I am still alive and stitching......

Hello again...

I have not been able to update my blog from China all this while. I have been thinking of switching my blog and use myspace or wordpress instead. In case I am disappearing then all of you will know where to find me (he...he...).Since I am back for holidays, I thought it work be nice to share my latest stitching achievement...but the photos did not turned well since I took it in a hurry, right before I step out of my apartment heading to the airport.........

Cross Stitcher in Residence by Lizzie Kate

Fabric : 14 ct Aida

Thread : 100% silk (meant for Chinese Embroidery)

I bought the chart from Needlelittlelove Singapore in November. I was so excited to stitch this piece, and decided to put on hold the rest of my WIP. At first I thought I will managed to finish within 3 days since it is a small piece. But instead it takes me more than 7 days to complete.

This is the most difficult stitching piece I ever made. I choose to stitch with 100% silk I got from a shop in Suzhou. I visited Tiger Hill and found a shop selling Chinese Embroidery. I begged the lady to sell me the thread and bought 10 colors. Since the thread is 100% silk, it is very soft, also since it was Winter and my finger was quite dry, the thread always stuck between my skin and nails. It really test my patience!. In the end of the stitching, I even forgotten to stitch a charm on top of the door so it does not looks nice. I hope I will have a chance to stitch another piece using cotton thread soon.

Then, I also pick up a kit from KEC ( China local kit )...this is the piece I had finished and took me 7 days to stitch....

A Bouquet of Tulip in Chinese pot on 14ct aida

I love tulips so much ( it always remind me of my courting period with Rozi....walking in the park full of tulip during Spring )....this is the second Tulip I stitched after another set which is still incomplete (in my WIP basket since last year). They look so lovely....there are another 4 sets of pattern with different flowers....I still have another 2 kits to go to match with this one.....hhhhmmmm.....can't really tell when to finish them...I had started one with 30% completion.....

My small piece....a Fall leaf I took from Tantes Zolder freebie.....I wanted to finish this as scissor fob...can;t really find time as yet to assemble them....I had decided to stitch a leaf charm in the middle....I will feature again here once I had finished them into fob.....

Fall Leaf
Freebie from Tantes Zolder stitch on 32 ct raw linen

These are the pieces I had finished since I relocated to China in December (not bad for one and a half month period) the best so far I managed to achieve....Since I am alone and no one is disturbing my time at home, I manage to focus on my stitching once I am home from work. There is not much activity at night except when the guys wanted me to cook some Malaysian dish for them once in a while...(I am the big momma to them now....) or my boss force all of us for dinner which I always managed to escape. Most of the time I will spend at least 4 hours a day stitching and weekend means I will have more time, at least 6 hours marathon if I am not too tired...

I am now into knitting too.......had started to knit small muffler for Wawa for her Beijing trip in March, but so far I make a very slow progress. I don;t really put much hope to finish it when they are here in March. My colleague in the office is willing to teach me and promised will start full force after the Spring Holidays.

Bought these small goodies from China for a dear friend I met in cyber....some multicolor yarn.....luckily she likes all the color that she wanted....

Thanks for dropping by and read my journal....

Happy stitching!!!

//siti

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 !

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!

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.