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!

Winter Exchange

This week my partner in the Winter Exchange, Anita, received her package, so I can show what I stitched for her. It's a design of Lizzie Kate, Think Winter and I finished it as a wallhanger. My picture showes the ribbon as a different colour than it is in real life, so look here for a better picture :)

And of course I can show you another part of Needlemania 2. I finished part six, so on to part seven, only three to go!

I did stitch as much as normal, but I can't show the results, as they are meant as a gift. March 12th I am meeting seven ladies for a retreat. I finished two gifts, so I have to finish five more...

Needlemania, exchange and Holland

Did I thank you lately for the lovely comments you give me? If not: thank you! Every comment gives me a big smile and I value them highly :)

Some of you might have missed me, I usually post weekends. Yesterday evening I finished part five of Needlemania two and I still like it! It was almost time to go to bed, so I didn´t have time to update my blog.

Besides Needlemania I stitched on an exchange, I managed to finish it and sent it off today. I´ll show it as soon as the receiver tells me it arrived.

Fridaynight I stitched on Holland Springtime. I was getting a bit bored stitching the bows, so I decided to go on filling the inside of the upper bow. There´s not much to see yet, but soon there will be a lovely boat, sailing on the water!

And of course there are Vibrant Vista and Call of the Raven. I didn´t update for those quite some time, but I stitch on them almost every week. Progress is slowly but I'm sure all HAED stitchers will understand.

Needlemania again

Today I finished part 4 of Needlemania 2. It's really a quickstitch this way, one part a week until now! And I only stitch on it the weekends. This weekend was a short one, I had to work Saturday morning. Normally I stitch in the morning, that is, in weekends. As I was determined to finsh a part each week I started stitching on it yesterday evening and went on sundaymorning and even in the afternoon. It was rather snowy outside, so I didn't feel up to anything else.

This week I also stitched on Holland Springtime again. I managed to do to of the bows completely, the other two only partially. Now I have to decide whether to start stitching on the content of the upper bow ( I really look forward to that!!) or to stitch by the book and that means I have finish the bows completely before turning to the content of the bows.

Tough decision!

I also have some progress on Red Delicious. It's quite some work, I use the feston stitch to stitch the applique parts on black fabric and I do it by hand. I have to admit most of it is done in 'lost' hours, behind my computer when surfing ;) or waiting until my computer is finally started up.

Progress, a workshop and sleigh driving

Last week I had some really nice stitching time and in spite of a huge frog who not only visited my house but was determined to sit on my lap I have some nice progress.
First part of the week I concentrated on the Travelling Stitcher, so I finished the main part (except for my initials) and started the small part, Needles, at the right side of the fabric.

Second part of the week I focused on Needlemania 2 and that is the moment the nasty frog decided he loved me and didn't want to leave my side. All the blue stitches in it were stitched three times before I finally found the mistake I made. But now I am ready to start part three of this SAL.

My new fabric came in, some wonderful colours of Silkweaver, on which I plan to stitch a new Chatelaine Design. It sure will be on one of the greens, but I haven´t decided on which one, as the material list isn´t up yet.

The design isn't out yet, starts in February, so I have some time to finish the one I am working at (Holland Springtime) first LOL.

Yesterday I followed a workshop on Miao patchwork. You can see some of their clothing here. The teacher, Ien Rappoldt, was tought by Miao women to do this patchwork and now she passes this on to Dutch women. I know her for a few years now, due to our shared passion for China. In the morning we were practising the patchwork with paper to learn how to build up this kind of patchwork.

In the afternoon we were allowed to work with the original silk fabric Ien brought from China herself.

While I was busy learning how to do Miao patchwork, DH and DD went to a competition sleigh driving in the park at our hometown. On these pictures you can see some traditional clothing and traditional sleighs. Santa wasn't there with his sleigh and reindeer. You can see more pictures here.

Frogging and a SAL

The New year started with some new starts, but I forgot to mention one : the Needle Mania No. 2 SAL on the Yahoogroup The Sampler Life. It's a quakerish design, a tribute to the founder of this group, who passed away last year. Sabine from the Hamburger Stickladen offered to design it and I think it's a beautiful design. Also it's fun to stitch. I'm stitching with handdyed floss from the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.

I have been stiching mostly this week on The Travelling Stitcher and yes Debra, I planned to have it stitched by now, but I have to do some frogging. I just found out I made a tiny mistake between two letters (three instead of two threads open) so the other letters didn't come out well. So I frog .... otherwise I think I'll keep seeing it for the rest of my life and don't take my stitching anywere LOL

About normal life, it has been snowing all day, or should I say: all week. My DH made some lovely pictures of our hometown, so for all of you who like to see them, here they come :)

The pride of our town: the Martinitoren (Martini tower)


The old Korenbeurs, the building where grain auctions took place.
On top of the building a statue of Neptune. Behind it the Aa-kerk.



One of the canals with in the back a storehouse, in former times
used to store grain and other goods.



The statue at the corner of this bridge is referring to the trading tradition
of Groningen. There are four of them, one on each corner of the bridge.


This is something most of the Dutch love to see. Children iceskating on the pond.