January goals:
1. Mail out Marion's RR. Done.
2. Start stitching the januari pinkeep from Maryse. Finished the stitching!
3. Finally continue some stitching on the Snowbuddies Afghan. Unfortunately... nope...
4. Finish the Dragon Dreams christmas ornament. Stitching is ready and it's too cute!
5. Do some stitches in a WIP (work in progress) Finished 2 WIP's, major happy dance!
6. Make a WIP list. Done that ;)

I also started 2 new thingies, one already finished, one about half done and I finally got round to winding all my new DMC floss on bobbins. My stash corner in the attic needed some attention (......) and I managed to get it a little bit more organised too. Busy month don't you think?

February goals:

1. Stitch and mail Diana's RR.

2.  Finally put the sewing machine on the table and make the finished stitchings into real finishes.

3. Finish the dragon I'm stitching for Jan (my eldest).

4. Non stitchy, finally make my mum a tea cozy (I intended to do that about 3 years ago, so another big chunck of shame on me)

5. If there's time left I would love to start stitching for my sister. I bought her a great design, but I can't show it, cause she 's reading my blog also (making a funny face at you Suzan :) ).

That seems enough for me, afterall February is a short month LOL.

Shame on me...

Shame on me for forgetting to mention other birthday presents that are beautiful. From my dear "little" sister I got my very own cauldron/fiktor & dolf-designer handbag (designer as in Victor & Rolf, the more famous ones ;) ). She's really talented when it comes to paper and sticky glue. The cauldron is boiling as you can see and she also added a few ingredients... (can you believe it? She molested a toad for my present! LOL) This is ofcourse a really funny way to wrap your gift. She and her fiancee bought me this book, Nanny Ogg's cookbook. It's soooooo me! My blog is called "Welkom bij vrouwe Nack", and that's a derivative from Ootje Nack. Ootje Nack is a caracter in my favorite book series (discworld by Terry Pratchett). Her english name is.... Nanny Ogg! Great gift.

Than I also forgot to mention that my Belgian friend Iris sent me a beautiful gift. She stitched me this cube and also put in the package a beautiful card. I guess she know's of my love for coffee. It's still in my windowsill, across the place where I sit to eat, stitch, drink coffee... I see it all day long (and still love it). 

You might be wondering "how come she wants to tell us all now?". Well, first of all I didn't want you to miss out on these beauties and second, I'm currently working on some Barbara Ana designs myself. (The coffee I got from Iris is also a Barbara Ana design.) I proudly present a finish , it's a bookmark I made for Teun (my son) and I'm currently working on "I love my dog", for Paul (my youngest).

Stitchy notes:

"Love you to the moon bookmark" by Barbara Ana, freebie from cyberstitchers. 

Started in 2008 (?), finished 13 januari 2009.

Fabric: eavenweave with a sparkle from stash.

Floss: as indicated.

This isn't the only finish (yes, I'm on a terrible stitching rampage  and I'm enjoying it so much!) I also got Marion's RR in the mail. I stitched a part of LHN's Acorn Hill on her RR. I'm glad I could sent it when we were supposed to. No more 712 picket fence's for me! (Traditionally they would have to be white picket fence's, but that made the colours to bright.)  

Stitchy notes:

"Acorn Hill" by LHN.

Started december 2008, finished 4 januari 2009.

Floss: I substituted cresent colours for DMC 

(434 -680 - 712 - 581 - 977 - 816 - 3799)

And I had the intention of stitching on a WIP. The bookmark I showed you earlier was a WIP and I also finished the WIP of SMO's Sugar Cookies!

Stitchy notes:

"Sugar Cookies" by SMO, only for boardmembers!

Started in 2008 (?), finished 8 januari 2009.

Fabric: aida from stash, ivory colour.

Floss: as indicated.

I guess this is enough for today ;) (the saying "when it rains it pours" comes to mind.....)

Happy New Year!

First of all I want to wish you all a very happy new year. May 2009 bring you and your loved ones, happiness, good health and perhaps the fulfilling of a dream? Did you make any new years resolutions? I didn't..... I haven't made those in a long time because I think if you want to change something you should just do it. Don't wait for something silly as a date (in this case jan 1st). 

That being said I do want to make some little changes (hey, come on, it's jan 2nd! LOL).

On many blogs of befriended stitchers and quilters I've seen posts about monthly goals. I think it's inspiring to be able to cross things of your (ever growing) "to-do-list". Besides, thinking about your goals will give you a clear idea of what to do. 

I'm gonna give it a try, it might work out fine.... here we go....

January goals:

1. Mail out Marion's RR.

2. Start stitching the januari pinkeep from Maryse.

3. Finally continue some stitching on the Snowbuddies Afghan.

4. Finish the Dragon Dreams christmas ornament.

5. Do some stitches in a WIP (work in progress) 

6. Make a WIP list.

Well, if I get this done I'd be very happy.

Just in time for 2008

First of all I want to wish you a good new year's eve. Be careful with the fireworks, afterall we need those fingers to get all that stitching/patching/quilting and other beautiful handcrafts done!

When I mentioned the RR the other day I forgot to tell you that one of the girls had to pul out. Her health was acting up and she was afraid she wouldn't be able to fulfill the commitment. She would have chosen the theme of coffee and tea. To cheer her up a bit I stitched her this coffee mug mat (found at the site cross stitch happy. You ought to pay that site a visit, there are many beautiful things to be found!).

As you might recollect I joined an internet group during my off-line period, the crazy exchange. We did a christmas ornament exchange and I got Carol as exchange partner. I choose a blackbird design to stitch her (the sock). Wendy Jo stitched up my ornament (joy, love, peace ornament) and I love it.She also enclosed a scissorpocket which was an extra surprise. Thanks again!

Looking through the pictures of finished cross stitch thingies I also came across a mailart. This is a design I had on my "to stitch list" for a long time. I stitched it as a RAK (random act of kindness) for a SMO board member. It's a freebie stating "Stitchers come with strings attached" (yeah, I know, the picture isn't to good...)

Then there was my birthday and soon after came Jacqueline's birthday. Here's our exchange of birthday presents. Jacqueline made me this beautiful quilt and the thing I made Jacqueline is sort of .... well, I don't know. It's lying on top of three bundles of quilt fabric and it was made in a super-duper-easy-patchwork workshop.

And there's still more! On the SMO board is a member, Cindy, who invented the Just-4-me-SAL. I just knew I had to join that LOL! Here's a picture of my progress and one of how it should be in the end. 

and meanwhile I had to start another little Just-4-me project and it's finished already!

You might recognize it, it's the second one I made ;).

We had christmas dinner with the family at our place. My mother brought me a belated birthday present. It was from my former neighbour and stitch friend Diana. She surprised me with this beautiful christmastree! Amazing isn't it? Thank you Diana.

Well, more than enough for now. Thank you for baring with me in this rather long and perhaps tiresome blog for today. Hopefully the next will be a bit more up-to-date.

Did I tell you about

Did I tell you about joining a Round Robin (RR)? I did join a RR on the borduurhoekje and so did 4 other members. We all choose different themes. I choose "stitching" as a theme cause I was looking for an excuse to finally stitch Sadie-Stash-A-Lot-Ski LOL. When I sent out my RR she wasn't finished, but I will finish her once she get's home. This is the way she looked when she started travelling....

The first RR I received came from Simone. She choose houses/courtyard as a theme. It's sometimes rather difficult to pick a design for someone else. Initially I choose a cute Country Cottage Needlework design called gingerbread cottage, but when I read her "wish-letter" she explained she didn't want it to be sweet, sugarry or pink.... Well, there you go, gingerbread cottage, gone out of the window ;). 

It left me with the problem of finding a new chart in time, one that would fit Simone's wishes better. It was rather difficult, but in the end I found a Plum Pudding Needle Art design which would be fit for Simone's RR (at least, in my opinion, but as you've read that doesn't always fit the bill....)

The end result was this:

I'm currently working on Marion's RR, she also choose the courtyard/houses theme and she's asked for a LHN design (another problem, but sort of solved). Since the RR should be posted at the beginning of Januari I'm off to do a bit of stitching now....