Christmas Band Sampler progress ...

Here we are ... a nice night shot of my Christmas Band Sampler - just finished working on it for the night and thought I would make a quickie post - 2 pages down 2 more to go - ran out of thread, that's why you can see some gaps - the letter V is sitting higher on the line than the others, it is charted that way - I hope it's a deliberate boo boo on the designers part.



 

Short and sweet tonight -
Amanda

O' Come All Ye Faithful - Indeed!

Christmas Quaker ll by ByGone Stitches - before and after.  There is some back-stitching of some song titles to go in, however I will leave that til last as I am using a hoop to stitch this and worry that some of those back stitches may come loose.



And this is why it pays to get a second opinion!  As some of you know, I have been having some healing problems after my recent Breast Surgery and my cosmetic doctor recommended me to take them back out - heal - then replace them with some smaller ones this time via the armpit - WELL!  I decided to seek a second opinion and thank God I did!  I went to a very famous hospital here, who are known for only hiring the best in the country - the doctor I saw specialized in reconstructive surgery this included breast implants for cancer patients - after he got over the shock of the size of my implants (I personally do not feel that they are that big) he proclaimed nothing is wrong - there is no sign of infection (my cosmetic surgeon was worried about that) the leaking of fluid from my wounds was minimal (I've had to go back in 4 times to receive more stitches to try and close up my incisions) and would heal, I just need to give them more time.  Well you can guess who's "professional" opinion I am going to take - will be going back in this afternoon to see my cosmetic doctor give him the news and perhaps receive some more stitches (still leaking from the left side - very annoying)?

Hope everyone is feeling the Christmas spirit and is in good health and know that there is nothing to feel ashamed about when wearing padded bras.
Lots of love for you all,
Amanda

I love stitches - just not in me!

An update on my stitching - Christmas Band Sampler - below is where I was last week and where I am today - am going to run out of some of my colours - wish they would list how many skeins of thread you would need to complete the project when more than one skein is needed - that's my only grumble - otherwise, loving it.



Unfortunately I am still experiencing problems with my recent surgery - had to go back in for yet more stitches on Saturday - I am seeking a second opinion from a hospital Cosmetic Surgeon tomorrow as my Cosmetic Doctor is recomending me to remove my current implants - go through a healing process, then implant some smaller ones this time via my armpit, which I would like to avoid if at all possible, because really I don't think I can handle anymore surgery for a long long while!

Hugs,
Amanda

Surgery blues

Some of you may have noticed I have not blogged in a while, the reason for that being is I've been having some problems with my recent breast implant surgery.  I had my breast implant surgery 14th October - this was not my first time having this type of surgery, actually it was my third time having my implants replaced, so no big drama right?  Well, at first everything went smoothly, I came home tried to rest but with 3 preschoolers to look after that's nigh impossible - and it seems that may have been part of the cause of my impending doom.
  When they stitched my they used self dissolving stitches, so in theory by the time the stitches start dissolving, your skin has already .. well for no better word for it .. stuck itself back together.  However, in my case that was not so - picking up too many toys, wiping too many dirty bottoms, too many dirty loads of washing going in and too many loads of clean washing coming out ... ?  Well .. you get the picture.
My stitches dissolved and with my active lifestyle I ended up pulling my wounds open, and which well lets just say, ended up making a big mess!
So I went in had a small repair done, but no that didn't fix it - so back in again, this time emergency surgery - came back home with nylon stitches and a tube with a bottle on the end of it, the tube sticking out the side of my chest to drain out the build up of fluids around my implants to hopefully keep my stitches dry so they would heal - boy was I not a happy camper the next few days after that one - so okay thats fine, have to deal with it best I could, still had to look after the little ones - then disaster, ripped yet another hole, which resulted in some more leaking, so in back again for a few more stitches - fine ... no more leaking, after another week had passed, went back in to have my tube that was draining the fluid out from around my breasts removed - thank god for that, as it was not much fun to have my little 1year old boy yanking at the tube trying to pull it out of me!
Today is my birthday and I went in for another check up - they removed half my stitches, and in another weeks time they will hopefully remove the other half - so whef!  Drama - drama - drama, I tell you!  Is it all worth it, you might ask?  At my age, no probably not - however after everything I've had to go through, I dam well hope so!

So okay, on to the part that everyone popped in for a visit for -

Christmas Quaker ll by ByGone Stitches - starting to look like a real sampler now isn't it - loving every stitch.

 

New Start - Christmas Band Sampler by Heartstring Samplery - I wanted a more warmer feel to the fabric, so I decided to use Antique Cotton by R&R Reproductions instead of the recomended Natural.

 

Now, there is an award called the Liebester going around, and I have been awarded 4 times by different people over the last two weeks.  Liebester?  Lie - best'er?  dunno - sounds fishy to me - please accept my apologies to everyone that has passed on this award to me, I know that you are all sweethearts and did so with the best of intentions - however, as they say in Chinese  我不想玩 - I don't want to play.

 

I have also signed up for the Scarlett Letter Year hosted by Jo and Nicola - am SO looking forward to that, will post pictures of my choices soon.

 

Take care everybody and hope to post again soon.

Hugs,

Amanda

 

Have you heard? Carriage House Samplings

Love Carriage House Samplings?  Devastated when Kathy Barrick stopped designing?
No need to be sad anymore - Kathy has started designing again!  Happy Dance, Happy Dance - whoot whoot!
Click here to welcome her back.

A quick picture of my Christmas Quaker ll

Hugs and Stitches,
Amanda

Christmas Quaker Sampler update

Here is my progress on Songs of the Seasons by ByGone Stitches - below is a reminder of where I was on my last post and an update of where I am now.

This is my first time using Vickie Claytons silks - I found the silk a little difficult to work with at first and was having problems with it knotting up at the back, which was annoying when I didnt notice and kept on stitching! - however after I nice stiff drink of Vodka and Lime and a change in technique, I am happy to say things are now progressing along a lot more smoothly!
This is a beautiful sampler and I am enjoying myself immensely while working on it - can you see the little crosses in the star at the top of the hoop - isn't that so pretty?
Take care everybody and I will post again soon.
Hugs and Stitches,
Amanda

Time to start thinking about Christmas ...

Yes it's been on my mind a lot lately - Christmas.  It seems the bigger my family grows, the more special I want this time of year to be.
  I started this sampler by By Gone Stitches, using Vikki Clayton silks which I am really excited about as I think this sampler is gorgeous - also stitching it along with me is Kaisievic - so you can go check out her progress on this as well.

 

 

sorry for the poor quality pics!  This is my progress on my Bucilla Advent Calender - all the small windows are in and am now working on the shop window bottom left corner.

 

 

Teaching my six year old daughter how to sew on sequins and beads - I must say she did pretty well!

 

Also won a chart from Vickie - love the sweet handmade pins she included.

 

These last past few weeks have been crazy busy for me and I expect it to be like this for the next couple of weeks as well - so please accept my apologies for my sloppiness in replying to emails - it is not my intention to be rude - just feeling a little overworked and rundown. 
  In Taiwan everything has a season for reasons of good luck - at the moment it is what I like to call the Wedding Season - I am always surprised at how many peoples weddings I have to attend every year - and always the same menu - one dish you can guarentee is always on the menu is, Sharkfin soup - aren't we supposed to be not eating sharks anymore?  It seems if it is supposed to be good luck to have it - they don't dare to go without it - sad isn't it?



Take care everybody and you know I love ya all!
Hugs,
Amanda

Bucilla felt kits

Well I've finally managed to get the computer to myself, though for ten minutes only as I think my dear husband wants to hog it again!  So I will try to make this quick.

Just want to say thankyou everyone for the support you gave me the day of my operation - everything went smoothly and I am rather pleased with the results - fingers crossed these ones last me a while!

   I havn't been doing much cross stitch work since the operation - instead I've pulled out some Christmas felt kits by Bucilla - I figure I had better get a move on with these as I am not sure if I will be able to have them done in time - the first kit is an Advent Calender, so this definately has to be ready by the beginning of December.  This is a really cute kit - comes with lights - awesome!



 

It's really quite big as you can see ..



 

this is where I am up to at this stage - a lot of fun!



 

this is a Bucilla kit as well - Santa banner - I actually started this 2 years ago - naughty me - didn't make it in time for Christmas!  The bottom santa and the bottom A have yet to be attached and I still have to do some bells and leaves - attach a backing and a rod to hang it by - which is not much really, then it will be finished.

 

 

 

 

 And I can't help myself, I know - I am addicted to these felt kits!  This is Patchwork Santa and I would love to work on him next - isn't he darling?

 

I have one more felt kit that I started last year - which is a tree skirt but I won't be working on that this year and is way too big for my Iphone to take a photo of and as I havn't firgured out all the Chinese jargon on this computer to download a photo from a camera and then downsize it for blogger - there will be no photo until maybe next year when I pick it up again and then as I doubt I will be any smarter in a years time, I will ask husband to help me put the photo on blogger for you all to enjoy.
Well I had better hand the computer back over to my husband as I know he wants to use it before he goes off to work, so take care everybody and I will chat again soon!

Hugs and Stitches,
Amanda

Today is the day!

 Well - here it is the day has finally arrived for my operation - breast operation that is, and what have I spent the morning doing in preperation?  Why cleaning of course!  Got the kiddies all fed and dressed, dropped them off to daycare - luckily they also agreed to take my 1 year old for the day as well - then I came come and cleaned - no small feat in my house - 3 storey house, mopped all floors - cleaned 5 bedrooms - 3 bathrooms - 3 loads of washing - dishes - cleaned couch - dusted - wiped mirrors- emptied rubbish bins and now last but of course by no means least, update blog.
And I'm hungry and thirsty - not allowed food or water - sounds kinda of cruel dosn't it?  I mean no water - really?

Not much stitching going on, you know how it is - busy, busy, busy!
Saw this on another person's blog - and they said they were going to stitch it but I havn't seen anything of it since - however I fell in love with it and knew I had to stitch it for myself, so here it is - Great Harvest by Diane Arthurs

 

 

I thought I would include this photo of my cat sleeping on our back fence as evidence that cats can sleep anywhere - what you are not seeing is the big drop down into a river on the other side and I assure you he is fast asleep!





 

Well I'm heading off shortly, my op is in 2 hours and is in Taipei city and as you can see by the last photo I'm not - I'm taking my stitching with me so hopefully I can get in a few stitches while I'm there - take care everybody and I will chat again soon!

 

Hugs and Stitches,

Amanda

Hodgepodge

Found some frames for a couple of my finished stitches - at the moment I just have them sitting in the frames - when I stop buying stash I will buy some acid free mounting board and mount them properly - lol!

 

 

Next up is called Artic Cuties from Cross Stitch Crazy magazine - I thought I had a finish on this one however my son found out his sister will be getting more artic cuties because her name is longer - so after his fit of crying at the unfairness of it all, I'm trying to squeeze in one more on the end for him - sometimes children can be so hard to please.



I am back working on my Blessings and Kind Wishes by Blackbird Designs, and by the way, I did iron!  I really love R&R Reproductions fabric but boy they sure do come with a lot of wrinkles!

 

I feel a real bad case of startitis coming on - I hope I can resist!

 

I really should go and clean the house now - sigh - I really wish I was one of those people that can ignore the mess and blissfully stitch - oh well I better go and do what I gotta do so I can get back to what's really important - Stitching!

 

Hugs & Stitches,

Amanda

Happy as a Lark

I have just finished this little cutie - Happy as a Lark by Birds of a Feather



This chart was generously loaned to me by Beth from Garden grumbles and cross stitch fumbles - thankyou Beth I really enjoyed stitching this one up.  Now I am on the hunt for the others in the series, which is proving rather difficult as these are OOP,  if anyone could help me out I would really appreciate it.

Thanks for stopping by,
Amanda

Town of Halloween Finished!

Well I did it!  The  Town of Halloween is finished!  I am so happy - now I can start another project that has been waiting patiently for my attention.  I was a bit worried about the staining I did on the linen as it looked a bit blotchy, but with all the stitches in place it looks pretty good - just a second while I pat myself on my back ..

 



.. onto some non stitch news - Oh my gosh you would never guess what has happened!  Drama! I tell you - one of my um.. er .. how do I put this?  Oh heck who cares!  One of my Boobys has deflated - well I can't say that can I?   it's not a balloon .. okay one of my boobys has sprung a leak and is rapidly shrivelling down to .. well you get the picture.  So one big one  - one little one, not going to work so well for me.  I've ordered myself some more - some nice big wobbly jelly like ones this time, had enough of those saline filled plastic baggies - I mean really those things never look good, and I would know I already have in my second pair - useless sloshy little things, so this time I'm going to make Dolly Parton proud and buying myself some big guns!  Hope they pass through customs - I wonder what gets written on the declaration form?  Anyways I am booked to go in for surgery in 2 weeks so wish me luck!

Amanda

Giveaway winners are...

Okay it's time to announce my Giveaway winners - first I would like to thank everyone that entered, this has been fun.
First up is the result for my La-d-da Giveaway ... (hosted by my lovely daughter Rebecca)

 

 Congratulations Stitchinrose!

 

 Next up is the drawing for the Keyring Giveaway ...

 

 Congratulations Lynda!



Lynda if you could please contact me with your mailing address as I can't seem to reach you through your email - thankyou.
Stitchinrose - I cannot find any contact details for you, so I will wait for you to contact me.

Take care everybody and enjoy what is left of the weekend.
Amanda

Town of Halloween

I have seen this around on a couple of Blogs and couldn't resist my very own "Town of Halloween" by The Primitive Hare ...

... and to celebrate my start, I would like to give away a key ring I made myself using a freebie pattern from The Primitive Hare - I made one for myself and one to give away - what can I say?  I have Halloween Fever!

 

If you think this is to your taste and would like to have it, then I will make it very easy for you to have it - all you have to do is say you want it!  Easy peasy, right?

 I will pick a winner this weekend - Good Luck!

 

Now back to stitching ..

Amanda

Here are my buys from HAED

Heaven and Earth Designs appreciation week - I already have more than enough of their charts but I don't want them to go out of business so here are my buys ..

 

 

 

... makes me want to start them straight away!  Who knows, maybe I will?

 

Amanda

Travelling Pattern Winner is ...

Here is the very official drawing of the Travelling Pattern "Jolly Jack"

 



 

 

wait for it...

 

 .... excuse the dirty face, just been eating a cracker and the blurry thing in the hand is ...

Congratulations Denise!
If you could please email me your address details, I will send Jolly Jack to you.  Hope you find him a fun stitch just as I did.

On another note, here is a progress photo of my Alphabet Ryhme by Little House of Needleworks.
As usual photo dosn't do it justice - the camera is not picking up the colours correctly - imagine it lighter and brighter - I will try to get a better picture next time.

 



 

Smiling while I'm Stitching - how can I not?

Amanda

Travelling Pattern - who will be next?

Jolly Jack is all finished and ready to travel to the next person - who will it be?
If you think it's you then leave a comment to enter - but remember he's not for keeps!  You must stitch him up and send him on!  I want to send him off in a hurry - I don't want to wait - Halloween is near - we can't be late!

Offer ends this Friday night on the 7th - after that I will announce a winner.
Good luck!
Amanda

Isolated Stitch

Someone asked a question about how to do an Isolated Stitch, as I am currently working on a piece with isolated stitches I thought I would take some photos of how I do them - I make no claims that this is the correct way or the best way.
For this you will need a sharp needle (one with a pointy end) and you will be using a single strand of floss.

 come out in the of the middle hole in the first leg

 leave a little bit of thread hanging out the back

 go down into the top hole of your first leg then came back up through the bottom of your first leg (where you would normally start)

 go back down into the middle of the first leg

 come back up into the bottom of the first leg

 then go back down into the top of your leg

 come back up at the bottom right corner to make the first part of your second leg

 then again to make it equal two threads

 go to the back - this is where the sharp needle comes into play - go through your stitches not behind - once ..

 

..then again one more time

 snip thread fairly close to stitch

 sit back and admire your work : )

 

I tried to make this as clear as possible - if you have any questions I will try my best to help.

Hope this makes your stitching more enjoyable as personally I am not a big fan of knots, most of the time they come undone or look to bulky.

Happiness is Stitching

Amanda

 

Don't forget to enter my giveaway also I will soon be sending this pattern 'Jolly Jack' on his way to the next lucky stitcher.