My first award...wow!

Back from holiday, a surprise awaited me. I got this award from Jurga ! It's my first nomination ever and am very honored. Thank you so much for nominating my blog. With pleasure I pass it further with the following rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog

2. Add a link to the person who awarded you

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4. Add links to those blogs on yours
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

I pass this award to:

1. Heidi
2. Lucy
3. Edgar

4. Jude
5. Amanda Jean

6. Cassie & Lene

7. Kathie

I have admiration for these artists, their creativity, skill and the beauty they create.
Thank you for sharing and continuing to inspire with your craft!

Re-entry...

My dear friends,

We're back!  

Had a fabulous time in Umbria, met wonderful people, made new friends, ate food fit for the gods, enjoyed beautiful architecture and art, and swam with our dog for the first time.  The colors of the land, villages and towns inspired me, and Italy made a coffee drinker out of me!

Just have to unpack, get things back on track and I'll be posting again soon.

In the meantime, hope you will enjoy this snap of a sunflower taken early in the morning during a walk in the fields with Darwin...

Ciao!

Dark Side of the Moon

That's it!

All packed and ready to go.

See ya'll in a few weeks!

much love,

heidi

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week July 9

How do you balance your stitching time with your other obligations
such as work, household chores, etc.?


Sometimes I wish the world would go away so I could just stitch in peace for as long as I'd like,  sometimes for only a few minutes so I could just finish that last bit.

Since that's not always possible, I try to split my day into two parts, morning and evening.

I complete my morning chores, and then give myself an hour to work on a piece,  go back and work on some more obligations and then have some time in the evening.

Next to that, I always have work ready so that I can take a few stitches or sew at my machine and make some progress,  little by little.  There's lots of moments during certain chores where's there's a waiting time, like waiting  for some cleaning product to to it's thing or while cooking, for example, when I can take a few stitches.  It doesn't sound like it's worth it, but in my experience it really ads up!

Of course, it doesn't always work out the way you plan, but that's what rainy day Sundays are for - to grab some comfy socks, a hot mug of tea, and settle down to a stretch of stitching...

it all balances out in the end!

hexagon stack

Clothes are packed, well, lying folded on the bed, toiletries packed, food and drink for in the car packed, well, waiting on the dining room table....pfffft!

But wait... where are my priorities?  My handwork!

Here's a stack of little 3/4 inch hexagons ( prepared weeks earlier ) ready to go, plus the transition gold color that will come next in the row from yet another stash of charm packs.  Together with the Ann Grimshaw sampler, my iPod and a good book (never leave home without one!)  it should keep me occupied, especially if we get stuck on the road as we've just heard that there can be a long wait of up to two hours at the Gottard tunnel...joy!

making do...& sampler progress

This is my way of procrastinating... (when I should be doing other things in the house)

Dug deep and found yet another bit of muslin to use for the triangles quilt.  Here a stack of blocks and the freshly cut muslin squares waits assembly into the larger 5 x 5 blocks.  They will be waiting for me upon our return from holiday.

It was also the turn of the red & white sampler to be worked on.  Didn't have much chance to do much stitching on it, but here are some photos...not the best, but it's pouring rain here at the moment so the lighting is not that great.  I am however, enjoying the sound of the rain and watching it stream down my window...

numbers and the letter "W"

the letter "V"

shy leo

He almost got caught up in the swirls of the letter "S" above him by one stitch!  More than once I contemplated taking him out, but threw caution to the wind and lucky for him, all ended well.

Ok, back to doing chores in the house...

Hope the weather is better where you are!

:-)

dog food and toilet paper...

Spent the day getting organized for our trip to Italy. The end of this week we're headed off to the province of Umbria, to a farm not far from Perugia. The car is cleaned and configured, for DH, myself, DD and her friend, and Darwin our Golden Retriever. Maps are in place, and the route is determined. It's going to take us about 13+ hours and almost 1400 Km to get there from the Netherlands, through Germany, Switserland and so into Italy. That's not counting rest stops, pee stops, eat stops, getting lost or the very likely chance of hitting one of the many road works that always seem to happen during the summer all over Europe. Even though we have a roomy car, we've had to get a roof rack and ski box for additional packing space since Darwin will need at least half of the space in the "trunk". He'll be sharing it with the cooler.

So you can guess there's not much handwork happening here lately, though I did get some stitching done today for the first time in many days. My quilting has halted too as I used up all the muslin for the triangles quilt and after digging around in my closet found another piece well short of a yard. At least it can keep me going for a bit.
I'l probably cut it all so there will be some to get started with as soon as we return. At least I'm using up stash!

Then there is that all-important matter of " the holiday project". What to take along? Hmm, well, I think Ann Grimshaw will come as the needlework project, but I"m still not sure what to take for the quilting project. The hexagons? Another search for UFO's in the closet is in order. There will be lots to do and see while there, but hey, you never know! I've knitted whole pairs of socks in the car and regretted not bringing an extra ball of yarn to start another!

Ok. Enough procrastination. Back to cutting muslin.......

Happy 4th!!!