Museum Visit

We just visited the "Rijksmuseum van Oudheden" in Leiden. The kids did a quest, based on Daphne Decker's new book "Marijn in de woestijn", which is all about ancient Egypt. I'm a big fan of everything Daphne writes and I can't wait to start reading this book with the kids. As you can see, the questions even puzzeled mom! G.

Wild Thing

The Pirates have roamed my living room for another evening, and this is the result:


Don't you just love these trilogies! These are the four blocks of the original quilt. All I have to do now is copy them twice and add a border, piece of cake. Hopefully part 4 of the Pirates will come soon! G.

Diaries

For the last two years I have kept a diary of my cross stitch and quiling projects. I bought a Quaker Engagement diary on the net because I was into any Quaker cross stitch at the time... and figured I could just as well use it ;-). This year I could not find a diary (I admit I left it a little late) that was both nice on the outside as well as the inside. I bought this glossy magazine diary because I fell in love with the inside pages... and decided to make a cover for the outside.

Inside I also list my 'Starts & Finishes' for 2008 and my wish list (both for stash enhancement and projects).

M.

Junior's Wild Animals

As the men were watching "Pirates of the Carribean" last night, I could finally get behind my sewingmachine again. Thank you, Captain Jack Sparrow! Here are the first eight blocks for Junior's wild animal quilt. I love the colour of the quilting thread you recommended, M. ! G.

Mommy's Surfboard

My kids call it my surfboard, but I fell in love with my wonderfully large ironing board. In my next post I will show how I have put it to use! Thanks M. for ordering and bringing it along for me! Now all I have to do is pay you! G.

Winter Has Begun

On to the next Elisabeth Design... Winter! G.

Circus

Last night the annual Winter Circus rolled into town. To be precise... rolled into my street. I live close to the city theatre and every year my section of the street is closed off for 24 hours to house the circus artists. The first year I lived here I woke up to the sound of roaring lions just beneath my bedroom window. No lions ever since, but there is an animal truck this year. For the first time the theatre offered free tickets for the inconvenience caused. My parents and little niece K. will go.

This is the view from my bedroom window this morning. It is the circus I tell you, I do not live next to a trailer park.

M.

Drawn Thread's Arbors

Took these pictures a couple of months ago, when teasing G. about not publishing all our projects at once... there'd be nothing left to post about. Little did I know. Did not mean for them to be left on the shelf for so long.

Drawn Thread is one of my favourite designers - delicate, detailed designs with many speciality stitches. Luckily her charts come with very detailed instructions. They're called: Spring Arbor, Summer Arbor, Autumn Arbor and Winter Arbor. Stitched in silks, they only took about 30 hours each to stitch. And I am a slow stitcher.

Quality of the pictures is pretty poor, my apologies.

M.

Big Animal

I do not like spiders... no escaping this one, it currently resides above the door of my living room.

M.

On the Third Day of Christmas

With Christmas behind us, I believe it is about time to post some of my seasonal projects. While others may say it is a little late... on the third day of Christmas I give you... 3 cross stitch projects (none French)...
First... 'Christmas Eve' by Diane Graebner of Lynn's Prints. A charming scene of Amish carriages driving through the snow. Finished as a bellpull by my mother.

The second is Celtic Christmas by Lavender & Lace. The fifth of my Celtic ladies as I call them, Noel it is. The only one not on display year round, but only during the festive season. Actually the first one I stitched. I'll post pictures of the others soon. I love the detail and delicacy of this design. Also the 1 over 1 face - superb. Never seen anything like her designs.
Third 'Joyous Noel' by G.'s favourite Elizabeth Designs. An enchanting little piece.

G... may I suggest we stitch the 'Partridge in a Pear Tree' ornament in 2008. I believe it is in one of our JCS ornament issues.

M.

PS. I received royal summons to update this post as it did not need minimum posting requirements - voila!

Autumn is Over...

I know that autumn has been over for some time, but I only finished my Autumn cross stitch pattern just now. I love these designs from Elizabeth's Designs. They are so rewarding. A few stitches and you've completed a pumpkin! G.

Circle in the Square Revisited

I enjoyed our workshop Circle in the Square so very much that I started a few new blocks the same night. This is a true G-pattern. It's not too difficult and gives instant results! I also changed the fabrics I used in the workshop to a coffee and cake-style. I bought some great fabrics at Irma's Sampler and added some more from equilter.com. Gré from Irma's Sampler told me I could use my inch-foot to make the curves, and that works just great (much better than the post-it blocks we were given in the workshop!). G.

A Secret Finish

I've finished my Sister's Choice quilt a few weeks ago, but I did not want to publish it until I could give it to Baby Sister. Baby Sister lives in Germany and visits only sporadically. She's in Holland for two whole days for Christmas! I've worked very hard to finish the quilt for Christmas. I made the following photo's just after I finished the quilt, but I hope to post some of Baby Sister receiving the quilt in her own Baby Sister way.... I miss her already. G.



The fabric for the back (the Delft blue tiles) were chosen by Baby Sister herself, as was the border fabric, which fit surpisingly well with the blocks!

Eeyore Update

Not a lot has happend to Eeyore... but at least it now looks like Eeyore, rather than a purple blob. Ultimately my baby nephew F. will be the happy recipient... in due time.
M.

Circle In The Square Workshop

G. and I attended another workshop the day before I left for Costa Rica (in the mean time we have enrolled in another two workshops in February and March 2008). The design is called 'Circle In The Square'. I intend to make a lap quilt of this design with the fabrics I bought on the net and at Gre's shop. G.'s block is the one in the bottom right hand corner. I believe I'll bribe G. in giving me a refresher's course when I pick up this quilt again... haven't got a clue anymore...Phew... I am ready to face G. again... she would not stop nagging and had lost all faith in me (blogging that is).

M.

Back from Costa Rica...

I am back from Costa Rica... and have been summoned to resume blogging asap!

Will catch up over the next couple of days... need to figure out my new camera first.

M.

Oh Christmas Tree....

My advent board is getting emptier, so it's time for the rest of the ornaments to leave the attic. It's so much fun to find all the ornaments from years back and remember where and when I bought them, or who gave them to me... And of course many of the ornaments were made by the children or by me. Even my mother made two of the cross-stitches ornaments.

We need a larger tree next year, according to the boys. There isn't a branch left on this one to hang anything on.

I'm in love with this beautiful nativity scene, that Schoonmama en papa brought from Germany for me. No one is allowed to touch it. It's very vulnerable and so very lovely.

And on top of the tree, my Christmas angel... It took me weeks to cross-stitch, she has so many different colours, and I am so proud of her....

And my other Christmas cross-stitch leaves the attic too. It's an Elizabeth Design and has great speciality stitches and little beads and charms. I'm ready for Christmas! G.

Kaffee Quilt

Result of one lazy Sunday afternoon, spent behind my sewingmachine. Now I have to wait for M. to return from Costa Rica to give me advice on the borders. Big Sister is happy already!
G.

Dutch Fabrics part 2

And the new additons for my Dutch fabric stash arrived yesterday! G.

Advent II

The start of the Advent also means making a door wreath. Not as pretty as aunt Emmy would make it, but nice anyway. G.

Advent

M. and I have started making Christmas ornaments in 2004, this was my first attempt at cross-stitch, which I believed far too difficult for the likes of me. I cross-stitched two of the chair-ornaments and we made some ornaments from felt to fill this advent-board we had spotted in a magazine. We´ve tried to add new ornaments each year. However, with M. on holiday, I´m afraid this year we won´t make any new ones. But the board looks just great. I´m so glad I could get it from the attic again! G.

Another happy customer

Now all us girls are ready for Christmas! Big sister is very happy with her skirt too. G.

Just in time for Sinterklaas

Today Sinterklaas arrived, and I finished my cross stitch patterns just in time. I wanted them hanging on the wall for his arrival! My husband painted the frames chocolate letter brown and they both turned out just great (I know I called them names before, but now they are cute Sint and Piet). G.

Potholders

Do not enlarge this photo. The sewinglines are crooked and the fabric doesn't match everywhere, but this was a speedjob for a special customer. G.

Mommy's ready for Christmas too

M. and I spent another Sunday in our little sweatshop, but my Christmas skirt is finished!!

The pattern is from a back issue of Knip, that M. bought when we did not even have a sewing machine yet. She bought it for the Mart Visser evening gown in it (!!), but this "simple"skirt was quite enough work for me just now. G.

Animal Prints

Today a parcel arrived from the US with three more animal prints in it for Junior's quilt. They turned out a bit darker than on the net, but fit great with the other fabrics. I can't wait to get started!

And I couldn't resist these "German farm boys" that go great with my other Dutch fabrics. G.