happy holidays !

This strange year  2020   is rapidly coming to an end.

For a very long time
the Stitch Club has given a lot of much needed distraction and fun
to textile loving people all over the world :
a new warm community has been formed during that time.

Some workshops were more fun than others :
and not everyone likes the same things, thank heaven
it would be a monotonous world  haha !

The last workshop so far
the second one by Mandy Pattullo
was one that I saw on her blog, but could never follow :
birds made of textile collages !
This was one of the few workshops that almost everybody LOVED !

I use this robin to wish you all,
wherever you are,
lovely (but most probably very QUIET) holidays
and all the best for the new year

2021

Stay safe (and sane)
and happy stitching !!!

LIGHT on the shortest day !

December, the year,

is rolling slowly to its end.

Things have quieted down

after the rush of felting and preparing

for the (not very successful) market.

All the stand holders managed to get there ...

then the snow really started :

so hardly any visitors !

More than 5 cm snow

and Holland comes to a standstill !

(towards the end of the afternoon

it started raining, so we came home safely !)

It's been a long time since I did some drawing,

so for this Solstice day

I took out my Inktense pencils

and some special pens,

and made a Solstice / Light / Feast drawing

(instead of a stitched piece)

A very

HAPPY

Solstice, Light Feast, Jul, Chanukah, Christmas

to ALL my friends in Blog-land

all over the world :

may you spend many joyful hours together with your loved ones !

And to remember that failed market-Sunday

almost two weeks ago, some pictures ...

...........

quiet ... quiet ... quiet

Yes it's quiet here,

the year walks quietly to its end.

We had lovely family days

and the rest was really quiet.

Just mending a bit

(not for me)

...

and knitting

(the zigzag pattern)

...

and making some more stars

(for the tree)

The jeans of daughter that were lying around for quite some time :

busy mending at last !

the beginning

the outside                   ...         and using pliers !!!

inside

(with some extra cotton fabric for strength)

*

Because the zigzag scarf pattern was so much fun

(using up all the sock yarn leftovers)

I thought I should make some socks

to go with the scarf

:-)

Now two socks on one circular needle

Nearly there !!!

!

I coloured some more wooden stars

such fun to do !

Some more for the tree ...

(which will be outside again soon !)

last one

This will be this year's last post

and I want to share

another bit of colour 

in these cold winter days.

(Snow over here, but it's melting away already)

A little kiss and all the best for you

dear blogging friends.

Thank you 

for making it a pleasure to go to blog-land.

Bits and pieces of colour 

to make a new little quiltlet

(but can't show you all of it yet)

These were some things I sewed before Xmas.

I made lots of this kind of stuff when I still worked

as a school teacher with the pre-schoolers.

It was such fun to do it again

An apple pie and a pizza

for a little cook as a Xmas present.

After the presents were unpacked,

we had our "gourmet" dinner together.

And then he baked and served us some pizza as dessert.

HAPPY  NEW  YEAR  !

(little) step ...

... by (little) step

I'm making progress,

still a bit of "wheely" chair 

or one crutch for support

...

Today was my first day out again 

(to the "Christmassy" Alpaca Farm)

We had tea, coffee,

yummy sweets,

chicken soup 

and talked a LOT
(and did a stitch or two)

Someone even spun a chunky yarn 

with christmas lights in it !!!

FUN !

The last few days I've been busy with felting

little bags.

While Man started with our Christmas cards,

on which I added a little (embellisher) felted star 

;-)

Ha, tomorrow I will meet all the ladies of the year-round

felting-exchange !

We will see all the 144 card size felts 

(plus some other artwork of each person)

merry !

Merry Christmas

or

 feast of light  
or
turn of the season

for all my blogging friends

out there !

Serious Request

That is the name for a special action this time each year

by three Radio DJ's

who are living in a "glass house" for a week without food.

The benefits they get,
from people who pay money to hear special music

or is donated in some other way,

will go to the Red Cross

This year the motto is

"let's hear it for the babies"

The money will be spent to fight back

infant mortality in Africa

before, during or just after birth.

That's the charity I wanted to spend

my "Mouse-lottery" money on !

So here is the mouse

sitting on top of the Christmas decoration,

the ladybug money-box (still rather empty)

the glass jar with the felted balls

and pen and paper

to write down name, telephone and chosen number of balls !

It went very well !

There was € 111,65 in the ladybug

at the end of day two.

I topped it up till a nice round figure

and just send it off to Serious Request.

And ?

How many balls wére in the jar ???

66

(yes, just my age, ha !)

But ... because there were tree people with the right answer

I had to use a RNG

(random number generator)

At first we tried to use three felted balls,

but the "generator" didn't want to pick up any of them

so we used pieces of paper with names instead

It seemed one of them tasted very good ...

and Serena is the lucky one !

I phoned her and will bring her the mouse tomorrow.

(I was very sorry for the other two "winners"

so I'll send off a finger puppet mouse to each of them)

And the Christmas Fair ?

Two loooooooooong, but fun days

and I mostly sold to people I know !

(I was véry glad that one of the little quilts that were for sale

went to my dearest friend and former teaching-partner !

I know it gets a loving home !)

It has a name now too : "This it your wake-up call"

I sewed the little "felt-fabric" onto a canvas I painted first.

I think that's a nice solution for such small work

(though for me, textile work can easily hang on it's own)

Update on Serious Request :

when the three DJ's came out of the glass house

in the evening of the 24th

the total amount of money raised for the Red Cross was

€ 12.251.667, --

 

two more days

Preparations for the Christmas Fair

are nearing the end.

That is NOT because I'm almost

finished with all I wanted to do

...

but it's because

in two days time

the Fair starts,

this Friday ánd Saturday !

There are a lot of things that just will not be finished in time.

Creating craft and needlework is taking

a lot of time !

That's okay with me, but that means

I have to adjust my "targets"

So no more bags ...

just finishing off want I have so far,

and I'm very satisfied with

the new red one !

"Ages" ago we organized a big Christmas Fair

on the school I then worked,

with lots of things made by children

ánd a lot of their parents.

We had so much fun creating,

and the Fair was a HUGE succes !

Daughter reminded me that one of the great things then

was a lottery

with three wonderful prizes to win

(made by creative people)

Now I will have my own little lottery on the Fair :

people can guess how many felted balls there are in a glass jar

This will be the prize for the person who gets it (almost) right !

Mouse was made thanks to Gabi's

wonderful PDF tutorial

Thanks again Gabi !

(Off, finishing a few things ....)

making again .....

Yes ..... I started making things again

but sorry to say :

I can't show it yet !

( ssssshh christmas present .... )

I finished a pair of socks, started a new pair

and am still working on the purple green striped pair

that matches the baktus skarf

( so it's kind of sock-time )

Although my christmas cards weren't

as funny as the home-made ones like last year's

( I just bought them in the store )

the thought of colour pencils was só demanding

I had to make a special

christmas drawing

To all my blogging friends all over the world :

I wish you a happy and peaceful Christmas

*
( or whatever you call the holidays you're celebrating )

a friend .... and a friend

Today I had a lovely day with a dear old friend.

She faced a long car journey with her man

 in rainy and stormy weather to meet me in Rotterdam,

and it was fun together

like it always was.

She brought me a wonderful piece

of Kaffe Fasset "Megamendung"

and some pieces of lace.

She provided me earlier with some old odds and ends

so I took the finished pieces with me, to show her what became of it.

(We first met thirty years ago in textile-art classes)

*

The other friend I made only recently,

through the internet

I most likely will never ever meet her in real life :

she lives in Australia !

We talked about felting and making little "Waldorf"dolls

and visited each other's blog and talked some more

and I sent her something for her seasonal table ...

Last Saturday a big envelope arrived through the mail :

... ? ...

did I order something that I totally forgot about ??? 

.....

until I discovered the name on the back

Ronnie !

Thank you my dear, for your lovely early christmas presents !

a magazine about felting, some wonderful variegated threads

(of which I surely will make good use in some stitching projects)

and three little angels and a tiny baby Jesus

( I put up the christmas tree this afternoon and they are in it !!! )