A couple of free days
Topic: Cross Stitch

I am enjoying some days off from work and am having a wonderful time. The weather is gorgeous, sunny and warm, but not too warm. We haven't had such beautiful days in a long, long time. Come to think of it, I think last year April was about the last time we had such nice weather.

I have used my free time to work on some workshop projects as well as my big UBU project. For those of you who want to see the UBU, I have updated my weblog with a new picture.

But I have also been stitching on some of my ongoing projects. First of all, here's an update on Himmel & Hoelle. I have stitched the outer two borders on two sides. Just need to fill up part of the inside border of the two.

Also, I got everything ready for the needlepoint workshop next Thursday. Rest assured, I have already stitched quite a lot of the design, but I thought it would be fun to post a picture of what you start out with.

I need to do a couple more blocks and hope to be able to show you soon how it turned out. It is such a joy to do some canvas work again, As this one isn't painted, you have to count like with regular cross stitching. Also, since I am using 6 stranded floss, you need to make sure that the threads lay evenly. But I think it's coming along nicely.

Well, the weather is tempting me to take my small project of the moment outside and do some stitching. Will post about that project later in the week.

A finish and a UBU
Topic: Cross Stitch

I finished up Spring Seasonal House by The Workbasket and really like how it turned out. The Silk 'n Colors are great to work with, and it's been fun to select the threads I wanted to use.

I am still not 100% sure on how to finish it, I may end up finishing it as a little stand up.

Then I started a UBU. You might wonder what the heck that is. It's in Dutch and means Ultimate Cross Stitch Challenge (Ultieme Borduur Uitdaging). I have been wanting to stitch different designs on a large piece of linen so that it can be used in stands, but also in the shop.

As most of you know, I am not very good at finishing large projects but this I think (I hope ) is different. It is basically a lot of medium to small projects that are stitched on one huge piece of linen. My theme for the UBU will be The Prairie Schooler, as I just love this designer and have many designs that I'd love to stitch but didn't want to get framed or otherwise finished. Below you see a picture of my piece of linen covered bythe PS charts.

To give you an idea, I cut a piece of linen of 220cm x 180cm. The final piece will be smaller, more like 180 x 130cm. But it is huge.

I have set up a seperate weblog for this UBU. It is in Dutch and if you want to join the UBU challenge, let me know so that I can add you to my links. If there is enough interest, we can set up a shared weblog either in Dutch or in English or both.

This UBU project is really on the top of my mind, I hope to have a new start (read the weblog for the story) this Friday and make some progress on Saturday evening. Next week we have a couple of days off and I really hope to get quite a bit done.  

 

Uupdate on Himmel und Holle
Topic: Cross Stitch

Life is on a fast track this week, there seem to be a 1001 things to do and my to do list doesn't get shorter, only gets longer. But it keeps me from getting bored (honestly, I can't remember the last time I was bored) .

A promised update on Himmel und Hölle is finally here, my newsletter readers will be glad no doubt. I am still amazed at how much fun this project is and can't understand why it has been neglected for so long. Maybe it's because there are fractional stitches in the design, which I absolutely do NOT like. But it adds to the charm, so there are just four more bands with fractional stitches, so I shouldn't be a whiner and just get it done.

Though I haven't been stitching a lot these past weeks, I did work on Spring Seasonal House by The Workbasket. I changed all the colors to Silk 'n Colors that were in my stash. The picture shows the design with most of the colors I use. It is always a little tricky to change the colors as you can't be 100% sure how they will turn out. After all, if you use the colors indicated on the leaflet, you know from the picture what it's going to look like. But I am rather pleased with how this turned out.

Fabric is 36 ct. Lakeside Linen Maple Syrup. I want to use Edinburg cream for the summer house. Haven't thought about the Fall and Winter house yet.

I also finished a small design that has been in the works since January. It's a gift for a friend. As you can see, I love stitching vertically when using an overdyed thread.

Fabric: Newcastle linnen cream                                                          

Thread: Tentakulum handdyed silk (it's a trial version, so there's no color name or number)

Design: Twisted Threads - Bunny Scissor Weight

I am working (on paper at the moment) on a new and very exciting project. The fabric has arrived, the threads been selected and I can't wait to start. It involves a new weblog, a favorite designer, approximately 14000 square centimeters of fabric, 65+ designs, over 50 skeins of floss and more stitches than I want to count now. I hope to be able to announce this project at the beginning of next week.

That's all now. Keep stitching!

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.

I knew them before they got famous.
Topic: Cross Stitch

Ever since I got on the internet in 1995, thanks to a persistent brother who insisted that I should have a ocmputer and dial up, I have been part of a great stitching community. I joined some groups and found that stitchers are indeed a lot of fun and generous as well. They helped me to get to know all the new and wonderful threads, designers and fabrics that were out there.

And amidst those stitchers I met two that are quite "famous" today. Deborah ,from Midsummer Night Stitching, stitched this great Prairie Schooler ornament for me. I met her a couple of years ago when I had another stitching retreat in Tennessee. 

It is all stitched over one and definitely one of my favorite ornaments

Then last year I met Fran from Legacy Designs while staying at the Ackworth School in northern England. A wonderful woman with a great talent and passion for antique samplers. We had belonged to the same stitching group some years before and for one of the Christmas ornament exchanges, she stitched me this great ornament:

Fran included a hanger that is now in full use in the shop all year round. We put the Christmas ornament of the month on it near the cash register.

Well, I'm off to the shop in a short while, have to make a stop before I get there and will tell more about that later on. It looks like it is a bit white outside, yesterday we had about half an inch of snow, but it seemed to be only in my neighbourhood. From what I can see now, the trees are white, but I'm not sure if it is snow. I think it is just frost on the trees, it does make for a beautiful picture though. Will see if I can get a nice picture of it.

Have a good day!

A special stocking
Topic: Cross Stitch

In October of 2000 I went to the US for my very first stitching retreat. It was put together by a gal I knew from the Internet and we would hit all the shops around Denver. Back in those days Denver still had a lot of stitching shops, I'm not sure that is still the case.

As I was coming over from across the pond, she invited me to come a few days early and spend some time with her, her parents and her daughter. As you might have guessed, that was the first time Miss D and I met. I still remember arriving at the Denver airport and taking the escalator down to the underground train. I vaguely heard something that could be my name but didn't really give it much thought. It turned out Miss D had been trying to catch up with me for quite a while, running after me. 

I had a wonderful time, Miss D and her daughter and her mom showed me around the craft shops and we even got to Stitch Night at one of the LNS's. I still have the project somewhere. We went to a good bookstore and I could stock up on books. And of course we went to Starbucks.

On Friday we met up with the other gals who had come over. One of them was my exchange partner for a Christmas exchange. As we both knew we'd see each other in Denver, we didn't send our ornament in the mail, but rather would hand it over in person. Danya stitched me a wonderful Drawn Thread mini-stocking. It's a design that's OOP (I think even back then) and it always has a special spot on my tree.

The picture is not the best, but it gives you a good idea. The funny part was that I had stitched her also a Drawn Thread mini-stocking, I am not sure, but I think it was the snowman one. I have the other 2 in this series as well, even the fabric they're supposed to be stitched on, but never got them stitched.

I stitched, laughed, talked, laughed more and more and saw more needleworkshops in three days than I had seen ever in my life. The basis of my current shop was laid during that very weekend. The shops were so friendly and excited about us coming, some of them even went so far as to have special cookies and drinks for us. And I don't think I ever bought that much in a week for personal use .

At the end of the weekend, I said a tearful goodby to Miss D and off I went to Utah, to Ogden. And as many of you probably know, Ogden is the residence of the Shepherd's Bush sisters. But that's another story for another day.

Christmas ornaments
Topic: Cross Stitch

The last ornament of our year long Christmas ornament club is in the post (well except for the free one) and I realized that I never shared the ones we stitched and finished in the past couple of months. Every month we said that this month was our favorite, so I guess it's really hard to choose.

October ornament:

JBW Designs - Mitten, stitched over 1 with Soie d'Alger silk

My mom stitched and finished this one, didn't she do a great job?

November ornament:

Sweetheart Tree - Holly Scissor Fob

 

Again this is my mom's stitching and finishing, I just love the little tassle. She used all the colors in the design for the tassel.

December ornament:

Sekas & Co - Santa Claus Heart, stitched with Gloriana and Soie d'Alger silk on 32 count Belfast linen (summer khaki).

This is actually the heart from one of our customers, she already finished it completely. Ours is stitched (by me and mom) but needs some TLC for the finishing. We just loved how these hearts turned out on 32 count linen. If you have one of these in your stash, I can so encourage you to pick some colors and stitch it on a high count linen. They're easy to do and a lot of fun and you learn some stiches along the way.

I am working on Rosina Luger, but want to be a little further along before I can share some of my progress. It is a wonderful project to stitch on. We will be doing a club for this project in 2008, you can will get 2 patterns and all the silks to stitch them each month.  This is the finished piece.

If you are interested in joining the group, drop me an email at:

info @ dehandwerkboetiek .nl (remove the spaces). 

Tiny, tiny, tiny stuff
Topic: Cross Stitch

A while ago I mentioned that I was working on a tiny project. Now that I have finished at least this part of it and the workshop is done, here's what I worked on at that time:

This is my front of my very own pinball. I knitted it on 0.8mm knitting needles with 1 strand of Soie d'Alger. It has a beautiful sheen to it. The knitting wasn't easy, but it was very satisfying as I loved how my pattern started to show up. The match is a little longer than your average match. It has 97 stitches and 97 rows and measures about 11cm by 9cm. The knitted motif is about 5 x 5cm.  I have yet to decide if I will finish it as a pinball or if I will frame it. My mom encourages me to knit another piece, maybe I'll do so in 2008.

Then last Saturday a customer from the south drove up to the shop and brought along these amazing Hardanger pieces. They are stitched on 50 count linen and are just beautiful. She does a lot of her stitching for dollhouses and it really shows.

I am sorely tempted to give this a try and see how I like doing it. Maybe during my two weeks off around Christmas I will just get a piece of linen and start stitching.

That's it for now, I have quite a few more pictures to share, so stay tuned.

Ornaments galore
Topic: Cross Stitch

We have a yearly tradition with our little stitching group. Every year when the Just Cross Stitch Christmas issue comes out, we each pick 3 ornaments that we'd love to receive and then draw names. You can pick one of the 3 ornaments on the list that you get and start stitching.

Around Christmas time (we've been doing our exchange in January one year as it was impossible to find a day in December) we get together and exchange the ornaments. It's always so much fun to see who has been stitching for whom and especially which ornament did they stitch.

Here are all four ornaments from this year's exchange:

As you can see, one ornament was very popular. It's so funny because each stitcher changed the colors. My ornament is the one on the far right, it's a three sided ornament by Cherished Stitches. I just LOVE it. I'll try to get a better picture of it.

I stitched the pudgie santa on the pillow. He's by Knotted Tree Arts and I thought he was a lot of fun to stitch. I used WDW wool felt for the little pillow. Very easy way of finishing.

It's Sinterklaasavond here, which means a lot of kids are anxiously waiting for their gifts. The wind is howling around the building and it's a bit rainy, seems that Sinterklaas will have a pretty tough night out there. I'm going to curl up on the couch and stitch.  

One day finish
Topic: Cross Stitch

Ever since we got our new passe partout cards, I really wanted to stitch something for it. so I've been hunting through our patterns to see if something would fit. And it appeared that Cranberry Christmas by The Prairie Schooler was a perfect match.

So on Sunday I stitched on the designs in the leaflet. It was actually a quick stitch, I think it took me less than 3 hours. And PS designs are always such a joy to stitch. I can't wait to stitch a few more of this leaflet. Here's my tiny finish, it's on 40 count with ThreadworX thread.

And these were the flowers my friends from my stitching group gave me for our party in November. It was the most gorgeous bouquet I've ever received. Best surprise was that one of my friends hand delivered them, when I really didn't expect her to come.

That's all for now, I have a secret project I'm working on and I forgot to take a picture of my itty bitty project. So that'll have to wait for another day.