Birthday exchange with Taija , stash and a new start

In the Crazy Exchange Group, I have been involved in some birthday exchanges. Taija and I were a couple too. So a couple of weeks ago I sent her my gift to her, a bourse. The chart comes from The Gift of Stitching. I added some goodies too, but forgot to take a picture of the whole package.

Today the birthday present Taija sent me, arrived. Her package was so carefully and thoughtful wrapped, I have to show you!

She made me (what a skilled lady!) a selfmade notebook, and wrote she made it from begin to the end, all by herself.
She added some nice goodies, a piece of lovely fabric, two flossrings and pins. It was such a nice feeling, getting a birthday present after your birthday, it's like an extended birthday. Taija, thank you so much!

This week I finally decided to start a new BIG piece. Again a design of Chatelaine, Holland Springtime. Everything needed was collected some time ago, but I wanted to finish the Celtic Garden first. Now that masterpiece is at the framer's, I thought I could make a start on a new one. Updates will follow soon :)

I also bougth some new stash, I was getting afraid I would not have anything left to stitch, so I went to ebay and did some bidding on a couple of lovely charts., mostly Brightneedle Designs. Today they arrived and I am so happy with them! They all look great, so I went to ebay again to buy me some time LOL.

Finished Humble Daisys

Outside it was brighter than yesterday, so I finally could take some pictures of the Humble Daisys. I turned it into a pinkeep, and I am quite satisfied with the result (you may know I am not that easy satisfied with my own results). But I think I've learned a lot last months, thanks to all stitchers who are writing such nice comments (good for my self-confidence LOL), and all these great tutorials they put in their blogs.

Anyway, here it is.

My goals are achieved! I finished Humble Daisys today, and turned it into a lovely pinkeep. I couldn't find our camera before it was too dark to take pictures, so you girls have to wait until tomorrow. Also stitched 'Friends Gather', and I have plans to turn it into a flatfold. All I have to do is figure out how to, but I have some good tutorials from Vonna, so I have great confidence in it!

Tomorrow school begins again, and that means work also. So from now on I'll try to blog a few times a week, depending on how much time I have left to stitch LOL.

Half way this week already! Still half a week to go and work calls again. This holiday is over before I know it, must have been because of having so much fun at blogs and stitching. I planned to visit many museums this holiday, but most of them stay plans.

I went to Rotterdam though, yesterday, to visit the exhibition of Chinese posters. Since many years I have been interested in Chinese culture, and a part of that is the big propaganda posters the Chinese gouvernment used (and still uses) to bring their political messages to the people. I even have a collection of these (rare) posters myself.

Rotterdam is a three-hour-train-ride from Groningen, so it took me a day. But I had a great time at the museum, and afterwards went to visit a needlework shop at the center. Since I spared some money by not buying a catalogue at the museum (there was non, LOL) I thought I might as well buy a lovely pattern. Beardie Designs, Autumn Accessories. I'll try to start stitching it next week .

Travelling by train has a great advantage: you can stitch. So I started and finished this cute little freebie of Brighneedle Design, Humble Daisys, stitched on 28 ct. Cashel Linen. Now I have to decide how to finish it.

I want to show you some of the Chinese posters, some of you might not even know they exist if I don't. And as a librarian it is part of my job to pass information LOL , so here you go!

To start with modern times, here is a poster of the Olympic Games, 2008.

Under it the Olympic Games in 1984. Prince of gymnastics Li Ning won three gold medals, two silvers and one bronze in gymnastics at China's Olympic debut 1984 in Los Angeles. This year he lighted the Olympic cauldron in awesome style, lifted high in the air by ropes, circling the stadium and then lighting the giant cauldron.

One of the largest collections of Chinese poster can be found here: http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/hx.html

Another review of Chinese posters can be found on http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/chairman/chnintro.php