Sunday 21 November 2010

Stash/Stitching & Friends!

Sorry I have been M.I.A for a while life has been busy and I just haven;t had time to get online as much as I would have liked.
I hope everyone has been stitching, patchworking and knitting as I am looking forward to catching up on all the new projects and wips. As some of you know I have been clearing and sorting out my stash recently. Even though I;m blushing furiously I thought I would post a few pictures of my little collection, minus six boxes of magazines, a crate of fabric and two boxes of finishes...lol. Now I must ask am I in the minority or majority off untidy stash collectors? Please post some stash pictures on your blogs, even those that I will be green with envy with who have not just a neat pile but a stash room to die for.


As my followers know I don;t really enjoy finishing but when I came across my huge pile of stitched pieces just sitting there in boxes I knew I had to get my butt in gear and do something. So the past few weeks there hasn;t been a lot of stitching but I have managed to finish off one cube and seven ornaments...woooo hooooo!!! The cube finish you will see later but I can;t show the ornies as the recipients all read my blog, well I think they do...lol.
The one piece I have been stitching on is my November SAL. I got to choose this month and I decided on this cute Santa by Heart in Hand. The chart was given to me by my friend Corinna. Sadly she doesn;t blog anymore but I know she still reads them. Thank you dear Corinna for passing forward this darling Santa. I have so enjoyed stitching him and once he is finished I too will pass on the chart. If anyone would like to have the chart leave a comment on this post. All I ask is that once you have stitched him please pass the chart on to someone else.

A few weeks ago myself and DH had the most wonderful week-end when Erna (http://scotlandandstitching.blogspot.com/) and her DH Ron who were on holiday from Holland came to visit us. Thanks to blogging Er and I got to know each other and have now become wonderful friends. We have been emailing and recently started chatting on messenger. It was so lovely to be able to actually meet her and Ron in person. I;m sorry I didn;t take more photos of our meet up but we were just all enjoying ourselves too much. Er and Ron arrived at our home in the morning and we had coffee and cake and exchanged some gifts we had for each other. Er also brought some gifts for my lovely neighbour who is Dutch himself. Sadly I couldn;t take Er and Ron to visit as he is very ill but him and his wife were very touched by their gift. Never one to miss an opportunity to visit my favourite place to eat we took Er and Ron to the Cornhill House Hotel for lunch. The weather was very kind to us and it was a lovely drive to the Hotel. Everyone really enjoyed the meal and my tablet ice-cream and caramel sauce was just too die for. My DH said he should bring me here more often as when that sweet is placed in front of me it;s the only time I shut-up...lol. After lunch we visited the local heritage village of New Lanark. We had a walk around a craft fair that was on and Er decided to buy a lovely hand-made Scottish themed card to take back to her Mum. As she went to pay for the card I turned around and she was talking away to this women in Dutch. It was too funny she came all the way to Scotland buys a card and the lady who serves her is Dutch...lol. Sadly not long after we returned home Erna and Ron had to leave to drive to their holiday cottage. On speaking to Er she said they had a wonderful weeks holiday here in Scotland and Ian and myself can;t wait until they can come back for another visit. They are both such lovely people that we are now delighted to call our friends.
Elaine & Er


Beautiful gifts from Holland minus the biscuits that were all eaten...lol. The pictures underneath are from the gorgeous stitchy book that Erna brought me. I thought you might like to see inside.






The Cornhill House Hotel where we had lunch.


A few images off New Lanark

Hamish Haggis
Our Scottish gifts to Ron & Erna, Whisky, Shortbread & stitchy stuff.
Well once again blogger has been a nightmare to create this post. I still can;t upload more than one photograph at a time and have had to resort to the old edition. It is such a pain. I hope everyone has had a great week-end and maybe it won;t be too long until I come back with some more thoughts and blethers from my wee hoose. Hugs!














































































































20 comments:

Catherine said...

Great piles of stitchy stash!

How fun that you got to have a visit with another stitcher! Looks and sounds like you had a great time!

Deborah said...

Looks like you had a great time! I enjoyed reading this post.

Quiltpassion.blogspot.com said...

Good te read that Erna and you had a great time together. There are so many wonderful things to see and read in your post, I'll go back and read again.
I will let you know first I love Santa and that I hope I'll win the pattern. And of course promis to pass it afterwards.
Greetings, Cisca

Pauline said...

Your blog is very nice and cosy.
I met Erna, a couple of weeks ago, and she is a very friendly and warm person!
So i believe immediatly that it was a great time!
(Sorry,if my english is not very good...)

Erna said...

Hello sweet Lainey, thanks again for making our holiday so special.....and I'm looking forward to meet again, working overtime hahahaa
Love and say hello to Ian, Geert and Rosemary
Hugs and cuddles
Er

Lois said...

I'm a pretty untidy stash collector at the moment! I am determined to get things all organised before everyone comes home for Christmas because I have stuff spread out over their bedrooms!! lol!!! Nothing nicer than meeting other stitching friends,what nice gifts you exchanged. Good to see you posting again!

Annie said...

Looks like so much fun. Stitchers really share a special bond with each other!

Bette said...

Your stash looks great. And what fun it was to share time with a stitchy friend.

Mylene said...

Sounds like you had all a wonderful time. Both lovely gifts you gave to each other.

Sally said...

Sounds like you had a wonderful time with Erna and her husband. You gave each other lovely gifts.

Love your Santa finish!

Melanie said...

Sounds like a great time. :)
Can't wait to see all the stitchy finish pics!

Jane said...

Hi Elaine
Great post and lovely to see the pics of you and your blogging pal, so lovely to exchange gifts too.
I'm quite a big hoarder of all stitchy bits & bobs and know what I have ~ I just don't always know where to find them!!!
Cute Santa and a great idea to stitch and then pass on ~ it's lovely to think that we would then all have the same little Santa on display at the same time each year.
Take care, I believe there's some fluffy white stuff coming your way!!!
xxx

Myra said...

Hi Elaine! Thanks for stopping by my blog and for your sweet comments. It looks like you and Er had a great visit and such lovely gifts too. The pics from that book are just fantastic - I just love those beautiful stitching/sewing books. Great finish on the cube, so cute!

Anonymous said...

lainey
fantastic stitches
wee santa looks great
and hamish haggis is too fun
sounds like you are busy and enjoying life
as it should be
smiles and a big hug
corinna

Annette said...

Wow your stash is so big!!!!!!
Hope to see some beautifull things soon, You make them so wonderfull!!!
Looks like you had a great time with Erna!!!
And love the finish cube, never made one, and don't no how, but love it.
In the book I love the pictures with the fabric ball!!!Nice idea, maybe i try and make it

♥ Nia said...

Oh My!!! You have a big-but-really-big stash!!!!
I have a lot less so I think it's easier to store and keep it all organized ;)

Glad to know that you had a great time with your friend :D
Have a wonderful week :)

Carol said...

How nice that you and Erna got to meet in person, Elaine! Thanks for sharing all of those lovely photos of Scotland, too, as well as your wonderful stitching...

Hope your week is a good one :)

Carin said...

What alot of stash !!! Great photo's of Erna and you, I saw them on Erna's blog also. As I can see you had a wonderful time together !!

Rachel S-H said...

It sounds like you had a great time visiting. The stitching book looks like it has some great projects!

Isabelle said...

Hi Elaine, it sounds like you spent a really lovely time with Erna and her husband Ron : I had many pleasure in reading your post . Thanks for sharing these friendly moments with us :-)
Have a sweet day,
Isabelle