Two finishes and holidays

Two finishes this week, HOHRH was finished last Tuesday, so I had a happy, happy dance. I started this one in February 2009 and now it's done! And I am so happy with how it looks :-)

I also finished a small one, Betty W. asked me to stitch it for her, as part of a quilt-to-be. It has to be done at the end of June and this afternoon it was sent off to the USA.

From this week on my holidays started, so I don't have to go to work until the end of August. Lucky me!! I have plans to start a new quilt, I want to finish Red Delicious and I want to start the Mirabilia I showed you some time ago.

And today we celebrated our wedding anniversary of 20 years! DH had to work all day, so this evening the family had a lovely dinner together .

Last house and a happy family

Last Thursday we got notice our DS passed his final exams on high school. He did very well and so we are the proud parents of a student-to-be!
Yesterday evening I finished the last house of HOHRH. One final block to stitch, but that is only the saying, so I expect this to be a quick stitch.

Now I have to think about what I'm going to do for a new start. I have some WIPS, but every BIG finish needs a new start, don't you think?
I have kitted up quite some things, but among them a Mirabilia, Christmas Flourishes. I won it in a give-away at our HAED blog several months ago. Maybe I'll start that one.

A cow and a pair of shoes

I can almost hear you say: no house this week? I thought you girls might get bored seeing all those houses so this week I decided to stitch a cow. Okay, next to it there is a house, but do you care? So, on to HOHRH house numer 11! Two to go and I expect them to be finished before the end of June.

Remember the UFO, Kouangsi Slipper, I showed you a couple of weeks ago? I managed to add some stitches to it.

And there's my Call of the Raven, also added a thousand stitches.

Besides that I finished a little something for Caroline, as a Friendship Exchange. Next week I can show it to you, so be patient.

I did it again :)

Yes, this week I managed to finish another house! It looks like I didn't do anything else but stiching, but I can assure you there's also work and household jobs. Yesterday I finished house number 9, so on to number 10!

I belong to a small group of people that are doing exchanges, Crazy Exchange. We are doing a Friendship Exchange now and I have been stitching on it last week. I started a little late, but deadline is June 1st, so I have some time left. My partner is Caroline and last week I received this wonderful embroidered little bag. It says : 'The road fo a friends house is never too long'. She colored the fabric with tea, to get that old look. She also stitched me a lovely needlebook and added a, by her father, handmade notebook. I'm very pleased with the exchange, thanks Caroline!

Yes, another house and Red Delicious again!

Last week was a great week with a party and a holiday. I only had to work three days and from Thursday on we had holiday again. So lots of stitching time! I was able to finish house number 8 of HOHRH.

And there are two blocks of Red Delicious finished again. Today I started block number 9, so only three to go. Part of those blocks were done during our trip to Brussels. I like to stitch while DH drives the car and doing applique means you don't have to count, so you don't have to frog either LOL

Yesterday I turned 53 and I had a great day, celebrating with family and friends. I joined a birthdayclub last year and after been sending FQ's tot every member of the club, I finally was able to unpack mine! When I woke up I found the couch like this, a very thoughtful action of DH!

This is how they look unpacked :)

DD bought me some lovely FQ's too, and I got some from a dear friend (the ones with flowers are from DD).

I was spoiled with presents and we had a great time laughing, talking, laughing together.

Houses again and a windmill coming ;)

It seems I'm in the mood for houses, maybe because our house needs to be painted again. Anyway, I finished house number 7 of HOHRH!

In the third onion of Holland Spring I'm heading the windmill. A few stitches to be done, so watch out for my next post :)

Last week I frogged quite a lot of a LHN Design, Home of a Needleworker Too. I started this last year, on our way home from France, where we stayed a two weeks holiday. I like to stitch in the car on long hour drives, bur this time I miscounted, so .... Coming home I threw it into a basket and never looked at it again until last saterday.
DH and I went for an hour drive and it seemed a great idea to frog during the ride. So, yesterday I could stitch again on Home of a Needleworker.

And I finished block 5 of Red Delicious. Quite a productive week, as I may say so LOL

An overview of all blocks on the fabric I plan to use for sashings:

This week's progress

It's been a busy week, work is hectic so there's no energy left for complicated projects. My Holland Springtime has to wait until things are back to normal, so HOHRH has a new house under construction. In the afternoon, coming home from work I sat down for an hour or so and started to build the houses on block nr. 7. I decided I want to have it finish by the end of June, so in July and August I can continue my 'summer stitching' that has been waiting for me all winter.

I have two works I concentrate on this summer. The first is the Mary Wigham Sampler, stitched on 40 ct fabric, the second is a design of Ink Circles, Cirque des Carreaux. This is how I left them at the end of summer, 2009.

I spend my evenings stitching on Call of the Raven again. She's been neglected for some time and I want to give her some extra attention. Besides that it is an easy stitch, so I can accomplish some progress without getting exhausted.

I also made a good start on block number 5 of Red Delicious. Fanfare it is called and I have been puzzling and thinking about how to do this all week long. Finally, this afternoon I started and this is how it is now.

Houses, houses, houses

Finally I finished house number six this week. It was the black that took me so much time, and I don't like stitching black. I have been thinking about skipping the black, and considered the block finished with only the house in it, but then I was chosing the easiest way. And that just isn't me.
So here it is, house number six at night ;)

Another thing I finished this week is block four of Red Delicious. I stitched the applique with feston stitches and it took quite some time. But I love doing this!

Holland Springtime, again

Somehow last weeks Holland Springtime draw my attention. Maybe because it is really springtime in The Netherlands. Trees are full of buds and this morning when I went through the park to go to work, I noticed the buds of the oaktrees almost burst out into little leaves. The weeping willow is having a greenish layer over her branches and on our terrace there is the forsythia covered with little yellow flowers.
So, here is my Holland Springtime!

There's some progress on HOHRH too. I am still hoping to finish house nr. 6 this month, but I also want to finish block 4 of Red Delicious. I think it's not realistic to want both LOL I have to finish the applique with feston stitches.

Did I tell you lately I most value your comments ? Every single one I read makes my heart jump a little bit for joy!

Holland Springtime, a finish and a birthday

We had quite a week, last week. I have been sick almost all week, so I went home from work earlier than normal Monday. Tuesday I stayed at home and while I was sitting on the couch there was someone at the door. A police-officer came to tell me a lady hit our car, that was parked in the street. At first it seemed the car was total loss, but luckily our garage was able to repair the damage. So tomorrow we can drive to Germany for a short holiday as planned!

Wednesday I went to work again, but I have to give up in a few hours. I felt so sick I had to go home. So the rest of the week I stayed in and had some extra stitching hours.

At first I have some nice progress on Holland Springtime to show you. Like I said there is a little sailingboat now in the upper onion.

I also finished Needlemania 2. Now I have to decide how to finish it. I think it will be nice on a pillow, but I take some time to think it over.

And I did some stitching on HOHRH, on house number 6 to be precisely.

This afternoon I prepared Red Delicious block 2, so I can take it with me to Germany and do some of the appique stitching. I love how it's going to turn out!

And today it our DS's birthday. He is 18 years old now and he decided we all were going to dress properly! So he is wearing a suit all day, like an adult LOL. We enjoyed his life until now, as we do his sisters!