unseen

Since I'm back from the holidays

the Sun and moons piece

is my steady companion.

I started adding a little piece of Birgit´s lace

but then ...

stitches, stitches and even more stitches.

I even took the piece to the St´nB in Rotterdam last Saturday !

And now, on this last day of August,

again  more stitches.

In places where I´ve been already before with blues

I go back in with other colours,

like the Salmon Moon.

I pick a colour from my big "thread nest"

and just look for a place that needs some more stitches.

I did some stitches on the legs of the Butterfly Moon

and she looks a lot better since I fixed the left side of her blue wings 

with fine lines of split backstitch

so it´s more of a unity with the other `megamendung` parts.

Large pieces, that were still only the loose, swirly blue fabric,

are now firmly quilted to the back

(although you hardly see anything of it !)

The dark (striped) circle behind the sun

will be more clear when I finish the red stitches around it.

A lot more (unseen) stitches needed
.....
slowly going !

restart

It has been an aweful long time since I unrolled my

 Sun and Moons

to do some stitching ...

The fact that I took it with me on holiday

was to restart stitching 

ánd to show it to Birgit when we visited her.

(because I know how eager "textile people" are

to see the "real" thing with their hands, 

rather than just looking at it on a photograph)

With the actual cloth on the table

it's easier to explain what you have been doing.

(with or without a cat lying on it  .....)

Although there wasn't enough quiet time to restart thén

I indeed did a restart, now I'm home again.

(and the little repair tast for the classroom 

of my former collegue Ada is finished :

school started again today !)

I forgot to show last time

the gorgeous indigo handdyed Baby-Alpaca wool

that Birgit gave me as a present !

And since the little extra : blue dyed lace,

fits so well with the colours

of the "Sun and Moons"

I had to stitch a little piece of it into it !

I may find yet another place for the next bit too ...

First invisible "glue-stitch" and then some thread beads.

a special person

Since I started blogging

almost five years ago 

(uhhhhhhm ... that long already ?)

I've "met" a lot of nice people,

starting of course with Jude and her warm circle

of slow-stitching friends,

and also others e.g. after my on-line felting course of Fiona Duthie.

But because I read German easily too

I "met" others in Germany, Austria and Switserland.

Meeting people in Blogland is fun

and it's wonderful experience
to make an exchange with someone :
so you send and get a surprise, 

really on your doormat ;-)

But  it is even more fun

when the possibility occurs

to meet in real life !

The very first time that we arranged that 

was three years ago with Gabi (Filzkram)

drinking coffee

and admiring her wonderful studio.

This year it turned out that we were having our family holiday

very near to where Birgit (Olann-Wolle) lives.

We've had contact before so it was easy to take the step

to arrange a meeting.

It was (again) no surprise 

that I was going to meet a wonderful person.

We had lovely warm (hot even) weather

so had coffee, and later lunch, with  Birgit and husband on the terras.

(and talked a LOT )

We toured around the garden, with the neighbour's young cows,

which are used as lawn mower,

Birgit's three sheep,

we  looked at her vegetable plot,

and  even picked some raspberries ... 

Then we went inside (it was really hot then)

and I showed the things I took with me from home

which I thought she would like to see "with her hands"

(uhuh ... that's the way textile-lovers lóók !) 

But there was someone else :

Älfi  (one of Birgit's three (in fact four) cats)

came in and found his rightful place

on my "Sun and Moons"

Oh my,

that day was much, much, much too short !!!!!
We could have talked for many more hours

(so we agreed on seeing each other again  ;-) !)

THANK  YOU  VERY  MUCH  BIRGIT !

(and Kai)

For this wonderful day

and for being such a lovely person !

lots of family days

The first two weeks of August

were for our family :

away with daughter and the kids !

We stayed in Holland :

so not driving very far

and there are beatiful places in our own country !

The weather was quite good.

We stayed near the holiday cottage

doing our own fun things :

But we also made small trips to fun places :

a fun play park just around the corner

medieval feast

"de Spelerij" in Dieren

(highly recommended trip to go to with kids ...

ha ! and also fun for the "big ones")

and last but not least to a fruit picking garden.

(a lot went in the bucket .... and a lot in the mouth !)

We went home one day early, because of the heavy rains

that started on Saturday evening ...

(and went on till last night !)

At home the garden gave a sorry sight :

my two big boxwood trees

were affected by affected by the infamous caterpillars of the 

Glyphodes perspectalis 

GRRRRRRR

Today when the weather was dry again I started with the tall one ...

... the sad end of a proud boxwood tree

Tomorrow probably the next one ...

or later when there is room again in the waste container.

August !

Today it was double August for us !

(and "us" meaning the knitting group

that started some years ago at the Alpaca farm,

then stopped, and went "on tour" this year

because it was fun, and we wanted it to continue)

So for me : 

bike, boat, bike in the other direction than normally :

namely to Dordrecht now.

We were in this holiday month not meeting

at one of our member's places, but, 

at the wonderful restaurant

Villa Augustus

It is housed in the former pump building

and water tower of the Dordrecht Waterworks

After the entrance you first get to the bakery and a market,

where you can buy the most wonderful presents

(for someone, or yourself)

Then you come to the restaurant part and then ...

to the terras and the garden !

With the hotel ...

in the water tower !

The garden is used to grow a lot of their own vegetables

(you can buy some of those in the little market too !)

Chatting and knitting

and drinking coffee and tea.

(and none of us could resist the de-li-ci-ous cakes !!!)

The weather was okay, and we had a wonderful morning !

If you ever go to Dordrecht ...
go visit Villa Augustus :
a true experience !