Prelude to Autumn

With all the 'below normal' temps this week, I'd swear it's autumn already!  But, we haven't had the Dog Days or Indian Summer yet so I know Mother Nature is just fooling around.  Fooling around or not, the cool mornings have triggered my Fall Spirit!  Since I'm leading a little blackwork workshop in a couple of months, I decided the time was right to whip up this little tissue cover (and continue ignoring my wedding sampler WIP). 

 

Liz Skinner leaf and acorn design

Marion Scoular tissue cover instructions

Here's hoping you all are having a great week!  Stitch happy,

Seminar Summary 2013

***

This year, the EGA national seminar slogan was "Winner by a Stitch" and boy-o-boy did I feel like a winner by the end of the week!

For starters, let me back up and say that earlier this year, I purchased a few opportunity tickets for a quilt drawing.  And....since my sister has all the luck o' the Irish, I put her name on my tickets (I know, I know, shame on me...).  She (aka "I") won.  The quilt is phenomenal in design, piecing and quilting.  I am extremely fortunate to have it and will treasure it forever more.

Fast forward one month and I see this spectacular quilt at the EGA seminar:

It was not for sale or auction; you could only purchase chances for it.  I thought, "What the heck"... even though I knew there was absolutely NO WAY I'd win another quilt this year, it couldn't hurt to try.  Right?  Right!!  And, would you believe they pulled my name out of the hat?  Talk about stunned!  I didn't even hi-jack my sister's identity to win it.  Just to gild the lily, it came with a big-ol'-bag of taffy from a 50 year old candy shoppe in Oregon.  YUM YUM YUM!

With all the quilt-flaunting I had to do, I'm glad the drawing was held on the final evening of the convention.  Even though I only took one class, Catherine Jordan's River Bottom box, I took full advantage of having some down time:

Believe it or not, I finished (or nearly finished) all of the above during my time in Louisville.  I can't remember the last time I had five finishes in a single month!

 

I even had time to start this adorable Lizzie Kate fall/halloween biscornu which I just finished today:

 

 

 

And just for good measure, I finished another Christmas ornament this past week while on vacation in Washington D.C.
 

So with jsut about five weeks left until Christmas, I hope you all are finding time to finish a few gifts and maybe even a few keepers... :o)

Have a great week, friends!

***

Good afternoon friends!  Wow wow wow what an action packed month I've had already.  Earlier this month, my EGA chapters partnered to bring renowned needlework instructor Marion Scoular to WV to teach our group a whitework technique called Pulled Stitches.  It is a totally new technique for me (to which hubby said, Seriously?  How is that possible?) and I thoroughly enjoyed expanding my stitching repertoire with this two day workshop.

As you can see, this is an early progress pic.  I'll be finishing this little hummingbird later this month and will be sure to post the finished pic then.

The following weekend was my birthday and hubby decided a quick four day get-away would be good for us.  We drove just three hours up the road to Columbus OH to visit the Country Living Fair, see Cirque du Soleil (Totem), eat at lobster or two at the Fish Market, and swing by (wink wink) a couple of very highly recommended needlepoint shops in Dublin and Powell.

Well.  I'm here to tell you, it was a whirlwind weekend but I enjoyed every last second of it.  I can not say enough good things about the women at What's the Point in Dublin and Louise's Needlepoint in Powell.  Both were exceedingly pleasant, funny, helpful and not even slightly pushy.  Oh, and the sales! 

HappyBirthdayToMe, HappyBirthdayToMe.... :-D

Being brand spankin' new to painted canvas, I decided to pace myself and focus on small things.  While there were dozens upon dozens of small canvases to choose from, I couldn't resist these:

 

The peacock is by Squiggee Designs and is stunning in real life.  I am very excited to start on it but also a little intimidated (no stitch guide). I want to do it justice and I'm not feeling super confident in my needlepoint skills.  The good news is I have several friends who are needlepoint experts and I plan to pick their brains before I set my first stitch in that one.  I'm thinking spangles!!!

I couldn't wait to start the little stocking and actually worked on it quite a bit in the hotel.. Here is my current progress with it:

I'm honestly loving it and can't wait to send it off to be finished.

And, clearly, I haven't put stitch 1 in my Monet piece since July/August.  I keep hoping the stitching elves will help a girl out.

That's all the news that's fit to report, friends..

Til next time, keep your needles nimble,

 

 

Stitch. Pray. Love.

***

Up early this morning, way before sun-up, and took the opportunity to slip a few stitches in before church.

I'm the World's Best at taking a spare hour and turning it into "Top 16 Things To Do in the next 60 Minutes".  But not this morning.  I didn't make a big breakfast, start six loads of laundry, strip the sheets off the bed, etc.. 

Nope.  Instead, I say to Carmen, "Carmen, what do you say we have two bites of yogurt and granola, call it breakfast, enjoy a latte and put a few stitches in that Assisi project before church?  Shall we?"

Carmen said, "Sure, sounds great Mom.....whatever whatever....just put that foamed milk in my bowl and then you can do whatever you want."

So, here it is:

Assisi GCC (parts 1, 2, 3) 

As you may have already guessed, the fabric color, count and thread choice was left up to each student (don't blame Marion for my borderline disasterous choices).  Each thimble is slightly different from the next and I think I actually learned something with each one.  The next and final part involves planning an original piece (small though), which I'll need to comtemplate tomorrow.

Loving that I'm nearly finished with this one.  I had myself worried there for a few minutes that I wouldn't be able to 'graduate' with my classmates.  My plans are to dive right into the Sashiko GCC before my needles cool off.  :-))

If Congress doesn't do something soon about the 2011 budget, I might actually have plenty of stitching time (during my UNPAID lay-off) on my hands.  :-(

Happy President's Day, friends!

Snowed in Saturday (the sequel)

I like to remain positive.  See the bright side.  Keep a sunny disposition. 

I'm positive my blood is going to freeze solid;  the bright side can only be seen on the weather channel; and my sunny disposition is vacationing in Phoenix, Arizona. 

So...with another round of 'Artic Blast' here for another week, here is how my To Do list is shaping up:

• Feed the birds...

• and the "K9 unit", Carmen...

Wish me a Happy Birthday!  Mom says I turn 11 (or 77) on Monday.
 
• and the hubs:  chili for lunch or dinner (Mom's famous chili recipe HERE)

• Stitch (Leo d'Assisi nearly complete, getting caught up on Assisi GCC also)

• Laundry (yes, the dryer is back from the dead)  Yay hubby!

I know you don't want to see a visual of Mt. Filth-i-mangaro

So that's what's happenin' in Wild Wonderful West Virginia, friends.  I know - I have to take my own pulse every once in awhile, just to be sure.  Stay warm and safe, friends!

Leo d'Assisi progress

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Not bad, not bad at all!

 Cross stitched with Gloriana "Old Gold" Florimell silk

Back stitched with DMC 801 floche

O my goodness, I loved it when I saw it, when I bought it and now that I've stitched a good sized piece with it, I'm in love with the Florimell silk by Gloriana.  The variegation is so subtle, it doesn't look too stripe-y.

There is a very intricate border that will have to wait until Tuesday-Friday next week.  Tonight and tomorrow, I'll begin working on the Assisi group correspondence course (by Marion Scoular) I signed up to participate in with my EGA chapter.  I'm a little behind, so I've got some 'catch-up' to do. 

Thank goodness for three day weekends!

National Seminar Report

What an amazing whirlwind trip to the enchanted City by the Bay I've enjoyed this past week!  Like most vacations, it was just too short and long overdue.  The weather was perfect and I mean perfect.  Such a refreshing change from the oppressive heat and humidity of the East.

The Seminar committee put on an amazing week of classes and activities which kept us all hopping.  I would have loved to have spent another week traipsing around the Bay, doing all the wonderful things there are to do, but alas, the week zoomed by and just as soon as I adjusted to the three hour time change, it was time to come home.  Hubby and I will definitely return to this region some day in order to take in all the city has to offer.    

My roommate/travel buddy/stitching sponsor and I rode a cable car down past Pier 39 to Ghirardelli Square on Sunday to take tea at the Crown and Crumpet.

The finger sandwiches, crumpets, scones and sweets really hit the spot. If you click on the link above, you'll see the actual table where we had our tea.   Such a charming little place.

Our hotel was well equipted to handle large conventions and could not have been more accommodating.  I loved the doormen in their top hats and coats.  So dapper!

My two classes were very different but good all the same.  I love Marsha P. Gomola.  She's a quirky little thing, but exceedingly patient, friendly, organized, professional and her love of teaching comes through in her classes.  Even though I didn't get very far with my Acorn Accessories stumpwork set (because somebody had the hairbrain idea to modify the charted acorn woodpecker to more resemble a downy woodpecker), I enjoyed every minute of her two day class.  I especially enjoyed meeting Anne, the creator of the fabulous Gloriana threads who was also a student in Marsha's class.  Anne has recently acquired the right from a famous French silk thread maker to apply her overdyes to their silk thread.  The combination is to die for!  Anne has an infectious enthusiasm and was a delight to be around.  She even asked me to suggest a name for a new blue.  Yes, I almost squealed.  Without much thought, I suggested Federal Blue.  Watch for it in a LNS near you.   And while she was showing me all of her newest color 'experiments' (seriously, I could have died on the spot!), I urged (okay, begged) her to create a signature Gloriana color, perhaps a delicious red.  I can't wait to get my hands on more of the Florimel silk she's just produced.  It's better than butter.

Merchandise Day on Wednesday was a lot smaller than I expected it to be, but the Italians came with their glorious woven linens, Assisi embroidery and Deruta beads.

So, I was happy! 

My dear friend and mentor Marion Scoular does not normally travel with a companion, so I volunteered to help with her table on Wednesday.  It pleases me to no end that she was so swamped that it took me and another helper working as fast as we could to keep up with all her customers.  Marion is beloved by needlewomen everywhere!  I will forever be grateful to EGA for giving me the opportunity to meet her and study needlework under her mentoring.


My Thursday-Friday Finishing Class was just what I needed to sit down and go through the many pages of finishing instructions for the GPA Christmas Sewing set.  I can't say that I learned anything from the class but it did renew my enthusiasm for finishing and bolster my confidence in my own finishing skills.  I WILL have the most precious Christmas sewing slipper set put together by the end of this month!   :-)

And, that is that.  A good time was had by all.  The flight home was just long enough for me to finish a small Assisi piece.  Some of the most amazing cloud formations welcomed us into Atlanta.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

This is what I found upon my dog walk this morning.  Looks official to me.  Fall is here.

This upcoming week will be a busy one with chapter meeting on Monday, birthday on Wednesday and big fundraising event on Saturday, but I can honestly say that I feel refreshed and renewed and ready! 

What a difference a week makes!

Have a great one friends, wherever you are.

Share-A-Stitch report

I'm freshly home from another wonderful Share-A-Stitch, a regional meeting of the Embroiderers' Guild of America.  My home state sponsored this years meeting and I must say, the short commute was refreshing!  Sister stitchers came from as far away as Texas and Massachusetts to participate in the meeting.   We were especially delighted to have our National President in attendance and to be able to have the National tapestry on display during the four day pow-wow.  Please visit click on "National tapestry" (above) to read more about this amazing work of art.

click to enlarge photo

I'm very proud of both of the chapters I belong to for working so hard to help the meeting run smoothly and be a success.  I enjoyed volunteering in several areas such as the registration desk, bag check, the bookstore:

and the boutique:

The bookstore (provided by Ruth Kerns Books) and boutique are two of my favorite things about EGA meetings.   Helping set up these areas is like being a kid in a candy store handed the keys to the candy store.  I exercised a good measure of self control but didn't do too shabby either:

Two books, one pattern, several linen packs, two needle cases and some silk.  Not bad, not bad at all.

My real splurge was this shaker sewing basket from the Friday night event we fondly call "Merchandise Night":

I could not resist the combination of the bird's eye maple and rich walnut again this year.  I resisted it last year, but I lost the battle this year.  :-)

All the goodies aside, the true purpose of these gatherings is needlework education.  I can not say enough good things about the class offerings, faculty and selection committee.  The variety of techniques, expertise levels, and overall 'do-ability' of all the classes was carefully thought out.  Once again, I enjoyed three days of Studio Time with Marion Scoular. 

What a joy.

We also were treated to a lecture on Thursday evening by Mr. Doug Kreinik of Kreinik threads.  What a wealth of information he is!  It was fascinating (and entertaining) listening to the history and evolution of his family business.  And, the models he brought for show and tell, oh MY!  Be on the look out for the new holographic thread.  They are dazzling!

Before calling it a weekend, we enjoyed a delicious banquet on Saturday evening complete with a dessert table to die for.  I must have been too busy eating to take a pic of the offerings.  You'll just have to trust me on that.  Sorry.

And to top it all off, I finished all the stitching on my Christmas exchange project.  Now, I only need to add the beads and finish-finish it. 

What more can a girl ask for? 

If anything you've read here has peaked your interest in EGA membership, please don't hesitate to contact me.

The Box that Broke the Camel's Back

Once upon a time there was a beautiful 4 way bargello.  It wanted so badly to grace the top of a handsome wooden box.  It begged and pleaded with it's keeper until the keeper caved under the pressure and set out to make it's dream come true although she herself knew nothing about box making.  The Good Keeper trusted that the Powers that Rule the Universe would see how badly this little bargello wanted to be a box and clear all obstacles to help the box come into being.  After all, how hard could it be? Right?

Basic box elements:

A lid

A bottom

Optional box element:

A lining

Simple.

So, off to the framer the Keeper trotted with Beautiful Bargello in tow.  "Do you people make boxes?" she asked.  "Well no, but it sounds like it would be fun to try!" the answer came.  Why this answer inspired confidence in the Keeper, the story does not make clear but with the utmost optimism, she left Beautiful Bargello (and a large portion of her paycheck) with the nice frame people.  After no less than 3 mini-dramas later, she had the basic box elements; a lid and a bottom:

design by: Marion Scoular

Not exaaaaaaactly a box, like with hinges, a bottom and such, but....Keeper thought it was a good start.  Then she started really thinking about it.

Here's the short list of my problems:

#1) The lid is bigger, much bigger, than the bottom

#2) The bottom has a troublesome inset where it meets the lid

#3) The bottom has no bottom, makes for a lousy holder of stuff

#4) I have found the perfect (IMHO) fabric lining

#4 might have you scratching your head wondering why I'd call it a problem.  It is a problem because up until I found the perfect fabric, I could table this conundrum of mine.  Now?  Well.   Now, I have this perfectly perfect fabric lining, so I can't table the problems any more.  The fabric is driving this whole crazy bus now and it's heading for the Expressway.  You see?

So, where to begin?  Do I have the lid reframed smaller?  Do I turn the box bottom upside down so the inset is on the bottom? (BTW, I don't like the looks of it upside down)  Do I drop back and punt?  Do I drop it in the nearest river and start from scratch? 

How do I get myself into these pickles?

I hope to spend some quality time pondering these and other mysteries of the Universe this weekend.  Hope you find some time to stitch too! 

Happy Weekend Friends!

The Retreat Report

My sister and I have an inside joke about vacations that if you aren't limping home, broke and exhausted on the last day then, by definition, you must not have had a good time. According to those standards, I am happy to report that I have had one very successful retreat this weekend with my stitching family, or as I may start calling them, the Needle Work Enablers Society (NWES). I love them all and/but you've never met a better bunch of enablers in all your life. You know exactly what I mean so I won't elaborate much except to say we could probably keep the shrinks of the world busy for a very very long time. However, stitchers are the best people on the planet, I'm convinced. When one of us has a problem, we all collaborate together to fix it. When life gives one of us lemons, another one grabs the lemon squeezers and vodka. Oops, TMI! I forgot what happens at Retreat, stays at Retreat.

Spending time with these ladies always renews my faith in humanity! And, occasionally, we actually get some stitching accomplished.

The Stitching Report

Thursday: Arrived around 2:30, checked in, unpacked, power napped, drove to town for dinner, stitched on thistle into the evening. Watched two hour Grey's finale and was pretty devastated with what they did to George. I mean, why should such a horrible thing happen to the nicest character on the show? Tragic. I certainly hope they don't kill him off too. Losing Izzy is bad enough. My head is still spinning from it. Aren't Major Hunt and Yang just perfectly perfect for one another? Uh, sorry, back to the stitching report.

designer: Marion Scoular

fabric: 25ct. hardanger

threads: DMC and floche

Pattern cover photo on the left; mine on the right.

Friday: Up early, quick trip to town for last minute "retreat essentials", picked up a few things at the antique store (pics another day), hurried back, ushered the "hookers" (rug hookers) out of the meeting room, set up camp in the stitching room and selected dragonfly checkerboard out of my Big Ol Bag o'WIPs. My XSDNs will be pleased to know they might get to play with this checkerboard before they are taking their college entrance exams. Late in the evening, I switched to my peacock. Turned in around 2ish.

design: Dragonfly Sampler by Sekas

various Caron Wildflowers threads

Saturday: I knew Saturday would be a full day of cutting, unweaving and reweaving the last remaining drawn thread band if I had any chance of finishing it, so I didn't dilly dally. Up early, shower, quick breakfast and coffee and then POWER STITCHING. I did stop for lunch and another very quick trip to the antique shop for wooden spools, but made up for lost time by skipping dinner in order to bring this baby down the home stretch before bedtime. Speaking of home stretch, how about that Preakness winning jockey Calvin Borel and the horse he rode in on? What a story! Love that little man and the filly he made rich and famous, Rachel Alexandra!

My victory was won around 12:38 am after a bit of "broken thread" drama. I think it's safe to say that the last thing you want when working the high tension twisted clusters of the drawn thread bands is for a thread to snap. But, thank goodness, even though my silk did snap with only about three inches to go, I lived to tell the tale and still had enough silk on the needle to finish the band. And yes, there was a happy dance which will not be described here or ever reinacted IRL or on YouTube. My apologies to those who were physically present and subjected to it. Exhileration powered my engines until 3ish.

design: Assisi Peacock Sampler by Giulia Manfredini

Various silks on hand dyed linen

Sunday: Still walking on air from my late night finish, I floated into the stitching room a little later than usual. Then, after packing up, checking out and eating lunch, I selected an Art Stitch design for my Something New Sunday project. It's been in my TO DO stack for a long time and deserved some sunshine.

As you can see, it was a very productive long weekend and I couldn't be happier with my stitchy accomplishments. Now it's back to life, back to re-al-ity time.

Next UFO/BAP*= Statue of Liberty tribute (gift) Photo updates soon.

Wishing everyone a great week!

*UFO/BAP = unfinished object/big a$$ project

Part 1 - Finishing with Flair

Go Go GCC!! Gold star for me. Although there are no less than twenty PIGs screaming for my attention, I will NOT start another new thing or work on another UFO until this EGA GCC is in the mail to teacher extraordinaire, Marion Scoular. To be honest, since I gave up on the idea of using my almost finished Adam and Eve sampler for Part 1 (hemstitching), it has gone very quickly. I would show you the Adam and Eve sampler, but it's just too sad. The colors (as recommended) are so far off the model, I'm disgusted. I tried to fool myself into believing it was going to be ok, just keep stitching, right? That's what we tell ourselves. Just keep stitching? Well, so now, it's practically finished and here I sit, disgusted. I would love to do the hemstitched edge on Adam and Eve, one day.

For now friends, I'll be focusing on finishing "Finishing with Flair", finally.

New Year = Clean Slate

I do love January 1 for one reason. The clean slate effect. It's all mental, of course, but that's good enough for me. I like to clean out the fridge, ridding ourselves of any nasty leftovers; pay all the bills; balance the checkbook; clean house so to speak. And this year, as a direct effect of all that stitching I got accomplished in a flurry late last year, I enjoyed filing away a large pile of thread I had caringly placed close to but not actually in my thread storage boxes. With each thread I filed away, I thought of the project it was pulled for. A happy little walk down memory lane.

I do love my thread storage system with each clear cd storage box (available at Target) housing a different varietal; one for six-stranded DMC (regular) thread, one for silks of all sort, one for overdyeds, and one for perle cotton and Caron threads. There is a family of ziplock bags that lives inside the DMC box. Each bag containing a certain series, the one hundreds live together, two hundreds together, so on. You get the idea. In the other boxes, metal book rings gather like threads together. To each his own, but this is a system that has been working for me for several years now. I've tried most thread storage systems (must be a Virgo thing), but had to come up with something that worked for me and the way my mind thinks (danger,danger) before I was happy. My Watercolours collection is growing so rapidly (darn it), I may have to add on and move them into a box all of their very own! However, a little stitching would help keep that population thinned down.

The work table photo is my idea of a clean slate. I can hear you laughing. You'll just have to trust me. As much as I love order and organization, I find that my work table is a three dimensional thing, with a length and a width and a height. I work in layers. Presently, there is only one layer of activity on the work table. And to quote Martha, one layer is a very good thing.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I felt a tug at my conscience, "remember me?", it said. "Me who?" I answered. "It's me. The Finishing with Flair correspondence course you were just dying to get your hands on, last August". "Oh." I said. Yes, I remember you. I hadn't forgotten you. I was just waiting for a clean slate to start you.

WIP...R.I.P.

Now for the hard part. To frame or not to frame? I'm thinking box top. Patience is NOT one of my vitures (if you haven't figured that out already), so I'll have to fight the urge to rush this up to the framers, in order to allow myself the time to find a custom box maker. I say custom because wouldn't you know, the design is 5 and a little x 5 and a little more. Not 5x5, or even 5.25 x 5.25. Oh well. It's good to have so many stitching friends, for many reasons, but in this case, one of my BSFFs has already given me a lead on one such woodworker. I'll give a call next week and see what we can work out.

Must. Wait. Do. Not. Frame. Yet. Where's my hypnotist when I need him?