Needlework 12 Days of Christmas - 7th day...

On the 7th day of Christmas...

...a cup of tea? *grins*

My mother got the Prairie Schooler chart called Button Up from me and I keep pestering her to start stitching it. She never did but sent me a card with this one section of the chart stitched up. She stitches me things and gives them to me to finish myself. I do have a rather silly mother. *wink* She had done this but the sky was not stitched. Since I knew what I wanted to do with it, I told her she had to stitch the sky in a grey blue for me while she was visiting in November so I could finish it.

I used a small unfinished wood box I already had in my stash which I treated with antique wax. I then glued the stitched on to the front of the box with a trim around the edges (also from my stash) and I now have a cute little tea box to sit on my drainboard for my winter afternoon cup of tea.

Care to join me for a cup of tea?

I was looking back at my list of finishes for 2010. I lost time during September, October and November due to moving but am still pleased with what I accomplished this year. I set out to get 6 UFOs finished but finished 11 in total among the new projects I did this year. I am continuing with the same idea in 2011. I am going to review my UFOs tomorrow to set a new goal for which ones I want to finish within that year. You will hear more about that in the future.

Here is the list of my finishes for 2011:

2010 Quilt/sewing finishes

• Sewing bag with spool pincushion, scissors and fob for Bep
• Wool felt scissor holder and fob for Marsha
• Blues large friendship bag for Marsha
• Eliza Jane's Nine-Patch doll quilt
• Pumpkin Fields quilt
• Strawberries, Cupcakes and Sweets needlebooks - giveaways
• Strawberries, Cupcakes and Sweets quilt
• Large friendship bag for Caroline
• Wool felt scissor holder and fob for Jenny
• Blue star needlebook - giveaway
• Little cottage thread holder
• Teapot Wallhanging
• The Hand Me Down doll quilt
• Friendship bag - blue/brown fabrics - giveaway
• Pollyanna's Pinwheels doll quilt
• Friendship Bag - summer fabrics
• Becky's Block doll quilt
• Pride and Prejudice Quilt - top finished
• Nutcracker tree
• Two By Two - Noah's Ark

2010 Stitching finishes

• Button Up tea box (stitched by my mother and finished by me)
• Winter Comes Gently
• Santa Button sampler
• Ambiance Jardin
• Nobody Loves Me sampler
• Good Morning pillow
• Peppermint Twist
• Autumn Quaker Row sampler
• Makkum Flower Sampler
• Pursue Your Passion saying
• French Abecedaire sampler
• With My Needle sampler
• Enjoy Your Time saying
• Morton Salt double sided pinkeep

Needlework 12 Days of Christmas - 6th day...

On the 6th day of Christmas...


...stitching what you love! I was just emailing with Jenny (no blog) about a shared love for things with an alphabet and/or a house on it. Can I add one more thing to that list Jenny? A cat! Last year, I won Olga from Deborah this year and saved it for 2011 since I also got the The Goode Huswife's Book of Designs Vol. 2 for my stash also. And what charts are in this book? Cat and cat samplers. Just adorable...

After all, most days I am stitching with Dagi on my lap so he needs to be honored with his own wall of cat samplers, right? He has been very patient and accepting moving house last month. He is happy now in his new home and wants to spend his days cuddling away here. Yes, that is my cat laying on my couch under my quilt with his head on my pillow. He is a little man with fur. Great personality and a great companion.

I am looking forward to starting this major project of a cat sampler wall. Humm...I think I might have to start looking for more frames. It should be a purr-fect year full of cats.

Are you planning any major stitching projects to start in 2011?

Needlework 12 Days of Christmas - 5th day...

On the 5th day of Christmas...


...quilting friends. I could not make a list of things about this year and my needlework without including my very special group of quilting friends that meet once a month here in my home. We have become a family and I love each one dearly. This past summer they started working in secret to make a house block for me as a surprise. In November, with our first evening here in my new home, they gave me these blocks.

I spent some time pondering what I wanted to do with the blocks. I wanted to set them up in a way that was more interesting that just sewing them together for a house quilt. I finally came up with an idea. Here is a sneak peek with more to come later in January...

"A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be. "

~ Douglas Pagels

Needlework 12 Days of Christmas - 4th day...

On the 4th day of Christmas...

...planning, research and sewing. Does that sound strange in relation to needlework Christmas thoughts? This is always a very busy time for me. I start the new theme for my quilt group each January. Once our annual Christmas party is over, I go into full swing of preparing for that first month's new theme. Now I love connecting historical themes to my quilting as you have learned reading this blog regularly. It is logical that I try and place that in my newsletters for my group as much as I can.

This year, we are going to all become farmer's wives and create the sampler from this popular book. Everyone is going to put their own twist on it and I am looking forward to seeing how the quilts turn out. I am choosing two or three of the letters from the book each month and we can make one block or more a month to create our quilt by the end of the year. I will be including lots of fun facts about farms in Holland in the newsletters throughout the year. I am spending time doing research now.

I am testing the blocks by sewing those included in this coming month's newsletter. Here are the first few blocks. There are 7 for this month. I decided to start out this sampler with some fabrics I received as a gift from two of the ladies in my group. I will pull more from my stash as I go that work with these. I am going with a combination of browns mixed with blues and pinks or reds. Normally I would mix either the pinks and reds or the blues with brown and not all together. I thought this would be fun to do both and help them to work together by using dark brown later with my sashing. After all...the life of a farmer's wife is never dull I am sure and this represents her many talents.


Farmer's wife in the Veluwe by Edzar Koning

Needlework 12 Days of Christmas - 3rd day...

On the 3rd Day of Christmas...


...inspiration! Sometimes, you see an idea or a chart online and it takes hold of your heart. You cannot seem to put the idea out of your mind. You are compelled to start the first stitch.

I find the online blogging world to be very inspiring. Often I am amazed at the beautiful designs that talented stitchers offer to us all. On Christmas eve, I found this free design on Danybrod's blog and could not get it out of my mind. I immediately thought it would look so nice stitched and placed together with this quilt I made last year. So I started stitching it on Christmas Day. I then remembered a frame I had in my stash and went to look for it. By great fortune, I had already started the design on a stitch count that made it perfect to fit this frame and stand. Today, I framed it ready to use in my January decorating. I like to decorate with a winter theme in January as a transition after the Christmas holidays.

While I was busy stitching, I decided to change the French text to English. I also changed the top line and a few of the snowflakes to make it fit the design. I am so pleased with the results!

Fabric - cream jobelan 26 count, stitched 1/1

Thread - DMC 3021 and 3032

"When snow falls, nature listens."

~ Antoinette van Kleeff

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."

~ John Ruskin

Needlework 12 Days of Christmas - 2nd day...

On the 2nd Day of Christmas...


...yarn and a crochet hook! I always loved feeling yarn in the shops but, when you do not knit or crochet, in the shops it stays. But this year, when I found yarn that was soft and pretty at a shop here called Action, and for only 94 cents per skein, I decided it was time to fulfill a dream to learn to crochet and make my own granny square afghan. I choose purple, light grey, pink and dark grey.

I used this tutorial from a blog and away I went. I am enjoying making them although I feel like I need practice. I want to make this afghan large enough to really wrap up in so I guess practice I will get as I only have 12 made so far...

Can you believe that I am already thinking ahead to the next one from granny hexagons? Humm...maybe I should finish this one first. *grins*

Needlework 12 Days of Christmas - 1st day...

Today is the first day of the 12 Days of Christmas. I thought it would be fun to reflect on the needlework year past and look forward to the year to come in the coming 12 days. I hope you will join me here or perhaps even decide to create your own 12 Days of Christmas.

On the first day of Christmas...


...a renewal of my bobbinlace hobby has taken place just recently. My mother bought me a black pencil pine tree and small candle lights for my lace ornaments. This is larger than the green tree or white branches I used to use. It also shows the lace so much better! The tree is now standing in my quilt studio.

I am currently working on another ornament which is on my lace pillow. These are some of the ornaments I had made in previous years...

In my quilt studio is a schwibbogen from the Erzgebirge area of Germany. On one of my visits, I was able to buy this Christmas light with the 'official' symbols of the area. You see this in some villages as you enter in a very large form. It contains the figures of the three major industries of the area...a wooden toy maker, miners and a lacemaker.

During that same visit, I bought a bobbinlace pattern for in a schwibbogen. It was not easy to puzzle how to work this pattern but I am still proud and a little amazed that I was able to finish it. I want to give you an idea of how it looks at night so I laid it on the floor lit up. Enlarge the photo to see the lace closer. Jos called the man in Germany that makes the wooden frame as one of my lights has burned out as you see and we are not able to replace it here in Holland. He is kindly going to send me a couple of extra lights.

For me, Christmas is complete when I can use my needlework throughout my house to create a festive feeling in our home.