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.

Goodbye my love

Tonight at 1 o'clock my husband died in my arms, fighting until his last second.
He was a wonderful husband and an even better good friend to me. He did his best to raise Heidi as a good father and his grandsons adored him.
His disease was long and painfull, he never gave up though, always cheered everyone up, I am so proud of him.
I have no more words today, he gave his body to science, so people can come and give their last goodbyes this evening. Tomorrow he goes to university.
Next week there will be a civil remembrance, we have no religious thoughts. He wanted a big party for all his friends and I will give it for him.
His collegues at work admired him for his work, his kindness to everyone from low to high, for his cheerfulness.
As a musician, he laid his hearth and soul to give the best sound in his instrument.
I will miss him so ...

Happy birthday DH!!!

On the 23th of September hubby had his BD. His pub was finished in time, costed me a lot of sweat, but the result was there. It was my gift for him, I hope he can enjoy it for a long time.

I invited family and friends and we had a big party. Members of his band (he played for 25 years in the Belgian Red Hackle Pipe Band) came to give him a serenade. It was a very good day for him, he enjoyed it so much.

He was in hospital quite a bit lately, not much done in stitching and blogging. Going between hospital and working in the pub took up almost all of my time.

At the moment he is almost pain free, but gets loads of morphine. I'm glad he is back home and hope it will be so for a while, we feared the worst a couple of times during the last weeks, but it seems to have stabilized now.

Next time some stitching piccies!

RR and Regenboogkussen square

I stitched this little bear in a snowball fight on the hottest days of the year. It brought no cooling though. It is for Nadia, she chose winter as a theme for her RR. Next month the last one, I believe it is puppies then.

The Lily of the Valley square is for the Regenboogkussens. The theme was flowers for several cushioncovers for the families of the people who died as a remembrance. Next we will stitch cushioncovers for the wounded people. I will stitch a rainbow for one of them, not sure if I will have the time for more.

DH was in the daycare center for palliative people yesterday. He was so happy, he was pampered all day, got a lovely bubble bath, a nice lunch and lovely companionship. He was full of stories when he came back home and slept like an angel. Next week he will go again.

And I got some time for my own. I've decided to go back to quilting. I made some placemats in a long forgotten past, but still have a stash of fabric. See if I still got the skill for it and make something small in the near future.

BD cards and Margaret Sherry sketchbook

Since my last post, some BD cards have arrived with the BD girls of the Yahoo group.

There was Brigitta who wanted celtic, art deco or butterflies. I stitched this celtic knot and put it in a tartan card.

Greet wanted frogs, this colourful chap found its way to her place.

Wendy let us free choice, so I made Snoopy for her and you can see he's happy to celebrate.

Winny loved mouses, so I stitched her Tom Mouse, my favourite Country Companions character.
Margaret Sherry had another sketchbook design, the love bugs. I stitched it on fabric with a pink touch. It's hanging on my easel next to the duck, don't really know what to make of them. maybe tuck pillows is a good idea.

DH was in hospital for a few days to work on the paintherapy. He is doing very well now, morfine is given now epidural and he has a container for a week, no fuss 3 times a day with injections anymore. On Thursday his boss came over to fetch him for a tour around the factory labs where he worked. He was thrilled!

The weather is hot here so we sit on our terras very much, it is a cool area with a touch of breeze, lovely!