Hobbies @ Libromanic.com

I’m torn….confused….a flip-flopper! I said in my main blog that I would be combining this blog and that one into one, as I didn’t want to be constantly updating so many blogs. But after reconsidering, perhaps I should still keep this one open. Non-stitchers wouldn’t be interested in my project updates, right? I suppose that this one will have a little bit less of my life, as that’s in my main blog, but oh well, it’s mainly for my benefit anyway, so that I can keep track of what I worked on, and when.

Other than my weekly HAED sessions (of which I’m averaging about 1000 a week, yay!), I’ve been working on the SanMan calendar. I know, I know, I haven’t even completed the SanMan alphabet yet, but I’m in the mood for calendar months now. I actually took pictures of my WIP yesterday, but when I was cleaning up some stuff in my laptop, I accidentally deleted the pictures, so the update had to be pushed back to today.

I changed the colour of the April bunny, white just wouldn’t have shown up well on the fabric that I’m using, so mine’s a cute cuddly brown bunny. Originally, I was thinking of doing it as a horizontal calendar (4×3) instead of vertical. But when I looked at the colours in April, it wouldn’t have looked as nice next to the yellow of March. So, I stuck to the design as charted. At the rate I’m going, hopefully I can finish it by the end of the month, and then I might be able to join the SAL for April, if I like the chart that is chosen!

I used to read through people’s blogs last time, and everytime they mentioned startitis, I wondered why people had this overwhelming urge to keep on starting new projects without finishing the current one they were working on. I always started a project, finished it, then only started a new one.

However, since starting my BAP of a HAED, I find myself increasingly being inflicted with startitis. It’s probably because the project is so large, that it gets monotonous stiching for hours with little to show for it. I have at least 4 other projects at the moment, but last week, I felt compelled to start yet another project! I feel somewhat justified, because it’s from the SanMan website, and it’s a year-long SAL. Every month, a new pattern will be started, and you need to show a WIP of the previous month before you can get the new pattern. So, I HAD to start February’s pattern to get March’s pattern! For February, it’s mini-squares for each month of the year, and looks so adorable! I finished January pretty quickly, and have actually finished February as well, but no updated photo yet.

The SanMan is one of the most active boards that I’ve joined, and Sandy is really generous in giving out free patterns. Of course, the added bonus is that they’re just so cute! I don’t know what I’m going to do with any of them, but the joy is in the stitching of it, yes?

In non-stitching news, I’ve been agonizing over whether to get a PC monitor or not. Dell is having a promotion, where the 24″ monitor is now RM699, from RM999 just a few weeks ago! I’ve pretty much decided to get one, and now it’s the decision of whether to get a 2nd hand 22″ monitor from my brother, or whether to get a new 24″ monitor. It’s looking likely that I’ll go for the 24″ one, though. It’s bigger! And newer! Oh, and it’s also got HDMI, so when I get my PS3 eventually, I’ll be able to plug it in and play it easily. Of course, I’ll have to decide really quickly, as this promotion supposedly ends today. I’ve got the 22″ monitor in front of me now, I’ll probably take it home and test it out…and we’ll see how it goes!

I read 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith awhile ago, and I wasn’t too impressed with it. For some reason, not long after that, I felt like reading his other series, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Perhaps it’s because my favourite genre of all time is mystery.

Anyway, it turned out that it was a good thing I tried it, because I ended up really liking this series! The main character is a Botswanan woman, called Precious Ramotswe, who has survived a failed marriage and the death of her infant son. Her father passes away and leaves her some money, and so she sets up the one and only female detective agency to help solve peoples’ problems.

The series portrays life in Africa, and some of the problems that the inhabitants of her village face such as a woman suspecting her husband of cheating on her, a missing child that has been killed by witch doctors in order to make medicine, and many more. All she learnt about being a detective comes from a manual, some insight from Agatha Christie, and her own common sense.

In the background, is Mr JLB Matekoni, who loves her and wants to marry her. However, due to her first marriage, Mma Ramotswe is resistant to the idea of marrying again. In addition to this, is Grace Makutsi, the quiet secretary who cannot find a job as she is not pretty like the other girls who went to secretary school. She who progresses from being the Agency’s secretary to opening her own business in later books.

As I said, I enjoyed this series thoroughly, the author manages to weave stories of Mma Ramotswe’s investigations and stores of her private life really well. After reading the books, I went on the hunt to buy the paperback books (I read the ebook version). My problem was finding the books with the “correct” covers, at a good price. I am a cover fanatic, I admit that I buy books because of the covers. If there’s a book with two covers, I’d usually buy the one with the nicer cover (or the one that feels nice and smooth). I’m weird that way…

There were two available, a US version (the one on the left) and a UK version (the one on the right). In the end, I decided on the US version, as it looked a little more grown-uppy. The next problem was the cost! They didn’t have the US version in some bookshops, those that had it were priced at about RM55 per book. Hmm, that was definitely out of my budget. So, I went on Amazon, and even those were expensive if I had shipped them back to Malaysia. In the end, I ended up with my good ol’ faithful eBay, seven in that series for RM85! Of course they were second hand, but they looked to be in fairly good condition. I shipped them to a friend in New York, and hopefully I’ll get them in a couple of months or so, I can’t wait! 

Edited to add: I found that the first book was made into a film and the feedback on Amazon UK has been amazing, all 5 stars! Apparently the rest of the episodes were due to begin filming later, but the director passed away after the first one. I’m definitely going to buy this DVD sometime, but perhaps I’ll wait and see if the other episodes are going to be filmed as well.

I’m back from Egypt and I had a marvellous time there. If you’re interested in Egyptian history, I don’t think you could NOT enjoy yourself there. Cairo as a city didn’t interest me that much, but of course, the pyramids were amazing. We also made a side trip to the White Desert, which involved sleeping under the stars at 0 degrees Celcius at night! That was unbelievably beautiful, but also freezing cold. In the end, it was one of the main highlights of the trip. Other than that, we went down to Luxor and Aswan, and my favourite would have to be Aswan. It’s great strolling down the streets with the Nile river beside you, and sailing down the Nile on a felucca was amazing! I’ll talk more about the trip later, but for now I want to do a recap of all my current stitching projects that I have on hand.

First, and the one I’ll be working on for a long long time yet is my HAED project. I’ve been working on this quite a bit since I came back, mainly to make up for the 2 1/2 weeks that I was away. I’ve completed roughly 2000 stitches, but most of it has been background so it doesn’t look too different from before.

Next up is my new “secret” project. I was getting a bit bored by endless HAED-ing, so I went through my projects and picked one that struck my fancy. It’s also another BAP (what am I getting myself into!) at 12″ x 16″. I’ll let you know which project it is when it looks a bit more presentable, at the moment it’s just blocks of pink.

Thirdly is my SanMan SAL. I started this ages ago, but I’ve hit a bit of a speed bump for this project. I’m sure I’ll finish it some time, but probably not quite so soon. I’ve completed another two blocks since I last posted the picture, but that was months ago.

Lastly is my Bent Creek project, Summer Snapperland, if I’m not mistaken. I actually completed quite a bit of the frame at the bottom, then I realized that I had done it in the wrong colour! Instead of using the charted Weeks Dye Works / GAST, I’m relying on my good ol’ DMC, but it gets a bit confusing. So, I had to rip it all out.

OK, I’m off to brunch now with my friend from Australia, so that’s my quick recap for now. Toodles!

Not the most inspirational of blog titles, but I don’t have time to think of one. In about 6 hours, I’ll be off to the airport, on my way to Egypt!! I’ve spent most of today packing, in true tradition, I have saved the day I leave as the day of packing, I sure hope I haven’t forgotten anything.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks trying to clear up my work load, briefing people who are supposed to take over my job duties, and trying to HAED as much as possible before I leave. I’ve finished about 6 1/2 pages, here’s my progress thus far.

The lips seem very pink, like she’s wearing lipstick! She’s a fancy fairy, isn’t she?

Anyway, I’ve got to finalize my packing, so I’ll see you all in three weeks time!

I love Christmas time, the decor everywhere, and the general spirit makes me feel so happy, also not forgetting the true meaning behind Christmas, the birth of Jesus! It’s only 9 days till Christmas now, and most unfortunately, I haven’t purchased any of my Christmas presents yet. I have absolutely no idea what to get any for anybody, especially as most of them are guys. Presents for guys are one of the hardest things to buy, I think! I’d better start thinking of things to buy, as there’s only one weekend left.

I’ve been concentrating more on my HAED over the last few weeks, with my Egypt trip looming up, I don’t want to fall too behind in the competition. You can hop over to my other blog to see the progress on that.

Other than my HAED, the other piece I’ve been working on is a charity piece for Love Quilts UK. In a moment of craziness, I signed up for one a few weeks ago, the fact that I was going on holiday soon didn’t even strike me. I chose a pattern by Precious Moments, and although they always look really cute in the book, when you start stitching it, you realize that there are quite a lot of quarter / half stitches which always drive me nuts, especially on Aida.

I’ve done slightly less than half so far, and there’s tons more to go. If you ignore the upper lines of stitching, it kind of looks like a Mario mushroom with legs, doesn’t it? As for what the design is, that will be revealed only upon completion!

I do have tons of stash which I purchased recently, but I’ve been feeling way too lazy to get them together and take a picture. Plus the fact that looking at it would probably be a reminder of how much money I’ve been spending over the last few months! I think I’ll spread the pictures out a bit more, so that it won’t seem so bad. And that’ll give me another reason to blog more frequently. It’s been almost a month since my last post!

OK, signing off now, hopefully I’ll be heard from soon!

I’ve finally finished that darned 6th page of my HAED! This was one of the most difficult pages I’ve done, if I thought the others had a lot of confetti stitches, those were nothing compared to this page. I was determined to finish it this weekend, in time for my next update on our competition blog, so I’ve been plugging away at it for the whole week, not touching any other projects. Here it is in all it’s “finished” glory.

I woke up early this morning and finished it after about 3 hours of stitching. As I was gearing myself up to do a happy dance, I noticed that there was one patch where the colour looked off. Afteer checking the chart, I discovered that I had done it using the wrong colour! Grrr, so I had to get frog it out, and let me tell you, it isn’t easy frogging stuff on a 22ct fabric, with the stitching done over 1! There’s another section which I’m not so sure about, it’s the forehead section. It’s using the colour 950, and it so happened that I had finished all of mine. I looked around, and found a vintage 950 which looked almost the same colour, but now, it seems like it’s looking a little bit dark to me. What do you think? Perhaps I should sew a bit more with a new 950 which I’ve just purchased, and see if there is a visible difference in colour. I hope that the colour is the same, it’ll be a real pain to frog out even more, and this patch is much bigger than the first one that I had to rip out.

Six months of stitching sounds like a lot, but just have a look at my entire fabric! That’s a lot more stitching to do…

It’ll be really worth it when it’s done, though, I think that it’ll be really gorgeous! Anyway, I’m off to lunch now, have a great weekend everyone!

I’ve always said that I have absolutely no sewing skills other than cross stitching, which is why the majority of my work has either been framed, or kept away in my storage box. Last week, whilst reading some blogs, I saw some Christmas ornaments that had been finished, and it looked really easy. So, I determined to try it out this weekend.

The materials that I needed were felt, polyester fiber (which I had bought months and months ago, but never touched), and ribbons. The ribbons were easy enough, I went to the stationery shop that’s in my office building, and picked up two reels for RM1.60 each. But felt? Hmm, that’s a bit tougher. I knew that the craft shop in 1Utama (I think it’s called Craft Haven, near FOS) sold felt, but it seemed a bit expensive to me, at RM2.00 per A4 size sheet. Ah well, I bought it from there at the end since I didn’t know where else I would be able to get felt.

So, on Saturday night, whilst T watched his football match, I went upstairs to my room and started work, and at the end of one hour, I came up with this!

Yes, one whole hour to finish it! But hey, it was my first time ever finishing an ornament. It looks really pretty, but things I would have wanted to change probably would include making it a bit smaller and stuffing it with more polyester fiber. At first, I didn’t have pinking shears, so the edges of the felt were all straight. It looked OK, but something was missing. I already knew I wanted to use pinking shears, but again, I had no idea where to purchase them. Of course, eBay had lots, but I wanted to be able to get them immediately and use them on my already finished ormanet. I posted on the Low Yat forums, but didn’t get any replies. The next day, it struck me that my mum might have some, and when I asked her, she did!

On Sunday, T & I went to the Gardens, and there is a truely awesome art shop there, called Art Friend. It’s near Borders, either on the same floor or one below it. They have all sorts of equipment that is not easy to find, from drawing supplies, to styrofoam items, sewing materials, and felt as well! The felt there is exactly the same as the 1Utama brand, and even cheaper at RM1.70, so I bought more. And at night, I made another ornament, this time only taking half an hour to finish it, so I’m improving!

I’m much more pleased with this one, it’s smaller and so much cuter. Although, that could be because I think the angel is cuter than the candles anyway. I took another photo of the two of them together, so that they can be compared side to side.

Lizzie Kate designs from 12 Christmas Blessings

Hmm, I see a lot more finishing of this kind. Maybe I’ll even move on to something that involves more stitching…don’t hold your breath though!

I was supposed to post this ages ago, but I got too lazy to take the fabric off the Q-snaps to take a photo. My third and final goal for that weekend was to complete two more squares for the SanMan Alphabet SAL, which would bring me up to J. I managed it, by the skin of my teeth, staying up till 1.30 to finish it!

I made a mistake in I, but as I’m the Queen of UNfrogging, I left it alone. If you look at the cone, the diamonds aren’t exactly the same size, I miscounted by a square. Ah well, that is what will make mine unique! And since then, I’ve even completed K & L as well. K was a snap except for the backstitching (hate it, hate it!). The SanMan board is now up to Y, so I’m miles behind. It doesn’t matter though, I’m going at my own pace and enjoying myself.

I’ve done some major stashing in the past few days, and there’s a whole lot more things in my eBay Watching list. I’m trying to justify it by the fact that my birthday is coming up soon, plus the fact that I just had my appraisal at work and hopefully I get an increment, so it would be celebratory spending! Hmm, still feeling a bit guilty though. :D Although that never stops me from buying more! I keep telling myself that THIS item will be the very last thing I buy for awhile, then i just see more and more and more. *sigh* How do I control myself…

In my last post, I mentioned that I had a few mini-goals set over the weekend. I’m quite pleased with myself with the amount of stitching I accomplished, even though it felt like I went out quite a lot, and slept a lot as well! Goal #1 was to complete the first square of Bent Creek’s Summer Snapperland, and as you can see from the picture below, success!

The recommended threads were WDW, but of course, being me, it’s done in DMC. That being the case, my design isn’t as nicely variegated as the picture on the chart. I just don’t want to spend the money to buy “special” threads, and even if I did, I don’t think that they are easily available in Malaysia. If they are, it’s probably quite expensive as well. I feel that I’m already spending quite a lot of money on charts, and it’s supposed to be a time to save money, with the world economy being the way it is.

Goal #2 was to complete 500 stitches on my HAED. It’s a little bit hard to quantify the stitches, as I’m not sewing according to blocks, but following colours instead. It ends up with stitches going all over the place, as you can see from my update picture.

I feel quite pleased whenever I look at my HAED. Previously, it was only background, and it didn’t feel like I accomplished anything much. But now, the picture is developing quite nicely, and even though it is really tedious work at times (millions of confetti stitches!), it feels good. Only…about 50 more pages to go and I’ll be done!