Having a great time!

If you are already a follower of my friend Laura her blog 'Maude and Mozart' you know we have a great time together stitching at our LNS Inspired Needle in Lemont, IL.

http://maudeandmozart.blogspot.com/

My friends and I are stitching a Jardin Prive 'Quaker du Clefs' together and each one of us has chosen a different linen and thread. Mine is 36ct Pearled Barley with Belle Soie Eiffel Tower and Noir, just like the other Jardin Prive I did. Here you can see them together and I chose the same Mill Hill frame. Instead of the keys I stitched a crown. You might wonder why I didn't want to stitch the keys?? Well they remind me of the logo of the Hotel Concierges:-) The crown one is now being framed by my LNS.

The other finish is the BBD class piece from last years Shepherd's Bush retreat. It will be framed in the tray we got in the class. Just have to ask DH to attach the handles before I can hand it over to Cathy.
Here is the masterpiece....Needleprint's Mary Peacock!!! Beautifully framed by Cathy (Inspired Needle).
Here you can see the detail of the frame, black with a tiny red dot. It picks up the pinks in the piece. I am so happy with it!!!
Happy Stitching!

Karin

A few more finishes!!

First of all I want to thank you all for the wonderful comments on my previous post. I was excited to see all of you leaving messages after I had been absent for a while!

I guess I have to show you 2 more finishes for this year! They are pictured with the frames I picked for them but they are now at the framers to get properly framed LOL

This is a Jardin du Prive design: Quaker a l'oiseau which I stitched on Pearled Barley with Belle Soie Noir and Eiffel Tower. Those colors are my favourite now so you will see more finishes in the future with these colors!

The other is one Shepherd's Bush 'Lucky Sheep'. Just in time for my St. Patrick's Day display.

I am so saddened with the loss of Lisa Roswell, our Sampler Sister. She will be so missed.....I will stitch this one Lisa designed for our group in honor of her and cherish the couple of Round Robins I have been in with her over the years.

Karin

First finish of 2011!

But first I want to show you another finish from December I had framed via my LNS Inspired Needle:

It is Jenny Bean's Christmas Sampler from Shakespeare's Peddler. Love the frame!~

Then my first finish of 2011....... it is Mary Peacock from Needleprint. I just loved stitching Mary. I got the conversion from Shepherd's Bush and the colors are so beautiful and muted. I will bring this one to the shop to get framed next week!

Karin

Count me Inspired 2010

Last Friday we left early in the morning for the Count me Inspired retreat organized by our LNS Inspired Needle in Lemont, IL. We met in Palos Park where we got all of our luggage in my car and drove together to Indiana. On route we had to stop at another shop: House of Stitches where we managed to leave some money and we were on our way with even more stash :-)

We arrived around 3 pm in Shipsewana, IN in the heart of Amish country and I was looking left and right as I had never seen them 'in the wild' :-) We stayed in a nice hotel and our stitching room was wonderful. Cathy, the owner of our shop had left some nice goodies on our tables and we started stitching and looking at what everyone else was working on. There were 34 ladies for this weekend and it was Cathy's first retreat and my oh my we were in for a treat! It was amazing, great fun, the location was fantastic, the food delicious! On Saturday morning we had a little project, a cute felt project on an antique thread spool. They all came out very nice. In the afternoon we went into town for a little shopping and see the Amish. On Saturday night we went out for dinner to the Blue Gate, an Amish restaurant and had some delicious food. Back to the hotel for more stitching and on Sunday we left after lunch for the drive back home.

It was such a relaxing weekend in the company of friends, chatting and stitching!

Also I met another stitching friend who I have known for years from different online groups and forums and it was so much fun to meet Adana in real life!

Ready for our trip! From left to right: Barb, Jayne, Laura, me and Linda. Pat is missing but she still had to work a few hours and would meet us in Shipsewana. Nancy and LindaM were driving there too. We missed Teresa and Patti who couldn't make it this weekend but we expect to all go together again next year. Just waiting for Cathy to announce the dates :-))))

Our group in action!
Barb and Linda working on the felt project.
We are enjoying looking at Barb's works in progress.
Pat on her iPad checking what's new out there and if we can add more to our stash! :-)
My finished felt project and on the left our gift from Cathy, Inspired Needle!!!
This is how I got home from our retreat! We were being silly and I jumped off from a stage and I hurt my foot. I managed to get around on Sunday, even drove home the 3 hours! On Monday I wanted to be sure it wasn't broken so I got x-rays taken and luckily it wasn't but I do have a ruptured ligament. I have to keep my foot up for 7 days, rest and ice!

Karin

What is in my stitching bag?

I thought I share with you my stitching bag and its contents..... of course a Vera Bradley
Inside my Ott-Lite's, my matching Vera Bradley's readers and little bag for my bits and pieces!

My WIP's! Above Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart.
Jennie Bean's Christmas Sampler by Shakespeare's Peddler.
Carriage House Samplings: Christmas Hawk Run of Hallow.
Mary Peacock by Needleprint
Our group project C Street Sampler Works 'Quaker Medallion".

I leave Friday for a stitching retreat organized by my LNS Inspired Needle to Indiana and a bag can't be without some stash. Just in case I am in the mood for something new.

I might be in the mood for some Christmas stitching...
or some Halloween stitching....
or another sampler kind of thing.....

Decisions, decisions! I do know I will have a great time! I am so fortunate to have the best friends here in Illinois and we are so excited to be going together for a few days and do what we do best.....stitch, chat and laugh! Barb, Laura, Jayne, Linda, Pat and Cathy...just 2 more nights!! We will miss Teresa and Patti but we promised to keep them in the loop via email, photos, You Tube and Skype :-)))))))

Karin

Time flies when you are having fun!

I received many comments that it was time to update my blog! ;-) I guess they were right.....4 months is a long time. But as they say time flies when you are having fun!

We went on a cruise to Jamaica and Grand Cayman and spend some time in Florida. Then Katrina and her husband visited us in Illinois.

Then of course the highlight in those non-blogging months was my trip to Utah in September for the Shepherd's Bush Retreat. A long time dream when I was still living in Europe and now it became reality since going there wasn't too much planning now I live in the Midwest!!! So Katrina and I met at the airport of Salt Lake City where my flight came in about 45 minutes earlier than hers so I already picked up the rental car. First we drove to the shop in Ogden and I was in heaven!! The shop was like I thought it would be and more! There was so much to see and I did some serious damage there. We also met up with our blogging friend Valeri and Danya, Vicky, Deb, Terri, Loraine and many more. Then it was off to Jill Rensel's Studio just a few blocks away. She is so nice and we were in total awe seeing all her framed work on display. Katrina and I left some pieces for her to frame. Actually I left more than a few.....9 to be precise. To my defense I had done a lot of small pieces :-)

Then it was time to drive up to Park City!

A beautiful view in Park City, UT
The resort we were staying in and were the retreat was held.
We made a button with our initial...
for this beautiful project bag we all got as a gift!
Some of the finishes I took to Jill Rensel to frame. Gilded Cage by Carriage House Samplings
Quaker Heart by SB
Her Tulip Garden and his :) by The Goode Huswife. I changed the dates on these to my mom and dad's year of birth. Unfortunately they are both not alive anymore but these designs are so sweet and as them both being Dutch it represents them as well with the tulips.

The days in Park City went by way too fast but it was an amazing time! The classes were lots of fun, to location amazing, Teri and Tina were fantastic hosts! The work they put into this with the help of their friendly staff and volunteers is outstanding! Most of all the friendship and camaraderie is the best memory! It was so wonderful to spend time with my stitching friends: of course my BFF Katrina (can you believe it...it has been 10 years already since we met in Belgium!!), Valerie, Natalia, Sara, Danya, Vicky, Judy and many many more! Thank you all so much for making my dream to go to this retreat even better!!

Karin

Finally a stitching update!!

I finally have finished some things! First you see Plum Street Sampler's Free Bird. I stitched the date 2008 because that is the year we moved to the US.
Such a fun project and only 3 colors!

The other one I got last week at my LNS Inspired Needle and chose to stitch it on 40ct Summer Khaki. I stitched french knots instead of the beads.

It is the Merry Skater by Little House Needleworks and as you can see it turned out to be very small on the 40ct.

Lastly a photo of some of the stash I got lately. :-)

Karin

A little update on life!

It has been a while (what is new?) but also this post without any stitching photo's. I haven't done much stitching and before I went to my stitching night at Inspired Needle last Tuesday I hadn't picked up a needle in weeks! Again a lot happened in our house. We had a major flooding in th house (twice!!) which resulted in a lot of damage and we had machines everywhere for 2 weeks to dry the place. The second time they discovered it was a major pipe in our front yard causing the problem so this has been repaired! It resulted in moving out last week for a couple of nights while my sister and niece were visiting us from the Netherlands. We went to downtown Chicago. The top photo is real!! We are standing on a glass balcony on top of the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower). It was v e r y scary but we did it!!!

Being a 'Factory Worker' for Hersey chocolate is still fun, even if you are a teenager :-)))

view from the Skydeck at the Willis Tower on Chicago

my niece, DD, DH and sister in the hotel!

it was soooo tough for us moving out the house for a few days due to the flooding. DH arranged for us a room at the Hilton Chicago and they gave us the Penthouse Suite!!! :-)))) Sometimes it is very convenient to have DH working for the Hilton! Katrina....do you see what we are playing???? We just had to get Mexican Train after playing it at your house. Guess what? My sister had to buy it as well!

Dutchie, our puppy is now 6 months!

DD holding the puppy and my niece on the trampoline.

Hopefully I will have some stitching pics soon, if not I will make one of all the stash I got recently. At least that makes progress LOL

Karin

It has been a while but....

our new addition to the family kept me busy!! Meet Dutchie, our now 11 weeks old Cocker Spaniel (we got her 3 weeks ago). Therefore stitching time has been very limited as I am busy house training her and have 'broken nights' again, just like I had with my daughter here on the photo...but that has been 13 years ago!! LOL.
Our new baby is getting better at sleeping through the night so I feel I am getting alive again.
Next post will be stitching related again...I have started Ann Grimshaw for my Friday Quaker SAL, finished the first block on Christmas @HRH and stitched a little bit more on Jenny Bean's Christmas Sampler!

Karin

Happy Holidays!!

From Chicago land we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Vanuit Chicago land wensen we jullie Fijne Feestdagen en een gelukkig nieuw jaar!

December already!

Yesterday evening at the stitching night at my LNS Inspired Needle in Lemont, IL I was told I really should update my blog with some finishes! So Patti and Laura here it is!! :-)))


Shepherd's Bush 'Finch Song'

Shepherd's Bush 'My Pins' finished by Deb at Artistic Needle, again she did a great job!

On the left one of the ornamens Katrina made for me (Blackbird Designs) and on the right the freebie from Blackbird Designs again finished by Deb from Artistic Needle.

As I mentioned over the year Katrina and I stitched each 12 different ornaments but the trick was we stitched each one twice! At the end of the year we would give each other the 2nd we stitched so we would end up with 24 (!!!) ornaments!! Here you see the 12 Katrina stitched for me! Deb told me she will send out the last ones to Katrina at the end of the week so she will have another 12 to add to her collection :-))) On the photo you see 11 and the 12th one is the one on the photo above. Aren't they gorgeous??? Thank you so much Katrina!!

Here you see the ornaments on the tree I bought at the R&R retreat in Virginia Beach!!

Next post I will show you the SB pieces Jill Rensell framed for me. Again today I had trouble with the lighting so I really should ask hubby to take them with the professional camera ;-) and I will also show you my WIP's. Currently I am stitching on a needlebook by Blackbird Designs from the retreat we went to and I started Christmas at Hawk Run Hallow. We will have a stitch a long one Sunday a month at Inspired Needle from January 2010 and the plan is to finish one block each month.

Karin