My stitching weekend

As promised in my last post are here now the pictures of the stitching retreat during the weekend.

The weekend took place at an old country estate called Wuolteen kartano in Hauho. It was just the most beautiful place. Unfortunately the weather wasn't of it's finest. Spring is still far away and we had some rain.

This is the front view of the main building where we had our rooms and took our meals.

The main house seen from the lake side.

The little house on the right is the sauna building. It is right next to the lake.

The whole weekend was organised by the cross stitching shop Emmuli and needless to say Emmuli was open for business during the entire time.

Most tempting for me where all those beautiful fabrics and hand-dyed flosses and ribbons by Nina and I got myself quite some beautiful goodies.

Included in the weekend package was a little stitching gift. 

Quite a few stitchers already finished it during the retreat. Though not me. I was far to busy working on my Biedermeier Sampler. I just couldn't lay it out of my hands and made great progress.

Now that this sampler is almost finished I have to start thinking about the next one. Sari brought along one very old Burda magazine that includes a gorgeous German reproduction Sampler. She was so kind to borrow me the whole magazine and I can't wait to  buy some 35ct. Floba to start it.

But I have also bought another reproduction Sampler chart from Emmuli.

This one is Miriam Chilver's Sampler from 1833 by "Samplers Remebered". The Sampler is most likely American but includes English Symbols. It is much smaller than the Biedermeier sampler and I think I will stitch it on a lower count. Maybe one of my new 30ct's.

After all, I had a wonderful time with good friends and lots of cross stitching. 

Emmuli stitching weekend

I only have a few project pictures for you today. I have no time for stitch, too busy packing my suitcase and preparing my weekend.
Tomorrow I will go to my first cross stitching weekend. Yes! WEEKEND! Friday to Sunday. Three days full of cross stitching, chatting, laughing, eating cake and pulla and (since this is in Finland) Sauna.

I have been thinking about which stitching projects to take along.

Lately I have been stitching a little on 1814 Butterfly Collection by Carriage House Samplings and I think that one definitely has to come.

There are quite a few butterflies that have specialty stitches. After trying out the satin stitch in one butterfly I decided to leave all the satin stitches to the end, so the threads don't shed while I am still working on it.

Next project in my rotation would be the Biedermeier Sampler.

I only stitched a very little since my last update on this project, but it is one of my favorites, so it has to come as well.

I think my most favorite part of this sampler are the yellow reindeer, aren't they just too cute?

Without a doubt I will take my pouch project by Jeanny's Merklapperie with me. This design was once a SAL that now ended, but the chart is still on her blog. There you can also see pictures of the finished pouches. There are many color variations to see, but I wanted to stitch it in the original colors. Well almost, I changed the bright red to a more softer shade.

I thought, with all the chatting and laughing that will go on during the weekend, it might be smart to have also one easy stitching project. 

This is all for now. My next post will come after the weekend and hopefully I have lots of new pictures to show.

progress and two small finishes

I have an update on the Biedermeier sampler. I started stitching the upper border, but then I got really upset with this design and put it away for a few days. It didn't take long until the bad conscience kicked in. After all it is my goal to finish the sampler by the end of January, so I stitched a few crosses here and there every now and then. 

It is not just that the border pattern is a quite difficult one, but I also found no less than four mistakes in the chart. Luckily I have a good picture of the stitched model, as well as a small picture of the original antique Sampler. So with every part I stitched I was comparing with the original and the model. Several stitches were in the wrong spot and some of the colors where also mixed up.

Usually I am not complaining about mistakes in a chart. Designers are only human and mistakes can happen. But this is a reproduction. Shouldn't the chart be double and triple checked? The chart was printed in a magazine that is now almost 20 years old, so I see no need to complain to the publisher. It is just simply annoying.

Because of being so frustrated with the sampler, I decided that I need a few quick finishes to cheer me up again. So for last night's cross stitching marathon I stitched two small freebies.

First one is "BeeKeeper" by The Drawn Thread

I love stitching bees and this is a perfect little design for me.

Next I stitched "Rain" by Prairie Schooler

This one is stitched 2 over 1 on 18ct. evenweave.

I have another small design under my needles right now, but I think tonight I will be ready continuing on the Biedermeier Sampler. There are still two weeks to go, maybe I do get it finished this month.

1827 Biedermeier Sampler

The new year has started and that means, it is Crazy January Challenge again. Rather to start 15 new projects this year, I decided to do the alternative WIP challenge. I picked 12 projects, for each month one. I know, it should have been 15, but my projects are big and I have no bad feelings about skipping three. 

The whole list of projects can be found in the side bar on the right. They are in no particular order. I haven't even decided which project to stitch in which month. I'll just pick them up as I go.

Anyway, during January I am stitching the Biedermeier Sampler. It is a reproduction from a Sampler dated in 1827. I started this one with the Crazy January Challenge last year, but I didn't get more than a few stitches done. 

Now I've been stitching for about a week and almost a third of it is ready. 

I hope to finish the sampler this month, so I can move on to the next one. Though I am a little doubtful to finish all 12 projects this year. But lets see. After all there are 51 more weeks time.

Crazy January Challenge - Day 2

I'm a little bit behind on posting my starts of the Crazy January Challenge. It is already day 4 today, but I have only a picture of day 2 to show.

This is the start of the 1827 Biedermeier reproduction Sampler. I have the chart in my stash for at least 15 years but never really liked the colours in this sampler and therefore never started it. Now that I finally did start, I realized that the picture on the chart got the colours all wrong and that it is actually quite beautiful.

I got a lot of stitching done on the first day, due to my meeting with Niina, Jaana and Virpi in a Helsinki café. We had a great evening with tea and hot chocolate and lots of stitching. 

No need to say that we draw a lot of attention to other visitor of the café. Knitting in public is, at least here in Helsinki, quite normal, but stitching, that is a whole different story.