I Hate Cats (????)

I always thought I hated cats. Whenever I'm asked whether I like cats or not, without hesitations my answer is a big "NO". I am totally a dog person.
Please don't get me wrong. I don't want to hurt anyone's feeling. At home also, I always have this debate over cats or dogs with my mother or my husband who are avid cat lovers.


But these all were until now. See what I found to stitch now...

I bought this piece for Red-work. It has 15 grids. 


And guess what??!! All the grids have kittens.

Aren't they cute? I know, I know...you'd say what about all those blabbering at the beginning. But I can't help it. These kittens are too cute. So I guess I can't say I hate cats anymore...lol.

I started it yesterday. It's my first red-work. So I'm not that sure whether I'm working correctly or not.

I'm stitching the kitten with two strings of thread with  outline stitch as it would give a thicker straight look. And I used 1 string of thread for its eyes, nose or the whiskers.

I'm sorry the pictures didn't come well. I can't get a better close-up (thanks to my great camera skill). And the creases can't be ironed until I finish stitching. Ironing might erase the prints. So that means I have to finish it as soon as possible to get a better picture...^-^

Some New Finishes...at last!! Biscornu, Victorian-style Wall Hanging and More...

It's been a while since I told that I would post my finished projects' pictures soon.
And as usual, here is the delay. So before saying anything more, I think it's better to put the pictures.

Here is a close-up...

It's the Victorian-style wall hanging. I love the antique style frame. I think it makes my work look better and gorgeous.

Next comes that cute little pin cushion. It's my first ever Biscornu (Biscournu), so I was excited while I was making this; and even after making this, I'm very very happy and excited. (My husband wonders why??!!...lol)

Here is a close-up of that.

Sorry that the pictures did not come well, but the color of the roses are really beautiful. Here the rose which looks blue is not actually blue, it's a nice combination of violet and mauve. And I think the pearl beads in the center make it perfect.
And here is the back part of that...

And as I promised, I would post the step by step how to of this biscornu very soon (??!!!)...

And today's last one is this sweet little puppy.

Isn't he adorable? I soon fell in love with him when I saw him on the rack of the shop.

And that's all for today. And imitating this cute little creature, I'd like to say "I hope to see you soon".

Temptations...

I can resist anything but temptations.
Today, I went to this craft shop near my house. I asked them for something long time ago, and so nice of them, they placed order for it and let me know that it came. So I went there to pick it up...and as usual, I was browsing through the shop though I didn't have any plans to buy anything. There, I saw these 2 lovely cross stitch kits. I just fell in love with them then and there. Of course, I couldn't stop myself from buying them, they had to come to my home.

And, I forgot everything of my on-going project of patchwork despite of my lesson this Wednesday. I don't know what I should tell my teacher if I can't finish my homework; but, as I said before, I can't resist temptations. I just have to finish at least one of them.

I just finished one part of it. It's going to be a lovely pin cushion. This is the bottom part of that. I'm sorry that the colors are not coming well. Anyway, hope to finish the top part also by tomorrow. Then, I am thinking of putting the how-to pictures here (though I know no one needs that...)
But on a second thought, I might stop working on it until Wednesday as I have to finish my homework. Let's see whether I can resist myself from working on it or not...

Slow Life...Living Real Slowly...

In this modern world, it seems almost everybody is running throughout the day; for this thing or that...We don't have enough time to stop and enjoy our life; no time to see what life is offering us, what we are missing.

This may not be true for everyone, but it was for me until very recently. And I was really tired of that.
Fortunately, this month, I have less work due to spring break, new school term etc., I am trying to enjoy my life. I am reading, blogging, doing things I wanted to do for a long time.
Here, I must admit that, it would have been much more easier for me if I did not have to do all those house chores...
Anyway, what can't be helped, can't be helped!
And enough of these serious talks; I have update pictures of that Victorian wall-hanging I wrote earlier(http://baishakhislowlife.blogspot.com/2011/04/long-long-time-no-see.html).

Now from the picture, one can guess that I was talking about all that spending my days slowly is just an excuse for not completing this project yet!! This thing is taking more time than I thought it would. Stitching with small beads are really very time consuming. Moreover, I think I'm very slow at stitching or anything...

Here is a closer look at the beads. I'm using three colors of beads matching with the gradation of the clothes. But as usual, I'm having problems with the Feather stitch which I'm trying to do in the middle portion. Anyway, let's see what happens...

And in this last picture, the black and white button and the tassel will go there too when I finish all these Feather stitches...
But, everything must go SLOWLY !!

Something Useless ☆ 無駄な作業

It was such a busy day...phew!!
I couldn't touch my needles or threads the whole day.  And after dinner, didn't have the energy to stitch at all...
So, spent the time  doing something useless until I could bring myself to writing today's journal.
What did I do?!
Yesss!! I think you already guessed it correctly. I changed my blog design numerous times. Seems I can't decide anything in the whole wide world easily!
I wanted to change the background since I saw Loretta's page.
http://lorettasstitchingblog.blogspot.com/
Look up here. See how marvelous her page is!! Not only she stitches well, she designs her blog nicely too.
And I AM a Copy Cat!! So had to copy her...(giggle)!!
So I changed and changed and changed; changed the background, changed the picture, changed the font, then again changed the background and so on...until I was tired. And this is how my blog looks now.
今日はとても忙しい一日で、針に近づくこともできませんでした！
夕食後はもうエネルギーがなくて。。。
そこで、今日のブログをかくまでずっと無駄な事をしていました。はい！ブログのデザインを変えたりして。。。なかなか決まらないものですね。結局、疲れちゃって、今の状態です。とりあえず、これでいこうと思ってます。


So as I have nothing much to share today, I put some pictures which I was supposed to put during Christmas.
Eh!! quite late for that? Please bear with me.
と言うことで、あまり書くことがないので、何枚かの写真を載せます。去年のクリスマスの時期に載せるつもりでしたけど。。。遅いかなぁ？？！！

These were my Christmas give-aways. I made them for my patchwork teacher and other patchwork circle friends. I can't say they were flawless ; because these were kind of impromptu. I designed them in my head while the work was in progress. And Ultimately the finish was quite different than what I initially planned.
これらは去年のクリスマスにパッチワークサークルの先生と皆さんのために作りました。あまり上手ではないです。なぜかと言うと、頭で考えながらアドリブで作りましたから。だから、作ってるうちにどんどん最初のイメージから変わっちゃって。。。


And now I have to decide whether I should buy some very very cute embroidery kits or not. I saw them on this new catalog named Needle Craft NEWS of Japanese handicrafts association.
As usual I can't decide, so going to bed...
後、もうひとつ決めないといけないことがあります。手づくりタウンのNewsニードルクラフト(ボーグ社の）でたくさんの可愛い・可愛いものを見ました。買うか、買うまいか、すごく悩んでます。相変わらずなかなか決められません。。。

Embroidery on Eggs 卵刺繍

Today I don't have much to write. So I will start with the picture to show the progress with my embroidery kit I started yesterday.
I forgot to mention the theme of this kit in case you don't know about this. It has a Japanese picture. It's called "Koi-Nobori" meaning a carp streamer or banner. Large cloth or paper carps are flown out of doors in Japan in early summer.  It's typically used to celebrate the traditional  Boys' Festival in May.
I enjoyed it very much. The stitching part is over. I should say it's quite a fast progress for me in one day... :)

こんばんは！昨日のブログを日本語で書けなくてすみません。なんとなく面倒くさくて。。。(笑）
今日はあまり書くことはないから、初めに、昨日から始めた刺繍キットの途中経過の写真を載せます。
刺繍はとても楽しみながら出来ました。
私としてはとても速いペースですね。。。^-^


And here is one more thing I definitely want to write about today. Only recently, I came across this on different pages on the internet.
It's about embroidery on eggs. Yesss!!!...You heard it correctly!!...EMBROIDERY ON EGGS...on real EGGS...God knows how anyone would do that!!

そこで、もう一つ話題について書きたいです。
最近いろんなサイトでこれの写真を見てます。卵の上に刺繍されてる。。。は～い！！卵ですよ。いったい誰がどうやって出来たでしょう。。。


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EMBROIDERED_EGGS_BY_I_FOROSTYUK.jpg

Here is another link:
http://album.aufeminin.com/album/see_105544_55/Photo-d-expo.html

I tried to post the pictures here. But thanks to my expertise in technicalities, I couldn't...
So you have to take the trouble of clicking on the above link to check some more pictures. There are 5 pictures; picture no. 55 through 60 are about this embroidery on eggs. But I should say they are just awesome. You definitely have to see them.

And I have a request if you see the pictures. Please let me know if you know how to do them. And if you have invented your own process, it's much better...(^-^)...This is a thing I would definitely like to try or at least would like to know the process...

Looking froward to hearing from you...

上にこの卵刺繍の写真が載ってるサイトのリンクを入れておきました。私のパソコン技術が足りないので、写真が載せなかったです。ちょっと面倒ですけど、そちらのサイトに行ってみてください。すごくきれいな写真です。写真番号55～60までは卵刺繍の写真です。ぜひ見る価値があると思います。

それともう一つの頼みがあります。もしこれらの写真を見て、やり方をわかってるであれば、ぜひ、ぜひ教えてください。一度はチャレンジしてみたいです。。。ぜひとも．．．

楽しみにしています。。。

Spring is Here...

Yeh!! Spring is here...with all of its beauty...

Japanese spring is really wonderful with its lovely Cherry blossom trees...with its "Hanami" culture, the typical custom of viewing these Cherry trees sitting under them with lots of good foods and alcohol, and of course with lots of good friends.

Today I went for Hanami...but alas!! with no food or alcohol!
In the evening, after dinner, my husband suddenly popped up this idea of going to view the Cheery trees at night and taking some pictures. So we did! We went to the famous Dogo Park. We went just to understand that it was quite late, most of the good viewing places were at closing time...so we took some pictures hurriedly and came back...

Here they are!  You can see the pictures are dark because it was near the closing time of the park...I was quite angry with my husband for popping up the idea so late...why didn't he think of that earlier? (You know how men are!!!)...

Anyhow, here are some pictures of what I started today.
Actually, I bought this cute kit some time ago from the yearly embroidery show here by a famous Japanese stitcher, Ms Totsuka. I bought some other patterns or kits also. And as usual, I forgot to start any of them. At last today, I started this.

It's quite fun! As you can see, the pattern is already printed. And the kit also have all the necessary threads and even one needle inside. The only problem I'm facing here is the fabric. It's the usual cross stitch fabric, but I have to do Chain stitch or Stem stitch or other stitches which we don't usually do on this fabric.

Let's see how it comes out...