Friday, November 16, 2007

My Latest Achievement.......

Finally, this is the completed piece of Bouquet For Cheryl. I hope Barbara will drop by and read my entry....hhhhmmmm ......another 5 sparkling colors of CC thread is on the wayyyyy......yes....yes....yes....but it should reach me before 2nd Dec as I will be leaving to China for 3 months assignment this time (but if my boss kind enough to let me come back, otherwise, I have to wait for another 6 months.....ouuccchhhhh...)



BOUQUET FOR CHERY

Start on : 03/09/07 (based on the date of my first photo shoot)

Completed on : 16/11/07

Thread : Carrie Creation

Shade : Olde World Red

But I have to think whether to restitch the border or just leave it as it is without border. I had decided to frame this piece. At first I thought of sew it into a small pillow, but since the thread is not colorfast, it is quite difficult to maintain for washing or cleaning. The only option is sending it for dry cleaning I guess....

Now is the time to stitch some Xmas ornaments for my colleague and long distance friends....I hope I have enough time to stitch them. I have been wanting to stitch some pattern from Blue Ribbon Design which featured in 2006 JCS Xmas mag. Due to the time constraint, I had also plan some simple design using one color of thread.

I can't really take more time to write since there are lots of other things to be done. I will try to download more pictures from my travelling throughout China soon (the laptop has not been nice off late...sometime it's just gone all of a sudden.....)

H a p p y S t i t c h i n g !


Monday, November 5, 2007

November updates..

Yeahhh, i finally able to update my blog in China...I hope this will work well!
I was in Hangzhou just to kill time for the weekend.....I bump into a small stall at Wushan Market which sell exquisite Chinese embroidery. I was stuck there for hours admiring the work. I enjoy watching the lady stitching at the stall. I did asked where can I buy the silk threads she is using...she refused to tell me and keep saying it's very difficult to get them. I try to get her to sell some thread to me but still she declined...will keep on trying to search around...
I finally found a shop selling DMC thread which takes me an hour of bus ride (just in case I am desperate for stock!).
On my stitching front..not much progress since has been very busy working...I only need an hour of stitching to finish the "Bouquet for Cheryl" still I can't find time to complete them..
H a p p y S t i t c h i n g!!
Happy stitching!

Friday, October 5, 2007

Frame made in China

I had finally managed to organize my work to be frame. But this time I choose to bring it with me to China and ask the lady at the market to frame it for me. She took a week to finish and send it over straight to my hotel. It is very convenient. The reception girl at the hotel is more excited than me....they are all aware that cross stitch is my serious hobby since they always stop me whenever I came back from shopping....the girls requested to open the package to have a look on them....I had spend less than RM80 for all these three frames (cheap and neat work!)...too bad that the photos taken are not so clear........


From left : Love One another , Flower Bouquet by EMS and My Needle and My Floss by Waxing Moon Design
I have two or three more works from Lizzie Kate freebies waiting to be frame. I will take them with me for my October trip.
I have less than a month to do my packing before I left for permanent stay in China. I had settled my apartment hunting during my September trip. There is not much things to pack except for my stitching tools and supply and some food stuffs while I am getting use to get the supply locally. I have not find any shop selling DMC thread or Aida fabric so far, not even in Shanghai. So I have to make sure that these go into the boxes.

Cross stitch on the go

Before I left to Shanghai for my September trip, I had planned for a SAL project with my buddy stitchers. This is the result of my stitching while I am on the go which I had completed into pinkeep (yeaahhh my first ever pinkeep...)....


Pattern : Alphabet Tree a Freebie from Blue Ribbon Designs

Fabric : DMC 14ct white Aida

Thread by Carrie Creations

Shades : Harvest Brew / Sea Kelp / Blue Lagoon

I have been enjoying stitching with Carrie Creation lately. The colors are lovely and sooo stunning....

This piece were stitched on the flight to Shanghai and were completed in my hotel room in Zhejiang. Then I brought back to Malaysia to assemble into pinkeep since I do not have enough tools and supply for assembling them (hhhhmmmmm....she is now sitting pretty on top Wawa's piano...)

Now that my buddy stitchers had grown from 3 to 4 persons and our office are located at the same area. The pinkeep is our first SAL project and we had planned for another project after Eid Mubarak holidays. Our SAL rule are very simple :

1. Since all of us are too occupied with our work but at the same time wanted to continue doing our serious hobby, we had decided to choose a small project ie. pinkeep, needlecase, scissor keeper etc.etc.

2. The design must be using less than 3 colors or alternatively we can use variegated colors.

3. We try to go searching for the materials or tools together during our lunch time.

4. Meet at least once a month for lunch.

I also managed to finish small gift which I started stitching during my August trip. I made a biscornu as a surprise gift for my office administrator, Izzy, who had help organizing my travel schedule whenever I am away for my overseas trips. She had done a tremendous jobs and always get my favorite seat for my flight. I feel she should be appreciated for some kind of special gift since she is also into cross stitching and my only buddy stitcher in the office. I suggested to her that this biscornu can be use as a scissor fob but she prefered to hang it on her cubicle wall. It's nice to see her smiling face when I had it over to her.....

Free pattern from Aurelle
Fabric : Hand dyed DMC 14ct Aida
Thread : Carrie Creation
Shade: Sea Kelp
(If you notice I stitched the Blue Ribbon Design for the names at the back of the biscornu)

These is my stitching achievement for September. I have yet to finish my Bouquet for Cheryl which should have been completed end of Sept (my original target...:P)....I have another 25% to complete, so I am not so worried since the date line is for another 2 months.

H a p p y S t i T c H i N g and I hope you had enjoyed reading my entry.






Monday, September 10, 2007

My Weekend Cross stitch Project

I received my order from Jane of Neddle Little Love last Thursday and was delighted to have received my order which I had wanted for so long.....some patterns from Little House Needleworks, Lizzie Kate and Waxing Moon. She also include one small pattern from Prairie Schooler...(thxxx Jane for the lovely package!!)..The parcel reached me right before I am stepping out of the my office to have a lunch date with my buddy stitcher Miya so I took the opportunity to share viewing with her...

I am so excited that on Friday night I started to check on my floss inventory for the Waxing Moon Design "My Needle and My Floss". I have to put aside temporarily the stitching of "Bouquet for Cheryl" since I will have enough time till my target date ie end of Sept.
I managed to find most of the DMC thread and started stitching them at 12am the same night. I spend 3 hours in the middle of the night stitching on my bed with the light from my stitching lamp. Half way through Rozi woke up and asked me why am I still wide awake stitching .....there it goes once you had been attacked by the xs addiction....

I came to know this design the first time when I visited Barbara at Sanguine Stitcher. I guess it would be nice to hang this work on my dining hall for my guest to let them know about my seriuos hobby. I hope to finish this piece before end of next week.

Title : "My Needle and My Floss" by Waxing Moon Design

Fabric : 28ct linen

Thread : Mix of DMC, Anchor and Carrie's Creation

I have to finish my "Bouquet for Cheryl" before I move on to the rest of the three patterns....but I guess I can stitch the Lizzie Kate's "Cross Stitcher in Residence" for my weekend project....yeaaahhhh my fingers are also itching to start the Waxing Moon's "House of Needle Worker".....

I been thinking of rearranging my blog, updating the finish projects and adding my latest discovery of my favorite links but so far I do not have enough time to do so....

Till then H a p p y S t i t c h i n g............

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Shopping for Cross Stitch in China...

For those who had been waiting for my entry, welcome back.......this entry will be full of stitching stories!!...life has been in a heywire off late due to the extensive travelling but nevertheless, I can still find sometime stitching while on the move.....I can't still figure out why I am not able to sign in to update my blog while I am in China ((:...

On my stitching achievement, I managed to complete this project while juggling between work, travelling, family, bla...bla...bla...I use aida 14ct (i think so..) and stitch with swap linen thread I got from my buddy stitcher Miya in exchange with my CC thread. I really appreciate Miya's willingness to swap with me...thanks buddy!

My latest project is a competition organised by Barbara from Sanguine Stitcher. I started this project on 24th August in the mpv which took me 4 hours to reach Shanghai. Then continue my stitching in the flight to KLIA. I have been making quite a good progress with this one, I guess because the design is easy and I only use one color thread plus doing my marking in advance so that it's easier while stitching on the go. I picked the color because it looks like redwork and I really enjoy stitching redwork design. I hope Barbara will pick up my progress by reading my blog.

Title : "Bouquet for Cheryl"

Fabric : White Aida 14 count

Thread : Carrie's Creation

Shade : Olde World Red

I finished stitching 1 out of 4 areas, and now working very hard to complete the top right side. Based on my planning, 1 area took me a week to complete with continuos non stop stitching, does not matter how much time I spend a day to stitch, minimum was 30 minutes and maximum was 2 hours. I set a target to complete this project by end of September.....I hope I will be able to adhere to my plan...hhhhmmmmm....

On my stashing....again it has been a must place to be every time I am in China....the small shops in the wholesale market opposite the hotel......this time I had place a few orders for the kits since there is no stock available on hand. The shop owner does not speak a word of English, but still we manage to communicate with my simple understanding of mandarin. She showed me the catalogue and I picked a few kits for her to order for my September trip. For this trip I picked up this petal of roses kit for myself......I also picked a couple of cartoon kits as a gift to my stitching friends (can't show it here since I have not mailed them and also some of them pay me a visit here...he...he...he...)

Also, before I left to China, I received a bulk of my CC thread order from Barbara. The color are so stunning and I am not sure when I will have a chance to use them (I hide the purchase from Rozi and Ayong as I do not want to hear any more complaints from both of them .....)


I found this cotton stitching bag while I was on window shopping at Yiwu. I like the flowery motifs sew with laces....the pastel color is very soft and soothing.....it's really ideal to stuff with all my stitching thread n tools while I am on the go.....




I am now waiting for Needle Little Love to send my online order.....hhhhhmmmm.....I guess I just can't resist and keep on piling my stashs.....
I hope to have more time to write on my discovery to Yiwu and Shanghai....till then, Happy Stitching and Peace to the world!!!
BTW, I would appreciate it if you could leave a message if you have drop by reading my entry.....I hope you have enjoy reading my discovery and tales on my stitching....





































Thursday, August 30, 2007

My trip to Hangzhou ....

I will not write anything on stitching for this entry....instead enjoy my findings in Hangzhou, China!!

We visited Hangzhou on our first weekend in China. We had decided to spend the weekend there just to kill time and go for some sight seeing. We hop into an express bus and it took us 2 hours to reach Hangzhou. Basically, Hangzhou is a tourist city and the most popular spot is West Lake Garden (it remind me of the Summer Palace Garden in Beijing :))). We did not cover much places since decided to keep it for the next time once we have permanently based in China.

We are very impressed with the express bus service....the bus is very clean, on time and even serve mineral water free on board (I hope it's the safe one!!).....same goes for the bus in the city its clean and punctual...for 2 yuan you can take a ride anywhere in the city...one thing I notice the public bus make an automatic announcement everytime it make a stop .......it has been a very fullfilling experience riding the buses in China.....

Beside West Lake Garden, Hangzhou is also famous for its tea, silk, silk umbrella and chop sticks.....these are a must buy if you are in Hangzhou.


This is the city of Hangzhou from the hotel window.....





This is some of the views at Westlake Garden. The lake is full of lotus plants and they are soo loveeelyy in the summer.....I took these photos at 7:30am and as you can see some of the ladies are doing their exercise routine (group dancing by flipping fan on their hand...quite interesting)

































Shopping time......


On the left is a place called Wushan Market (I hope I got this right!)....this place full of souvenier gifts ranging from silk dress, fans, umbrella, key chain, pewter items etc...etc..etc...

On the right side is Silk Market. This place is very huge and long, about 2-3 blocks I guess....the is a small Muslim coffeeshop at the right side of the entrance
Conclusion, one day is not enough to cover these two places especially the Silk Market. I don't do much shopping since I am not into it unless if I find something on cross stitching..........



An array of fabrics at one of the shops at the Silk Market.







Finally, the bus station in Hangzhou. As you can see here,
all are in Mandarin including the tickets so it's all up to you to figure it out so that you end up at the right destination (LOL)....




Next trip will be Yiwu........






















































































































Friday, August 10, 2007

Life in China...continue....

It took me more than a week to comeback and write.....let's continue...
The day after we arrived we straight away went to our client plant about 10 minutes drive from the hotel. It was a huge plant full of new buses since our client is the main sponsor of buses for Beijing Olympic. One thing make me real proud, they raise the Jalur Gemilang at the main entrance together with Union Jack, China and Germany flags.

Working with them is a very challenging experience since I have Mandarin limitation and they hardly understand English. But they are nice bunch of people and very helpful. We managed to overcome our limitation on our first week and towards the second weeks we managed to speak simple Mandarin conversation.

Back at the hotel, I started to gather some information to find some cross stitch shops. Apparently, one of the Asst Manager at the hotel, Jason, is into stitching. He showed me the shop a few step away from the hotel. The place is full of cross stitch kits...its a wholesale market not only selling stitching stuffs but also all sort of things women accessories, clothing, wools, shoes, herbs, tea, nuts, vegetable, etc...etc...all in one roof!!!...half a day was not enough to cover all. I went crazy seeing the wools for knitting...they are so nice, soft n fluffy...I almost bought a bundle but since I am not into knitting I have to on hold of my desire...I keep on telling myself "no...no...not now...still have sometime once I have settledown..."....this will be my next agenda once I started being away from the children....I grabs a few kits to treat myself and a few as a gift for my stitching buddies...........I hope they will love them!!

The wool in one of the shelves....



These are some of the kits for myself.... since I love flowers so much, most of the kits I choose are flowers motifs....

Some adjustable plastic hoops for myself and as a gift for my stitching buddies. The one at the top corner are cross stitch kits for purse. At the bottom are cross stitches for clock. The kit inclusive the clock mechanism.

The food we order at the Muslim Restaurant...beef, mutton and some sort of mutton kebab....



The building and road across the hotel:

These are some photos taken at the garden nearby the down town:


I guess it is common in China to have beautiful garden in each town...I have seen a few in the area and the Chinese people really know how to enjoy the garden and spend quality time wondering or just chit chatting at the garden bench.....





Talking about being away from the children....it has now become common questions from my friends and colleagues, how do I manage being away from my partner and children....one of my colleague bluntly commented how could I do that without feeling guilty....yes, its sound easy to say than done....for me I have my own way of planning my life, this is my choice and I have to live with it.......this is not one brain decision...I have been talking with Rozi and the children for numerous occasions... and all at the right senses.....its hard to explain and I thank Allah for giving me a very strong will power....I am glad and thankful for having Ayong around ...she has done a superb job while I am away...making sure that all her siblings is comfortable at home without me around by helpling in the kitchen cooking with my maid, taking good care of them and ensuring daddy always has his tea after dinner even without mummy around....we have been very open all the times...I had once asked how she felt about having to take my role temporarily......she said its always her obligations since she is the eldest....may Allah always bless her with successful life in the future!!!...In one of her emails she is complaining that 2 weeks is too long for her since she is running out of idea to cook....I know I always can count on her since she took good care of me while I was on wheel chair 2 years back...she is the one who bath and clean me, helped me with my urine and she is only 12 years old to face the situation....and all without telling her in advance how and when to do it..........

I have a choice to bring my children with me but the only problem is there is no religious school at the town whereI live...it's very difficult for them...I had decided that they will stay with me during the school holidays and Rozi can always visit me whenever he wants (it is a good reason since he hardly take his annual leave)


On my diet regime....its not so good........

Gotta continue again.....






























Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Life in China

For some reason I was not able to update my blog while I was in China. I guess something is not right again with blogger. I left my house on 6 am on Sunday 16th July ....Rahim our taxi driver came on time as usual .....Rozi and my eldest girl send me off at the gate while the rest of my kids slept....I reached Shanghai at 2:30pm with Malaysian Airlines....managed to snap the photos..




The driver pick me up at Pudong Airport and we continue 4 hours journey to Zhejiang. Driving a long journey in China is a very traumatic experience...I felt as if I am on F1 track! The driver keep on changing lane from left to right and sometimes overtake another vehicle on emergency lane. What an experience! I check in the hotel at 6pm, bath and went out with my colleague to find some food for dinner. We found a Muslim restaurant at the corner of a junction opposite the hotel. I know it's quite easy to find Muslim food in China but just in case I still bring along some bread, instant noodle and 3-1 oats for emergency. These are some of the views from my hotel cafe and room:

This is the view from the hotel coffee house. I took this very early in the morning while enjoying the story book and sipping a cup of hot coffee.










This is another view from the cafe. It's the outdoor parking bay. Beside the parking bay it's an apartment building covered with fern leaf (can't really see it clearly from this picture...just notice the building)




I don't have that much chance to stitch since the work really consume most of my time. But still I managed to finish small project (will update the picture later). I felt a bit lonely since the children is not around but I use the opportunity to read (another hobby which I was not able to enjoy much now). Rob my colleague lent me a touching story book title " Tuesday with Morrie", It's about an ex student who discovered his former professor is dying of ALS disease, a Lou Gehrig disease. So he come every Tuesday to talk about life with his dying professor... I cried twice while reading this book. I usually wake up as early as 5am to start my day in China...took my breakfast as early as 6am then spend at least 30 minutes to read. It is something new that I never done while I am home. It is summer now and usually 5:30am is already as bright as 8am in Malaysia.

Gotto go now...will continue again shortly...

Saturday, July 14, 2007

My diet update

I have not been good on my diet regime this week...I have been taking some rice for dinner since I am fasting ......but for the first time in ages, I managed to buy a pair of pants outside special shops like BBB and Ms Read...I am not so sure how much kilos I managed to trimmed but most of pants are slightly loose.....
I forgot to buy my own reward for losing 2 kgs last month...I don't really put so much attention on that because I don't lost that much....
I will try to be back on track while I am in China...it's a good excuse since it's quite difficult to find halal food and I will be relying on my food supply from home....

China here I come....

It has been a very hectic week and there were lots of discussion going on this week. I have been very behind on my WIPS....too exhausted to stitch as soon as I got home....could be due to my fasting (yeahhh it's not too late to make up the lost day from last year Ramadhan...)...I managed to fast for 3 days this week....I have 4 more days to go....

Life has been in the fast moving in the office....lots of issues of human emotion involved....there are some sensitive issues with the employee off late and the management has been asking for my assistance to access the situation with some members of the staff....I have to be very careful with my assessment with the representative from UK office as I do not want to be potray against anybody in the company...eventough I am not working for HR, but they have been asking for my views on the issues. I put so much hope that situation will be improving very soon......my boss gave me my contract for China assignment and we have been talking endlessly the whole week about the work in China....our Project Manager has been given us very short notice to fly to China this weekend....I am very lucky to have the girls and Rozi supporting with my decision. I will be leaving on Sunday for 2 weeks assignment.

This is my progress with my WIP....I have to put on hold since I am short of thread....gotta wait for my stitching buddy Miya coming back from India for some swapping thread.....


Despite of my tiredness, I managed to dye some Aida 11ct for my "Ewe Make Me Smile"....I had successfully turn the white aida into light blue....I plan to stitch this while I am in China....





Again, some orchids are blooming this week....






My next entry of journal will be from a foreign land...since the nearest city is Shanghai, I hope I will be able to get some stitching stuffs from there (if I managed to find the shop ..).....I've been hoping to get the stitching frame and stand from China since I am quite happy with my first purchased from Beijing.

Thanks for reading (hhhmmmm I wonder whether there is really people out there reading my journal..............)

Peace to the world & happy stitching!!



Friday, July 13, 2007

In my kitchen....

My nieces and nephews came over for BBQ dinner last Saturday. I prepared some marinated chicken with honey BBQ sauce, lemon chez cake, roast chicken, roast lamb chop and chez baked macaroni.

The lemon chezz cake (hhhmmm yummy..)...I use philadephia chez, creamer, butter and some biscuit for the base (a Tesco brand).











The lamb chop....I pounded some ginger, black pepper and garlic mixed with the honey BBQ sauce.







The BBQ chicken











The baked macaroni n chezzz......






We have not done any family gathering for sometime, this was done by request from my niece who wanted to eat some western food. My eldest sister took the opportunity by taking my tips for preparing the macaroni...