Gifted Gorgeousness SAL September 2020 update

Hello Friends,

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 an easy SAL where you have a choice to stitch any designer, color or pattern, just that it should be a gift for someone or gift from someone.

After a month of no cross stitching, here I am presenting a small gift I made for my mother's birthday which is today.

Pattern name :All My Love
Designer : Lesley Teare
Pattern source: Cross Stitch Crazy Magazine, Mar 2016

My mom visited us in January and liked the basket of cross stitch ornaments I had on display. Since then , she has expressed her desire to make some for herself but she didn't have the supplies. So I thought what better idea gift than something she wanted to make herself.

She liked the gift and hinted that she would like some more. That should give me some more entries for GG posts .😀 

As its her birthday today, I would like to share something about my mother. My mom married at an early age of 21, moved to live in a state the language of which she didn't speak. She learned the language, changed her dressing style ,learned the cuisine of the new state along with other challenges of married life . For those unaware, language , cuisine and attire changes across every state of India.

My mother has been the main force behind my brother's and my education and career. She wanted us to do best in our fields even if it meant defying the norms for young girls specially.

Every craft I know has been taught by mother. She knows knitting, macrame, crochet, cross stitch, Indian embroidery, sewing to name a few.

She is an amazing cook and loves to feed people. Even with limited income of my father, she helps needy now and then with food and paying the school fees.

She is protective of family, is always there to support them thru tough times. She  encourages me to pursue hobbies when I get busy with job and life.

She inspires me to be a better person everyday.I know she won't read this, but I felt like sharing it with you ladies.

Also, a very happy birthday to our wonderful GG SAL host Jo, who amazes me the amount of stitching she gets done with work and family, hosting SALs and blog hops.

Wishing you a great stitchy year ahead Jo.

Hope everyone is keeping safe and healthy.

Let the People Choose-July Update

Hello Friends,
First Saturday of the month I join Jo for The People's Choice SAL . Jo takes a poll for people to choose a topic for the month and the participants then post about stitchy projects related to that topic.

This month's topic is The Designer You Have Stitched the Most. Its good that Jo changed the topic from Most favourite or most popular to this, because I don't have a favourite designer.

Most of my stitching projects are gift , so I try to search designs which suit recipients likes rather than designer. 
Yesterday I sat and made an excel sheet to record how many projects I have stitched of each designer. I have completed 68 projects since 2014 and two designers tie at 5 projects each.
The winners are Durene Jones and Lesley Teare. Both these designers are major contributors to patterns in British cross stitch magazines and I mainly source my projects from there.

Durene Jones patterns, all stitched in 2019

Lesley Teare's patterns I have stitched

I have even received a Lesley Teare pattern stitched in an exchange.

I love stitching cover kits  and most of them don't mention the designer.Another designer who has most simplest patterns is Helen Phillips.

Helen Phillips's patterns I have stitched

Have you stitched patterns from any of these designers? Do you select projects based on designer or theme?
It would be interesting to see how many new to me designers I find once I go blog hopping for this SAL.

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL March 2019 update & IHSW

Hello Friends,

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.

Not much to show this month as life has been keeping me busy, I have some news to share..wait for it...

The only gift I worked on this month is birthday card for my husband . 

His birthday was yesterday and I finished it today 😆.This year I didn't stitch a surprise for him , I told him when I selected the design that this is for your birthday :) . Well the design is perfect for him, he loves owls, but this pattern killed my mojo big time . You see the number of colors and back stitching bothered me so much that it took me 10 days to stitch this small a project. The pattern is from Lesley Teare's free Owl SAL but I have decided not to stitch anymore of the owls from the SAL.

 I may have been a day late in the birthday card but we did have a good birthday celebration . We invited some friends over and home cooked food was served. Everyone liked the food and the guests left by mid night.

Now to show some gifts I received for my birthday...

These gifts are from Tammy. Tammy and I are almost birthday twins and we have been exchanging birthday gifts since we met.  Tammy always gets me cross stitch gifts from her travels to USA, Jerusalem, UAE and Sri Lanka.  Thank you Tammy for the birthday gift and the travel souvenirs.

This week is also IHSW...time to be a hermit and stitch all weekend, something I wont be able to do 😀as I didn't stitch yesterday due to my husband's birthday celebration.

Still,I need to work on some quick gifts now, so its time to pick knitting needles. See you next month with another GG post.

Have a good weekend friends.

IHSW February 2019 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."

Joysze hasn't been posting regularly so our blog SAL savior Jo provides a blog link up and also runs facebook group for the SAL. 
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.

Well its well past Sunday , but late post is better than no post, right?

Here is what I stitched...A new start:February Owl from Lesley Teare's monthly SAL . The SAL is free and you can join anytime.

Start on Thursday night

Start on Saturday morning, I put in 15 stitches after this :)

Well everyone knows how much I love stitching owls for my husband. The moment I saw the SAL announcement, I had to join.

But I will be honest that I'm a bit overwhelmed about the number of colors in these small designs.The February one has 17 colors. All the color changes are killing my stitching bug . I know many of you are clever enough to change colors and adapt designs to suit your stitching style but I like to follow patterns (even recipes) to the T. 
I may not stitch any more pattern from this SAL ..will have to see...

Apart from stitching , the weekend was good. Its been raining here in Kuwait regularly. In fact the amount of rain I have seen since November is 10 times more than what Kuwait must have seen in last 20 years. Is this a sign of global warming?

We didn't have any celebration for Valentine's day as we both were sick. However we did go for brunch for our engagement anniversary on 16th.This is what we ate at The Breakfast Club.

Toffee and Pecan Pancakes

Avo Sandwich

February is month of celebration of National day and Liberation day in Kuwait, called Hala Feb. We will have a long weekend off from Friday to Tuesday except Sunday. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the decorations, though I have never dared to attend the main celebrations in the city because of the crowd and bad things I have heard.
I will try to share pictures if I click some decent ones..if interested you can see pictures from past year here.

Have a good week everyone.

Gifted Gorgeousness & September Smalls Theme-tas-stitch 2017 Check -in

Another two in one and quick post before I fly out to USA for our annual vacation tomorrow morning.

As you know, for me travelling means a chance to participate in exchanges and swaps. This time I have participated in three small easy swaps.

First is cross stitch ATC swap on Instagram . The theme for this month is Blackwork. I have been meaning to try blackwork since last year and is one of my craft goal for this year. too The rules for this exchange are quite simple and the size of cross stitch ATC should be 3.5" * 2.5",which means it can be stitched in 1-2 days.

Here is what I have stitched for my partner , hope she likes it and doesn't see this post before she gets it..ha ha

I stitched this cute owl card for a personal swap on Instagram . This card was a cover kit given to me by Kerry in our biscornu exchange in July. I don't know why it took me more than a week to stitch this but atleast I wasn't a chicken this time and stitched the french knots.

Both these finishes qualify for Gifted Gorgeousness SAL & September Smalls Theme-tas-stitch 2017 SAL.
I have few other things to share with you but I will save it for later.

Thank you for your comments on my last post, I appreciate the time you ladies take out to visit my blog.
I have been in a weird mood where I read blogs but never comment, sorry for that.

I will try and leave comments after I'm back from holiday.

Till then stay safe my friends and happy crafting.

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL September Update

Hello Friends,

I'm back from a two week vacation in Greece . I had a time of my life and left a part of my heart there. I will probably dedicate a post to my Greece vacation. Between planning,packing and travelling ,I managed to stitch some gifts.

First is a small birthday gift I made for dear Jo

I made this washi tape card on handmade paper .I used to collect handmade paper in mid 2000s and recently brought my collection to Kuwait from India.

I also added a small pouch to her gift which I stitched during my vacation at my parent's house in February. I was saving it for the right occasion .This was a kit from Vervaco ,given to me by friend Linda, which I mentioned in my earlier post here,on her last day in Kuwait.

As all of you know about the postal issues in Kuwait, I'm always looking for opportunities to send mail to my friends , participate in swaps when I travel. My Greece vacation couldn't have happened at better time as I was able to send Jo some handmade love.

I also participated in a cross stitch ATC swap on Instagram.For those of you who haven't heard of ATC, here is what Wikipedia says Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) is a conceptual art project initiated by the Swiss artist M. Vänçi Stirnemann in 1997. He called it aCollaborative Cultural Performance. Artist Trading Cards are 2¹⁄₂ by 3¹⁄₂ inches (64 mm × 89 mm) in size, the same format as modern trading cards (hockey cards or baseball cards). They are self-made unique works or small series, signed and dated on the reverse by the artist/producer, exchanged and collected by the people who participate in the collaborative performance.

This is a monthly activity with rules and themes to follow. The theme for September was Astrology and my partner's sign is Pisces..what a coincidence.

After looking for patterns all over the internet and magazines , I decided to stitch Lesley Teare's astrology freebie. All except the February month freebie were available on her blog. I wrote to her and she promptly send me the pattern.

I had to skip the borders to meet the size requirement.It was sent along with a postcard with some envelope art.

If you wish to join the ATC swap on Instagram, I will happily pass on the details to you . The group is looking for more international stitchers.

August marked the end of vacation season in Kuwait with all the expats coming back from their respective home countries. My friend Tammy brought me wonderful gifts :A dimensions kit(does she know I'm addicted to Dimensions)? and World of Cross Stitching Magazine. Look at the freebie...a thread cutter .,appropriate for taking on airplanes. It did travel with me to Greece :)

My vacation in Greece involved a lot of travelling by bus and ferries. So I packed a cover kit and my knitting in my luggage . I love cover kits bcoz of the ease of carrying them around with all that's needed for stitching already available.This cover kit was also a gift .

Most of the days I worked on my knitting as its so easy to knit when you are travelling , no counting involved.

This will be a gift for my sister in law.

That's all for GG that I have to show you this month.

I have a developed a new hobby/interest lately ..Postcard exchange. I had mentioned about my love for postcards some time this year on my blog. While searching on Ravelry for yarn shops in Greece , I stumbled upon this group where members particpate in a Geographical Postcard exchange which is open to anyone.

I participated in 4 exchanges and postcards were sent to USA and Finland.

Here is what I sent.

I decided to put the postcards in an envelope(I'm always scared of loosing the mail) and decorated them. Happy to say that these were well received.

I received two postcards :one from USA and one from Finland.The one from Finland is of Aurora lights , reminds me of the famous dimensions kits.

All these swaps,gifts and postcards were sent and received in Greece , it was one of my favourite activity during my vacation.

One of the postcards was sent well before I started my vacation , so I'm guessing that Greek post liked the postcard so much that they decided to keep it. The fourth one was posted late and couldn't make it in time.

If any of my blog friends shares this interest and would like to receive a postcard, let me know. I will happily send one your way, when I travel next time.

I'm a bit behind in reading the blogs and I will visit you soon and read what you guys have been upto.

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL July update and my first ever Stitchy exchange

Hello Friends,
Its been a month I haven't posted on my blog...I have been busy with stitching and socializing.
I didn't post for TUSAL as I wasn't feeling inspired to continue with this SAL and have bowed out of it now.
Before I write any further, I would like to welcome my new followers and thank them and other blog visitors for commenting. I really appreciate that.

Well, this is going to be a picture heavy post as I have lot to show.

First of all, I would like to show you how my stitchy friend Diya pampered with me her gifts. I have known Diya for a few months now, we met on facebook in a cross stitch group. Since then, as we interacted we discovered, we had similar interests and some of her family/friends visit Kuwait for work or personal reasons.

Last month, I asked Diya would she be interested in a Stitchy Exchange, the answer of course was Yes! This is what she sent me

See how the packets are numbered as each of them had a gift related to one of my hobbies.

Look at the Cute Penguin she stitched for me, isn't it adorable. She has been so generous to include gifts from her trip to Thailand ...painting, hand cream, soap, cross stitch kits. Also she added a book for baby gifts with some linen and Aida...Oh Diya, I can't express how I feel about these...Thank you Sweetie.

Here is what I sent her

 

Yes, that's an ornament..my first one and I'm tiny meeny proud how it turned out. Herez a side look

Another gift which I stitched for first anniversary of my friend couple is a cover kit that came with Cross Stitch crazy 202.

This is my first time stitching a cover kit and I was really surprised by the stiffness of aida that came in it. Initially I thought I will break the needle and was stitching at snail speed. Then I realized its because I use the sewing method rather than stab method for stitching .The lengths of threads were too short to use loop start, so I switched to stab method and used knots to get comfortable. However, I'm really happy how the finished piece looks like and the recipients liked it too.

Did you notice so many firsts in these post- first exchange, first cover kit, first ornament :)

Other than stitching, I haven't really tried any new recipes in cooking. However, I did explore few new cafes and restaurants and will post about my experience later. I also have few other crafty things to share ...so watch this space.

As promised about sharing a picture of my life in Kuwait in each blog post, here's a pic of view of water front from one of the sea side malls in Kuwait.

Hope you are having a good stitching time