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Cross Stitch, Footy Finals and Blogging

Posted on by Kristen Gawronski

Hi Everyone

It’s been a big week. I’ve successfully completed my first full week at my new job, finished my second week of three days at the gym and I’m exhausted. I’ve been really tired and slept through the majority of the night, but my quality of sleep hasn’t been great. I know that a lot of it’s to do with not drinking enough water, I’ve been taking on bucket loads of information and my muscles are sore (a good sore though!).

In the lead up to this weekend, conversations and news items on the tv have grabbed my attention about footy finals and I’ve been mulling over in my mind, what I want to write about this week for this blog post – both of which I’ll talk about a little later.

Cross Stitch

For all of this week I’ve been able to get some cross stitch done and I’ve managed to stick to one project! I’m still working on the fishing project and I really should have taken a progress shot last week, so that you could see how much more I’ve done. However, the picture below shows what I have been able to do over the last few months – most of which has been done over the last few weeks…

‘Fishing on the River’ / ‘Out Fishing’ – Designed by Collette Bispham – my progress so far

The strands of floss you see to the left and right of the WIP are for when I get to the next stages of the pattern. Also, in an earlier post, I had called this pattern ‘Fishing on the River’. I had used this name based upon sub-heading the Cross Stitch Gold magazine had used. Meanwhile, I’ve found that it’s been called ‘Out Fishing’ on the pages of the actual pattern and its details. As a result of this, I’m gong to call this project the fishing project just to keep it simple. Also, it’s the only fishing project I’m working on at the moment.

The other important thing to note with this project, is that I’ve chosen to use a brown Aida, rather than the recommended cream Aida. It is still 14 count though. I decided to use the brown Aida because I had the right amount for the pattern and enough excess for framing (or whatever I choose to do for the finish). Also, I thought that it would give the project an interesting finish because of the brown border the finished project has.

Now that I’ve taken the fishing project out of the hoop and ironed it to show you the progress, I’m itching to start a new project or move onto an existing project. I’m still umming and arrring about a new Christmas project. A lot of this is due to the patterns and fabric for the projects are in my stitching corner (I’m currently residing in my lounge room on the chase part of the couch), and I can see them every time I sit down to work on the fishing project or any other one I choose to work on. What’s holding me back at the moment, is figuring out which threads I use – DMC or Anchor threads. The patterns have listings for both brands and I have no doubt that I have all of the called for threads. Two things that are holding me back on starting a new project are:

  1. It’s another new project. I have so many other projects at the moment. Do I really need another one? Also, if I do start a new project, which one should I start? Should it be a small, easy one that I can finish in about a week and finish as a card? Or should it be one that will take a few months (at least) to finish?
  2. Where and how am I going to store the project if start a new one? Many of the YouTube clips I’ve watched over recent months have talked about and shown us their project bag collections and new additions to that collection. I don’t have anything like that at the moment and I’m starting to think that I need to have some. I do have a couple of Lincraft bags I use as travel bags for my WIPs and I’m currently using them for existing projects that I’m actively working on.

I’m also leaning towards going back to my mini mushroom project.

Mini Mushroom WIP – image taken back around the end of June 2019

I’ve stitched a lot more since the above image was taken. I’ve really enjoyed seeing it come to life so far because it’s one of my own designs and like any project, I love seeing it come to life.

Additionally, I had a reminder come up on my IT devices about finishing and sending off a finished project to the framer’s, to then enter it in the 2020 Sydney Royal Easter Show. I haven’t finished my intended project for this show, but the reminders about the framing, reminded me of the plan/s I have for my stitching and what I want to achieve with it. I will achieve and complete those plans. It will just be on a slightly different timeline to what I had initially intended for them!

Footy Finals

It’s also the AFL (Australian Football League) Grand Final this weekend and NRL (National Rugby League) semi-final. I’m not a regular follower of the NRL, but I’m mentioning it now because the Canberra Raiders have made it to the Grand Final – 25 years in the making! So for the next 7 days at least, there are going to be a whole heap of local businesses getting behind the team with Raiders paraphernalia, green decorations and green food. It would be so good if the Raiders won because it’s been so long between drinks and if I had to support an NRL team, why not my home team?!

Meanwhile, today (Saturday 28 September 2019) is the AFL Grand Final and it’s going to be HUGE! We have Richmond Tigers versus the Greater Western Sydney (GWS) Giants. The Tigers have been part of the AFL for over 100 years whilst the Giants have only been around for 8 years and this is their first grand final. The Tigers have a number of flags under their belt – most recently, a couple of years ago. So, I’m really hoping that Giants win because they’re such a young team.

Update – The Tigers won. Their experience meant that they completely thrashed the Giants – 114 to 25. That said, it was a history making game in so many ways. What I hadn’t realised until the commentators said it, 100 years ago, the Tigers were in their first grand final, now 100 years later, the Giants were in their first grand final.

Blogging Mojo

I feel like I’m loosing my blogging mojo. Or at least, I think I need to re-adjust the direction I move with my blog. This may assist with me practising what I’m preaching with regards to promoting cross stitch and the designers who are having such a huge influence on the direction that cross stitch is going.

Alternatively, I’m thinking that I could have posts a lot like everyone else’s, and have weekly or monthly updates and have WIP (work in progress) parades, finishes, full finishes (e.g. framed, cards etc.) and starts. The challenge I’m working through with this, is the fear I have of being over-looked or my posts being considered ‘yawn-fests’ because I’m talking about very similar things to everyone else. The slight positive is that I’ll be stitching things a little different to everyone else!

Your help is needed

Any feedback you can provide on what you want to see and read about cross stitch would be great! Do you want to know about what others are doing? What I’m stitching?

Until next time, happy stitching!

Author:

I am an avid cross stitcher. I was first introduced to cross stitch when I was primary school age. Paused for while during my teens and then took it up again in my early/mid 20's and I haven't looked back. To mitigate the amount of time I'm sitting down stitching, I'm a regular member of the gym and I'm a runner. To keep me motivated, I participate in short to medium length fun runs. Which at times feel torturous, but I feel really good at the end of them! With these activities in mind, this blog is about the combination of my experiences with running and cross stitch and encouraging people to think differently about cross stitch - it's not just Grandma's who do this anymore!