Carol , I would love to stitch Deftly Wrought as a SAL with you. When do you think we should start stitching on this one? Do you prefer to finish one of your other SAL's first?

Last week Manuela visited me from thursday to Saturday. We had planned to stitch on Catherine Agnes. But when Manuela was here she offered to stitch 5 squares on DT's Sampler Gameboard and I'll have to finish her Catherine Agnes. And as usual I was persuaded by hee :-) .
The next sunday progress pics on Sampler Gameboard can be visited on Manuelas blog.
This is my CA:



















And this one is Manuela's CA:



















During the past week I made a bit of progress on this Christmas Sampler. I changed the colors to the traditional red. The original used a variety of rose shades.

Blogger didn't allow me to tell the complete story yesterday..... About half an hour later after stitching a bit more, I went upstairs doing a bit of homework. Hubby had to take care of Lisa, about a quater of an hour later he shouted that I should better come down because Lisa made some mess with my stitching.... :-( She found some scissors as well and this was what it was looking like then:




I cut another piece of linen and started again the same evening. I had to restitch the ruined piece and use the threads again because there are not so many threads in VS's accessory packs.
Now I have the new one stitched as much as the first one was when Lisa got it in her little hands.
Cindy, yes, I have seen the freebie pattern and I like it very much. Maybe I'll stitch it some time as well.

I started Gingerbread Garden Sampler by Victoria Sampler saturday in the evening. And this is what it looked like sunday in the afternoon:

Birthday Gift and House Exchange

I received a lovely belated birthdaygift from Carol. She sent me the chart "Deftly Wrought" by Midsummer Night Designs. And I like it so much. I never heard of MND before but I will look for more of their designs. :-) She also sent the needed fabric for it. You spoilt me so much.....Thank you very much, Carol!!!!!



And I received even more wonderful things..... My House exchange with SBEBB was in the mail. Paula was my exchange partner. She sent this wonderful pillow and and piece of fabric she used for the back. So I can make a companion house pillow for myself ;-) There was a nice chart by Drawn Thread with it as well. It’s one of my favorites. Thank you so much, Paula. I love the things you’ve sent me!!!!















I just found out that my exchange partner Karoline got hers as well. This is what I stitched for her:

It’s called 1831 Pincushion by The Goode Huswife. But I made a few changes :-)

Finally I put the backstitches in the chimney. It took nearly 2 hours ....though you can't even see them, they are there ;-)

. 


This is how the complete ABC is looking now.



The next one to stitch on it is Manuela. We are going to meet each other next week when she's back from her holidays. We want to visit our (not so) Local Needleworkshop. Maybe I can find a nice frame for my Quaker Garden. ;-)






This is the other project I put some stitches in. I started this one a few weeks ago and plan to stitch every month a little piece on it.

In my last post I missed to thank CathyL, Cathy, Carol, Moune, Annemiek and Lynn for their caring words about my dad. They meant so much to me!!!! Thank you!

I'm so happy I had some time yesterday to get out my Sampler Gameboard and put some stitches on it. Not much progress....better less than nothing:

 


I can't wait to see Cathy's Sampler Gameboard. Cathy, are there still some more people stitching on this one with us?

Dad is still in hospital. And I'm going to visit him in the afternoon.
Today in the morning DH brought Lisa to her granny (his mom) and we both went out for a run with some friends. I'm not as fit as a fiddle and so I took a shortcut and ran only 10km instead as the others 30km. When Dereks comes home we are going to pick up Lisa at her granny and having lunch together.
Now I'm back home way earlier, had a shower, made a cup of cappuccino and bowl of soup and heading off for my sofa to do some stitches on DT's Sampler Gameboard....lucky me :-)
 

We had - and still are having - a very busy time...

After my dad's endocarditis was under control the doctors diagnosed him with cancer of the colon :-( He was operated 3 days later (one day after his 71st birthday).... he was in a very, very bad condition but he slowly got better. 2 weeks later, over a 5 days period he got every day chemotherapy. On july the 21st after 5 weeks in hospital I could pick him up and bring him back home to my mom. It was a wonderful day!!!!
On july the 26th I celebrated my 34th birthday. Dad wasn't be able to participate because he still was a bit weak. The next day on mum's birthday, Lisa and I visited my parents just before lunch and Dad asked me to drive him to the doc because he didn't feel very well. I went to the phone to call the doctor to let him know but when I got out on the terrace again I realised that Dad's condition worsed so much that I wasn't be able to get him into the car any more. I called the ambulance vehicle and a few minutes later I had to call them again to come more speedy. It was terrible! Within 20 minutes his condition changed from feeling "not so good" to not recognizing my mom and me....
Now he is still in hospital. He is much better again but not good. I do hope so much to have him back home soon.... My poor beloved Dad.
You see there wasn't much stitching time for me visiting Dad twice per day in hospital...

Yesterday we went to hospital in the afternoon and I had no appointment in the morning...I just had to do some houswork and could spent the rest of time playing with Lisa and stitching ;-)



Today Lisa and I go to her toddlers group and in the afternoon we`re going to visit my dad again.

Thank you so much for your kind words to my dad's health problems. Unfortunately they told us today that they think there must be more than that. But they don't know what it can be by now.... :-(

Last sunday I stitched 2 squares and two letters. So this is what my Gameboard Sampler looks like now:



During our holiday I stitched my third A Prairie Christmas Ornament. I like stitching these small Prairie Schooler pieces very much. They are a quick fun stitch.

















All the cross stiching on the chimney on Ilse's ABC RR is done but I forgot the instructions for the backstitches so I have to do them now at home.














And here is an update of another big fun project. Catherine Agnes by Indigo Rose. It's a bit tricky but entertaining :-)

And last but not least an update on MTM. BUT as you see I really didn't stitch much on this one. I just put the missing stitches in part 1 and filled most of the arches of part 2.

 

Back home again :-)

We had a great time and a lot of sun and fun :-) Searching for a nice pic to post I realize that we took only very few pictures. This one is Lisa and me one morning in our caravan in bed ;-) She looks so happy that's why I choosed it.



When we got home my mom waited for us to tell that my dad's in hospital. He is having an inflammtion in his heart. That's what kept me busy from coming home till now :-( But he is a bit better now...... All my thoughts are with him.

Of course I found some time for stitching as well. I started and finished Quaker Garden by Blackbird Designs. I fell in love with this design when I saw it on Donna's and Carol's blog.














Of course I spent every sunday stitching on DT's Sampler Gameboard. I'm very nosy how much Cathy's Gameboard grew ;-)















I'm going to tell and show some more pictures tomorrow because blogger makes uploading pics a bit difficult tonight.

Goodbye :-)

Now I'm switching off the computer and we're leaving tomorrow for a 3 weeks vacation to the Baltic Sea.
Cathy, I worked on the Sampler Gameboard on sunday but no new pic now. Of course, I'll work on it on sundays during our holiday and I'll show a picture when we are back home.

Hopefully, I'll have to show some more stitching pics then :-)))

Have a good time my dear friends :-)

And this is the second exchange I received last week while having this bad cold. It arrived two days after Outi's mail. I think it was thursday. It's Melanie's Exchange from PattiNH. Thank you so much to Patti. Isn't it just stunning? I really love this finishing technique and hope Patti will let me know how it is called. And the Chart she added....WOHOOO!!! It was on wishlist :-)))) You really spoilt me! Thank you so much!



And a big sorry to Outi for writing Outi from Norway.... of curse, it isn't Norway but FINLAND!!!! Land-of-Lordi :-)))
When I wrote the post there was a little voice in my head telling me that I made a mistake but I didn't find it....

While I had this very bad cold last week I received two wonderful exchanges. The first one in the mail was from dear Outi from Norway. For sure you remember that she's my adoptee with the SBEBB's Adopt a Stitcher program. She stitched this oh so lovely scissors fob for me. Thank you so much ! I really love it :-) She spoilt me so...... she as well sent a chart and the needed linen band, a card making set and a very springy colored linen called Spring ;-) Thank you so much for this wonderful gift! It was the second mail I received from Outi and I can tell you I'm so glad with Outi being my adoptee :-)))))

Hello, it's me again :-) Thank you Cathy and Carol for your thoughts. I was so much on the way since my last post. On Tuesdays and Thursdays Lisa and me were off to the toddlers group and nearly every of the other workdays one mom and her little boy visited us.
DH and I signed up for Berlin Marathon in september and now I'm struggling to find some time for stitchng beneath gardening and running....
Last Sunday I wrote a long post in a word document to put it up when finished. I didn't hit the save button and when DH was on the computer during my absence he made a mistake deleted it. I wasn't able to get it back *grrrr *
I stitched a bit on GBS the 2 last sundays:



And I finished the second one of A Prairie Christmas Ornaments by Prairie Schooler. This should have been finished since february.... Actually you can not see the thread from star to star this is just visual on the scan.


















And I started the 3rd one:

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 :-(