Proud we are, and Thrilled we became

This appeared in the November 2012 issue of Cross-Stitch & Needlework.
The magazine is now safely in my Pandas hands and I await to receive it in November. Still...he went ahead and shared a pic of a page that he knew we were excited about.

I had heard earlier from a facebook friend that she saw my  name in this magazine... so the Panda went out to hunt for it. True enough, my name is here... along with the picture of my group. AWESOME!

This was a response I made to their survey question last June... it took 3 months before it popped out. But so cool to be chosen and printed!! :D

Anyway... just sharing...

Desperation can make you grasp at anything.

Ok, there's an ongoing topic in one of my facebook groups. They're all agog about a current Cross Stitch Crazy magazine being sold on ebay... it's now up to 24 quid.

So far, I've seen them call the bidders "SILLY", "LAZY", "HAVE MORE MONEY THAN COMMON SENSE", "NOT IN THEIR RIGHT MIND".

Sorry, but I'm offended for whoever is bidding for it.

It's not me. The magazines arrive 1 month later in singapore so my lovey Panda has been going to the bookstore every weekend waiting for them. He knows his assignment well. (thank you lovey)

Still, going back to my original topic...

I tried butting in and explaining... MAYBE the bidders are from other towns/countries who can't get the magazine and don't know HOW to order it from the publisher. Heck, until I had the facebook groups, I might've been one of those bidding for it. As it is, now I know better. I look for bargains and I know who to contact if I need patterns. But the poor souls who are bidding... they don't know they're being laughed at.

It's just not right.
People judge right away without knowing facts.

Someone was quick to judge the seller for being mean and selfish because the price is now at 24... not knowing it started at 99pence.

They start calling people lazy saying they can just get the mag from a bookstand... as I said, what if there's none wherever they're from? What if they don't know how to order from the publisher? They called them silly... that they have more money than sense.

I'm an ebay-er. My collection got BUILT from trading and buying from ebay.
On behalf of the bidders, whoever they are, all I can say is this:

MY MONEY. MY CHOICE.
If they want to plunk down 100 quid on it, let them. It's their choice. It's their money.
Stop calling them names.

I've normally found this particular facebook group a joy to enter. But not for this week. Until that thread is buried... I won't be entering that group anymore.

There are now a handful of groups I refuse to enter... because of all the drama. Copyright infringement this.... scammer that.... now, in a once peaceful and happy group, they're laughing at some ebay-ers.

It's called being in a CLIQUE.

Just because you know ALL about things, doesn't mean everyone else does.
Give people some slack. If they want to spend their money on things that you know YOU can get cheaper doesn't mean they know how or where to get them from.

That being said, this particular happy ebay-er settles down to breakfast.
What a way to start the day. Instead of patterns, I saw name calling.

Sigh.

*blush* just sharing...

I just realized I forgot to share this. 

Honored and proud. 

Thanks DMC. 

My friends were all like "why didn't you tell us?!?!" because I knew of this months in advance. And I'm like "coz they made me promise not to". LOL!

E@K Meet # 2!!

Other than online, who'd have thought we'd find a group of people we'd love to hang out with that loves stitching the same way we do? We got lucky. This is our second monthly E@K Meet and the fun just continues!!

As usual, we had a potluck. Philippines yummies this time around.

We decided on doing a fun exchange gift. 

Anything stitchy related that has a minimum worth of 100 pesos (3-4usd).

And with the help of our DMC staff and personnel.... we went nuts and went back to being kids again!

Here's My Panda's elder sister (who happens to love stitching too) checking out her stitchy goodies from the exchange gift game. 

Mamila showing off a SAP of her daughter. 

Princess holding up her Lavender & Lace finished project. 

This is Honey. One of our stitchperts who has the patience to teach anybody who asks.

Not just sweet... but sexy too! 

This months gang going nuts!

Dicky and I doing a trade-off.

It's really really hard to find books or patterns here (that's not from our local DMC store). So he and I really scour booksales for preloved ones or we get them from other sources like online shopping or trading with other stitchers in other countries. This time, we just switched books. He had two Vanessa Ann's and I had 2 of the Beautiful Cross Stitch. Perfect Trade! 

Just to show that the E@K Meets have purpose.

See the improvement in Mamila's work. 

Previously, all her project "backs" would look like the one on the left.

Yup. The colors are sometimes more vibrant in the back than the front because she'd use up so much thread. This time... after Honey taught her last month to tuck-away her back... look at how neat (and how much thread she's saved) it's become. 

We're so proud of you Mamila!

'til next months E@K Meet!! 

This time, our 'exchange' gift has to be something we made. 

So get ready to stitch up some bookmarks, keychains or small kits!! We have just 3 weeks to finish them!

OCD-ing on Bobbinizing.

Here you  go... another 'photo' blog.  Some have been curious on how to get a little bit more organized in their stitchy stuff. I'm just sharing my ideas and the tips I learnt from other stitchperts. Hope it helps! 

Materials needed: Your thread skein, a bobbin (plastic or paper) (I prefer nice white ones so the colors pop and they look neater) and scissors. Optional: a nice show on your tv or laptop to watch while you BOBBINIZE.

Remove the number label. 

(take note: only remove ONE label from a skein at a time. It'd be disastrous if you suddenly went trigger happy and removed all of them....now how would you figure out which number goes with what thread?!?)

(hey...bizaare things have been known to happen)

Cut out the number part.

See? Simple, right? Now you can stick with this... OR... go a little step beyond....

... I like going a step beyond by cutting out the back so it'll flatten better....

Tada! Still with me so far?

Now take your scotch tape and stick it on to your bobbin.

(I like having the holes on the right side... and I do this for all the bobbins so they're uniform).

Then wrap the tape towards the back to secure the number on the bobbin.

Now for the thread... I like pre-cutting the entire skein into manageable lengths... 

Before, I would just wind the entire thing wholly but then I got a tip from my stitchpert friends Yeya and Honey to cut them already in the desired length.... so it'd be easier to get and you maximize the entire skein.

This is my ideal length... wind the thread from the top of your finger...around your elbow and back up.

(sorry, it's hard to take a picture with just one hand and be able to bend my elbow and arm in such a way I don't get seen)(I just woke up--literally)

There... precut threads in the ideal length.

Wind each thread one at a time around the bobbin like so...

Continue doing it one segment at a time....

... keep winding until you finish the entire bobbin. This way, whenever you need to use this color... all you have to do is just get the thread (it's already precut) and use that. If you don't get to finish that particular section, you can wind the leftovers back easily.  Therefor maximizing the entire skein 

Look at how nice and neat everything is. 

Hope it helped! 

FINALLY! A FINISH! WHEEEEEE!