Now the bricks are done...this is what I fear most in these medieval towns.



Yesterday in the afternoon I didn't do any gardening... I just sat stitching in the lawn chair and enyoing the sun. It was wonderful :-) In january I signed up to stitch every month one of these little Prairie Christmas ornaments by Prairie Schooler with the Friends Gather BB I stitched only the first one in january but I don't want to neglect the ornaments any more.
















Cathy, I'm going to wait till you re-start DT's Sampler Gameboard :-)

After Manuela arrived on Friday we drank a cup of coffee and ate a piece of apple cake with cream she bought in the Netherlands where she spent a few days with her hubby after their wedding. It was so yummiiiiieh :-) While we ate Lisa had a lot of fun playing with her shute.


















Then we drove to Paderborn to buy the fabric we needed for the boxes. It took much more time than we thougt because Manuela bought a lovely skirt and of course, we had to look for shoes and a top to wear with it..... As you can imagine this took a lot of time. When we came home we were so tired that we had to chill out on the sofa the rest of the evening. But on Saturday we started with our boxes. After some hours of puzzling out our boxes look like this now:



Yesterday after Manuela left I stitched some hours on Melanies Exchange (SBEBB) but there are still some more hours stitching and finishing left.

Of course, I finished stitching the Autumn Needleroll.



Last year I stitched the Beehive Needleroll by Shepherds Bush and Manuela asked me to wait with finishing as a needleroll till she stitched one as well and we could do the finishing together....now I stitched the second one and she still hasn't stitched one... ;-) By the way, Manuela is coming today and will stay till tomorrow and we want to try out to cover a box with fabric... Sorry, but I don't know how this is called in english :-( But I will show you some pics later.

I put a few stitches in MTM and this is what it looks now.

Today I stitched on Eventide's Autumn Needleroll and it was such a FUN to stich :-))) There's just a bit of hemstitching left now... The weather was very nice so I did some gardening with Lisa today and weh had a lot of fun though I don't like to weed very much :-(

It's me again ;-)

During the last 10 days I didn't stitch a lot. I was so fed up with MTM that I couldn't force myself to put more stitches in it.



I spent a lof of time reading books. One of them was "Seven Sisters" by Earlene Fowler. I really love these Benny Harper mysteries. There are a lot of funny dialogues that make me laugh out loud. Is there anybody else who likes reading them?

Yesterday when we went to friends for a easter bonfire I took DT's Sampler Gameboard with me to stitch on the way towards and back. And I realized that stitching can be such a fun :-) if you stitch what you want to..... So I decided to put my MTM aside a while and get my other WIP's out. I think this is much better than not to stitch anymore...
We had to drive only half an hour per way and so I didn't make a lot of progress. I will take a picture after my next GBS session :-)

Von remembered me that I still didn't send a pic of Lisa in her red shoes but as I want to upload one right now I realise that I still haven't got a good picture.
But I have a picture of her seeking chocolate Easter eggs yesterday at my parents house wearing her frog rubber boots ;-)





It took me 9 trys to load this picture up. Blogger didn't likes it..... ;-)








Last Thursday we were invited to my dear frind Manuela. She and her Rolf merried. We were caught up in a traffic jam and arrived too late at the civil registry office :-(((( But that was the only bad thing that happened and it was a really wonderful day.

Wohooo!!! I received my Spring Exchange gift with the SBEBB from Paula....isn't this cute pillow adorable? I fell in love with it immediatelay. The backing of the pillow is made of the fabric you can see under the other wonderful gifts. As you see she also sent 3 beautiful fabrics in spring colors a very springy card. Paula spoilt me so much ..... very lucky me :-)))) And Paula's stitching is extraordinary neat, it seems to be railroading, isn't it Paula? Exchanges are WONDERFUL!!!! :-)



A few days ago Jo mailed me that she received my spring exchange gift and I'm releived that she likes it because I stitched a linen band for her that is displayed in a way that is very common in Germany but I've never seen something similar in the US....







Yesterday my friend Margret visited me and did't stitch at all. But today I put some additional stitches in MTM. One side is nearly finished and I hope to add all of the (very much)
backstitches tonight...

I can show you an update of my MTM part 7. I think this part takes a bit more time to stitch than last months part. There are more colorchanges in the outer houses. But I like it very much
that this one looks different to the top one. :-)



On sunday I worked a little bit on DT's Sampler Gameboard but I stitched only half a square because I slept very long (till 9.30am). DH was looking Formula 1 at 6am racing in Melbourne (smile to AnneS) and when Lisa got up at 7am DH tool care for her :-) Lucky me .... And in the afternoon we went shopping to Lippstadt, there was a spring event and every shop was open (usually the shops are closed on sundays in Germany). Lisa got her first shoes and she had so much fun wearing shoes the first time. I'll show you some pics of Lisa with shoes and the Sampler Gameboard tomorrow....

There's more difference to part 6 than I thought and I like this very much. My start of MTM part 7 yesterday looks like this:



Today we were out doing some gardening...it was wonderful though the weather could have been a bit better... I'm a bit tired tonight but I will try to stitch a bit more on MTM.
I want to stitch on Drawn Thread's Sampler Gameboard tomorrow. My sunday commitment with Cathy that I neglected the last sundays badly.... :-(

Lisa still had a temperature yesterday and so we both ended up nestling on the sofa nearly the whole day.... When she was in bed I stitched quickly to rows of Eventide's Autum Roll and then I went of to a nice dinner in a restaurant with the women of our baby-group. I had grilled red snapper and grilled vegetables Yummie :-)



Today I pulled Ilse's Christmas ABC out of my WIP pile and made some stitches on this one....

Lisa still wanted to nestle very, very much though the temperature was down again. I'm not sure if she feels well again. :-(
Martina gave us the password for the 7'th part of Medieval Town Mandala one day earlier and so I'm going start to work on this one right now...
I want to finish this months part way earlier than last months!

This is how my MTM looks now. And as I said I completed only 2 of the 6 parts we got. A lot of work left to get it up to date.....

Lisa is having a temperature and sat the whole afternoon on my lap, the poor little thing.... I hope she feels better tomorrow.

YEAAAAAAHHHHH!!! I did it :-))) I'm so happy that I made it just in time before the next part comes out...
I'll post a pic of how my MTM looks at the moment later today. I have to finde some batteries for the digi-camera first. :-(

And now I have to make the Spring Exchange piece ready to mail off. Tomorrow is the mailing date for this one.

It seems as if I will reach the goal to finish part 6 in time :-))))

I'm so happy, I made a very good progress on MTM. :-) I wish I would stitch that much every day....

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments. They keep me going on with this one. Sometimes I have to take care not to put this one away and stitch all the other projects I'm working on and I would love to put more stitches on. I completed only one part of MTM and I don't want to go on with not completing parts. Otherwise this one will not be finished at the end of the year.... :-(

On Friday Margret and I visited the Creativa in Dortmund. It's a big craft tradeshow and we spent 6 hours there..... :-) + 2 hours for the way to Dortmund and 2 hours back I was completely beat coming home at 8pm. But it was worth it. I didn't buy a lot but there was much to see and so many new ideas for future projects. One thing I bougt is a new release Papierblumen from Der Feine Faden. And I bought a little piece of 55ct linen to give it a try. I've never stitched on such a fine linen before.

Today I finished reading "Body Double" by Tess Gerritsen I recommend reading this one, it's so thrilling.... After I finished reading I stitched the last cross stitches on the right side and a few of the backstitches but there are still a lot of them left to be done....

It was our 4th wedding day yesterday...I can't beleive that we are married now for such a long time.
I did stitch a bit more on MTM but today I didn't stitch at all. I was stuck to the german issue of Linda Fairstein's "Final Jeopardy". It's so thrilling :-)

Yesterday it was the first day in spring and actually it was a fantastic day. In the afternoon we had sunshine and a wonderful blue sky. And the best is, it seems to become sunny and "warm" today again. :-)

I think, I'm going to stitch more on MTM today. and hope to finish the right site soon..... ;-)

I didn't stitch at all yesterday. :-( Our sports club organized a running contest and in the morning I bake a tart for the cafeteria and midday we went to help there. Lisa was so well behaved I nearly didn't recognized her ;-) After coming home in the evening we put Lisa to bed and I left to visit a friend. We had a wonderful evening :-)))

Today after breaktfast I switched on the computer and had a look on Carol's blog.....she was as busy as a bee and that motivated me to stitch a bit more on MTM today. Thank you, Carol :-)

I was nearly two days without internet access and without telephone. With construction works the workers damaged an earth-layed pipeline and it took some time to be repaired.....oh, it was such a long time.....Thanks to Judy for replying so quickly my question concerning MTM :-)


The envelope for Melanie's Exchange with the Stitching Bloggers Exchange Board is sent out today :-) Looking forward to receive my envelope with fibres and charms to stitch for the exchange....

I made a bit more progress on MTM. But I didn't do any of the backstitches on the roof. Today I realized that the scheduled shipping dates for Melanie's exchange and the spring exchange are not on March the 15th as I thougt..... Melanie's exchange has to be mailed on the 17th and the spring exchange even later... on the 30th of March..... :-) I really have to buy a calender where I can write down all my stitching related dates.....


I got my Cider House Garden by Liz Turner Diehl from the Silver Needle. It was more than one month in the (snail)mail till it reached me.... I really thought it got lost. Is there anybody who plans to stitch this one as well??????

Today I finished the book I spent all my sparetime during the last days with. It was the german issue of Flesh and Blood (Fleisch und Blut) by Jonathan Kellerman. Though it wasn't very
thrilling I liked it very much. It was my first JK book but I hope to read more of his books soon... Most I liked the leading character, Alex Delaware, a psychologist working for the LA police.





After reading the last page I put some stitches on MTM....Will I while away my time this month and again not finishing the current part ???? :-)