Monday, August 17, 2009

An overdue update

After a period of non blogging - not really much stitching - not much time on the internet - I'm slowly in the process of getting back on track.

First of all today arrived the HoE Summer House Exchange piece that Marie W stitched for me. She made a wonderful design and finished it into a foto book. I'm absolutely thrilled and LOVE it.

Summer House Exchange

Thank you very much Marie. I really LOVE it. It's beautifully stitched and finished. A real treasure. :)

The Summer House Exchange piece I created for Shay has arrived at it's new home as well. I stitched "Season of Growth" from Little House Needleworks for Shay and mounted it on a self designed stitching book. It was fun to stitch and I also to create that book for her.

Book for Shay

Other then that I mainly stitched on the "Grand Marquoir" by Isabelle Vaultier. To my upper disgust there came some rain drops on it and the red thread made couple of red spots. First I thought of throwing it out. But then I realized that first of all I had already put lots of hours in it, and secondly that was the only piece I had the patience to work on at the moment. There for I'll find a solution. Right now I think of dripping couple of more drops water over it when finished. At least I'll have red spots then all over....lol.

Grand Marquoir

Ohh....and I attended a craft show. Which happened to open on the same day as my father in law underwent a surgery. Wasn't that far from his hospital. That surgery took quite some hours and instead of sitting there and biting nails Michael and I decided to go to the Melbourne Craft Show instead. Great way to pass the time and great way to get your mind thinking about something else. I was a bit taken back by the huge amount of people attending there. I won't go next time on the openings day, that's for sure. Because I don't really like crowds there was a lot that I didn't see in the end. Went there to purchase ONE quilting ruler and ONE more rotary cutter. Thank god I had my husband with me to carry all the stuff I bought. Found a really really good deal and went home with quilting rulers in all sizes, a huge cutting mat (A 1), bought that rotary cutter and couple of other cutters too while I was at it, some thread for Mary Wigham sampler (which I decided of course meanwhile to use different threads....lol), and some other things.
Ohh....did I mention that I'm not a quilter? But that has of course nothing to do with that...lol. These rulers were a great deal after all. And I am a collector at heart - plus I have a craft room. Plus - it took off our minds and that was worth it.

16 comments:

Marjorie said...

Good to see you back in action again! I love the new look of your blog and the Grand Marquoir is gorgeous!

Lou's addictions said...

I love the piece you are working on, so elegant looking.

Deb said...

Your Grand Marquoir is absolutely gorgeous and perhaps you can take a Q-tip and water to get the spots out! It's a really beautiful piece.

And I bet that Shay was absolutely thrilled to receive your Summer House exchange. That is such a nice design and your finish wonderful!!

Donna said...

I love the exchange pieces. And your Grand Marquoir is beautiful. Glad to hear from you again. The tree topper is handled for this year, so no worries!

Cole said...

Your Grand Marquoir is fantastic! Absolutely beautiful...

Brigitte said...

Both exchange pieces are terrific. What a wonderful exchnage that was for both of you, the sender and the recipient.
You certainly can get the red spots out of the fabric. Recently I read a tip given by Vonna how to eliminate these spots.
Maybe now you can start quilting after having purchased the the basic equipment for it, lol.

Kathy said...

Good to see you blogging again.
OMG but your Gran Marquoir is stunning! And I can't see the red dots. It is really beautiful the way it is. And your exchange piece is fabulous. I love the way you finished it.

Meari said...

Beautiful exchanges, both sent and received. :) As crafters we can always put supplies to use. Glad you had some fun at the show.

Diane (di) said...

From one MIA to another welcome back Gabi. :) You are such an enabler though! I love Grand Marquoir and the colors you chose for it. I've downloaded the charts and hope I have some stash fabby big enough. It is simply gorgeous as is your SH exchange. Congratulations on your finishing too... beautiful!!

Carolyn NC said...

Of course you needed those craft rulers, etc. How could you think otherwise?? Your stitching is phenomenal. I love how you designed the book. It's a treasure. And your photo book from Marie is priceless. Love Marquoir (I didn't see the red spots).

trillium said...

I'm glad the Summer House project arrived safely.

Were you using overdyed (hand-dyed) red floss or regular DMC on the Marquoir?

Marie W.

Nancy M said...

Your exchange book is AWESOME! You are such an expert at finishing. Glad to have you back and see you stitching again.

Jennifer Ann Fox said...

I don't really see the spots. But once I stitched a Dutch sampler which used Weeks Dye Charcoal floss and I spilled coffee on it. Alot of coffee. and so this is when I tried to remove and it ran.
So, instead as a last resort, I just dipped the whole thing in coffee and the run part disappeared and it actually looks better than original. So a coffee or tea dye is an option when your finished.

Jennifer

Unknown said...

Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting,
congratulations :-).
The grand Marquoir is gorgeous...
So elegant looking..
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From the Attic said...

Oh my goodness, I know just how you felt about the red spots. I had the exact same thing happen to me recently when the red thread bleed on a project I was stitching. I was devastated but did manage to 'kind of' clean it up a bit. To anyone who didn't know I don't think it would be noticeable.

Chrissie

diamondc said...

Good morning it is 09:30 here in Minnesota, I wanted to write and mention that I too had a problem with bleading, I took the stitched area ot and used a Tide stick, and this took out almost all the dye
I then restitced the small area I had taken out.
Hope this helps.
Great blog site thank-you.
Catherine