Easter Egg Inspiration

Easter in Germany is a very special time and celebrated in many different ways. I had the privilege of visiting a friends egg collection. I didn't know what to expect, but the eggs were a marvel. Here is a re-posting of my visit so please enjoy!

Signs of spring are everywhere here in Germany! When I (Kara) came home from the Academy of Appliqué, blooms of all kinds were just starting to peek through. Now, after a few weeks back, spring is here in full force. Daffodils and tulips are everywhere, primroses are emerging from the leaves in the forest, and the fruit trees are ready to burst forth with their glorious blossoms!

Spring and Easter are well celebrated in Germany. There is a Fruhlingsfest or Springfest, and there are even Easter markets similar to the beloved Christmas markets. While I have not been to an Easter market yet, I had a wonderful opportunity to see a spectacular display of decorated eggs. This collection of eggs was owned by a lovely lady by the name of Hanne, a member of our town's quilt guild. She has been collecting these incredible eggs for many years and primarily collects real eggs that are decorated in a myriad of ways. Every two years, Hanne sets up little vignettes throughout her apartment to display her collection. She gave me permission to share her collection on the blog, and I thought it would be an inspirational treat!

Hanne has a large collection of eggs painted with scenes from the Root Children books by Sybille von Olfers. These images were also used in the quilt Mother Earth and her Children, which is probably my favorite quilt ever.

What a beautiful scene Hanne has created!

The next display of eggs were those that had a religious theme. They were mostly about Easter, but there was one special one that showed the Nativity.

This egg contains a surprise inside.

A beautiful, hand created, Nativity scene!

The Easter display

Scene depicting a pregnant Mary on a donkey

One of Hanne's most expensive eggs

A beautifully painted angel

Many of the eggs in the collection had birds, flowers, wildlife, or lovely country scenes. I, of course, loved all the birds! 

The scenery scroll fit inside of the egg!

The inside of the egg

The outside

Noah's Ark on the inside

The outside

What's inside?

A sweet little fairy!

The filigree eggs were made using a dental drill!

These are the sweetest!

This artist spent many years learning how to paint faces, and it shows.

I would love to stitch this scene!

These rabbits live inside an ostrich egg.

This next egg has quite the story. Hanne was bringing it home in her suitcase when security flagged it as a possible grenade! Thankfully, it made it home safely.

It is a stunningly beautiful non-grenade!

Hanne knew that I loved flowers from showing the Flora and Fauna of Germany blocks at the guild, so she kindly invited me to see her collection through our mutual friend, Birgit. I was so honored that she would think of me! Each egg in her collection is very special and treasured, and I was inspired by all the beauty created by various artists. Hopefully these "egg"cellent wonders will inspire you!

Thank you Hanne!

Springtime Inspiration and Happy Easter!

This time of year is so beautiful here in Germany. After a long, cold, winter, each flower that pops out is a welcome feast for these eyes that have seen nothing but grey. Those blooms provide so much inspiration for the type of stitching we do, and each year, both Teri and I (Kara) take a plethora of pictures as reference for future projects. Here is a little bit of our German inspiration.

 

Spring isn't the only source of inspiration over here. Since we will be leaving Germany in May, I have been actively trying to purchase some European antique treasures that have been on my must-have list. The first was a Bavarian painted armoire, or Bayerisch bemalter Schrank. The one I found has been re-painted, but the cabinet itself is from 1854. I fell in love with the bright colors and authentic paint style and knew that I had found my treasure—I even named her Elsa because that is how much I love it!

Another "unicorn" that I was searching for was a set of Mason china. My mother had purchased a Mason coffee set back in the 70s, long before she knew her daughter would marry a Mason. My mother-in-law also possessed a set of Mason china for her everyday, so owning my own set was my destiny (at least that is what I told my husband). I fell in love with this particular pattern because of the colors—you will probably see a version of it in a future design.

Easter is celebrated with enthusiasm here in Germany. Many homes will have eggs hung on the shrubs and their windows decorated. Collecting decorated eggs is also a hobby here as well. You can read about my visit with one such collector in a Spring "Egg"stravaganza.

Wanting to have a memory of the beautiful egg decorations, I found a lovely lady from Glasgow who was selling her collection of Ukranian painted eggs. The colors and designs on these eggs are so lovely that I may just leave them out all year long!

Teri actually made Ukranian painted eggs with a neighbor

Aren't they beautiful?

Inspiration comes from many places and we hope that we have brought a little to you with our images of what inspires us. May you have a lovely Easter even in these somewhat challenging times, and may the beauty of this season bring you hope and inspiration.

Travels and Updates!

It has been a crazy month in the Through the Needle's Eye world. Thanks to many of you, our Woolen Oak mystery block was a great success! The time leading up to our reveal and the reveal week were incredibly busy, but certainly well worth it. Now that things are slowing down a bit, we thought we would share a little travel inspiration as well as some sneak peeks of what what we have coming up for you on the blog and on our website.

From palaces to nature,
this trip was not lacking in inspiration.

Since Europe has started to open up for travel, my husband and I (Kara) have tried to make the most of it. We have a large European map on our wall with pins for all the places we have visited and we realized that we had not been to many eastern European countries while we have been over here. I planned a rather elaborate road trip that would have us go to three countries for the first time, along with a few stops in Germany and Austria. As always when I travel, I am often looking for inspiration for our stitching designs.  

Our trip began in Germany and then continued in a very large loop through the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and then ending on a small, glacial lake in Austria. Please enjoy just some of the things I found inspiring on this road trip.

A beautiful, historical timeline made completely of Meissen porcelain tiles.

Stunning appliqué on the inside of a Turkish tent.

Appliqué close-up

These amazing, porcelain flowers decorated a 6 foot vase!

These lilies were on the grounds of Ksiaz Castle in Poland. 
I had never seen this color before.

Can you see a quilting pattern in this ceiling?

The bouquets in this wallpaper would be lovely done in appliqué.

Inspiration can be found in simple things—like a pillow at your hotel!

Ceiling decorations that could be translated into quilt borders.

This makes me want to stitch some bluebells and ferns.

Some mountain heather would be fun to stitch as well.

If I made a landscape quilt of this picture, it would be called "Sunrise on Gosausee" 

Now that I am back from the road and Teri has very ably managed all the details of our Woolen Oak block, it is time to get back to work on some of our upcoming projects that we will be sharing with you in the very near future.  Soon we will be showing you what we will be doing for next year's Academy of Appliqué, and then we will be introducing some brand new patterns!

A little embroidery from just one of the four projects that will be available
at the 2021 Academy of Appliqué, in Williamsburg, Virginia

While we won't be teaching our Baltimore Fraktur at Baltimore on the Prairie this year
because of COVID, we will be introducing the pattern on our website in the coming months.

This, along with four other patterns, will be coming to the website soon!

These little guys will be part of a project that we can't wait to show you!!!

Travel plans this year for many have had to be cancelled or postponed. I feel very fortunate that my husband and I have been able to see some of the beauty that Europe has to offer, and I hope that you have enjoyed some of our travels as well—my designing mind was whirling with ideas and inspirations for future projects. 

We also hope that your interest has been piqued with some sneak peeks of what we have in store for you and that you will check back next week to see our Academy reveal. Again, it's not too late to join the Woolen Oak Mystery Stitch-A-Long. You can head to the Woolen Oak Facebook page to join and you can find our Harvest Basket block, seen below, on our website. There are still 2 more blocks that will be revealed so their is definitely time to join in the fun!

https://www.needleseyestories.com/shop

Stay safe and keep stitching!