Traveling South America, Patagonia and Antarctica

It's been quite a while since my last blog entry. Last Autumn I took a new job on a cruise ship and I've been traveling for the past five month. While working on the ship I had barely any time for stitching so for today I will show you a few pictures of the places I have been.

First time going ashore after embarking on the ship. This is me in front of the Seabourn Quest.

Rio de Janeiro

The Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro. A bit tiny but that was the closest I got there.

colorful houses in the last port before making our way down to Antarctica.

This is the first ice berg I saw.

And here we are: in Antarctica.

Besides lots of penguins I also saw elephant seals and wales.

And, of course, lots and lots of ice bergs.

During our second Antarctica cruise we went to Grytviken, an old waling station at the South Georgia Islands.

There were seals everywhere.

And they came really close.

This is me again in front of an old, rusty ship.

After bouncing back and forth between Antarctica and Chile we finally made it up the coast of Brazil.

This is in Armacáo dos Búzios.

And here I am in Salvador da Bahia.

    

Quite a view, isn't it?

Another highlight of this cruise was the Amazon river.

It's hard to believe that there are actually people living in these little wooden sheds.

Piranha fishing trip. But I didn't catch any.

Surrounded by the jungle.

At last we made a short cruise in the Caribbean. 

St. Barts was the only port where I had the time to go ashore. 

And that's already all. Right now I am on vacation, but I will go back to the ship middle of May to cruise the Baltic sea and then do the Path of the Viking crossing from England to Canada. 

Tralala recipe book

This is actually an older post from my previous cross stitching blog, so some of you might have seen this before. 

My stitching friend Virpi and I did a private Birthday exchange this year and this recipe book was the main gift that I made for Virpi.

The design is by Tralala and stitched with DMC and Atalie thread on 32ct. Jobelan.

The book was only one part of the exchange. If you would like to see the whole package please visit Virpi's blog here.

And this is how the recipe book looks on the inside.

Now to my newer stitching progress. I have finished a few smaller designs during this last two month, but they still need complete finishing. I hope to have them ready by beginning of October and then I will show you some more pictures.

Bee

I have finished a few smaller cross stitch projects this past week and I finished one of them into a new project bag. And I finished it right in time for my trip to Germany and the Netherlands.

The design is a freebie by sub rosa. When I first saw this Bee design about a week ago, I knew I just had to stitch it right away. I love bee designs sooooooo much.

The bag turned out much bigger than I had planned, but I kind of like it. It can fit a whole magazine and several smaller projects. I kited up four smaller projects to stitch during my trip and they all fit in that one bag. I really like it a lot.

I surrounded the stitched area with a quilted border. There are a few mistakes in that border. When it comes to quilting I am an absolute beginner, so I don't really mind.

Birthday exchange from Virpi

My friend Virpi and I had a private birthday exchange and while she got her gift already in March (I wrote about it) I received mine last month, in June. I mend to post picture right after I received this wonderful gift, but I had too many other things on my plate.

Anyway, here are few photos of what I got.

Virpi sew this beautiful brown totebag with a peacock design by Samplers & Santas. The pear pin pillow design is also by Samplers & Santas. Besides those beautifully stitched gifts I also got some new stash. Three colours of Nina's hand-dyed threads and plenty ribbons and lace also from Nina, a little gem scissor in brown and one more project bag that is perfect for my knitting projects.

I can't tell you how much I love my Birthday gift. Thank you so much Virpi.

my mailart to Kirsi

I just heard from Kirsi that she received already today my stitched mailart. So here are the pictures of what I have stitched for this exchange.

This being my first mailart exchange it wasn't easy for me to decide on the shape and material for the envelope, but I think I did a quite good job. 

The fabric is a 30ct. linen from Weberei Wedding in the color "maize" that I then over-dyed in a brown dye bath to give it a nice aged look.

The threads are regular DMC threads except for the brown thread I used for the alphabet. That one, and the one a gave to Kirsi as a gift, I dyed myself in the same dye bath as the fabric.

Here is a better picture of the over-dyed floss that I attached to the peacock thread keeper.

The idea for the thread keeper came while I was stitching the envelope. I knew I had those big eyelets and I thought they'd be perfect for this purpose.

The fabric for the thread keeper is a small model piece of upholstery fabric.

I love to stitch on unconventional fabrics and I do quite a bit of my own projects on whatever fabric is can find around the house.

Thank you Kirsi, for this wonderful exchange. I love the envelope I received from you and I enjoyed stitching this one very much.

This being my first mailart exchange I hope I will have the chance to do many more as I really like to stitch these.

Guardians of the Sea - The little Stitcher

At the moment I am very busy finishing Kirsi's mailart and therefore I don't have anything new to show. So I was thinking to copy a few of my old blogs posts just to keep this blog going.

On "My Needleart" blog I asked how people would like it if I am doing finishing tutorials and the reaction was quite positive. So this is what I am doing as well. My first tutorial will be a special kind of thread keep. I finished the stitching last night and as soon as I get more daylight, I will start taking step by step photos.

I hope to have the tutorial ready for publishing in the second half of this month.

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But here is now a project that I finished a few month ago.

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I have been finishing a few projects during this March. My latest finish is a small project pouch. 

The design is called "The Guardians of the Sea" by The Little Stitcher.

The colors are so soft and beautiful.

The design is stitched on a laced linen band 28ct. in DMC.

I bought the lace band and the flower fabric both from Emmuli.

The outside fabric is a natural linen I had in my stash.

The ribbon is a piece of upholstery ribbon.

Mailart received

During my stitching weekend in Hauho, I asked Kirsi if she'd be interested in doing a mailart exchange with me. I have seen many of those envelopes but never tried one myself. 

We decided to do a primitive design theme and set the date to beginning of July. You might understand my surprise when Kirsi's envelope arrived already yesterday. I am completely blown away by the beauty of her stitching.

I just love how she included this felted wool heart into the design.

The package also included a few goodies.

The bird ornament and wall hanger are both from wood and the thread is a hand dyed thread from "Dragon Floss" in the colour "Antient Oak" It is such a beautiful soft colour. I think I will stitch something very special for myself with it.