Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week: Round Robins

Do you participate in round robins? If so, how many have you participated in? Do you participate in more than one at a time? Summarize your experiences (good and/or bad).

If not, have you thought about it?

I've been involved in five Round Robins so far:

The first was organised by the A Noble Needle Yahoo Group. It's theme was a beginners RR - but as it was leading up to Christmas - the other three members picked a Christmas theme for their designs. I stuck to the Bears from Around the World. If you look back at my Completed in 2001 page, there's some images there from it. My own piece of material can be seen on my Yahoo Photo Pages, it's Theme was Teddy Bears. This robin ran smoothly without a hitch.

The second RR was also through ANN. It was called Fantasy 4. It's theme was Fantasy and we stitched dragons and fantastic creatures. This robin also ran smoothly without a hitch, although some of the fabric did take a while to make it home. I met my friend Piwi though this Robin. I picked fairies as theme for my robin. Here's a picture of the finished piece (although I still have to add a few more embelishments and frame it. There are other pictures of the pieces I stitched for Jennifer, Katt and Piwi here. On Piwi's piece, I did Teresa Wenzler's Tempest in a Teacup. Loved stitching him, may do him again at some point in the future - he turned me into a real TW fan.

The third RR actually completed before the second one - it was a Christmas themed RR which I stitched with My Mother, My Aunt and my aunt's friend Karen. You can see this in my 2002 Finishes.

The fourth RR is the Cattitudes RR and this is still ongoing. This has become quite a saga, people have left, new members have joined to replace them and at the moment were still at about 8 members (we started off with about 14 at one point) the intention was to stitch all 12 cats from the November 2002 Margaret Sherry Catalog. The last cat I stitched was Cautious. I dropped out of this myself for about 6 months while I tried to sort out my life down here in Cornwall.

The fifth RR was an Easter Themed RR which I organised myself on my UKCSF Yahoo Group. The RR went OK to start with until all the problems happened with Sean! Curse him! So I sort of missed the end of it, only stitched 3 designs. Petra was OK about it though (I still had to stitch on her piece when I dropped out), which was a real shame because her ring of dancing bunnies looked like a fun stitch. I got my fabric back from Sandra, who was looking after it for me. The fabric turned out really good. It makes it all the more poingnant now because the design I stitched of the RSPCA bunny looked I lot like my old bunny Jessica. I still don't know what Sean did with her.

The Mapping of the Cat Brain

Borrowed from: http://www.xmission.com/~emailbox/mapping.htm

Who's Your Inner Sexy Cartoon Chick?

Tinkerbell


Who 's Your Inner Sexy Cartoon Chick ?
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Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week: Favourite Fabrics

What is your favourite fabric to stitch on?

Silkweaver's 28 Count reflection range.

I hardly ever stitch on Aida now, any new projects that I start which I kit up from scratch are all done on evenweave by choice.

Not a Litterbox!

Jade...... as much as I love you - the gravel path is not a litter box.

You know the landlady has been moaning about finding cat crap on the path, and now I know it's you cause I saw you digging in the path this morning!!!!

B3ta Link Roundup

More of those bizarre, interesting and funny links:

• Scared of Santa - pictures of screaming todlers who really didn't want to be sitting on some stranger's knee.
• Foreign Chicken Mince Advert - at least I think that's what it is - completely bizarre!
• This is actually part of a promo for a new game - but it does make you think: http://www.how-safe-are-we.com/
• Ever bought stuff from Tesco's Value range? I used to buy their cheap baked beans all the time 9p a tin they were. How much does other stuff cost though - here's a little game to play if you're bored. Tesco Guess the Price Game

And now for some funny videos:

• Not My Phone
• The Running of the Squirrels
• Singing in the Rain Remix

Dirty Den in Venice

Anyone remember that old episode of Eastenders?

Anyway, stayed in last night watching the demise of Dirty Den on Eastenders (I just just imagine the cluedo version now - "...and it was Miss Scarlet in the Pub with the stone dog!..." ) while I prepped and gridded the fabric that I'm going to stitch the Sheila Hudson Venice project on.

I do confess to shedding a tear when Sharon came in and heard just how dispicable her adopted father was - and while he did deserve what he got in the end - I also felt some remorse, because whatever bad deeds Dirty Den did throughout his life and the women who's lives that he destroyed - he did have some redeeming things about him - quirky sense of humour and of course his idolisation of Sharon above all else. I know for a fact that he still didn't treat half of the women in his life as bad as Sean treated me. I guess that shows you the sort of man that Sean truly was. The very sad fact that that realisation hit me about a year ago, back in January/February 2004 - before any of the real troubles started in March. It just went downhill from there.

Anyway..... I had car troubles today - flat battery!! I haven't used it for over a month, so yesterday when I went to get in it it was totally dead - even the central locking wasn't working. I got some friends to help me jump-start it and then took it on a 40-mile jolt to the Truro roundabout and back - that should have given it a little charge or so!

I did a little food shopping - and after I got back I started stitching on the bottom of the design which is the bottom of one of the gondolas. 5 lines of black isn't much of a start - but it's a start nevertheless.

As I stitched I watched "Two Brothers" it's a film about Tigers in the vein of Born Free. Quite a good film. I still remember Guy Pearce (who starred in it) from Neighbours, his career certainly went up in the world. Probably the only one of the cast who is now internationally known - with the exception of Miss Minogue of course. Those Tigers were so cute though - and when they got older, beautiful too - they stole the show - fortunately I had my own "Tiger Cub", Jade to cuddle during most of the film - he's about the same size!!

My Next Project: Venice

I printed off a copy of the chart of my next project today. It is called "Sparkling Waters" and it is a design picturing the Venice canals. It is the next in the series after the Amalfi Coast and Mount Fuji designed by Sheila Hudson and printed in Cross Stitch Collection.

I sorted out my threads for the project because I need to do an order for some extra threads for Paradise Island as I'm running out of a couple, I also need DMC 920 for this Venice design too.

Craftaholics Anonymous

Craftaholics Anonymous
12 Step Program
Newly Revised to 13 Steps

1. I will not stuff craft supplies in every corner of my house.
2. I will not keep nine projects going at one time.
3. I will not pick up more buttons, lace or fabric when I have a ton at home.
4. I will not let my crafting area look like a condemned area.
5. I will not relegate the kitchen table to crafts.
6. I will not attend craft shows just to pick up more ideas.
7. I will not stock up on more craft supplies just because they are on sale.
8. I will not go off on a tangent when anyone mentions that little word "import ".
9. I will not let my crafting distract me from fixing dinner.
10. I will not stay up all night crafting.
11. I will not save dryer lint, empty cereal boxes, detergent scoops, etc.
12. I will not buy every craft magazine I see.
13. I will not make promises I cannot keep. See you at the craft show.

Don't think it's gonna work though - do you?

Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week: Crafty Hobbies

Is cross stitch your only crafty hobby or do you have others?

When I was younger I used to like doing art, occasionally knitting (but I wasn't very good at it because I couldn't cast on) but at the moment Cross Stitch is all I have time for.

Windswept Mount

I took this while I was waiting for the bus back into Penzance, I didn't fancy the three mile hike back along the coast in the wind.

A very windswept view of the Mount, there's a virtual sandstorm blowing all over the beach and you can see the waves whipping up over the causeway path to the Mount, but then, it is Freezing February.

My Grassy Knoll

St Michael's Mount from my grassy knoll. This is where I sat in the sand dunes, admiring the view during the early summer months last year and got quite a reasonable tan.

Penzance Prom in February

Went for a walk today. took my camera with me. Here's Penzance Promenade at low tide. Even though it's February - look how blue the water is!

Weird Wax

Put my lava lamp on last night, and after about 15 minutes, the ghostly figure below appeared in the melting hot wax. lol

Paradise Progress

Stitched some of Paradise Island during my afternoon off, and now I have - a leaf!

What Age Do You Act?

You Are 20 Years Old

20 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

A Fairy Finish

Finished my Flower Fairies Canterbury Bell Fairy today.

I've been working on this since September as my purse project - but I was approaching the point where a couple of hours stitching would see it done, so this morning I went hell for leather and stitched it to completion while I was listening to the commentary on Armageddon.

It was supposed to be stitched in one stand, but I didn't read the instructions to start with and used two. In fact I only realised what I'd done when I started running out of pink. lol. Still one strand on 16 count doesn't provide enough coverage.

This design was a freebie giveaway cover kit on the World of Cross Stitching. I always loved Flower Fairies as a child - I had intricate colouring books full of them. I quite like this design, except the fairies face, fortunately you can't really see the odd expression from this picture.

The Cream Dusters

It's 4:00 am, woke up at 2:30, couldn't sleep again because of this damn blocked nose and sore throat. It's generally ok during the day - not really a cold at all - hardly produces a sniffle, but overnight the catarrah sort of builds up in my nose then trickles down the back into my throat and then I wake up all bunged up. Hate that sort of feeling.

Anyway, gave up trying to sleep about half an hour ago and put this on instead - at least doing something productive is better than just laying there tossing and turning? Is blogging productive?

Oh well - I'm going to go to work tomorrow with a confession: I did a good deed on Wednesday and took all the towels and tea towels home from the office to wash them. They sure needed it, talk about grease - I blame Norm (single guy from the office - needs a lesson or two in personal hygiene.... I'm not going any further with this - he might read it! But you get the idea!) for most of the filfth, so I made sure I put them all on a boil wash..... but I also stuck a couple of the office's dusters in there as well and well... the formerly bright yellow dusters are now cream and the towels are a sort of yelllowy cream too.... ooops!

Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week: Colour Changing

On a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest, how comfortable do you feel changing a design's colors or the entire color scheme? Elaborate if you wish.

I think I'm about a 2. I've not tried changing colours on any project I've yet stitched. I seem to be to regimented in following the instructions to experiment!! But I think I might like to try doing this sometime.

Although, I have seen that some people change the colours on Teresa Wentzler projects - I really admire them for having the courage for doing that. TW designs are usually very difficult anyway - why make the project harder by changing the colours. Lorna (I follow her stitching blog quite a bit) is stitching Tempest in a Teacup in green and purple, he looks really good. I stitched my Tempest for a Fantasy RR in his boring straight old salmon pink colour.

What Planet Are You From?

You Are From Neptune

You are dreamy and mystical, with a natural psychic ability. You love music, poetry, dance, and (most of all) the open sea. Your soul is filled with possibilities, and your heart overflows with compassion. You can be in a room full of friendly people and feel all alone. If you don't get carried away with one idea, your spiritual nature will see you through anything.

What Planet Are You From?