A cup of Chinese tea.

Here is the final result of the DYB RR that I did this year in a internet group.
You can see the blocks separate in an earlier post.
I am happy how this wall-hanging has turned out. The borders are hoffman fabric: cherry blossom, I think it goes rather pretty with the tea blocks.
The size is 71x53 cm.
27,5x21 inch.
As always you can click on the photo to enlarge.

Tast week 44.

The stitch for week 44 is the Zig-zag Spanish knotted stitch. A bit tricky this stitch is!
I had to do several stitches before it went well. At the end it was not difficult at all!
It is a nice stitch to do as seam treatment. I have done this with Sassa Lynne perle 8, but maybe it is nicer with perle 5.

Tast week 43.

This weeks stitch was the Drizzle stitch. Never heard before and never seen either.
It was not so tricky as it looks and you can make nice seaweed with them :)
I always wonder, while doing those weird stitches, who has invented them???
I made this with perle 5 DMC.

A thank you card.

When I was on my Dutch tour a few weeks ago I 've got a plastic bag full of fabric scraps , yarn pieces, buttons, sequins and much more from a lady I hardly know.

A few of the fabric scraps have been show pieces in a store. They looked very old, the labels showed that fact, I think around 1930. It was furniture or curtain fabric and very nice.

As a thank you to this lady I made a card from a few bits of this nearly antique fabric.

It's on his way to the Netherlands now. I hope she likes it.

As always you can click on the photo to get a large picture.

More needlefelt

Two days ago I have promised you more needlefelt done with my new toy.

here are the "winter "pieces I have made for a swap.

Winter means to me: snow, ice and the 'cool 'colors and a glimpse of sparkling on the ground.

I have punched a sparkling very thin fabric over the wool.

Here and there you can see a glimpse of it.

I like this piece very much.

Needle felt results

Here are the final results from the needle-felt piece I made last week.

The first two are notebooks and the other three are atc's for swapping away.....

Although the summer is gone, I still had the summer colors in my head.

So, next piece will be Winter!

Tast week 42

This weeks TAST stitch was the twisted satin stitch. It was almost too easy !
I did nine on my tast sampler on a corner piece and did three stitches with beads as Sharon suggested. A few french knots in between and that was it for this week.

Season to Season swap

Here is my "half done"winter block for the Season to Season swap from the CQfor newbies group. It is the same principle as the Fall block, an other member in the group has to finish it and I have to finish hers. The blocks are 8 inch.
When all the seasons are ready I like to frame them and make a little wall hanging out of it.
I am looking forward to receive my Fall block done. I will keep you informed.

received fabric postcards

The past week I have received two fabric postcards in my mailbox from the postcard swap from the CQI group.

It must be fun for the man or women who delivers the mail to see what we are doing ;-))

Thanks Jo and Leslie for your nice cards!

"Summer" piece of needle-felt

Today I made a "summer"piece of wool with the new machine. It is like drawing a mandala, I love it!
Now I shall add hand-embroidery to it and some beads and other things, maybe some yarn too.
This piece will be cut up into a notebook cover for the Embellishers swap and several atc's.

My new toy :)

Yesterday I have got my new toy.

The Janome Expression. It is a machine without threads and a spool house. You can make wool-felt with it and punch different materials together.

I have tried it out yesterday evening and the result was a Fall / Autumn piece from wool and yarns.

Today I have cut that piece up into a notebook cover for a swap and 3 atc's.

It is a joy to work with the machine and this will be not the last post about it!

I have to discover a lot and practise a lot but it is fun!

Spoiled !

Last week when I came home from my trip there was a big yellow envelope in the mail. It was the last part of the Sassa Lynne thread buy from Susan's group.
But as an extra Susan had added much ! DMC floss, silk floss and 2 pieces of velvet and 3 pieces Dupioni silk.
Susan told me that in a shop 'Wall mart' in the USA all DMC were sold out for $0.10 a skein.
Here is a part of what Susan bought on that sale.
It felt like Christmas while I was opening that envelope. All those beautiful colors.
I felt really spoiled !!
Thank you so much Susan, you are a very generous lady!

tast week 40 and 41

Above the tast stitch week 40 : Linked double chain stitch. I did a seam with it but it will also be nice in curves, I guess. I will try that the next time I use it. Now I had to catch up with the tast and did only the stitch, to see how it worked out. I have used perle 5.
Above the tast stitch from week 41, Lace border stitch. The first part on the left wasn't good, so I had a better look again on Sharon's site and the right half of the line is how it should look good.
It was a little bit tricky, this stitch, but after a while it was nice to do.
So, on the left side I have created a new stitch myself, it looks like a herringbone scroll stitch. LOL. I have used perle 8, maybe perle 5 would have been better for this stitch.
Anyway I will try it later again.

This is my TAST sampler so far. Isn't it amazing that I have learned about 30 new stitches the past 40 weeks? And 10 more to go! I had to add borders on the piece because I was running out of seams this summer. When the year is over there will be more than 50 different stitches on this piece of CQ.

Hussif for Anne.

This hussif is made for Anne in France. My swapsister in the CQ Around the World group.

We also have swapped 3 baggies this year and now in October a needlebook.

I have made it in Anne's favorite colors: red and orange.

On the front there is a piece of Hardanger embroidery what I've made about 25 years ago.

The pattern and idea for the hussif comes from Julia. Thanks!

So it looks on the inside, a needle book, a pincushion, a scissor pocket, a little crochet bag containing a thimble and 3 pockets with threads. The band on the scissor pocket is Norwegian, what they use on their traditional costumes.
Below the outside folded open. In the middle a Norwegian coin: one crown.

They have a hole in the middle.
If you click on a photo , it will enlarge.

fall block for Carol Byron.

This week I have finished the Fall block from the STS swap from the CQfor Newbies group.
The owner is Carol from the USA. I have embroidered all the seams and added beads, lace, sequins, a turtle and the mushrooms.
Below is the block how it came to me last week. It goes in the mail on monday and I hope that Carol likes what I've added.

Hussif for Lynn.

This is the front from the hussif I have made for Lynn, my swapsister in 2007. She lives in Minnesota, USA. We have swapped 3 baggies with goodies and now a needlecase.
This hussif includes a needlecase, so I hope she likes it.
The pattern and idea comes from Julia. Thank you Julia for sharing.

In the middle is a place for a scissor which you can tie with the ribbon. The little crochet bag contains a thimble.
This is the outside and the back.

I have made it in violet, that's one of Lynn's favorite colors. It goes in the mail today, so, Lynn when you read this, look out for the mailman in a week or so!

You can click on the photos to see it closer.

catching up with TAST

Because of my holiday trip to the Netherlands I am behind with the TAST stitches. Here are two of them: week 38, the knotted buttonhole band in purple perle 5.

Week 39, reversed buttonhole bar in lime green with sassa lynne thread perle 8.

Both are very easy and quick to do. As always, you can click on the photo for a larger picture.

Home again

After more than two weeks in the Netherlands, visiting my family and dear old friends, I am happy to be home again.

It was lovely to see the grandchildren and our daughter, we have had very nice days with them.

More photos of the grandchildren are here. ( on my Flickr page)

Here are we playing a game on Angela's birthday. On the left her brother Richard, he is 8 now, in the middle our daughter Yvonne and on the right the birthday girl. I have forgotten to take a photo from her with the bag I made for her. But I can tell you that she liked it.

Later in the week I also paid a visit to Margreet, we have met each other many years ago and have both a 'tick' with fabrics and threads ;)

It was a very nice afternoon, we have swapped a heart and thank you Margreet and Jan for all the laughs ! And the stroopwafels !