Smalls SAL February Check-in

Hello Friends,

Its last friday of the month , time to show what smalls we stitched during the month. I'm participating first time in Smalls SAL this year hosted by Heather. I decided to join this SAL as I usually stitch birthday cards or exchange pieces throughout the year and this gives me an additional chance to blog.

I stitched two Smalls this month, but can't show one as it has still not been gifted to the recipient. After finishing  my big project and first Small, I wasn't feeling inspired to pick my WIP-Indian peacock. Stitchers on Instagram were showing some cute Valentine finishes and one particular design caught my eye. You see, hubby and I are not very particular about celebrating Valentine's day but if we find something good for each other for the occasion , we make or buy it.

I stitched this freebie from Hands on Design , though I must confess that the reason I chose this design from all of Cathy's freebies was to use one particular fabric in my stash. You see I bought half yard of 32ct Misty blue linen in 2015 but never got around to use this. Unlike many of you talented stitchers, its difficult for me to deviate from called for floss and fabric in patterns as I like or shall we say my mind works best when I follow instructions to T.

As this was a surprise, I had to stitch this in hiding. Pretty easy for most people, but not me. Hubby and I work in same office, so we are practically together 24 hours of the day. I'm not complaining, I won't have it any other way. But the situation makes it difficult to arrange surprises. I stitched this piece in office while husband was sitting in the same cubicle, with his back towards me. 😉

I made a counting mistake in the border and I'm not happy with the finishing. However, hubby liked the tiny gift and we talked about how I stitched it in office while eating the yummy cake.

I'm writing this post in advance and will schedule it to be posted on Friday as I'm travelling to India for a short vacation.Will visit your blogs when I'm back.

IHSW February Check-in

Hello dear friends,

It's time to show what I stitched for International Hermit & Stitch weekend . If you don't know what  IHSW is, its a SAL which was started by Joysze at Random Ramblings .Here is how she describes it "International Hermit and Stitch Weekend takes place every 3rd full weekend of each month, from Friday till Sunday. In our very busy and hectic lives, IHSW is a chance for us to squirrel some time away for ourselves and "Hermit and Stitch." It is a time set aside to take care of us and our love for stitching."

Weekend in my part of the world is on Friday & Saturday, so I will be stitching from Thursday to Saturday and post on Sundays whenever I participate in IHSW.

Very happy to be showing you a new WIP for this post, I'm sure everyone was bored to see the same project -my nemesis project for 2 years now.

I picked up my new year new start for 2017 on Tuesday after stitching some smalls . This was also my project for Work That WIP 2018 - February SAL on Stitch Maynia. Here is how the project looked like on Wednesday 

Progress over the weekend

After working on 25 count evenweave for last few months, it feels different to work on Aida, the squares on fabric look so big , working with two threads is clumsy as the threads keep twisting and have to railroad for the stitches to lie flat. But then there is progress which is visible.I'm trying to do one color at a time, which I find very satisfying.

If you are wondering why the progress is less for a full weekend of stitching , its because Murphy's law came into play. You see I rarely go out on weekends or have any social life apart from my bi monthly craft gatherings. But I have observed that for IHSW , I will have social visits or will have to go out.This Friday we had a distant family member come over for dinner , on Saturday I met a bunch of expat ladies for breakfast whom I met thru Instagram.
Here a few pictures of the arabic food we had at Ayyame, all delicious.

Cheese & herbed Tabliya

Falafel with arabic bread

Gerse Ogaily

Though I must confess I'm not complaining about lack of stitching time , I love cooking , meeting new people and trying new food ☺.

I would like to thank you all for the comments on my last post, it felt like we all were celebrating my finish together. 

I DID IT !!!! - Gifted Gorgeousnes SAL February Update

Hello Friends,

Hope you had a good Valentine's day if you celebrate. Mine was good, we had cake and didn't have to cook as we had leftovers for dinner and lunch is arranged in office today 😁.

It's that time of the month when we show what gifts we have been working on or/and what crafty gifts we have received. If you don't know what I'm talking about , check Jo's blog for more info. This is a easy SAL where you have choice to stitch any designer, color or pattern, just that it should be a gift for someone or gift from someone.

I have been eagerly waiting to show you this , I finished my nemesis project .. can you believe it? I finished all the cross stitches on 19th Jan , still it took me 2+ weeks to finish the back stitching and lettering. Back stitching is not my fav thing about cross stitch projects. I always try to avoid it or do the bare minimum but this time I followed the whole pattern. Though back stitching on this piece is not very heavy, I'm happy I finished it.

Without further ado, I present to you "Most Beautiful Things " by Candamar designs(excuse the wrinkles).

Most Beautiful Things

Started on : 4-Mar-2016
Finished on: 6-Feb-2018
Actual number of days:134
Stitched on: 25 count vintage lugana
Floss used :Kit floss
Designer:
Pattern source: Candamar designs
Number of colors: 17
Design Stitch count:137 H*110W
Actual stitch count = 4* Design count
Type of stitches: Full cross stitch, back stitch
Number of strands used :1 for Full cross stitches,1 for back stitch

This project has lots of first :

1. First kit bought and completed which turned out to be stamped because I didn't read the description properly.
2. First project bought online/on facebook.
3. First time switching fabric in the kit.
4. First time using evenweave
5. First time making changes to stitch count- I was a novice when I bought this kit and decided to switch fabric. The fabric change meant 1 cross stitch on pattern= 4 cross stitch in actual.
6. There are few counting mistakes in this project and instead of frogging them I improvised around them.

It won't be exaggeration if I say this project was like going on crafting journey, learning so many things including patience. There were times I thought of giving it up, sometimes I hated it because of the mistakes but in the end the result is worth it, don't you think? I have grown up with this project learning to improvise and make changes.

I really hope my best friend appreciates the labour behind this gift, I will make sure she does 😉.

I also made two small gifts this month but will save it for the Smalls SAL post.

P.S. I have achieved 1 of the only two crafting goals made for 2018.

4 Years Today

Four years ago today , I started my journey to a land unknown...Kuwait. I landed here at the airport at night, the drive to the temporary accommodation seemed long. I was so excited for the new adventure.Would you believe that I only asked two questions before moving to Kuwait:will I be able to work in my field of education? Will I have to wear a burqa?(no offense to anyone here).

I see expats ready to move here and they have 100s of questions, using every forum available to ask . Sometimes I think may be I should have inquired more about moving a country about which me,my family and friends knew nothing.But then I think that as I came here without presumptions ,the journey has been more about learning new culture, news ways of living and mostly about rediscovering myself rather than being full of fear about middle east.

Thank you to all those people who I have met in these 4 years for making the journey a memorable one.

P.S. Kuwait towers is the first image I get in my mind whenever I want to post a picture about Kuwait.

This is what I posted on my Instagram account today(with slight changes made) and thought of sharing this post/milestone with my blogging friends who have been important part of life in these years.

Sharing some of the interesting pictures of my life in Kuwait, these are the recent ones I had in my phone.

 Picture of one the panels of exhibited in Weaving stories - a contemporary interactive exhibition and outreach initiative honoring the textile arts of Kuwait , Dated Nov 10,2016

First visit to  Al Shaheed park,Dated Nov 10,2016

Picture of Souq Mubarakiya decorated for Hala feb celebrations,Dated Feb 17,2017

  

Picture taken during our visit to Bayan Botanical garden when my brother was visiting us, Dated Feb 23,2017

Pictures of Kuwait towers decorated for Hala feb celebrations, when my brother was visiting us, Dated Feb 23,2017

  

                             Me, my brother and my husband having some fun on the beach

A picture of Secret Garden, a community project where everything right from the wooden gate to desk to plants have been donated by public.Dated March 4,2017

A replica of Dhow as exhibited at Failaka Island,Dated March 10,2017

Antiquities of Failaka Island,Dated March 10,2017

 Food is an important part of our life here, Kuwait offers cuisines of dozens of countries due to a large expat population. Dated March 14,2017

  This is the picture of the second bloom of Mums since I bought it.Dated March 31,2017

Grand Mosque,Dated April 15,2017

               That's me helping the kids in a cross stitch workshop, Dated Dec 16,2017

                   An abandoned hanger in the Shumaymah Desert,Dated Dec 31,2017

                           Abandoned building projects at Shumaymah Desert,Dated Dec 31,2017

If you notice, most of the pictures here are from Dec-March . This is because these months have temperatures pleasant enough for us to roam around , other months life is limited to house and office.

If you are interested in details of any picture or my life in kuwait in general, leave a comment and I will try to post about my experience of living in Kuwait.