A Rave And A Rant

I've been in a cross stitch samplers kick lately and below sampler pattern has been in my list for so long I cannot remember.  Then I recently got it, thanks to my sister's brother-in-law who brought it from the States.  What I rave about is how Tanya, the designer of The Scarlett House, provided in the pattern the DMC conversion to the specialty threads being called for.  I thanked her in my Instagram account and she replied by saying that she "always try to offer a conversion to DMC, as she feels it is a good starting point for stitchers to pick their threads of choice" (her words).  Such a very considerate designer.  

This is Rachel Howells sampler by The Scarlett House:

Tanya is so professional and kind, very different from the designer (Brenda Gervais) of With Thy Needle and Thread patterns, and this is where my rant comes in, who didn't even bother to answer my messages about thread conversion in one of her patterns.  First, when I received the pattern, I emailed the listed website in the pattern twice and they just ignored my email.  Second, I looked for the designer's Facebook Page to where I sent her two messages and I didn't receive even a single reply of "Sorry I cannot help you".  Before writing this rant, I was contemplating so hard whether I should mention here the pattern company and designer,  but since she/they are not considerate why I should I bother considering them.  And also, this may serve as a warning to others who wanted to buy this company's patterns but don't have access to specialty threads.  I have so many of their patterns in my list of "To Buy", but I just deleted everything from them.  They should remember that there are so many designers in the industry that they should know how to take care of customers.  Oh well... lesson learned:  not to buy anything from them.

This is all for now.  Sorry, I know that it's been long since my last post and here I am ranting...

Post note (10/23/14)

I received some emails from fellow stitchers (and wanted to thank them)  suggesting that I search the web for DMC conversions to specialty threads.  I did that when I received the pattern and before writing the company/designer.  I would not write them if I have found a conversion.  Actually, I have so many conversion lists on my computer which I have saved years ago.  

Sheeps - Virtues and In The Meadow

Remember these from my last post?  I know that I promised you I will tell what these materials are for ...

I was introduced to the Little House Needleworks' Little Sheep Virtues patterns by my stitcher-friend Rose of Christmas City Stitcher blog and I know that I wanted to do these.  But life gets in the way and forgotten all about it.  Then I joined the Little House Needleworks Facebook group and I saw again pictures of the finished pieces of the Virtues.

Lynda posted this and I fell in love.  It was done by Julie.  So lovely isn't it.

This was done by Cecile:

And this by  Jodena:

They are all so lovely and so pretty!!!  By the way, I wanted to thank all the ladies I mentioned above for letting me use their photos here.  Really appreciate their permissions.

Now onto my own sheep (singular for the meantime because I just finished one), LOL!  Here's my progress so far.  I started it last June 26:

I intend to follow Julie and Cecile's lay-out except the pattern in the middle, Sheep In the Meadow, is yet to come, maybe around October when my brother-in-law will be here from the States.  I think 123stitch doesn't ship to the Philippines so I really need to wait.

Thank you for dropping by and have a great day!

Hugs to you all.

For Framing

As I have promised in this post, I know that I owe you an update on my "A Place We Call Home".  I took photos of it before bringing to the framer last Saturday, but since it was Holy Week here, they are closed.  So maybe I will bring it again this weekend.

I really love stitching this one.  I made some tweaking as some of the threads called for are not available here. 

 I added metallic threads to the border design as it is so close to the leaves color if I won't make the addition.  Also I enjoy using metallics.  Am developing an addiction right now, LOL!  I hope you can see them in the following photos:

I also learned something here, the hard way :-(  I've used a metallic pen (sorry I forgot to take a photo of what I've used) for marking the places I am going to stitch but made errors in counting.  When I've tried to erase the markings, it won't go away no matter what I do.  So after that mistake, I will only, only use pencils for marking.  Please see the marks beside the letters c, a, and l.

 Thank you friends for dropping by.  Take care always :-)

Signing In...

It's more than five months since I last posted here.  As usual, life, or should I say, work, always gets in the way.  Although I am always absent here, stitching-wise, I am happy to tell you that I do stitch every night and if time permits, during lunch breaks at the office.  I have really miss blogging, taking photos, reading your comments...nevertheless, I always do my best to visit stitching-friends' blogs.  And also, I would like to thank everyone for always visiting my blog despite my absence.

I have two WIPs as of current.  But for now, I will just show what I have been stitching every day.  This has been in my wish list since 2010 that when my sister came here for a vacation more than a month ago, it's what I requested her to buy for me.

It's a Country Cottage Needleworks pattern titled "A Place We Call Home".  It's such a fun and easy-to-stitch project.  I just hope this won't start my samplers addiction, LOL!

I started this January 29 and this was my progress as of last February 9:

I have finished it yesterday and washed this morning that is why I cannot show you a photo of the finished piece, it's still hanging in the clothesline.  I promise you will see it in my next post.

How about you, what have you been up to?  I will be very glad to know :-)

Have a great week ahead my friends.  Take care always.

Hello Again

Time has gone quickly. I can't believe it's more than 6 months since my last post.  Life had been hectic, so busy and stressed out with work it's not funny anymore. 

A few weeks ago, while cleaning my closet, I came across some unopened cross stitch kits that my sister have bought for me maybe a year or two ago and thought why not start on one of those to get my stitching mojo back.  Sounds familiar?...LOL!  So I started this one from Janlynn, called "Joy In The Journey":

And here's my progress so far:

After a long day at work, cross stitching before going to bed really relaxes me.  Reminds me just how much I love this hobby.

This is all for now.  I hope some of you are still there, LOL!  Oh, how I miss the stitching community.  Hugs to everyone :-)