Back in town (or should I say blogland)

Well, officially I have been back in town for a while, but not here. Nashville was great, we had a wonderful time and picked up quite a lot of goodies. It always amazes me to see how many new designs come out at market. The creativity of the designers really has been flowing.

In between market, Nashville days, an alumni event for my other job, I have managed to stitch a bit. Well, quite a bit I think. First of all, My Stitching Treasures, the workshop of tomorrow evening. It's a joy to stitch, Jeannette Douglas always manages to put together a wonderful mix of cross stitch and specialty stitches.

I have stitched a bit more on the right side of the design and all the outlines are done, but this was the part that was on my Qsnaps.

I also managed to have a finish, it's one of the newest designs by JBW Designs. I really really LOVE this French Country series from Judy. This is amour and I stitched it over one on 32 count cream Belfast with one strand of Waterlilies Periwinkle.

I've included the 26 needle I used to show how small it is. The picture actually makes it look a little bigger.

And the last picture for today is my progress on one of th hearts by Renato Parolin. This is a new designer that we carry in the shop and he has amazing designs. There are 4 more hearts in this leaflet and I might do another one with owls.

This one is stitched on 32 count antique ivory Belfast with one strand of Waterlilies Burnt Toast. Great color if you ask me. I started this on the plane to Nashville and haven't been able to stitch much on it lately. Most of my focus these days is on the workshops that are planned for March.

I still have a few more pics to share so stay tuned.

Zwolle and Nashville

This past week seems to have flown by and is a little bit blurry. We packed everything in the car for Zwolle Wednesday evening and I was home around midnight. Left Thursday around 10 for Zwolle and spent most of the day and early evening getting the booth ready. It always seems to take longer than we think it does. But we were very happy with how the booth turned out.

The show itself was very crowded (6300 visitors) and especially on Friday and Saturday customers had to wait a while before we could help them. It was really nice to see a lot of our customers, sometimes meeting customers for the first time in real life. I think that's one of the things I enjoy most about shows, the interaction with our customers.

Yesterday and today I spent getting ready for Nashville. As we are giving a workshop on Friday, I had to finish the design, write the finsihing instructions, pick up more pictures for the cover, finish the scissor fob, do the lay out for the scissor fob chart as well as the boxes, go to the shop to rearrange the threads and the leaflets, go to my aunt's birthday, go to my exercise class, answer emails, shop for those last minute items you always need, make sure we have enough Dutch candy and cookies for some special people we will see in Nashville, do the laundry so I won't have to walk around in my pj's (Ria insists that that is not an option and I think she's right ) and I am sure there are other things I did these two days that I can't remember. 

But most of what I need to do is done, so I plan to sit down, have a cup of coffee and maybe even stitch a little. Here's my latest finish, it's a kit by Marjorie Massey:

I am stitching very hard on the Snowman Trio by Stitchy Kitty, but forgot to take a picture. That'll have to wait till I am back.

Will see y'all in a week.

Busy, busy, busy
Topic: Cross Stitch

I guess most of us are busy. If not with work, then it's the house, the laundry, groceries, friends, family, pets, kids, excercising and who knows maybe even stitchting. Let's just say this past week has been busy . The big consumer show in Zwolle is before Nashville and it's interesting to see how that changes our plans. We are trying to get everything done before we leave for Zwolle and then I also have to use part of my brain power to think about Nashville.

However, the good news is the two models for the workshop are finished! Done, finished, ready, did I mention finished? I really like how they turned out. Below you can see the pink version.

Hmmm, you can't really see the box below, but believe me, it's there.

I am trying hard to get one more model done before Zwolle, it's a kit by Marjorie Massey and one I have been wanting to stitch for a long time. I have searched high and low for a picture, but cannot find it. There's just about 30 odd something stitches to do so I'll post a picture over the weekend.

Another small finish

Completely in style with my year of smalls, here is another small finish. I think I stitched this up in a couple of hours. It needs a blackbird button, but that is of course in the shop. Or at least I hope it is. I have yet to decide how to finish this cutie, but several ideas are swimming in my head.

Heart in Hand - Celebrations:Summer

Threads: WDW and ST

Fabric: 32 ct Belfast Summer Khaki

I have the other charts in this serie too and want to do Spring pretty soon.

The past couple of days I have been working on the Nashville workshop and one part is finished, just 2 more to go. I am really not a finishing person. I prefer so much to stitch. Oh well, at least one of the items can be finished by hand, which is a big relief. The other requires glue and card board. Not my favorite items . 

Secret stitching

Contrary to my lack of posting, I have been stitching quite like a mad woman the past couple of days. I have recovered completely from the flue (thanks to everybody who sent well wishes) and am now in full gear towards the show in Zwolle and Nashville market. In between ordering new designs and materials, I have been stitching like mad to get my class pieces for Nashville completed. And as of this morning I can say, that all my stitching is done. Now onto the fun part (NOT) the finishing. Unfortunately, I can't show any new pics as I want it to makes its debute in Nashville. But once I'm back, I'll show them here too.

I couldn't leave y'all without a picture. This is another Ewe & Eye & Friends design that I stitched way back when I did some modelstitching for a shop in the US. I just LOVE how they finished it and am really glad I got it back. It's such a sweet design, that I know I'll end up stitching it again, though I'm not sure about stitching that border again LOL.

And Miss Murphy wanted to make an appearance also. This is how she curled up on the big chair last Sunday. I just love it when she puts her little nose up like this.

I may be able to get back to Rosina Luger tonight or over the weekend. I can hardly wait, it's such an enjoyable project to work on. There's another gift in the works that I can't yet show and I also need to get back to my workshops. Not to mention I need to decide which EEF design I'm going to stitch next. Any suggestion (keep in mind that this is my year of smalls ).

And I have 3 spaces left for the Pay It Forward challenge. Thank you Carin and Ilse for signing up.

Pay It Forward

A while ago I received a gorgeous Pay It Forward gift from Katrina. She stitched a Blackbird Designs pinpillow for me and included two gorgeous fat quarters by the same ladies as well. I was thrilled to see the package, I had totally forgotten about it and it was such a great surprise. I truly love the idea of a PIF exchange and decided to sign up for another round with Vonna.

Now you might wonder what ever happend to the first round of PIF that I signed up for with Katrina. Turned out nobody signed up with me . Which made me really wonder about my stitching and finishing abilities .

However, since I signed up for another round, I have decided to do it a little different if I have less than 5 sign ups. I will send 5 gifts out this year (stitched gifts or at least handmade by me) and if not enough people sign up for a PIF, I'll just mail them randomly. 

I do hope that 5 people will sign up though. Here's how it works if you sign up....the first 5 people that e-mail me or indicate interest in my PIF challenge, will get something made by me in the next 354 days (this challenge will have a deadline for myself on Dec. 31, 2008). In turn you must post to your blog the same challenge and accept 5 people to send a PIF to...they do it to their blog and so on....sound good?

Leave a comment on my weblog or email me at:

ankoning @ pi dot net (remove spaces etc.)

Let's get this PIF rolling! 

A little under the weather

A rather nasty and persistent stomach flue visited me these past days, leaving me with very little energy to do anything at all. I managed to do a wee bit of stitching (granted this was after day 2) and this is my very first official finish in 2008:

Ewe & Eye & Friends - Whimsical Heart

Threads: Venus

Fabric: 36 ct evenweave, greenish

I'm sorry I don't know if there is an official name for the fabric. We carry it in the shop and it seems like THE fabric for these E&E&F designs. I enjoyed stitching this one sooooo very much. Don't know yet how I'll finish it though.

Speaking of finishes, this is my very first finish finish in 2008. Well, to be honest, Ria did most of it, I just sewed on the heart button and did the last row of whipstitching.

Stitchy Kitty - Chilly's Gift

Threads: Venus and Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid 

Fabric - 32 ct Belfast light blue 

I like him so very much and am glad that he'll keep us company in the shop for the next couple of months. Ria said he was a rather quick stitch. We changed the colors a wee bit, making him more pink and purple.

I also finished the Christmas ornament for January for our ornament club, but am not sure if the members want to see it already or if they'd prefer it to be surprise. Let me figure out how I can make a link so that you can click on it by choice.

Link to January ornament 

Now remember, you don't have to look.

I am also still plouging away on my Nashville workshop. Just one more block to go. I really like the Halloween version, but can only share this with you after the Nashville show is over. There is still a bit time left before I go to bed, so I might get back to my stitching or even start something new. After all, I should have at least one E&E&F project on the go :).

Progress and how to entertain your cat

On New Year's Day I had a great time with miss Murphy behind the computer. I really thought she'd attack the screensaver at some point. So here's a list of what you need to entertain your cat:

1. Find the weblog of a prolific stitcher who is nice enough to set up a slide show of her accomplishments in 2007. I used Carol's weblog.

2. Get your cat to get near the computer and get their attention towards the screen. You will see something like this:

Miss Murphy: What amazing stitchting this is!

3. Make sure that the slide show moves quickly enough that your cat doesn't get bored. In fact, they should get so intruiged by the stitching that they want to move closer:

Miss Murphy: Can I see this up close and personal?

4.  Make sure you don't touch the keyboard so that the screensaver will kick in. Your cat should show signs of distress:

Miss Murphy: Get out of the way, I want to see the stitching!

5. After a couple of minutes your cat will really try to get that pesky little screensaver away:

Miss Murphy: Move it or I will really get after you!

6. Touch the keyboard so that the actual slideshow will come up again. Just to make sure that your cat won't attach your computer and win the fight.

Miss Murphy: FINALLY! Was that so hard to get?

I have never seen her so engrossed in a computer screen. She won't even twitch an ear when there's a cat meowing on the TV. Carol, thanks for entertaining not only Miss Murphy but me as well.

As for the stitching part of this weblog, I have promised to show a picture of Rosina Luger part 1 and 2. It's a great sampler to work on. I am stitching it on 30 count off white banding with 2 strands of Soie d'Alger. The silks make it feel soooooo smooth and soft. The banding is 4 inches (10cm) wide and the stitching is close to 2 3/8 inch (6cm).

I also have some progress to show on Whimsical Heart. As I am working on a project that has a deadline, I can only stitch on WH every now and then, but it's coming along. I hope to get it finished by Sunday.

That's it for today, I have about an hour of stitching left and hope to make progress on my deadline project. I don't know about you, but stitching with a deadline always makes me wanna stitch on something else. The project is really nice, but I am just not good with deadlines. 

Happy New Year!

There are about 90 minutes left of 2007, here in my neck of the woods and I wanted to use at least some of those minutes to wish every visitor of this weblog a Happy New Year. I hope that 2008 will bring each of us love, health, wisdom, caring, creativity, stitching time and stitching projects, compassion, understanding, generosity, shoulders to cry on and friends to laugh silly with, friendship and maybe a little more peace in this world.

This last year hasn't been easy for me, seeing my dear aunt fight her illness and realizing that the illness would win and finally loosing her in the summer, was the most significant event this year. It also showed me the kindness of people I only know through email or my weblog, the kindness of friends who offered more than one shoulder to cry on and the kindness of our customers who were so understanding. 

As for a stitching recap, I can't recall how many projects I finished and I think I don't want to recall how many projects I started. Looking back over my pictures I think it's about 32 finishes, of which 5 were needlepoint and one was the front of my knitted pinball. Moulin Rouge never got to see daylight and even And A Forest Grew had to do without sunlight for most of the year. Large projects are really not my cup of tea.

I haven't yet figured out my goals for 2008, I'll probably use tomorrow for that. One of the things I really would like to do is stitch a few more gifts. Small ones, mind you, see my comment above. I know how much I love receiving a stitched gift and I would like to use 2008 to spread some of that pleasure.

As for now, I am going to get myself some tea and stitch for as long as this year will last. Fireworks are going off all around us and Miss Murphy definitely doesn't like it.

See you again in 2008!

 

Sweet finish, tiny progress and a start

Before and after all the counting (one of the blessings of having a shop) I need to do some stitching to keep me sane. Not to mention that I'd like to get a good start on the workshops.  Here's my progress on JDD My Stitching Treasures, there's not much to show as I had to frog quite a few stitches. It seemed that my counting abilities were left in the shop .

Then I finished my second E&E&F project in a week. It's Tiny Teacup scissor companion and I changed the colors to match the fabric and they were so conveniently laying around from the other scissor companion I stitched.

You can see the dyed fabric a bit better in this picture. Note to self: Make picture of the original stitched piece, it looks quite different.

And finally I started yet another E&E&F project, one that I have been looking forward to stitching for a long time. Don't know why it never happened, but this week I decided that I had carried the colors around long enough and since the green fabric was still laying around, I could just go ahead. The original is stitched on pink fabric, but so far I like how the pink shows up on this fabric.

In between I managed to get the newsletter written and hopefully it will go out today. So next week I can update the website with all the new workshops and special days.