September Gifted Gorgeousness 2018

So September is here already and schools have started.
The weather is amazing to spend by the sea but unfortunately we can't as we have to be in the city working and looking after mum so no sea!
I haven't stitched much to show you.
But first what's Gifted Gorgeousness?

It's the brain child of talented Jo of Serendipitous Stitching where we show anything we have stitched which was gifted to us or anything we stitch to give as a gift.
So this month I mostly stitched on my Karaghiozis  piece which will be added to the collaborative work lots of Greek stitchers are contributing to. I will probably concentrate more on this in winter.

 I also made a sea glass felted stone to gift to my friend Eleftheria on our trip to Lesvos island.

Eleftheria lives on beautiful Molyvos (Mythemna) village which is amazingly built on a cliff overlooking the sea!

 This month I received a glow-in-the night white thread from dear Jo in order to finish my Halloween Happiness piece. I haven't stitched it yet but since it is a little only I am hoping I will soon have it finished in time for Halloween! This pattern was a giveaway win from Jo and the fabric from Brigitte.

And I also received another giveaway win this time from Kaye of Kitten Stitching! Now you know what I will be stitching for Christmas this year. Kaye added some extra gifts!Thank you so much!

But there are some other things I want to show you in this blog post too.They are cross stitch and embroidery related.

We spent four days on Lesvos island with my husband in August. A beautiful big green island  with so much to see.

I spotted an old embroidery shop in Mytilini, the capital, covered in embroidery pictures.

 In the Agiasos Church of Virgin Mary there is a small byzantine museum. Here are some embroidered pieces.

 In the Agiasos Folk Museum I also potted these.

 I also want to show you these pottery items. I have bought both of them at charity bazaars at the Macedonian Museum of Modern Art. They are made by a Lesvos island clay artist called Vanio and she has painted them with cross stitch patterns.

Finally here are some vintage craft magazines from the 80s and 90s. Some of them I gave to a friend of mine who will definitely make more out of them than me.

 Hope you have  a great September.See you next month!

August Gifted Gorgeousness 2018

Hello there! In Greece we say "...from August comes winter..." and I am back in the city.
It was a difficult and tiring summer but I managed some swimming too.
Anyway this is a GG post again. But first I would like to thank everyone who read my previous GG post and left a comment too. Sorry I haven't answered, I yet have to find out how to do it.
So what's GG?Jo of Serendipitous Stitching organizes a link-up party where we blog about what we have stitched in the month that is related to the word "gift". Something we were gifted or we will gift that is.
You can see more about this in Jo's blog.

This month (from July 16th to August 15th) I was at the beach house. As I had to fully take care of my mum myself I didn't have too much free time to stitch as I used most of my free time to go to the sea! Indeed how can one resist such a sea! That is near Potidea in Chalkidiki and as we say in Northern Greece "San ti Chalkidiki den ehi" which means " There is no other place like Chalkidiki".

 So the few things I managed. Just two.
I finished all the Halloween Happiness except for the glow-in-dark white. This pattern was a giveaway win from Jo's blog and the fabric was a giveaway win from Brigitte's ( no blog anymore).

 I tried to stitch as much as I could but I also wanted to read a bit! What a dilemma!

 Finally it looked like that! I have changed some colours as I tried to use thread from my stash!

 And the second piece I managed  to start and continue is Karaghiozis, the Greek Shadow Puppet theatre protagonist. I am stitching this for a collaborative work where lots of stitchers from Greece will work on to produce a huge piece that commemorates the Greek civilization.

Finally I want to show you a corner in my beach house.

There are three framed stitched pieces there. The first which I call "Underwater" was a Round Robin I took part in ages ago, pre computer time, and after I got it back (each stitcher had stitched one fish) I added the background and the details all made free with no pattern. This is dedicated to my dear dad who loved the sea and fish so much.
The second framed piece is half cross stitch on a printed fabric, it is a lighthouse in the U.S.A. my friend Marabeth gifted the print to me and I stitched it. Finally the frame with the three lighthouses are made by me a long time ago when I bought the beach house. I matced them with the lighthouse candles on hubby's bedside table.
That was all for GG this month! Thanks for following. Hope you enjoyed your summer!

Pie cutting with the shadow puppeteers.

Last Saturday the shadow puppeteers of Thessaloniki invited by Yiannis Chatzis, the famous and popular shadow puppeteer of Thessaloniki, gathered at a small tavern to celebrate together. It was a chance to exchange ideas, talk about future plans and have fun.

 We also had a pie cutting but no one found a lucky coin in it!LOL! Or someone ate it?
Dear Yiannis Chatzis gifted Themis and me with a beautiful handmade shadow puppet of Karaghiozis as a wedding gift.

 Doesn't it look lovely! Thank you so much!

Present were Yiannis Chatzis of course, Agapios Agapiou, Odysseas Kanlis, Thanassis Koutsogiannis and hubby and I,whereas Konstandinos Kougioumtzis, our dear friend shadow puppeteer from Drama who was also invited, couldn't make it due to the farmers' tractors having blocked the streets in protest against the government measures.

Hopefully the shadow puppeteers of Thessaloniki and their friends will be able to meet again soon and arrange to do new things in our city in favour of our dear Karaghiozis.

A Greek shadow puppetry convention in Athens.

We had to go. 

I knew hubby wanted to be there among his Greek Shadow Puppetry friends attending the first ever Convention on "The Greek Shadow Puppetry as intangible heritage",organized by the Greek and Byzantine Sector of the Granada University of Spain.

So we flew to Athens the previous weekend with those low cost airlines that have very reasonably priced tickets.

Friday afternoon after school directly to the airport, a very short flight to Athens airport and from there by underground to the city centre at the building of the Old Parliament that also houses the National Historic Museum.

The talks were very interesting and we learnt so many things.

We also visited the Greek Shadow Puppetry exhibition which you should not miss, those of you living in Athens.

We were lucky to be personally guided at the exhibition by Mihalis Hatzakis, a very famous Greek Shadow puppeteer.

I also took the chance to visit the museum.It had some incredibly beautiful artifacts.

Even cross stitched pieces.

We didn't have much free time to walk around unfortunately.

But we managed to meet some of our shadow puppeteer friends

and attend a performance by the Ilias Karellas theatre playing "The only journey of his life" by George Viziinos. It was a magical performance of shadows, light, music,songs and acting. We really enjoyed it.

With Kostas Arzoglou.

With Zacharoula Klimatsaki.

Just before going to the airport we also visited some of our relatives to celebrate two birthday boys!

It was  a very short trip during which we didn't manage to see as many people and places as we wanted. We really have to go back to Athens for a longer period. Still it was great being there!