House of the rising sun

is finished. Terri that is exactly the song I had in my mind while stitching on it. Even though New Orleans is not even near to it :) Weren't that the Eagles who sang the song?



And here a picture especially for my friend Manuela. Please ignore my double chin...I have no clue how or when I got that but it is there....*grrrr* Look at bit more to the bottom and see little Lisa's and my pink CROCS!!! :) We got them last week and WE LOVE THEM. They are so warm and cosy. When I first came over to Canada and saw the Crocs I thought that I would never wear "these plastic shoes"...... LOL

After the decision

was made to send the project back to ghoststitchers I was relieved. Under the given circumstances I would have never been able to deliver good work.

So I went back to From Sea to Shining Sea and suddenly stitching felt wonderful and stress relieving again :)



Terri asked if it snowed more during the last days....no it didn't and for me it seems to be enough! :) Our little house in the snow:

A bit sad

am I that I will have to give up on something I waited so excited for for a long time. I applied as a ghoststitcher in january 2008 and I received my first model to stitch for them yesterday. It is something that will be stitched with a lot of dark red on 28ct. white fabric (no linen). And they ask for complete coverage....but with 2 plys dark red on white it doesn't cover completely especially not there where quaterstitches are necessary... And when I emailed a pic of my little start they suggested to stitch with one or two threads more. Arrrrgh I tried it and it feels not comfortable at all and to me it looks bulky and not nice. And also it takes me a lot of time to make the threads lay flat and nice. How shell I then be able to stitch about 200-300 crosses every night? Is anyone of you a modelstitcher or ghoststitcher and how do you handle things like that?
I think I will just let them know that I just can't do it and send it back or whereever they want me to send it. That is than the sad end of a dream I always had....

Yesterday evening was dedicated to the model but on wednesday I let the sun rise over the West Coast and even palmtree started to grow ;)

I added some

...brown on my house. Not that that is my favourite colour but I was hoping to finish everything of this shade on the house last night. I was wrong :) There are still a few rows of the roof missing. I hope to finish that tonight and being able to let the sun rise over the West Coast. LOL But for now - no sun.

about 15cm (6 inches) of snow

That is what we got today! After the roads, fields, some yards and even some basements were flooded because of the rain at the weekend we got some white stuff again. It is still snowing and it is supposed to do that, not as much as today but still, for the next days.

My house on the West Coast looks a little bit more like a house in Greece with all the white and blue. It is so cute and I hope it will get some more colours tonight.


Must be pretty boring to see the same thing over and over again....I am sorry, I can't stitch any faster LOL

The Westcoast

...is my next step. And the reason for that: I ordered only the first 3 installments some time ago. That was just to minimize the loss if it would become an UFO. But two weeks ago I thought it would be OK to order the rest of the chartpacks. And now I have to wait for the shipment. :)
I stitch on my biscornu and on this so I have not too much progress to share:



We had a very rainy day yesterday. It remembered me a lot of the autumn, winter and early spring days in Germany. The rain drizzled the whole day - sometimes more and sometimes less. Now some of the snow is gone but we expect another 10-15cm of snow from tonight till wednesday. Winter is not over in MB, Canada....

Finished "The Southwest"

I got such a good portion on my biscornu done that I allowed myself to stitch again on FSTSS. I am surprised how much I stick to this big design (yes, for me this is kind of a big design...). This is how it looked like when I got back to it:


I managed to finish "The Southwest":


And the whole thing now:


I will stitch some more on it tonight but tomorrow after work (brrrrrrr...I don't like mondays) I will stitch on the biscornu again.

7th anniversary

DH and I had our 7th anniversary yesterday. We didn't do anything special. Just an indoor bike race....not the typical thing to do on an anniversary LOL but we had a lot of fun. My employer is a sponsor for the fundraising event for Cerebral Palsy so we went there to do some pedaling :)


The pictures are a bit dark....



After that we went to a nice little bakery owned by Hutterites for a very yummieh lunch. We had soup and wraps and lisa had a lemon cookie. Oh it was sooooo good. I took some fruitsquares home for our afternoon coffee and they were awesome. Now I am busy trying to find a recipe for these on the internet. They were so delicious.....I could eat them every day. The worst thing is that the bakery is on my way to work so I could stop there every day before AND after work to get some......LOL

I really have to put a few

...hours into my Tiny Treasures Exchange biscornu. It is due to be mailed out by the end of March.
But yesterday evening I decided to pull Take Time to Quilt out of my "currently active" WIP bag. This is how it looked when I began:


And this was before I put it back in the bag:


The real colour is somewhere between this two pictures but more like the before pic. I didn't spent a lot of time stitching I was just too tired again. Seems like I am tired a lot lately. I don't know exactly why but I hope it is getting better as soon as spring brings warmer temperatures.

A little bit frustrated

...am I because I can't show you how wonderful and vibrant the colours of La Vie en Bleu are in real life. They are awesome and it is so enjoyable to stitch with all these special stitches..... FUN FUN FUN



I realized I made a mistake while ordering the threads for this chart. I put accidentially less then the recommended length of threads in my shopping cart. Means I will have to order a bit more of some colours pretty soon....that'll give me the opportunity to try some of their yummieh linen...... *drool* ;)

Just a small progress

Yesterday my friend from work came for supper. And we had a good time eating and chatting and drinking 2 glasses of wine....no Irish wine though :) Is there Irish wine at all? I can't remember seeing that ever.

Later I was too tired for a lot of stitching. Instead I read a few pages in a book...
Just a close up of the house with a now "grown up" cactus. LOL


I think it is time to stitch on something else again. Hopefully that brings me back my stitching mood tonight. I don't know how some people can just stitch on one project at a time. I like watching their progress though and they finish their projects so much faster than I do....

As Terri and Deb said...

I was a scared, too. Especially when we arrived at the lake and drove on the ice. It was frightening but seeing all the other cars and shags and skidoos on the lake it felt a little bit safer after a while. I think we simply got used to it...And it helps a lot not to think about beeing on a lake. LOL

I got a little stitching on From Sea to Shining Sea done:
Before:

After:

And a closeup of the area I worked on. At least I got the bottom border done. Now I feel a bit better about stitching on the houses...

A friend wrote one my wall (on facebook)

"Don't forget the beer it almoste makes ice fishing fun." She is right!!! :) Once all the holes are drilled and everybody is seated in front of a hole it is the most boring thing ever....especially if nobody catches any fish. LOL


It was a strange feeling to drive a car on a lake. And with the snow on the ice it was much more difficult as I expected it to be.


Lisa and I didn't spend a lot of time sitting next to a hole and waiting for something that never happened :)


She preferred to play in the snow and I just sat in the car with wide open doors. My stitching in my hands enjoying the fresh air and the sun.....much better than holding a fishing rod!

Just a bit progress...

on From Sea to Shining Sea. Sharon asked what fabric I am stitching on. It is 40ct winter sky Lakeside Linen. And it is awesome to stitch on. I will buy Lakeside Linen for sure again. I would appreciate your help what colours to chose. I had some trouble chosing from the pictures online. I ordered Bittersweet Vintage and the picture looked like a boring light brown-creme. But when I got it, it was pink-creme. So what are your favourite colours of LL???

We will go ice fishing today....I have never done that before and I am kind of excited to drive with a car on a lake, poke/drill a hole in the ice and try to catch a fish. Sounds like a strange thing to do for Germans :) I will take some pictures and post them in my next post.

An update on the area I stitched on:


And one of the whole thing so far:

I went crazy

and didn't finish the bottom border before starting on the houses. After I had to rip out all my stitching from the night before I thought I could have some fun and start on the more fun and colourful part:

before:

after:

I will stick one more night with From Sea to Shining Sea and hope to get more of the border AND the house done.... ;)

This was my 4. finish in 2009

I started it together with my friend Manuela when we spent a few days together during our holidays in Germany in december/january. We both unpacked our kits on janauar 02, 2009. Back in Canada I wasn't to far from finishing it when I took it to stitch on it while watching Lisa's swimming lessons. When I wanted to put in some more stitches at home the next night I realized I lost the silks at the pool.... And when I got there to ask for my threads nobody had seen them. I am pretty sure that the little cardboard heart with some fuzzy silks could look like garbage to someone who has no clue about stitching... But lucky as I am Manuela was about to finish hers and sent me her leftovers very soon and I was able to finish mine without a hassle. Thanks so much Manuela!!!! I just wish you were not so far away....

The Stockings
Shepherds Bush
Started: 2009-01-02
Finished: 2009-02-01
stitched with the silks and on the 32ct country grain provided in the kit
I will add the embellishments when I am going to frame it or finish it otherwise.

Shepherds Bush is always so much fun to stitch and the colours are gorgeous...

I can't show you a picture of yesterdays stitching on From Sea to Shining Sea as I had to rip it all out again :( I miscounted at the end of the last thing I stitched and everything I stitched yesterday was wrong 1 cross wrong in place....

At the Needlecraft Guild meeting

I stitched a little bit more on my fun project. But tonight I will go back to my rotation otherwise the fun with La Vie en Bleu will over way too fast :)


And I will have to start putting a few stitches in my biscornu for the exchange on a daily basis .... or it won't be finished in time.

It seems as if the winter will be over pretty soon. Right now we still have -24Celsius (-11F) with a windchill that makes it feel like -34Celsius (-29F) but the temperatures are supposed to go in to the plus Celsius degrees at the weekend and are expected to remain there....So we will have to say Good bye to the nice white snow.

When I wasn't stitching on

my Biscornu for the Tiny Treasures Exchange I stitched on La Vie en Bleu. Not that I spent A LOT time on the Biscornu....La Vie was too tempting. :) The colours and the specialty stitches are so much fun!


The natural linen is a little bit too dark but I will stick to it now as I don't have the right colour in my Stash anyways...
Thank you so much for all your comments. I love reading them so much!

Tonight is Needlecraft Guild meeting again and I plan on taking La Vie with me instead of Peppermint Twist.

And this is the reason...

...why I HAD TO finish Home is Where You Hang.... on friday. I got my order from Des Filles et une Aiguille in France.

I ordered late Friday night, she assembled it and shipped it out on Saturday and it was here exactly a week later on Friday. That is sooooo fast. And I was surprised to see that she really cuts the threads in the lenghts of your order (she sells Fils Atalie by meter). And how carefully she labeled every colour... I am thrilled to see with how much love she handled my small order. Please excuse my dark friday night pictures...

I did a little floss toss on 40ct Shale by Picture This Plus:

and on 40ct natural Zweigart:

Saturday when I finally had stitching time I decided on the 40ct natural linen and started winding the silks and cottons when suddenly the doorbell rang and friends came visiting with us......
So guess who got up early in the morning today to get started on La Vie en Bleu? LOL

I was busy....

....doing the HAPPY DANCE! :) Friday later in the evening I finished Home is Where You Hang... This is exactly the right size for me. Not that big that I am getting tired of it and put it away and not too small. Unfortunately I am often drawn to the really big projects....
The colours are pretty good on the pictures except of the linen. In real live it is pretty close to Zweigart sand.

Home is Where You Hang Your Needlework
by Homespun Elegance
stitched with the recommended Belle Soie silks
40ct R&R Dark Cappuccino
started: 2009-02-02
finished: 2009-03-06

I am getting there...

...not too long any more and Home is Where You Hang Your Needlework will be done. I think I will go on stitching on it till the end now. I ordered a nice chart and the recommended Fil Atalie last week in an online shop in France. They sent it out the same day and I want to start it as soon as it shows up in my mailbox. So I better finish this soon :)
I took pictures with my camera this morning (of course no daylight) instead of scanning it but the colours are as bad as the ones on the scanner.... Hopefully I will be able to take a nice picture of the finished piece at the weekend with daylight....




My pictures are so bad. I love to see all the beautiful pictures on other blogs but I don't know how to take so nice pics. Perhaps I should take a photographing course....