I am scared of finishing my stitching but I still buy stash!

I love stitching- don't get me wrong. But what is it about finishing off a piece that makes me drag my feet? I procrastinate every time. I leave it to the very last moment to turn my stitching into a finished piece.

It could be the thought of ruining a piece that I've enjoyed stitching, maybe cutting the excess fabric away to much (hence my bulky seams). Could be the thought that my vision of the finished piece and it's reality will be completely different.

Now that I think about it (seeing something written helps me sort things out) I'm thinking it's my fear of cutting away too much of the fabric.

Take my Victorian Bushfire ornament finishes for example. They were due last Tuesday. Last Tuesday I hadn't even started finishing them off, well, I had finished Daffcat's reindeers but not the others. I had to rush through making them into ornaments and increased the chance of making a mistake! I mailed them Wednesday, so hopefully Nise received them Friday, but more likely on Monday. Only a week late, the shame, the shame.

Here they are anyway!

Daffycat's cute freebie

I stitched also some non-Christmas ornaments for those who don't celebrate Christmas.

Circle of love by Lizzie*Kate

Home is wherever my family gathers by Moi

And here is my beautiful son standing in front of Tira and Michael's family and friends, reading the poem they had chosen. I was so proud of him, he spoke clearly and confidently!

Some stash arrived too-sorry about the pic, it's too hot outsdie so had to take it inside in the dark with the curtains drawn

It's A TimeTo Reap by Plum Pudding NeedleArt. I love this design because it's a creative way to make something out of needlework, the design goes all the way around in sections, and it comes with the stem, wool and leaves to finish it off (now how did THAT get through customs?)

I also bought PS Blackwork Angels, but I'm gonna stitch them in pink! I won't blind your eyes by posting the pic I took of that chart lol!

Does the making part of finishing scare you? If it does, what part makes you procrastinate? If it doesn't, what is your secret to not worrying about 'spoiling' a piece (apart from having it professionally finished!)?

Have you seen these freebies?

Head over to The Stitcherhood's blog to see a couple of sweet Halloween freebies!

Finally, some finishes and some stash buying!

Goodness, I have been stitching my little fingers to the bone!

I've finished Alison's 50th birthday present, just need to get a little chart, floss and fabric to go in her new needlework folder.

The back of it tied up.

The front, with some counting needles, complete with Swarovski crystals.

The inside, with a floss tag, new scsissors and scissor's keeper, counting needles and new needles.

I've also finished Tira's wedding gift. She helped me pick out the frame (without knowing which chart I ended up stitching), but I realised I didn't really need her, as the moulding she chose, I would have chosen too, for her. It's cherry wood, and will match her furniture.

Gosh I can't centre this pic for some reason. It's LHN Always and Forever.

Tira has asked Nicholas to read a poem at her ceremony and I am just tickled pink that she has. I know he will do a great job as he has a loud clear speaking voice, which he uses at school assembly, and he is always practising his 'loud' voice at home- no wait, that's his 'shouting' voice at home. Well, anyway, he's confident at speaking in public and is easy to understand. I am sooo excited, Tira gets married on 31st October, about 9 sleeps away!

Now, onto stash.

Rare Treasures by Tree of Life Samplings. See Jan's blog Here. She has another blog, but I can't remember the name of that one. Anyway, I love her designs! She's got a couple of freebies on the Tree of Life blog too, so just click on the link above!

Here's my 2nd purchase-

It Takes A Village by Homespun Elegance (cos I really believe it does) and Sampler 1764 by Permin (cos I wanted to stitch something that was created 200 years before I was born).

And my annual Homespun Elegance purchase of 2009 Snowman Ornament, Snow Much Joy. I've started collecting them, but haven't actually got around to stitching any (does this surprise you? If you saw my stash pile, it wouldn't!) I got these from Nancy at Liberty Primitives and Needlework. They were carefully packaged- tied with ribbon- and she sent freebies as well with my purchase, as well as the pretty bookmark in the pic above. Nancy has some freebies on her website as well.

I've also been busy sewing dance costumes and have finished the dog blanket. Jack loves his new blanket and has stopped jumping on the lounge to lay on ours, although if ours has made it's way onto the floor, he doesn't care which one he lays on. I guess they're both big, warm, soft and cuddly and he can't tell the difference in colour!

I still have to finish making the Victorian Bushfire Ornaments, but now that I have Alison's and Tira's gifts out they way, they're next and I have already bought the fabric to finish them. I've started ny Christmas ornaments- my lovely friend Jeannette sent me this year's JCS Christmas Issue (she sends it every year- isn't she a darling?!) and I've kitted up this year's lot that I want to stitch. Of course, I haven't finished all the ones from last year that I bought all the bits for, but there's still time to get them stitched for this Christmas!

Happy Stitching, about time I visited your blogs! I've got a couple more charts coming, will post pics when they arrive!

9/11

Remembering all those who lost their lives September 11, 2001, and all those who lost their lives before and since, in acts of terrorism.

I believe the world lost it's innocence that fateful day.

We should never forget.

Stash, glorious stash, I can't wait to show you! And my WIPs too!

A while ago I posted that I received gift vouchers from my dear american friend for my birthday, and posted the Vikki Clayton silks that I bought using the HDF gift voucher. The other gift voucher was for Needle in a Haystack, so here's the stash I bought-

 13th Colony Bay Part 1, 2 & 3

By The Bay Neddleart

Home of a Needle Worker (Too!) by Little House Needlworks,

Reward of Merit by Blackbird Designs

Yesterday-Today by The Sunflower Seed

 Sampler & Antique Needlework magazine

Kelmscott Designs Thread Rings

Remember Me Stitching Pocket by MIdsummer Night Designs

My Favorite Kitten Pinkeep by primitivebettys

JCS Ornament Preview Issues from 2007 & 2008

Thank you Jeannette, I had such fun shopping for these goodies!  Quite a bit there to keep me going for a loooong time. Ireally don't know which one to do  first, but the Kitten pinkeep is kinda calling to me.

I've also been supporting the economy by pitching in and doing a little shopping too. Here's some things I've bought recently-

Angel in my pocket by Midsummer Night Designs

For my friend by Sheepish Designs

Blooms for Annabelle by Bloom Creek

Objects of Desire by Moda fabric

Nigella by Amy Butler

Amy Butler Sophia Carry- all

Strips 'n Bits by Bloom Creek

Beach House by Blackbird Designs from Moda fabrics

And now for my WIPs. I have managed to knit  quite a bit of the dog's rug, so soon he'll have no reason to be jumping onto the lounge to sit on mine.  I have had to put my Mary Wigham aside as I have two project due soon, plus I haven't even started my Christmas stitching - yikes!

SALexandre for Alison's birthday in November

And my friend who is getting married at the end of October chose LHN Always and Forever as one of her favourites. I purchased the silks that the model was stitched with but they are way darker than I expected so I chose some Vikki Clayton  HDF from my stash instead. I also purchaesd some 30ct Weeks Dye Works, but the weave is too open for my liking for this project so I substituted with some 28ct cream evenweave. I'm modifying the design to include their names at the top.

Well, it's good to be back online, after a gazillion updates when we got back online - yes, Acer did a factory restore- so there went all the programmes loaded, updates downloaded and settings changed. Still, Steve saved my pics, docs and pdfs, so he was able to transfer them from an external hard drive, and somehow he managed to save all my website favourites, but lost his...quietly snickering as its usually my stuff that disappears

And Blogger, you are driving me crazy! I can only load pics using draft.blogger.com   First my followers disappear and then reappear. Now this.  I wonder what wordpress is like...


Happy Stitching!

Finally, we are back online!

I didn't realise how much I use my computer to connect to other stitchers.

Not having one for so many weeks made me realise how much I rely on the Internet to stay in touch with other people. Most of whom I haven't ever met in person, but amazingly, feel connected to, via the Internet.

The Internet, I now see, keeps me from becoming lonely.

Thank you Internet and all my lovely Internet friends!

Progress pics

Here's Mary Wigham so far! I'm really enjoying stitching her, as I can move onto another part if I need a break from the part I'm stitching.




Now, here's my work on Alison's present- I think I lost something in the translation, cos, as you can see from this pic, it's not really large enough to hold a pair of scissors. I thought it was stitched over 1, but maybe not.




So, I've started again, stitching over 2. This looks much better, as I'll be able to store all the goodies inside, like needles, scissors, floss tag, and maybe some counting needles and other stitchy stuff.




I know its TUSAL time, but I haven't taken my pic yet.

Sadly, our computer is going off to the manufacturer for warranty work- the DVD thing is dodgy. I don't use it, but apparently it is useful and so Steve wants it replaced. I'm really scared that all my stuff is going to go 'poof' as the manufacturer has been insisting we do a restore back to factory settings before they'll do anything. Steve has resisted, knowing that all the stuff like favourites will disappear and they take ages to find again. In the meantime, I'm transferring all my freebies, family pics etc to our external hard drive. Acer have told Steve that they might lose all our stuff when they replace the optical reader- I interpret this as being -they'll do a factory restore to start with and go from there.

I wanted to buy some fabric online, guess I'll have to go to the library to do so. And I need to email anyone who might be expecting to contact me by email in the next 2 weeks or so... Oh, how I hate computers when they don't work.