Fall exchange and a finish

Hello dear friends and followers,

it's been a while since I last posted here, but now there are a few things I can show you.

I took part in the Halloween/Fall Exchange at Stitch, Create, Exchange and here is what I received from my partner Lynda:

 So many lovely goodies, thank you so much, Lynda! The scented candles brought the smell of fall to my house and I already have plans what to stitch on the wonderful hand-dyed piece of fabric. Here is a close-up of the cute pillow she stitched for me, isn't it gorgeous?

I stitched for Kay, who chose to receive a fall themed package and when I browsed through some old magazines, I found this lovely design which I adapted to fit the little heart-shaped hanger I had in my stash:

Stoney creek, "Share the harvest"

I am currently stitching for a small local Christmas market where I will have a small stand for presenting my stitching. This is the second time I am planning to do this, I really enjoyed the experience last year and hope that it will be as much fun this time. I managed to finish the biggest design I will offer for sale, you may recognize it from my IHSW posts. May I proudly present: Lizzy*Kate "6 Fat Men"

Here is the front

I used some left-over hand-dyed felt from WDW for the back

The felt back gives a really wintery feel to the cushion and I think that the color of the back and the fabric I stitched on go together very well. What do you think? I shall not be too sad if nobody would buy this cushion, I already know the perfect place for it in my own home... ;-)

I had a quite nasty cold during the last few days which is why I decided not to joint IHWS this time, as I had not been sure if I would get done any stitching at all. Fortunately it was not that bad, I finished two fun Christmas cards, which I will show you next time.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Silvia

IHWS October

Hello dear friends and followers,

it has been a while since my last post as I have been away for a few days. Where I have been to and what I did there I will tell you next time.

Last weekend was IHWS (if you do not know what this is click on the bottom on the upper right of this blog) and although I have been busy repairing a fence with DH I managed to get some stitching done. The weather was warm and sunny and so we got our work on the fence done faster than we originally had expected. 

Today it was foggy all day, well, I think we have to get used to it, it is the time of the year that often brings lots of fog, which sometimes last all day. As the highest mountains in our county are not more that 400 m high (yes, it is that flat around Vienna, the alps are in the south-western part of Austria) we have no possibility to "flee" to higher regions above the fog. It sometimes is quite frustrating when the weather forecast says that it is sunny and warm in all other parts of the country and outside your window it is nothing but wet and grey. But no need to complain, on the other hand it is perfect stitching weather! ;-)

So here is last weekend's progress on my "6 Fat Men":

Friday afternoon

Sunday evening before going to bed

In September I have been working on an exchange piece as well, but I am not able to show it to you yet.

I hope you all have a lovely week, keep on stitching!

Silvia

Time for a little Christmas stitching

Hello dear friends and followers, how are you out there? Here in Austria it has become quite chilly and it really feels like autum, now that it is October. They say that maybe tomorrow night we might have the first frost, brrr...

So I thought it was time to do a little Christmas stitching:

"Rejoice Bookmark" by Stoney Creek, stitched with the suggested DMC, WDW and Kreinik threads.

Unfortunately I'm not able to photograph the lovely glitter of the snowflakes, it looks really festive.

Happy stitching!
Silvia

IHWS September 2013 and autumn in Austria

Hello dear friends and followers,

last weekend was the third September one, and this means IHWS! (for all of you, who do not know what IHSW is, click here). It was the first time I joined in the fun and although I did not hermit as much as I had planned, it was a very enjoyable experience.

So here is where I started on Friday after work:

Lizzie*Kate - 6 Fat Men

And this is what it looked like yesterday evening before I went to bed:

Sorry for the creases, I didn't want to waste any time ironing. :-)

Here in Austria autumn is well on its way and this is the perfect time to do a little hiking and check if the grapes are already ripe (I live in an area where a lot of wine is grown).

Wachau - a World Cultural Heritage

The grapes do not look bad ...

On the upper photo you can see the ruins of Dürnstein castle, which is where according to the legend the English king Richard Lionheart was incarcerated. Today tourists can enjoy the beautiful landscape without taking the risk of not returning home. ;-)

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Silvia

My ring pillow

Ah, I see my little blog already has 2 (!) members, only one week after going online, which makes me very happy. :-) So hello out there!

I have not much progress to show on my lizzie*kate project, but one of the advantages of having just started blogging is that I can show you projects I have finished in the past.

DH and I only got married 2 months ago after having been together for 15 years and I thought that this special occasion was well worth a special stitching project. I did not succeed in finding any wedding sampler I really liked and so I decided that I would stitch a ring pillow. I wanted something special and being all but a fan of laces and rushes, the design had to be a little different from the ones typically stitched for weddings.

I finally found a wonderful pattern by Faby Reilly that uses variegated and metallic threads, beads, some speciality stitches like satin hearts and is finished as a biscornu. Here is the little beauty:

Faby Reilly, Love - Wedding Ring Biscornu

I originally had planned to use it as a pin cushion after the wedding but so far I have no yet had the heart to remove the satin band and stick my pins in...

I hope you all have a wonderful stitchy week!
Silvia

One weekend and two starts

As DH has been trying to convince me for months to start my own blog, well ... here it is!
Needle, spoon and saxophone stand for three of my major likes: Cross stitching, cooking and playing the saxophone. I am a keen gardener, too and a very active and sociable person, so there might be a few other photos posted that just stitchy stuff.

And here is this weekend's second start:

At Our House from Lizzie*Kate

We got married two months ago and I thought is was a good idea to display some "house rules" to remind us of what really matters in our lives.

The photo is not perfect, but I got a new camera recently and still have to check a few things out...

Enjoy your weekend!
Silvia