Stitching Meme again

Possibly the last day or two before I'm picking up my needle again and getting back into my rotation ... yippee! I'm officially on my weekend starting tonight, and certainly ready for it ... dunno why, but I feel really exhausted tonight :(

I went to see an Optometrist yesterday as they had a sale on selected frames - I chose something I didn't mind, then sat down to make the order ... it turns out the frames I chose couldn't have 'plain' lenses in them, they had to have some sort of strengthener etc, which brought the total cost up to $448 ... let's just say I almost had to lay down after the shock, and no, I didn't complete the order!! I'm off to The Warehouse tomorrow to see if they have some 'stock standard' cheapo glasses instore to tide me over, and I'll keep an eye open for different frames that I don't mind that don't need all the 'bells and whistles' on the lenses. I was expecting to be able to get something cheap for around $200 - yeah, right!! :(

I have some stash to report from back-orders and Ebay from the last few days, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow. I was very disappointed to see my Mystery Bits haven't arrived yet from SB&B, after seeing what everyone else has been receiving, so now I have to wait until next Monday to find out what's hiding in my PO Box, as I won't be at work (at least while the PO is open) until Monday now ... b*gger! Oh well, at least there's more chance of it definitely being there :)

In the meantime, here's another archival Stitching Meme:

"Have you ever ...

1. stitched a sampler?

2. stitched the same pattern 2 times?

3. designed a project yourself and stitched it, or even had someone else stitch it?

4. managed to get anyone else hooked on cross stitch?"

1. I take this question to mean a 'historical' sampler, to which the answer is no, as I don't like them - if we're talking about 'band' samplers, then the answer would be yes, and I intend to stitch many many more :)

2. The only time I've stitched the same design twice is for my trial run for the Melanie's Exchange on the SBEBB recently - I wanted to make sure my design would work out OK in real life rather than just on paper.

3. I can't say I've ever designed a piece from scratch, but I have added elements of my own design to something else. The biggest one of my stitching career is probably this one - the farewell song in Fijian, that they always sing when you leave, and it always leaves a lump in my throat, it's so beautiful. I even visited Fiji so often that I knew all the Fijian words off my heart, much to the amazement of the locals (the other Fijian I know shouldn't be repeated in public ... and let's just say I've caught a local out on more than one occasion by 'changing the lyrics' of a song at a resort haha - and yes, Fijians do blush! haha). In this design, I played around with an existing chart for the top panel, then designed the side and bottom borders to be like the designs on local 'tapa cloth'. I also designed the 'kava bowl' myself, which is stitched over one - I was very proud of that little effort at the time :) I presented this all framed to our timeshare on one of our visits.


4. Dunno if I'd say I got anyone "hooked" on XS, but I did spend a few lunchtimes at College about 6-7 years ago teaching about 4 other students how to XS, and even got two of the Asian students along to some other embroidery classes as well. Not sure if they still stitch. The only downside was loaning some very good, and expensive, hardanger and whitework books to one of them, and never getting them back (including my Janice Love books mutter mutter mutter - let's just say I'm loathe to lend books out anymore, as that's not the first time).