last day of January

 The first month of this year is nearly gone.
We had a bit of ice and also snow,
though much less than in the north of the country.
Birds are still coming to the garden

but the first Aconites are already above the ground since the 16th !

My mending basket was overflowing and I finally started
on the fingerless mittens daughter made for me last year :

I repaired some stitches and knitted the top again on thinner needles.

And oh my, I really needed those on the Sundays
that I was working on the big "slavery-project"
because it was COLD in the big hall !!!

This BIG project has finally come to an end !

Here they were still filming the last steps of this GIANT tapestry.

But tomorrow we will celebrate the completion of the 35 meters
 with a joint festive lunch !

In February this monumental tapestry is exhibited
in de Grote Kerk, Den Haag (13 - 22 February)
After that it will make a tour along the cities where the work was done :

Rotterdam, Delft, Dordrecht, Gouda, Leiden.

faces (2) and community stitching

After a quiet birthday,
with some very sweet presents,
there was time for more faces for Emma Cassi 's workshop.
Sometimes things go smoothly "with no effort at all"
sometimes you struggle with even the smallest decisions.

My third "mask/face" brooch was the latter.
Up until I found the translucent shell shape sequins
in a very cheap box in my stash . . .
after that it all went well, so funny !

I called it a "Fire Keeper"

(though many SC-members said it reminded them of a fish !!)
Hmmmm at least a fish with an attitude
that's for sure !

And because they are rather small
(and I had more choice in beads and sequins)
there even came a fourth one.

This one I called "Gilgamesh"
Though he wasn't a very nice person to start with,
I was very fond of the illustrations of Ludmila Zeman
(Czech by birth, now living in Canada)

*

This whole month I have also been busy in ROTTERDAM with a BIG
community stitching project
it is called :

DRADEN  VAN  ONS  NEDERLANDSE  SLAVERNIJVERLEDEN

(I put in the link for our province Zuid-Holland
you can also find the dates and address we are working there !!!)

Other cities where they are working on this HUGE wall hanging are
Delft, Dordrecht, The Hague, Leiden and Gouda.

This is the part for Dordrecht and Rotterdam.

There were other participants, but we could always use more "hands"

for stitching, felting and embroidery, not difficult work but very rewarding !
Together with Gerine I supervise the work there, also with the 
all-over coordinator Caroline Grootenboer
The 7 meters long part for us, has been stretched on a big frame.

The work to cut out a part of the big pattern
and filling it with pieces of fabric, felt of making embroidery stitches
had to be for us to try (and experience difficulties) too !

So : homework !

I think it is very special being able to participate in this project !