Chateau de Chatelaine

Warning: this is a looooooooong post. It’s about three posts rolled into one. With lots of stitchy pics though, so stick around :o)

I hope your Christmases were wonderful and warm (inside) and white (outside), though not too white, because, well...

…what does one do when one is snowed in and one’s computer crashes at the same time? Well, one weeps and tears out one’s hair and wrings one’s hands and when the weeping and tearing and wringing is done, one stitches. And what does one stitch? One stitches a strawberry. As one does, around Christmas time:

This is one of the strawberries designed by Niki Farrauto for Blackbird Designs’ beautiful Christmas book Joyeux Noel, stitched on 30 count R&R Iced Cappuccino that I coffee dyed and baked in the microwave because I was silly enough to stitch on the wrong side of the fabric. Luckily, I used DMC threads for the stitching, otherwise I would have been in the soup, with me coffee dying my fabric after the stitching was done. I didn’t stitch this strawberry because I felt particularly festive or Christmassy (what the hay? Feeling Christmassy? There’s no such thing, I’m sure), but because I needed a fob of some weight and length for the adornment of my self-made chatelaine.


You see, I’m always losing my needles and scissors around here, and I don’t mean between stitching sessions. No, I lose them during these sessions. Whilst stitching. My child and my cat take delight in getting into all sorts of impossible situations that I have to rescue them from (every two minutes or so), so I’m always flying hither and thither and when I settle my behind in my stitching chair for another round of two minute stitching, I will have lost every stitchy thing I need. It was obvious to me that I needed a chatelaine to put around my neck, so that I would at least always have my needle and my scissors handy and that there wouldn’t be any danger of one of the beasts gobbling up my needle while I’m busy rescuing the other. What to do, what to do? I thought. I knew The Drawn Thread has a magnificent design for a chatelaine, but I don’t have it and I don’t have time to order it, wait for it to arrive and then stitch it. By the time I would get to finish-finishing it, Pelle would be about 40 years old and I would have no use for it anymore.

What I do when I have to think about stitchy things is I go through my drawers filled with fabrics, threads and charts and it was in one of these drawers that I found the solution to my problem...

kumihimo

Now, I admit that this sounds rather like a fascinating and intricate way of killing oneself, but in actual fact, it’s a Japanese braiding technique. I went on the internet (when my computer was, as yet, un-crashed) and looked up some stuff about kumihimo. One thing I learned is that kumihimo is not cross stitch. There is hardly anything to be found on the WWW, but the information I did find I used, and you can see the results in the picture below. Once the braid was long enough (about four long evenings later), I had to think of a way to finish it. By this time, my computer was belting out steam in its quiet corner in the room, so I was pretty much on my own. Then I thought of the strawberries and thought they were the perfect solution to the fob problem.

I think the (Dutch) term Crea Bea has never been more aptly used :o)

Once I had shoveled a path through the snow and I could get myself and Pelle out of our cottage, what do you think I found in the mail? A very, very early (or slightly belated) birthday gift from Harmien!
Don’t you agree that, with these fabulous goodies made by the Queen of Neatness herself, my primitive-looking, sampler-themed stitching set is as good as complete? Harmien, you couldn’t have picked more perfect designs for my birthday gift. I love, love, love all of it. Harmien added a cute notebook and some needle magnets, and the gift came wrapped in that stocking you see in the second picture. I nearly fainted when I saw that stocking, because I was actually afraid Harmien had wrought that as well, but she admitted (as I would never have done) that the sock was not self-made, at least not by her. The Christmas ornie is lovely too, isn’t it?

And since this post is already so long I’m bound to have sent my readers straight to Snoresville anyway, I might as well finish with a progress picture of the Pistols:

And here’s my cute pixie in the snow:

Can you say Awwwwwwwwwwwwww!?
Wishing you a very sparkly New Year’s Eve!

Yours Crea Beatively,
Annemarie.

Blathering on

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for all the kind, thoughtful, sweet comments, e-mails and post cards I received from so many of you after my previous blog post. Really. Whenever I read similar messages on other blogs I always thought: ‘what on earth can I write that will give any comfort?’, but I will never think that again. Even the simplest {HUG} was felt and I can’t thank you enough.

Enough of the weepy stuff. I will keep you posted of course, but I’ve found that life really does go on despite it being rather crappy right now. And life without stitching is no life at all, right? Right. Hence the update.

At the start of last year (that would be 2008), I started a sampler for my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. Being the experienced procrastinator that I am, I didn’t make it. Never mind that this was also the time when I left my partner and had to build a new life formyself and Pelle: I now know that’s a very poor, unforgiveable and silly excuse not to finish something like this on time. So I did finish the sampler for Christmas and took it to the framer’s this morning (more about my framer later). Here it is in all its un-framed but finished glory:

I Thee Wed by Blackbird Designs. I stitched it on some unknown 32 count fabric with the suggested DMC conversion (which I wasn’t always too happy about)
Yikes! I just noticed the yucky brown spoton my chair. Ewl. No worries: it's just coffee. My coffee spoon fell out of my cup just the other day. Annoying Dutch habit I have: I drink my coffee with the spoon in my cup. And I don't even take milk or sugar!)

This was a lot of stitching. This was a lot of solid stitching. So much so, that I decided to use half cross stitches for the grass because I would never ever have finished it otherwise. Not too fond of solid stitching, you know... Obviously, I changed the words to the initials of our nearest family: my parents, my brother and his partner and Pelle and me. My brother was kind enough to reveal the first letter of his daughter’s name, although she isn’t expected to make her official entry into this world until after Christmas. (And yes, I’m stitching her a sampler, and yes, I still think I will finish it next week to take it to the framer’s as soon as the wee one is born).

Speaking of my framer! You must all think either the woods I live in are filled with money trees, or that I am one of those divorcees who sits on her behind all day, stitching and sipping tea (well, coffee) while her ex brings round cart-loads of cash every month. Alas, neither of these suppositions are correct. No, the simple fact is that my framer is dirt cheap. Oops, I should really use very small letters and take care that this doesn’t reach his ears or eyes, otherwise he might perk up said ears and raise his fees. I understand that framing in the States is excruciatingly expensive. Well, I’m very sorry for all of you, but it is nice to be able to get something cheaper than you lot for a change (you do know how much one single simple skein of DMC costs over here, don’t you? 1,30 euri, ladies and gentlemen. According to my online converter that’s $ 1.89) (one skein. Of DMC floss. I kid ye not). In fact, it’s cheaper to get my things framed by this guy than to buy a cheap frame and do it myself (not to mention the fact that I am utterly talentless when it comes to framing anything).

It was really good to be blogging again. Hopefully, this birth sampler for my niece will be done shortly, so I will have something new to show you. And ooh, ooh, ooh... My brother and SIL aren’t the only ones expecting an addition to their family! Rather than selling Pantoef to a vivisectionist or giving him away as a blog contest prize, as I threatened to do a couple of months ago, I went ahead and got myself another kitty. It’s a girl this time and she will be here at the start of the new year. Her name is Pipien (which I couldn’t put into phonotype if my life depended on it. It sounds roughly like Peepeen, but with much shorter ‘ee’ sounds. Someday, I will record all of the Dutch names you encounter on this blog and play it by way of soundtrack to Orts and Ends).

I had no intention of blathering on like this, but there you go. Hope you don’t mind!

Yours blatheringly,
Annemarie.

Dear all,

My family and I have just heard that my father has incurable cancer. I don't know how I will feel in a couple of days, but for now, I can't see myself blogging or stitching any time soon. I'll be too busy keeping very close to everyone I love and to Papa in particular. Who knew your heart could actually, physically ache?

Please love your loved ones with all your might, before it's too late.

Annemarie.

Procrastinatiooooooooooon

I need a break from my translatathon. It's not going well, honeybuns. Rather than concentrating on my work, I keep thinking of all the new projects I will start on Wednesday. Two of then are already kitted up and then there's Noah and Summer Basket and Poinsettia House and Rejoice and The Blue Lady (you hadn't forgotten about her, I hope?) and Wife, Into Thy Garden and the whole Colonial Garden book and those gorgeous Scarlet Letter samplers I ordered last month, and, and, and...

No stitching has happened at all since last Wednesday, but there must be a reason why I'm here, right? I mean, apart from the obvious procrastination thing I have going on. Well, there is. I've been to the framer's :o) First, I will show you a pic of my favourite spot in the entire house (which in itself is my favourite spot, so this is my all-time favourite spot in the whole entire world): my stitching nook. Or, as Coni and Stewey would say, my happy chair. (it's not that foggy in my home. I pimped the picture in an attempt to disguise the ugly radiator)

There are two new samplers on the wall there -- well, the frames are new, the samplers are not recent finishes.
Firstly, Sense and Sensibility by the brilliant Sampler Girl (and please excuse the blurriness of the picture)As you see I took it to the framer's rather than finish it as a bell pull. I figured since it took me three years to finish the stitching of it, it would be a waste to put it back in the drawer for another three years, because that is probably how long it would take for me to finish-finish it. And that's a very optimistic estimate.

Secondly, the wonderful Fruitful Clusters by The Goode Huswife.

Happy bunny me.

Okay. Let's see if I can get my fingers to type Dutch for a change. Do you know it is actually quite difficult to switch from one language to the next when you're typing? Perhaps that's why work isn't going so well? Because my fingers are in English mode? My goodness, the excuses I come up with to justify my procrastinating...

Yours seriously behindly,
Annemarie.

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb

Damn. Can you hear the sirens? See the flashing lights? The SAL police are hard on my heels, but I'm hoping this blog post will be just in time for them to hit the breaks, shrug their shoulders and leave me be.

Progress, honeybuns. Progress on Poinsettia House for my SAL with Harmien:

You know, if Ms. Williams had named it Rhubarb Cottage I would have believed it as well. Have you ever seen a poinsettia in this colour? Mine are always DMC 815 coloured, not rhubarb-coloured. Anyway. I'm enjoying this. It's a nice break from the tedium of Noah's coat. Having said that, I'm very much looking forward to next week, when my Christmas hols will start (oh, the joys of being a freelance translator! You work your hiney off for a couple of months a year, and then you get to enjoy weeks and weeks of holiday fun. If you use my method, that is. Which is perhaps not advisable, at least not for the feeble of mind or the weak of heart. You know. You could do 5 pages a day every day for three months and not stress so much, instead of doing 30 pages a day for two weeks and be a nervous wreck by the end of the translation. But that's the way I work, and have done for twelve years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I say) and a merry season of stitching it will be. I want to try and finish Pelle's Noah's Stocking for Sinterklaas (December 5th) or if I can't make that, for Christmas. The chances of me making that December 5th deadline are not very good though, because of what happened yesterday. Look at what the evil people over at DMC have crafted now:

The first pic shows me that I need to clean things before I take a photograph. The second pic was titivated so as to make the chart illegible in the picture. Silly me for taking a pic like this...

A stitching box. With a lid. And room for stitchy decoration. Needless to say I had to have it. Oh, people at DMC, you may be evil for feeding my startitis, but sometimes evil is just so GOOD. Now, which design to stitch for the lid? I shall ponder this question after my deadline (which is Wednesday noon) (not afternoon: noon) (I'm telling you, these editors need to get themselves a life).

Yours rushedly,
Annemarie.

Short! But sweet?

Should have posted yesterday. Fell asleep on keyboard due to working MAO and draining (in every sense of the word) side effects of antibiotics.

Memento Mori update for my SAL with Nadia:


Expect next update on Thursday. Will hopefully be more wordy.

Yoursszzzzzzzzzz
Annemarie.

Thursday update day?

Harmien, I'm sure you will be glad to know, is still alive. She's in a bit of a stitching slump, though, and in order to crawl out of that slump, she thought it would be a good idea to ask me, her closest friend and partner in stitching crime, to join her in an SAL of Little House Needleworks' Poinsettia House -- fully expecting, of course, that I would say 'Are you %@#&*! kidding me??? I'm involved in three SALs as it is and I have a deadline for work which I couldn't even make if I kept awake and working from now until November 16th, and you're asking me if I would like to perhaps join you for another freaking SAL just to get you out of your stitching slump?'

Being the good friend that I am, of course I said yes. I said I'd just momentarily put the Thursday SALs on hold to stitch with her on Poinsettia House.
Harmien was shocked into silence and then proceeded to ask me if I wouldn't get into trouble with the SAL police if I did that.
Then I was shocked into silence, because my reputation with the police (either stitch-related or real live) isn't as pristine as it should be. Shoot. Is there even such a thing as a SAL police? Because if there is, I'll surely be in big trouble. I've met the NRR police. They're not nice at all. But the SAL police... I think the guys running the Thursday shift may work something like this (picture them in their patrol car if you will):

SAL policeman 1: Nice day for it, isn't it?
SAL policeman 2: Yup. Lovely day. Oh look, there goes Nicole, from Nicole's Needlework.
SAL policeman 1: Ah! Excellent woman. She finishes her SAL pieces before their designers can even get their stuff to the publisher's, or so I've heard.
SAL policeman 2: That's the rumour in Stitchy Blogland.
SAL policeman 1: Admirable. Hey, who are the ladies following on her heels?
SAL policeman 2: Why, I think it's Karen V and Barbara from Mainely Stitching. Oh look, and there we have Linen!
SAL policeman 1: Ah yes, how lovely to see them all. Hard-working women. Oh look, and there's Giovanna, and Cris.
SAL policeman 2: Uh-oh.
SAL policeman 1: What?
SAL policeman 2: Oh, bloody hell.
SAL policeman 1: What is it, man?
SAL policeman 2: Well, I don't want to alarm you, but I think there's that Annemarie woman coming 'round the corner, just there.
SAL policeman 1: Oh bollocks. Just when you think this is one of those days when you can just sit and relax and think that nothing will happen.
SAL policeman 2: Well, of course, with Annemarie nothing much ever does happen on the SAL front, does it?
SAL policeman 1: Well, exactly. That's why we're here, right?
SAL policeman 2: Oh, right.
SAL policeman 1: Damn, though. Have you been following her blog lately?
SAL policeman 2: Don't tell me it's the one with the coat.
SAL policeman 1: It is.
SAL policeman 2: Christ Almighty. I'm losing the will to live over that one.
SAL policeman 1: Apparently, so is she. I've heard it on the grapevine that she wants to stop the Thursday SALs for a while and concentrate on a new one. A new SAL.
SAL policeman 2: WHAT??? How can you sit here so quietly and tell me that she is on the verge of committing a major, major faux-pas and do absolutely nothing! What are we waiting for, man? Let's go and arrest her! NOW!
SAL policeman 1: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you sure you want to do that?
SAL policeman 2: HELL yeah! That's what we're here... oh. Oh... I see what you mean.
SAL policeman 1: Uh-huh.
SAL policeman 2: You mean to say that if we let this pass, we might finally see some action on that blog and not have to witness that drrrrreadful, painful, agonisingly slow progress on Noah's Stocking?
SAL policeman 1: Exact -- as The Fonz would and did say -- amundo. And you know, she's been through such a rough time...
SAL policeman 2: Oh, you mean with our colleagues at the NRR department? Yeah, I heard about that.
SAL policeman 1: They say she's very traumatised.
SAL policeman 2: Well, she should be.
SAL policeman 1: That's true, but still, poor sausage.
SAL policeman 2: Poor sausage, my ass. How old is she, anyway?
SAL policeman 1: Actually, last Monday was her 19th birthday.
SAL policeman 2: You're joking! She's 19? Blimey. Poor girl. Anyway, I think you're right. We should just let her get on with it.
SAL policeman 1: Yeah. Who cares about her three stitches a week anyway? Pass the donuts, will you?

So. I think I've just given myself the all-clear. Hence the lack of stitchy pics. I hope you can stitch without me for a week or two or three, Giovanna, Cris, Nadia and Mariangela! Harmien, here I come. Whoopeeeee!!!

Yours SALlingly,
Annemarie.

Of birthdays

Hello to you, honeybuns! I just crawled out of my sickbed to write this blog post because it is Monday after all, and Monday is my SAL day with Nadia. Plus it's my birthday (my 39th, but since 40 is the new 30 and 30 is the new 20, I'm really only 19 years old today, so there's no need to panic) and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your kind wishes, your comments, your e-mails, your e-cards and your phone calls. You are all so sweet and you managed to turn this very strange day into a proper birthday after all :o)

As I said, I spent the better part of my birthday shaking and shivering under the covers, next to my shaking and shivering son, BUT I took some pictures that I think are quite sharp, considering the circumstances. First of all, dear Barbara sent a birthday card with the sweetest birthday wishes ever, and the card came with a gift:

Isn't it a thing of utter brilliance and beauty? I'd been coveting one of these since I first saw it on Barbara's blog, for obvious reasons, and now I have one of my very own!

I also gave myself a present. Two presents in fact, because I had two of my finishes framed. One of them is a very old one. I finished it in 1999 and I remember that I really enjoyed stitching it, although I wouldn't even dream of starting something like this today. Funny, isn't it, how tastes change over the years? Still, I think this is a gorgeous sampler, not one of those samplers you see popping up everywhere (no offence, but sometimes it is nice to see something new) and since the year 2009 is slowly drawing to a close, I thought it would be nice to finally have it framed:

Williamsburg Sampler by Elsa Williams. It was a kit that I gave away after finishing so I don't have any further details

And here's one you may remember:

The Harvesters by Little House Needleworks, stitched on 32 count Belfast with splotches (can't recall the name of the fabric) with DMC threads and Belle Soie Pumpkin Carriage for the pumpkins

And now the reason why you all came here today (right?): my weekly update of Rejoice by Carriage House Samplings

Now, remember I'm the slowest stitcher in the world. I don't care what anybody says or claims, it's true! Hours and hours worth of stitching has gone into this and still you can't see what it's supposed to be. It's a lovely piece, though. But you know what? With all of these SALs I'm doing, I don't have time to stitch for myself anymore! Now where did I hear that before? Ah, why can't stitchers ever be satisfied with what they do and how they do it? It's a mystery. Which I don't propose to solve today, because my head is spinning and it's high time for sleepy bobos.

Yours shakily,
Annemarie

Progress? What progress?

I was so going to finish Noah's coat for today's update. But then things started to go wrong, all roughly around the same time:

1. Pantoef thought it would be fun to play a game he likes to call chase the needle
2. Incredibly, I ran out of DMC 831, which is the colour I'm using for the coat. I say incredibly, because I thought I had at least two skeins of every DMC colour in the house. Damn.
3. Pelle woke up with a raging fever that hasn't abated yet, despite hours and hours of sleep and loads and loads of paracetamol. Something tells me there won't be a Halloween/birthday party on Saturday and another something tells me there won't be any yanking out of a certain little boy's tonsils on Tuesday.

Still, also quite incredibly, my progress on Noah is not bad at all, if I do say so myself.

I mean, sure, the other CHS Stocking Stitchers have all finished theirs and moved on to other projects, greener pastures etc., but this, to me, is good progress. Next time I sit down to work on this I will hopefully have a new supply of DMC and enough caffeine in the house to sustain me in this coat-stitching finale.

My other SAL for Thursday is, of course Summer Basket. Love the colours. Do not love the way the chart differs from the picture on the cover (piture looks better) and do not love the fact that I made a mistake in that third row of doodley stitches -- a mistake, mind you, that had nothing to do with either chart or picture on cover -- and that I now have to FROG because it looks all wrong. But here is a picture anyway. Summer Basket BF (Before Frogging):

Yours incredulously,
Annemarie.

Rejoice

Rejoice, my dear friends, for you are now witness to an occurrence that is so rare, that you might want to sit down and take a deep breath before you read on. For this is the day that I will be posting not one but TWO bloggy epistles. I had two things to write about and one is stitch-related and the other one isn't and I didn't see how I could mix the two in a satisfactory way. So if you're interested in my shameful weirdness on a personal level, feel free to skip to the next post and if you want to read about my stitching or my stitching-to-be, stick around and you won't be disappointed.

I. Got. Some. More. Stash. Of course, after this haul I really shouldn't buy any more stash until... Well, until I die, basically. Lo. And behold, if you feel so inclined.

The Goode Huswife Colonial Garden book. OMG. OMG. And yet again, OMG.
Hootzi Humbug will have to wait until next year to be finished, because there is no way I will be able to finish him before Saturday. There's also a sweet little sampler by LHN, for Pelle, who loves lions and sheep and will be very pleased when he sees two of these beasties in one samplerette.

But the main stitchy thing I wanted to share with you is the fact that I've decided to do another SAL. Yes, I know, I can hardly keep up with the CHS Stocking SAL and the Thursday BBD SAL, but I also have a Memento Mori wall to build and what better way to do that, than with the help of a new stitchy friend? Check out Nadia's blog and prepare to drool :o) Nadia started a tombie angel by CHS called Sarah Hook, and I'm going for the Christmas look with another angel chart by CHS called Rejoice.

Work is crazy at the moment so my start is small, some might say pitiful, but here it is:

I won't have time to work on this one -- or any of the other ones -- very much for the next couple of weeks, but I hope to add another stitch or two by the time next Monday rolls around.
There's another new post for your reading pleasure below.

Yours busily,
Annemarie

If you go down in the woods today...

...beware of the weird lady with the camera.

Last Friday, my brother called me weird. That's two people I love dearly calling me weird within one week. I don't know what that means, whether I really am weird or whether I just surround myself with really intolerant people. I think the latter, but by all means, judge for yourself.

My brother and I went for a walk in the woods. Since I actually live in the woods, technically, a twenty second walk would be a walk in the woods for me, but that's not the sort of walk I mean. We went for a long walk in the woods. My brother -- let's call him Alex (because that's his name) -- used to live in the cottage I now inhabit, until his lovely Belgian significant other whisked him away to her side of the border. Alex knows the woods quite well. Or so he makes it appear. I'm telling you, it was the longest freaking walk of my life, and it didn't help any that Alex told me every minute or so that he recognised every spot, he just didn't know where it was situated. Every time we came to a bend in the path he'd go, 'Hm. Funny... I wasn't expecting this...' 'I really thought we were closer to... Well I never.'

Seriously though, when we came to a spot that even I recognised he fessed up and admitted that he knew where we had been going all along. The little bastard.

We truly had a terrific time, and I'm so happy that he finally moved back into the neighbourhood. Also because it appears that life in this technological day and age is getting too much for me, and I may need him around to guide me. This was made painfully clear to me when I asked Alex to take a couple of nature pictures with my worthless piece of **** of a camera. Turns out the camera isn't so bad, but the photographer could use a lesson or two in basic photographology. You see, I thought that the '0.3M'/1.0M/2.0M/3.0M' on my little LCD screen referred to the distance between the camera and the object of my photographic desire (as in 0.3 meter/1 meter/2 meters/3 meters). And since I always photograph my stitchy things from up close (roughly 0.3 meters), that's the standard setting of my crappy camera.

'Hm,' said my clever brother once he understood the magnitude of my stupidity. And this is how he looked at me.

(Boy, am I glad I'm not one of his incompetent students!)

Turns out the M doesn't stand for Meter, Meters or even for Metre or Metres. No. M apparently stands for something called 'Megapixel'/some things called Megapixels (I don't know the lingo). Which in turn means I've been taking the crappiest of all possible crappy pictures for the last six years, because I never even used anything but the 0.3 M setting in my life.

So after Alex spent a full twenty minutes explaining the mysteries of the camera to his ageing sister, we took a couple of very nice shots during the rest of our walk in the woods and we had a wonderful time.

Yours ashamedly, but refreshedly,
Annemarie

Lots of words and only two pics

I had my weekly 'you're weird' talk with Harmien yesterday and it was all to do with my progress on Summer Basket:

As you can see, progress was slow and the reason for that is a bit pathetic, I will admit to that. You remember my early birthday gift, right? The lapstand? Well, the stand came with a small frame. Perfectly serviceable, but too small to contain Summer Basket, at least in an upright position. I was determined to use the frame because it was a birthday present and I'm that infantile it keeps the fabric nice and taut and I can use both hands whilst stitching. You know how obsessed I am with my stitches lying neat and flat and yet and at the same time plump and un-twisted and all that, right? Anyway, long story short, the only way to use the frame with Summer Basket was to turn it sideways. But then, when you stitch, all of a sudden all your stitches point in the wrong direction. Sooo, apart from the fact that I had to stitch sideways, I also had to stitch the other way around, which is, for me, the wrong way around. And what do you know? I did it without making too many mistakes and my stitches looked much neater in the end. This is the point in the conversation where Harmien said I was weird. Well, not in so many words this time, but she couldn't suppress a heartfelt 'Nou já!' Which translates, roughly, to 'do you really have nothing else to worry about and if not, what a wonderful life you do lead, you weird and silly woman.' Ah well.

SAL update day was supposed to have been yesterday, but I was too busy talking about my son to do any updating. Let me explain.

Pelle's been attending this medical daycare centre for nearly six months now, and it was time for the biannual talk about the progress he's made. You may remember that by the time he left his previous daycare centre, his developmental age was estimated at 13,5 months at the age of nearly five. The professionals there gave me to understand that there was little hope that Pelle would ever be able to attend school or make a whole lot of improvement overall, while I myself had always had the feeling that there was something that was holding him back, that was preventing him from coming into his own. Discouraged as I was to have any hopes, let alone high hopes, I watched his progress, all the while warning myself not to become too enthused about what I saw.
Now, nearly six months later, everybody is looking at this little boy with something I can only describe as wonderment, because not only is he much happier, he is also speeding ahead in his development, as if he's making up for lost time. His developmental age is now estimated at 27 months. Now I'm not a mathematician, but that's a lot. That's 13,5 months crammed into five months. This is fantastic news, of course, but the main thing is that Pelle is so freaking happy with it. He's finally learning to express himself, to share everything that he's been forced to keep to himself for so long. And being the chatterbox that he is, you can imagine his relief and glee :o) Nobody knows what the future will bring, of course, but just so you know: all of a sudden my future has become a heck of a lot sunnier.

There is a whole lot more I want to write about, but that will have to wait till my next post, which will be up on Monday. My brother and I went for a walk in the woods today and we took some pictures and had a very very good time. He called me weird too, but I will explain about that on Monday. And I have stitchy news and stitchy pics to share, so stay tuned.

Thanks for all of your kind and wonderful comments on my Sense and Sensibility finish and thank you, especially, for being around, for reading my blog, for leaving comments, and for sending good vibes our way every time I ask for them. As you can see, they really do help!!!

Yours gleefully,
Annemarie.

To frame or not to frame...

...that is the question I would like to ask you today. For I have a finish to share. After three years, I finally, finally finished The Sampler Girl's Sense and Sensibility. I'm ashamed it took me so long. Honestly, Tanya, it's not you -- it's me.


Sense and Sensibility by The Sampler Girl, stitched with DMC and Gentle Arts threads on 35 count Light Sand Edinburgh linen.

What do you think I should do with it now, though? Should I cart it off to my busy framer's -- I will be picking up a couple of pieces later this week, so that would be the perfect opportunity to leave Sense and Sensibility there -- or should I try and make it into a quiltette, with some lovely flowery fabric on the back? Mind that my sewing skills resemble my marathon-running skills (i.e. very poor, for those of you who don't know me very well).

Last Saturday, I dragged my darling mother off to the craft fair in Rotterdam. I thought that would be the best way to score the sort of birthday presents I really, really want. I succeeded. Not only did we have a wonderful time... My mother is such a dear. She was completely awe-struck by all the crafty loveliness she saw, asking me 'if you would have to make all of that yourself' whenever she saw something she liked. I love her to bits, you know... Anyway, we had a lovely time and I got me some fabulous birthday goodies as well. My birthday is in November, but needless to say nearly all of the goodies are already in use :o) Firstly:

A new lap stand, and a gorgeous one at that. Seriously, this EZ lap stand is the best idea since Otto Frederick Rohwedder said "I'm getting so freaking tired of cutting my loaves of bread with this stupid, blunt knife every day". Above, you see the lap stand in action.

And secondly, I got the BBD Joyeux Noel book, and all the silks needed to finish the sampler in the picture.

Oh my, honeybuns, this book is an absolute must-have. Before I start the red bird sampler, though, I'm going to stitch another wee sampler from this book, in honour of my Oma who died in 1985, from whom I inherited, among other things, the stitching bug, my looks, my fiery temper and my fascinating skin diseases. Her birthday was December 23rd, so this little cushion from the Christmas book will be for her.

Well darlings, I should really be working, but I needed share before I burst. Thursday is SAL update day, although with all of this finishing and WIP-stitching my progress on Noah and Summer Basket will probably be scant. I'll do my best and that's a promise :o)

Yours delightedly,
Annemarie.

Of snakes and specs and birds and ladies

Hurray, hurray, it's SAL update day and these days are even more fun when I actually have something to show you on the SAL front. Which, as you know, is not that often :o)

This week's progress on Noah:

Not only is the dreaded coat about 150 stitches closer to completion (which you couldn't tell from the picture because the coat is huuuuuuuuge and 150 stitches don't make an awful lot of difference), but the cat underneath Noah's feet now has whiskers and an eye and is accompanied by a snake. A spectacled snake, in case you were wondering what those brown lines on its face were supposed to be. You see, if I ever get the stocking finished it will be Pelle's and he is very much involved in the stitching process. He keeps track of every little stitch I add and he even urges me to 'borduren maken' ('make embroidering') when I am otherwise engaged. When I asked him if he wanted the snake to wear glasses he looked at me with one eyebrow raised, as if to say 'Well duh. How else is he supposed to read?' (in Dutch, a cobra is called a spectacled snake, a 'brilslang'.) So there you go. A snake wearing spectacles, as per Pelle's request.

And Summer Basket, for the Thursday SAL I'm doing with Cristina, Giovanna and Nadia:

I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying this one. The colours are so sweet. My one complaint is that GAST Clover, which I'm using for the flowers and some of the letters, looks so much like the fabric colour that some parts nearly fade into nothingness once stitched. But not enough to make me frog all of that pink and look for something a bit darker. Barbara confessed she didn't like this design and she said she was more of a Barb Adams stitcher than an Alma Allen stitcher (A.A. being the designer of this particular piece). I have two things to say about this. Firstly: don't you get confused with the bird-brained ladies' names? I always end up calling them Allen Barbson or Barb Almond or Alma Alda and Barb Allen -- oh, wait, that's actually correct... No, it isn't. What the --? Hang on... no, I looked it up, that wasn't correct. Still. You see what I mean. Secondly: with me, it's the other way around, I think: I'm very much an Alma Adams stitcher, more so than a Barb Allen stitcher.*

As if I didn't have enough projects in my WIP drawer/to-stitch pile, I got some more stash.

I love Susan Dunn, in the last picture on the right. She will be my next very very big start and if I ever finish her [insert hysterical laughter here], she will go straight to my pensive ladies' gallery (along the with The Blue Lady and Mrs. Pearson).

Yours slightly hysterically,
Annemarie.

*For those of you who noticed what I did there: I did it on purpose. I love them both!

WIPs in progress

As promised, today is all about framed stitchy goodness. Yay! Well, just two of my recent finishes have made their way framer-wards, but I think they're worth a blog post. What do you think?

Salem Remembered. Rememer? Finished and framed in record time. Sigh.

The Second Angel Sampler by Kathy Barrick-Dieter. Me likey.

These two pieces are not enough to start my Memento Mori wall (as I think I will call it henceforth. I mean, it sounds better than 'my Halloween-slash-Angel-slash-Tombstone wall'), so I hung them in different places, for now. At the rate I'm going through my WIP pile, though, there won't be any additions to my Memento Mori wall in the near future, since there's no Halloween/Angel/Tombstone piece in my WIP pile. You saw four of the WIPs in progress (that's Works In Progress in progress, I know, but that is exactly what I mean. If you saw the contents of my WIP drawer, you would understand, believe me) in my previous post. Here's one I've been working on off and on for quite some time without telling a living soul about it, because I was afraid I'd strand after the first six colours and everyone would keep hounding me about my progress (think big-ass Prairie Schooler Christmas Project sort of thing):

It's a DMC colour card. When Barbara got out her professional, ready made DMC colour card last week, I suddenly remembered my less flashy but equally useful, hand made exemplary and decided to spend some time with it. I did, and I enjoyed it. In fact, I'm going to enjoy it some more right now. Right after I've posted this pic of my feline foe's friend's current favourite hiding place.

Yours progressingly,
Annemarie.

Deeply WIPpy

I don't feel like blogging today -- simply because I'd rather be stitching. BUT I promised to announce the winner of My Favorite Kitten today, so that's exactly what I intend to do. Just so you know, since claiming I'd throw in the real life kitty with the stitched one, Pantoef has been nothing less than angelic, so I've given him until the end of October to mend his ways on a more permanent basis. If he succeeds in staying this...
...sweet and cuddlesome, I promised him that he could stay. If not, you can all look forward to a new blog contest in about 20 days' time.
Back to the stitched kitty though. My trusty name-drawer was otherwise engaged...

... so I asked Ransomizer.org to do the work for him, and the winner of My Favorite Kitten, as shown on the picture in my previous post, is none other than

Daffycat

Congratulations, Sharon! Be a dear and send your snail mail address to amcdevries AT gmail DOT com, will you, and I will make sure this wee darling gets to you ASAP.

As I said, I'd rather be stitching, and you will be very happy to know (I think) that I've been engaged in some heavy-duty WIP-stitching. No sign of startitis here! Actually, I could have named this post 'Deeply SAL-ly', because three of the four projects I've been working on are SALs. Firstly, of coursely, Noah:

Not a lot of progress there, but any progress on this one is good progress, as far as I'm concerned.

Secondly, Mary Wigham:
Don't ask me what possessed me to pick up this monster of a Quaker, but I did enjoy finishing that huge first motif.

Thirdly, my BBD Summer Basket, a Thursday SAL I'm doing with the lovely and talented Giovanna, Cristina and Nadia. Actually, I did a lot more work on this one, but I happened upon a couple of frogs along the way.

Fourthly, not a SAL, but definitely a long-time WIP, CHS's Mrs. Pearson. I'm stitching this one on 32 count linen, with one thread of Vikki Clayton silks over two. This, my dear friends, is not a good idea if you like a good bit of coverage. As I happen to do.

Love the design. Not the coverage. After discussing this with Barbara, who was kind enough to be brutally honest about it, I decided to start all over again, on 40 count linen this time. Now I don't only love this project, I actually luuuuuurve it. Think The Blue Lady kind of love.

Barbara suggested I make the first attempt into a little fragment piece, which is a brilliant idea, of course. Also, since this is merely a quirky fragment of a wacky design, I decided to leave that total whopper of a mistake I made and finish it as it is. I mean. You know. The number 836 means as much to me as the year 1836, i.e. nothing. Is it even a DMC colour? I don't think it is. No WAY am I going to frog something so as to change it into something I don't know the meaning of anyway.

Speaking of the good Barbara, I spent an absolutely lovely day in her company on Tuesday. We did some stitching, did a lot of chatting, had a gorgeous lunch. I got to see little Arden and his happy smile, and I got to talk to sweet Max. Also, Barbara made me this completely wonderful gift:

It's a sweet little autumnal pouch in which she hid some fabulous pumpkin buttons and a beautifully delicate Mermaid thread keep, made of shell, which is already in use. Thank you so much, Barbara, for the lovely day, and for your generosity and kindness :o)

Darn. I really shouldn't start my posts saying I'd rather be doing something else, because whenever I do that, I end up writing the most boring, long-winded blog posts you have ever had the misfortune to read. Sorry, my friends. Hopefully, in the next couple of days, I will have something to show you in the way of framed stitchy goodness. Yippie!!!

Yours long-windedly,
Annemarie.