Fabric covered buttons and a swap!

I love fabric covered buttons and I love swapping, so when I saw the announcement for the fabric button swap I knew I had to join. It really felt good to get creative and do a little sewing (and a tiny bit of embroidery) again. I guess I need a little pressure once in a while.I'm not even sure what the little something I made for my partner Katie would be called. Basically you can keep a little notebook inside or maybe a couple of postcards. It also came in handy to store the buttons some place safe before their journey...Okay, making something is nice but receiving something really cute in the mail is even nicer! Katie's part of the swap reached me on Saturday and I couldn't believe my luck when I saw she had chosen little red riding hood fabric for her projects and the buttons (insert squeal here). Cute!So I got super cute buttons, a wrist warmer AND a pouch in a super nicely wrapped little package which I unfortunately couldn't take a picture of because I was way too nosey.Thank you sooo much, Katie!!!

As usual!

Finally I'm getting ready for Easter (or spring in general). I think I'm a little late... as usual.The first thing I always get out of the drawers is this table runner. It's a Gerda Bengtsson design. The first and only kit I ever bought. It was so expensive but I had to have it. And I love it... still... even though by now I know I could have done a better job on the backside. Oh well, it's a treasury for me... and who looks at the back anyway?!

Haandarbejdets Fremme Exibition!

I received an "invitation" to an exibition of the "Association Haandarbejdets Fremme" - a Danish association that promotes artistic needlecraft. The exibition will be in the Dansk Design Galerie in Worpswede (Germany) from the 13th of August to the 2nd of September. I will definately go there! They will show highlights of Gerda Bengtsson and Ellen Marie Rodil (my two most favorite counted cross stitch designers) and others.
I got two old copies of Gerda Bengtsson booklets, which I treasure and I'm lucky enough to also own two of the three calenders Ellen Marie Rodil designed for the Haandarbejdets Fremme. Unfortunately I don't have "The Year in Cross Stitch 2001" though I think that one was mostly vegetables and if that's the case I'm not too sad, because I prefer the flower designs.

I've made quite a few things from the calender of 2003 and I'm pretty sure that I will make everything from the calender of 2007. Everything is just so beautiful!

Most of the time I end up making table runners. The one below shows the design for February 2003 - Allium. I think it's the largest table runner I've made. It's 11 count linen and I did a hem stitch all the way around, which seemed to take forever, but in the end I knew it was worth it. Stitching the whole thing by hand made it look perfect. I truly love it. Unfortunately it never gets to be on the table for long, because my two cats love to lay on it and so it always gets wrinkled very quickly and lots of cat's hair doesn't really make it any prettier either!
I always use Danish Flower Thread when stitching. It's the most wonderful embroidery floss. I have all of the 102 shades available and just looking at them makes me happy.