more siggies and cards

With the cold weather, I was in the stitching mood for Christmascards once more. One is a little elf from a Sal from Hélène's blog, the snowman is an Ursula Michaeld designs from a magazine. Marion had her birthday in January and wanted panda's or lavender. As I have more with animals than flowers, I stitched het the panda.

I sent out siggies and could recieve some back already. It's so much fun to see them coming in and some are real jewels.

I received the last part of the season's Sal, but didn't manage to finish it yet.

Some more cards are on their way and have to wait to be published here.

We have a flu wave over here, my youngest grandson brought it home, so I was babysitting last week, he slept over all the time too. As you can guess, not much stitching was done. Of course it's my turn now to cough and sniff.

Siggies and card

My exchange partner for the wintry scene sent a lovely snowy landscape. Thank you very much, Pat!

Also in siggieland I was very spoiled, this week the postman brought 4 of them.

I selected some names from the list I received, all from different countries. I hope I can find the time to stitch some more siggies and send them out.

I had some thoughts about the clothes of my late husband. I will gather his shirts (when I feel ready for it) and make a quilt out of the fabric. So I will have a beautiful remembrance and he will keep me warm always. I ordered some books to get ideas and than make some rough sketches to see what suits me best. I'm a beginner in that matter, only made some small placemats, so the design will not be too difficult. Also I want to stitch it all by hand. I wonder how long it will take, but it will be a labour of love.

The snow has melted away but the weather stays cold. I hope it will stay dry as I want to walk the dog, he wouldn't get out in the snow, only in the garden for a short while, but not for more than 5 minutes. I should excersise more too, so walking will be good for both of us.

Cards of all sorts

My second Christmas card is ready, it was a little freebie I had in the stashbox. Some more are there waiting, I guess in summer I want to stitch other things than Christmascards, so as long as I like it, I will stitch this festive cards.

The birthdaycard for Heidi in the Crossstitchlovers was in the stashbox too, she chose Disney as a theme. I liked this little kitty from Aristocats so lovely, although not easy to stitch.

In the Xstichpals group the theme for this month was a winter landscape. This design was not so long ago in a magazine, I thought it appropriate for the time now, I think every country in Europe and the USA and Canada are cold and snowy, as I can read on all the blogs.

My three little boys are here for a sleepover, I guess no stitching will be done today. Being busy with them is more fun too!

Flowers

In my last entry, I forgot to mention one of my dear penfriends. Anthea lives in Australia and she sent me lovely flowers for Christmas. I was very surprised to see the local flowershop van stop at my door and deliver the flowers. I wondered very much from who they would be as my family and friends know I'm not a big flowerlover (except when they grow in the garden or in the wild). At first I thought 'Is it possible I have a secret admirer?'. It turned out that someone at the other end of the world had thought about me. It was so very touching!
I'm blessed to have so many good friends all over the world who have thought about me in this difficult time in my life. Friends are the most precious gifts someone can have.

2010

2009 has gone, a year of saying goodbye and mourning.

2010 has slipped into my life, still mourning, but also a promise of new loethings. It will be a year of "the first time without", full of remebrances, but also in the same time a new beginning.

Nothing special happened during the holidayseason, people knew I wanted to be kept alone, only my daughter and her family came on Christmasday and NewYearsday. We had snow just before Christmas and I made this picture of my 3 grandsons.

It was cold and wintry and I sat cosy inside with the dog next to me, the cats in the neighbourhood. And it felt good.

I did some sewing, some BD cards which still are to be received, so no showing.

I stitched a Christmascard for 2010 (I didn't send out cards in 2009, too much pain not writing my love's name on them), but I'm preparing for this year.

I downloaded Sandy's freebies on the Sanman forum. I loved the jars she designed and stitched the borders already. I stitched on evenweave, didn't use that fabric for ages, still not my favourite, but no stash can be sitting in the drawer forever.

I stitched a card for the Xstitchpals group, the theme this month was a wintry scene, post the picture next time as it is sent but not received.

I managed to stitch on the SAL and I'm not behind anymore, only 2 parts to go and it is finished. it took more than a year to finish all the 4 seasons, but I like them very much.

I reveived a siggie from Monique and sent mine back, made some more to send out in the next weeks.

I also stitches some freebies from magazines, just don't know what to make them into, time ill bring inspiration.

I hope I can stitch a lot this year, maybe finish some UFO's or WIP's. And do some exchanges of cards, siggies, and who knows what other things.

SAL

I got the stiching bug back, I guess. I'm way behind on the fall SAL, but I will do my best to catch up. They sent our part 6 today, I finished part 2. The backstitch will be done later, when the motive will be finished.

Tomorrow will be a non stitching day. My new crossbow arrived, it was a present from my DH, he sold one of his bagpipes for it. As it is manual work, it took a little longer than expected and he never got to see it. Tomorrow will be the first time I shoot with it, our guild is having a 'Christmas shooting', just pure fun, no real competition. There is a Christmas market also in our village and all members of the guild will stroll over it together after the shooting. It will be nice to be among good friends, I know they will support me when it's getting difficult.

On sunday I will try to stitch another part of the SAL and make new notes for the quilt.

Siggies

Life goes on, I'm lost without my love, but I have the dicipline to sleep, eat and do things. There are moments when nothing can comfort me, but doing things where he could be so enthousiastic for, make me feel good.

DH always admired all the needlework I did, every card, mailart, exchange was thought to be the best thing I made ever. So it comforts me being busy with those things. I did BDcards for my yahoogroup, the last one went out a couple of days ago and there are some Christmascard exchanges. Those will be the only cards posted this year, I just don't feel brave enough to send out good wishes and don't know what to wish for. I want to hibernate from the 20th of December until the 5th of january, no holidayseason for me this year. But there are of course the grandsons who will keep me awake.

I discovered a new thing in needleworkland: siggies. You send your own to someone and they send back theirs. If you got enough, you can make a quilt from it. I received two of them until now. Mine is the one with the mushroom. It's fun to do, the first one took me ages (insecurity played a large part), but the second one was ready in half the time.

Going through my stuff I discovered a little Christmasquilt, which I draw out myself and started stitching. It is halfdone and I will have to re-draw it as I can't read my notes from then anymore. But I want to finish it as much of the material was bought by DH. Maybe I get in the mood a bit for the 25th in this way.