Christmas stitching

 The newsletter is almost ready to get printed and get mailed which means that most of the workshops for 2008 are chosen. And one of the workshps we'll do is My Stitching Treasures by Jeannette Douglas Designs. I really like this design, it is all based on stitching treasures and besides the nice motifs, it will teach you several stitches. Here's my progress so far.  I try to stitch one block each day during my vacation, that will give me a nice start on this project.

 And since I am afraid that I'll get bored if I don't have enough to do, I also will give a workshop to shopowners in Nashville. I'm rather excited about this. The design I'll be teaching is a box cover and the way the design is built, gives you the opportunity to change it so that it will fit almost any box. It's designed with craft shops like Hobby Lobby and Michaels in mind, but I'm pretty sure you can find a suitable paper mache box here in the Netherlands as well.

Anyway, the box cover will be stitched in 4 different colors ways. Below you will see the Valentine's/Mother's Day version. I am now working on the version for Halloween. I did most of one box today but found out that I'm out of WDW Whitewash, so will have to pick that up in the shop tomorrow. Shops that will attend the workshop also get a scissor fob design, that will match the box cover.

In between these two projects I have finished another Ewe & Eye & Friends project and have started a third. I guess I"m really on a roll here. I'll show you the two projects tomorrow. I have at least 3 more that I'd like to do from them, so I will see if that will fit in the stitching schedule. Workshops will take priority for a while, but every now and then I want to be able to stitch something "just for me".

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to say Merry Christmas to everybody. I hope you have a wonderful day.

This is my Christmas gift to my parents. It's stitched on 50 count Italian linen with Tentakulum handdyed soie surfine. The design is by Midnight Stitching and is called Quaker Christmas. It was so much fun to stitch, it measures less than 4 x 7 inches. Luckily my framer had a frame that is just as tiny.

I'm off to my parents for the day, I brought the entree, mom takes care of the rest. Lucky us as she's a wonderful cook.

Ornaments from another dear friend

Another dear friend has stitched two ornaments for me as well. It is fun to go back and see from whom I have received ornaments in our yearly exchange. This needleroll is from Ria and I think it is from 1999 or 1998. Also from the JCS Christmas issue and it's from a designer who quit designing a while ago, can't remember the name but I know that I have another needleroll by the same designer somewhere around. 

And here are three pictures of the ornament Ria stitched for me this year. I've shown it before, but it was a lousy picture.

It's a threesided ornament by Cherished Stitches and Ria did a wonderful job of putting it all together.

I haven't stitched any ornaments for me this year, I've been busy with other projects. Halloween seems to be growing on me more and more and already I have selected some Halloween designs that I want to stitch in 2008. We did stitch ornaments for the shop and they turned out really cute.  Next year I really want to stitch at least one ornament for my tree at home.

Of course that wouldn't be so hard to do if I didn't get sidetracked by other projects . Yesterday I really felt the need to start a Ewe & Eye & Friends (E&E&F) project. I went through my stash and came up with Purple Rosebud Scissor Companion. It's a real quick stitch but I love how it turned out.

It's a bit hard to see but I stitched it on 36 count evenweave. It's a light green fabric that is slightly spotted as in a handdyed fabric. I want to finish this as a little scissor fob (what else could it become) with a beaded edge.

E&E&F have great projects, I love most of their designs. Some of them are a little too whimsical to my taste, but especially the ones that combine whimsical with sampler style appeal to me. I have another E&E&F lined up, Whimsical Heart. Will show y'all more about that once I got started.

Way back in the days when I had lots of stitching time, I used to stitch models for a shop in the US. One of the assignments I got was to stitch quite a few of the scissor companion kits that were put out by E&E&F. I think that's when my interest in these charts started. Of course meeting the designers in 2000 helped as well. I'll see if I can find the models I got back, they are finished really cute.

From a special friend

The two ornaments I'm showing today are from a special friend. I've known Candy from The Workbasket for 9 years now and really treasure our friendship. She's a wonderful and generous woman with a kind word for everybody. Not to mention a great designer.  

We are both part of a little stitching group and get together every 2 or 3 months. As we're scattered around the country, it's not always easy to come up with a date so that everybody can make it. A few posts ago I mentioned our ornament exchange and these two are from the same group.

This is from Country Cottage Needlework in last year's issue. Candy stitched it over one and finished it into a kinda pinkeep. It's really adorable.

This is from Little House Needleworks, Candy changed all the threads to Silk 'n Colors and turned it into a cube. It is placed on my little cabinet on which the TV is so that I can see it from the couch when I'm stitching.

Now I know she did another ornament for me but I am not able to find it. It used to hang from my table lamp, but since I got a new lamp, the ornament somehow got misplaced. I'll go look for it and let you know if I'm succesful.

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

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.