Words!

Remember a couple of months ago, when I introduced you to my plan to build stitch a Word of the Day Wall? You thought I'd totally given up on that idea, didn't you? Admit it! Actually, I didn't think I would do it either, but I'm surprising even me these days! The thing is, Pelle is getting more and more interested in reading and 'writing'. He can recite the alphabet. Backwards. And he can tell you which is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet without even thinking. Also, he keeps track of every single cross I stitch, especially when they end up forming letters. He's a true inspiration, in more ways than I can tell, so in honour of my son - and his favourite theme park - I stitched up this:

Efteling! And I finish-finished the letters too, so we can now actually hang them on a line (thank you, Heidi, for that idea!).

Mind you, I'm not a seamstress by any stretch of the imagination (at least not when there are machines involved. I don't trust these sewing machines, do you? I'd rather do it by hand, but these are a lot of letters and I'm sllllllloooooooowwwwww and I wanted this word finished!), so the appearance of these letters is, shall we say, prim, but I'm so happy with them! Can't wait for the little man to come home from school and show him what mama has done :o)) Now to find a place where my terrorist cats won't be able to get to them...

I hope you're enjoying a lovely week!

Yours pridefully,
Annemarie.

How now red cow?

A surprise update. Well, a surprise to me. But today I have worked in the garden, I worked on my translation and now it's too darn hot to even stick the tip of your nose outside the door, so surely the only sensible thing to do is to curl up in front of the AC and write a blog post. Also, I have things to show you!

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to take some very old finished projects to the framer's (as I didn't have any very new finished projects), with these results:

My favourite of the lot by far. It's one of the 14 birds from a fantastic booklet published by Bahmann, full of these quirky birds, by Jutta Ortmanns. Finished in *gulp* 2003. The next one is another design from this book:

And yet another Bahmann design, called Worpsweder Oktett. I have no idea where to hang this thing in a house full of samplers. It's a lovely thing, it was a joy to stitch, I wanted to have it framed, and now... I don't know where to put it.

The last one is Summer Row by Bent Creek. Finished in *gulp* 2002. Love it!

And now for the projects that are heading towards being framed with gathering speed (well... one can dream). There's Needleprint Sarah Harris, which I'm loving!

This is my favourite of all Needleprint charts, because the colours and the medallions are so completely quirky. Do you see that motif on the right? It has a colour in it that I have never, ever, not once, used in my entire stitching career (which is in its 17th year). To be fair, it hurts my eyes and every stitchy fibre in my body to use this colour, and yet... and yet. It works! What a lovely surprise!

A sampler which I'm loving even more is Isabella Johnstone. I'm halfway, and I started this one only a little over a month ago. This may not impress some of you stitching machines, but to me, that is quite a feat, I tell you.

With this heat, all I really want to do is assume a foetal position, because I am a winter person and a winter person without winter is as a coffee person without caffeine... Damn! I'm a coffee-drinking winter person drinking water in the summer. Oh, the horror!

Thanks, as always, for your continued visits, and for your lovely and supportive comments. They really do make my day! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a cow to attend to.

Yours perspiringly,
Annemarie.

Oh my cuteness

Ha-hum. Hi. It's me. I'm not even going to check when my last update was because I will probably be so embarrassed that I'll just run and flee the scene. Thanks for your messages and queries as to my whereabouts, my state (states?)of mental and physical health and my stitching mojo. My whereabouts haven't changed: still reclusing in my cottage in the woods, thank you very much. I have a depression the size of Wales, which is why my presence in Blogland is mostly ghostly. I'm not moping around being a grumpy-pants all day (well, not every day) because that's not how I do things, but, well... it ain't pretty. I'll get there, though. Light at the end of the tunnel and what have you.

One of the guiding lights in said tunnel is stitching! I swear, some of my problems stem from all of those drawers spilling over with unfinished projects. 'AHA!' I hear you shouting gleefully. 'She has finally picked up a WIP/UFO or two and finished them!' Hehe, well no. That's not how I do things eihter. No, I just started a couple of new smaller projects and finished those. Took me much, much longer than I thought (two weeks per piece, as a matter of fact), but still. A finish is a finish, right?
Firstly, the delightful Dandy Dreams by Silver Creek Samplers

The weather is horribly gloomy today, not a ray of sunshine to be seen, so the pictures are pretty awful, but the sampler still looks lovely, doesn't it?

And what about the next one? Sampler Girls by M Designs, the smaller of the two samplers, featured here among some of my most favourite things:

Stitched on 28 count Weeks Dye light grey/straw Gingham Linen, with my own choice of GAST, WDW, CC and DMC. Not sure about the light green (WDW Guacamole), but sure enough not to frog a single stitch :o)

One of my other favourite things in that picture is my darling teddy bear, Mr. Bean. Mr. Bean has been my constant companion, soulmate and oftentimes bedmate since 1992. He's a Merrythought original, signed by his maker... on the very same day that was to become my son's birthday. I just noticed the date on Mr. Bean's paw a couple of weeks ago and it really gave me goosebumps!

Sarah Harris wants some TLC, so I'm off before the critter comes home and demands food and attention and drags me away from my stitching... Enjoy your weekend!

Yours flightily,
Annemarie.

Can you say Ooh? Can you say Aah? Can you say AAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!?

You're all evil.

Well, that's a nice way to start a post, isn't it, especially after such a long absence?

But it's true. You're all evil and do you know why? Because you keep inspiring me to buy and start new projects (of the big-ass kind). To wit:

New start (Needleprint's Sarah Harris, on home-dyed/baked fabric with the recommended DMC threads)

And another one (1854 Isabella Johnstone sampler from SANQ, summer 2010):

New stash:

Furthermore, I've been making penny rugs:

The large rug is nearly finished, it just needs a backing. I use the smaller ones as coasters.

Also, I made a little progress on Susan Dunn.

Now, as you know, I'm mindlessly, if not dangerously, optimistic, so I truly believe I will get around to stitching and finishing everything in these pictures within the next year or so.

I'm translating up a storm (or at least I should be. Mostly, I just sit at the computer waiting for the urge to stitch to subside), I'm still reading (Finished Another Book), doing yoga, drinking coffee AND...

Thinking of a way to bring you the scary story I promised you a couple of weeks months ago. I haven't forgotten! Harmien was so good as to pose for a series of photographs I thought I needed to illustrate the story, and just to whet your appetites, here's a teaser picture.

She got frightened so badly, it changed the course of her life.
Scream XIII.
Coming soon to a computer screen near you.

Yours stormily,
Annemarie.

Christmas in April

Have you been wondering what is keeping me so busy that I can't even come to your blogs for a visit? Well, several things are going on - but then again, aren't they always? - the happiest of which I will list below:

- reading (I Finished A Book And Started A New One) (and I'm not a book listener but a book reader, so I actually have to sit down and open a book and read without being able to do a single other thing. Not even stitching.) (Which is why so little reading is generally done by me.)
- stitching! (mostly presents) (so if you're expecting something from me, your gift is probably pictured below)

- gardening! (Trying depsperately to become green-thumbed, thus far without success. Even the pumpkin plants are very reluctant to make an appearance. After last year's crop failure, I'm hoping this year will be better for pumpkins.) (At least the plum trees look lik they might yield something)

- making curtains! (Prim-style. And not doing a bad job, if I do say so myself. But, obviously, not good enough to show you.)
- dyeing fabric! (with a new recipe, which makes the whole house smell of Christmas. Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, coffee. Yum!)
- working!
- lazying about, trying to become the Blue Lady.
- Yoga (or in other words: working hard, trying to become the Blue Lady).
- generally tring to find peace of body and mind.


Yours smilingly,
Annemarie.

An & Inability

Well, hello there girls and boys. Or, in the words of the great Hugh Laurie back in the days when he was fabulous:

Too long, Johnny,
Too long, it's way too long
Make it shorter, Johnny
It's been too long for way too long.

But as I am a BWO, I don't need to explain myself. I'm sure you have some idea of what's going on. Did you also have an idea of me stitching up a storm, though? No, I didn't think so. First of all, I've been stitching Blogiversary pressies and I have now finished three of the six gifts I intend to send. Secondly, my exchange gift for dear Melissa finally arrived after a month of travelling the globe and being prodded by Customs officers. I'm sure you've seen it over at Melissa's, but it's not often that I get to (share a) finish, so here it is again:
One of the strawberries from the wonderful Joyeux Noel book by Blackbird Designs, made into a fob with a verrry long kumihimo cord, so Melissa could drape it around her neck and carry it with her all day if she felt so inclined. That's what I do with mine. My son and/or my cats usually force me out of my stitching chair every two minutes, and I hate to have to scramble around for my scissors and needle every time I sit back down.

On to some more finishes. During my absence, my stitching taste went from primitive to romantic to French romantic to cuddly cute, right back to primitive, which is where I'm at now. In serious need of instant gratification as I was, I went to PatternMart to find me some free primitive patterns and I found this one:

Fruits of My Hands Pinkeep freebie by Shelly Auen. Stitched on coffee-dyed and microwave-nuked 36 count crisp white linen

The next finish, and one I'm particularly pleased with, is a project I've been working on for... ohhh, two years or so?... Block 9 of the Village of Hawk Run Hollow. Can you say Squeeeeeeeee?! I can :o)

The next block I'm going to stitch is Block 3. Block 3 with a twist, that is. Curious?
So am I.

I will leave you with a picture of my little garden gnome planting pumpkin seeds.

Yours slightly quietly,
Annemarie.

Drab & Drambuie

It's been a while, hasn't it? Well, not much has been happening here, you see. Actually, a LOT has been happening here, but not much of it involved stitching and if it HAS involved stitching, it was of the secret kind. The Blogiversary Giveaway kind. Kathy, Linen and Nancy, you have not been forgotten. I'm plugging away as much as I can :o)

All that stuff that has been happening was so stressful that stitching wasn't even helping. Stitching is meditation; that is something I think we all agree on. A glass of warm milk or hot honeyed tea, to soothe the mind and mellow the mood. But sometimes you just need a big swig of something strong. To hell with meditation: bring on forgetfulness. Well, the Remains of the Day journals I told you about last time is my swig of Drambuie, so I went ahead and put together another cover. Here it is. The papers strewn around it are the innards of the book that have yet to be sewn together, which will happen in the course of this day.

Harmien was here last Tuesday and we had a wonderfully fabulous stitchy day. Last week - when I was visiting her - we decided to get back to our Village of Hawk Run Hollow SAL and to make it a monthly event. We now had two sessions in March and we will have at least one very long session next week, because Harmien will be staying over. Hooray! Here's Harmien, who didn't want her picture taken (can you tell?) showing you our Villages. The first is hers, the second is mine (big surprise):

And here's a close-up picture of mine as it looks right now.

Here's a little quiz for you (no prizes. I can only (barely) handle so many!). I ask this question every time I post a pic of my Village, but that happens so rarely that my entire reading audience has changed by the time I ask it again. I made a huge boo-boo in Block 5 (the one with the trees and the birds and the words) which I fixed in my own unique way. Apparently, it's incredibly difficult to spot. Even Harmien, who had our two Blocks 5 lying side by side, had a very hard time figuring it out, though the boo-boo is really very much in your face. I wonder how many of you can tell which part of the design I changed to accomodate this error. Knowing me, I will probably make similar huge mistakes in every single Block, but I don't care. Frogging is something to be avoided at all possible costs. Obviously.

Okay. Off to ... well. Just off :o)

Yours slightly pixilatedly,
Annemarie.