Last of the model stitching for awhile

Here is the last piece of the model stitching I did for Sue Hillis recently. This one was done on 28 count Pink Waterfall Lugana with DMC floss. It will be part of the post stitches line, and will have a charm or a flower included.

Faschings Krapfen

Yesterday, I blogged about Kinderfasching. Brigitte mentioned that in her corner of the world Fasching (or Mardi Gras) is celebrated near the end of February. She is, of course, correct.

Karnival begins on November 11th, with the "crowning" of the new Prinz Karnival and his Prinzessin. The Karnival season lasts until right before Ash Wednesday, with Fasching being on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday. We have Kinderfasching a bit earlier because we have to rely on the availability of the hall!


One of the fun things about Kinderfasching is
making of Faschings Krapfen. Above you see a photo of the kitchen staff posing for a picture between Krapfen making! My mother is on the far right. These ladies seem to really enjoy this task.

First they make the dough, then let it rest, them spread it out and cut out the individual Krapfen.






Once they have rested again, they are fried in hot oil until golden brown. Once drained, they are sprinkled with powdered sugar and sometimes topped with jam. They are best eaten when still warm.








For those that have never enjoyed this delicacy, they are much like a yeast doughnut, but not as sweet.

Everyone of these ladies has her very own recipe, all a bit different. Some of them do not want to share their secret ingredients, but I do have the basic recipe below to share with you.

Enjoy!


Krapfen Teig

1 pack dry yeast
5 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 whole eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons cooking oil
2 cups whole milk
2 tablespoons Brandy
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Mix together dry yeast, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 cup milk that has been warmed.
2. Mix all of the ingredients together with a wooden cooking spoon until nice and smooth. Let the dough rest for about 2 hours.
3. After resting, flour surface, pour out dough and gently flatten out with fingers.
4. Dust top with flour.
5. Cut into pieces.
6. Fry in hot corn oil.

Kinderfasching Chicago Style

This past Sunday, we celebrated Kinderfasching! This is the first of two children's Mardi Gras events at our German club.

The costumes were wonderful! These were my favorites, a shark, a hot dog, Hanna Montana, and Minnie Mouse.




There was music by the Fanfahrenzug, high-stepping dances by the Amazonen...




...and funny hats!



The Karnival Prinz, S. T. Prinz Bobby d. 1. has the longest feathers!

Rocky Mountain Christmas revisited

I finally got a chance to get back to RMC, and I am itching to get it finished. This month's 10 hours brings the total time to 210 hours, and it doesn't look like I have too much left to do so I anticipate a finish this spring some time.

This month I managed 989 stitches in RMC, bring the total stitches to date to 24, 287.

Here's my Heart!

This is the title of the leaflet by Sue Hillis that

contains this chart, and the three charts that are in my last three blog entries. The chart contains finishing instructions to finish them off as no-sew cubes. The chart is being released at the Nashville Martket on February 6th, so shopowners will be bringing it home and have it available for you right after that.

The heart itself is stitched on 25 count Light Rose Lugana over one thread with one strand of WDW Strawberry Fields.

And here is how Sue finished it as a cube.

Another finish

Here is another model stitching finish. It is done on 28 count antique white lugana with DMC floss and will be part of a valentine leaflet.

And here is Sue's finishing:

Another model stitched!

Here is another model that I stitched for Sue Hillis this past week. It is done on 28 count antique white lugana with DMC floss.

Here is how Sue finished it.

Valentine Trees

Since Sue is going to be releasing her new designs on her blog shortly, I can finally show you what I have been stitching lately!

What you see here are three stitched versions of a Valentine Tree, the first done on 25 count light pink lugana, the second on 28 count antique white lugana, and the third on 28 count Pink Waterfall lugana. All three are done with DMC Floss. This will be part of a valentine leaflet (with three other designs) and Sue will be finishing this a cube and photographing it for the leaflet. They were rather quick to stitch.

This is how Sue finished one of them for the picture on the leaflet.

Happy Birthday, Karen!

Happy Birthday, to my favorite Daughter-in-law!

Stay Warm!

Currently the temperature is -6 degrees! And according to weather.com it feels like -27 out there! It's cold!

Once it gets that cold, I know I am cold, and telling me how cold it actually is, doesn't really help me much, it just makes me cranky!

After work today, I will be back to more model stitching. So today, I am showing you another finish from a few years ago, Warm Winter Wishes by Sue Hillis. It is done on a 28 count linen, kind of a bone color, with DMC floss.

Stay warm!

It's Winter

Since I can't show you what I am stitching and finishing at the moment, I thought I would show you a finish from a few years ago: It's Winter by Sue Hillis, done on some mystery linen with DMC floss.

Stay warm!

Texan vs. Snow

With #1 son out of town, and #2 son on shift at the fire house, and #2 son-in-law living 6 hours away, that left #1 son-in-law, aka the "Texan", as the only one that was available and he came to clear off my driveway and sidewalks.

What a wonderful sight it was when I drove up to the house, exhausted after a hard day at German School, to find the Texan clearing snow! By his own admission, "it wasn't pretty" but it was just wonderful to not have to do battle with the snow blower myself.

Thank you Trey! In the battle of the Texan vs. Snow, the Texan won!

Stitch, stitch, stitch

I spent much of the weekend stitching, but since they are models for charts that will be released in Nashville on February 6th, I can't show you what I was stitching until then. I have a bunch more to do before I am done, but between my sister and I, we will meet the designer's tight deadlines!

While I was stitching, it was snowing

outside for most of Saturday.

These are the views that greeted me when I got to work this morning. And more snow is predicted for this evening!

Forget Me Not Fob

The last few days I have been making another scissor fob. This one is the the Forget Me Not fob, which is a freebie on the Drawn Thread website.

It was done on 36 count antique white linen, with 1 strand of DMC floss over 2 threads. I made the cording and the tassel, and filled the fob with rice for weight.

This will be a future exchange gift. Don't know for which exchange yet.

A New Favorite Designer!

Bleu de Chine, a French company , puts out these lovely heart designs! There are so many wonderful charts! My wish list just got a lot longer!

Part 5 - Papillon Myster Sampler

Stitched part 5 of this sampler. I missread some of the color symbols, but I like the way it looks so I decided to leave it instead of frogging it.

My 2008 Stitching Stats

Now that the year is over, I have tallied up all the information and here are the stats:

I spent 1273.75 hours stitching in 2008. This averages to just under 3 1/2 hours of stitching per day.

I had 108 finishes.

Pieces such as the EMS Rose Sampler, Hungarian Sampler, Lizzie Kate Flip it Blocks, Papillon Mystery Sampler, and the Northwoods Afghan count as more than one piece, each page counted as one finish because I completed one page or one chart for each rotation. Rocky Mountain Christmas doesn't fit that category as I only did 10 hours at each rotation. Ornament finishing, or any other finishing or framing did not count as stitching time. Neither did preparing a project for stitching.

This was my best stitching year yet!

Just Ducky!

I finally had a chance to get back to the Northwoods Afghan this week. My family thought I should stitch the mallard duck next, so that's the square I stitched. I love how he turned out. Such a cutie!


So far I have 5 squares done, 7 more to go. Here is the entire afghan so far:

A Great Stitchy Day!

I woke up a bit late this morning, didn't hear the alarm, but I hurried to get going. I picked up my sister and off we went to Crystal Lake, IL, to Welcome Stitchery to meet up with some other stitchers and shop! We met up with Denise and Renae. Welcome Stitchery is a great shop, and carries lots of things that any stitcher could need or want. I picked up some floss to send to Lesley in Australia, and some to send to my sister-in-law in North Carolina. I ordered a frame for my sister-in-law also, and fabric for myself for Flower Power because they didn't have a big enough piece in the store. I also chose some fabric for Michelle, who had e-mailed Denise looking for a specific color. Michelle will have to call the shop and order the correct size and count, but at least we found the color she was searching for, and since she lives in Kentucky, it was too hard for her to do it in person.

I also picked up a few charts that I had been wanting, and some fabric for other projects.

After shopping, Denise and Trudi and I walked around the corner to Finn McCool's for lunch. They have great burgers. We enjoyed inspecting all the purchases that were made and caught up on what we have been stitching.

After lunch, Trudi and I headed back to Des Plaines to meet up with some EGA members for a stitching day. The rest of them had been there since 9:30 am! We stitched until 5 and I even got a chance to renew my library card!

It was a great stitchy day!

Welcome to Irene, a New Blogger!

Irene finally took the plunge and started her very own blog!

Please visit Irene's Blog to see her lovely Works in Progress and cheer her on!

January Goals - December Progress

December Goals
10 hours on Rocky Mountain Christmas didn't get to it
2nd ornament model finished
December Flip-It Block – Lizzie Kate finished
Part 12 EMS Rose Sampler finished
December Teapot – Just Another Button Company finished
1 block on Northwoods afghan only 1/2 finished
Hungarian sampler part 7 finished
Mystery sampler part 5 didn't get to it
start Amilie’s baby sampler didn't get to it
1st mitten ornament finished
2nd mitten ornament finished

January Goals
10 hours on Rocky Mountain Christmas
January Teacup – Just Another Button Company
1 block on Northwoods afghan (5)
Mystery sampler part 5
10 hours on Guardian Angle
M&K’s Wedding sampler, start
10 hours on a baby sampler
TOL Mail Art Exchange piece