Small finish

Today I have this small finish to show. It is small, but it took me quite some time! Okay, I'll admit I have been busy with the larger WIPS, and somewhere in my mind I seem to be thinking I can finish a smaller one whenever I want. And that means it lays on my desk, and weeks later it still lays on my desk. Sounds familiar?
Maybe because I am not that well today (some kind of nasty bug) the larger pieces don't get my attention, I finished finally. It's a little SAL of the Oakhaven group, a great, helping group. Tonia, the leader of this bunch of women is a sweetie, and she provides us with lots of surprises (you might want to join us? ). Some days ago she organized a group chat, and although I didn't manage to join (due to my settings on Yahoo messenger) some girls didn't give up to get me in. And yesterday it worked out great. We had a little group chat, and is great fun, hearing each others voices, some of them with a great American accent LOL As a common Dutch girl a pleasure to hear! My microphone kept fading away, but I hope that's fixed now, DS gave it a look this afternoon. I tested with Skype, and I think it's okay now, so I'm looking forward to the next group chat. Anyway, here is Love Grows.

Last saturday DH and I went to Doesburg. There's this quiltshop, Atelier Bep, I heard about and I wanted to take a look and add some things to my stash. I was planning to go by train, but Fridaynight DH all of a sudden suggested we could go together, by car. Always good, doing things together as a couple (keeps the fire burning LOL), so he didn't need much time to convince me.

For all of you, interested in other places, this is (part of) modern Doesburg.

View over the IJssel

And 'Old' Doesburg

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.

Birthday and holidays

Time has been slipping through my hands, and now is the first opportunity to blog again. All you stitching friends, a big thank you for your lovely comments. To be honest, that is also one of the reasons for not updating my blog. I just wanted Celtic Garden to get the honour she deserves!
Yesterday I took it to my LNS to get it framed. It will be away from home some time, but when she is ready, I will for sure get her a picture on this blog. A permanent one in the sidebar I think.

Last friday I had my birthday and as I am involved in some birthday exchanges, I received two packages. One is still on its way, and one is lost in the mail (poor Janaina!) as far as we know now.

Simone sent me the lovely package shown above. She made me a pincushion and used a pattern of Blackbird Designs. She changes the colours to my favorites (blue) and finished it lovely with the perfect backing and beautiful pins, which she placed in small groups.

She has also been going through my wishlist and sent me some lightblue fabric (great!!), Madeira floss, pins, a cute little pair of scissors (embellishment), a pair of socks with Stitching Girl on it (I never saw these before!), some ribbon, and last but not least a large piece of Chinese fabric. She knows about my China-madness and told me she had it for some time now, but thought it would be perfect for me. And how right can she be?!



Lisa (SBBC) sent me a Christmas package, and I love it! She stitched me a deer from Prairie Schooler, Cranberry Christmas, and finished it as a hanging pillow. She added some nice goodies: a piece of white 22 count aida, floss rings, ribbon an cord, a keyring that can be used to put something small in it, and Kreinik blending filament, blue.

In the evening I celebrated with my family (of course), my sister and brother-in-law and a bunch of old beloved friends. We had a great evening, chatting, laughing, eating, drinking. My (all of them non-stitching) female friends admired my craftroom (nothing special, but loaded with stitch-items) and of course my big finished Chatelaine.

To show some stitching progress I made a picture of my HOHRH. I spent most of my stitching time on 'Vibrant Vista' and 'Call of the Raven', which are to be seen on Our Friend's Haed SAL.



A week ago I went to Deventer, a small town, an hour trainride from Groningen. I had a great afternoon, dwelling through the city, roaming through bookshops and over the marketplace. All of a sudden I remembered reading Caroline's post about a lovely quiltshop 100 Roses, in Deventer, so I decided to see if I could find it. You should know Deventer is not that big, so it wasn't a problem. And visiting this shop I thought I might as well buy some fabric to make a start to my first small quilt. How come I have such strange ideas sometimes? I've never ever done something like quilting, and I don't have a friendly neighbour who does, or a grandmum so they can teach me! I have to find out all by myself! And listening to the explanation of the shopowner (a very friendly woman) it seemed to be so simple, so natural, as if I could sit down behing my sewing machine and an hour later I had my first-sewn quilt.
Coming home reality fell down on me, and I think I have to read some instructions on the internet first, and look for some good tutorials, and maybe, when I can find the time next summer, I can try to make a start .... But in the meantime some beautiful fatquarters are smiling to me from the corner of my craftroom lol

This might become a long, long post, because I also want to show you some pictures of our holidays, as I promised a while ago.
Remember we went to Germany for a week? We rented an appartement at a farm in the Eifel, an hour drive from Trier. We had a good time, but let the pictures speak for themselves!


View from the appartment


A place tot stitch can be found everywhere


The cowbarn


A little one has been born


Exhausted ...

Exhausted too lol


The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany come together here.



Karin loves horses and they do love her ;)




Visiting Trier


Former bathhouses (thermen)



Porta Nigra


And from another angle. DS (with cap) in front


DD is waiting for a horseride


An attempt to visit a castle, but on May 1st everything is closed.

We went out for dinner, on the last day of our holidays.


Normally, the kitchen looks like this ;-)


Or this :-)

Happy dance!!

We are back from our holidays in Germany, and I will upload some pictures soon, but this blog is dedicated to the finish of the chatelaine Mystery XI. It is finished!!
The last bead was sewn on the evening of April 26th, just in time to reach my goal. I was determined to finish it before we went to Germany, and I was as determined not to take it with me. It is too delicate to put it in my suitcase, and I was afraid of damaging the stitching, or get stains on it.
Here is the result, and as a little extra I took pictures of several parts of the design, to show its beauty.

Top centerpiece:

Right centerpiece:

Lower centerpiece:

Left centerpiece:

Middle:

Corner:

Border:

HOHRH and vacation

Thank you all, dear stitching friends, for your nice comments on my Mystery XI. I am still beading, and it is almost, almost finished! I think I'm going to make it before May 1st, and in that case I reached my goal, and you helped me to reach it, by being such good cheerleaders!
In the meanwhile I have some other things to share. At first a picture of the second price I won at ILCS , stitching a bourse. It was sent to me some weeks ago, but I realized I never put a picture of it in my blog, sorry!

Second a picture of my progress at the Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I am stitching this in between, and already way behind on schedual, but in fact I don't care. I will take it with me on vacation next week, so maybe I will catch up a little bit. Anyway, the first house is up!

This will be the last post for more than a week, because we will leave for a week's vacation next saturday. And as you all know, before a woman can leave the house it must be clean and tidy. And I have to pack for the four of us. As I said I will take the HOHRH with me, and my HAED stitching. Maybe something small too, to work on during the car-ride. We rented a little house in Germany, near Trier. We have been there before, and until now I didn't find a needleworkshop, so I have to be prepared well! No stash-buying, and I have to be sure to have everything I need in my stitchingbag.
So, see you girls again at the beginning of May, starting a new month, and a new Chatelaine!

Mystery XI stitching part finished!

Yes, this afternoon I finished all the stitching on Mystery XI. All I have to do now is the beading, but I think that is still quite a job ;) Anyhow, I'm happy I am this far. I am a little behind on it, it was supposed to be a year's project, and I started with the group on 2008, January 1st.

These last days, all of a sudden Spring arrived! So I have been working on our terrace, cleaning the cobblestones, washing the windows in- and outside, the garden furniture taken out of the shed and putting in some new geraniums in the hanging baskets. Today I had a lovely afternoon, enjoying the fresh green on my terrace (the little tree is bringing me such pleasure every year!) and doing the last stitches on Mystery XI.

Again: Mystery XI and a new start

From last Friday on I have been stitchting mainly on Mystery XI, and I still have some hope I can finish this before the (self chosen) deadline of May 1st. I don't want to concentrate on this one only, because when I get home from work, tired, the HAED stitching is much more comfortable to me. Stitching the Mystery XI means I have to keep concentrated, and after a day's work I sometimes find it hard to do.

So, apart from the Mystery, there is also some progress on Vibrant Vista, and this afternoon I decided to make a fresh start on a brand new design by Ink Circles, Cirque des Carreaux. I will stitch this on Sudden Storm, 32ct Belfast, by Silkweaver, using Carrie's Threads, Epiphany. The chart indicated this threads, and I think it is stunning, so I decided not to look for any other, but to order the chart, including the threads.