Drage Feuer Stitch

I could had ripped that face off 2 days ago. I had been stitching and frogging so many times on her face area. Patience pays off and now her face is done. I really thought her hair will be a pain to stitch as looking at those scattered stitches almost gave me a migraine. However, it is really easy when I am into it. I really like this Ballerina a lot but I still think the joining part from her shoulder to her neck is a bit weird. It just looks too long.


The postman arrived with this JCS Christmas Ornaments 2008 issue for me today. As I mentioned in my previous post, I won this magazine in a draw by Ann. I spent quite a while looking at the magazine and the techniques on how to make ornaments. To be honest, I am really nervous as I've never tried making an ornament before. There is always a first time for everything and I found 1 very lovely ornament which I can't wait to try out. Wish me luck ;=) Thank you so much to Ann again for this magazine.

I won the 2nd prize for Small Category under Silkweaver Showcase 2009. I submitted 6 finished works and 4 went into the finals. I had John Clayton Heritage, Vervaco Wedding Hands and Vervaco Young Dancer in the Medium Category and Three is Company in the Small Category. I woke up this morning and received 2 emails from Emma and Chiloe, congratulating me. I thought I won something from the Medium submission as I have 3 there. It is a surprise to see these 3 birdies won me a prize and I am really happy! Not only for the prize but also knowing that my works will be hanging on the Gallery as long as Silkweaver's business is still running makes me very happy too.

You can see the finalists and winners for 3 categories here. There are so many beautiful works on the Showcase and if I am one of the 30 judges, I will choose everyone to be a winner. I got to say Nathalie's Stargazer really took my breath away. Congratulations to all the winners and the finalists and a big Thank You to all the judges ;0)

A good deal if you are looking for lots of DMC floss. Silkweaver just put out a huge lot of DMC floss on Ebay.

I had been really lucky last week. Before I knew I won a prize for Silkweaver Showcase 2009, I won a JCS 2008 Ornament Issue magazine just a day before. My name was picked by a very generous lady who wanted to give this magazine to someone outside USA. I had in mind for a JCS ornament issue for a while but never got the guts to order it or bid on Ebay. That is just so me.... I always think a lot and for a long time if I have to venture into something new (I don't know how to sew). Just few days before this magazine drawing, I was on Ebay searching for the magazines and checking on the postage fee. I am looking forward to receive this magazine as I really can't wait to try out making an ornament. Thank you very much to Ann for having this drawing.

I am still working on my Lanarte Ballerina and moving onto her face and hair now. She is a joy to stitch, though I wanted to rip her face off as I was frogging and stitching few times on that same area. I hope to complete her in 10 days' time.

As for Angel of Spring, I am just not comfortable with any of the fabrics I want to stitch her on. I settled with Iris Garden but still I am not so happy with it as I would like some pinks on that fabric. It is really frustrating as I haven't join in the Thursday SAL since I completed Sleeping Beauty. I really can't find any fabrics under Silkweaver's main range to go along with Angel of Spring, so I will go for the solos and I really hope I find one soon. I received an extremely touching reply from Cindy who is one of the 2 ladies who created this Thursday SAL blog. She told me to take my time to find the correct fabric for Angel as they are not going anywhere and they won't kick me out of the blog, lol!! Thank you so much, Cindy!

DD and DH went to a birthday party of this 5 year-old boy. They had such a great time there while I stayed at home. It is a no-parents party again but seems like DH got really friendly with the parents and was asked to stay. I used this time to pack my stitching room and did a bit of stitching.

One of the stores in the next city is having a huge sale on winter clothings yesterday but DD and DH had to choose to oversleep yesterday. It was really nerve-wrecking as I knew there would be so many people. The store opened at 10am. We arrived there at 10.10am and already the whole carpark was already packed with cars and people were queuing to go into the huge store with their shopping carts. This is the time we start to stock up winter clothings for DD. I had a long list of stuff to buy there but there were so many people and we stood in the cashier's queue for almost 45 minutes. We bought the necessary winter clothings for DD and went home. I wanted so much to buy some stuff in the supermarket as the coffee, whole chicken, flour, etc were really going at such great prices but I am not so fond of the crowd.

I can't wait to get to her neck and head. I actually prefer to stitch the greens than skin tones. I was working really fast on her dress but started to slow down on her skin. I am extremely pleased with her on this Silkweaver Solo.



I received my Silkweaver Tutti Fruiti yesterday. It is extremely lovely but I think it is too light for Angel of Spring. I want something darker. I could only get some colours out of Tutti Fruiti by taking a picture of it in a very dark room. What a waste as this is the only fabric closed to SMF airbrushed Keenan. Now I have to choose between SW Starquest or SW Iris Garden and I have no idea which one is better. I just thought Starquest looks a bit like night time.

Tutti Fruiti, Starquest & Iris Garden

I had a busy week but fruitful. I started the week by having a major cleaning up of the house. DD just finished her 2 weeks of holidays and is back in the kindergarten this week. I washed all the windows and I am so proud of all the cleaned windows. I know they will get dirty again after a few days as we are expecting rain but still nothing makes me happier than spotless windows! I had been doing some heavy duty gardening job too. I was moving sand (left by the last owner) to another end of the garden. DH wants to make use of the sand for the tiles to build another terrace in front of the house.

DD is invited to another birthday party again this Saturday. It is a boy from her kindergarten who is turning 5. I still think it is weird that kids from the kindergarten are inviting a few kids to their house for parties. It is not a normal practice in Denmark as far as I know. Usually, if someone wants to invite friends from the kindergarten to their house for birthday parties, it will be either an invitation to all the boys or all the girls and not a few of them. Anyway, I went to buy a gift for this birthday boy yesterday. DD told me that he loves nothing else but cars. So, I bought him a 3 storey Car Park. I wanted to buy only 1 thing and some nice bread and dressings from the bakery but I came home with so many shopping bags! I simply couldn't resist the great sale in Germany. Nothing for myself as I couldn't find anything I like but I saw so many nice and cheap t-shirts and bought quite a few for DH.

Haven't been working much on her as DD had a week holiday last week and again this week. Only managed a bit during the mornings before the whole family wakes up. I was afraid to stitch her on a hand dyed at first as the fabric in the kit has very light green pastel colour and I was thinking how it would turn out on a darker and blue dyed fabric. I got to say I am very happy with the outcome :0) I am not sure whether I can restart on Angel of Spring on the 1st August with Jackie as I haven't got a notice from Silkweaver that my fabric had been shipped. I ordered Tutti Fruiti last week as that is their COTW. I am not sure whether Angel of Spring will look better on Starquest or Tutti Fruiti. I got to look at the fabric before I decide.

This is how it will look like when finished.

I just bought these 2 new Dimensions kits. Italian Vista and White Roses. I haven't touch a Dimensions since I started stitching on evenweave. To be honest, I am actually terrified of stitching a Dimensions on evenweave due to the blending of different colours and having different number strands of floss into a square. I got to try but I think I am a bit too ambitious by wanting to try on huge Dimensions kits. Italian Vista actually looks a bit frightening as the floss bundles contain a piece of some wool type of floss and a golden ribbon.




We threw a party last Saturday at our house and invited 2 families over. Each of them had 2 girls. We had a total of 5 girls that day. It was fun and not tiring for me at all as it is a normal in Denmark for the parents and their children to clean up or tidy up before they leave someone's house. I love to give small gifts to the girls when we have parties. I am a bit tired of giving them Barbie eggs or Hello Kitty eggs. Since the girls are learning how to use chopsticks and love it, I thought of buying this for each of the girl for the next party. Had been on Ebay but the shipping fee is quite high - approx. £5. How heavy can a pair of chopsticks weigh? If anyone knows any online store where I can get them at a reasonable shipping fee, please let me know.

Thank you so much for the lovely comments for my completed Sleeping Beauty. I was a bit lost after she was completed as I've mentioned, she is the first one I picked up almost every morning after my coffee and morning papers. It just feel weird not picking her up after she was completed. No, I am not going to stitch another one again. I hardly never stitch the same pattern twice.

I took a short break after finishing HAED Sleeping Beauty. We had visitors over to our house, as well as attended a birthday party. After recharging my batteries, I am ready to get back to the real life and that is stitching! I am RESTARTING Angel of Spring. I've chose SW Starquest for this Angel of Spring without background and wings. It is not easy to find a fabric that looks like SMF Keenan. Mindy did an airbrush Keenan for me just for this project 2 years ago. It contains all the colours of the flowers in this pattern. 2 reasons why I don't want to continue her on this fabric is that, it is an Opal fabric and I hate the sound which the thread makes when it is going through those metallic thread in the fabric. Second reason is that, it was done 1 over 1 and after doing tenting on Sleeping Beauty, I am so addicted to tent stitching. Jackie and I will restart our HAED on the 1st August. She is restarting her Wizard's Emissary

I haven't find the fabric which I want for my Lanarte Ballerina, so I will stick to the original choice. It is a piece of SW Solo. I hope the dress doesn't get drowned into the blue but I will start with the bottom of her skirt and see how well the colours turn out. I hope to put in my first stitch by tomorrow morning. It is a SAL with my good friend Jackie who is already halfway through hers. She is using the original hand dyed fabric that comes with the kit.



I've been bidding quite a lot on Ebay and buying kits from ONS which are having really great sales. Little Girl in a Field of Flowers is one of them. I didn't even like her at first when she was released. I guess it is because she doesn't carry a smile on her face and looks rather grouchy. Well, I bought her as the ONS was having such a great sale. Who can resist a great sale? She actually looks really lovely closed up and extremely sweet. I am thinking of stitching on a hand dyed fabric which I bought from Crossed Wing last year. It is call 'Flower Power' fabric as Paula dyed this fabric for her Flower Power pattern. I doubt this Little Girl can squeeze into my FQ fabric. Either I have to get Paula from CWC to dye a bigger piece or find some other hand dyed fabrics. I do wish SW can make such duo colours as I only go for her fabrics.



This is one of the Lanarte which I won on Ebay. My first thought was to get a red hand dyed as it reminds me a bit of HAED Amaryllis. Well, we will see when I decide to stitch this as I thought a blue hand dyed will look fabulous too.


DD is invited to a summer party today. She is invited by one of her friends from the kindergarten. This is her first time to a children's party without the parents. Of course, we will stay a bit with her until she warms up to the people there. We are really excited to know how things will turn out. She is having a week holiday next week as the kindergarten is closed. I will bring her to grandmum's house again by bus and train which she really enjoys. We are also holding a party next Saturday, inviting 2 families over for lunch and coffee. I have to think of another theme as it is always Princesses Party for these 5 girls and it is starting to get a bit stale.

Have a great weekend!

Stitched on 28ct Wichelt Jobelan Lavender Sunset
using HDF Silk
Started 18 December 2008
Completed 06 July 2009
Artwork by Katerina Koukiotis
Charted by HAED

It is a mixed feeling when I completed. Happy and ..... sad? I mean I've been working on her since 18 December 2008, of course I have a lot of feelings for her. She is the first thing I pick up almost every morning after my coffee and newspapers reading. I have to thank the original artist Katerina Koukiotis, my friends Chiloe, Jackie and the stitchers from Our Friends' HAED SAL for their lovely comments and encouragement while I was working on Sleeping Beauty. A picture of the completed work will be sent to the artist herself right after I post this and hope she will put it on her Fan Gallery.

Which HAED to start next? I am still hoping so much for Kat's Mermaid's Touch to be charted by HAED as that is the only one which I would really love to start on immediately. OR should I continue with Koukiotis Angel of Spring while waiting patiently for Mermaid's Touch to be chart? I have so many non-HAED which I really want to stitch but I am too lazy to kit them up. Well, I can start on my Lanarte Ballerina but I still can't decide which hand dyed fabric to use. I think I need to go to my stitching room and try to listen which project is yelling for me.

We had really great weather here in Denmark for the whole of last week. Luckily for the new family-size pool we bought, we could take a dip inside whenever we feel too hot. DD had been inside the pool almost everyday and she loves it. We had my brother-in-law and his family over to our house twice. They travelled from Stuggart and are on 3 weeks holidays at my in-laws. DD starts her 1 week holiday this week and I will bring her to her grandmum's house by taking the bus + train somewhere this week.

I had been clearing lots of rubbish at the background last week and the whole area looks really neat and clean now. I think summer is over.... or not? Weather forecast says it will rain the whole week and temperature is going down.

Have a great summer!

I've been stitching on her for the past 1 week. Thought I could finish her up by end of this month but that is a wishful thinking! Give me another 2 to 3 weeks more and she might be done.

For the past 2 weeks, I just got the urge to shop on Ebays. I won quite a lot of items at really great prices.

Vervaco FlowerTerrace

Lanarte Hydrangea & Butterflies

Completed her yesterday evening! She took me nearly a month, I think. I am really happy with the way she turned out, though stitching all those blacks was really boring. What will my next project be? I thought of Lanarte Ballerina but that one can wait. I will go back to my Sleeping Beauty and hope to complete her by end of this month.

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday, DD And I are going to take the bus to Germany, do some shopping and then the train to my in-laws' house. Mil will pick us up from the train station. DH is so worried that we will lost our way to the train station and insisted that I bring his navigator along. His navigator will probably point us to walk along the main road instead of going by short cuts. I can always ask people for the directions if we really get lost. Hope we don't spend too much time shopping and forgot to go to the train station!