So much, sew little

Hallo there. so much going on around us therefore so little time to sew and our life doesn't revolved around hobby's and crafting or making music for awhile. The changes in our environment, drastically changes a lot. Family matters more than anything else here with us and the endless visits and phone calls literally consumes a day. A raging storm, though far away disturbs our routines but thank God Almighty its not so bad as it was a year ago. During the first week while adjusting for the 12 hours daylight and 12 hours darkness, I manage to do some stitching and have some progress on my latest projects. Here is my latest updates:

plum pudding frebbies

ABC stitch -design works

Autumn story

Signing back

Hi friends, we are finally settled and well rested, Thanks to the moderate warm temp. here in the countryside it helps a lot when we are still adjusting from cold to warm. Lots of sorting out job tonight coz' my threads are still put together in one sack. Got to do a lot of sewing too before the holidays. I should benefit every hour I spend home in using my sewing stuff here. I was too excited being here, the first thing I did is plant some veggies, I hope to be able to grow some squash and string beans before the summer, and some peppers too. Oh well, I could bubble and bubble all night, but I surely have to begin the actual work I am talking about.

Signing off for an indefinite period

Before I signed off I would like to share my new finds. Christmas motiff frebbies from plumpudding needle art. Ciao

Latest updates plus a few of my sewn pieces for presents

Last updates on my ABC Stitch pattern from designworks, as u can see I started at the middle right corner going to the left as I always used to when I stitch bigger pattern. I'll be signing off for an indefinite period of time until I am settled at home back in my land of birth. I presume that upcoming Christmas is going to be a huge event.  And we will be taking a lot of time visiting friends and families. Anyway below are my latest sewn pieces for the last two months. I actually worked hard and have more to show but I wasn't able to take Photo's before I sent them with the box.

I am a little bit proud that my sewing skills is getting better and better. I only need to focus on one thing at a time. My multi-tasking habbit drives my hubby crazy and says I am still busy even when I sleep.

I am an avid fan of Ottobre Design Kids, these patterns comes form different books. I'll be detailing each one in my finished page soon. I hope the kids from home likes it. 

I made these out of scraps

This one is supposed to be a romper but it also looked nice as an everyday dres

A bit tricky with the collar but it was worth it.

Stitching ABC

Just an update of what I currently stitchin

Last updates on my Autumn for this month

I've wanted to finish it badly before we left Belgium but I run out of threads. So it landed on my UFO's. I'll be doing my ABC stitch pattern from a Belgian friend starting tomorrow and will be bringing all my UFO's so that I can work on them until they are finished. I'm working well on my Christmas cards, although I probably show them only after I've sent them away to its recipients. 

I would also love to begin with this lovely free pattern from Nathalie's Jardin prive' as soon as I collected all the stuff I needed. I probably wait until I arrived in the Philippines so that I can buy my materials there. It will cost me a lot lesser than here of course.

Its so lovely, if there is anyone who had not seen this before you can find it  HERE  in 4 deals pdf/word format in french, english, italians and spanish language. Thanks to Ms Nathalie. It will be fantastic if I can make it in dutch (Nederlands too.)

Counting down for Christmas holiday

Its always nice to look forward on something else rather than everyday to-do-list. As I have mentioned on my older post, I havelots of plans in the future. Inclusive in my agenda is working on different themes. One of the themes is occassions.

Here is one of my christmas projects,

small motiff designed by vervaco.

one of the owl trios. lovely Christmas card design.

My Stitchie Witchie mini stitch

I'm not usually fond of halloween itself, but stitching  any kind that is cute and cuddly is my excuse to do one more stitch. Happy halloween everyone. Its too early but I just happened to be happy I finished this out of left overs in record time.

Stitchie Witchie by Brooke's books publishing

Progress on my autumn project

Its moving along with the season, so inspiring to do.

Updates on Imogene

Here I am not yet finish some colors are missing but I am the cutest witch in town, what ever add ons you have for me. If you are interested in me look for my pattern Here.

My secret garden 1 2 3

Its been ages ago, don't remember how long did I work on it, all I know is that it took me more than 4 years to finish it. I thought I'd wait until November when I return home in (PH) to post it. Because I only noticed through this photo that hubby hanged the framed wrong. The one on the left side should be positioned on the middle and vise versa. Anyway, The frame itself is not so special, I just choose it to match my wooden sofa.

I guess I was too happy back then that I missed the difference. Not the best explanation when I imagined how many stitches are there. And I hardly missed a block. My sister had it already placed in the right position. Got to take another shot, when I get back. :)

Pimping up a bit for a change

Thanks to Shabby blogs

Got to stop stashing and think about what to do with them

I should make this cute one, one of these days. But first I have to set point in my continous search for a nice one. Even though I got a lot of stashed pattern without even looking for it, or buying it. I have to simply

Count down period

Counting down days before, halloween, trip to the Philippines, christmas, easter, summer etc. This workless, childless person in me has never ceased to look for a new interesting things and oppurtunities to have my days full of exciting experience and positive thought. I shall ban the negative thoughts thru avoiding the news for at least 1 week. (But I will keep praying for those who are trapped in epidemic infested places and those who have to endure the atrocity of war).

I leave my autumn project as it is for now:

For the meantime I will work on this cutest witch I found yet. You can also find its free pattern Here  if you like.

And from now until we leave is time to sew and prepare for all the countdowns. Its part of my big plans so I'll keep it posted. :)

Autumn breeze is in town

Autumn is finally in town, after a wonderful after summer weather which we really appreciate very much. My Autumn story on the other hand is  progressing rather slowly due to my pre-occupation on other matters at home. But I"m still hoping to be able to finish it before the winter begins.

I' m back attending sewing lesson 2 times a week since  September. And I'm working on a big plan which I probably post very soon. I always have lots of plan. realizing it is another thing, but this is going to be a real big one.

Love these design

Can't help falling in love with these design, especially because these are presents that I got in return for a very little effort of stitching a foto of a baby girl who died 2 years ago. Which I rather not show here in my blog. But I thank her grandmother for letting me do it. Can't promise I will learn french language but I will happily stitch these design, whenever I got a chance.

merci beaucoup ! Marie Josee. thank u very much!!!!

Cross Stitch WIP's

I surely did my best alternating on these projects, although I believe its a long way to go.

I stitch therefore I stashed

Yes, I stitched therefore I stashed, and because I stashed all my files is either double or tripled with hard copy, without hard copy, in pdf, etc. I begun a week ago cataloging all my stuff and I am not finished yet. Looking for a particular copy from my files is harder than going to the stockist and buy a new one. I was normally an organized person but then. Hoarding and collecting patterns for over 20 years is really too much. I have a feeling that when I find something nice, I couldn't part with it, so making a copy before giving it away got to be done first. I am so lucky to have lots of stuff free from people I know and I never say no when they are freely given. Funny I still am looking for some stuff I want to add to my collection. I dream of making a big quilt from little stuff with crafty people and animals design. Here I made some progress on putting them in one album My sew much more collectibles . I got to search more of my files for some I still couldn't figure out where I stashed them.

Meanwhile I started with this design by Ellen M. Stroh already making it my second small project. (The first one is Counting on u of precious moments ) I really don't know yet, how I am going to finish it as a quilt. I hope I can make up my mind along the way. Nevertheless I still have a long way to go.

My big projects are still number one on my list. Plus pieces I make for others as I promised.

Free Pattern Links

It took me so long to find some Christmas freebees I used to tag long time ago. Couldn't find it when I needed to compare and show to a friend which one she likes. I'd reckon I pinned this post to always appear on top of my post. Thanks to somebody from my stitch group, She had this on file. Free Christmas Design . Especially for Maria, you can find this also on my pattern links at my right sid

Home is where the heart is

Having two homes is not always fine, especially when one house is on the other side of the continent. It breaks my heart leaving one for the other and it makes me happy coming home to both of them. If I have a private jetplane I probably load all my stuff back and forth so that, I have them, when I needed them. Just kidding, even if I can afford it, I wouldn't even think of it. I probably bring tons of chocolates and barrels of wine to the Philippines and a whole mango and banana trees, with the inclusion of its roots  to Belgium. Neither of the two choices is good for obvious reasons. I only need not to forget my bible, my books, my patterns and my current WIP. And my husband of course. :)

Anyway I guess its the confort and privacy of the four walls and its roof that makes one house special, but it is still the family itself that maketh it a home. And if we bring our family with us wherever we go, we can still find a place we can call home or at least felt at home. I only wonder what Our Father's home look like. I have hopes, loads of hopes to be there sometime. Meanwhile here is my Works in progress on my UFO

Pin and cut

I'm a bit dissapointed to discover that some of my pins (pinterest) was already removed due to copyright reasons. I can understand why, But when sometime, one pattern is not available nearby I feel so lucky to see them online that I deny the fact that it could be illegally tagged. I learned my lesson and I thought about pinning and cutting all at once. Can't help it really. Over the years when my friends are collecting shoes and bags. I am collecting books and creative patterns of all sort. My last count was over the thousand ( sewing, quilting and cross stitching) Pinterest comes handy sometimes but I'll reckon its better to pin and cut all at once. Not that I rely on it. When I found pins that i really love, I buy it whenever I got a chance like this one:
Autumn story . I saw it first in Pinterest. I like it so much that i even ordered it overseas. This is one op my current WIP nowadays.

Stitching using pattern via Windows live photo gallery

Aside from using board notes Apps, scanning my pattern and viewing it via windows live photo gallery has been my habit ages ago. My husband doesn't like it of course. He says its not really good for my eyes. What he didn't know is that, it helps me in a way to distract my attention moreoften than not. Co'z whenever my computer is open, can't help but once in awhile check on google alert for the latest news in the world. And then I checked on facebook, bloglovin, blogspot, etc. Windows 8 user have more advantage because they can use multiple tabs. As u can see here in my sample, at the lower right corner. I can make it larger or smaller view. It helps a lot whenever I am busy with a small patterns. I can also count using my cursor. I can move the picture itself up and down, go to the next or the last pages or check on the whole picture. It works for me and I been doing this for years now.

Stitching with the help of my board notes

Even though I am aware that too much computer is not good for my eyes, can't help it really. Some times when hard copy is either too small or not so clear it helps a lot using boardnotes. Thanks to window 7 and 8 it is now possible. Although I was not really sure if my old window XP supports boardnotes too since it was already obsolete, I wasn't able to try before. With boardnotes I can easily makes my pattern larger than it is, but of course I had to scan it or download it first. Nevertheless I still have my hard copy on hand. You'll never know when the computer crashes.

Home is where the heart is

Hi fellow bloggers, its been awhile again in again. Exactly one month ago since we are back in Belgium and hubby and I have our first day off today.  It was expected after six months of absence that we shall be very busy now and then. But then, cross stitching is so infectious and hard to cure. Spending the last week riding our bike again gives inspirations for small works such as this one.

Home is where the heart is, and home is where we feel good and safe, wether we are in Belgium or in my homeland its not a big deal anymore. I'm pretty sure I still have the same habit, the same interest and the same attitude towards life. 

I started with this project last May until I ran out of colors. 

Latest WIP and UFO

I've had a lot of fun as well as miserable weekend after one another. This constantly changing weather is definitely a bad vibes. No one wants to get sick while on holiday and in the middle of house renovation. Anyway, I may have a chaotic weeks but I still manage to keep calm and stitch from time to time. Here is my latest finish and Works in progress

Flower Hill

Simply irresistible

Simply Irresistible:

I was supposed to be looking only for a serger. I end up going home with an industrial sewing high speed machine and an edging machine. I fell in love with this very simple and easy to use straight stitch machine which is very useful with moderate to heavy fabric. Cost price is equivalent to my old janome decor machine. It was simply irresistible. I suddenly ditched my plan to buy a motorcycle and brought this home. I've sewn for 3 hours upon installation. It makes hubby worrying about our pending vacation. Do I like to go ever again? 

One of my old works I stashed away long time ago.

One of my old works I dug out of my old boxes of books and thesis manu's. Almost destroyed during the flash floods in Famy Laguna sometime in 2002. The frame and matting is already damage. But I love this piece. I'm not really sure what's the title and who design this, just got the pattern in a local magazine. Glad I have this habit of filing things in order. I was able to keep the pattern intact. I still remember I accidentally found the magazine in a thrash bin of my first boss Atty. Agulto. Good Lord it was ages ago. He asked me to look for a BIR receipt and there I found it. I might try something delft blue or brick red or perhaps another black with the right borders. 

First finished piece 2014

My puppy look alike.

Signing back

Finally settled and ready to do some more stitchery. Got to catch latest Europe news first thing of all . thanks to a pocket WIFI for my new internet connection. I'm back online.

Welcome 2014 and Bye bye Beringen for awhile

Its been a long day, putting things in order before we left tomorrow. The most difficult of all is puzzling what more we needed to put in the check in baggage. I'm afraid we are over the limit. Can't finished counting my stashed threads so I ended up bringing them all. So its bye bye for now. Not sure when I'm coming back online. Hoping I'll manage to find internet connection down there in the Barrio. I'm getting nervous already as I always do whenever I was supposed to fly. Got to take some pills in the morning (doctor's prescribed). I hope it helps. It will be an emotional homecoming, because I won't be able to see my puppies anymore. They didnt't survived. something I am not happy to talk about, but I finally found a lookalike pattern, which I am currently doing right now. It will remind me of them, all the time . It makes me sad remembering them. Here are my two adorable puppies : Mathias and Marcus : 

This would be my remembrance of them:

Mathias and Marcus