Another needlepoint canvas
This is going to be my biggest needlepoint challenge in more than one way. It's a limited edition design by Pat Thode from Heartstrings, my favorite santa designer. It is by far the largest needlepoint canvas I have ever tried to finish and I am sooooooo looking forward to starting this. I told myself firmly LOL that I would have to finish my gingerbread boy and my halloween cat canvas before I put a stitch in. Good thing I haven't received all the threads yet or the temptation would be even bigger.

I already know that I want to finish this canvas as a wallhanging. I will just have to on a hunt for the perfect matching quilt fabrics to put around it.

As for today, I have more or less figured out what I want to stitch for my second exchange project, have a good idea of how to assemble it and now have to narrow it down to a design and fabric and threads.

Bombings in London and other news.
It seems weird to even consider there is other news than the bombings in London. I was so shocked to hear what happened. I didn?t find out till 4pm as I was in meetings all the time and apparently nobody else knew. It?s kind of strange as the same thing happened on 9/11. I visited London several times and every time had a hotel near the Edgeware Road station. My thoughts go out to the families in London who lost loved ones or have family members in the hospital. I hope they and all Londoners can find the courage and strength to go on.

On a happier note, I did some stitching this evening. Worked some more on my Daisy Lane Cottage, but not enough is done to make a new picture.

I also ordered 6 CD?s with graphics to be used on this weblog, the shop?s website or for my scrapbooking. Yes, I do scrapbooking too, just never seem to get to it these days. I took a course a while ago and loved working with the papers. Since then I?ve accumulated quite a stash, but have yet to get back to it.

Anyway, here?s one example of my new graphics:

I?m off to bed now, it?s been quite a week at work, lots of ups and downs. Seems that I learnt a lot, but it?s time for the weekend and some less stressful weeks.

Another Little House Needleworks
It is simply irresistable to start a new Little House Needleworks project. This is Daisy Lane Cottage, one of my favorites, but then I seem to say that with almost every new release. I am stitching it on 36 count Flax Edinburgh and am a bit worried about the white not showing up too well. The fence is all white and if it doesn't show up, I'll change it to the light blue of the house.

I discovered that I made a mistake in the swirls above my Snapperville, so I'm frogging there. It's not too far back, so I should be able to get it al stitched again this weekend. I really like how that one is coming along too.

I will start my exchange gift too, have to decide which design it is going to be. There are so many choices and just not enough time. Also, I do want to be sure that I can finish it the way I'd like to. I hope that this summer I can use some of my time to experiment with new finishings.

One July goal already accomplished.
It?s only July 3rd and I?ve already accomplished one of my goals for this month. I finished the second part on BC?s Snapperville. I really like how this village is coming alive. The next installment has a cat and a house, so I may be tempted to do that this month as well.

Other goals for this month are:
1. Finish BC?s Barnyard
2. Finish Strawberry Season
3. Finish Gingerbread Boy canvas
4. Finish one of the workshop for the fall season (I have yet to set
up the schedule)
5. Stitch 7 motifs on DT?s Souvenir Sampler
6. Stitch 1 JBW Designs (have yet to decide which one).

I only have to do part of the metallics and the beads on Strawberry Season. That is hopefully one of the things I can do this week. A rather sudden gift came across as well and it needs to be finished quite soon. I made the design for it this morning and hope to get stitching tomorrow.

In between I am trying to reorganize my study. It needs some work and I want to rearrange things and I hope to get it sorted out this month. I definitely want to have a spot where I can show all the gifts I?ve received from exchanges.

Picked up a WIP
I suddenly realized that I hadn?t worked on my Snapperville in quite a while. I started working on it yesterday and have the barn on the second installment almost finished. Just the white lines are left to do. It?s very relaxing to work on, nothing too complicated, and the overdyed colors really make the piece come alive. Can?t post a picture tonight, but will try to do so tomorrow.

In the meantime I am trying to see if a Dutch translation of the saying underneath the six installments would work. I don?t think it sounds as nice as the English one, but I?ve come up with:
Leer ons het belang van ieder uur van iedere dag die voorbijgaat (Teach us that we may feel the importance of every day of every hour as it passes). It?s a bit shorter which must be a first cause usually the Dutch translation is a lot longer.

I tried to see if I could find a nice picture for today?s posting.

This was probably one of my most enjoyed stitched project of last year. It?s a free chart by Twisted Threads and I stitched it over one with the Weeks Dye Works it calls for. Then I finished it by backstitching a border around the design, backstitching a border of the exact same dimensions on another piece of fabric and whipstitch the two together. It?s a great way of finishing, you can do it by hand, you work on the right side of the stitching and I find it very easy to do. (I just noticed that the needle I used is stuck in the back)

Needlepoint update
Since I have been talking so much about my needlepoint I thought I'd share these two projects. The first is my Gingerbread Boy who is almost done. I need to find the correct color of beads for some spots and do the Rhodes for the nose and cheeks.

Then I couldn't resist putting in the first stitches on my Halloween Cat. Below you see some of the threads I have selected to stitch this design with. The black whisper will be for his fur. It will be so much fun to brush it up once all stitching is done. I am still debating the second olive green color and the dark green in the eyes. I also need a good color for the petal. I haven't decided yet on the background. I have an overdyed Rainbow Gallery that might work, but it could also take too much attention from the design. I think DMC 632 would work for the background too.

i'll put in a few more stitches tonight.

Lots of stitching and new recipe.
Today was a fruitful day, I managed to get all the stitching done on my Strawberry Season that I could do so far. I have to wait now for my mom to bring the metallics and beads and hopefully I?ll be able to finish it before Friday. It is a joy to stitch, not overly complicated and enough specialty stitches to keep it interesting. The metallics and beads will add another special touch to it.

I will now select the threads with which I want to stitch my Halloween Cat. He reminds me of Birds of a Feather designs. I might cheat and start him with the black Whisper that I want to use for his body.

I also tried a new recipe tonight, Honeynut Chicken Tenders. It?s from the Food Network and I?ll have to see if I can find the link. It?s supereasy and boy, did it taste good.

I had never tried chicken in the oven before but found it much more tasty than when I put it in a wok.
I saw the show while I was in Dallas and though I didn?t get all the ingredients, it turned out really well.

It's cool enough to stitch, wahoo!
It was simply too hot yesterday to do any stitching. With temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius and no airconditioning in houses or most offices, after a week, it's really getting to you. Well, at least it is to me. I took a nap yesterday when I came home from work, watched some tennis and soccer, read a little, but basically, it was too hot to do anything at all.

Today, however, is entirely different. I think it's at least 10 degrees cooler and boy, do I feel a lot better. I did some grocery shopping, watched some more tennis and finally got to cleaning the livingroom. This evening it was time for more stitching. I worked on Heartstrings' Strawberry Season. I started this in the plane to Dallas, did quite a bit while in Dallas, but need to finish it up. It's for our Strawberry Month of July and I'd love to be able to have it nearly done by the end of next week when the shop is open again. I made good progress and am about 80% done with the strawberry. Hopefully I can do all the remaining stitching tomorrow. I still need the metallics and beads, but they arrived at my parents so my mom will bring them Wednesday.

About 3 years ago I stitched the Bittersweet Season as well. I needed to add the beads and for some reason never got to that. And right now I have the beads but have no clue where the stitched piece is. Kind of annoying. I would love to finish this piece as well and have them framed in a similar way.

I am almost done with my Gingerbread Boy canvas that I started in Dallas. I need to add three Rhodes stitches for the nose and cheeks and several beads around the body. Once that is taken care off I can start my Halloween Cat canvas. This will be my next lunch project I think, though for the first 2 days of the week, I have meetings during lunch time.

Here's the Halloween canvas that I finished while in Dallas. It's a Melissa Shirley design and was stitched with Burmilana wool, Kreinik 1/16 braid and a few black beads. Lots of fun to work on. There's a cat design in the same series and I'll stitch that as well with the same threads.

In between these projects I need to stitch two exchange gifts. One is already stitched, but I might stitch a second project as it was quite small. The finishing is new to me and I think it'll look quite nice. I haven't decided yet what to do with the other exchange gift. It's a summer themed exchange and I will ask my recipient what kind of designs she likes best.

If the weather stays this way, at least I'll be able to get quite a bit done this summer.

More news today
I finally got the pictures downloaded to the computer and couldn?t resist sharing my recent finishes. Here?s the santa that I stitched a while ago, it was my first needlepoint project and it?s a design by Kathy Schenkel.

Then there are two santa?s by Pat Thode from Heartstrings. She is by far my most favorite santa designer. The first one is called Stocking Santa, the second Vest Santa. They?ll both be finished as stand ups as well.

Then I also finished a small canvas, called Garden Boy, don?t know who the designer is. I stitched him mostly in Mandarin floss by Rainbow Gallery. It?s one of their newer threads and made out of bamboo. It has a definite silk feeling to it. He?ll be finished as a scissor fob.

There is still more to share, but I?ll save that for another day.

I am back home!
My vacation in Dallas was wonderful, I got lots of stitching done, though not a lot of cross stitching. My friend who co-owns a LNS is into needlepoint and everytime I'm with her, I seem to needlepoint all the time. I finished three projects that I had started before and left them with her to send them to the finisher. I started and finished a Halloween project and took that back home as I will needlepoint a second canvas in that line. Pics of the needlepoint canvases will be up later this week.

When I got back home there was a pile of mail and packages to go through. I am mostly up to speed now and will start sending out packages for the shop at the end of this week.

While going over some French blogs I found several wonderful finishes that really made me want to get two books. So I browsed through www.amazon.fr and ordered the following books:

I am especially looking forward to the first two. It will be great to have some new ideas for finishing. I hope the finishing instructions come with pics as my french is really non-existent.

I haven't stitched a lot since I got back, partly due to the work that needed to be done, partly due to the weather. It is exceptionally warm here, today it'll be around 30 degrees Celsius and that's way too warm to stitch. Luckily, the weekend should be cooler, which I think is wonderful. I want to get back to my stitching.

More needlepoint news will be posted once I have the pics uploaded to my computer.