Wednesday 30 September 2015

FOTM September Update and other ramblings

Hello Friends,
Another month has come to an end ,which makes me look back and realize how little I have achieved in terms of goals I made when I first posted for GG SAL. Three medium sized stitched gifts for my college buddies.. ha what was I thinking.
September by far has been one of the most productive stitchy month. I finished stitching January and February flowers ,they were missing two colors. Made some progress on the March flower...



I'm now targeting to finish my biggest piece ever and that has been the focus since 23rd.I hope I will be able to post a finish picture soon.

I won Rosey's blog giveaway in July and this is what I received ...You must be wondering what took it long to reach me ..well the same postal woes. I didn't wanted to lost my prize in post ,so I asked Rosey to post it to Tammy ,who was in USA then.


Gifts from Tammy


Thank you Rosey and Tammy !!

The best thing that happened with my rediscovery of love of cross stitch (which happened in June last year, see my post here) was introduction to so many cross stitch blogs and bloggers. I have learnt so much thru these blogs- various stitching techniques, fabrics, storage, shopping places ,giveaways and exchanges.
The cherry on the cake are the letters / postcards/greeting cards I receive from my stitchy friends . I had almost forgotten the happiness one gets when you open a letter and read somebody's handwriting ..as if the person is talking to you in real.

As I am writing this post I ponder how the few letters, which my dad and mom wrote me when I was in college, are my life long treasures. My mother in law used to write us letters occasionally whenever she used to send us her home made spices and sweets .
My favourite activity of childhood was to write postcards to my grandmother. This is how a blank postcard issued by Indian postal offices looked like..I wonder is it still available.

Until I shifted to Kuwait , I wrote letters to my brothers for Raksha bandhan and they used to make fun of me.

I think art of letter writing is dying a slow death with the emergence of all this fast communication methods of phone and internet.
May be I am old school who enjoys the warmth of a hand written letter.

Do you like writing and receiving letters?

Here's my monthly stitch pie chart


Tuesday 15 September 2015

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL September Update

Welcome to the blog of World's Slowest Stitcher..ya that's me...
Because I have only a small card and unfinished bookmark to show you this time.
Can you believe this tiny card took me 5 days to stitch?

This is free cover kit from World of Cross Stitching mag, gifted  to me by my friend G when I met her in London . I love how the finished piece looks like ,however I'm not happy with the chart . This design had at least 5-8 fractional stitches which weren't specified in the key.

Next is a bookmark I'm stitching on 28 ct linen gifted to me by Diya and the pattern is from Cross Stitcher mag ,which again is a gift from Mrs. G .This is my first time stitching on linen, in fact first time anything other than aida. I'm stitching it over 2 using 2 strands. I miscounted somewhere and the piece is now off by 1 square. Initially I felt my stitches weren't neat so I took advice from my fellow stitchers and they advised that I should use a hoop or frame to stitch on linen. Also they suggested that the sewing method shouldn't be used for stitching on linen and I should use the stab method. So I'm stitching this piece in a hoop, using stab method and sometimes using railroading to get neat stitches.


Both the card and bookmark will be a gift for my boss who is retiring next week and has chosen China as his retirement home.

It would be helpful if you my friends can advise on following:
1. Is it necessary to use hoop/qsnap/frame for stitching on linen?
2.If the answer to above is no, can we use sewing method on linen?
3.Do you use railroading to keep your stitches neat?

Sept. 12th was International Crochet day and Sadu house (a traditional art house in Kuwait, more about this in another post) opened its gates to public for this event. It was small fun event where I met my friends from ravelry group. I didn't click any pictures ,if you would like to see some, please visit Tammy's blog.

I tried my hands at rock doodling and this is how my first rock doodle looks like. I picked this rock at the beach side at Nigg,Scotland.


I think I didn't show you guys one of the office merchandise bag I painted to use as my craft bag .Just some free hand Warli painting...


Life has got busy all of a sudden..until 3 months back I complained about being bored in this country and now I have so many events to attend, people to meet, places to visit and I have started reading again..I'm about to finish my 3rd book in 15 days.
Well I like being busy ,exploring new places and meeting new people..may be that's the reason I get less time for stitching now.

Oh before I end this post , here are 2 pictures some of you Sampler lovers may like which I clicked at Skaill House, Orkney.

Click on the picture to get details


Saturday 5 September 2015

B is for Bhārata

Its time for detention at THE ALPHABET CLUB hosted by Chiara .This month's alphabet is B.

Bhārata (भारत)- Sanskrit/ Hindi name of India. A land of over 1.2 billion people, seventh-largest country by area, largest democracy in the world.
Home to Indus Valley Civilization and place of origin of four religions-Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.

A country where around 9 religions are practiced in full faith, 200+ languages and dialects are spoken, food changes as you cross state borders (29 states in India) .

Its where Mighty Himalayas stand tall in the north; fertile Deccan plateau in the centre  and 7,517 km of coastline flanked by the Indian ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea.

The Land of Taj Mahal, Ajanta & Ellora Caves, Amer fort, Red fort, India Gate....

Its hard for me to write about my country in a single post so I will add some pictures from my personal collection of the rich natural and cultural diversity of country called India/Bhārata.

 Ajanta & Ellora  Caves- an epitome of Indian rock-cut architecture
Rajasthani folk dance


Thousands of migratory birds like flamingoes fly to sleepy village of Khijadia every year in the month of January
The elephant hill in Western Ghats
Baby Olive Ridley Turtles walking towards the sea just after egg hatching on the Western coast of India
 
The Taj Mahal
 
B- is for Birth Sampler I made for my Nephew. I guess I can use it for all the entries of  TAC, as it has all the alphabets of the English language. Not the best picture though.


I think I will skip the rest of tit bits starting with alphabet B ,which I initially planned to include in this post. Don't want to bore you guys...

Hopping off to blogs of other TACers for some interesting reads.




Thursday 3 September 2015

Stitch a Little ,Stash a Lot

This is what I have been doing last month...
I lost my mojo towards end of July, then we were on vacation and as soon as I came back to Kuwait , I was in bed for two days because of severe cold.
I actually managed to stitch 4 days on my 15 days vacation which I think is decent.
So here is my August Check-in for Flower of the Month SAL hosted by Alyssa
Very little progress ,just some border and start of March flower


Its time for some show off some stash

Me and Diya were casually chatting on facebook and then she says "Hey, do you know Rainbow gallery is having a clearance sale?"
"No" said me "but I will have a look"...She is such a enabler..Look what I got:

 Lizzie Kate,Mill hill Kits,Bohin Needles and fat quarter of 28 ct misty blue linen.
God knows when I will start stitching on something other than Aida...I just keep buying different fabrics.

















Of course you must buy some supplies whenever you go to a new country. So off we went to Nifty Needles in Linlithgow ,dragging our big bags from the train station ,bought the stuff and caught another train to Stirling. OH is such a darling he didn't fuss even once though being sleep deprived .


I bought two DMC skeins to complete my floss collection at the outrageous price of 95p with some free Anchor designs.

Charity shops were the next destination:

Great finds form Charity shop in Bridge of Allan

Some magazines from Charity Shop in Tarbert
Justine was selling some stash of hers on her blog and I wished to buy this cute Soda Stitch pattern . She generously sent me this pattern, refusing to take any payment. Thank you Justine


 I'm ashamed to show my monthly pie chart


 Hoping to do some recovery during upcoming public holidays.

Edited: Question for all you experienced bloggers:
If I reply to comments on my blog post to a person who has a email associated with their blog thru the reply option, does that go into their mail box?

Wednesday 2 September 2015

Bens,Glenns and Lochs-Oh Caledonia

Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer

A most appropriate quote I found in one of the magazine onboard Etihad airways.
I'm back from an amazing holiday in Scotland ... a country which nature has blessed in abundance .
I feel rejuvenated and so calm after spending time in valleys ,on hill tops ,on the Misty Skye, listening to tales of Vikings, Jacobites , bag piper music .

I don't think any words can do justice to the beauty of Caledonia( Latin name for Scotland) , so I will let the pictures do the talking.




Gardens at Dunrobin castle

Forth bridge



Beauly Village- beauly is French word for beautiful place










Scotland has many beautiful historical buildings however today I chose to show you pictures mainly of the natural wonders because that's what mesmerized me.

Last but not the least...a picture of bagpipers performing. No tour of Scotland is complete if you don't experience the bagpiper music

Bagpipers performing in Inverness

I hope you like what you see...

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