Well, I was meaning to update and blog sometime last week -- but work and an active schedule and a workout routine somehow takes the wind out of my sails and then the next thing you know, you defer blogging until a full seven days has passed... but I guess better late than never, right?

Here she is, finally finished. I might send it off to my mother before the year's end... maybe she can frame and hang it for Chinese new year? (but I am willing to bet the unframed stuff I have already given her is still.... unframed....)

It is a bit sad that my mom doesn't really understand the immense therapeutic value of stitching because I think she could get into it. But she prefers to sew curtains, etc, so I guess it is ok. My mother isn't very crafty... she prefers TV or books. My grandma is amazing... she could sew, embroider, crochet and she's handed me many a useful tip even after her needlework days are over. (And my god, can she cook)

Anyway, here is Joan Elliott's Fans of the Far East. 4 years a WIP, teehee. but a WIP no more.



And then after all these finishing, I was just itching for a new start. So, I begun a project ... St Sylvestre, Rosemarkie and St Georges are going to be stitched. Then I'll present them to my brothers, and we'll each have one of them. This is kind of to show we are so different, yet so much alike, hehe. (btw, they are all designed by Longdog Samplers)


This is St Sylvestre, just a small start:



And Indigo Rose's My Michelle. I renamed it My Brenda. Brenda is one of my best friends.

I guess I have not posted here for a few weeks, though the stitching mojo waned ever just so slightly... the blogging mojo has been down even worse, and while I used to access blogs constantly about 2-3 years ago, these days there seems to be little enough time.

Anyway, Ink Circles stitching is going strong.... Nine Lives is now done. It is the East part of my East and West sampler (both of them in different styles but by the same designer, going on the same piece of fabbie).

Here is the West part, as a start: PEregrination



And the finished East Part. Ink Circles' Nine Lives.



And a badly lit pair of WIPs, from Joan Elliott.... Fans of the Far East.

Here is the middle fan, all backstitched:



And the last fan, not backstitched. You can definitely see the difference!!!



I need to go strong to finish as many WIPs (the ones about to end, etc) in order to end 2009, so it's really time to be determined and focused. Wish me luck!

ALL DONE! NUFF SAID!



Here's some scrap blanket knitting that I am also doing. IT's just one row a night, normally while watching a bit of TV... hopefully I can knock this one out before it gets too cold.





So... what WIP would we like to work on next? A tiger? Hmm.

Goodness.... because Tracy Horner makes such wonderful, stitchable and addictive designs -- I kid you not... every single chart of hers is such a joy to look at and stitch, is it any wonder that I have a bunch of Ink Circles charts and some of tem are already wips.

Of course, the most "constant" project has been Garden Stars. (I also have a Cirque, and a couple others that don't warrant much pictures yet).

Well, I am so pleased to show the growth of Garden Stars and how it is creeping towards its completion. Maybe a week or two weeks to a HD? I hope? Err.





And during a stitchathon held at the Crafty Coven (organised by the one and only Joyce!), I put a few stitches into Nine Lives too. So now it resembles this:




I also had a couple of smaller finishes including non stitching that I have forgotten to post or photograph, so... apologies for that. Some of those are sent off as gifts already, hehe.

2009 has been a big year for finishing, so I'm just going to try to push through with as many as I can. There's another 3 more months or so to go before 2010. After this/these, I still have a couple of non sampler pieces that need a little work. One of them is for my mother.... a 2 year old wIP... oops...

Now I have been taking photos of this in natural light and it's always turned out looking sort of muggy (see past posts' photos).

This time around, I put it under fluorescent light at the tattoo shop... and voila. Everything true to colour. And hasn't this green thing grown!

I've been knitting here and there, but not branching out into lace quite yet. And just trying to work on finishing some WIPs for the rest of the year. This has been such a stellar year for finishes.

I have been soo soo busy working and making new things in the kitchen ... so I'm just going to show what I've been up to, and I hope to type a bit more in the next post. So sorry to be so taciturn *giggling* but I've been very naughty with starting new projects so that's starting to go out of control and need to take care of that!

Thought I'd show a couple of WIPs. Life has been busy busy busy but I have nothing to complain about. We're spending a lot of summer weekends outdoors picnicking at the lake and launching an inflatable catamaran into the water and having a real blast!

So I'm working on getting wet, not more WIPs!

Garden Stars is almost reaching its 50% mark, for which I am very very glad!




Also, Joyce organised a weekend stitchathon last weekend, though I started it late. (Had to work very late on Saturday), so I took about a quarter of Sunday to make a new start. My Michelle (renamed My Brenda) by Indigo Rose.. it's a long and skinny WIP, this. Done on HDF fibers... some D-bag fibers and with Tugtupite and BeGilted. Stitched up, I am in love with how pretty BeGilted is. It's definitely something to mess about on with dark fabric.



I have to say, HDF is a real addiction though I keep it strictly under control. The best part is: the other half doesn't mind in the least and he happily drives me out to the LNS for us to pick fabric for projects. phew!