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Valie and I exchanged gifts on my recent trip to Paris. Antique spools with thread and lace, SEW pins - ideal for my 'Sew' patterns, a ceramic heart for Valentine's Day in my favourite shade of blue and Loccitane Hand Cream to sooth my Winter stricken hands.  I also received a beautifully made bag just perfect for carrying my stitching to my group meetings. There are more pictures of this gorgeous work on Valie's blog *here*. Thank you dear friend for spoiling me!

Photo with the permission of Valie

I also took gifts to Valie - a Quaker Pinwheel embroidered with her initial and a teensy teddy bear. The pinwheel is stitched on 40ct raw Newcastle linen with HDF silk threads in White and Examplar Lark's Tongue.

Photo with the permission of Valie

Amongst other gifts, I gave her a Cathedral Window pincushion in some of her favourite colours. This is my first attempt at this type of sewing and although it's not perfect I know she appreciates that I was out of my comfort zone making this. Will there be a second attempt? As yet I have no idea but never say never!

Whilst I was away it was Angela's birthday so she also received a Quaker Pinwheel with her initial. This is also stitched on 40ct raw Newcastle linen with HDF silk thread in white and Hibiscus. Pink is Angela's favourite colour so I knew I would be safe in choosing this vibrant shade of pink. 

A closeup of Angela's Pinwheel - the back is a plain silk fabric. I hope to release the whole alphabet (plus an online finishing tutorial) on iStitch Designs so look out for Sew a Quaker Pinwheel in the near future.

Click on the picture for a closeup view

I promised more pictures of my Parisian trip so rather than post separate pictures I made a collage. We visited the fabric stores at Montmartre and then climbed the many steps to the Sacre Coeur. The walk down was far easier than the climb up! It was a beautiful sunny day although a little cold - poor Kirby (in the centre picture) looks absolutely frozen despite her gorgeous faux fur jacket!  On the journey to Valie's home we drove through the streets of Paris glimpsing the Eiffel Tower and the Moulin Rouge and despite there being no 'lanes' we arrived safely at our destination where we had a most enjoyable meal at a local steak restaurant and I ate snails for the first time. Kirby turned up her nose and skipped the starters LOL 

It was again a very successful trip but was over far too quickly. It was good to meet with Valie and spend time with her and her delightful family. As before I was quite impressed with the Eurostar service - the trains were on time and the carriages were clean. We arrive back at Ashford International where Kirby's boyfriend was waiting for her with a large bunch of red roses. Ken was also waiting for me but ... no roses. Who says romance is dead?

Before I finish for today, there is more stash for sale of my aptly named 'Stash for Sale' blog click *here* or on the Stash Sale button on the sidebar

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Take care 

2013 is the 10th birthday/anniversary of the l'aiguille en fête. Our hotel must have known the 'Bond' girls were in town as our room was aptly numbered! Although we arrived in Paris on the day before the show, I thought you would rather see the AEF pictures first so I will post more pictures next time of how we spent our afternoon on the Wednesday!

We arrived at the new venue, Hall 6 at the Porte de Versailles and, as soon as we had disposed of our coats and luggage, we made our way immediately to Aisle C, number 5.4 where we knew we would find Monsieur Roulot and his delightful family and his wonderful display of hand-made scissors. 

Although there were a pair or three of his amazing (and very expensive) scissors that really took my heart, I was extremely good and only purchased some of his less expensive versions. Does five pairs count as 'some'? I originally purchased four pairs but passing by later in the day, I espied another pair which just had to come back with me.

I was actually quite restrained this trip and none of these charms made their way into my bag although Kirby wasn't quite so restrained! At the end of the day she was 'Euro'd out' so it was good that I was able to buy her a chocolate bar at the Eurostar terminal at the Gare du Nord!

I was tempted by this tiny china pot with a some very pretty hand-made pins.

At the end of a very tiring day Kirby rested on the floor before our metro trip back to the Gare du Nord surrounded by our luggage and her purchases.

All of the above pictures are clickable for close up views.

My dear French friend and her family had once again invited us to join her family for a couple of days and I would like to thank her. As usual we exchanged gifts and more of this in my next post.

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Floor Plan of the l'aiguille en fête - click for a closeup view

No stitching to show or nothing I can show at present as I have been working on gifts so instead I thought I would post a picture of the floor plan of the AEF which needlework fair is in Paris from February 14-17. Kirby and I are all ready for our trip - our Eurostar tickets and hotel have been booked since October last year! We are leaving next Wednesday and will arrive in Paris at noon or 1pm French time. My dear French friend Valie will be at the Gare du Nord to meet us and we have planned a lovely afternoon/evening catching up. I have printed out the above floor plan and have marked those exhibits I really must not miss. The first visit will be at C5.4 - Cisellerie - which, of course, is M Roulot of Nogent's wonderful scissors where I am sure many of my Euros will find their way. My camera is charged so you can share our experience again this year so please come back for my next post.

It's bitterly cold here in the south east part of the UK but we have no snow, unlike those people is the north west part of the US so I have decided to forego our daily walk so I can work on Part 6 of the SAL JHA 1905 which was released in the early hours of yesterday morning. Part 7, which is a woven border, is also available for download on Simone's blog *here*. I am not sure whether or not I will stitch this part as I want the sampler to fit perfectly inside a 6" frame so I will decide once Part 6 is done. Thank you Simone for sharing this delightful sampler with us.

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Take care