Tantes Zolder Patterns

The other day, I received an email from Karen at Ambitatterous.  She was looking for the Tantes Zolder butterfly chart I stitched a while back but the link in my blog post was dead and the page refused to load.  It wouldn't load for me either, and  it appears that the Tantes Zolder / My Aunt's Attic blog is offline.  From what I can make out from the translation, it appears the weblog.nl  that hosted the Tantes Zolder blog has been moved to wordpress, but I cannot find the blog itself.

I did, however, find another site that's hosting the patterns.  You can now get the Tantes Zolder patterns here, so you may want to update your links (I did in my previous post).

And if you're not familiar with Tantes Zolder, you should definitely check them out.  There are some very beautiful patterns.  They're from a collection of handwritten charts that were digitized and published on the blog.  Lilian Kok found the charts in her aunt's attic (hence the name) and with the help of some volunteers, generated almost 300 images that she made available for free.

If anyone knows where the original blog may have gone, please let me know.

Fair and Square Exchange with April K

Why yes, it HAS taken me almost 5 months to post these pictures - from an exchange back in FEBRUARY. I'm not even going to make an excuse about it took me so long or why my blog posting in general is sporadic at best. Otherwise, it would be much like my last several posts.

Moving on....

These are the very pretty squares I received from April:

JBW Designs French Country Amour

Once again, I forsee something destined for a no sew cube, perhaps with a pretty red velvet ribbon and some silver / crystal embellishments.

As to my contribution to the exchange, when I read that April is a huge fan of Halloween, I knew I had the perfect design in mind. I have already stitched the butterflies from the Tantes Zolder website, and this was the motivation I needed to stitch the bats. Mind you, I am not a fan of Halloween, so I'd never stitch them for myself, but after seeing them stitched up at my LNS (Just Cross Stitch in Lederach), I knew I wanted to stitch them. (Speaking of Just Cross Stitch, I wonder if I can pester Carolyn to post a photo on her blog of her VERY cool version of this pattern, stitched on purple fabric and turned into a pillow with an awesomely fluffly black fringe trim....)

Bat Freebie from Tantes Zolder
Stitched 1 over 1 on 32 ct. Antique White with GAST Raven 

NOTE: Above link updated March 2013 as original blog no longer online

You can't tell from the photos, but the Raven thread is a deep black color with hints of green in it. Perfect for these bats. And this is my attempt at being all fancy like and taking a closeup photo...

PIF #1 made it safely to Ireland

I've been a little behind on my blog, and of course, I am going to blame it on Facebook. I have a few stitchy posts coming up, though - I have been stitching. Most of it has been secret stitching, and now that a few pieces have been received, I can share them on my blog.

First up is my first PIF gift for Michelle. Michelle was the first one to sign up for my PIF and I had a wonderful time putting together this package for her. I picked over her blog very carefully and discovered that her favorite color was purple and she loved butterflies, so I had a good idea to work with. These are the front and back pieces of the biscornu before they were stitched together. And no, that's not a stain on the fabric - it's some weird little spot that shows up occasionally on my camera lens.

Butterfly Freebie from Tantes Zolder, stitched over 1 on 25 ct. opalescent fabric with Belle Soie Silk in Elegant Eggplant.
The second block is of my own design, stitched on the same fabric with Belle Soie and DMC

NOTE: The above link has been updated March 2013 to a new site as it

 appears that the Tantes Zolder site is not functional

Now, I must confess that I had the pieces of the biscornu stitched up well before Christmas, but got sidetracked when it came to putting it together. Okay, okay, and I might as well ALSO confess that I didn't actually put it together myself - my DH was kind enough to stitch it together for me. What can I say? He's a scientist and loves these fiddly, meticulous projects. (Maybe "loves" is a bit strong, considering the dirty looks and occasional grumblings I got while he was stitching together my over one backstitching...). But he did stitch it together for me, then I did the button on the bottom. I didn't want to put a button on the top through the design in the middle of the butterflies, so I attached the button using the same silk and stitching through the design already in place.

Here it is all stitched up:

And now for the rest of the goodies I sent to Michelle.

I included some fabrics and flosses (2 of my own making), a few floss tag rings, drink mix and gum, a pretty soap, ribbon, a notepad, and probably my favorite goodie - a fold up shopping tote from Target. I love, love, love these reusable shopping bags, and have amassed quite a collection for my groceries, but I love this little one that folds up into the size of a wallet and tucks away in my purse. It's very cute, and quite handy too, especially for little things here and there that don't really warrant a shopping bag.
Michelle was quite pleased with her PIF and I am so glad she liked it. I had such a good time with this PIF and I am really happy with how the biscornu turned out. Now, on to my other two PIFs!

I finally finished them up!

I finished stitching these two ornaments for my niece and nephew right around Christmas, but just got around to finishing them into actual ornaments this week. A little after the holidays, but it's the thought that counts, right? Besides, they LOVE getting stuff in the mail, so I'll send them off to them this week for a nice little surprise.

This one is for my niece, Elizabeth. She is such a little girly girl, after my own heart. She loves princesses and has decided that we, along with our cousin Kerri, are all princesses. Naturally, she had to have a Princess Ornament to match mine. (I did hers in girly pink and green though)


It's a freebie from Cyberstitchers, available here. I used some small sequins and matching beads to fancy it up a little. Now I just have to finish stitching up Kerri's!

And this one is for my nephew, who is as enamored of knights as his sister is of princesses. He has quite a collection of play swords and shields, and I thought he'd love this. He actually helped me stitch on it a little over Christmas. I'd put the needle in the right hole and he'd pull it through. I was amazed that he sat still for as long as he did and took as much interest - he's only four. But red is one of his favorite colors and knights are his favorite thing, so that could have something to do with it! (Not to mention the boy LOVES to get presents, and I'm pretty sure he wanted me to stitch it faster.)


This is a freebie from Tantes Zolder, available here.

NOTE: The above link was updated 3/2013 as it appears the original blog is no longer online.