Come dance with me!!!

Finished and wrapped up!!!  Waiting to be framed ...

Amsterdam by Thea Gouverneur

Stitched on 35 ct linen with DMC

Started Christmas Eve 2010

Finished Aug 26 2011

And here is my newest bestest friend. Meet Mary Allen, who is such a  pleasure to stitch that I can't pull myself away from her. The planning was to finally start part 3 of the Birds of a Feather Mystery. But Mary insists on us spending some more quality time together and who am I to deny it to her? Can't do a thing about it.

Village Square Sampler - Mary Allen 1818

By Samplers Remembered

Stitched on 36ct Edinburgh "Buttercream" from Silkweaver

with NPI silks

There is not much else to to report. Except maybe that we spent the weekend in Melbourne looking for cars for my oldest daughter Saskia who got her drivers license last week. We got her in the end a nice car of her choice and she's happy as can be. Of course I forgot to take a picture. But she comes home in the weekend and we'll fix that then.

Funny thing is that I joked she should get a red car (my favorite color) and she insisted that she would NOT buy such hideous thing!!!! It was silver or black!  She ended up with a  red one...LOL...and I'm innocent (for once) She chose it all by herself.  And I was even polite enough to not point it out (YET)

Wishing you all a nice week with lots of stitching time :)

Getting close...

Getting very close to finishing Amsterdam. Not sure if I make it this month, but I can smell the end!!!

Lately I'm really getting into reproduction samplers and spending  hours of admiring those on other blogs.  Dreaming of having a sampler wall on my own. 
That's why I'm so exited to start  Mary Allen soon, also known as the Village Square Sampler, designed by Samplers Remembered. I'm drooling over this sampler now for quite a while.


And here the fabrics I considered.

From left to right

36 ct Lakeside Linens Vintage Luna

36 ct Lakeside Linens Vintage Cornsilk

36 ct Silkweaver Buttercream

Favorite is right now Buttercream.


To the total amusement of my youngest daughter, I got myself a foot. That girl is daughter of her mother and easy to amuse.  I mean what's a foot more?
And since I'm going to fill the tip of it with lead shots, it will be really a lead foot too.
Here is my new (soon to be lead) foot with half a sock on it.

Update on Frederika

Thank you for all for your encouraging comments about the missing packet. Which has arrived meanwhile. Without even making a trip over Europe. It must have taken a break somewhere...lol. Not complaining here. I'm just so very happy it arrived and didn't get lost.
The new BBD chart called Summer is just lovely. And I can finally go on with the last part of the Mystery sampler as well. But I think this week Amsterdam is calling my name loudly.

Last week I mainly stitched on Frederika, who now has a border. No sign of herself yet.
It's the first  time for me to stitch on 40ct and after a day of getting used to it, it's working out fine. And the NPI silks are gorgeous to work with. Although I won't abandon DMC and other cotton threads completely, I'm pretty sure I will stitch more often with NPI. My husband just hopes that there isn't a new addiction looming. (He might be out of luck though)

Frederika by Carriage House Samplings

Stitched on 40ct Lakeside Linens "Vintage Pearled Barley"

with NPI

Put also a bit time into Amsterdam:

Next to stitching I took up my knitting needles and put couple of rows in a scarf for my daughter, plus started a pair of socks.

Hope everybody has a great time where ever in the world you're situated. Here it's all fine. Spring is on its way and in my garden the daffodils start to flower. Not sure what it is with daffodils, but they always make me happy :)

Frederika

Frederika is my comfort food....sort of. Because I might have lost couple of charts in the mail. (insert pout here): part 3 of the mystery sampler, the newest BBD Summer and a LHN ornament. Lost or landed in Austria. Fingers crossed that it took a trip over Europe.  Oh well, there are worser things in life. Can't think of anything right now off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are. Yes I know I'm a sook...lol.

Edit to add: I'm not in a bad/sad/grumpy  mood, I'm just a tad impatient  as usual 

Instead of grabbing some  more chocolate I decided to stop stalking the poor postie and start something new. I have a basket full of kitted up projects just waiting for me, and the choice fell on Frederika by Carriage House Samplings.

Stitching her on 40ct  Vintage Pearled Barley with the recommended NPI silks. It's my first time using NPI and I love it. That's seriously gorgeous stuff. Almost better then chocolate. Almost.


Getting closer to the finish with Amsterdam....
The houses look whacky on the picture, but they are not. They are really straight. Problem is to get a good picture of a 40" wide piece of linen hanging off the floor stand.

The Red House and some framing

The red house is finished!!!!  And I'm really happy about that.

Amsterdam by Thea Gouverneur

Another thing I'm pleased with  is that I framed two pieces. At first I wasn't overly happy with one of the frames (I ordered both online) but after a while it grew on me and now I do actually like it.
Framing  is less easy then I thought it would be, it took me ages to get the fabric stretched and straight. Finding Vonna's tutorial helped a lot in the end. Still, there is a learning curve involved (it makes now somehow sense why framers ask so much money for it) But never the less, I'm determined to learn and will try it again next time. But only small to medium sized pieces. 

And here they are...

Their Song

by Blackbird Designs

Blessings Be Thine

by Blackbird Designs