Last Finish for 2014

Wall:  done.
Kitty:  done.
Shower curtain:  done.
Shower cap:  done.
Bathtub:  thank goodness it's done!
Whiskers:  done.

Off the bars and now let's go to the framers!

Christmas Spirit

Today I found my Christmas Spirit in a strange place - the meat counter at Wegmans.

What a zoo. I could only laugh.

And made some other people smile and laugh, too.

Better to rejoice and be happy than be frazzled and vexed.

In the spirit of rejoicing, here are the latest two things I've had framed.

The orange love piece is an original creation. You can tell by its imperfections. It makes me smile every time I look at it. It's been hanging with Santa for a few days. Totally ruins the seasonal color scheme, but I don't care.

The blue piece was an ANG correspondence course, Ghordian  Knot, by Rachel Atkinson that I did last year.
Photo doesn't begin to do it justice. It's stunning.

Shower Kitty and Finish

I love it when a plan works out! Needle felting the base for the shower cap allowed me to get the exact shape I wanted.

Then Lori at Waste Knot Needlepoint suggested ruching Sparkle Rays for the ruffle which was way easier and quicker than what I was planning.

Isn't it great?

Now to add whiskers and finish the tub.

Also had a small ornament finish which is what happens when you hang out at a car dealership and come home with a new car. I bought this in New Orleans - it's the Cathedral at night. I've already shipped it off to the finisher. Can't wait to see what she does.

My Thanksgiving Weekend Stitching

I found some time on Thursday to finally start my experiment with needle felting on canvas. 

The goal is to make a puffy shower cap for my shower kitty. 

My idea is to needle felt wool roving in the puffy shape I want and then to cover it with Flair. 
 

I used some beautiful wool roving that I had bought at one of the Sheep and Wool festivals. And I've got a block of foam under my canvas.

Pulling apart the roving, I used a single needle to felt it to the canvas. 
 

All nice and puffy and correctly shaped. Now let's start applying the Flair.

So much fun. And it's working out just like I planned.

Shower Kitty

Just finished the shower curtain tonight.

I was at the framers today and saw the best frame for this piece. Now I'm excited.

Studio Mess

While trying to impose some organization on my studio today, I've been encountering some interesting stuff.

These two in particular - a DMC  long stitch canvas and a Royal Paris canvas.

The DMC piece is 25" tall. It has numbers for pearl cotton on the side.  I'm wondering what else I could do with this. Any suggestions?

The other one is a Royal Paris canvas. It's 25" by 45". That's large.

I got both of these because if they didn't come home with me, they were going in the dumpster.

That's me. Rescuer of lost canvas.

Embroiderers' Association of Canada, Inc.

I love seeing posts from these people on Facebook. They show the most marvelous photos.

They also have a blog - http://eac-blog.blogspot.ca/

Art Exhibit

Parking this here so I'll come back and look at it later. 

But some of you might be interested, too!

Institute of Contemporary Art - Boston

It's a Brick

Just put the last stitch in my brickcover that I stitched for our 30th anniversary.

Love it. All Silk n Ivory and Planet Earth Silk. Canvas by Canvasworks.

I started in May. Would have loved to have finished it in August in time for our anniversary, but hey, that's life.

Now to find our special brick and do the finishing.

Kudos

Kudos to those who are blogging the entire month of November. I know better than to even begin to attempt this. 

In fact, I should be upstairs right now finishing my brick cover. I probably have an hour or so to go. I promise the first picture of this finish will be here, not on facebook. 

Last week I was fortunate enough to participate in a pilot class for Deborah Gale Tirico's piece for EGA Seminar 2015. It's called Ladybird's Legacy and features Texas wildflowers. It's wool felt applique like the Nutcracker I took with her last year at Seminar in Louisville. I just looked and you all deserve a better photo of that, too. 

Today was Loudoun Sampler Guild where we had a talk on Geo Washington as depicted in historic needlework. And tomorrow, I've got two new canvas pieces from Janet Zickler Casey as we're having a workshop. Yikes. 

I'm definitely acquiring faster than I can stitch.
 

Catcalls

This Is A Contemporary Feminist's Take On Traditional Needlework - http://huff.to/1rHjvYl

I find it disturbing that this type of thing still happens to me. It obviously only needs the object to possess XX chromosomes. No need to be young and beautiful. Very powerful, what she has done with words here. Go, Duchess.

Stitching Update

Photos of what is in my stitching bag right now.

From these you'd think I was only working on painted canvas. Not true. It's just what's here in the bag available for photography.

The two small ones are DC Designs from Amanda Lawford. I'm gonna have fun compensating around the cats and bats! Not. Oh, and the cats' eyes glow in the dark.

The sheep is going to be all French knots with two strands of Burmilana. Cute little face.

And finally I'm approaching the finish line on my brickcover. Love this still.

Long Time Gone

Apologies. I certainly didn't mean to not post for this long. I hope no one's been concerned. 

First, some baby pictures. Look who turned one year old! Gosh that was fast. 
 

She's adorable. And she knows it. 

Below are a few of our travel photos from the summer.

 

We visited Portland Head in July when I was feeling awful. I had a bout of food poisoning and it took me a month to recover. It's an iconic lighthouse - I've even stitched it. 
 

From the ocean to the mountains of West Virginia. Time to ride a train. 
 

Back to the ocean - almost. We took a lunch cruise in the Baltimore Harbor to see the Tall Ships and Blue Angels flying over Fort McHenry to commemorate the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner. 
 

Trust me. I've been stitching. Haven't been finishing much. But I've been very productive. Is this what happens when you've got too many projects going at once? Stitching update soon. And a delayed celebration coming too...
 

Anniversary Stitching

I started this needlepoint brick cover back in May to give to my hubby for our 30th anniversary. Well, that was Monday and it's not finished. Big surprise.

I made good progress for the first six weeks, then other things got in the way. It's a Canvasworks canvas and it's beautifully painted. I'm using Planet Earth silk and Silk n Ivory. My colors match pretty well, so well that it can be difficult to tell where my stitching ends😊

Below that is a little magic sign I did for the man, too. If you watch Modern Family, you might get where this came from in the season finale. It's a Kathy Shenkel piece. These little signs are quick and cute and there's quite a few of them.

Upcoming Projects

I've been acquiring new things lately. First up is the Shining Needle Society class St. basils from Stitch Play Designs. I've got my evertites and I'm ready to mount up as this class starts at the end of the month.

Next, I joined the San Diego ANG so I could ghost this ribbon class by Laura Taylor. I didn't show all the threads and this looks like so much fun. I can't wait to start.

And last - I have this Once in a Blue Moon canvas that I bought in June 2013 because I said this was going to be my granddaughter. Well, soon we'll be celebrating her first birthday. And finally got threads for it. I decided to keep to the Planet Earth threads - I've got 6 ply silks and Pepper Pot. In fact, I may basketweave this entire piece. It will be beautiful.

Imari Collage

Making slow progress on my Debbie Stiehler piece. The best part is that several (sometimes many) of us continue to meet after the class. Without this I wouldn't be making any progress at all.

Today I plunged my gold thread to the back of the piece. I used a tool recommended in a class by Toni Gerdes - a bridge cleaner. Dental tools and needlework meet up with great success. I think my or nue section looks mahvelous!

My Orange Challenge

Saturday was my EGA guild meeting. Had a wonderful Zentangle class with Catherine Jordan. I really enjoyed that and plan on further exploration.

This piece is my answer to my Orange Challenge. It's my second piece as my first hit a snag and is unfinished.

I drew my love letters with a #4 pencil leaving a circle space for my bead. Then kind of just started stitching. I didn't stop and count. Just stitched. Which explains what's going on in some of my corners.

I beaded my bead to attach it and that came out great.

Now let's have it made into a pillow.

I'm Singing in the Shower, Just Singing in the Shower

Finally came back to my kitty canvas from Patt and Lee Designs.

I got stuck on the shower curtain. I had started a Bargello pattern that just wasn't working.

I like what I've got going now. The light teal is over three threads and a bit further down I'll take the same thing to over four threads. That was a suggestion from a friend and it sounds like a very good idea.

Happy 4th

I returned from my retreat with a case of food poisoning and it's been nearly two weeks and I am still not back to normal.

I have been making progress on a few projects and brought one with me to New Hampshire. Because I was falling behind on my stitching deadlines I was setting for myself, I have shown the project to its recipient so I can work on it in front of him.

This is a Canvasworks brick cover. I'm stitching with a combination of Silk and Ivory and Planet Earth Silk. Every stitch is a pleasure.

Retreat Finish

I finished this at retreat. But I came home sick and am finally catching up.

It's a Raymond Crawford Tiki cup. Not the best lighting for a photo this morning at 5:30, but you get the idea.

I may remove and restitch the nose. I'm not loving it.

Sunrise in Syria

Linda and Donna enjoying that first cup of coffee at 6 in the morning. Sun is rising, birds are singing. It's a beautiful day.

First finishes of the weekend - both wool. Jane has a turtle. Donna has a cardinal.

Retreat!

Today is all about packing. And unpacking. And repacking. Because I can't make up my mind what to bring on retreat. 

Tomorrow we leave for 5 days, 4 nights in the hills unbothered by modern electronics which gives us more time to stitch. This is a guild retreat and there are 19 of us going.

I made a list last week. I've crossed it out and started over a million times. Usually I don't have this much trouble. Maybe in the back of my mind I think I'm forgetting something? 

I now my packing is heavy on the canvas and light on linen projects. That's just where I am right now. I've got a couple of obligation pieces with deadlines for gift giving. I've got some fun stuff. I've got some serious stuff that requires concentration. Just trying to get the right balance. I'd bring it all, but that might require a moving truck!

 

The Big and the Little

Damn the apologies for not posting. Let's just get right to things.

Starting with progress and a small finish. 

 It seems to me as I look back I always have big and little projects going at the same time. Maybe it's the contrast. Or maybe it's just my habit of having small, portable things to tote around with me. I always have a purse project. You never know when you can fit in 10 or 50 or 100 stitches. And little bits of progress add up to finishes. Eventually. 

 So here is my Bunny Project. Of course, I named it because I can. This is after the second embellishment class. I'm feeling fairly confident that I have the skills to stitch this well. Of course

 Ha. I've frogged that top corner of background twice. Once for color issues. The second time because the thread I was using was making the lilies recede. Ah, backgrounds and me - we just don't get along. It takes me forever to land on the correct things. I've been given guidance on this area and we'll see what happens when I get back to it. 

 My hibiscus. This I love. I rejected the burden stitch and oblique burden stitch as being too straight. The petals needed more movement. And I hit on this. It's a zigzag cashmere. Starts with a Watercolours, then a Planet Earth silk, and ends with just a hint of shine provided by Shimmer Floss. The middle will get its own special treatment eventually.

 I started to split stitch my bunny. Original plan called for Alpaca, but to me these bunnies need to be smooth, not fuzzy. So I'm using Pepper Pot and a chenille needle. I'm happy with this. 

 And then we have a piece back from the finisher. I stitched this back at the end of February when I went to Florida. It's the Portland Head lighthouse from ABS Designs. When I started stitching it, I had to google image the lighthouse and find a photo from this direction as 90% of all photos of this are from the other side. LOL (Sorry it looks crooked - that's just the photo. It's not crooked.) I'm so happy that Anne has a ton of these lighthouse ornament canvases as I'm planning on having a large collection.

Catching Up

Will I ever? I feel like there are million things I need to work on and so little time. 

But to encourage myself, as I was looking through photos, I grabbed these.

These five pieces were my UFO Challenge last year. I finished 3 out of 5. That beauty with the turquoise and orange is still languishing. And this weekend I've got another class. 

That multiple canvas piece, which is Gay Ann Rogers Echoes of Elizabeth is also not done. Major guilt. But they are both a little bit further along than these photos show. I haven't given up entirely. 

 

I pulled this out of my stash to stare at after seeing the movie, Tim's Vermeer. If you haven't seen it, I will highly recommend it for your viewing pleasure. The obsession and detail in that movie are astounding. 
 

And here is the piece I bought last June really intending to have made major project by now. I haven't even pulled threads yet. This one is waiting me for me to feel like I can do it justice. I'm getting closer every day. Just not quite there yet.

Here Comes Donna

Here comes Donna with a big a$$ project... 

 

At the end of April I took a canvas embellishment class with Beth Robertson and Suzanne Howren and in June we meet again. 

I found this canvas on my travels in Florida at Needlepoint in Paradise. It's a wonderful full service needlepoint shop in Naples if you ever happen to get down that way. I saw it hanging up high on the wall and I just couldn't resist it. It's a Melissa Shirley design piece by the artist Linda Carter Holman. 

I've got one strawberry finished except for the beads which obviously get put on last. Also started my branches with the new Silk Straw thread. I've got one lily finished except for the middle, but I'm stitching the stuff around the lillies before doing their centers. There's a lot going on on this canvas. Birds, butterflies, bunnies, flowers, strawberries, tablecloth(or is that the table?), and that vase! Lots of discussion on the vase. 

I've got a long way to go, but it makes me smile every time I look at it. When I was young I had a dutch bunny named Sneakers. She was a happy, lively little thing. I guess that's why I like this so much. 

In other stitchy news:
Lots of projects going on. A couple of gift type things so I can't post about them.