Why did I pick Train of Dreams?

Tonight I read a lovely comment by Melinda. She asked me why I picked Train of Dreams. As I was typing my answer it got pretty long, so I thought it would be better to make a full post of it.

Her question:
Melinda said...
I love your Train of Dreams - I also love using the 18 ct. I am new to your blog, so forgive me if I may repeat or ask questions you have already talked about. Can you tell me, is it the dragon? Or why Train of Dreams as a choice. I also have this chart - just wanting to compare notes.

I love answering questions and I never talked about my reasons so here goes:
I don't really know why I picked it. I am not a huge fan of dragons, but Sprangler's dragons are just very cute. I remember seeing the piece on a few blogs I was reading and I just loved the playfulness of it. Plus I love to read and Sprangler has lots of books in his pieces. At the time I was stitching a sampler. Nice but I wanted something different.

When I first visited the HAED website I thought maybe there were even better pieces. I found lots of them, but still I liked Train of Dreams more. I was captivated by the scene, the colors and the size of the piece. Most of HAED's patterns were so big, I was seriously afraid of them! I knew I had to pick a pattern that would motivate me to finish! I knew this would keep me motivated.

Also, my stepdaughter loves trains. We travel by train every weekend (I pick her up at my in-laws) and she is always very excited to go on the train with me. She also has a toytrain at my in-laws and at my place, she loves playing with them. She has autism and mentally she is much younger than her real age. When I saw Train of Dreams I knew this would get her exited and she would talk a lot about it. We need to train her communication skills and we follow her interests. If she wants to talk about the rug, we talk about the rug, if she wants to talk about her Playmobile figures, we talk about that.
When she first saw Train of Dreams she almost started to fly of excitement, she LOVED it. Especially when I told her this would be hers and we would hang it in her bedroom at my place. I don't know if she really understands it but I keep telling her it's hers. When she's here and I'm working on it while she's playing she always wants to look at it and count the books or talk about the dragon (she calls it a crocodile). She even helped with a few stitches! She still calls it "knitting" (my MIL knits and quilts). Only buying new shoes makes her happier LOL.

So I think it's a mix of everything: the colors, the cute dragon, the joy it brings to my stepdaughter, the books and the joy and piece of mind stitching gives me!

Another page finished and halfway down the other!

For the last 1.5 weeks I have been wanting to post an update, but it just didn't happen. Instead I stitched and stitched and this is the result! I am now busy stitching the purple carriage with the cookies! I like purple.

When I finish this page I will take a picture of the entire piece but this is work-in-progress people!

I believe I once told the 18ct aida fabric I am using is not white. It's actually a very pale grey (I think it's from Permin and color is barn grey?, I'm not sure and I didn't keep the receipt!). In the past I didn't think my photo's showed the true color - my pictures usually look like the fabric is white - but this picture really does justice!

Also, yesterday was a lovely warm day here in the Netherlands! Unfortunately the weather is now back to grey and cold but spring is coming!! I even saw the first lamb in one of the meadows and got very excited about that! The crocussus are also showing up and the willow in front of my window across the canal is showing small leaves. I love to watch this process, every day there's something new!

The boyfriend is plugging away in his job search. He got an interview last month, but didn't get the job. Too bad, but he's busy with other projects. He stays hopeful and so am I! We have decided not to go on a holiday abroad in the summer, we will stay at home (either at my place or at my in-laws). I do hope the weather will be nice so we will get the holiday feeling anyway!

That's it for now, untill next time!

Preparing for Butterfly Wood

So this morning I decided to start make a preparation document for Butterfly Wood. I calculated the amount of fabric I need and I made a list of the floss I need to buy (42 new colors).
I know it's silly, because I've said here I'll start after I finish Train of Dreams. Prepping is fun!

Now back to Train of Dreams.