It's a miracle - a page finish!

Yesterday I finally finished another page of Butterfly Wood. I started this page on May 11, 2014. Yikes. Oh well. It is pretty. So far I have finished pages 1, 9, 2, 10, 3 & 11 and have started page 4.

Today our nation is celebrating it's 70 years ago we were liberated from the Germans. Everybody has a day off and is out having fun. Allthough the weather isn't so great at the moment, I'm seeing dark clouds and the wind is pretty strong. We'll make the best of it!

Enjoy the day and happy stitching!

Back to normal?

I reaaaaaaaally need to go back to regular blogging. I was really (?) good at blogging once a month.
Oh well.

Last week I went to my framer and picked up...... Train of Dreams!!
It is beautiful if I may say so.

I worked a bit on Butterfly Wood, I almost have a page finish! Finally, after a year:

Permin Sampler has seen more activity! Every week I'm at the Stitch 'n Bitch, having fun. Last week another stitcher joined our group! She's not into following patterns and cross stitching, but she just starts and follows her needle! So creative..
However, I'm very proud of how the sampler looks like!

Update Butterfly Wood 9 and Permin Sampler 4

Goodmorning!

Lots has happened these past weeks!
1. Girl2 celebrated her 11th birthday. Together we baked a chocolate cake from scratch (first time for me!) and it was a success. Dad (the Mr) and stepdad organized her party and everybody loved it. I was so proud of the Mr!
2. I started therapy and I am working hard in restoring the balance in my life. It is not easy, but I feel that this is the right time for me.
3. We ordered a new sofa, one that can fit two adults and two teens. Am so excited about that!! Only thing I need to order now is a wider arm for my workstand (the armrests of the sofa are much wider).

I did cross stitch too but not very much. Look at all of my butterflies!!!

And don't you just love this sampler? I must confess this one got lots more attention than Butterfly Woods. It is a quite Catholic sampler I think, with the Lamb of God:

It's time for my lunch now. This weekend's weather forecast looks promising (very warm!) so I can't wait for it!

Untill next time!

Update Butterfly Wood 8 and Permin Sampler 3

Goodmorning!

So I got up early today. Girl1 was awake and was enjoying herself tremendously in the big bed of daddy and Liesbeth but we weren't too happy about that LOL. So now I am downstairs with her, watching children's tv. Daddy's still in bed. Lucky him haha.


Children's tv is kind of boring so this is the perfect time to upload my pictures and write a blog post!

First: Butterfly Wood. I finished the first 4 pages...

and started the next one:

The Permin Sampler has been calling my name often. It is hard to put it away after my weekly Stitch 'n Bitch night!!

That's it for now! Enjoy this Sunday (the weather here is looking lovely!) and see you next time!

Update Butterfly Wood 7 and new start: Permin sampler 1724!

Hello dear readers, long time no see!

It's not like I didn't do anything the past two months. I just didn't feel like updating. There's still lots going on here. It's not something I'd like to share online, especially since we're still in the middle of it.

Anyways, back to stitching!
I'm in love with my floor stand. It is the best tool I've bought in a long time, seriously!
So what have I done?

I've nearly finished the 4th page of Butterfly Wood:

Every Wednesday I'm going to the Stitch 'n Bitch club. I absolutely love it. In the past few months I worked on small things, cute things. Nice but Sampler 1724 by Permin was calling my name! Yesterday night I took up my needle and started the darn thing! It came with a lovely linen, I forgot how nice it is to work on linen!! It is also nice to work on something completely different than a HAED.

Well, hopefully my next update will be sooner!!

I gave in

and ordered a workstand! I hit the 'order' button on a Thursday and it was delivered this Tuesday.

It was killing me to keep it closed till after dinner!

But then...

And after assembly:

This is the tallest the stand goes, unfortunately it is a little to low to use next to my dining table. And I think I will have to order an wider 'L' bar. But I am so happy already! It gives my shoulder a lot of rest!!

And yes, I finished my third page! I'll try to get a better picture this weekend.

Update Butterfly Wood 6

It has been a while since my last update. Lots happened in my personal life. Lots of worries. It's funny, as soon one problem solves another one arises. We are hoping for a good outcome but the Mr and I both feel 2014 will be an interesting year!

So yes, I've been stitching the last few months, but not as much as I wanted to!

Girl1 has found a love for my embroidery scissors so I really have to hide it for her. LOL I can't have more accidents!

And now I have to find a solution for my broken washing machine. Yes, two days for Christmas it broke. Argh.

Happy Holidays everyone! May 2014 be gentle for all of us.

Update Butterfly Wood 5: why you should never leave your sewing out in the open

I wish I could give you a very happy update but no. Yesterday I let my sewing unattended in the living room, I was baking pancakes in the kitchen. Just when the Girl was bored. I know she truly just wanted to help but she used my scissors and cut three times in my Butterfly Wood. To say I was pissed is an understatement. Maybe you can see the thin red lines I added with my photo software?

I was really mad. She got scared, she cried, I almost cried and we went outside for a walk in order to cool off. You can't really punish (no more pancakes for you!) a kid with autism because they (she) really don't (doesn't) understand why it is wrong what they did and what pancakes have to do with it.
We talked about what she did. "I cut your sewing Liesbeth", "Yeah, and were you allowed to do that?", "No", "So you did something naughty?", "Yes", "Did I like that?", "No you didn't", "What will you do in the future?", "Not cut your sewing". "Good, come and give me a hug. I still love you". "I love you too, Liesbeth".
And then we walked to the park and played on the swings. She still talked about cutting my sewing so we repeated our talk a few times and then we went home.

When I got home, I started working on the repairs. I knew the first and last cuts were easy repairs. But the middle one? Ugh.

So this is what came out of it. I am not really happy but it will have to do. Embrace imperfection right?

Let's just say I learned my lesson!

Update Butterfly Wood 4

It's windy outside, we have our first autumn storm and I am inside my cosy house, together with my two loves. We are loving our new space!! I am glad the main work is done because at the end I was seriously questioning my insanity LOL. It didn't help that it was also busy at my work and that the Mr. has a high demanding job! But I'm glad we survived hahaha

Now I have time to stitch again and I worked hard!

As you can see I finished page 1 and have almost finished page 2. I am flying through page 2 thanks to the color 3865! I didn't expect the first butterflies to appear, but here they are!

Thank you all for reading and have a lovely Sunday!

Update and some big news!!

Goodmorning!!

Today probably is the hottest day of the year in the Netherlands and I am home, packing my bags. Tomorrow we will leave for France, I cannot wait!!! We are all very excited! Too bad tomorrow is one of France's Black Saturdays, when the roads are so busy it sometimes takes hours just to travel a few kilometers. Thank God we have no deadline for getting at our destination!

Ofcourse Butterfly Wood will travel with me! Just like the previous vacations, my cross stitching is packed in a laptop bag, it fits perfectly!

On the left: my floss box and pattern, on the right: my HAED, some extra floss and I have a pencil tucked in.

In other good news: yesterday I signed the lease for a new apartment! I cannot believe how much luck I have in my life right now! The Mr. has been high fiving me a lot lately LOL.

The day after we come back from vacation, I get the key and I will start cleaning and painting. The Mr. will put in new floors. In the Netherlands we can paint the walls of a rented property and install our own floors. We also bring our own appliances. So basically when you rent, you get a bare space (unless you agreed with the previous renters to take over floors, curtains and other things). Allthough I do not have a lot of budget for a move, I've decided to do it because the rent is acceptable and the apartment has a lot more space than I have now! As soon as the Mr. gets a permanent contract from work (probably in April), we will get married.

Ofcourse I have been stitching this past month! I also ordered a qsnap huggie (actually, I ordered two) from Christine and I like it a lot! It's still a bit of a pain to roll up the fabric nicely but now it doesn't rub my skin anymore. Plus I LOVE the fabric (Hawaiian flowers).

I have almost finished my first page of Butterfly Wood! I am loving the shades of beige and green I am using. It is not too much confetti so it's a pretty easy stitch so far!

Maybe after the vacation I have a page finish to show, but I'm not going to give myself a deadline this vacation!! I only know I will drink a glass of French red wine in two days, woohoo!!

Hope to check in soon, but it will probably take a few weeks! Enjoy the summer, enjoy stitching and talk to you later!!

Butterfly Wood, update 2

Oh how addicting is a new start! I am stitching any moment I can!! Right now there isn't too much confetti and I am just enjoying myself. 

Untill next time!

And so the journey begins...

Thank you all for your comments on finishing Train of Dreams!

I spent last weekend wrapping floss around bobbins and preparing the fabric for Butterfly Wood. The fabric is huge!!!! I worked 27 months on Train, so this will be a five year project?? Also, the colors are so different than Train! I am still missing a few colors but when the rain stops, I will walk to the store to get the remaining colors.

These are my supplies: a DMC floss box (with room for my bobbin winder, scissors, thimble, extra needles and my gridding thread), my ORT-jar (basically an empty creme brulee pot), a magnetic pattern holder, a pencil so I can cross off the sections I've done (I try to switch colors every two pages, just to keep it fun) and the color codes.

 I bought the large format and it has 56 pages. A substantial amount of them are partial pages

Tuesday I made my first crosses, this is the result of two days stitching:

See what I mean by totally different colors? It is hard to take a picture! The fabric is 18ct Ivory Aida.

Talk to you later!

Almost there.... and plans for the future!

I am so so close to the finish of Train of Dreams!!

I am already thinking about the next BAP I am going to tackle. I have two in my stash calling my name. Basically they are the only BAPs in my stash LOL, I try to keep my stash as small as possible.

The first one is Butterfly Wood by David Penfound. Yes another HAED. I believe I have been talking about it before:

I have ordered all the floss and fabric (18ct Ivory Aida by Permin of Copenhagen) for it. I was thinking about using pre-gridded Aida from DMC but I could only order a huge amount that would cost me more than 100 euros! Since I am happy with the 18ct Aida by Permin of Copenhagen I am using for Train of Dreams (color: Stone Grey), I decided to order from Permin again. I also ordered a new floss box. This morning I printed the pattern. I am almost ready!

The second BAP is this sampler from Permin of Copenhagen:

This was a gift from my MIL, the fabric has a rust colour. Since the fabric and floss are included, the only thing I still need to order is another Q-snap frame!

I have joined a local Stitch 'n Bitch group. They come together in a pub every Wednesday night. So far I have met only two members and they were very nice! Unfortunately the pub is a bit dark so I cannot work on my HAEDs. I still have some little freebies from a magazine to work on, so that's what I do on those nights! Since the sampler uses a lower count fabric I hope I can also work on the sampler during the meetings! I will work on Butterfly Wood at home.

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.

Awesome sale at HAED: 50% off till Midnight EST!!

OMG, I did it: I bought Butterfly Wood!!

Bob and Michelle at HAED have an awesome sale going on, only today everything 50% off. Because it's a leap year.

This was too good to be true so I went and bought it. I am so so happy with it. It's now in my stash, waiting to get started. I looks like it has a lot less confetti compared to Train of Dreams but maybe I'm dreaming? LOL

In the mean time I am still stitching away on Train of Dreams. It's going well! I hope to give another update this weekend.

Train of Dreams - update January

January is almost over, I cannot believe how time flies!! We celebrated a birthday and a job anniversary this month. All in all a good month.

Here is my update of Train of Dreams. Another page finished.

I must say I still enjoy stitching this piece. I think this is because of all the vibrant colours. I see lots of lovely designs, like this one, Snow by Maxine Gadd:

It is gorgeous, but I think this would end as an UFO. I like variation and color changes. Thiswould need a lot of will power to finish.

Stilll I dream about purchasing this one, Butterfly Wood by David Penfound:

This piece almost has a sort of spiritual meaning for me. In the last year I have been under a lot of stress and I have lost a bit of my "zest for life". At work I had the opportunity to follow a mindfullness training. I was a bit apprehensive about it, I thought it would be too woolly (there are lots of Bhuddist elements and I am a Christian and a bit of a strict Calvinist), but I am finding myself again! It looks like I have fewer headaches. I am starting to enjoy pretty things again. I am also starting to feel support and comfort from God again. Butterfly Wood is pretty and I kind of feel like the butterflies are flying to their Master. It's a bit like me.

So I have decided to buy this one, after I finish Train of Dreams. I know last time I talked about the sampler and I am definately going to stitch that as well. But now I am used to stitching a HAED so I think stitching this sampler will be much easier (and faster)!

Untill next time my friends! I am going to update my list of blogs now!