ATELIER SOED IDEE

Today I received my favorite-season-exchange of our dutch stitchinggroup from Willeke . My favorite season is autumn, so she stitched me this wonderful chart in brown/yellow-overdyed thread, finished as a towel. She also send me some nice charts and two great pins. I got a text-message from my mother in France that she received my mailart. My mother collects mice and DS calls her "Granny Mouse" because of that. So I finally stitched her a mice-mailart. (The mice-buttons were in my stash for almost two years...) This tea-box was a birthday gift for my friend Jacqueline B. On top of the box is a little kit from Bent Creek, called "Good Morning". I knew Jacqueline really liked the kit, so I made her this tea-box. I also happened to find " good morning-tea "!

First of all, I want to thank you all for your nice comments on the Peacock chair! They're making me glow.... Yesterday I "pimped" a small tin. Becky has inspired me with her beautiful tins! Anyway, here's my first attempt:

Today the mailman had another surprise for me... The monochromatic exchange from Outi ! She stitched me a very pretty Quaker-strawberry in my favourite color blue, on a pale green linen. There were also 2 shades of DMC variegated and some nice beads in blue. Thank you Outi, for the pressies!

It was a struggle to get there, but the Peacock Stitching Chair from The Cat Whiskers is finished! Not exactly the way it should be (the drawer doesn't open very smooth, it's not standing straight on his feet, I've had to put a stone in the drawer otherwise the chair falls....), but it looks good in the pictures, doesn't it? I've stitched it on 32 ct. cream Lugana, with TG Silk 'n Colors "Wood Smoke" and DMC 4140. For the ribbons I chose VC Silk Ribbon "Chine".

Third post in two days! It seems I really have to tell you a lot... ;) The past week I was working on Secret Santa of Lavender and Lace. And the Christmastree is finished now (except for the beads). Now that I stitched a larger piece of the tree, I love the way it works out on the fabric! You can see the progress I made here . I'm already looking forward to the next time it's Secret Santa's turn in the rotation. Then I can work on the cozy Santa and his pretty purple chair! But first I'm going to stitch some mailarts now.

I found out that Paula received my Monochromatic Exchange! Paula loves purple and blue colors, so I made her this pillow. I knew right away that I had to use this fabric for the exchange. It's a 28 count Jobelan handdyed by my friend Jacqueline W . The pattern is from My Aunts Attic . This blog is from my friend Lilian. When I was at her place last year, she showed me a big box full of handwritten charts. She told me that they were from an aunt of her DH, who got it from a closed LNS. I got all excited about it and said to Lilian that she has to do something with all those pretty charts! After some time I could convince her and I helped her with digitizing the charts. And that's how My Aunts Attic was born...

Since a while I'm collecting birdhouses and birdhouse-charts. So a few days ago I bought myself this lovely birdhouse-photoframe. I couldn't resist it! But it was still empty... So this afternoon I stitched a small birdhouse that fits in the frame. The chart is called "Titmouse on Birdhouse" and it's a freebee from this site . I've stitched it on 32 count ecru Lugana with DMC. So now it's a titmouse IN a birdhouse ;-) Today I also received a lovely birdhouse-card in the mail. It's a belated birthday-card from Iris . Thank you so much Iris! The card is so beautiful made!

Today the mailwoman brought me some nice things again (I probably should invest in TNT... But then again; I could better by more stash!) First of all my belated birthday-present from my parents! I bought this ring online from a dutch magazine called " Libelle ". I ordered it a while ago, and now it finally arrived! The ring is silver with a moonstone on it. When I took this picture from my hand with the new ring, I remembered I've never showed the present I've got from DH and DS! They gave me this great Pandora bracelet for my birthday! I already have a necklace of it and it's so much fun to collect all the little charms. I also had another package with stash. Yesterday I ordered Bent Creeks new Red Thread-serie at Crown Stitches . And it already arrived today! Liezbeth (the shop-owner) has been so sweet... Although the original pattern was sold out, she send me the package with a copy of the chart. Same with one of the threads. I received an used skein and later...

This month's "Package of the month" from Atelier Bep , was a cute little bear with a coat on. Unfortunatly the fabric for the outside of the coat was a little too small... But I had the same sort of fabric in my stash, so I could use that. This was the first time I've made such a thing and although it was fun to do, I don't think there will come more bears... Ofcourse DS claimed the bear immediatly, but I hadn't expect anything else :) This morning I also had a crossstitch-finish, but it's a present for someone, so I can't show it yet. Tonight I will be stitching on "Secret Santa" from Lavender and Lace.

This week’s SBQ was suggested by Ish and is: "How do you choose a project for an exchange? Do you pick solely on what you know of the taste of the recipient or are there other reasons you pick the piece you do?" I'm always trying to choose something that the recipient likes. So I check their blogs or do some other research about the person (checking group-databases etc). Sometimes it might become a challenge because it could be something I don't like to stitch (for example Margaret Sherry...) I hope my exchange-partners will do the same for me...

Last night I finished the stitching on the "Peacock Stitching Chair" from The Cat Whiskers. There's really not much stitching involved! I was struggling a bit with the choice of colors, but I love the way it has turned out. I had TG Silk 'n Colors "Wood Smoke" in my stash and decided that I gonna use that. But I also had to find a second color... I had Vicky Claytons "Walnut" that matched perfectly, but it wasn't enough and I ordered some new skeins. But the new "Walnut" was totally different than the old one and didn't match at all with the "Wood Smoke". After a long search in my stash I decided that DMC 4140 had the best match, although it is cotton instead of silk... For the ribbons I chose VC Silk Ribbon "Chine".

I received a message from Cathy that she received my pinkeep. I've read in her blog that she likes The Drawn Thread. So I stitched "Summer Scene" for her. This was my first pinkeep and I really enjoyed making it. It's such a nice, pretty gift, and it doesn't take much time stiching and finishing it. I hope many more will follow ! I also had a big envelope in the mail today which contains the most wonderful piece of linen! It was a birthday-RAK from Anne. The fabric is called "Winter Meadow" and is from Sugar Maple fabrics. I love the color-combination!

After almost a year of struggling with my active24-blog, I've finally made the decision to move over to Blogger. The other blog was very user-unfriendly and I couldn't do the things with it, I want to. So a new blog is born... But why is it called "Soed idee!"? It's kind of a inside-joke in our family... DS had some problems speaking and he couldn't pronounce the "G" correct. So instead he says a "S". "Goed idee"!" means "Good idea!" Or the way DS used to say it "Sood idea!" So whenever we think something is a good idea, we still shout "Soed idee!" And I thought this blog is a good idea also... :)