january

I dislike January, I feel it is a wasted month. After a very busy December, it all goes very quiet. There are no family birthdays and anniversaries. And I feel tired, it happens every year. It is a lack of sunlight and daylight in general. In the autumn, when the days are getting noticeably shorter and the weather gets colder, I look forward to my stitching by the fire. By mid January this picture has lost its romantic appeal and I miss my garden. The days have been getting a little longer every day for a month now, but it is only noticeable only on a bright day and we have had a very few of those. Some people say that they find February a long month, but by the end of February, if we are lucky, we can see the first signs of spring. But before that anything can still happen.

Today has been one of those rare sunny winter days, so I ventured into the garden. After a very harsh December and heavy rains last week it is sad looking and muddy. But there are some little signs of colour.

the hellebores are slowly recovering

snowdrops are pushing through

and surprisingly, pulmonarias are looking very pretty

                                                      little pieces of hope

books

I am little bit in a stitching limbo at the moment. I haven't anything new to show, although I have decided to resurrect my largest UFO, but I will show that later.

So, in the meantime I will show you a couple of books.

The first one only just arrived, "Quilt Artistry" by Yoshiko Jinzenji. I saw it on Deborah's blog (thank you, Deborah, for sharing this). I want to find some time this weekend to read it, but just browsing through I am taken by the beauty of Yoshiko's quilts and the subtle colours she works with.

The second book, "Croatian National Costumes", has been on my bookshelf for some years now. I bought it during one of my visits to Croatia. Written in both Croatian and English, it is a beautiful book, a real treasure. It is a visual feast and an inspiration for anyone interested in embroidery and folk art. Croatian culture is very diverse, with many influences, from surrounding countries of the former Austro-Hungarian  Empire, the old Venetian Republic and the Ottoman Turkish Empire, and over the centuries all this has been reflected in their national costumes.

I will show just a few pictures, but you can find more pictures here.

I have yet to find a similar book from a country of my origin. So, any Czech bloggers out there, if you'll come across one, please let me know.  We also have a very rich history and I would love to own a similar book about Czech national costumes.

The art in which there is life does not depict the past, but continues it.

(Auguste Rodin)

weather - forever changing

Only a week ago the nature made its own design on my car windscreen. It is a lot warmer now, temperatures up around 10C, but it is wet and very windy, the nature has its own ideas. This is the English winter we are more used to.

Our thoughts are constantly with the people of Queensland. Our son has been trying to contact his friend who lives in Brisbane, but so far no reply. As far as I know, all my blogging friends are safe.
We are also thinking about the people of Brazil and Sri Lanka, who too are battling with floods in their countries. We are all so helpless when it comes to such forces of nature.

baking cover

Christmas seems to be a distant memory, despite the fact that it was only two weeks ago. The first week of the new year is behind us and we are back to our routine. I am now working a couple of days a week, partly to support my stitching addiction and partly to help to keep my brain in the right gear. With the school holidays over, for three afternoons a week we are again helping with our two grandchildren, ages 3 and 5. By the end of those days there is not much energy left over, on both sides! But we constantly see it as a great privilege to be part of their lives.

So, it was nice to start a new stitching year with a quick and easy project. In December I wrote about a pattern for baking cover from Northern Quilts, which I won on May Britt's and Hanne's giveaway.
It did not turn out to be as easy as I thought. After I traced the stitchery pattern onto my fabric and done some of my own freehand wording, I then ironed over it! Which of course meant that after I did all the stitchery, the tracing pencil would not rinse out! I did not want to try to wash it, thinking this would set it even more.
At this point I really thought that I would have to re-do the whole thing again. In the end, realizing that I can't do any more harm, I soaked it in Vanish and put it through the wash. And hurrah, it worked!

             Why is it, that the simplest things in our life sometimes turn out to be not simple at all!

                   So, this is my baking cover, being used for the first time today.

Thank you, May Britt, for helping me with the translation from Norwegian!

sharing

Last month I posted this picture on my blog. Lorenza asked me if she could use my picture, and of course I agreed. I was very curious what she was going to do with it. Please visit her blog and have a look.
Isn't she clever? I am so pleased that my picture was an inspiration for her project!