October 2016 has been as beautiful as ever here in Wild & Wonderful WV. I do my level best to embrace it in it's entirety because it is so fleeting. Making the annual drive into the heart of WV to enjoy three days of nearly uninterrupted stitching is part of my fall ritual of embracing nature in all her glory. Since the leaves turn first in Northern WV, a simple 90 minute drive can totally change the landscape. It was not the case this year, but the warm breezes, cool nights, brilliant blue skies and migrating geese sure did my soul a world of good. Not to mention spending three whole days with the gaggle of stitchers that are my tribe. While it was a smaller group than usual, that translated into more stitching less chatting, hence more progress by Sunday noon than normal.
This year I took only two Christmas projects to work on; one small ornament and one medium needlepoint. Giving credit where credit is due, some genius stitcher on Needlepoint Nation (Facebook group) posted her version of a geometric needlepoint piece which ran in the Nov/Dec 2014 Needlepoint Now magazine. She took a solid blue circle and altered only the colors to make it a holiday wreath. Luckily for me I had the magazine and plenty of green fibers to pull from stash.
"Winter Scenery" by Martina Dey of
Stickideen Von Der Wiehenburg
Needlepoint Now Nov/Dec 2014 (pgs. 18-20)
Ultimately, it will morph into a green wreath surrounded by a white background. The original design calls for six shades of blue in #8 perle cotton, one metallic and one variegated thread. I'm not sure I'll stick to that formula exactly but I'll have perle cottons, metallics and variegated threads in mine. The above represents about two days worth of stitching. It moves along quickly and I'm eager to see it completed!
For the Annual Ornament Exchange at the guild Christmas party, I chose this cutie from My Big Toe Designs from the 2016 JCS Christmas magazine (pg. 80). Aren't her designs lovely?
So until next time friends, STITCH HAPPY!
