March 17, 2006

At last! Time to Blog :-)

It is such a shame this is my first opportunity this week to do a blog entry - I have been itching to write all week, but my studies and work have overtaken my time. I just hope people don't forget me or get fed up of visiting here and not finding anything new ....

Today I had to make a presentation at University (which took me 6 weeks to prepare). The subject for the assignment was "Managing Knowledge in commercial organisations", so it deals with how people gain expertise, learn how to improve their skills and thereby make the company more successful.

It makes me reflect on how we develop our expert skills as crafters. What activities do we get involved in to improve our own skills and those of our crafting friends?
- We share our skills with each other, giving each other help on stitching techniques, with mini "teach-in" sessions including photographs and instructions.
- We get together for SAL's and Stitching Evenings to exchange ideas and get help from each other on difficulties we may have with stitching.
- We subscribe to our fave XS magazines and take great delight in putting photos of our WIP's, UFO's and Happy Dance projects on our Blogs. Get the picture?
Unfortunately my presentation at University would have looked strange with these themes, so I had to stick to Organisational learning techniques .. LOL!

Despite lack of time, I am excitedly planning my next Projects. You can compare progress since San took the photo of my Welsh Sampler (see her Blog http://angelsan.free.fr/blog.php?m=200601&paged=5.) The close-up photo shows the double border line detail (in brown-black).

I am now filling in the little dashes of colour in pink and terracotta and the embellishments in green and turquoise. I think I will only have another 3-4 hours to complete it, so there may be a Happy Dance sometime soon!
My next project is going to be The Seed Sampler designed by Lesley Grant, who kindly sent me her own copy of Cross Stitch Collection. This happened because I was unable to get a copy of the magazine, so sent in a 'Wanted' Advert which Lesley noticed, and she sent me her copy with a really kind letter. I am itching to get started as I would like to send a finished photo so that she will see that I used her Chart :-) I was very excited when DH rang me in the week to say that the project threads and Linen I ordered from http://www.sewdiscounted.co.uk/ had arrived!

As a mini project, I am stitching a Springtime Thankyou Card for our friends over in NZ to say thanks for looking after DH when he was over there - that should be a quickie job which I want to complete in the coming week. The evenings are definitely drawing out and that means one great thing .... more daylight for stitching yeah!I ordered a wonderful kit from www.stitchability.co.uk (which arrived today). I swooned when I saw a photo of it on the back of my recent Cross Stitch Collection magazine. I just knew I HAD to buy it, even I will not be able to start working on it until I have finished The Seed Sampler and Springtime Card, otherwise I will be overwhelmed and do not want to risk UFO's! Also, it is £10 cheaper on Stitchability's website as they are running a promotion - how lucky is that!

See the haziness of the trees in the background? That effect is created by very soft green tones worked in half stitch - its totally gorgeous and makes me dream of long summer days. There is a field on a hill about 4 miles away from our house that looks very similar to this, so I think it will be a rather lovely project to work on later in the year.

FIELD OF POPPIES
(Anchor - Premier Collection)

11 comments:

Kim said...

Glad to see you back! :D Your welsh sampler looks great! Such a fun project. Your new projects sound like they will be a lot of fun as well. I hope your presentation went well. :D
Have a great weekend! :D

Rowyn said...

I'm not surprised you fell for the Poppy Field design, it is absolutely gorgeous.

Sasha Farina said...

you're so near to finishing the sampler! WTG!

nela said...

me alegro tanto volver a saber de ti, como saliste, biennnnn...¡¡¡
besos

Kitty Couture said...

Why Ali! What a spooky coincidence! I've been very silent on the Web lately cause I'd been preparing a presentation for 6 weeks as well!

Glad to know that you're fine and fomring new wonderful projects. Your Welsh sampler is coming along very, very nicely, and the Poppy Field design is indeed to fall for!!

I pondered over your phrase "Despite lack of time, I am excitedly planning my next Projects." Of course I understand what you mean! But I'm thinking it might be precisely when and because we don't have much time that we long for stitching most, and are most eager to form plans?

Enjoy your weekend Ali :)

Von said...

You sure made up for your lack of recent posts today, Ali, lol!! Your projects are looking great and that Poppy Field one is awesome! Can't wait to see you begin working on it.

nela said...

Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
no puedo creerlo, que envidia, ayyyyyyyyyyyyy que envidia,,,,,,, San y tu juntas a Margaret Sherry, ayyyyyyyy
y cross stitcher: ayyyyyyyyyyyyy
Ustedes han hecho de mi un día triste, ayyyyy
es como mostrarme un pastel bien hermosos a tráves de una vidriera, y yo babeando con ganas de comer ese sabroso pastel, ayyyy por que ayyyyyyy???


ayyyyyyyy que tristezaaaa

nela said...

ali podria pedirte un favor, dile a San que solo fue una burla de mi misma, pero que estare bien, como dice ana, yo tengo cosas bellas aca, y podrias traducirle lo que escribi, lei que San comenta se hara un nuevo calendario de horoscopo pero de actividades de gatos, yo quiero la revista, si se que es para noviembre, le estoy pidiendo a ti o a ella, que si pueden comparala cuando llegue yo la pago con paypal o si no cambio mi direccion de suscripcion, total esa vendita revista solo recibi 1, que me rio de mi y dije que aun cuando tenga a Hugo Chavez como presidente, no me puedo quejar, mi ciudad es bella, y la gente es como yo, muyyyy cariñosa, y muy juguetona, y confiansuda, es decir te tratan con familiaridad desde el primer dia que te conocen, no lo tomen a mal, si les tuteo, es que esto es muy comun en mi ciudad, ademas somos regionalistas, es decir que lo nuestro siempre es lo mejor,,,, decimosque Maracaibo es el cielo...
asi nos expresamos de mi bella ciudad y su gente, pues una ciudad la hace su gente bella, y maracaibo tiene para exportacion gente bella,
besos nela

nela said...

Ali graciassssss....
pero no es nesesario, es mas lo que yo nesecito es alguien que me ayude a que mi revista llegue, se me esta ocurriendo hacer huelga de blog.... si en serio voy a montar un mensaje en mi blog e invitar a todos mis amigos de punto de cruz a que me dejen un mensaje de apoyo y luego le envio loa direccion a Coross stitcher a ver si asi me hacen caso y mi revista llega, es injusto como le cuento a san tengo desde julio con la suscripcion y solo llego octubre que tal... voy a hacer foto de mimi con un mensaje de huelga de hambre si a su mama no le llega la revista, ya eso es lo ultimo que se me ocurre para ver si cross stitcher me envia mi suscripcion... no es justo estoy como el pollito llamado calimeroooo, esto es una injusticia, si tu acpetas cambio mi direccion a tu casa por ese mes, o mejor pago adicional y tu la revibes graciassssssssssssssss
nela
me encanta que tengas espirutu latinooo

DonnaSews said...

Thanks for visiting my blog!! Your work is beautiful also. The poppies project is just beautiful!!

Leeland said...

Ali where are you?! Your posts are being awfully missed! I hope you're OK!
Take care!