Back from Away

Darn. I had been looking forward to blogging so much and now that I finally have the time (and the required internet connection, which is a surprisingly difficult thing to find when you're on holiday in Germany) I can hardly bear to drag myself away from my stitching! So this will probably be a short post (but you all know what happens when I say that) about my sojourn in Deutschland. A couple of family pics and a bit of an update on the stitching front, because BOY, has there been a lot of stitching going on!

My parents took Pelle and me to the town - well, village - of Linstow, which sounds like some place slavonic but isn't. From there, we took a lot of day trips to all sorts of fabulous places in the beautiful neighbourhood. We've been to see a water mill...

...Oh, before I go on, I wanted to ask you: are you guys inspired to stitch by new surroundings, unfamiliar buildings, etc? I felt myself longing for the Village of Hawk Run Hollow when I saw that water mill. I even felt inspired to design my very own German version of the Village when I visited Quedlinburg. The Willage of Quedlinburg, designed by mich...

...Hang on. What was I talking about before you interrupted me? Oh right. The water mill.

The gentleman parading around in front of the building is my father. This is a rare picture indeed, because I managed to capture papa just before he could put his hands or his newspaper in front of his face.

We also went to the city of Rostock, and later on to the beach at Warnemünde, where I encouraged Pelle to allow the water to touch his toes. He loved it so much, I could hardly drag him away from the water (and the jellyfish. Eeeew). The last time I took him to the beach, about two months ago, he screamed his head off, so we're definitely making progress. Here's Pelle with my parents.

Notice the Elvis Presley handbag which my mother carries around with her with great pride :o))

I had such a wonderful time. Without wanting to wax sentimental (again), this time away with my parents gave me the chance to discover that the old me is still very much alive and doing very well under the circumstances, which is something I tend to forget when I'm faced with the inevitable difficulties that wait for me at home.

As for the stitching news I promised you, I don't think I've stitched this much in years. It er... I'm ashamed to admit it, but it took a little getting used to. Every time someone came near me, I think I actually growled at them? The first day of stitching was when the weather people threatened us with rain and storm, so we decided to stay in our cottage for the day. This was also the day that Pelle discovered the joys of role play and decided to open his very own DVD and Bookshop. He didn't need me or my parents to act as customers: he made them all up. Goodness knows what he told all these poor imaginary people, but there were a lot of them. It took Pelle all day to get his shop organised, which gave me plenty of time to work on my Fremme birds.

As I've mentioned before, one of the joys of stitching Fremme designs is that they're worked on low count linen with one strand of Flower Thread, so you can actually stitch in the car (a moving car, that is. I mean, you can always stitch in the car, but it tends to get a little more difficult when the thing is actually cruising down the motorway). I made a lot of progress, as I'm sure you'll agree.

I also finished Judith's neighbourhood. Here it is as it looks now:

I stitched the block at the bottom. The one with the pumpkins, that's right.

And even though I thought I would never get around to working on my Pistols, I took it with me anyway, and what do you know? I stitched so much I ran out of my holiday supply of blues!

At the beginning of this post I told you about my urge to stitch? Well, just now, while I was putting away all the stitchy things I took with me to Germany, I thought: 'Hello? How can I live without a needlework set composed of Blue Lady/Pistol elements?' 'You can't' said the little devil perched on my shoulder, and so I started a fob which I hope to show you, in a semi-finished or finished state, some time later this week. In which post I will also make mention of my pumpkin patch, so be warned!