At Brigitte's Place

Good morning, friends,

It's quite a while since my last post. I have been busy de-cluttering and de-junking the house which seems to be a never-ending thing. When we moved into this house some 20 years ago we left behind a lot of junk, but meanwhile I have the impression that someone brought back all the things that we left back then, lol. I found boxes with things that I didn't even know that they still existed. Fortunately I can take my time and go slowly through everything.

Now on to some stitching. During the last weeks I have somehow lost my motivation for small projects - maybe I stitched too many of them before and neglected my big projects a bit. So out they came and I have been happily stitching on three BAPs during the last weeks. It was so motivating that I nearly couldn't stop. Here are some before and after pictures.

#1 Bucilla - Four Seasons. I finished the Spring section and added some vine.
Before:

After:

#2 Diane Phalen - Amish Spring. I added another quilt and a quilt in a basket. And there is the first grass.
Before:

After:

#3 Linda Myers - A Seasonal Sampling. I stitched the spring part with the lovely house and the little curch.
Before:

After:

Being in a de-cluttering mode I was also weeding through my blog reader and eliminated a lot of blogs whose owners obviously left them behind and moved on to other platforms. But I am positive that I will discover some new blogs that I can visit.

Have some more wonderful days in May!

Hello, dear blogging and stitching friends,

gardening every now and then when the weather was cooperating, de-cluttering a little bit more, stitching a lot - that's what I have been up to during the last weeks. Rain and sunshine were alternating all the time so the grass, the flowers and all the shrubs and bushes in the garden have been growing like mad, so we should have been doing a lot of gardening. But the short periods of sunshine didn't allow that. At the beginning of this month the garden behind the house was looking like that:

The stairs you see lead up to the terrace. When you turn around you can see this:

Behind the bushes there is some farm land. And along the little forest you can see in the background goes my usual morning walk.

There has been some stitching too, but instead of stitching on a variety of projects I stuck to just one, another one of my BAPs that I started in 2014. When I pulled it out of the BAP box it was looking like that:

And now it is looking like this:

The Quiltmaker is one of my oldest charts and I'm so happy that last year I decided to stitch some of these really old patterns. After pulling it out again it was so much fun that I couldn't put it down until the quilt on the picture was nearly complete. Now it has gone back to the BAP box and I have no idea when I will pull it out again.

Two weeks ago I received a wonderful gift from a dear friend who doesn't do cross stitch but she is an avid knitter and crocheter. Have a look at what she made for me:

Isn't this just gorgeous? She used different threads for these borders, and the thickness of the threads varies from the top to the bottom. These borders are meant to embellish some of my little pillows but I think I will not undo the board but leave it as it is. I just love it this way and have put it on one of my shelves. I don't know if this gift actually qualifies for the Gifted Gorgeousness challenge as it is not cross stitch but I will add it for this month.

That is all for today. From now on I am going to stitch on some summer pieces and I'm looking forward to it. Thank you all for visiting my blog and for saying hello in your comments.

Happy start of the summer!

Hello, dear stitching friends,

The first heat wave lies behind us, for more than a week we were having temperatures of more than 30°C (86°F), which is rare up here in the mountains. I know, for many of you that's nothing but I don't function when it is so hot. And once again I was so grateful for being retired and not having to work. I was staying inside most of the time and was complaining about the heat within the house - we don't have air conditioning - and was just doing nearly nothing. Some reading, some stitching, some organizing of my stitching and quilting stuff and some stitching of course.

Stitching on a BAP was not what tempted me because of the large pieces of fabric. So I pulled out a couple of summer designs and started some summer smalls. And I finished three of them.

Summer Breeze by The Prairie Schooler

(a part of book 137)

Stitched with DMC on 32ct evenweave

Scenes of Summer by Homespun Elegance

stitched with threads from my stash on 36ct Zweigart linen

Summer Is In the Air by Brittercup Designs

stitched on 32ct evenweave with DMC threads

They are not completed yet and some embellishments like buttons and charms will be added but I will soon turn them into little pillows or pinkeeps and display them in one of my baskets.

And as I was in the swing of things I completed the bookmark that I started back in January. The theme is summery as well.

Bee a Reader bookmark by ???

stitched on a linen stitch band with Anchor threads

Unfortunately I can't give credit to the designer of this cute bookmark. The chart was added to the advertisement for a magazine subscription that I found at least ten years ago in a magazine. But I couldn't find the designer's name anywhere.

That's all for today. But I will soon be back with a post about July's Gifted Gorgeousness SAL.
Thank you for all your wonderful comments and

Have a great summer!

Dear blogging friends,

This is just a short drive-by post. We are having company for some time and I don't want to spend too much time on the computer. But I want to participate in this month's Gifted Gorgeousness SAL that Jo has organized. I'm already a bit late but here is my contribution.

I have stitched a monthly chart by a French designer who has created 12 charts to celebrate A Year in Alsace, a region in the east of France with the wonderful city of Strasbourg. I often go and visit some craft stores there. One of them is a cross stitch store, the only one that is not too far away from where I live, just one and a half hour's drive.

Une année en Alsace - juin by Evelyne Begey

stitched on 40ct flax Zweigart linen with DMC threads

This chart is not the gift but the little wooden charms that I put on the fabric and that I will add when all the months are stitched. These charms are a gift from my DDIL to use with my stitching. She was with me when I bought the chart and later she bought me the little charms to go with the chart. The stork is a bird that is typical for the Alsace, and the two little guys are wearing Alsatian costumes, like the girl in the stitched picture. It was a lot of fun to stitch this.

That is all for today. I hope you all are having a wonderful summer with not too much heat and some rainy days in between to help nature.

Enjoy your summer days and happy stitching!

Hello, dear blogging friends,

During the last four weeks my daughter and her family were visiting. Yesterday they left and now we are trying to get back to our usual everyday life. That is not easy because these four weeks were so very special. We could spend precious time with our little grandson and the weeks were filled with lots of playing and laughing and running around on the playground and in the garden and riding the bike. It was pure bliss.

Now on to the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL. This time I will show you a gift that I received last month but couldn't include in last month's Gifted Gorgeousness post because I didn't have a picture of it.

Quite a while ago I was on the lookout of the desk calendar by Joan Elliott that was a goodie with one of the issues of The World of Cross Stitching. Justine from Justine's Cross Stitch had it and offered it to me when she was done stitching the designs she wanted to. And in mid-July she sent me a package. Can you imagine my surprise when I received a really bulky envelope while I was expecting a rather thin one? And when I opened it this came out:

Justine had stitched a Joan Elliott design and finished it as a little pillow. And this wonderful gift accompanied the desk top calendar. Isn't this the perfect gift to show in a Gifted Gorgeousness post? Both gifts have been sitting by my computer and I enjoy them every day. If you want to know more about Gifted Gorgeousness and about Jo who invented and hosts this SAL click on the GG label in my sidebar.

Happy Stitching and Happy Gifts for you!

Hello, dear blogging friends,

as you might have seen in my sidebar I decided to join The Grey Tail's Alphabet Club. I started this first post early in July but couldn't get it done before our visitors arrived. So, this month I have a late Alphabet Club post and I think that's OK. Let's start.

A - Apfelkuchen = apple cake.

Apfelkuchen is a traditional cake here in Germany and I think there isn't a region where you won't find a special recipe for it. And there isn't a bakery where you wouldn't find at least two different sorts of Apfelkuchen. If you feel tempted and want to try it out and bake one just look for "German Apfelkuchen" and you will find lots and lots of recipes on the internet.

A - Designers or their companies starting with the letter A and whose designs have been in my stash for a while.

This was just a most welcome invitation for me to go through my charts and magazines. And it was so much fun as I always love browsing through my stash looking for something. I pulled out all the designers with A, narrowed them down to the ones that have been in my stash for way too long and that I want to start stitching soon. (The pictures are not so good because I didn't take the charts out of their plastic sleeves but when you click on the pictures you can see the designs better)

left: Alma Lynne Designs - Country ABCs

right: Diane Arthurs - Harvest Basket

left: A mon ami Pierre - Aux fils de l'an (a seasonal band sampler)

right: Annick Abrial - La Magie de l'Automne

left: Les Ambrosales - Bienvenue

middle: Atalie - Les trois petits Marquoirs

right: Annie Beez Folk Art - Tulip House

Patricia Andrle - Four-Seasons Sampler (in Cross Stitch + Needlework Feb/98)

I know, I know, these are too many - and the letter B is just ahead and my search will produce even more designs. But I don't mind. I have my special ABC folder now from where I can choose my next starts and enhance the number of my WIPs. And besides - there will be letters for which I won't find anything :)

A - Americana SAL

I have an UFO starting with A and it's one of my oldest, it's America, Land That We Love by Jean Farish. Anf when Kaye from Kitten Stitching created the Americana SAL blog I saw my chance to eventually get this UFO out again and maybe finish it.

As you see it is only halfway done but now I'm looking forward to stitching more on it.

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During the time when our visitors were here, I wasn't on the computer often. So I am still behind with blog reading but I will do my best and hope to be up to date soon. And I still haven't answered to all the lovely comments you left on my last blog posts. Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog and to leave a comment!

Have a happy stitching time!

Hello, dear blogging friends,

Summer isn't over yet and we are having another heat wave with hot air from the Mediterranean area - that's what the meteorologists on TV say. I don't mind where the hot air comes from, I just want it to be over with. But just wait until winter comes with all its snow, then you will hear me say again that I want it to be over with, lol.

In spite of the summer still being present for a while I think this is my last summer piece for this year:

It's the summer flower pot on my Four Seasons project by Robin Kingsley for Bucilla. I made a mistake but only realized it when the flower pot was finished and I was stitching the word Summer. The word was too close to the little lady bug and then I saw that I misplaced the pot by one row. Frogging the whole thing and re-stitching it? No way! I just look at it as my personalization and I think I will put the autumn flower post one row higher as well, and the winter flower pot just like the spring one. So there will be some kind of symmetry in it.

As I also joined Kaye's Christmas Ornie SAL blog I thought I should stitch a Santa before the end of this month. Santas is the theme for August.When browsing through my stash for the Alphabet Club post I also came across some older and very old Christmas booklets and chose two Santas from them. They are completely different in style, so I finished them differently.

Santa by Alma Lynne (from Folksy St. Nick booklet)

stitched with DMC and Anchor

Santa from an old Anchor leaflet

stitched with Anchor

I am not the typical Christmas stitcher an that's why you don't see a lot of Christmas stitching on this blog. But one can always use a Christmas card or a little Christmas gift.

The two smalls also qualify for the Smalls SAL.

That's all for today. I'm nearly caught up with my blog reading and commenting. My next blog post will be for the Alphabet Club and I am having a lot of fun searching for B designers and B words.

Have a great rest of the summer!

The Alphabet Club is the idea of Chiara at The Grey Tail and Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. I love that idea so much that I had to join the club. And it is such a lot of fun to put the posts together.
September 2015 is the month for the letter B and this time I found a lot that I want to share.

B - Bienenstich = Bee Sting Cake

This piece of cake is the reason why my B post is up only today - they only have it on Sundays in our bakery and I wanted to show a picture of it. I have absolutely no idea why this cake is called like that. My daughter loves this cake and we lately talked about the name of the cake while she was eating a piece.I think she will love seeing a piece on my blog :)

B - Bollenhut

This hat is part of the traditional costume of a little town in the Black Forest and over the years it has become the symbol of the Black Forest, where I live. Here you can read more about it.

B - Bretagne = Brittany

A region in the northwest of France where I used to spend many summer months while I was studying French and which I love. I have always wanted to stitch something related to this region and found some great projects in two special issues of Ouvrages Broderie, a French stitching magazine.

B - bookmarks

I love reading and I love bookmarks. I have a nice collection of bookmarks because whenever I travel somewhere I try and buy a bookmark. And I also have some stitched bookmarks, some of them are gifts, some are stitched by me.

B - charts from designers or their companies starting with B. These charts have been in my stash for a long time and just need to come out now and be stitched :)

left: Gerda Bengtsson - Rosa Canina

right: Blackbird Designs - Strawberry Garden

left: Barrick Samplers - Pear Orchard Farm

right: Bent Creek - Blackbird Sampler

left: Emie Bishop - Framed Piece (CS+CC 5-6/90)

right: Gail Bussi - Quilted Shaker Seasons (JCS 5-6/12)

left: Bleu de Chine - Coeur 1027

right: Brightneedle - The Apple and the Oak

These charts are in my ABC folder now and next year will be declared as the Year of the Alphabet and I will try to start some of these projects.

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You find more about Chiara's and Jo's Alphabet Club when you go to the button in my side bar. There you find the details and the blogs of other participants.

Happy Stitching!

Hello, dear blogging friends,

it's time for the monthly Gifted Gorgeousness report. During the last two weeks I went back to stitching some monthly designs. I had started this last year but then my motivation disappeared. But now I seem to have re-discovered it with the series "A Year of Celebration" that could be found in the 2014 issues of Cross-Stitch & Needlework.

I was able to buy two of these issues but not the rest of them. When Mary Ann read this on my blog she offered to send me the patterns from the issues I couldn't find here. I have just finished stitching three months.

September by Hands on Design

October by Hands on Design

November by Hands on Design

Thank you, Mary Ann. Now I just have to wait for the motivation to make them into little pillows.

If you want to know more about Gifted Gorgeousness, just go to the sidebar and click on the button.

That's all for today. Have a great start into autumn and

Happy Stitching and crafting!

Hello, dear blogging friends,

autumn has come and with it a lot of work in the garden. Some trees have become too big over the years and have to be cut, the shrubs have to be cut back and some other things have to be done here and there. But my husband and I do not work in the garden each day, no, and as we do not have a vegetable garden we can limit the days of garden work to two or three per week. That leaves us enough time for our hobbies. And that leads me directly to my stitching.

I joined Debbie's Ultimate Crazy Challenge at the beginning of the year but didn't join a group for it but have been doing my stitching for it at my own pace. I didn't start all my 31 projects in January but throughout the year. Now that three quarters of the year are over I can say that I started and finished 25 of these projects. So I'm very positive that I will be able to finish the remaining 6 project until the end of the year as well.

The biggest among these remaining projects has seen some progress. It's Four Seasons, a Bucilla kit designed by Robin Kingsley.

I added the autumn flower pot and all the vines, so there's only the winter flower pot that has to be added in December when the winter season starts. This project is pure fun to stitch.

Two weeks ago I joined Kaye's Friday Frolics (see the FF button in my sidebar) and the plan is to pull out a WIP or a UFO and stitch on it on Fridays. For my first Friday stitching I went through all my WIPs and came across Winter Wonderland by Polly Carbonari. I had last stitched on it back in December 2014 and left it here:

Of course, I couldn't put it down after the Friday Frolics and continued for some days. And now I am here:

There is still an awful lot of backstitching to do and I will tackle that before I continue stitching the carriages on both sides of the house and the hills and trees in the background.

For last Friday + Saturday I chose one of my oldest projects, which I started in 2005 as a SAL with a fellow stitcher, Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. The SAL went astray after I had finished two blocks, I don't know why. Last week I started block #3 but will show it when it's done.

Lately I could add another bookmark to my collection of stitched bookmarks. It's a gift from Vickie. I know that many of you visit her blog regularly and so you might have seen the great bookmarks she makes. Here is the one she made for me:

Isn't it gorgeous? It combines my hobbies, reading and stitching and quilting. Thank you, Vickie.

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That's all for today. Thank you so much for all the lovely comments you left on my last blog post. As I wasn't on the computer too often lately I haven't answered to your comments yet but this will happen as soon as possible.

Have some great autumn days!

I was a bit blog-lazy these past weeks and had lost my blogging mojo. That's why this month's Alphabet Club post is a bit late. This month it's the letter C and as German words usually don't start with this letter I first thought I wouldn't find a German cake starting with C. But I was wrong - my husband found one.

C - Christstollen

This cake is usually made around Christmas time, hence the name. I haven't seen it in my bakery yet, it might be a bit early for it in October but I'm sure they will offer it soon. It's made from a yeast dough and has pieces of candied orange and citrus peel (that's why I don't like it) and some spices like cardamom and cinnamon. If you want to see a picture just go here. And if you want to try it you will find lots of recipes on the internet. There are also bakeries where you can order such a cake and they send it to you, also abroad.

C - Christmas Ornie SAL

This is one of Kaye's babies and although I am not the typical Christmas stitcher I joined this group. I just wanted to stitch some Christmas related pieces for gifts and cards. There is a monthly theme and last month's theme was Christmas trees or gifts. So I stitched two small trees and made them into cards.

left: taken from My Mom's Christmas by Kristine Lee Howell in JCS 12/2003

right: taken from Winter Pines by Heart in Hand

If you want to join this SAL group as well, come here.

C - charts from designers or their companies starting with C.

These charts have been in my stash for a long time already and have to see the light of the day again. I have started a Alphabet Club folder and whenever I feel the urge to start something new I pull out one of the letters.

left: Halloween Fairy by Nora Corbett in Cross Stitch + Needlework 9/2008

right: Weeping Tree Sampler by The City Stitcher

left: Pumpkin Farm by Carriage House Samplings

right: Alphabet by The Cricket Collection

left: Bunny Sampler by Chessie + Me

right: Paradis by Le Chêne Doré

Of course, I won't be able to stitch all the pulled-out charts but it's so nice to browse my stash each month and imagine I could stitch all of the charts in there.

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If you feel tempted by the Alphabet Club as well, go to The Grey Tail blog or to the button in my side bar and read all about it. As far as I understood it you can join whenever you want to. And you can read all the other participants' entries.

Happy Stitching!

Hello dear blogging friends,

Since my last post the weather has cooled down considerably and we were having the first night frosts. Not so good for my roses as the last rose buds are still closed and I don't know if they will still get to bloom before the real cold rolls on. But good for me as it was too cold for working in the garden, so it was stitching time.

I pulled out some of my big projects and stitched on them to my heart's content. So I can show you some before and after pictures.

1 - Houses of Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplings

I started this huge piece ten years ago, in July 2005, and finished house #7. House #6 was stitched in July 2009. And now after joining Kaye's Friday Frolics I pulled out the project again and stitched house #5.

I can't find any pictures of the first two houses stitched at the moment. I just hope that the intervals between the next houses will not be so long.

2 - Composition d'automne by Perette Samouiloff

This is one of my starts for my Year of BAPs 2014. I stitched the first motive in December 2014.

And now I added two more

3 - Stitching and Quilting Party by Sara Guermani

This was a mystery SAL that I joined in August 2014 after seeing the first parts stitched on several blogs. I have added the whole upper part

And now the whole project looks like that

4 - A Seasonal Sampling by Linda Myers

This is one of my favourite projects. I have had this chart for at least 15 years but only started it in January 2014 as part of my Year of BAPs. I ha stitched Spring and Summer last year and earlier this year. This month I added the autumn panel

I still have several charts by Linda Myers in my stash and as soon as Seasonal Sampling will be finished I will start the next. I just love this designer and can't understand why I just collected the charts but never started one.

I also stitched on some small designs but will keep them for my next post. Maybe the finishing bug will bite me until then. One can always hope :)

Happy Autumn!

Time for a new Alphabet Club post. This month it's the letter D and there will be a sweet treat and lots of stitching, just the right combination for my taste. Now here we go.

D - Dampfnudeln

Dampfnudeln are sweet dumplings that are made with flour, sugar, milk, butter, eggs and yeast. You make a dough with these ingredients, form dumplings and put them in a glass or iron pan, fill it up to the half with milk and bake it in the oven. We eat them rather regularly because all the family love them. We usually eat them with vanilla sauce and/or compote. Last time my husband took pictures of our delicious Dampfnudeln.

D - Drawn Thread

The Drawn Thread is one of my favourite designers and I love her themes and all the specialty stitches she uses in her designs. Over the years I have collected several of her designs and have stitched some - not as many as I had wanted to.

Linen & Lace

Random Thoughts

Alpine Garden

Woodland Walk

My favourite among them has to be Alpine Garden as it combines my love of the mountains and of nature. I also stitched some of her smaller designs, mainly for exchanges.

(I can't remember the name of this design, I stitched it in 2004)

Spring Scissors Keeper (a freebie)

One of my WIPs is a Drawn Thread piece that I started right after finishing Random Thoughts as part of my personal Year of BAPs. It is Sanctuary and I haven't stitched a lot on it, yet. But it's a start.

When the Sanctuary will be finished I will choose one of the three Gardens that are in my stash.

If you want to see more Drawn Thread projects you have to visit Andrea on her blog The Craft Room. She has stitched a lot of Drawn Thread projects and you can find them in nearly all of her posts. Or go to Jo's blog Serendipitous Stitching, she also shows some Drawn Thread designs in her D letter post.

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If you feel tempted by the Alphabet Club, go to The Grey Tail blog or to the button in my side bar and read all about it. You can join whenever you want to. And you can read all the other participants' entries.

Have a great stitching time!

Hello blogging friends,

It has been a while since my last post, but I was a bit under the weather, not really sick but I just wasn't feeling my normal self. Maybe a little virus who knows. That's why I haven't been visiting your blogs lately and I haven't even answered to all the lovely comments that you left on my last post. But know that I read them all and was so pleased by what you wrote. Thank you!

I noticed that comments from no-reply bloggers are not sent to my email address any longer. Which is a good thing as you would not believe how many answers I sent to no-reply accounts in the past, lol. So this will not happen again. What is not so good is that there are always some comments from bloggers with an email address that are not sent on to my mailbox.

During the last weeks I finished stitching several small designs - and was waiting and waiting for the finishing bug to bite me. But nothing happened, so yesterday I sat down with a big sigh and started working on these smalls. I wasn't really motivated but with each little finish it became better and after continuing this morning I have five smalls that are totally finished.

#1 is a new bookmark for my collection. I started it in spring as one of the projects for Debbie's Challenge, that's why it is a spring design. And before you ask - yes, there are pink daffodils. I have never seen one but found pictures on the internet.

Daffodils by Rita Weiss

stitched on a linen stitchband (Zweigart) with threads from my stash

#2 was also started in spring as part of Debbie's Challenge. It was pure delight to stitch it and will add it to my May basket next year.

Coeur Mai by Les Ambrosales (no designer name given :( )

stitched on 36 ct Edinburgh linen by Zweigart with threads from the kit

#3 is my secret favourite, I fell in love with this little guy. It was a lot more of stitching than I thought it would be and there were more than 20 colours involved. But what a wonderful result. This piece was also one of my projects for Debbie's Challenge.

Christmas Bluebird by Diane Brakefield

in Cross Stitch + Country Crafts Jan/Feb 87

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

#4 is not one of my usual motives. I stitched and finished this little ornament for a friend who loves and practices icon painting and somehow I thought she could love this.

Blackwork Angel by The Prairie Schooler book 103

stitched on Zweigart 32 ct Belfast linen with black DMC and unknown gold metallic thread

#5 was stitched for November's theme for the Christmas Ornie SAL 2015 group. I had had the chart in my stash for quite a while. As I love this little guy's crooked smile I embellished him with some colourful buttons, more colourful than the chart was asking for, lol.

Cromwell the Snowman by The Trilogy

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

All these smalls qualify for the Smalls SALand #4 qualifies for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL. But I think I am too late for both.

That's all for today. I hope you are all enjoying nice evenings cuddled up on your sofa and stitching or crafting.

Have a nice start of winter!

A bit late again this month. I have a new computer and had to get used to it before writing a new post. Well, then let's start with the German sweet treat as usual.

E - Elisen-Lebkuchen

If the letter E had been in summer I would have had to choose a different sweet treat, but December is perfect for gingerbread items. My picture doesn't show the real Elisen-Lebkuchen, which is produced in Nürnberg only (if I got that right) and I have no idea where to get it here. So I bought a normal Lebkuchen that I could buy here and that you see in the picture. It might taste different than an Elisen-Lebkuchen.

E- Eiffel Tower

I love to travel and do it whenever I can. When I was young I lived in Paris for six months and it was a very exciting time. Hence my love of the Eiffel tower. I stitched this little pillow for my son and his wife after they spent New Year's Eve and the following days in Paris. It was a freebie by Blackbird Designs and was a lot of fun to stitch.

E - The Embroiderer's Story

I bought this book some years ago after a stitching friend recommended it to me. It is a great book about the history of needlework from the renaissance to the present day, written by Thomasina Beck. Every now and then I read a chapter and enjoy looking at the wonderful illustrations that accompany the text. And these pictures are just gorgeous. This book could be a great gift for a needleworker.

E - Charts of designers or their companies starting with E

All these charts and patterns have been in my stash for quite a while, some of them for more than 10 years already.

Véronique Enginger - Etude botanique l'Hortensia

in De fil en aiguille #69

left: Ewe&Eye&Friends - Autumn Blooms

right: Elizabeth Designs - In the Garden of My Heart

Joan Elliott - Cowboy Boots

It is time to get them stitched, don't you think? I will add them to my Alphabet Club folder and next year I will choose my new starts from this folder.

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If you feel tempted by the Alphabet Club, go to The Grey Tail blog or to the button in my side bar and read all about it. You can join whenever you want to. And you can read all the other participants' entries.

Happy Stitching to you all!

Hello stitching and blogging friends,

although it's like spring outside I was stitching on some ornaments lately - and I even finished them right after stitching them. This is so very unusual for me but don't worry. I was just shifting my procrastination skills onto other fields, lol.

The first set of little ornaments are two red houses.

Maisons rouges 2012 by Cathy Roy

stitched on white 28 ct linen with red thread from my stash

You can find these freebies - and many more on Cathy's blog Le Chalet des Pérelles. I stitched these little houses as gifts, so they qualify for Jo's Gifted Gorgeousness SAL. If you want to know more about it, go to Jo's blog and read all about it. Jo offers this SAL also for 2016, so you are invited to join the fun.

Then I finished two little Santas that I had stitched last year but not finished.

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

stitched on Zweigart 32 ct Belfast linen with the indicated DMCs

Now I have seven of the eight Santas of that book finished. Here they are all together.

And I plan to stitch some more Prairie Schooler Santas, maybe from their Kris Kringle book.

Next in row is a snowman. Although I don't love snow at all, I love stitching everything snow, particularly snowmen. Isn't he sweet?

Snowman by Fanci That

stitched on a piece of natural linen with threads from my stash

I already have an idea how I will finish him, maybe I will try myself on a flat fold finish. It will be my first, so wish me luck :)

The last thing I have to show is my progress on one of my BAP projects. I never can go for a long time without pulling out one of my big WIPs. This time the Rockies and Northwest Sampler by Ginger & Spice was my favourite. I finished the panel underneath the state names.

I finished the band underneath the state names: the frontier town with Aspen trees and the women voters in Wyoming (information about the motives is given by the designer). Next time will be some border stitching before I go on to the next band.

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My next post will be after the Christmas holidays, so I want to wish you

Happy Holidays and Happy Stitching!

Dear stitching and blogging friends!

I did it - I finished Debbie's Challenge. Which means 31 projects started and finished this year. OK, most of them were small projects but there were also some bigger ones.

One of the bigger ones is the last that I finished, and I finished it just in time. Here it is:

Midnight Snowman by Donna Race

stitched with fabric and threads from the kit

This is one of the few kits that I ever bought, just because I couldn't find the chart only. The design took me much longer than I had thought - there is a lot of colour changes, a lot of stitching with blending filament (you can't see the sparkle in the picture), some French knots, even some only done with blending filament, backstitching, half stitches, some lazy daisies, and in the end I added some beads. It was a fun stitch from the beginning to the end.

The second bigger one was also a kit and I stitched it during the seasons, so you might have seen the other parts earlier this year. The last part, winter, was started and finished in December.

Four Seasons by Robin Kingsley

stitched on 28 ct linen with the threads from the kit

I just love this one, the colours are nice and bright and the vine around the seasons looks really nice.

If you want to see all the other designs I chose for the challenge, just go to the respective page underneath my header. I added all the pictures of my finished challenge pieces.

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Now it will be on to one of the best things when a year ends - the planning of a new stitching year. I have already pulled out some new projects that I will kit up during the next days and then start stitching all through January. So much fun ahead ...

Thank you all for your many visits on my blog, for your friendly and motivating comments, and for your friendship throughout 2015.

Happy New Year to all!

Hello, dear blogging friends,

the new year has started and after a not so pleasant

visit at the dentist's - are these visits ever pleasant? - I am back in the full swing of things. First of all I started a new stitching diary. My old diary was full and I was a bit sad because it had accompanied my stitching since the year 2000. But as you can see it looks a bit worn and I had to fix the pages every now and then. It's fun to leaf through it and read about all my stitching, finishing, my exchanges and gifts over the last 15 years. My new diary is the same type of book, just smaller. I loved to write the first entries into it.

Which means I have done some general planning and have stitched one and finish-finished two little projects.

What I have planned:

- to stitch mainly from my stash

- to continue the SALs that I joined last year: the Friday Frolics, the Prairie Schooler SAL, the Christmas Ornie SAL, the Americana SAL, Gifted Gorgeousness and the Alphabet Club. If you want to know more about them, just click on the respective buttons in my side bar, they lead you to the SAL blogs.

- to stitch an advent calendar for my grandson. Instead of buying a new pattern for the advent calendar I was looking through my Just Cross Stitch ornament issues and other magazines and found a couple of nice designs that I will stitch on little bags.

- of course, to start some new projects in order to have more WIPs on my hands, lol. I'll choose from the designs I pulled out for the Alphabet Club during the last months.

Does that sound feasible? To me, yes. And if not, nothing will be lost. I'm looking forward to it.

What I have finished:

First there is a small piece that I finished stitching last year and I pulled it out and turned it into a pinkeep. It looks a bit lopsided on the picture but in real life it's OK.

Laura's Embroideries by Marie Suarez

stitched with DMC on 32 ct Belfast linen

And here comes my first stitched piece of 2016, a couple of snowmen that I had in my stash for at least ten years. It was a semi-kit and came with the fabric and the little buttons.

Big Blizzard Sampler by Heart in Hand

stitched on the linen from the kit with threads from my stash

I put them in a little basket to accompany some other snowmen so that they are not alone.

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That's it for my first blog post in 2016. Thank you for all the wonderful comments that you left on my last blog post in 2015. I was overwhelmed and am still answering to them. Thank you so much.

Happy Stitching and Have a Great Time!

Hello dear blogging friends,

here comes the letter F, the monthly Alphabet Club update for January. This post was due on the first Saturday this month but back then I was busy with planning and finishing. But here it is.

F - Florentiner

This month's German sweet treat is Florentiner. From the name you would think it comes from Italy but their origin is said to be French. I know these since my childhood. The Florentiner I show here are the very small ones but there are also big ones with a diameter of about 10 cm = 4" and they are the real ones for me. They are made of almonds, sugar, honey, butter, candies cherries and after baking coated with chocolate. Very sweet, as you can imagine but soooooo good. And you should have good teeth, lol.

F - First Flat Fold Finish

This is the little snowman by Fanci That that I finished stitching in December. Now he has become my first flat fold finish. Thank you, Annie, for the tutorial you sent me. It was really easy.

F - Freebies

Do you love freebies? I do and often browse through my freebie folder to look for a new small project. I used to just save the website but then found that some designers withdraw their freebies from time to time. That's why I don't have all the monthly cottages by Maryse. Now I usually print them out if I like them, just to be on the safe side :)
I want to show you some German blogs whose owners often offer freebies that they have designed themselves.

http://maxistickt.blogspot.de
http://stickeule.blogspot.de
http://kissycross.twoday.net

F - Friday Frolics

This is a blog that Kaye from Kitten Stitching has established. The idea is that you pull out one of your oldies and stitch on it on Fridays and then post your progress picture. I do not join every Friday and that's the thing that I like about Kaye's SAL blogs - no obligation. If you want to join, just contact Kaye and become a Frolicker - is that a word??? - but at least it starts with F.

F - Four Seasons

This a motif that I love a lot and I have already stitched some designs with the four seasons on one piece of fabric. The biggest is

design by Anagram

When I was going through my stash, I found that I had bought more seasonal designs - who would have thought this?

These are by Elizabeth Designs and the designer is Elizabeth Foster ...

... and these are by Tiziana (left), a French designer whose designs I bought many years ago, but I'm not sure if she is still designing
... and by Christiane Dahlbeck (right), a well-known German designer. Her company is called Fingerhut (= thimble)

All these charts will be added to my ABC folder which contains all the charts that I chose for the The Alphabet Club. And whenever I want to start something new - which happens all the time :)) - I will choose from this folder.

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Happy Stitching!

Hello, dear blogging friends,

although there was a lot of shoveling snow two weeks ago, I was also busy inside the house. No, my decluttering mode hasn't re-appeared yet, that is something for spring when the snow is gone and nature awakens and everything becomes so new and fresh. Then I feel that I need free space and orderly shelves and cleanliness in the house, too. I was busy in my craft room and started re-organizing my stash. And I was busy stitching and finishing.

The finish all finished:

Looking for a winter design I was browsing through my Prairie Schooler books and found and stitched this little design.

Winter Foursome by The Prairie Schooler (book 133)

stitched on 32 ct Belfast linen with the recommended DMC threads

And I immediately finished it into a little pillow to add to my winter bowl from last year.

(From left to right: Lorri Birmingham, Heart in Hand, Plum Street Sampler)

Now I have three of these seasonal Foursome designs - winter, spring and summer, and later this year I will have to stitch Autumn Foursome to have the four seasons completed.

The progress:

Then I pulled out one of my oldies, the Houses of Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplings. I added a new house, it's house #9 in the lower left hand corner.

And as always it took a while until it was stitched - all houses do :) Now I have stitched 4 houses out of 12, still some way to go. But it's worth it because I love this project a lot because I love houses and I love the unusual colours.

Gifted Gorgeousness - late as usual :)

First I thought I couldn't joints month but then I remembered the little card that I made earlier this month. It will be a birthday card for someone, so it fits into the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL.

Blumenstrauß by Birgit Kraus

stitched on the linen and with the Flowerthreads from the kit

I'm not very creative when it comes to card making, it's usually just the stitched piece. But I like it this way.

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Let me thank you all for your wonderful comments that you left on my last post. As usual I'm behind with answering to them and I'm sorry for that. Either I'm behind with reading and commenting - or I'm behind with answering to your comments. Oh well, it seems that I have to live with this :)

Have a great crafting time!

May 28 - Working on my BAPs

June 18 - Another BAP and a gift

July 13 - First Summer Stitching

July 19 - Gifted Gorgeousness SAL

August 13 - Gifted Gorgeousness SAL

August 19 - The Alphabet Club "A"

August 28 - Last Summer Stitching and Smalls SAL

September 6 - The Alphabet Club "B"

September 18 - Gifted Gorgeousness

September 28 - Debbie's Challenge + BAP stitching + a gift

October 12 - The Alphabet Club "C"

October 26 - Before and After

November 10 - The Alphabet Club "D"

December 2 - Some Smalls Finish-finished

December 11 - The Alphabet Club "E"

December 20 - Stitching, Finishing and Gifted Gorgeousness

December 30 - Debbie's Ultimate Crazy Challenge Finished!

January 6 - finishing and planning

January 17 - The Alphabet Club "F"

January 26 - A Finish, Progress and a Little Gifted Gorgeousness