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

Last Sunday I put up my (artificial) Christmas tree and gathered all the stitched ornaments I have received over the past years. While I was putting them on the tree, I realized how much these ornaments mean to me. The gift of something selfmade is much more than the actual gift. The realisation that somebody, and sometimes a complete stranger, has taken the time and effort to create something beautiful, is so valuable.

I thought it would be nice to show my ornaments and tell a little of when I received it and who stitched it. There are some that I stitched myself, some from close friends, some from people I only "met" through the exchange we participated in.

The first one I'd like to show is the very first ornament I ever received in an exchange. I believe it was somewhere in the late nineties. I got the ornament from a gal in the UK and I loved how she had finished the ornament with cording around it.

She used Wildflowers Holiday for the design and since I had just gotten on the computer, it was the first time I saw an overdyed thread used like this. How the times have changed since then. The back is a neat Christmasssy fabric but unfortunately it doesn't have any initials or year.

Another first is the first needlepoint ornament I made. My friend Denise got me hooked (I am sure I have blamed her before on this weblog for this new addiction) and patiently told me how to do the basketweave on this ornament. For some reason I could do two or three rows and then get stuck. It is hard now to imagine that I wasn't able to figure out how it was supposed to be done, but it just shows you that practice makes a good stitcher . Or should I say a good needlepointer.

I just realize that the whole ornament is done in basketweave and tent stitch. Which just shows that I definitely have progressed since this ornament.

There are quite a few more ornaments to share, I hope to do 1 or 2 every day till Christmas. I need to find one or two more that are in the shop, but as I'm heading over this afternoon, I'll go for an ornament hunt.

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.

Red Christmas
Topic: Cross Stitch

I finally found the time to update my weblog and have a really neat picture to share. As I didn't stitch it myself, I feel confident enough to use the term " really neat" . This was our Christmas workshop in November, it's Red Christmas by Jeannette Douglas Designs. Ria stitched it on the original red linen, but one of our customers stitched it on blue Lugana. So technically, I believe this should be called Blue Christmas.

It is stitched with Soie d'Alger silk and Petite Treasure Braid from Rainbow Gallery. What was realy funny, is that the PB thread shows up in a completely different color on the blue fabric than it does on the red. I'll try to get a picture of our model as well so that you will be able to see the difference.

And here's a picture of my framed Spool of thread by Periwinkle Promises. I stitched this a year ago (or was it two years ago), but never got to the finishing part. Our framer did a great job cutting the matboard to size.

Sorry the picture is a bit blurry.

I have more projects to share over the next couple of days. With 2008 in sight, I seem to be speeding up. 

New way of framing
Topic: Cross Stitch

I stitched this piece last year when the design came out nad have been wondering how to finish it ever since. Then when we visited our framer a few weeks ago, I saw these three dimensional way of framing and just knew that this piece would be perfect for it. It is a bit hard to see in the picture, but the stitched piece is stretched on a piece of acid free cardboard and "hangs" free within the frame. The frame itself is so thick that it can stand by itself. I really love how it looks.

Autumn Leaves by Prairie Schooler, stitched with Venus threads on 32 ct Lambswool linen.

Absolutely stunning
Topic: Cross Stitch

Last week we had our Christmas workshop at the shop and one of the participants brought an absolutely stunning project. She had stitched the Dear Jane from Linda Myers on 40 count silk gauze! To top it off, she stitched the background with sewing threads and complete cross stitches!  That makes for a total of 31684 stitches, not including the background border she did around the design.

The piece was soooooooo gorgeous, it made me want to pick up a Linda Myers design right away and start it on silk gauze. Then my conscience kicked in and reminded me that I am still working on two silk gauze projects. I will have to dig them up to show them to you.

Anyway, here is Anja's master piece. I forgot to put something next to it, but the whole piece is less than 6 inches square (15cm).

I cannot promise that I won't start a Linda Myers design on silk gauze any time soon . 

Has it really been 5 years?
Topic: Cross Stitch

Last week we sent out the invitations for our fifth year in business. It is so hard to believe that we've been doing the shop for 5 years. I can still remember the thrill of those first open days. I had ordered from several suppliers and boxes seemed to arrive every day. We had the stress of not knowing if our overseas orders would come in on time, but fortunately they did.

My parents graciously offered their livingroom to set up shop. So furniture was moved out of the way, tables were brought in, we got plastic bins to put the leaflets in and I used an Ikea small drawer chest as my cash register.

While trying to set everything up, we added several bouquets as we thought the tables were looking a bit empty. How things can change, even with the shop, we're always looking for more space to put things. I will try to dig up some pictures of those first open days.

Here's the invitation we sent out, it shows my parents' farmhouse and the shop.

We will have Janet Rozenberg from Nenne Designs with us on Friday November 16th and on November 17th we will have a framer with us from Atelier Inlijster. I am really looking forward to these days.