A huge prize received!

Hi everyone! I was lucky enough to win the first prize in Babs' wonderful giveaway. The package arrived this week, and wow, what a great prize it is! Thank you so much Babs!

Here is a pic of all the goodies:

Here are some close up pics:

Babs included a lovely edition of Cross Stitch Gold and two Dutch magazines.
A DMC chart with charms, a chart by Diane Williams and some beautiful 3D stitching books for card making.
I was so thrilled with this - hand dyed threads by Nina, as well as some DMC threads and a spool of Kreinik. I have been admiring Nina's threads for a long time and I am so happy to finally have my hands on some of them! (Babs, the colours you selected are so lovely.)
Look at all these lovely goodies, some charms, ric-rac, very luxurious hand cream and a hand made fob!
Lastly (and this could really be a prize on its own) not one, but two pieces of hand made Belgian lace. This lace is designed by Babs and made by her mother. You can have a look at her other beautiful creations on her blog: Madammeke Ongeduld.

This first piece is the Princess lace:
Here is a close up:
This piece is the Brussels lace:
Here is a close up:
Thank you so much Babs - I really appreciate this stunning gift. Thank you also to your mom for all her beautiful work!

Well, that's it for now. Hope to have pics of a small finish and my new start in the week.

Have a great week and Happy Stitching!

A few stitching and craft related pics

Another two weeks have gone by since my last post - I can hardly believe it! I haven't been doing a lot of stitching these past few weeks, but here are some stitchy, crafty pics to share.

Aren't these cupcake chocolates too cute? They were the craze around here this Mother's day - I gave some to my mom, but insisted on taking some pics before they could be eaten :) They had a soft chocolate centre.

These cuties where purchased at a different store - can you see the theme here? They had a strawberry filling! I think I should try to reproduce these in Fimo at some stage :)
A few weeks ago Annie showed an Altoid tin that she covered with some of her lovely stitching and I mentioned that we don't get Altoids over here. So, what did Annie do? She sent me two tins of these 'curiously strong mints'. Thank you so much Annie - I'll be on the lookout for something to stitch to cover them! At the moment I'm enjoying the mints, especially the Wintergreen flavour.

I coloured some fabrics a few weeks ago - pink, green, blue and some blue-green. I'm not sure what they will be used for yet :) The colours don't show up so well in the photo - the colours are actually a bit deeper that in the pic.

I also tried to 'variegate' some of the fabrics - this one is green and pink - it should be fun to stitch on. (Once again, the colours are more intense in person than on the photo)
I also coloured some of this dark natural colour - I absolutely love this shade - I am currently using a similar piece for Feather Fairy.
Lastly, a little bit of stitching! I stitched this little Celtic knot design a few weeks ago and still need to finish it into a pinkeep. I will probably use the fabric in the background to finish it - it matches very well with the yellow-golds in the stitched piece.
I am working on another small design at the moment and hope to share it soon.

As you might have noticed, all my stitching plans and goals are deteriorating, so I am contemplating an evil plan. You know the kind - when your stitching mojo/momentum is lost - there is only one thing to do. A new start! I am seriously contemplating a new (big) start of a piece that I have been admiring on a few blogs over the last couple of months. Maybe now is the time to get it started - will keep you posted:)

Enjoy the rest of the week and Happy Stitching!

I am still here!

Hi Everyone! I have been missing in action for a few weeks - my Grandfather has been ill in hospital. He is 84 years old, but very healthy, so it was a bit of a shock. The good news is that he is home now and doing much better. We also have family visiting at the moment.

I have hardly stitched in three weeks and have not had time to visit all your lovely blogs :( Things are slowly returning to normal, so I'll be back to checking blogs, commenting and stitching soon!

Here are some pics of the last piece I worked on. It is the Hardanger pillow kit that Lee sent me.

I have done the pulled thread work, so now it comes to the cutting and weaving. I have decided to put the piece on hold for a while - I like to do all the cutting and weaving at one time for the tension to be the same, so it will have to wait for a while.

Here is a close up of one of the corners:
That's it for now - hope to have some more stitching to show soon. Enjoy the rest of the week and Happy Stitching!