Evinrude and end ^-^

So, here is Evinrude 💖

where is Evinrude ? A clew ???

Just look in the center of the top in the lower part !!!

I forgot to upload the third fairy!

Here it is!
I had time to finish it while others were working in our friends’ garden.

I’m very frustrated to sit and just look others working. I love gardening but my fibromyalgia doesn’t like it at all!
If I try and work too much I’m bad for a few days; so I just play a little here and there with my flowers.
Before I was working in my garden more than Thierry; I was pruning the grape vine, the roses, everything that needed to; I cut the hedges and was the one who worked in the kitchen garden and the flowers’ beds; …

Never mind this way I have more time to embroider, draw or make some gifts for friends...

Little "Alana" is born; I have to hurry to finish the last fairy and make her quilt!

New project on its way!

One of the secretaries at the office will have a baby end May.
I decided to do a special personal gift to the baby.
We know it’s a girl; and the mother loves so much faeries and butterflies that I decided to embroider some of the pieces with faeries.
All the patterns I’ll use are free on DMC Creative World in the folder named “Color Variations Free Charts".

I never made X stitch before TAST. I don’t really like it but for this project I thought it was the best

Gifts and SWAP – Great baggies …

During the week, don’t ask me what day it was - I forgot it ;o) the postman came to my door with two packs. One was coming from Japan and the other from the States.

It made my day!!!

Hideko is one of my SWAP sisters for this year. She is sending me Japanese fabrics and threads as other special goodies we can’t find here.

I love the delicate sense of color and harmony we find in all Japanese designs.
One of my dreams is to learn one day Japanese embroidery but we can’t find teacher and lesson her in Belgium. There are so many techniques to master in this art that it is very difficult to learn alone with books.

This time I received a huge amount of fabrics – Japanese, of course ;o) that are soft and smart silks. They seem to me that they are mostly traditional designs for kimono; am I right, Hideko?
A lot of laces and trims are accompanied by beads and silk threads and ribbons; a pack of mother-of-pearl buttons and two lovely silk flowers with a bead center.
A lovely card was also in the pack; that card was designed by Ingeborg and is a real eye candy!
Thank you Hideko, this baggie is just wonderful; as usual! You sent me so much beautiful things. I enjoy all pieces you sent me!
If you ever come to Belgium just call before and we’ll organize a special “embroidery day” with Mireille…



The other pack is a lovely gift coming from Susan.
It is so sweet from you to send me this unexpected baggie!

I immediately though at the Red Heat Society with there red and purple colors!
Did you know I’ll be 50 next year?! ;o))
Now I have to do a project in those colors to celebrate it!
Red and purple fabrics; the same colors for the threads and a lot of beautiful embellishments … Beads and more beads, buttons, laces and motifs.
I can’t tell which one I prefer; everything is so beautiful. Probably the threads … or …
;o)

Nevertheless, CQ friends are generous! Thank you to both of you for that special day I had drooling in the packages with a lot of Oooh and Aaaahs!

Busy Sunday!

Mireille came on Sunday to embroider with me.
I met her on CQI and we became friends; it is easy to meet each other as she is living also in Belgium ;o)

We are doing the same project: a beautiful “passiflora” designed by Lesley Turpin-Delport.
We explore the different stitches we can use to add texture to the embroidery. Each of us made her personal selection in threads and colors so even if the design is the same the result will be different.

It was a real sunny Sunday and we had the opportunity to embroider on the terrace; accompanied by the birds’ songs we embroidered and talked as much as we could!!!
A perfect Sunday…

I worked on the “big bud” doing some more picots for the petals and the calyx in detached buttonhole.

For the picots I used DMC “normal” thread and “flower thread”, unfortunately I can’t find that flower thread in DMC, they are no more distributed in Belgium. If somebody can tell me if we can still find them somewhere else?! That would be good news!

TAST couching

This piece is a real joy to embroider!
I use the design of Lesley Turpin Delporte but let my imagination go for the stitches I use. I started this one a few months ago, at that stage there was only the stem that was made. I took it with me while I went to my husband’s office during the week end. He had to work on some computers and the network. So took this with me to go ahead.



Leafs are made with a wide range of stitches: bullions, French and colonial knots, chain stitches, buttonhole and of course couching.
All the beige and green bouclé that are on leafs are couched down.
I will have to do my home work on “the traditional block sampler” I use for TAST also. The only way to have my plaid with all stitches we’ll learn to use during this year’s challenge! ;o)

I’m still a bit behind with my stitching; my family problems are going their way.
I can only say "thanks" to aleverybody who sent me encouragements and tell them that my mind and mood is changing as I feel a little bit stronger by now.

TAST - Cross stitch

Sharon made a good choice with this week's stitch!
As I never had a try to cross-stitch, I decided to go first the traditional way.


That means for me to do some redwork using cross-stitch. As I already made a B for Böske, I wanted to add a Z for my last name.


I found this nice "Z" in digital archive on the Net (dm chart 1) just have a look!!! It's a real treasury chest and you will find it here with a lot of other resources!
http://www.handweaving.net/DAItemDetail.aspx?ItemID=2367

My letter isn’t well made, so sorry ;o(
I used DMC flower thread n°; and is easy to use.

I also added some flower branche and made the seam using the same thread.

The seam was made in an unformal way; I wanted to test the stitch.

As this was my first attempt to cross stitch, please be indulgent!

;o))

TAST - Fly stitch

I was ready with my sampler on Thuersday, but had a lot of family problems those last days...

Star

or

snowflake,

I never saw orange and yellow snow before !

A few words about the threads I used:
Coton perlé DMC 90 (variegated) for the seam.
For the "ferns" I used randomly DMC 90, Anchor 1305, OT 021 and Caron's Watercolours n° 176.

The stars are done with the same perlé as the seam.
For the small star I also used some rayon thread (pale yellow).The more flashy colors (bright yellow and orange) are Chinese silk I received from Mireille. They are fantastic to use!