Monday, November 2, 2009

Grand Marquoir finished :) (and some other stuff)

Can you see my happy dance? Yesss....it's finished. It was a lovely relaxing thing to stitch with only 2 colors and a bit gold. There are couple of more designs of Isabelle Vaultier that I love and I'm tempted to stitch. They are on my never ending "to do" list.  She is such a talented designer with a load of beautiful designs. Anyway...here it is:




Coming to Water came back from the framer and is proudly hanging at the wall now. Can't take a better picture because of the glare I can only take a decent(ish) picture from this angle.



And....drum roll please....I WON. I never win...lol. Not that I see that as a problem, but this one I really really really really really wanted to win. I was after this one since donkey's ages. Browsing the internet, trying Ebay, searching for hours. No luck at all.  And Sadie had a give away for it. This one came originally from Vonna, then Jodie had it, then Sadie...and as the lucky winner of her give away (YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY) it's now mine!!!! For the time being. Once it's finished I will give it away to the next stitcher in line. And for once I will order the threads and fabric as charted. I'm SO in love!!! Thank you so much Sadie, also for the lovely thread and the needles. Love both of them. Nothing can spoil my day!!! 




Hmm....almost nothing.  That brings me fluently to the next subject. Because Christmas is this year at our place, we'll having around 20 people here. Christmas is in Australia a Summer event, and we celebrate it outdoors in our garden with a buffet. We're having a large outdoor roofed area and a pool too...so nothing can spoil it.  That's all fine and dandy. What is less fine and dandy are that stupid ideas I do have occasionally.
I thought it would be a great idea to make a beautiful table setting. And to celebrate me having a new sewing machine I could make 20 napkins and 20 place mats. Shouldn't be a problem. Can't be that much work. It might have not be THAT much work if one would choose something easy to make. But no...I need of course to find something really work intensive and THINK that I would be able to put that all together in no time. That's not the first time I'm "slightly" wrong in estimating time...and it might not be the last time.  The 20 napkins are finally ready. Now "only" 20 placemats. First I need to sew together 80  1 1/2" strips (44" long) which I had to cut of course first. These are only a small part of these place mats. And do NOT ask why for Christ Sake I didn't buy striped fabric in the first place. Please do NOT ask.

It's impossible not to finish it in time. Failure is not an option.  Mister (Always) Right had some raised eyebrows when I told him about this plan and asked why we don't simply buy some nice napkins and table decorations? For that money that the fabric and batting cost, we could easy buy some fancy stuff and it would save heaps of time. As you might imagine I waved that as com-ple-te-ly nonsense off the table.  What do men know about these things!!! Nothing at all!!! And he is NOT right!!!!!!


Still trying to figure out a nice way to fold these napkins. Here you see one of the ideas. If I fold it that way,  I fill it with a chocolate or something like that. Not sure yet.




Ohhh....and then to the more brighter things. We don't celebrate Halloween here. It's not custom here, nor was it in Germany and the Netherlands. But my nieces got dressed up, and we had a nice family dinner at our place. With monster cakes for the kids. Here are our beautiful nieces with my mother in law holding little Sofia :)

36 comments:

Vicki in CO said...

Wonderful finish! It is gorgeous! Your stitching all looks so great.

Missy Ann said...

rofl, The girls are so cute.

Overly ambitious? I think it's something we've been passing around on the blogs.

I love your SAL. So beauitful. And Water for Elephants (sorry can't remember the name) looks fantastic framed!

Cole said...

What a gorgeous finish!! I love the gold accents on the lettering!

Vicki's Stitching In Oz said...

Hi Gabi, congrats on finishing Grand Marquoir! It looks gorgeous. I have yet to start on that pattern myself. I like the idea of the chocolate or candy in the folded napkins.
Is baby Sofia the watermelon? Love the outfits. Cute girls.

JillMN said...

Congrats on the ISA finish. I can't wait to finish mine. I just have the last part left.

Annie Bee said...

Congrats on your win and such a stunning finish.

Just think the napkins will be HANDMADE.....LOL.

Anonymous said...

Your Grand Marquoir looks amazing, well done on a great finish. Good luck with the placements!

Sadie said...

Congratulations Gabi! GM looks beautiful. The framing on 'Coming to Water' is really nice, you are right to be proud of it :-)
Glad the chart has arrived safely, hope you enjoy stitching it as much as I did.
Your nieces are so cute!
I am sure that you will get the placemats finished, think positive thoughts!

Nic said...

Your finishes are amazing!

Good luck with the table settings!

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

HURRAY and a BIG congratulations on your finish..it is gorgeous! Utterly gorgeous! Your framed Water is beautiful :)
You'll love Their Song, it is such a fun, pretty piece :)

staci said...

Congrats on finishing the GM...it's stunning! And your Coming to Water piece looks gorgeous in it's frame.

Love those placemats :)

Deb said...

What a fantastic finish. It looks so wonderful! And your framed piece is breathtaking. I give you huge kudos for finishing something like that!

And love the costumes! And the girls. Very, very cute!

Linda K's Stitching Corner said...

Wow Gabi...you sure are busy these days with your stitching, sewing. You do beautiful stitching. Good Progress there on Manhattan.

Congratulations on your finishes. They sure are beautiful.

Take care & Happy Stitching
Linda K, Railroad

Nancy M said...

Your GM is gorgeous, had to do the zoom in thing and the details are amazing!! Love CTW hanging on your wall, don't you love it when it's finally on display? I'm not a sewer so not any help on the napkins/runner or folding issues! But they are pretty and will look great at Christmas I'm sure! I sure would like to see what it's like to celebrate Christmas in the summer. Love the picture of the girls, way too cute. But LOVE the Alpine piece on the wall and the 4 remotes on the coffee table! Reminds me of my house. I went downstairs to clean and tried turning the TV on and could only get the sound!! Men and their toys!

Sandy In Montana said...

Grand Marquoir is just gorgeous, Gabi. Congrats on the finish.

Pam said...

Your finish is just beautiful!!! You should be so proud and excited. And Coming To the Water looks great. I think you plan to do the table linens for Christmas is a nice one. You can do it! I'm looking forward to seeing them all done in time for the holidays.

Kathy said...

OMG that finish is stunning!!

I am laughing at your tale of woe about the placemats and napkins. Why? Youas? It so sounds like me you have no idea. :) You will get it done I am sure. Will you ahve any sanity left? Now that's another story. LOL

PS. Did you get my email? If not pleae check my blog for another lovely surprise.

Vicki in CO said...

Gabi:

The more I've looked at Grand Marquoir, the more convinced I am that I MUST stitch it! It is just gorgeous! I downloaded all the parts, but can't translate it very well. Can you help me out with fabric size/count? Did you do it over 1 or over 2? Looks like it will need lots and lots of two colors and a touch of gold here and there. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

Carolyn NC said...

Wow - Marquoir is so gorgesous and CTW is beautful framed. Congrats on the win. Good luck with the finishing - they do look great so far!

JessB said...

Love it! Grand Marquoir is incredible! What great stitching. And Coming to Water looks wonderful too. Hope you get all the placemats done as well- you are ambitious!

Rene la Frog said...

Doing a happy dance with you. Grand Marquoir is awesome and "Water" looks fantastic all framed and hanging on the wall

jayne@~an eye for threads~ said...

Grand Marquoir is just stunning finished. Congrats on the win from OF'HAED SAL. Luck girl. I happened on this blog from that local and I am happy that I did. What beautiful stitching you choose.
Be always in stitches.

Unknown said...

Congatulations on your wins (and also the HAED win) - you lucky, lucky girl! Theframed picture looks beautiful!!

Siobhán said...

WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! What a fabulous finish! And your Water for Elephants--stunning! You must be so psyched. :)

Yeay on your win! That's one of my favorite BBDs.

The placemats look great... I can totally relate to the wanting to do a bunch of stuff and then realizing belatedly that you bit off more than you could chew, as the saying goes. I'm like that with, well, anything beyond stitching samplers for myself. LOL We're cheering you on. You can do it!

Love the Halloween pics of the kids... or the kids dressing up... in any case, they're cutie patooties.

Quiltsmiles said...

Gabi, Love the framing done on your Coming to Water- What a truly lovely piece. I'd be so proud of it and your husband must love it.
Jane

Unknown said...

Your stitching is beautiful!

Justflo said...

Absolutely fantastic. What a finish.

Giovanna said...

Congratulations! It's a fanatstic sampler and you've done such a good job of keeping up with it. And congrats on the framing too, it's perfect.

Shelley said...

Your finish is beautiful and Coming to Water looks great framed. Good luck getting the table settings finished for the big event!

Ricki said...

Ich habe nun ein wenig auf Deiner Seite gestöbert...ein Wahnsinn, welch wunderbare Arbeiten du fertigst!!
Und immer perfekt ausgearbeitet und toll presentiert!
Gratuliere !!!
Liebe Grüße
Ricki

Carol's Stitching said...

The kids look wonderful and your napkins are really nice. It sounds like a lot of work on the placemats but in the end you will be so happy. I love your finish and would love to see your framed piece minus the glare of the glass. I'll have to search through your blog for the original post. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Brigitte said...

Oh my, what a finish! Congratulations! And Coming to Water looks great at the wall.
Isn't it great to win just the one give-away? The chart is one of my favourites, too.
Good luck with your placemats, I'm sure you will get them finished in time

Meari said...

First... Oh my gosh, your latest finish is gorgeous. CTW looks wonderful framed up. Had to LOL @ your wanting to be right and DH to be wrong on the napkin/placemat thing. :) It always seems like such a great idea at the time, doesn't it?!

Meari said...

P.S. Congrats on your win!

Olga said...

Your Your Grand Marquoir is fantastic so is 'Coming to Water'.
Well, the napkins look great, you've been working hard!

Riet said...

What good to see that you've complete the Grand Marquoir. I'm come to part 4. But I work at the moment to my two christmas sals.
Greets from Riet