End of the crosstiching outburst?

 It seems that the winter of crosstiching is reaching it`s end.. My mind drifts more and more to fabrics!

It was a welcome distraction from the health issues and hospital nasties I had last year.

And I found that a quilting project isn’t the thing that you easily take to hospital. I had no ready-to-go handsewing project at hand. All I had then, was a rather boring book and a windowview.

 

Besides, when nurses come to get you for tests, it is not easy to shove the quilting a side immediately.

So, a crosstitch project is more portable and my one colour thingies from www.longdogsamplers.com were small enough to toss aside whenever necessary.

I kept on with embroidery, because there were no fabric choices and layout choices to be made and it took quite some time for my mind to relax again.

I will keep this blue project for `just in case` and `you`ll never know`situations. And for `I need something to do while on the road`..

It is a rather big project with 100 blocks. I stitch on an average of 1 block a day.

But now fabrics and quilts are on my mind again. The Gossip quilt needs to be (finally) finished and other patterns are calling.

Shall I do a panama pyramids quilt or the cheddar stars by youngatheartquilting (check her insta, it s lovely)

Perhaps I should go back to the old routine of quilting in the evenings and patchwork during the day…

Needlecrafts

 Every now and then I get bitten by an embroidery bug. Years ago, while visiting a quiltshop, I saw a cabinet there with loads of biscornu’s. I then spent a good deal of the winter embroidering those, made additional pinkeeps and that was that.

Then I found my flower fairies patterns again, while cleaning up. I made those 40 years ago and they got lost in a house fire. Embroidery was my “thing” before I discovered quilting. 

I made them again, just because.

Recently I found a sampler online; a scissor sampler to be exact. Immediately got the pattern and then found out it was rather big. So instead of 14 count aida, I took 20 count and began embroidering with one strand of dmc thread, ofcourse in red ( number 666😈 for the embroiderers among us)

(Tilted pic ofcourse🙄)

Must say: I really like it. I don’t always see exactly how a particular figure looks like, only to discover e.g. that it isn’t just a wreath with leaves, but that it has buds as well.

Others are more beautifull than I thought just by looking at the black and white chart.

And credit where credit’s due: the original with the designer’s name. I got it on Etsy…

Bookbinding

 Years ago I did a lot of cartonnage. I made my sewingbox, a teabox, a box for all my cartonnage stuff, etc.

I really liked it a lot but after a while, quilting once again had my attention and became my nr 1.

Last year I came across a website that offered a workshop bookbinding. Since the location was in the neighbouring village, I signed up and had a lovely time cutting cardboard, linnen and folding signatures. 

A while back a second workshop was up, this time Coptic binding. 

The book on top I made later at home, using 4 needles instead of one on the book below. There was some cat fabric left that I bought for one of the grandgirls (made a pencilcase for her fountainpen) and I used it for the cover

Another technique I learned from YouTube is how to turn fabric into bookcloth….

Then there was the Japanese binding

….and a binding that’s , I believe (?) called Australian  binding..

Very fun to do imho, although I didn’t have the correct kind of paper. And I felt stressed and got glue stains all over. Ah well, it is what it is and I will practice some more. This one is filled with special drawing paper and the grandgirls tested it and approved so I guess I will have to make 3 drawing books..

Now I have this little pile plus the 2 I already gifted to the girls. Number 3 is eagerly awaiting hers..

The summer of ‘25 :(

 It’s an understatement that I did not have the best summer. After having some health troubles for at least a year, I got admitted to the hospital 3 times: first an operation that was useful but did not solve my problems, secondly a procedure that had a unforeseen complication and didn’t solve it either and third a totally unexpected admission for a few days that involved a 112 call and an ambulance. ( and I watch those emergency shows on tv: “911 what s your emergency?” and “ is the patient breathing?” Luckily we could have a laugh about that ín the ambulance and we even discussed that show “the Pitt”with the ambulance staff)

Still, nothing is solved and I have more questions now than I had before…

But! Enough about that! Oktober is round the corner and I started walking daily again to regain strength and stamina,

and to get the stress and anxiety out of my mind and body..

And on the bright side:

I  have another bookbinding workshop in the agenda ánd I will go to a craftfair with the grandgirls ( plus my DD) A TikTok star known as “ craftchick” will be there and the girls are all excited by that..

( craftchick? Yes, I feel old)

So fun things ahead to look forward to!

I borrowed my BikerSons old sportwatch to monitor my health and to remind me to exercise. Every so often it buzzes and tells me to get up and move. ( and that doesn’t mean :go to the kitchen and grab some snacks) 

When I was quilting the GossipInTheGarden quilt this afternoon, to my utter surprise, it buzzed to say that I should take a breath and relax because it noticed that my stresslevels were getting a bit high.  Wtf???

Never a dull moment with modern technology….

Back to the Featherweight!

 During my Scotland roadtrip, I sewed the Starblocks that I had, together. 

This is now in one piece, stacked in a box again, to take with me whenever I need an “ on the go” project.

When putting away all the vacation stuff, I noticed that the lid on the big scrap shoebox wasn’t closing properly anymore. So I checked it out and came across leftover squares from the GrannySquare quilts I made for the grandgirls. I cut some other scraps into squares too, to play with.

But first I had to give my Feather some love and attention.

Ah, how I love that little machine!

So: Feather on the table, lots of squares and then you have this: 

I planned to fill the gaps with white squares and be done with it, but then I got another idea

How amazing to see the whole dynamic change with adding a secondary block!

Ofcourse the second block is made of scraps too and there’s not enough fabric to fill in all the gaps, so I ordered some yardage and I’m ready for its arrival!!

There, and back again.

 I went on a road trip.. Saw mountains and verges covered with gorse and daffodils everywhere.

Drove past lochs and lakes, rivers and canals and saw the sea on more than one occasion

I searched and found mythical beasts and monsters and out of this world technical wonders

I visited castles and ruins, owned by dukes, duchesses and royalty and walked their grounds

I fell asleep with stunning views and watched numerous gorgeous sunsets

Looked at things described in books..

And walked on a battlefield that left me speechless….

….and now I`m back again.