Focus
Topic: Cross Stitch
After all the fun I had with the over 1 on 40 count it is time to focus on some projects that have a deadline. It would be great to have them finished in time so that I don't have to worry about a last minute stitching job.

Here's a list of which projects I really need to finish:

1. Catherine Agnes by May 30th
2. Strawberry project (can't share this till after the day on June 16th)
3. Collaboration Sampler by June 23rd

I am about 1/4 done with the Collaboration Sampler, see the picture below. I just love stitching on linen banding. And it will make finishing a lot easier.

Furthermore, I signed up for two exchanges:
1. Biscornus exchange, mailing date July 10th
2. House Themed exchange, mailing date August 15th

There is a Redwork exchange that I would love to participate in, but I decided to see if I could stitch these first before I need to sign up for the 3rd one. I usually decide on the finishing first and then pick a design that will work. It will be a lot of fun to go over charts, fabrics and threads to see what I need.

More over 1 on 40 count
Here is another update on my Quaker Rabbit. It is sooooo hard to put him down. I'd much rather just spent the rest of the day stitching away on this little fellow. But I am making good progress. There are however some other projects that really need my attention, so he's going to rest for a while and hopefully somewhere this week I will finish him.

Barbara, you asked about the crosses and I thought I'd share what I emailed you here as well. I don't use a magnifier (I am just lucky that I can still see it) but you could if it would make stitching easier. I do a full cross stitch which is my preference as the thread seems to show up more versus a tent stitch. The trick is the thickness of the thread. This Soie Surfine is really thin which is why you can make a full cross stitch. Don't try to do a full cross on 40 count with DMC or silk as it just won't show up nicely. I stitched with DMC on 32 count and found that quite difficult due to the thickness of the thread. On 36 count you are a little stuck in the middle IMHO. DMC and silks are too thick for a full cross and a tent stitch.......let's just say that is not my favorite option. I think that Brightneedle does almost all their designs on 32 count, I guess there is a good reason for that:).

Since I received my skein of Lorikeet wool from Gloriana I thought I'd better get a bit stitched up. The colors are really yummy and stitching with wool is very special. It can give your project just the right touch. And as I am working towards a "Red threads" corner in the spring of 2007, I just had to pick a red color. This is Crimson, one of the newest colors, it is available in silk as well. The design comes from Sous Mon Arbre and I am stitching it on 32 count cream Belfast.

This wool thread would be great for animals, santa's coats or beards. It is so easy to use and I love the colors.

Finally, a picture of Miss Murphy who is using the horrible weather as an excuse to curl up on the couch and sleep all day.

More miniatures
I delivered my gift this morning to the framer and he'll have it done in time for my mom's birthday. Pfew, that's quite a relief. I opted for a mat and a small dark wood colored frame. I'll make sure to take pics when I will pick it up.

Stitching over 1 on 40 count is definitely addictive. I started the Quaker Rabbit from The Workbasket. Here's my progress so far:

The dimensions are 85 x 75 stitches and it will only be around 2 inches high and less than 2 inches wide. I am stitching it with a dark brown Soie Surfine, but the picture doesn't show it very well. Here is a picture of how the rabbit will turn out.

They just released another leaflet with Quaker animals, a swan and a frog this time and I know there is an adorable Quaker Kitty in the works too.

One of my customers stitched another Alphabets kit and it's adorable.

These kits are really wonderful. I am so glad that I took the plunge and started stitching one of them. Now I am off to select more colors of Soie Surfine to order. They have a pretty good range of colors and I know I will definitely need some more for my personal stash.

Still stitching
Topic: Cross Stitch
The fact that you haven't seen an update on my weblog is not because I am not stitching. It is merely that I am stitching on a gift and can't share it yet. What I can share though is that it is on 40 count linen, over one thread and a complete cross stitch. Thanks to a wonderful silk called Soie Surfine, you can actually stitch over one on 40 count. I just love it. It goes rather slow but I so much like how it turns out. I might just start another project this weekend so that I can show it.

In the meantime I am busy preparing new workshops and stitching the models for them. We have the strawberry day coming up mid June and I have selected the design. Now I have to decide on which fabric as the original was meant to be stitched over one. I know not every stitcher is fond of over one, so we'll probably end up with a higher count linen and do it over 2.


10:15pm: I just finished my over one heart. I love how it turned out. Next will be a *sharable* project over one on 40 count. I stitched for about 5hrs straight to get this done. Tomorrow I will go to my framer to see how we'll finish it. I may need to stitch one for myself as well.

The list
A few days ago I mentioned in my weblog that I wanted to make a list of which projects I would attend first. After checking the shop’s calendar it became clear that there are a few projects that need to be done quite soon. So here’s the list of what I’ll be working on in the near future:

1. Finish Catherine Agnes
2. Finish design work on Essy’s Friends project (the stitching is done)
3. Stitch gift for my mom’s birthday
4. Stitch project for Strawberry Day
5. Stitch project for workshop 23 June
6. Finish Home of a Needleworker

I am sure that once I get started with this list, I will find more projects that need my time. It’s a good thing that I have some long weekends coming up (Ascension Day, Pentacoste). As I can start a new project once I have finished two, I am making a mental list of which projects I would like to start. There is so much to choose from. I would really like to stitch a few more designs by the French designers that we started selling. Then there are the new books by Acufactum, the kits by Fingerhut, the new designs by LHN, the list seems to go on for a long time.

Back to stitching on old friends
My fingers are really itching to start some new projects, but I have already so many on the go, that I controlled the itch and pick up an old friend. This is "Home of a Needleworker" by Little House Needleworks. I changed the colors from DMC to Needlepoint silk and am stitching it on 40ct Newcastle linen. I can't remember when I started this, but I do remember that I had to frog quite a large part as my "e" was too wide. It looks as if I am on track now.

Last week I managed to finish my little bookmark design. The designs are from a book by Acufactum "Lust auf Lavender" and it has gorgeous designs. I was a bit weary of the French knots, but they worked out fine. My mom has finished the bookmark for me, but I forgot to take my digital camera with me, so hopefully I can show a picture of the finished bookmark later this week.

I think I'll make a list of projects I want to finish before I start something new. And stick to the rule of finishing 2 and starting 1 for a while. Catherine Agnes is almost done, I just need to finish 2 more corner motifs and do the cutwork and weaving. Then there are a few smaller projects that are in various stages of finishing. Better go through my box again and make that list.

Finally, an update LOL!
Topic: Cross Stitch
It feels as if I haven't been blogging for ages. And looking back on my last entree, it's been over a month. Fortunately, I have quite a few pics to show and new starts to report.

First of all, a big thank you to Christine in Canada, who was my exchange partner in the Spring Exchange. She stitched me a lovely sweetbag with Lizzie Kate's latest freebie and a scissor fob as well. The scissor fob is over one and it's gorgeous. I also received several goodies, which will come to good use.

And since my exchange gift was received as well, here's a picture of it. I stitched a design by Ewe & Eye & Friends from the 2006 calendar that was published last year. The calendar comes with the aida to stitch on, but I don't particularly like stitching on aida so changed it to linen and turned it into a needlebook. It was supposed to be a bit fancier than this, but I decided to leave that finishing for another project that would stay here instead of being a gift :).

I really need to update my list of things I stitched in 2006 as I haven't done so in 2 months. And in that time I managed to squeeze in quite a bit of stitching. Here are in no particular order:

Hob Nob Designs - Happy Easter (guess when I stitched this?)

Marjorie Massey - Bienvenue (I changed the wording to the little motifs I could find on the designs)

Alphabets - Sous mon jarding (this is a minature on 40ct fabric OVER ONE, it is a lot easier than it looks)

Prairie Schooler - S is for Spring (current free chart on their website, go check it out)

Then a progress pic on my letter A project.

Reflets des Soie - Letter A (I am getting close to have this one finished as well)

And I started doing needlepunch. I have long contemplated whether or not to bring this into the shop and have decided to do a few pieces first and see how people like them. This one is done by Little House Needleworks. I am using the original threads and it is going quite quickly. It takes a while to get the hang of how to hold the needle, but I think I am getting there. No picture yet, I forgot to take one with the digital camera.

I started another small project today (Sunday April 30th) and hope to be able to share that later this week.

Apart from all the stitching I reorganized my needlepoint threads.They were in different bags all over the house and how I have them contained in 8 boxes. I have sorted them by color which a friend of mine did and it seems to make sense. Needlepoint is different from cross stitch in that matter. Not many canvases come with a stitch guide, so you choose your own threads. Therefor it makes more sense to sort them by color. I will need to pick up 4 more boxes as I would like to have one for flesh tones, one for ribbons, one for purple and one to have in stock in case I need it LOL.

Stitching update
Topic: Cross Stitch
With all the shows going on, I haven't had much time to stitch. I have been putting some stitching in on different projects, but I don't have any finishes yet.

First of all, I am working on my spring exchange project. I have the stitching completed, just need to finish it. It was a fun project to work on and I am anxious to see if the finishing will work out the way I planned it. It needs to be in the mail on Thursday, so either tonight or Wednesday I'll do the finishing.

Then I am working on a teeny tiny project. It is from Alphabets, one of the French companies we ordered from at the show in Paris. They included an extra kit to stitch up a model and I simply couldn't resist. This is on 40 count (16 dr/cm) linen over ONE. They include Soie Surfine silk with the kit and that's great to work with. I wasn't sure if I would like to stitch over one on 40 count, but it is sooooooo easy. In about 3 hours I got this much done. The linen is not from Zweigart, it has a little more "space" between the threads and that's ideal for stitching over one. I have included the needle so you can see how small it is.

Also ordered in Paris are heaps of charts from Marjorie Massey from Le Passe Compose. With the order we received one of the charts and I resisted for a week but gave in last Saturday while travelling home from my stitching group. I don't have that much done, but this is pretty solid stitching and I spent about 1.5hrs on it. I decided I would need to finish my miniature first before I can start on this one again.

And a while ago I started one of the initals from Reflets des Soie. I love how my A is coming along. You can see the whole range of letters on her website. Mine is stitched on 40 count linen with 100/3 silk from Au ver a Soie. I just love this color. It is the same one I am using for Moulin Rouge.

The initial and the miniature are my priorities now. I hope to get these done before we go to Nijkerk. I have several other projects in the works but can't share them at this moment. I can however reveal that one of them is for Essy's Friends. This is a special project from Elegant Stitch. All proceeds from these kits go to research for breast cancer. I have designed a project for it and am now stitching the model.

And a picture of my latest needlepoint project. This is another santa by Pat Thode. I am getting close to finishing this one, but it's on the back burner for quite a while as I need to finish some cross stitch projects first.

And finally a picture of Miss Murphy. I just love it when she curls up like this with her nose in the air.

Nashville, Leeuwarden and Zwolle
Topic: Bits and Pieces
Time passes quickly when you are having fun. Or when you are attending craft shows. Which, by the way, also was a lot of fun. Nashville was wonderful, we saw so many beautiful models, met wonderful people, enjoyed our hotelroom where you can have pizza delivered, even put in an occassional stitch and savored our freshly baked waffle in the morning. Too bad the coffee wasn't really up to our standards. But after one week of Starbucks coffee I doubt anything would have been up to that standard. Below are some pictures we took in Nashville. As some of you already know, it's not allowed to take pictures in the rooms of the designers, unless they give you permission (which we got from Weeks Dye Works). And to be honest, we forgot to make more pics. I am sure more designers would let us take pics if we'd only asked.

After Nashville we got everything together for our Nashville night. We had a lot of fun going over all the new leaflets, new accessoiries, threads and gadgets. One of our treasure finds in Nashville were the Hob Nob designs. These are little designs (50 x 50 or smaller) that are packaged in a 2,5 x 2,5cm see through box and the design comes with the cutest little button. This line of designs is called doodles and it means that you can use whatever thread you have left over. They don't give DMC numbers, just colors and the designs work up wonderfully. I don't have any pics at the moment, but we'll try to get some up. Since the little boxes are only ? 4,50, they make great gifts as well.

On Saturday we had almost everything in the car for the Sampler Day at the Frisian Museum in Leeuwarden. We were situated right by the entrance and boy was it busy that day! I don't think we have seen that many customers in one day before. And here people are telling that cross stitching is a diminishing hobby/art. Well, not according to all the ladies and gentlemen in Leeuwarden.

Sunday I spent most of the day trying to re-order everything we sold out of the day before so that we would have enough for the Handwerkbeurs in Zwolle. And thanks to some wonderful suppliers we managed to do that.

Then last week we were in Zwolle at the Handwerkbeurs. Thursday was spent setting up the stand. My parents do such an amazing job with that. As I had to work in the morning, they set up the stand all by themselves. Pics of how the stand looked are below. Once the stand is set up, we can start decorating, i.e. putting out all the boxes with the leaflets, arrange all the fabrics on the side table, put up the models etc.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday we met an incredible stream of customers, both well-known and new ones. I think that that is what I so much enjoy about these shows, the chance to meet customers. Saturday evening we were invited for diner by a special customer and we had a great evening. Sunday was still very well attended and at 5pm we could break down the stand and pack everything up. Fortunately the weather wasn't too bad driving back.

This coming weekend, the shop is open on Friday and Saturday and next week we will be in Rijswijk at the Patchwork & Quiltdays. It is always exciting to go to a new show. This time we will have a ready made stand so right now we are working on how to put up the models (you are not allowed to put nails in the walls LOL). We think we have the solution, now we just need to buy it. I will make some pics of the stand in Rijswijk as well.

Edited to add two pics of the Rijswijk stand.

Stitching wise I haven't done a lot these days. I am working on a Show Special that we started in Zwolle. It is a design by Hands to Work and we are offering it with either antique white or ecru 13 dr/cm Belfast linen and a skein of Gloriana silks of your choice for 10 euros. I need to stitch the hand, bunny and peacock on the top part and the alphabet below the saying. It is a very nice project, not overly difficult, but the handdyed thread make it so beautiful.

I put in a few stitches in my Pat Thode Santa. I don’t think I shared this before, it is a new canvas that I started in the US. While in the US my friend showed me drawings of the new ornaments and the new 2006 canvas and oh my gosh, they are beautiful. I think that they will be released around April and I can’t wait. I picked up another Pat Thode santa and plan to keep stitch at least 2 or 3 each year. Of course I need to go back to my larger canvas as well.

Well, this is a rather long update, but it was kinda overdue. With all the activities that are around the corner, my updates no doubt will be less frequent than before. I do hope to get at least one update per week done.

And to close off with a stitching picture, this is one of the newer models in the shop thanks to one of our customers. It is Birdhouse Row from Imaginating done on 36 ct. Edinburgh with Gloriana Bluegrass.

Gone for a while!
My suitcases are packed, my stitching projects selected, I just need to get myself ready and off I go. To Dallas first and then to Nashville. I can?t wait to see what Nashville has in stock for us this year. I?ll be back Feb15th and hope to have some exciting pics to share.