More blocks

Work in progress...

An afternoon in the garden

My idea of heaven.



But I'm afraid that this way of spending my day will be over for quite a long time. I have two new urgent projects (work-related, no crafting projects, alas). When I have a lot of boring things to do, I have the tendency to procrastinate.
So, back to the old computer and get to work!

Alice in Wonderland

It has really been too long... all my resolutions down the drain...
But after more than a month of working hard, I finished a project and everything is back to normal. Wich means: time to blog!
But I have been working on my quilt, in a few stolen moments.

I guess "Alice in Wonderland" was one of my favourite children's books. I found it very mysterious, and funny, and creepy at the same time.

Little Red Riding Hood

I finished block#8, with a fairy tale theme: little red riding hood. The little house was fun to embroider!

Sunday in the shade

Happy Easter to all of you!
I spent my day embroidering in the shade, because it was too hot in the sun. We're having the most summery April month in decades, I guess. Yesterday, Belgium was the warmest place in Europe!


And my daughter has her own blog now: "Mrs. Spikky Sparrow".
Crafting and drawing, the next generation.

Blossom

I made an important decision (together with our doctor): I will have one day in the week all for myself! No work at the computer, no telephones. Because I kept feeling tired and stressed at the same time... So there will be more blog posts from now on (I hope).
Little by little, I started working in the house and the garden. And my energy is slowly coming back.
Last year, we planted this Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis', and now we can adore its blossoms.

This is a great woodblock print by the Japanese artist Itō Shinsui, two girls walking under a blossom tree.

And of course, Van Gogh's blossoms.

And this brings me back to the disaster in Japan. I got a comment from a fellow blogger, about an "Embroidered Veggie Market Quilt for Japan". This is such a sweet idea to raise funds, so I decided to give it a try!
Here is already a little detail of what I'm embroidering.

You can find all the details about the quilt on Mom Wald's Place blog.

And while I'm busy embroidering, someone is getting very sleepy...

Needlebook

I made this little house in only two evenings, and it was a lot of fun. First time I've used my pinking scissors.
The little flowers were a great way to practice French knots, look here.
The pattern is published here, there are a lot of nice embroidery patterns to be discovered on this website, also free patterns.

Lily of the Valley

The sweet smell of a very tiny flower...

Beautiful embroidery idea, found in an old Marie Claire Idées.

I'm not giving up...

...on my Christmas sampler! I managed to work a few hours on it last week (the 12th week, by the way). I don't know if it will be finished by Christmas, at this tempo...

New books and a visit

More new books in my collection:
A Beatrix Potter embroidery book, found here



Japanese embroidery book, bought on ebay, a very nice Japanese shop, go here and take a look!


When I saw a ray of sun, I hurried outside to work a bit on my embroidery...

when unexpectedly, my brother-in-law from Brasil arrived.
So I made us some tea, and managed to make these rhubarb and strawberry crumbles in a hurry!

Spring girls

We are having the most perfect spring days at the moment, and what is nicer than sitting in the garden, and embroidering a bit? There is a lot of work to been done in the house: painting and decorating, ironing, cleaning, clearing away the clutter,... But all of that can wait, I just sit in my garden and read, embroider, look at the flowers, have a sip of tea...
Being lazy is something I'm very good at!

Block #3

Now that this block is finished, I can get on with my next embroidery theme: "Spring Girls". More of that later...

Happy Easter

This is the result of my work last week, I painted the wall of our dining room in my favourite shade of blue.

We have two brown and two black chickens. The brown ones always manage to escape, they just crawl underneath their gate, chicken run!

Nice easter embroidery, found in Marie Claire Idées, spring 2005 issue.