Fox progress and a yummy donation

I must admit that showing off my embroidery skills to tourists each afternoon, six days in a row has proven to be a little tiring. Answering the same three questions over and over again in German, English, French and Dutch is a little repetitive to say the least... However, scientist as I am, it provides me with a perfect opportunity to study our modern global society.

So what do people ask? The majority want to know how long it will take to stitch the fox? Approximately 200 hours. What will it be turned into? A piece to adorn my studio wall. For how much would you sell it? Well, 200 stitching hours times €8,50 minimum German wage + material costs would leave us at about €1800. (Note: I can not sell it as the design isn't mine, but Millie Marotta's!). A lot of people then comment that spending 200 hours on a piece that is mere art and that you can never sell is madness. Wow, do I need thick skin!

Explaining to people that stitching makes me happy, didn't always make them more respectful. Quite a few did simply not get the point. It shows that our modern society is very cost driven indeed. It makes you wonder what we modern humans have lost. How many would greatly benefit from working with their hands more, instead of mainly with their heads and digital enhancements? Interesting observations and musings, don't you think?

And here is my progress with Millie Marotta's fox. It really starts to grow! It is not easy to photograph, so you have to take my word for it: the colours are spectacular. So far, I have mainly used satin stitch, knots, chain stitch, Vandyke, pistil stitch and a bit of needle lace. Over the coming weeks, I will try to spend a decent amount of time on this project so that I will have it finished and framed in time for Nadel & Faden in Osnabrück at the end of September.

A fellow member of the Pilatushaus and avid stitcher herself, Coletta, has kindly donated two boxes full of embroidery fabric and threads. How cool is that? I can't wait to rumage through this treasure and sort it all into my stash boxes. As you can see, Sammie seems to love the box too.

Due to the lovely exposure on Mary Corbet's blog, I get a lot of questions about how to subscribe to my blog. I do not regularly send out a newsletter. As you can imagine, putting out a tri-lingual newsletter takes up a lot of my time. This blog saves that time. My website and email provider do not offer the option of an automated blog content newsletter. Instead, you are able to sign up for an RSS feed via the button to the right of this post. Some browsers and fire walls do not allow you to use RSS. However, you can simply check back each Monday for a new blog post.

With the recent greatly appreciated increase of English speaking readers on my website, I am pondering the idea of translating my embroidery kits into English. Do you like that idea? And, to save on postage, would you like me to offer the designs also as downloads only? Please leave your thoughts on this topic below!