided to do the crazy January challenge to get some of my ornaments started and finished with plenty of time this year.

So since I am about to crash here is my first start of 2013

Roaming Reindeer by Blue Ribbon Designs from JCS 2012 ornament issue.

Now to be different and because I had this sparkly fabric in my collection that will fit all 4 designs if I ever get the patterns for the other two. 

Its a Joey fabric from Colours of the Outback which I bought ages ago. 32ct Opal Lugana. I love the look of this piece, it looks like its a dark night. I am looking forward to seeing a reindeer appearing in the night.

This piece goes away for a while now. As I will have many new starts this month we will see what comes tomorrow :D

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin



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