I received the LHN SHS (Little House Needlework Sisterhood Stitching) chart on September 19th 2007, from Lene in Kuching. I have 3 weeks to complete it, after which I would have to pass it on to the next player/stitcher on the list, which, in this case, is Emily (originally it was supposed to be Margeret, but she's currently got her hands full with other commitments).
Since the chart arrived in the middle of the week, I couldn't get started on it until the weekend, September 22nd, thus, losing 3 days already from the time alotted. But, rules are rules, even in stitching.
It was a race against time for me as I was only able to stitch on weekends mostly. On weekdays, after the breaking of fast, I am usually too tired and sleepy to put in even a few stitches. Add to that, on two occasions during the 3 weeks, I had to travel to Terengganu for work. Even though I brought it along with me to Terengganu on my second trip, with the hope to put in a few stitches, but, I ended up not doing much. Lighting in the hotel room was really bad. I ended up with strained eyes trying to stitch in the dim light on the first nite I was there.
I totally gave up on the 2nd nite I was there as I came back to the hotel room very tired after walking around the project site the whole day. I did not want to strain my eyes further. But, I did managed to put in a few stitches the morning before I flew back to Kuala Lumpur as then I stitched right in front of the window! I had to rearrange the furniture in the room though! LOL! *grin*
Yeah, I didn't think it was going to get me all stressed out, considering it is quite a simple, straight forward design. Just my luck that it came just in time for the fasting month, my travelling, and I seem to be making so many mistakes on this one. I have had to frog quite a few times already, the biggest being the alphabets. *sigh*
Yeap, as soon as I had put up photos and progress report on my blog a week ago, I realised that I had made a BIG mistake! I had miscounted the alphabets! All of them! The two whole rows! I miscounted by 6 squares, and my alphabets are almost done! *sob*sniff*
I spent a whole evening after breaking of fast that nite frogging it! But, in order to lessen my frustrations, instead of unpicking stitch by stitch, I decided to just snip off the threads. It's a lot faster though it's wasting thread. But, at least my frustrations are not being prolonged. *grin*
I put in my last sttch at 2.45pm on Sunday, 7th October 2007, 16 days after starting on the chart. I made a few changes to the design, one being the line where my name is. In the original chart, there is a bird in between the name and year. Since I had a long name, even then my name is not complete, I decided to replace the bird with a smaller version of the heart. Instead of stitching in the word 'Year' as in the original, I replaced it with the month I completed the piece, which is October. This way I know when exactly I actualy completed this piece.
Another change I made is to use overdyeds for the alphabets instaed of DMC called for in the chart. I had originally stitched the capital letters using Caron Thread Wildflowers (see previous entry) and the lower case alphabets using Dip & Twist. But, after I had to frog it, and since I was running out of time, I decided to stitch both the upper and lower case alphabets using D&T instead.
I am glad I made that decision, because it really helped me to quicken my stitching pace as I did not need to keep changing my thread colour for every few alphabets as is in the original design. It really helped me get this piece done much sooner, though not fast enough. I was already starting to get stressed out *LOL!*, not only because I was running out of time, but also because Hari Raya is just around the corner, and Malaysia's postal service is known to go haywire during the festive seasons. I was afraid of the chart getting entangled with the greeting cards being mailed out.
I finally sent out the chart to Emily via DROPZONE on Monday, 8th October. She received it safely on 9th October. It was a great relief to finally complete the piece. It was like a big load was lifted off my shoulders ! LOL! Never again......*grin*
I must thank Jean for providing the chart for this Sisterhood Stitching. It's a lovely design despite all the 'stress' that I had to go through! LOL! I have always wanted to stitch a Little House Needlework piece, and I just did! This definitely won't be my last LHN piece, for sure!
Since the chart arrived in the middle of the week, I couldn't get started on it until the weekend, September 22nd, thus, losing 3 days already from the time alotted. But, rules are rules, even in stitching.
It was a race against time for me as I was only able to stitch on weekends mostly. On weekdays, after the breaking of fast, I am usually too tired and sleepy to put in even a few stitches. Add to that, on two occasions during the 3 weeks, I had to travel to Terengganu for work. Even though I brought it along with me to Terengganu on my second trip, with the hope to put in a few stitches, but, I ended up not doing much. Lighting in the hotel room was really bad. I ended up with strained eyes trying to stitch in the dim light on the first nite I was there.
I totally gave up on the 2nd nite I was there as I came back to the hotel room very tired after walking around the project site the whole day. I did not want to strain my eyes further. But, I did managed to put in a few stitches the morning before I flew back to Kuala Lumpur as then I stitched right in front of the window! I had to rearrange the furniture in the room though! LOL! *grin*
Yeah, I didn't think it was going to get me all stressed out, considering it is quite a simple, straight forward design. Just my luck that it came just in time for the fasting month, my travelling, and I seem to be making so many mistakes on this one. I have had to frog quite a few times already, the biggest being the alphabets. *sigh*
Yeap, as soon as I had put up photos and progress report on my blog a week ago, I realised that I had made a BIG mistake! I had miscounted the alphabets! All of them! The two whole rows! I miscounted by 6 squares, and my alphabets are almost done! *sob*sniff*
I spent a whole evening after breaking of fast that nite frogging it! But, in order to lessen my frustrations, instead of unpicking stitch by stitch, I decided to just snip off the threads. It's a lot faster though it's wasting thread. But, at least my frustrations are not being prolonged. *grin*
I put in my last sttch at 2.45pm on Sunday, 7th October 2007, 16 days after starting on the chart. I made a few changes to the design, one being the line where my name is. In the original chart, there is a bird in between the name and year. Since I had a long name, even then my name is not complete, I decided to replace the bird with a smaller version of the heart. Instead of stitching in the word 'Year' as in the original, I replaced it with the month I completed the piece, which is October. This way I know when exactly I actualy completed this piece.
Another change I made is to use overdyeds for the alphabets instaed of DMC called for in the chart. I had originally stitched the capital letters using Caron Thread Wildflowers (see previous entry) and the lower case alphabets using Dip & Twist. But, after I had to frog it, and since I was running out of time, I decided to stitch both the upper and lower case alphabets using D&T instead.
I am glad I made that decision, because it really helped me to quicken my stitching pace as I did not need to keep changing my thread colour for every few alphabets as is in the original design. It really helped me get this piece done much sooner, though not fast enough. I was already starting to get stressed out *LOL!*, not only because I was running out of time, but also because Hari Raya is just around the corner, and Malaysia's postal service is known to go haywire during the festive seasons. I was afraid of the chart getting entangled with the greeting cards being mailed out.
I finally sent out the chart to Emily via DROPZONE on Monday, 8th October. She received it safely on 9th October. It was a great relief to finally complete the piece. It was like a big load was lifted off my shoulders ! LOL! Never again......*grin*
I must thank Jean for providing the chart for this Sisterhood Stitching. It's a lovely design despite all the 'stress' that I had to go through! LOL! I have always wanted to stitch a Little House Needlework piece, and I just did! This definitely won't be my last LHN piece, for sure!
2 comments:
Ah... that's lovely and with all the personalisations, just fab!
Excellent effort despite it being Ramadhan and work related travels!!
Selamat Hari Raya to you Nik and your family , maaf zahir batin.
Beautiful! Love the colour changes and personalisation :)
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