My treasure (part 2)

Good coffee is a pleasure
Good friendship is a treasure

-Unknown-

And so, after receiving the two Germany mugs, I began to think of what to send Sylke in return. Then I decided to make a cross stitch card to send to her. My choice was My Cup of Tea from CrossStitcher Magazine #229 by Margaret Sherry.

I have stitched this one at the end of 2010 for New Year Cross Stitch Exchange 2011 with fellow Indonesian cross stitchers.

The reason for this choice was because I thought Sylke loves cat & tea :)
Few words written expressing my gratitude, it was ready to fly to Herne, Germany.

Since I knew that Sylke's hubby loves to collect stamps, I decided to send the card by regular snail mail, so I could use my special choice of stamps. Despite the convenient amount of time travel needed, I feel like sending mails via Express Mail Service lessen the fun because of the lack of stamps to be attached...

I hope she will like this super extra special tiny card :)

Summer Exchange

A very very very late post of my Summer Exchange with fellow crossstitchers/bloggers of Margaret Sherry Lovers group blog.

I should send the package to Lu from Brazil, and supposed to receive one from Judith from Germany.


So I made a Margaret Sherry piece Love Bugs and stitched it into a polkadot red string bag.

I also stitched these bookmarks, one with the ladybug to match the Love Bug pattern and one with a saying and colorful pattern.

Added three kind of ladybug buttons and three different color of flosses, there went my Bag of Summer.

Last touch, a personal note on a postcard and I sent it to Lu.

And this is the package I received from Judith.
A personally written postcard, a red striped ribbon, a butterfly wooden clip, a wooden hanging ornament and a lovely hanging ornament of an adorable Margaret Sherry cat. It made my day when it arrived at my door.

The cat is the Margaret Sherry's Picture Purr-fect design if I'm not mistaken.

I'm very glad I took part in this exchange. It's been a great experience.... Looking forward to another exchange!

Happy stitching, friends!

Summer Cat

I finally finished stitching my cat #2 last night! *anotherhappydance*

Well, I'm a bit behind schedule but I enjoyed every stitch... *grin*
This is the kind of deadlines I love, stitching-deadline.. A non-work-related kind of deadline...

I can't wait to stitch my fave one, the autumn cat !!!

Summer exchange update

Hello....
The deadline of the Margaret Sherry Lover's blog Summer Exchange was due several days ago... Well, as predicted, loads of work got in the way... I was a little bit behind and was so sad and sorry....

But I've managed to finish it earlier today!!! But, since I wasn't supposed to post what I'll send to Lu, here's a behind the scene picture of my working table at home...

As soon as Lu receive the package, I'll reveal what inside the package is.

Cross stitch forever, housework whenever

I love weekends. Less chaos, less commotions.

I love peaceful mornings of the weekend. No kids fighting over who gets to bathe first, no need to check out kids not forgetting to bring their homeworks or projects, no need to prepare kids' lunch boxes in such a hurry...

And the best thing is, I can pamper myself with a "real" morning coffee instead of an instant one... With sugar and lots of cream...

By the way, earlier this week I have decided to join the Margaret Sherry Lovers' Summer Exchange... Not sure what I'll make though, so I wish myself luck...

Now, let's forget housework this weekend. I'll need to finish my Soda piece and start my 2nd cat of Cool Cats SAL.

This is a preview of my unfinished & abandoned Soda piece, the Cafe Mocha.

Here is my prepared materials for Summer Cat.

I wish you all a pleasant weekend!

Spring Cat

I finally finished stitching my cat #1 last night! *happydance*

It's worth all the commotions I've been through... LOL
Now, I'm going to proceed with cat #2, the Summer Cat.

Margaret Sherry SAL 2012

Last month, I decided to join Margaret Sherry SAL #3. We have 4 Cool Cats to stitch throughout the year 2012. It is actually my 2nd SAL after the Culinary Cats SAL last year.

Well, since I have been taking a break from cross stitching activities for too long, I was kind of looking for a very very very good motivation to start again. So, here I was struggling with my loads of work and housework, and adding an extra load of my long-time hobby to make my day. It was so much fun, I should have done it long time ago. By the way, I started with the Spring Cat as my first piece.

Last weekend, this was what I had accomplished. Inspite of the commotions I had been through, I have always felt content surrounded by flosses, needles, scissor, and whatnots.

I was looking forward to finish this one soon (since the deadline was already overdue... *grin*)

Margaret Sherry Lovers SAL

I was participating in Margaret Sherry Lovers SAL which was held from February to April. We chose 3 cats from the Culinary Cats designs from the CrossStitcher magazine #222. Then we stitched one cat each month.

Now, I am so happy because I have finished all my Culinary Cats...
So.. happy dance anyone? :)
Here is a review of all my cats

February cat : I choose this cat because he/she is just like me. I use to read the recipe book before cooking, because I'm not very good at either remembering the ingredients, or cooking... LOL



March cat : This is actually my favorite cat... I love the expression on his/her face and love the cake



April cat : Also love the expression.. And by the way, I made a tiny little mistake on the broken egg.. I stitched the egg shell on the wrong position.. Well, it's no big deal, I think... :)



I have not had any idea on finishing the pieces.. Well, I think of framing them for the worst case
I have been enjoying this SAL very much, hope to do this kind of SAL again in the future...

Another Birthday Girl

Another BFF of Tifa, my 11 y.o. daughter, was having a birthday at March 11.
I decided to made her this Make a Wish piece designed by Margaret Sherry from CrossStitcher magazine #215. I also used the mount provided by the website.



Unfortunately, I couldn't find a ready-to-use frame that match the design size. So I used this 8R (8"X10") photo frame instead.

Another gift is done...
I think it's time to start my 2nd cat for the Margaret Sherry SAL and continue my Parisian Street...

Birthday Gift for Nabila

Last year, I have made a cross stitch birthday gift for my daughter's BFF, Nabila, when she and my daughter are in the 4th grade. This year, they are in the same class again at 5th grade. Since she had already received a framed cross stitch gift, this time I was thinking of giving her a smaller piece. By accident, I found this Margaret Sherry's Cat Bookmark chart. So I stitched the chart on a 16 count, 2 inches wide, white Aida band that I just bought at an online store.



It was my first time stitching on a 16 ct fabric... the squares are so small!!!
Fortunately, the chart was a fun to do...
And I used a cotton fabric for the back of the bookmark..

Parisian Street - Week 3

I haven’t had a chance to post an update on my WIP last weekend, so here it is.
I was building my 2nd storey of the café.



I still don't have several of my flosses, because they aren’t available at the local store. I’m missing the blanc, 762, and 632. So, I’m still having a few ‘holes’ on my piece. Hoping to complete my flosses as soon as possible.

And this month I start the Margaret Sherry SAL. It's the first time I join a specific SAL, choosing 3 out of 6 Culinary Cat patterns. I will start my first cat this weekend.

Violinist Cat

Last week, my daughter asked me to make a gift for her classmate. Tsurayya Nur Afifah, we called her Ifa, is having her 11th birthday today at January 30. She has been in the same school with my daughter since kindergarten, 7 years ago. And right now they are in the same class at 5th grade.

Ifa loves to play violin. She used to play it in yearly school play.





So I decided to do this violinist cat. It's designed by Margaret Sherry and I found the chart on CrossStitcher Magazine Russia edition. I do not know the chart name, but it has a similar design with the Catafiddle, only in different color. The Catafiddle from Heritage Craft has a brown cat, this design has a gray cat.

Birthday Hedgehog

Hi Stitchers!
I have finished stitching my Birthday Hedgehog at the end of September, but then I didn’t have much time to finalize it. The chart is from CrossStitcher magazine #230 (October 2010).

I decide to give the piece to my daughter’s classmate, Siti Alifa Aulia a.k.a Ifa. She will have her birthday coming up in November 11.

After downloading the mount from this link, I decide to frame it instead of making birthday card.



It has been quite a challenge stitching this piece, because it has so many fractional cross stitches to form the flowers at the hedgehog back… My eyes really work hard… LOL…

Margaret Sherry Lovers Giveaway #1

Dear Stitchers,
My dear friend Nia of Caixinha de Pirlimpimpim who is also an author of the Margaret Sherry Lovers blog, is offering a giveaway. It's the "Make a Wish" cross stitch kit designed by Margaret Sherry.

If you want to participate, simply post about it on your blog or twitter. Then leave a comment where you post about it on this blog post. You need not to be a follower.

Well, I rarely win any doorprize, giveaway, or lottery. But, it's worth a try isn't it?

Anchor - DMC Conversion Chart?

I just received a September Stitch Along invitation from the Cross Stitch SAL group at my Facebook. So, I think I will continue to stitch my table-cloth at this event… (Well, I need to refresh my eyes and working on some colors instead of the monochrome).

Then I decide to do this in-between project.. The Margaret Sherry’s birthday hedgehog from October edition of Cross Stitcher #230. I think I will give it later to my daughter’s 5th grade classmate.











But then I hesitate when I convert the Anchor’s color number to DMC’s. It doesn’t fit the color on the sketch. You can see that MS always use Anchor instead of DMC. At the local stores here in Bandung, they only sell DMC and Blue Moon floss. I rarely find another brand, such as Anchor, Madeira, Coats, etc.







Here is what I have done so far. I wasn’t sure about the color of the background and the cheek… Maybe I should browse on another conversion chart. Any suggestions stitchers?

Coffee and Cuddles, and it's mine..!

I love Margaret Sherry's Coffee and Cuddles. I have made several birthday gifts for my daughters classmates between 2008 to 2009 using this chart (this post) . And earlier this year I finally made it for myself. I haven't had a chance to upload it, so this morning before starting those never-end house-works I simply grabbed my camera and took a picture of it. Phew..!!



And then I realized that I need to learn a lot about photography to have better images of my cross-stitches LOL..