Happy Happy Happy Dance

I finished the Queen's Regalia from Quieter Moments yesterday evening and am so thrilled about how this piece looks. It was a bit of a struggle to get it done. It is a beautiful design, true art if you ask me. If you can come up with so many variations of the Queen Stitch then you are an artist in my book. So without much further ado, here is the Queen's Regalia:

Stitched with Tentakulum silk and AVAS 100/3 silk on 32 count Belfast. It needs to be ironed and I need to remove the basting lines. Quite obviously I guess .

After this I can go back to And A Forest Grew and The Songs They Sang. And I can finally start a new project. Boy, have I been looking forward to that. 

 

 

 

Ups and downs

Life can come with ups and downs. Now I know there are worse things in the world, and there are worse things happening around my family, but losing a pet is always hard. My parents had decided to get two new kittens and brought them home last Wednesday. After just one day, the red kitten got sick, didn't eat, threw up, and was less and less energetic. On Sunday he really took a turn for the worse and my parents took him to the vet again. Turned out he had eaten elastic bandings and there was nothing they could do for him. We still don't know where this happened, not at the shelter and not at my parents' place. It is so sad, such an unnecessary loss. It was way too early to say goodbye to this sweet little fellow.

The up part is that the other kitten is doing fine, she is missing her brother, but is healthy as can be.

In between all this I got to stitch quite a bit. I picked up Stop and Stitch the Flowers again and made quite some progress. It is a lovely piece to stitch, the colors are so bright and sunny, makes you feel good. I have about 40 more blocks to complete.

And in between I did some work on The Songs They Sang as well. I really like how this turns up on the fabric. And the antique colors are just beautiful. Maybe not what I would have picked out myself, but they are definitely working for me.

I am sorely tempted to start something new, a Little House Needleworks project maybe. But I try to be good and not do that before I finish the Queen's Regalia. I am this close to having it done, just one more night of stitching I think. 

Major Happy Dance
Topic: Cross Stitch

It's been a while since I updated my weblog, but I had a good reason. I really wanted to finish my Ballade des Cerfs before I put another picture up. And since I told myself I couldn't start anything new before it was done, there were no other WIP's to share either.

But on Friday I put in the final stitches and absolutely love how it turned out.

The alphabet border below the scenery seemed to take forever, but I hung in there and got it done. I will get this one framed so that I can hang it in the livingroom this Christmas.

Now of course I had to start something new the moment I finished this one. I had The Songs They Sang from Carriage House Samplings kitted up a while ago and couldn't help myself. I got started and this is another great project to stitch. This is what it looks like:

Now I didn't particularly like the saying at the bottom, so I decided to cut that off and stitch the band with the thistles as the end of the design. The colors are really neat, kind of old fashioned.

I am stitching it on 40 count linen, it's a sort of dyed version called Cloud Brown. The colors show up really nicely and I can easily imagine having this in my livingroom too.

Now I'm off to watch CSI and Bones. I'll have to tape 24 as it's too late for me to watch up, but I sure am glad they are showing this season too.

More progress pictures
Topic: Cross Stitch

A very quick update to show my progress on my two projects. First of all here is the Sous Mon Arbre green snowman.

As you can see I have stitched the house to the far right end and started the band below the motifs. This band has the alphabet in a kind of Assisi stitching. It is quite labor intensive, but I love how it turns out.

And here is the Queen's Regalia. This is really one of my favorite pieces, I love how the colors are coming along and how bright it is.

The lighting isn't too great, I'll try to do better once I have finished it. Don't know if that will be over the weekend as it really takes a while. After 45 minutes you finally are used to everything and the stitching goes a bit faster. But the piece itself is so challenging.

Once my Queen's Regalia is done, I promised myself I can start something new. Now the big question of course is, which project to start. 

 

 

Totally different subject
Topic: Bits and Pieces

The last few weeks I have done quite of reading on marketing, internet marketing and various ways to make money on line. If you believe all the stories, there are lots of euro's to make on line. But it is interesting reading. One of my finds is this free report (and yes, it is free, you just provide your name and email) and it caught my eye. After all, wouldn't it be wonderful to make money from our weblogs?

And for those of you who are more interested in my stitching adventures, don't worry, later today I'll post an update on my current projects

Stitching green snowman in sunny April
Topic: Cross Stitch

This past week the weather changed a lot. Last weekend it was warm (27 degrees Celsius) and then on Tuesday it got a lot colder, I think Thursday was even colder, temperatures dropped almost 15 degrees to a meager 12-15 degrees Celsius. So during the weekend we wear our summer clothes and during the week we put on sweaters, jeans and wintercoats. It doesn't make any sense to me, but it is nice to be able to sit on the balcony on Sundays and enjoy the sun.

As for stitching, I have abandoned my workshop project as well as my 48 count project. The first got delayed because I was so inspired by my current project, the second because it is in the shop and I forgot to bring it home. Now you might wonder what my current project is? It is a design my Marjorie Massey and it is called La Ballade des Cerfs. It is stitched in two colors of green and comes as a kit. I decided to change the DMC to needlepoint silk and got started sometime November last year. 

Originally, I wanted this to be my parents' Christmas gift, but I wasn't sure if my mom would like a green snowman. As I just LOVE the design myself, I thought it would make a fitting gift to my living room. The design is stitched on 40 count Lambswool linen and it goes rather quickly. Part of the reason it goes so quickly is that it is all cross stitch and like I said before, there are just two colors. This is how far I got:

Now I will be stitching on my workshop project from Quieter Moments a bit more later today. The design calls for a lot of attention and concentration and during the week I don't always feel up to it. But boy, do I like how this is coming along. I really hope to get the top part done today and start a band or two in the middle. 

I have also taken on another task, I really need to sort out my personal stitching stuff. There are threads, fabrics, designs and accessories all over the place and I need to take a good look at them. Some have simply lost their charm and I'd like to have it all a bit better organized. Oh, the good intentions one makes on a sunny Sunday.

And because she is so sweet and enjoys being in my weblog so much, here's another picture of Miss Murphy, happily snoring away on the couch.

That's it for today, I'm going to stitch a wee bit more and enjoy the sunshine.

I can't seem to stop.....
Topic: Cross Stitch

stitching on my 48 count project. It is so addictive to see the design grow and realize that despite the measurements, it is not going to be huge. The design is 48 x 253. I inserted my needle so  you have an idea of the height of the design. It really is tiny. Working with the soie surfine is wonderful, I thought it would knot more (it is a twined thread) but I seem to be doing OK. The design is by Marjorie Massey.

I remembered that I never showed my progress on Stop and Stitch the Flowers. I really enjoy working on this piece. You'll notice that I have some leaves and stems scattered over the place. My philosophy is to not change threads too often, so once I thread up a needle with a certain color, I try to keep stitching until the thread is gone. The colors are a lot brighter than you can see here.

And since Miss Murphy enjoyed being in my weblog once again, I thought I'd share two pictures I took today. She first cleaned up and then curled up in her "Do not disturb" position.

I think she's adorable when she has her paw over her nose. She's been sleeping most of the day, in various poses. The life of a cat........ 

Small happy dance
Topic: Cross Stitch

The past couple of days I worked on a small project. That is, the design is not really that small, but the linen is. It is 4850 count linen which hopefully will arrive in the shop next week. I am so thrilled about this. We have been working on this for a while and when things work out, that is if the postal services do what they are supposed to do, we'll have more colors in 48 and 40 count. This is a neutral colored 48 count, which stitched wonderully. The design is by The Gift of Stitching magazine, it's a free chart they put out a while ago. The thread is from Tentakulum and it is 114 Lawrence in Soie Surfine. I put my scissors next to it, so you'll have an idea of how big the heart turned out.

I am currently working on another 48 count project and hope to show some progress tomorrow. I wanted to stitch up some models for when the fabrics arrive, so this means And A Forest Grew is back in the closet once again. There are still workshops that need my attention, so I've decided not to get frantic about AAFG, I will get back to it when I can.

Below is a picture of Miss Murphy. She's laying besides me when I'm stitching and as you can tell, thinks she's the most adorable cat in the world. I have to agree.

 Now if the weather will be cooperating tomorrow, I can envision a morning coffee on the balcony in the sun. It's supposed to be really good weather over Easter.

Spring
Topic: Bits and Pieces

This week I had to go to a meeting and when I biked back to work, I passed this pond where I knew momma Duck usually has her ducklings swimming. And I was right. She was there with 9 ducklings. They were swimming behind her and looked so sweet. Of course I didn't have my camera with me, so I just biked on.

However, yesterday I was a bit smarter and put my camera in my bag, just in case I might see her again on the way back. And there she was. Not with 9 ducklings but with 10. Good golly, she's got her work cut out for her. One of the yellow ducklings was wandering off by itself, going way to far to my taste and then of course got anxious and raced back. It's amazing how fast they can swim. Here's a pic of momma Duck with all 10 youngsters.

It's almost a puzzle to see if you can find all 10 of them LOL. Then there is a close up of the family.

It doesn't look as if daddy Duck is playing a big role in taking care of the little ones. I hope I get to see them a few more times. 

A work shared is a work .....

done in little time. This is the Country French Cat by JBW designs, that I started in Nashville and my mom finished her shortly after Zwolle. She is stitched with WDW Kohl. When we picked up the charts in Nashville, I told Ria I simply HAD to start this one. So we raced back to Weeks Dye Works and told Miranda to add another skein to our order. Miranda just laughed and told us to take the skein and start the project.

 

Then one of our customers stitched up her cute little rooster. She stitched him on 28 count Graziano light green linen with Crescent Colours Just Rust. Isn't he gorgeous?

I will be working on my Stop and Stitch the Flowers tonight. The boxes are slowly filling and I am enjoying myself immensely. I have a 50 count project waiting to get started as well, I just have to wait for the right thread.