one leaving the nest . . .

The eldest of our grandchildren
is leaving the nest !
(ohhhh I remember that day when daughter
went to live on her own in the big city !)

On the evening of my birthday
she went to Leiden with her friend
to view an apartment . . .
That is a difficult job in Holland :
there is a serious shortage of affordable housing !

It must have been a really lucky day,
because later she called that they had it !!!

That asked for something special :
I followed the lead of my dear friend Hazel
and stitched a tiny house for them
that I gave on Easter Monday.

First dreaming of a house
and now on cloud 9 that they found one !!!

They got the key on
22 - 4 - '22
We wish them happy times there !

(Thanks Hazel !)

Of course there were EGGS on that day too
(and it doesn't matter how old you are !)

;-)

a sunny (birth) day

Bright sunshine
is not always a birthday present for me
but this year it was !!!

This was how the day began !

(tiny Ginkgo leaves are just starting to emerge !)

Family and a dear friend came for coffee
and stayed for lunch.
Daughter and grandchildren
came over too with sooo many lovely presents !

And imagine this :
I used to make almost all the cloths
when daughter was little . . .
and now she makes a FUN jacket for me !!!


It's not finished yet :
a lot of quilting and also stitching still to do
but I LOVE it already !!!

So
a perfect birthday !

a rose is a rose . . .

A lot has been going on in Stitch Club
For the last workshop by Cathy Brickhill
a working sewing machine was needed . . .
and mine
came home from the repair shop :
DEAD !
My dear Pfaff 2058 needed a new computer circuit
but sadly, that is no longer available . . .
So there was nothing for it than buying a new machine !!!
There wasn't that much money to spend
for a machine that would be the twin of my old one,
so, several steps back.
But now I'm playing again, on a new Pfaff 610.

Certain things have changed in the build of the machine
and I must say not all changes are improvements !!!
But there is nothing I can do about thát,
so getting used to it is the best option !

Cathy's workshop was free motion stitching
with the use of water soluble stabilizer.
I've used that a lot before
but it is always nice to see what other people do !

So the new embroidery foot on the machine and feed dogs down !!!

The finished rose 

The next flower has more petals !

the front and the back of the finished brooch.

A pansy from the garden was a nice start.

In fact those two flowers were NOT the very first thing I did
because at the start of the workshop there still wasn't a machine !

That's why I gave hand stitching on water soluble a go !!!

In fact this is a bit "harder"
because with a machine you have two threads
that are knotted while sewing.
But with the hand stitching I had to be vary careful
to stitch through the previous stitches :
otherwise you end up with just a tangle of threads !!!
(I used "random cross stitch"
just like I did in the Tiny Portrait. workshop
by Sharon Peoples)

(against the light)

Ha, there were several members of SC
that were happy they could do this workshop in hand stitch
("machine-haters")

thread Thursday