At Brigitte's Place

Hello dear friends, it's the perfect day today for writing a post. It's dark and rainy and cool - and I love it. Not so much the dark and rainy part, but the fact that it's cool outside. The house is still heated up from the hot days we were having last week but opening the windows and letting in the cool air is doing the trick.

Last weekend was IHSW - International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, organized by Joyce at Random Ramblings. I was stitching on an old WIP that I had pulled out for my little Friday SAL group, Grandmother's House by Told in a Garden. It's a remainder of the Crazy Challenge 2011.

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During the last Fridays I had stitched both sides of the fence and the four people standing and sitting in front of the fence on the left hand side. And last weekend I was stitching the two girls with the fruit basket between them, the little boy sitting on the bench and the girl standing behind the quilt. It's a fun stitch and I can see a finish in the near future.

Right at the beginning of July I stitched and finished two monthly little pillows. Both patterns are freebies, one of them, the little cottage, has been in my freebie folder for quite a while and I'm glad that I had downloaded it when it was published because it's no longer available. I found the other one on a French blog and I love all the little details on it. I wasn't very creative when it came to the finishing, so this is what I came up with.

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left: Juillet by Valérie

stitched with Anchor threads my choice

right: Maison de juillet by Maryse

stitched with Ancor/DMC threads

After that it was magpie time. I started my Counting Magpies project and I was on a roll until the first skein of WDW's Onyx was finished. And the second skein that I had ordered together with the first hadn't arrived. And still hasn't. So everything has come to a halt. I have to admit that I am a bit frustrated.
I have no idea when the second skein will arrive. But it showed me that I'd better rely on my DMC threads for future projects.

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On to the Stitch From Stash report. (If you want to know more about it, click on the the button in my side bar). I had hoped to be able to spend July without buying new stash. But it wasn't to be. I'm a follower of June's blog Butterfly Wings and after seeing some of her progress pictures of a new SAL by Sara Guermani I gave in and joined the fun, which cost me 10€. So I still have 15€ left from my July budget of 25€, which I will add to the carry-over money from the last months. I will start Sara's SAL as soon as I have made my decision about the fabric.

That is all for today. Have a wonderful week full of summer or winter activities depending on where you live.

Happy Stitching!

Hello, dear friends, it's time for a new blog post but this time there won't be a lot of pictures although there was a lot of stitching going on.

Let me first thank you for all the kind comments you left on my last blog post. But what happened to some of them? It's absolutely strange. There was a comment and it showed up in my email box and in the list of comments and on my blog. And after two days it disappeared from my blog and from the list of comments. And it wasn't deleted by the commenter. If I hadn't answered to that comment I would have thought that there had never been one. Isn't that weird? And there are comments which are in my list of comments and on my blog but never arrived in my email box. I have absolutely no idea what was happening there. I just do hope that it will not happen again.

But now on to stitching. First there was the Smalls SAL and of course I'm a bit late. I wanted to do a finishing that I had never done before and so it was a bit tricky. But in the end I succeeded. Here is my rose heart.

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Rose from Lena Magazine L504

stitched on white 32ct mystery linen with DMC

I had seen this kind of finishing on so many blogs before so I thought the rose that I had stitched quite a while before would be perfect for such a heart. And as it turned out well I decided to give it to a friend as a gift. I hope she will like it.

Then I started the next big project for my personal Year of BAPs. After my first look at the chart I wasn't sure if this was stitchable at all, lol. I had been working on this kind of pictures before but those patterns were so much clearer and better readable than this one. But I gave it a try and worked my way through the symbols. Here is BAP #9, a picture with birds by Marjolein Bastin.

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It was so great to see how the picture was growing that I couldn't stop after finishing the first bird but I went on stitching on this project and have meanwhile added some of the leaves and the flowers underneath the bird.

That's it for today. I have to work in the garden today as the sun is shining and there is no rain announced. I hope you are enjoying some sunshine, too, where you live.

Happy Sunshine!

Hello dear friends,

this post is a bit late, it's an oldie like the projects I want to show you today. No, that isn't completely true, the projects are not old (besides one perhaps), they are newly stitched, but the charts are old and so they don't ask for any fancy fabrics or threads. Don't get me wrong, I love overdyed fabrics and threads and have already stitched a lot of projects with them. But after my last experiences with overdyed threads I'm just happy with my plain old DMCs.

My latest Friday SAL piece is finished. I pulled it out several weeks ago and stitched on it mainly on Fridays. I started Grandmother's House back in 2011 so it was really an old project but the chart is so much older, it's from 1994. I love the Amish patterns from Told in a Garden, their simplicity and the scenes they show.

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Grandmother's House by Told in a Garden

stitched on Zweigart natural Edinburgh linen with DMC

I have already pulled out the companion piece, Grandfather's Barn, and have looked for all the threads. DMCs of course. I can't wait to start it.

My second finish this month is a small so it qualifies for the Smalls SAL of this month. It's a little purse for my DIL's birthday. She loves roses and I love stitching roses so I thought this would be the perfect gift for her. The project was a kit by the Textile Heritage Collection, which I bought many years ago. It's also an oldie, it's from 2001.

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Damask Rose Purse by Iain Miller for Textile Heritage Collection

stitched on Zweigart cream Belfast linen with threads from kit

I love their little kits, they make nice little gifts and are a lot of fun to stitch.

The last oldie is the Marjolein Bastin project that I showed you in my last post already. It's one of my BAPs and last time I had just started it and had finished the little bird. But then I couldn't put it down and had to continue stitching on it. It was so addictive. So, here is where I am now.

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The chart is from an old German magazine from 1993 and meanwhile the store where I bought it doesn't exist any longer, nor does the magazine. I have no idea if there are still any German stitching magazines, I haven't seen any at the newsstands for years.

I would also have liked to show some progress on my magpies project but there isn't any. I still haven't received my second skein of WDW Onyx and I think I won't get it because I haven't received an answer from the shop I ordered it from. Now I will look for another online shop that carries WDW threads and if I'm very lucky I will receive the threads this time.

That's all for today. Thank you all, dear friends, for your wonderful comments on my last blog post. Since my last experience with comments that showed on the blog for one day and disappeared on the second I answer to all the comments I receive but of course this is only possible if your email address is given.

Enjoy the rest of summer!

Hello, dear stitching friends,

This is my first post in September and it will stay the only one. What a busy time it has been since my last post - a wedding celebration, friends visiting, a serious and successful attempt to declutter the cellar and much more was happening here during the last weeks. And before the month will be completely gone I thought I should post a little update on my stitching life.

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Hmmm, well, for a while I was in a kind of stitching slump but I'm glad to say that my mojo has come back little by little. You might remember me writing about the problem I was having with some WDW threads and the online store I was ordering them from. My knight in shining armour was Gillie who emailed me that she had bought the thread for me and just needed my address to send it to me. Some days later I received her envelope with the WDW and a lovely piece of fall fabric.
Thank you Gillie. And thank you to all you lovely readers who offered your help as well. You are the most wonderful blogging friends.

And here it is, the project I needed the WDW thread for - all finished.

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Counting Magpies by Birds of a Feather

stitched on 32ct Zweigart Belfast linen with WDW

The border was a bit, well, not tricky but it took me forever to stitch it. But doesn't it look great?

The newbie I want to show you is Sara Guermani's SAL, the Stitching and Quilting Party. I joined the SAL group in July but haven't stitched all the SAL parts that have been sent out by Sara so far. I am here ...

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... and if you want to see what the project is looking like with part 4 already stitched you have to go to Manuela's blog.

There is only one more stitchy picture, it's my contribution to this month's Smalls SAL. Find out more about this SAL by clicking on the button in my sidebar. I still have no idea how I will finish this lovely freebie so for now it has to disappear in my box with unfinished finishes.

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The Earth Laughs in Flowers by Heartstring Samplery (freebie)

stitched on some evenweave with threads from my stash

My monthly stitching has come to a halt and I'm still looking for something that will bring back my motivation for it. I am more or less absorbed by my big projects and when I sit down for stitching it's not with a small but with a big project. But I have collected some monthly freebies so this might be my project for 2015. Yes, I am already thinking about some stitching plans for next year, and I am enjoying it.

Now I must not forget to mention this month's Stitch From Stash challenge. The end of August was too busy to post about SFS so I have to take August as my free month. This month I haven't bought anything so that I can add my budget money to the amount I have already saved during the past months:

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 using the whole budget and 21€ from carry over money
--> 49€ to carry over
June: 22,10€ spent on magazines and threads, 2,90€ carry over
July: 10€ spent on my new SAL, 15€ carry over
August free month
September: no spending, 25€ carry over

... which leaves me with 91.90€ that I can use for my next purchase. I will save it for the time when my ONS will have their next sale. But I am sure that I will not spend this whole amount because this stitching from stash challenge is such a great way to browse through all my charts and magazines and find all the hidden treasures there. No need to buy more than the one or the other absolutely necessary new chart.

Thank you, dear friends, for visiting my blog so regularly and for all your comments which are so motivating, particularly when my stitching mojo has become a bit weak.

Have a great stitching time, you all!

It's the first time that I joined the Friday Night With Friends stitching that Cheryll from Gone Stitchin has organized. So I pulled out one of my BAPs - Cicely Mary Barker's Wild Cherry Blossom Fairy - and started stitching on it already on Friday afternoon. And the stitching went on and on during Saturday and Sunday. And it was wonderful. And my BAP went from here

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to here:

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I completed stitching her dress and added an arm. It will be hard to put the project back into its bag but I want to stitch on a little fall project this evening so that I can add it to my fall basket.

Can you see that my stitching mojo has completely returned? Oh yes, it has!

Happy Fall/Spring stitching!

Hello dear blogging friends,

after a very lovely weekend I come back to the computer with a (for me) unusual post, a blog hop. Two weeks ago Kaye from Kitten Stitching in Australia sent me an invitation to the Around the World Blog Hop and as I liked the theme of this blog hop I said yes. Thank you Kaye, for inviting me.

In this blog hop you are supposed to answer some questions and then give the stick on to other bloggers. I chose two questions and here are my answers.

1. What am I working on?

Yesterday I finished a small, Scenes of Autumn by Homespun Elegance.

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It's the first fall design for me this year and maybe the last. This year I have been busy with starting all those big projects that I chose for my personal Year of BAPs (see the site under the header). But I managed to stitch a couple of smalls in between the big projects.
I'm also working on three quilted Christmas stockings for my DD and her family. No pictures so far.

2. Why do I write/create what I do?

Needlework has always been a passion of mine. I can't exactly say why but I know that I started doing some sort of needlework even before I went to school. A cousin of my mom's was a seamstress and I loved visiting her because she always had these beautiful pieces of fabric lying around. One day she offered to show me how to sew a dress for my doll and so I started sewing at the age of five. It was an extremely simple dress made with a piece of fabric that had many little flowers printed on it.
At school I learnt to knit, to crochet and how to sew an apron. I hated these lessons at school because they were in the afternoon and only for the girls. The boys could stay at home or play football while we were at school. Not very exciting, lol.
But when school was over my interest in needlework came back. I took sewing classes and started sewing all my garments myself, and I learnt again how to knit and to crochet.
Then back in the 1990s we had a Canadian exchange student living with us for a couple of months. In the evenings she was sitting with us on the couch and was cross stitching a Mirabilia fairy. Wow! I wanted to cross stitch too but the problem was how to get some of these wonderful patterns here in Germany. Remember, it was the time before the internet. One day I bought a craft magazine where I found the ad of a company that offered cross stitch patterns. From them I ordered my first patterns, threads and fabrics. And I have been doing cross stitch since then.
Now that I am retired I want to do more quilting and maybe take up crocheting and knitting again. If I find the time, that is, lol.

Now we come to the second part of this blog hop, the hop. I tried to find bloggers in different corners of the blogging world and was browsing through the English speaking blogs in my reader. And then I sent out invitations to bloggers in different countries. And here are the two who wanted to play:

First hop over to Canada and visit Anne on her blog Doll's Musings.
Then on to Thoeria in South Africa, visit her on her blog My Little Corner of Cyberspace.

Next Monday they will show their blog hop post and tell you about their crafts.

That is all for today. I hope you were having a wonderful weekend, too. Thank you all for your visits on my blog and for all the friendly and inspiring comments that you leave. Please, visit Anne and Thoeria and leave your comments for them as well.

A happy week to you all!

Hello, dear stitching friends,

it's already the end of October and time is flying much too fast, don't you think so? But it has been a nice autumn so far. Some great weather for all the work in the garden that had to be done, and some nice rainy days for stitching and sewing and reading. So here are my updates.

Some finishes -Yes, I have had a couple of finishes this month, and as there are two small designs among them I take them as my contribution to the Smalls SAL. Unfortunately the finishing bug hasn't visited this month so only the stitching is completed. I am going to make them into little pillows when I am on my next finishing spree.

#1 is this little cardinal that has been in my stash for so long, but when I saw this little lady on Lynn's blog, all stitched and finished up I pulled her out and stitched her.

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Lady in Red by Valerie Pfeiffer

stitched with DMC on pearl grey Zweigart Belfast linen

#2 is the one that I have already shown in my last post, but here it is with all the references.

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Scenes of Autumn by Homespun Elegance

stitched with all kind of threasds from my stash on clay Zweigart Edinburgh linen

#3 is another autumn finish. And isn't it also related a bit to Halloween? I'm not sure if Fancey is a little witch but she could be one. Look at her hat, it's the type of hat the little witches wear. And have you seen the two little owls sitting in the oak tree? I just love them, they are so sweet.

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Fancey Blackett - The Harvest Dance by Pineberry Lane

stitched with DMC on antique white Zweigart Belfast linen

A new start was necessary after all these finishes. I still had three projects in my Year of BAPs box and decided to start one of them. I chose Drawn Thread's Sanctuary. Back in March I finished DT's Random Thoughts which was stitched with silk threads as I had bought it as a kit. For Sanctuary I took DMCs as I had them in my stash. Fortunately the corresponding DMC numbers are provided on the chart, too.

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I completed the center piece, it's a little artificial pond , I think, surrounded by several urns with flowers. And I stitched the border of the autumn bed.

Time for the Stitch from Stash October update. I only stitched on charts that had been in my stash for at least a year. And I only used threads from my stash. So I haven't bought anything new this month. This leaves me with €91,90 carried over from the previous months, plus this month's budget of €25. A nice amount for my next shopping spree, and it will come very soon as I need lots and lots of threads to kit up some old charts that I pulled out for next year.

That's all for today. Thank you all for your lovely comments on my blog hop post. I have visited most of you back and will do the rest of my blog reading this coming weekend.

Happy Halloween

and a Nice Weekend!

A friendly hello to all my blogging friends and readers! After a longer pause I'm back - back home from travelling and back to stitching and blogging. And back to some good old housekeeping.

We spent November with our grandson and were the happiest grandparents ever. Besides this we had our first Thanksgiving and let me tell you, it was gorgeous. Our SIL and DD prepared the turkey and all the other things that belong to a traditional Thanksgiving meal. My favourite was turkey meat with cranberry jelly that DD had made herself. And the pecan pie. And the pumpkin pie. And the turkey sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving. What a treat!

Before we left for our visit I had made stockings for DD and her family. They are very simple but I love how they came out.

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While staying in the USA I went to Michael's and Jo-Ann's and to a stitching store and bought some stash. I stocked up on my DMC thread supplies and bought 198 skeins. That sounds like a lot - and it is a lot. But the fact that 4 skeins bought in the US cost as much as 1 skein bought here in Europe is very convincing. Besides all the threads I also bought some small charts, some charms and buttons, ribbons and three magazines.

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So my Stitch From Stash report for November is not only late but it also exceeds the monthly budget. By far. But fortunately we were having an extra $50 to spend during the last three months of the year. And I have all the carry-over money from the previous months. So here it goes:
Carry-over Jan through Oct 116,90
budget November 25,-

----> 141,90
spent at Michael's 81,30
spent at Jo-Ann's 18,66
spent at XS store 55,84
----> 155,80
So I'm still in, as the amount of 13,90 that I spent too much is covered by the extra 50,-. This leaves me with the budget for this month, 25,-.

This SFS challenge was a very special experience and I have to admit that it has been a lot of fun to go through my stash so many times this year and to discover all the wonderful charts that have accumulated over the years just waiting to be stitched one day. Most of the money that I have spent this year was for stitching supplies like threads. Without this challenge I would have bought a gazillion of new cgarts and all the old treasures would still be in my stash, untouched. Mel offers another year of SFS on her blog and I have joined the gang again. If you want to join as well, go over to her blog.

There was also some stitching going on since returning back home. It was not easy to choose a WIP from my boxes because I would have liked to stitch on all of them at the same time. Finally I pulled out Winter Wonderland by Polly Carbonari and stitched on it for a week. Before:

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After:

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Yesterday I pulled another bag from the box but will show this in my next post.

During the weeks I wasn't here hundreds of blog posts have piled up in my feedly account. Impossible to read them all so I have to make a new start with reading and commenting. Thank you all for the nice comments you left on my last post.

Happy stitching to you all!

Hello dear blogging friends,

let's go for the last post this year. I wanted to write so much about my planning for the new year but somehow time has slipped away and I haven't finished my planning phase yet. Maybe it's because I love it so much that my stitching plans get changed all the time, lol. But I think by the end of this week I will be done and can come up with some wonderful plans for 2015.

This will be my last Stitch from Stash update for this year. And I can say that I haven't spent anything on new stash so far. So I come out with a plus of 25€ - the December budget - for this year. But today I will go to my Italian ONS's website and order some things because they are having a wonderful sale. And it will mainly be for threads, not charts. I have joined the Stitch from Stash challenge for 2015 as well because it was so much fun to go through all my charts and magazines again and again and to re-discover and to unearth all those hidden treasures.

I have also stitched this month, so here is my last stitchy update for this year. When I was going through all my BAP starts of this year I pulled out my Northwest & Rocky Mountains sampler and added two motives.
Before

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After

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And then it was time to start something new. I chose an autumn design that I had found in an older French magazine. It's by Perrette Samouiloff, a designer whose designs I have always loved but I have never stitched one of them. Until now. Here is my start:

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Now let me say Thank You to all my wonderful blogging friends for all the visits that you have paid to my blog and for all those great comments you have left. All your comments are precious for me and I appreciate it that you take your time and share your thoughts about what I write and what I stitch. Thank you!

I am still somewhat behind with blog reading and commenting but since my return from travelling I managed to get the number of unread posts in my reader down to about 200. I hope that by the end of this week I will have read all of them and commented on at least one post of each of you.

Have a great start into 2015 and

Happy New Year!

Hello dear blogging friends,

I hope you were having a great start into the new year. For me the last days of the old year and the first days of the new year were filled with planning my stitching year. I was tearing my pattern stash apart looking for projects for this year. And there were many, believe me. I was feeling like a child in a toy store but finally I managed to narrow the number of patterns down to a basket full of projects. And there is a second basket holding some more pattern for replacement - just in case, lol.

So - here are my plans for SALs and challenges this year.

#1 Debbie's Ultimate Crazy Challenge

Linda had this idea and she established a group for the challenge on Facebook. As I'm not on Facebook I couldn't join Linda's group. Read all about it on Linda's blog. I'll be doing this challenge just for myself, my own way, at my own pace. Instead of starting 31 projects on each day in January I will be starting my challenge projects only on weekends, and during the week I will be stitching on my BAPs. I had this idea when I was reading about a similar idea on Lynda's blog. I love this somewhat slower pace. My DH took pictures of the projects that I have chosen for the challenge.

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All this was in my stash and some of these patterns are rather old. A list of all the charts and kits is on the respective page under my header. But if you have questions feel free to ask.

#2 Stitch from Stash Challenge

Once again I joined Mel's SFS challenge. It was such a lot of fun to stitch mainly from what I found in my stash. I found so many patterns that I once bought because I had to have them, and then they disappeared in my folders, unstitched. Of course, throughout the year there will be stitchy things that I will buy and that will be fun, too.

#3 Gifted Gorgeousness

This is a SAL that Jo started and as I liked the idea I joined. Read about it on Jo's blog. I love the idea to use some of the things - patterns, threads, fabrics, accessories etc - that were gifted to me during the last years. Or to stitch something as a gift for someone else.

#4 Smalls SAL

I joined this SAL, organized by Heather, again although last year I couldn't participate each month. But that doesn't matter. The good thing in this SAL is that I feel a bit motivated to finish the samlls that I stitch. And sometimes it works, lol.

All these SALs and challenges should keep me busy this year. But I have also decided to continue my Year of BAPs and start some more big projects. Big projects are my real passion and I can't get enough of them. I'll write more about this in my next posts.

Happy Stitching in 2015!

Hello, dear blogging friends,

here I am with my first monthly basket for this year. Last weekend (and the days before) I was stitching three little designs from my list for Debbie's Challenge and I could finish them during the weekend. And then there was the necessity to complete them in order to display them in a basket. I 'm not particularly fond of the finish-finishing part but I can't have a monthly basket without it. So here we go:

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January Snows by Bent Creek

stitched on a (lousy) piece of mystery fabric with threads from my stash

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Frosty Friend by Erica Michaels (freebie)

stitched on 32ct Belfast Smokey Pearl with threads from my stash

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January by Hands on Design in Cross Stitch & Needlework 1/2014

stitched on 32ct linen with WDW threads

This last little pillow also qualifies for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL that
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I joined on Jo's blog. Click on the button in my sidebar and you can read all about this SAL. I stitched the pattern with threads that were once gifted to me in an exchange. It was a little plastic bag with some rests of WDW threads that I found again two weeks ago when organizing my thread stash a little bit. I can't remember who sent them to me but if you read my blog I want to say Thank You.

This weekend I have started the next two projects for Debbie's Challenge. They are a bit more time-consuming than the first three so that I can only make a start on them. But who know how much I still can get stitched on them today? It's cold and snowy outside and that's the perfect time for stitching , don't you think?

That is all for today. But I do not want to leave without saying a huge THANK YOU for all the comments that you have left on my last post. I'm still answering to them but unfortunately some of you are on no-reply so I can't send you an e-mail. But know that your comments were also read and appreciated.

Happy Stitching to you all!

Hello dear blogging friends,

Although I hadn't joined the IHSW - I quite simply forgot it - I was stitching during the weekend. Like the weekend before I had pulled some of the projects from my list for Debbie's Ultimate Crazy Challenge and started them. And even finished one. Here they are:

#4 Christmas Bluebird from a magazine. It looks like nothing what I have stitched so far but there are millions of quarter stitches and colour changes in this one.

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#5 Midnight Snowman, a kit that I bought many years ago after seeing it at a stitching friend's. It's the first time after a long while that I stitch on aida fabric and it's a strange feeling because it's so very stiff and I can only use short lengths of thread because the stiffness of the fabric wears the threads.

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#6 Winter Bird by Heart in Hand and it's finished.

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#7 Winter Needleroll is a gift that I received in a chart exchange many years ago, together with the rests of the threads and beads - enough to stitch it a second time.

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Can you see a theme here? Yes, there are many snowmen and a lot of snow. And that from a person who doesn't like the winter. But stitching winter pieces is something completely different - you needn't go outside for doing so, lol.

But I stitched some more snow. My new BAP start also has to do with snow and with winter, it's Rocky Mountain Christmas, one of the first charts I ever bought many many years ago. I was always reluctant to start it but now is the right time as it fits perfectly into may second year of BAPs.

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Now I have to admit that while stitching on all that snow every once in a while I was thinking spring and bunnies and such things. And I found a chart that combines all of it, snow and bunnies. Next week you will see it here.

Thank you all for the comments that you left on my last post. Thank you for taking your precious time to say hello and to let me know what you think about my stitching. Thank you for all your kind words. Of course I return this favour and visit your blogs and leave you a comment as well.

Have a great stitching time!

Hello dear friends,

I spent the whole morning in my sewing room and finish-finished my three little smalls for the Smalls SAL. Somehow I was in the mood to do some finishing - which happens very very rarely - and I already knew how I wanted to finish these little smalls. And when I know how I want to finish something the rest goes rather smoothly.

So here is my winter basket:

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#1 is the long-legged bird that you could already see in my last post, but unfinished. I used some of my buttons as kind of snowflakes (well, kind of, lol) and made a little pillow. I had to sew around the edges because when stuffing it I poked through one of the corners and didn't want to undo the whole thing. I think it looks OK like that.

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Winter Bird by Heart in Hand

stitched on 32ct Zweigart evenweave with DMCs

#2 is the needleroll that I had started in my last post. It was years ago that I put my last needleroll together and you rarely ever see them nowadays. But I still love them and have some more patterns as well as unfinished needlerolls in my drawer. Time to finish them.

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Winter needleroll by Lorri Birmingham

stitched on 28ct Zweigart linen band with DMCs

#3 shows this wonderful combination of bunnies and winter. It was such a fun stitch, just like all the designs in the Hare's series. I finished it as a pinkeep with some cording around.

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Hare's Winter by Plum Street Samplers

stitched on 32 ct linen with DMCs

That's all for today. I will do some blog reading but my fingers are itching again and I want to continue stitching on one of my BAPs.

Stay warm and happy stitching!

Hello dear blogging friends,

do you know what one of the best things is for me since I'm retired? I needn't drive to work on snowy, icy and slippery roads. Yes, we have had snow during the last two weeks, lots of it. Of course, there wasn't as much as in some New England states of the US, but the 35 cm (14") we have had were just enough for me. Although I needn't drive any longer and although our snow ploughs come often and are very effective I don't like it. Two days ago my husband took some pictures when the sun was shining on the white stuff, today it is snowing again.
Where I live ...

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... on the terrace ...

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... down tha road

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When I was shoveling snow I was thinking of spring, of green meadows and spring flowers and of budding trees. And as I can't have that all now, I was stitching it. After all that stitching of snow and snowmen I pulled out one of by BAPs, Spring in the Valley by Stoney Creek. It was so wonderful to use all the fresh colours and the different shades of green. I started it in February 2014:

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And now it is looking like this:

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That is all for today. Thank you for all your wonderful comments that you left during your last visit at my blog. I'll go now and pull out another spring design which will warm my heart while the snow is falling outside.

Cuddle up and happy stitching!

Dear blogger friends,

I can't believe it myself, it's already the second time that I filled my basket with three new monthly smalls.And that I went for another finishing spree. Again. Could it be that I more and more enjoy the finishing process? Hmmmm, it would be a lie to say yes. But let's face it, these smalls look so much better when finished. And doing the finishing on a more regular basis I just get more and more used to it. And it's not so difficult any more to find the ribbons, buttons and fabrics that I like best for the respective small. Because when tearing apart all my finishing stuff completely I see what I have and maybe the next time I remember that unique piece of ribbon that is just perfect for my small. At least this time it was like that.

Here is my basket with my February smalls:

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#1 is from Cross-stitch & Needlework magazine March 2014. My son and his wife bought this issue for me when travelling in Finland last year. So this little beauty qualifies for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL. They also bought another cross stitch magazine for me during their trip. And I was delighted with them, to say the least. It is always amazing for me that quite obviously you can buy Cross-stitch & Needlework in many European countries, but so far I haven't found a single online store here in Germany where I could order the latest issues. Maybe I haven't searched hard enough, lol.

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February by Hands on Design

stitched on 32ct clay Belfast with threads from my stash

#2 is a French kit that I have had for so many years that I even can't say where and when I bought it. I just know that I had completely forgotten about the kits of these series. Has this happened to you you as well? When rummaging through my kit stash I re-discovered them.

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Février by Le bonheur des dames

stitched on 32ct white Belfast with the threads from the kit

#3 is my latest little purchase. I love Danybrod's small designs and I love the fact that her patterns are e-patterns and I can start stitching them right after buying them.

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En février by Danybrod

stitched on 32ct clay Belfast with threads from my stash

I have been starting a couple more projects for Debbie's Challenge and most of them are spring projects. Yes, I need to stitch spring designs because the snow is still covering everything but at least it is constantly melting and there is no new snow in sight. These spring-y starts will be for another post. And maybe I will have finished one or two of them until then.

Have a nice Valentine's Day!

Hello, dear blogging friends,

this post should have been written yesterday but my time was totally absorbed by reading, stitching and finishing. I finished reading a book that I had put down in December and not touched since then. I hope that I'm back into reading now. Then I was stitching on Sara Guermani's SAL of which she sent part 10 a couple of days ago, the last part, but I'm stitching on part 4 right now. And then I was doing some finishing.

I had finished Scenes of Spring some time ago but this time the finishing wasn't so easy for me. I had so many ribbons and lace that would have looked great with the stitched piece so it was a hard decision that I had to make, lol. So here is my little pillow for the Smalls SAL:

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Scenes of Spring by Homespun Elegance

stitched on 32ct Belfast linen with threads from my stash

I also started some more designs for Debbie's Crazy Challenge. My problem is always to put the piece down after stitching on it for one or two days and start another one. Not that I don't like starting, no, but I also like to continue stitching on a piece. Anyway, here they are.

#10 is a bookmark pattern that I found many years ago in a magazine attached to a subscription offer.

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#11 is an Easter design by Tralala, one of my favourite French designers. I think I will finish it this month so that I can put it into my Easter basket.

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#12 is a kit by Bucilla, Four Seasons. I have had it for at least 10 years, probably longer. It came with aida fabric but I changed it into a piece of linen. The vine is a little bit slow-going but you see that I have already started the spring part.

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Now on to some blog reading - my reader is full to the brim. And maybe I can squeeze in some answering to your wonderful and motivating comments that you left on my last blog post. Thank you so much!

Have a great start into March!

Hello, dear friends,

I'm some days late with my Gifted Gorgeousness report but there was no time for blogging or stitching because of the nice weather. It was the perfect time for some gardening. Some well needed gardening, I must say. Not that I needed the activities in the garden, no, the garden needed them. By now I can feel every single muscle in my body but it can only get better, lol.

On to the Gifted Gorgeousness. I pulled out three already stitched bunny designs, stitched two more bunny designs and finished them as Easter cards that will be sent out as Easter greetings.

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Both designs are from a very old German cross stitch magazine (I can't remember the name)

stitched on a linen stitch band with leftover threads

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left: free bunny by By The Bay Needleart

middle: ??? (I can't find the pattern anymore)

right: freebie Easter Basket by RK Portfolio

But that's not all. Earlier this month I received a gift from one of my daughters-in-law. She knows my passion for stitching and sewing and all things old. And she made me a sewing case with old sewing accessories, just the kind I had always seen when I was sitting with my grandmother watching her sewing and mending clothes. Everything in this sewing case is old, even the paper which is from an old paper bag. And I also received the lace that she hand-dyed herself. I was blown away by all this gifted gorgeousness.

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That's all for today. There is nothing more but to say thank you for all your wonderful comments. As March has been a busy month so far there was no time to reply to all of them but they were all read and appreciated. I hope to be back in a couple of days to show you a new little basket with smalls.

Happy Stitching, you all!

Hello dear blogging friends,

March is almost gone but I still want to show you my little monthly pillows for this month. They rae perfect for the Smalls SAL.They were stitched up at the beginning of March but have been finished only now. So they won't stay on display very long. Here is my March basket

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#1 pillow is that little freebie with the lion and the lamb.

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The Lion and the Lamb freebie by Erica Michaels

stitched on 32ct fabric with threads from my stash

#2 pillow is the last of this series because I don't have the magazines with the following months. But that doesn't matter, I think I will find lots of other monthly designs for the months to come. As you can see I have used some of the hand-dyed lace from my DIL for the finishing.

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March by Hands on Design (in Cross-stitch + Needlework 3/2014)

stitched on 32ct Belfast from Zweigart with threads from my stash

#3 pillow uses even more of that hand-dyed lace. Its colour is the perfect match for the fabric and thread colours.

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Maison mars freebie by Maryse

stitched on 32ct lilac Lugana with threads from my stash

That's all for today. I still have some finishing to do for my Easter basket, all these little bunnies that I stitched years ago want to be finally turned into something.

Happy spring stitching!

Hello, dear blogging friends,

I hope spring has finally sprung for all of you living in the northern hemisphere. We had a "nice" surprise on the first of April, the weather played a trick on us, lol. When I woke up in the morning I saw some brightness shining through the blends and I thought: OH great, there will be sunshine today. Then I opened the blends and what I saw was the brightness and whiteness of snow. During the night we had received about 6" of snow. So I pulled out my winter boots and the snow shovel - all of which had already been stored away for the next winter - and started shoveling snow and chatting with the neighbours who were also out doing the same. Snow and gardening have always been the best reasons for chatting with whoever is outside as well, lol. We were all very happy when this April Fool's trick had melted some days later.

Easter is over but I hope you are ready for a late "Bunny Parade". All these pieces were stitched some years ago or back in March but the finishing just took a while. So, here is my bunny parade:

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These two are finished as pinkeeps:

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left: Hare's Easter by Plum Street Samplers (freebie)

right: Briar Rabbit by La-D-Da

The next two are made into little pillows, the Tralala one is a tie-on pillow, a type of finishing that I really love - and it's also one of my Debbie's Challenge pieces:

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left: Easter Blessings by The Sampler Girl

right: Chasse à l'oeuf by Tralala

And these are also little pillows and I was playing with my buttons as you can easily see:

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left: Happy Easter by Liberty Primitives + Needlework (Nancy Woodson)

right: Promenade en famille by Danybrod

I still have some more bunnies in my drawer from years ago but my finishing mood was completely exhausted after finishing my Bunny Parade.

Gifted Gorgeousness is on today and I have two entries for this month's SAL. And they are both bunny-related, would you have guessed it? LOL. The first is a card that I received from a good friend. I'm not sure but I think it's her first attempt at cross stitch. And she was doing so great:

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The second is a little spring pillow that I stitched for a blogging friend who is going through a rough time. The piece also belongs to my list of Debbie's Challenge pieces.

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Spring Friends by Brittercup Designs

I didn't want to write such a long post so I'll stop here. Thank you all for your lovely comments that you always leave on my posts. It makes me so happy that you like my stitching and my words. Thank you!

Enjoy the colours of nature!

Hello, dear blogging friends,

Spring is such a wonderful season and with nature awakening there is also my decluttering mojo awakening again. My dream is a house free of things that we don't need any longer and since my retirement I try to get nearer to this goal. I don't know if I will ever reach it but it's fun to declutter and to have more and more empty spots in the house.

So stitching and crafting has taken a back seat these days. Last month I didn't continue stitching on my monthly smalls, I just needed a break. Instead I pulled out some of my BAPs and added some stitches. But today I don't want to show any BAPs but the only small design that I stitched last month. And it's also my contribution to the Smalls SAL. It' s a little owl that I made for my grandson's birthday this month and it is winging its way to him.

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Woodland Friends by Maria Diaz

in The Ultimate Forest Friends Cross Stitch Collection

It's a door hanger with two sides, one for the night and one for the day. Have you seen the funny owl ribbon I used on the morning side? It's a gift from one of my DsIL and I have kept it for the right moment - and here the right project has come. My husband combined the two pictures so you can see the front and the back together. It was a lot of fun to stitch and finish these little designs.

That's all for today. Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments on my last post. I tried to answer to all your comments but some of them didn't go through to my email account, I have no idea why. And some of you are on no-reply, so an answer is not possible. But all your comments were read and appreciated.

Have a great May!

July 21 - Weekend stitching, July stitching and SFS Challenge

August 1 - Smalls SAL and a new BAP

August 22 - Three Oldies and Smalls SAL

September 29 - A Finish, a Newbie and Updates

October 6 - Friday Night with Friends

October 13 - Around the World Blog Hop

October 31 - Updates

December 16 - I'm back

December 30 - Last post in 2014 and last SFS update

January 7 - planning of this year's SALs

January 11 - My January Basket

January 20 - Debbie's Challenge and a new BAP

January 28 - A Winter Basket for the Smalls SAL

February 5 - Snow and Thinking of Spring

February 14 - A Basket Filled With February

March 1 - A Spring Welcome for the Smalls SAL

March 19 - Gifted Gorgeousness SAL

March28 - Smalls SAL

April 15 - A Bunny Parade and Gifted Gorgeousness

May 5 - April Smalls SAL in May