My own designs   Simple designs         Less simple         Samplers Simple designs I often made/make crossstitch designs myself. A long time ago in a wild mood I bought a writing pad (size A3, that is twice the size A4) with a lot of chequered transparent sheets. You have to cover the picture with this tracing paper and fill in the boxes. I had my first job and it was a mega purchase, but I never did regret it. With this paper I made almost every design on this page. Years ago Hilde asked me to make a chart of this poem so she could crossstitch it. Due to problems with her eyes it never came to anything. That's why I made it for her. In backstitch not in cross-stitch because of the size. I first put the alphabet in the alphabet library of PCStitch. Then it was a piece of cake to assemble the text. I took the border from a book of Valerie Lejeune. I stitched this Frisian poem for Boukje. She celebrated her 50th birthday. The poem came from the letter announcing the death of her mother. That is why I also embroidered forget-me-not. Surfing on the internet I ran into "blackwork"-sites. Blackwork is backstitching (mostly in black :-) ) with more complicated charts. More difficult is the technique called "Holbein". It is blackwork where the front looks exactly the same as the backside. It means that you not only have to think how to stitch (the route), but also about how to begin or end a thread in an invisible way. I became so enthousiastic, that I took a waste piece of blue fabric and gave it a try. I found a lot of charts on the site of blackworkarchives. My mathematical brain can grasp the routing thing, but the fastening of loose ends is not yet quite perfect. On the pictures you see my practice cloth front and back. The words are not in "Holbein". Do you want to know what is written? "Op ut koiste hout wird ut miste verf gesmeerd". That is a saying from Brabant, the Dutch province I was born. Translation: On the worst wood the most paint is smeared. Meaning: Old women are using more make-up. "Les amis de mes amis sont mes amis" The friends of my friends are my friends. For mother-in-law Lotte I once embroidered her motto. Because of the elegant font, that simple color red and the composition I think this is a fine design. A project in satin stitch, an unusually technique for me. This was a present for old Bram. He and I (who doesn't?) have always been fascinated by impossible figures like this triangle. Escher and Reutersvård are masters in this matter. When my brother Prospère married for the first time, I designed his wedding announcement card. A drawing of me decorated the front and a little heart in crossstitch was attached on the inside. For my Mum I once covered a file with a red and white striped fabric, decorated it with the text "Moeke's prentenboek" (meaning Mum's picture book) in backstitch and an appropriate ribbon from my "ribbon drawer". Mum used it for her collection of drawings her grand)children made for her. Piet was a professional handyman during 6 years. His company (of one person) was called "De karweikar" (meaning the job car). His artistic cousin Josje painted a logo on our first new company car. It represented a multifunctional man with many tools. By means of an enlarged photo I transformed it into a crossstitch design, so I could make a badge for his working clothes. I was able to save three badges. You can see that this one is used because of the faint spots of light green paint. A mini version of Piet's working trousers is seen on the picture at the right. "Speel je Scrabble, ja, dan pak je, letterstenen uit een zakje. Niet van plastic , maar van stof. Jongens, jongens, wat een bof." "When you play Scrabble, yes, you grab letterstones from a little bag. Not made of plastic, but made of textile. Boys, boys, what a piece of luck." (Sorry, in English it does not rhyme as it supposed to do for a Sinterklaas verse) My mother-in-law loved to play Scrabble®, the famous wordgame. We too. For a fair grabble for the letters, she put them in a little plastic bag. I thought it looked rather poorly. That is why I made a little red aïda bag to give her on Sinterklaas-evening (a Dutch family-feast like Christmas). Noris, the wife of my brother Emile, was born and bred on Curaçao. I once made her a "map" of the beautifull Caribbean island. That is, I backstitched the contours, marked the cities with red crossstitches and painted the sea with blue watercolors. Two female former colleagues (Ghislaine and Rita) were occupied with contacts between the academies of Aken (Germany), Luik and Hasselt (Belgium), and the academies in Heerlen, Sittard and Maastricht. Their cooperation bureau was called "Hora est" (latin for "It is time"). When they moved to another building I made a simple sampler with the words "oost west, hora est" (east west, hora est). The original Dutch proverb reads "oost west, thuis best", that is "east or west, home is best". I tried to make it look like a Delft blue tile. The crossstitches are made with blue-shaded floss. The linnen cloth is painted spotty (on purpose) in a light blue color. Paul is the son of my oldest brother Paul; he is my oldest nephew. On the 9th of juli 2004 he married Fauny. I would have loved to be there with them ... Daan is the son of the youngest doughter Eveline of my oldest brother Paul; he is my youngest great-nephew. For Mijke (my dear godchild) I made a towel with her name for her 20th birthday. My cousin Elly celebrated her 50th birthday. As kids we often played together. You find her name on my Barbie®-page. That is why I wanted to send her a very special birthdaycard. I used PCStitch to design my own Assisi-variation, where 50 is left unstitched. My former colleague Ghislaine (of the HoraEst bureau, see elsewhere on this page) is mother of Jolijn. Recently I encountered this "ringbear" at a handcraftstore. I turned little elements of her birth announcement card into crossstitches and imitated the font using backstitches. Less simple Jelle is the first great-grandchild of my mother-in-law. Mijke and Werner are the proud parents. Mijke is a fan of cartoonist Leendert Jan Vis, especially known for his greeting cards. That is why I used mouse Flo for this birth-tile. I have tried to come close to the fonts of Vis, for the big colored ones as well as the little ones of the date. In February 2005 my sister-in-law Noris moved back to her native country Curaçao. As a parting gift I made her a pillow. The Chinese signs I took from the magnificent book "Le livre des lettres d'ici et d'ailleurs" by Valérie Lejeune. The Dutch and Papiamento text is made with the help of PCStitch. Chinese because Noris is a certified acupuncturist, Papiamento is the native language of Curaçao and Dutch because she is Dutch afterall. The pillow has a back of soft cuddly flannel and measures 40 x 40 cm2. The finish of the edge is a white satin cordribbon. The words say: joy (vreugde), friendship (vriendschap), prosperity (voorspoed), wealth (rijkdom), and in the middle the most important thing in life: health (gezondheid). Every year I make a lot of Christmascards to send. And every year I try to be original. In 1994 I made this piece of work, took a photo and ordered many copies. All the white stitches I made up myself. The alphabet and the trees were copied. For several nephews and nieces I made a birth sampler. Only Myrtes sampler is photographed. I took a figure from a colouring-book of Miffy (Nijntje in Dutch) using that wonderfull tracing paper. I designed the letters myself. Unfortunately you can not see the border of flowers due to the flashlight. I hope to make a better picture some day. My youngest brother David loves comics and he is a great fan of Gomer Goof (Guust Flater in Dutch). I made a canvass file-cover for him so he can carefuly store his collection. It is decorated with a crossstitch Gomer, his inseparable pets in his arms. Samplers When my Mum and Dad had their 40th anniversary in 1985, I designed their sampler. The greek border and alphabet on the bottom symbolize their vacation in Greece that year. The flags show where they have been in the years before. The little human figures represent their children. The only girl is me. My Dad was an employee of Philips (lightbulb!), he loved fishing and for a hobby he made wooden candlesticks. My Mum was a ladies-hat-maker before she married, she made a lot of clothes for her children and she collected holy water fonts. His initials were PG and he was born in Eindhoven. Her initials were AE and she was born in Oud- and Nieuw-Gastel. When my mother-in-law Lotte had her 70th birthday in 1992, I made a sampler for her. On top you see the names of her five grandchildren. Then her five sons and daughters-in-law, portrayed by their job at that time (women in pink, men in blue). The oldest couple both joined the marine; the next pair worked on the train and in a flowershop; the third son was a truckdriver and she had a job in healthcare; the next one worked with radio-active material and his wife had a job in a bookbinding company; and finally Piet and I, we had a hardwarestore. The year of birth of Lotte is flanked bij the initials of her parents. When Lotte had to spell her surname Muijen she used to say mmm, uien. Mmm stands for yummie and uien is the Dutch word for unions. (Don't try to pronounce it. UI is considered as one vowel in Dutch. I don't know an English word with the same sound.) That is why I embroidered the M and the two unions. She had a lot of hobbies. She joined a drama club and played many man's parts, even a king once. She liked to solve crosswordpuzzles, she knitted many sweaters and she played the piano. We were very proud she had learned a little Russian at her age. That is why I embroidered the Russian text. It means good day. The musical notes at the bottom form the first line of the gospel-song "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen". Not only does it represent her playing the piano, but also the misery she experienced in her younger years. Now she is gone almost completely blind and to her great distress she can not practise her hobbies anymore.