At Brigitte's Place

Finally! Since Thursday last week I'm retired. And although it's still a bit unreal let me tell you that it feels good. Very good. And I have plans, a lot of plans. But first I'll finish decluttering and clearing the desk and the shelves in my study. And then you'll find me here when the sun shines ...

... with these books - just the ones that I prepared for the summer ...

... or with these WIPs - just some that I pulled out because they have been in the UFO box for a bit too long

And when it's raining or too cold I'll be inside doing this ...

I think I won't get bored during the next weeks and months, lol.

Wishing you all a wonderful summer!

Hello, dear friends,

It was such a pleasure to read all your comments on my last post. Thank you so much for all your wishes for my retirement. And yes, retirement feels good. During the first two weeks I was busy decluttering my study and throwing out all the things that had accumulated while I was still working. And it was a lot, believe me. And then I started reorganizing my shelves. Instead of school books and papers you can now see stitching and quilting books and magazines on these shelves. It's not finished yet but I'm getting there, lol. Other than that I read and stitch, and I have already prepared the fabrics for a quilted bag.

Last weekend was IHSW and I thought it was time to finish a couple of small designs. During the weeks before I had browsed through my freebies and looked for some strawberry designs to stitch. And last weekend I turned the stitched strawberries into small pillows, just the way of finishing I like very much. Now I have a basket full of strawberries.

The first is only a part of a design, the original has some more motives but I just wanted the strawerries. I finished it into a tie-on pillow.

Summer by NeedleWorkPress

stitched on white Zweigart Belfast with a nameless red floss

The second has lots of strawberries, small and big ones, and even some strawberry flowers. Besides the stitched birds you can see some tiny butterflies in the lace that I sewed on. A piece of lace that I received from my daughter-in-law who knows my love of ribbons and lace and who knows that I don't have access to these lovely things.

Sweet Strawberry by Cosmic Handmade

stitched on Zweigart Belfast with DMC

The third little pillow is the smallest. The colour I used for the strawberries might look a bit strange as it's not really red but pink, but I just loved it for this pattern, it's Tugtupite by Vikki Clayton.

Strawberry by Lizzie*Kate

stitched with Vikki Clayton silks on Zweigart Belfast

This pillow is an oldie. I stitched and finished it many years ago before I had a blog. It's not a freebie like the others but came together with the threads, which might be Crescent Colour Threads. It was the perfect addition to my strawberry basket.

Deep in the Field by Little House Needleworks

stitched on Zweigart Belfast with the threads from the package

The last pillow didn't fit into my basket although it also has small strawberries. But for the finishing I used different fabric and ribbon colours.

Summer 2010 by Industrioushead

stitched with DMC on Zweigart Belfast

That's it for today. Now I will be diving into my WIP box and will continue stitching on some of them. And I'm already thinking of some fall stitching but haven't decided on anything particular yet.

Thank you all for your visits and especially for your dear comments.

Happy Stitching!

Cathey, today it's your blogoversary, and you will see lots and lots of pumpkins on your blogging sisters' blogs. They are all for you. And here is my pumpkin for you.

Simple Pleasures by Christine Rogalski

in Cross Stitch & Needlework Oct 97

stitched with DMC and WDW pearl thread

Love and hugs to you, Cathey!

*********************

Go over to Daffycat's who organized "Pumpkins for Cathey" and see more pumpkins. Have fun!

Since the beginning of this month we have been back home, home again after a whole month far away from here. We spent October in the US visiting with our little grandson. He is such a little sweetie, one and a half years old and starting to speak. We were together with him at least for a couple of hours each day and it was heaven. Those of you who are grandparents, too, know what I'm talking about.

Once we were also travelling for three days visiting Rocky Mountain National Park. It was not as easy as usual to get there as all the direct roads were washed away by the floodings in September and not reconstructed yet. It was incredible to see the damage that the flood had made in some places. So, there weren't many tourists up in RMNP. And when we visited Sprague Lake at 10 am we were the only visitors for quite a while.

Wandering around the lake was like in a fairy tale. We were there twice. At our first visit parts of the lake were still frozen. Two days later it was much warmer and the sun had melted most of the ice. Although Trail Ridge Road was already closed for the winter we had amazing views from everywhere we went.

This is one of my favourite pictures showing some of the mountains and the meadows where we could see and watch lots of elks. Fall is such a wonderful time in the mountains.

Coming back home again was good - sleeping in our own beds, getting back to my stitching place, preparing my next quilting project. But on the other hand I miss our little darling and his parents. But hey, there's the possibility to skype!

Last month I was RAKed twice. From Nancy I received this great array of fabrics for creating my little pillows. It's not easy to get my hands on Halloween themed fabrics here so Nancy spoiled me with three great fabrics. Look at the middle one with all those black bats and owls and spiders. Or the one on the right hand side with all the little ghosties. Aren't they terrific? And Nancy even added a Christmas fabric and an Easter fabric with lots of Easter eggs, and she threw in two of Carrie's Threads - exactly my colours. Thank you so much, Nancy.

While I was away, I received a little pinkeep stitched and finished by Hazel, one of my stitching friends from the UK. Unfortunately she has no blog but she should have one and share her beautiful stitching, don't you think?

Hazel sent me this little gift to celebrate my retirement. And the saying she chose goes so very well with it. Thank you for this little gem, Hazel.

That is all for this morning. Now I'll go and read some of your blogs and then it's stitching. Or maybe continue my quilting project? We'll see.

Wishing you all a great week!

..... what do I want more? Hmmm, maybe some more time to squeeze some more reading in. That sounds weird when it's said by someone who is retired and who doesn't have little children that keep you busy. But it's my daily decision now when I drink my tea in the morning: Do I want to continue working on my current quilting project? Or do I pull out my cross stitching project? Or is it a book that calls my name? Decisions, decisions.

Before I went on vacation in October I was absorbed by fabrics. I made a bag for my daughter. It was a kit that I bought two years ago and it contained batik fabrics in all the rainbow colours. It was so much fun to sew it together.

And I attended a class where I learned a new-to-me technique which is called "twisted log cabin". It's not difficult to make and here is the block that I made during class.

Meanwhile I have been sewing two more blocks but I changed the colours a bit because I wasn't happy with how the colours of my first block turned out. I'll show you my finished project in my next post, maybe.

And as it was IHSW weekend I pulled out the Plymouth Sampler by Brenda Keyes and added some stitches. I started this sampler years ago but it soon landed in my WIP box. Then back in August I pulled it out and have been stitching on it since then. During the weekend I stitched some of the green house on the left hand side.

I hope to get the sampler finished this year but I'm not really sure if this is possible with all the quilting projects I have in mind, and with all the books that are piling up on my desk.

That is all for today. I thank you all, my dear readers, for visiting and for leaving all the lovely comments that are so motivating and inspiring. Now I will be visiting the new blog posts in my reader and then decide if I'll do some stitching or some quilting :))

I wish you all a great day!

Some time ago I saw Marcy's blog post about her finishing frenzy and all the ornaments she had finished. So I asked her to send that finishing bug over to me as I had finished stitching a couple of pieces and they had been lying in a box waiting to be finished. And Marcy did it, the finishing bug finally arrived at my place, lol.

What is it that always keeps me from finishing my stitched pieces? I think it's not the finishing process itself - although I always prefer stitching to finishing - it's the process before the finishing. All these questions: What do I want to make? An ornament? A pillow? A bag? A sewing case? A purse? What fabrics, ribbons etc do I want to use? And then I start tearing all my finishing supplies apart in order to find the perfect ribbon, button, charm, fabric. It usually is a loooong process. Once the decisions are made the finishing itself is rather quick.

So, what did I finish? The first was a freebie from last year and you have seen it on many blogs. It was my first of this designer and one of my projects for this year's Crazy Challenge.

Fall Mystery by By the Bay Needleart

stitched on Zweigart 36 ct Edinburgh with DMC

The second is also from this year's Crazy Challenge. It's a chart from a new-to-me designer and I loved stitching it. I particularly love the little porcupines taking that midnight walk. The little pillow looks a bit wonky on the picture because I had forgotten the thin interface that I always use for the finishing.

Midnight Stroll by The Yankee Stitcher

stitched on Zweigart 36 ct Edinburgh linen with DMC

Then there were three little Santas that I had stitched last year but never finished.

Santas by The Prairie Schooler book 36

stitched on Zweigart 32 ct Belfast linen with DMC

Now, after all that finishing I'm a bit exhausted, lol. So I'll be doing some planning for the next year. I love planning my stitching years and of course I always find so many things that I already know that it will be impossible to stitch them all. But a little dreaming is allowed, isn't it? Do you also plan your next stitching year?

Thank you all for your visits on my blog, for reading my posts and for taking the time to leave a little comment so that I know you were here. Comments are like the salt in a soup, aren't they. And I do love them.

Have a nice and stress-free weekend!

I was wondering if I should do a last post this year, but then I thought why not. So I'll wrap up the old year with my last two finishes in 2013.

I was looking for a small design to stitch for a friend's birthday and as I was in a Prairie Schooler mood I pulled out the folder with their books and soon found something I wanted to stitch. It's one of the older Prairie Schooler books and I stitched a part of it. I finished it into a pinkeep without pins because I wanted the finishing to be plain and simple without too many accessories added.

Three Bears by The Prairie Schooler

stitched on 32 ct Zweigart Belfast linen with DMC

The second finish is a little rose for a card. Can you believe that I stitched the stem and leaves twice? There are a lot of quarter stitches and somehow I wasn't used to stitching quarter stitches any longer. After finishing all the green parts I realized that everything was very bulky and wasn't looking good - I had stitched three-quarter stitches instead of quarter stitches, oh my! So I threw the piece of fabric into the bin and restarted the rose on a new piece stitching the quarter stitches as they are supposed to be.

Rose motif from 2001 Cross Stitch Designs

stitched on 32 ct linen with DMC

I also wanted to finish a project that I had started for the Crazy Challenge 2011 but it wasn't to be. There are some spaces left that I have to fill in with just one colour and you know how boring this is. So I always have to interrupt that filling in and stitch on a more interesting project. Fortunately I have enough WIPs to choose from, lol.

So I finished 20 smaller pieces and 8 bigger pieces in 2013. No real BAP among them.

Now on to the "old" bag. I sewed it for my DIL some years ago and when she and my son were here to spend the Christmas holidays with us I took the chance to take a picture of that bag. It was one of the first bags that I ever made and I was rather proud that I managed to sew it without making any mistakes.

Planning the new stitching year - what a delight! My first plans are already laid out and you can see the result on one of the pages underneath my header - 2014, my year of BAPs. Throughout the year I was browsing through all these really, really big charts in my stash and was kitting some of them up. I decided that it was time to start these now, lol. And I'm really looking forward to stitching them. It will be a lot of fun. You will see my first starts in January.

To end this last post let me thank you for your visits on my blog and for all the wonderful comments you have left this year. Thank you all!

I wish you a great 2014 full of health, contentment and a lot of stitching time!

The new year has started and as usual during the first days of January I have seen many Crazy Challenges pop up on so many blogs that I read, and it was a lot of fun to look at all your new starts. During the first couple of days I nearly became weak and was wondering if I couldn't do a Crazy Challenge again this year. But then I thought of my plan for this year, which is also crazy enough: my Crazy Year of BAPs.

So I started the new stitching year kitting up the last projects for my new BAPs. I had bought all the threads needed for them last year already, but still had to choose and cut the different fabrics. When this was done I was pulling out all my WIPs and UFOs in order to choose one for a Friday SAL with friends. And then I thought about a kind of rotation plan that will allow me to work on my BAPs, on my UFO and on different small designs in between. I know that all my rotation plans work for a while and then they fall apart, but I don't mind - I just follow them as long as possible and then I think about something new, lol.

The UFO I wanted to stitch during the Friday SAL was quickly found, it's Random Thoughts by The Drawn Thread. I started it in 2004 - yes, 10 years ago, oh my - and worked on it last in 2007. When I looked at it I immediately remembered why I had put it away back then. It was the little verse in the center of the design which had to be stitched over one. I don't like stitching over one. But during the first Friday SAL I did it.

And last Friday I continued and stitched a couple more motifs.

I hope to stay with this project until it will be done.

I was also stitching on two smaller designs and could finally finish them. The first is #1 of the Anniversaries of the Heart series that I started two years ago but then realized that I didn't like the fabric and restarted it on the blue-grey fabric. The other designs of this series were stitched during the last two years and I thought I could show them together with the newly finished one.

Anniversaries of the Heart #1-4 by Blackbird Designs

stitched with the recommended threads on 32 ct Belfast

The second finish has to wait, I just want to finish it into something before showing it. The finish-finishing thing is one of my goals, one of the serious ones ...

So far I have started two BAPs (#2 and #5 on my list) and it's just what I wanted it to be: a lot of fun. But you don't see more than a border on the first and blue and green blobs on the second so I thought I'd show them when I'll have started the next two, maybe with red and white blobs. That will be more of a colour variety, lol.

That's it for today.. I hope you all had a wonderful start of your stitching year and are all stitching up a storm.

Happy Stitching to all of you!!!

Hello, dear friends. Here we are after the first IHSW of this year. And stitching I was, and I was thoroughly enjoying it - different projects, no frogging, no shortage of threads, what do I want more?

Friday I was stitching on my UFO which isn't a UFO any longer but now it classifies as a WIP again. Here is my progress on Random Thoughts. I stitched everything underneath the reindeer and the house. As you can see there was again some over-one stitching but instead of leaving it out I finished it - the little cat and the tiny flower. I'm so glad that it's done so I can continue with something pleasant next week.

Saturday I decided it was time to stitch something for one of my goals for this year - an ornament each month. But as all my former an-ornament-a-month experiences were more than bad I thought I should try it with my favourite designer, The Prairie Schooler. And I pulled out all my PS Santa books and chose one of the Santas to stitch. Here he is.

Now I just hope that I can stay with these lovely Santas and stitch one of them each month.

Sunday I started stitching a little rose but after a while I realized that I had caught a little bug and so I was a bit under the weather for the rest of the day. So I thought why not stretch the weekend a bit and include Monday as well? And yesterday I finished the little rose from the Better Homes & Gardens book of 2001 designs. It was not a very fast stitch because there were 11 colours involved plus backstitching. But I love the result.

Now I hear you ask: What about the finishing? because last time I had said that it would be one of my goals to finish my stitched items immediately. This week I'll do the finishing on the ornament and the rose and show you the results in my first post for the Smalls SAL that I have joined this year. You can find the button and link in my sidebar.

That's it for today. Now I'll go and start another one of my BAPs.
Thank you so much for your visits and comments. I hope you are all safe, safe from the snow and cold in the northern hemisphere, safe from the heat and bushfires in the southern hemisphere.

Happy Stitching wherever you are!

Hello friends, it's just a week since my last post, very unusual for me to post so often but it has to do with the two groups I joined at the end of last year. The buttons of both groups are in my sidebar, so if you want to know more about them, just click the buttons. And now it's time to report about how I was doing in these two groups.

1. Stitch from Stash was a success. I didn't buy any new charts or supplies and only stitched from what is in my stash.I stitched on:

- three WIPs/UFOs: Random Thoughts by The Drawn Thread, Plymouth Sampler by Brenda Keyes, #1 of the Anniversaries of the Hearts;
- three smalls: Santa by Prairie Schooler, a rose from 2001 Cross Stitch Designs, Coeur Volage by Isabelle Vautier;
- four BAP starts: Seasonal Samplings by Linda Myers, Susan Singleton by The Scarlet Letter, The Rockies & Northwest Sampler by Ginger & Spice, The Quiltmaker by Lavender & Lace.

All the charts I was stitching on or started have been in my stash for years, many years, incredibly many years. There is only one chart that I bought last year, Susan Singleton for Nicola's Scarlet Letter Challenge.

2. For the Smalls SAL I finished three little projects. You saw two of them in my last post but now they are made into an ornament and a card. The heart is from the Crazy Challenge 2013, the others were started and finished this month.

#1

Rose from 2001 Cross Stitch Designs

Better Homes and Gardens

Coeur Volage by Isabelle Vautier

stitched with fabric and threads from the kit

Santa from Book 88 by The Prairie Schooler

stitched on 32 ct Belfast with DMC

So far it has been a successful month - some finishes, good progress on a UFO that has become a WIP again, some new starts. My little rotation works fine and I stuck to my monthly goals for this stitching year: a PS Santa, a bird and a small design for a card or a gift.

Next time I'll show you the big projects from my list that I have started. Thank you all for visiting and reading my posts, and particularly for taking the time to leave a comment. I love to hear from you and I appreciate your encouraging and inspiring comments. Thank you!

Happy Stitching to you all!

Hello friends, last time I showed you some small projects, today I want to show you the first BAPs that I started last month. I have always loved these Big Ambitious Projects, but I was a bit reluctant to start too many of them because I thought things like: Aren't they too big? Will I ever finish them? I'm sure you all know these kind of questions. So, every once in a while I started a big project and some of them were finished, some of them became UFOs. But then my retirement started last year and I went through all my charts and magazines and found all these wonderful big projects and thought: When will I ever start them if not now? And that was the beginning, lol. I kitted up 12 more or less big projects and started some of them last month.

Here are the first four BAPs.

#1 is a design by Linda Myers, A seasonal Sampling. When I started stitching I fell in love with her designs and bought some of them but never dared stitching them. Now I do. I started with the summer section, it's the second from the top.

#2 is one of the samplers by Ginger & Spice, The Rocky Mountains Sampler. I don't know if these samplers are still around but back then I collected them and stitched one in the late 1990s. I started with the horizontal border in the middle of the design.

#3 is the newest of all the charts, it's Susan Singleton by The Scarlet Letter that I bought last year. Isn't this a wonderful flower with these bright and brilliant colours? A real fun stitch.

#4 is The Quiltmaker by Lavender & Lace. I'm sure that many of you have her in your stash. I started stitching with the quilt that she is working on.

As you can see I had a lot of fun last month, with my BAPs and with my smalls. I also have a bag on the go that I want to finish by the end of this month but at the moment I'm not really motivated to pull it out and work on it. All I want to do is stitch.

Thank you for all your visits on my blog after the last post and for taking the time to leave all your inspiring comments. I hope that all the snow and cold and the storms that some of you are confronted with will stop soon.

Have a good time, all of you!

Last Friday was SAL day and I finished all the stitching on my UFO. Here is Random Thoughts by The Drawn Thread.

But it's not finished yet. There is still the hemstitching to do between the border and the center piece. And then to add the little charms.

Until next week.

It was a wonderful weekend here, dear friends. The sun was shining and it was rather warm so that some walks were in order. And the rest was stitching.

I was working on two projects alternately. The first was one of my WIPs, The Plymouth Sampler by Brenda Keyes. Nearly everything was stitched on it, there was just a lot of filling in left in the borders. That was so boring that I took turns with my BAP #5 that I started last week.

Here is a picture of Spring in the Valley, a design by Stoney Creek. If you have already stitched something by Stoney Creek you know that there are always lots of colours involved. Can you believe that I have already used 17 different greens on this first section of the design? That means a lot of colour changes but I like it because the result is a very detailed picture.

And here is the Plymouth Sampler, finished and in all its beauty. I once started it for the Crazy Challenge 2011 and now all my crazies from that year are finished. Stitching it was a lot of fun. It was my first Brenda Keyes design - and certainly not the last one - and it was my first project on 40 ct linen.

The Plymouth Sampler by Brenda Keyes

stitched on 40 ct Newcastle with DMC

That is all for now. I will come back at the end of the month for a smalls report. Thank you all, dear readers for your frequent visits on my blog. And a very special thank you to all who take the time and leave a comment. I read them all with a smile on my face. I can't answer to all your comments but I always come for a visit to your blogs and leave a comment there.

Happy stitching to you all!

Wow, two posts within two days, that's more than unusual - and it's only because of all the challenges and SALs I'm a part of this year. So let's just jump into the first report.

1. Stitch from Stash

This month I had to buy some supplies which I still need for some of the projects that I kitted up a while ago for my year of BAPs, but somehow I had forgotten ordering these threads:
1 Glissen Gloss white
1 spool of Kreinik metallic braid
3 WDW
and for these I spent 14,25 € this month. So I'm completely within the budget of 25 €.
No new charts - this means that my wishlist has been growing and growing and growing, lol.

2. Smalls SAL

I have stitched and finished three smalls this month, and they all correspond to my monthly goals for this year: an ornament, a bird and something to use for a gift or a card.

#1 is my second ornament this year, another Santa.

Old World Santas II (book 88) by the Prairie Schooler

stitched on Permin linen with DMC

And here are the two of them together

Next month I think I'll choose a Santa with a blue coat.

#2 is a freebie that is quite new and I immediately saw the three little birdies in the picture. I changed the border and the words a little bit, added a pink flower button and finished it as a little pillow with a pink cording around the edges. I love cording and I love pink.

You Are So Loved (freebie) by The Snowflower Diaries

stitched on 32 ct linen from Zweigart with DMC

#3 is another rose that I finished as a card. It seems I'm a bit hooked on the roses from the 2001 Cross Stitch Designs but they are all so beautiful.

Rose from 2001 Cross Stitch Designs

Better Homes and Gardens
stitched on 32 ct Belfast from Zweigart with Anchor

I think that's enough for today and for this week, lol. My blogging spree is over and before I can show you something new I have to go and stitch it. And again thank you all for coming to my blog and for all your wonderful inspiring and heart-warming comments.

Have a great stitching time!

Hello again after a couple of weeks without posting. My stitching was a bit slow-going these past weeks due to our wonderful weather with lots of sunshine and warm temperatures - perfect for doing some work in the garden preparing it for spring. But yesterday it became cold again and this morning I could see some snow covered slopes in the distance. And I'm so glad that there's no snow here at my place, cold yes, but no snow.

I want to do my SFS report already today as there won't be any change until the end of this month. And I can keep it short: I didn't spend anything this month on stitching supplies or new charts. That leaves me with a budget of 60 € (January 25 €, February 10 €, March 25 €) to spend somewhen this year. Preferably when my Italian online store will have a sale - and they have two or three good sales throughout the year.

No pictures so far? So, on to the IHSW of the last weekend. I decided to pull out Random Thoughts for a last time. You remember that I had finished stitching everything including the border but had hesitated to hem-stitch and finish the piece. When I looked at the instructions again I saw that I should have pulled the threads for the hem-stitching BEFORE stitching the border. I was a bit frustrated but then I thought that pulling the threads and reweaving them throught some parts of the already stitched border wouldn't destroy the border completely. And so I did it with some mixed feelings - - - and it worked fine. It was a bit fiddly but I didn't have to restitch anything. And you can't even see where it happened. So, here is the finished piece, hem-stitched and with all the charms added.

Random Thoughts by The Drawn Thread

stitched with the silk threads from the kit on 32 ct Belfast linen

And that's a little detail from the bottom of Random Thoughts and it's me :)

Now that it's finished I can't understand why I had it sitting in my UFO box for such a long time. It took me ten years to finish it. Thank You to my Friday SAL group who were very inspiring and helped me to stay motivated. Now I am "allowed " to start another Drawn Thread piece and it will be Snactuary which is a project of my Year of BAPs.

What else have I stitched this month?
First there is a little bookmark which I discovered when I was browsing through a very old part part of my stash. I found a couple of loose pages torn out of a book of bookmarks. I wrote down the name of the designer but not the name of the book. I love stitched bookmarks and have a small collection of them. So, when I start reading a new book I can often choose a bookmark with a similar theme as the story of the book.

Mountain Scene by Rita Weiss

from a Leisure Arts book

stitched on 32 ct Belfast with Anchor

Then I started a new project from my Year of BAPs list. It's Snow Days by Mirabila and I can't say for how many years it has already been in my stash.

At the moment I'm still stitching on some smalls for the Smalls SAL and I hope to have them finished by the end of the month. A little birdie and another PS santa from my monthly list are already stitched.

This post is already much too long so I'll come to an end, but not without thanking you all for your visits on my blog and for commenting. I *love* your comments and enjoy reading them more than once. And I always try to visit your blogs and give you the same pleasure you gave me with your comments. Thank you all!

Enjoy Spring or Autumn wherever you are!

Since my last post this week I have finished a couple of smalls that I stitched at the beginning of this month. They are a part of my monthly goals -
stitch a bird
stitch a PS Santa
stitch a flower for a card
and finish them all instead of storing them in a drawer. And here they are:

#1 a bird
I had this little kit in my stash for quite a while. It contained the wool thread for the leaves in the border and a very nice sun charm. But the charm was much too big for my finished stitching so I took a charm that I had in my stash. And I think it looks good with it.

Bluebird Song by Elizabeth Designs

stitched on a mystery piece of linen with Anchor

#2 a PS Santa
This time it's the blue Santa.

Santa from Old World Santas II (book 88) by The Praireie Schooler

stitched on a mystery piece of linen with DMC

These are the three Santas that I have stitched this year:

#3 a flower for a card
This book has so many small flower designs that it's really hard to make your choice. This time I stitched this little purple flower but I have to admit that I don't know what flower this is. Unfortunately they don't give the names of all the flowers.

Flower from 2001 Cross Stitch Designs

Better Homes and Gardens

stitched on a mystery piece of 28 ct linen with Anchor

Now it's time to choose the smalls for next month, to pull out another UFO for my Friday SAL group and to browse a bit through my stash in order to find something that I want to stitch immediately.

Have a great stitching time, you all!

Hello again after being away from blogging for quite a while. Two whole months have passed since my last post. In April we were visiting our little grandson and his family. Benjamin is two years old now and such a little sweetie. I'm totally and completely in love with him. But how could I not be, I'm his Oma :) And after being back home at the beginning of May I have been so busy that I haven't had the time nor have I felt like blogging until now. And if it weren't for the SFS report there wouldn't be a post today either, lol. But I have been stitching a lot, it seems that I had to make up for April when there was no time for stitching.

On to the SFS report. This time I spent some money on three new charts although I hadn't intended to do so. A week ago there was a needlework show quite near my region and of course I went there to see the exhibition of very old and of modern quilts, and to grab the occasional fat quarter here and there. But there were also a couple of booths with stitching supplies, and the last of these booths - I was about to leave - had a design on display that caught my attention because it had been on my wish list for quite a while. It's the one on the left - and the other two just slipped into my basket as well.

Now my total is:
January: no spending, 25€ left
February: 15€ spent on threads, 10€ left
March: no spending, 25€ left
April: 15€ spent on threads, 10€ left
May: 46€ spent

This leaves me with 49€ to carry over to the next months.

This month I have finished a couple of things. First is #6 of the Anniversaries series by BBD. It's my fifth finish of this series and I dedicated it to a very dear friend who I met for the first time when we were still students. We met in France, in Brittany, and spent several summers there in a row. It's the flowers in this design that reminded me of her. They look like the hydrangeas that you can see everywhere in Brittany.

Anniversaries of the Heart #6 by BBD

stitched on 32ct Belfast linen with the recommended threads

All the other things that I finished are smalls but I haven't done the finishing on them yet.

The weekend before the last I participated in the IHSW but haven't posted my IHSW report yet. So, here it is, a very late one. I had intended to do some finishing during that weekend because I had stitched some smalls. But that wasn't to be because I made the mistake to go through one of my folders holding many of the projects that I want to stitch this year. And I came across this one:

It was a gift from many years ago and all kitted up and I felt the urge to start it immediately. I'm sure that you all know that feeling so there's no need to describe it, lol. It's pure fun to stitch and not too big so I might finish it next week or so.

Before I come to the end of this post I want to show you this little beauty that I received at the beginning of this month. The word little can be easily replaced by the word tiny because that's what it is, tiny.

This was stitched by a friend of my Friday SAL group, over one on a 40ct fabric with delicate thread colours. What a beautiful gift to receive. Thank you so much, Francoise.

And thank you all for your visits on my blog and for the time you take for leaving me a comment. It's always wonderful and so motivating to read what you say about my stitching and finishing. Thank you!

Have a great time, you all!

This morning I have already spent at least two hours on the terrace reading a mystery. And although the sun has been shining it was rather cool so that I would have needed a jumper. But I was enjoying feeling that cool air on my skin. And I was thinking of the heat wave we were having last week - hot air was coming up north from the Sahara and it was so hot, much too hot for me. Impossible to stitch or sew. Last Thursday was the first day when it began to cool down so it was the perfect day to finish the smalls I stitched back in May and that have been sitting on my sewing table since then.

After seeing the monthly stamps on Mii's blog I thought it would be fun to stitch some month-related smalls and fill a little basket or bowl with them each month. Of course, the word fill is a bit exaggerated but I thought it would be a good start to have two little pillows for each month. So I was searching for some freebies and patterns from magazines and came up with these for May and June.

left: The Potting Bench, freebie by Erica Michaels

stitched on 32ct Belfast with Anchor threads

right: May from World of Cross Stitch #176

stitched on 32ct Belfast with Anchor threads

left Petite Maison de Juin, freebie by Maryse

stitched on 28ct Lugana with Anchor threads

right: Sand Castles, freebie by Erica Michaels

stitched on 32ct Belfast linen with Anchor threads

I was playing around with ribbons and lace that I had in my stash for many years already and I definitely love the result. July will be a bit of a problem because most freebies I found are patriotic designs. So I have to see what else I can find.

While looking through my freebies I also found this lovely bird pattern. I love this little goldfinch together with the pink flowers and it was a real fun stitch.

Goldfinch, freebie by Janlynn

stitched on 28ct Lugana with Anchor threads

That's all for today. Thank you for all your motivating comments and your welcome back on my last post. I hope that I will soon have more to share with you all. Thank you for your visits!

Happy Stitching to you all!

Good morning, dear friends. It's definitely a good morning, sunny but not hot, just perfect to sit on the terrace having a cup of tea and watching the birds. That's what I was doing until 5 minutes ago. But then I decided to write a new blog post. Because of them, the magpies.

Quite a while ago a couple of magpies built their nest high on a tree just across the street. And they discovered our garden as their living room. Hmmm, I'm not particularly fond of magpies since I saw one of them destroy the eggs of a couple of redstarts who were nesting under our roof. They are so huge and a lot of the other birds that visit our garden regularly have made themselves rare since the magpies are here. Then I remembered a chart that I had bought many years ago and thought that it was time now to finally stitch it. Here is Counting Magpies by Birds of a Feather, my next project.

And that leads me to this month's Stitch From Stash update. I didn't plan to buy any new stash this month but as I don't have the threads for the magpie chart I had to order them. And as it would be insane to spend a lot of money on posatge for threee skeins of thread I also ordered two past issues of Cross Stitch & Needlework. All for the same amount of postage. So I will spend
8,10 € for three skeins of WDW
14 € for two magazines.

Now my total is:
January: no spending, 25€ carry over
February: 15€ spent on threads, 10€ carry over
March: no spending, 25€ carry over
April: 15€ spent on threads, 10€ carry over
May: 46€ spent on charts
June: 22,10€ spent on magazines and threads, 2,90€ carry over

which leaves me with 51,90 € to carry over to next month.

I have also stitched this month. I started another BAP from my Year or BAPs list. It's the Wild Cherry Blossom Fairy from issue 73 of The World of Cross Stitching, a British magazine. I haven't stitched a lot so far, but it's a start.

And then I pulled out one of my BAPs that I started some months ago. I finished the summer section of A Seasonal Sampling by Linda Myers. I love this project a lot. I went from here

to here

Last time I showed you the start of my monthly little baskets. Thank you so much for all your inspiring comments about the little pillows I have finished so far. But the idea for these monthly baskets was not my own. I had this idea in my head since I saw the monthly bowls that Carol showed on her blog during the year 2012. She stitched small designs on a certain theme each month. I'm sure that you all know Carol's blog, but if not go there and enchanted by her fantastic stitching and finishing. Meanwhile I have see monthly themed projects on many blogs and this year and the following ones I join the party. This monthly stitching is a lot of fun from the search for small designs until the finishing.

Thank you for coming by and

Have a great start of the summer!

Hello friends, June is over and it went so quickly that I was literally left behind. Last week I had wanted to write a last June post with my little smalls for the Smalls SAL but it wasn't to be. I first had to create some motivation for the finishing before creating a post. And when the finishing finally happened June was gone.

Here we are with my two smalls for the Smalls SAL. Since the beginning of the year I have been stitching a little PS Santa each month except in April when we were travelling. And as I was a bit slow in May I stitched the two Santas for May and June last month. I chose the two red Santas.

Old World Santas II book 88 by The Prairie Schooler

stitched with DMC on a mystery piece of linen

Now there are only two Santas left from this book that I want to stitch, a golden one and a blue one. For the rest of the year I have to choose a new Prairie Schooler book and fortunately there are enough.

After the smalls it was time for some biggies. So I also pulled out one of the big projects that I had started at the beginning of this year and stitched a bit on it. It's the Rocky Mountains and Northwest Sampler. I really love this Ginger&Spice sampler with all the different scemes on it. I stitched the first scene with the boat in the little harbour and the lighthouse on top of a hill. Furthermore I started the border on the left hand side. This sampler is a pure fun stitch for me and I can't wait to pull it out again.

Then I thought why not start my next big project from my personal Year of BAPs challenge. That's not a new thought, I think that very often and could start something new every second day, lol. So I went through my bags with the kitted projects and found that Amish Spring by Diane Pahlen was calling the loudest. I always start in the middle and in the middle of this design is this great blue quilt. It's the Star of Bethlehem pattern.

That's all for today. Next time I'll show my start on the magpie pattern and my monthly smalls for July. Thank you for all your wonderful comments on my last blog post. They were all appreciated!

Happy stitching and happy summer!

Retired!!!!

A Basket Full of Strawberries for the IHSW

Pumpkins for Cathey

Back from travelling

Quilting and stitching .....

The finishing bug has arrived

Two little finishes and an old bag

January 13

January 21 - IHSW

January 28 - Stitch from Stash and Smalls SAL

February 9 - My BAPs 1 - 4

February 18 - A quick post

February 25 - IHSW report

February 26 - Smalls SAL and Stitch From Stash Challenge

March 25 - A productive IHSW and Stitch From Stash report

March 28 - Smalls SAL

May 28 - Stitch From Stash and more

June 15 - Finally a finishing day

June 23 - Magpies and Stitch From Stash

July 3 - The last bits of June