For the Grands

This year's ornaments for the granddaughters. Both are Kathy Shenkel mini socks with inserts. 

My stitches. These work up so fast and are simply adorable 

Oh Cr@p

How did I let so much time pass before posting? Well, a kidney infection followed by a virus with a high fever and hives. And suddenly I lost two weeks of preparation for the Christmas season. 

 So here are some ornaments I added to my tree this year. A retired Treglown canvas that I chose to take on my trip to Italy last year. I love 13 ct for traveling.

And two sweaters from Studio Midwest. One for my hubby and one for me.

Thanks for the Reminder

So reading the Bloggess reminded me I haven't updated in nearly a month. 

That's because I've been in gift making mode. 

My labors are almost finished and soon I can post photos again.

So this is a I'm still standing post.

#gottabead part II

 Time for an update. I fixed my moon. Then decided I couldn't live with the lack of symmetry. So I photocopied the piece, found my center at the top, carried it to the bottom and drew in my right side. Easy peasy.

Then I finished my fence. Ripped out the top which I will redo, paying more attention. Started my purple background and I'm pleased. BTW, this is a Cheryl Schaeffer canvas.

#gottabead

I went off to Seminar thinking of beading which is weird as neither of my classes involved beads.

And we even stopped at a bead store, oops, two beads stores where I didn't buy beads.

I was even dreaming about beading 

So I bought two Fern Ridge scissor fob kits from ABC Stitch which ran the shop at Seminar.

I did the peyote part of Salty Halloween on Wednesday and the fringe today. I love a quick project that looks so great. Tremendous satisfaction to be had.

But apparently that isn't enough  Because I resurrected this canvas that I started last January. I went a bit astray on the right side of the moon. So today I ripped and began that section again. Funny, I never realized how crooked this canvas is until I was looking at the photo. Don't think I'll attempt to fix that. Lol.

Home Again

 Unfortunately our time in Louisville has run out. Out of the hotel around 7 and off to Wild Eggs for coffee and sustenance.

My travel companions son insisted we stop in Lesage at Hillbilly Hotdogs. So we did.

 True work of American kitsch here.

 We ate on a bus. And admired all the signatures of previous customers 

 Bye, bye Louisville. You were grand.

Diamond Jubilee

 Old logo

 New logo

 OMG. Milkwood, a restaurant by Chef Edward Lee. My duck breast appetizer.

 My drink, Everything Was Beautiful

And from Bourbon Down Under, a Southern Comfort Biscuit.

I love this place  No needlework photos till I'm happy with my progress on my 4-day class.

An Elegant Brooch

First class, a one-day with Kaye Judt. An introductory goldwork class. 

 Begins with basting the design.

 Then onto couching the pearl purl.

 Next we couched some Kreinik braid 

Next, chipping the bright check, stitching some Rays, and add a Rivoli. I'll make this into a pin when I get home.

Louisville

Here we are, back in Louisville for the 60th year celebration of the Embroiderers' Guild of America.

It's Wednesday morning and time for my first class to begin  

Lincolnmania

I have a thing for our 16th President. Finally pulled this Ann Brinkley design out of my stash.

Can't believe I chose to basketweave the sky with Silk Lame 18, but here I am. Time for a second card  

A Blur

Life’s been a blur lately. My son and his family have been staying with us as they move from Italy to Ft Sill, Oklahoma.

The girls are so adorable and so active.

They are on their way west and we’re here in Virginia in a very quiet house.

But I did give the older granddaughter her first needlepoint kit. And gave my daughter in law her first cross stitch.

Serious Moonlight

I created this original piece (an adaptation because I used a photograph ) of David Bowie in answer to the Quest Challenge, music.

Two sets of background threads, six stitches.

A Ziggy tribute in the upper right 

I'm happy with my third place ribbon 

ANG Time

It's time for the Stars and Stripes Seminar to begin  I will be there  but first I have to work today and tomorrow. I will arrive on Friday  

This year I have two pieces in the exhibit. One is our Chapter's versions of Sue Kerndt's Holiday Patches. From the photo  you can see I changed things. My version features map fabric for my map guy. I even found Honolulu on a map! The second piece is an original  More on that later...

Mini Sock

Great to get something back from finishing. This one will always make me smile. Not only because we had a fantastic vacation in Hawaii a few years ago and stayed right on Waikiki. But because my hubby was born in Honolulu. 

I've got three more ornaments at the finishers making a total of four new ones for our tree. 

I could just stitch ornaments all the time. Small areas and the immediate reward of finishing each section. 

Here's the stitch I used on the building at the bottom right. It's double stitch. Very useful for texture. You could use two different threads. 

Ambrosia Honey

I started Ambrosia Honey last fall. This is an EGA Stitch-Along project.

Thanks to my bestie, I copied her idea to flip the ribbon from the right to the left. My own colorway. I pulled the original colors and decided to go a different way.

My Guild has been working on this project and we got to the bee section back in May. I started my bee using Glisten, a wool with a metallic from Rainbow Gallery.

After think about for 3 months while stitching other things  I've ripped my bee. Now I have to decide between a metallic, shiny bee and a fuzzy turkey work bee. Always making things harder for myself 

What's Happening?

Many apologies for my time away. 

Here's an ornament I've sent to the finisher today. I believe this canvas is discontinued.

I took it to Italy last year and barely started it. Picked it up this year to bring to a friend's wake. She was a stitcher and I'm sure she was cheered by the sight of her friends stitching with her for one final time.

So thanks, JoAnn. It finally finished. 

Strawberry

Finished the stitching on this Succulent Strawberry months ago. This was a class I took with Barbara Jackson back in 2011.

Finally did the finishing yesterday. Put weightiin to attempt to make it stay on the side on I want  but it shifted and that's a fail. Typical of me. 

I couldn't find the bone ring I bought for the top of this, but I can always add it later. Started to stitch the veins on the wool leaves, but didn't like it and decided to go plain.

Also finished my mini sock. Forgot to take a photo before I left it for finishing  But we'll see it again in a few months. 

Palm Fronds

Palm fronds completed. I love how they turned out.

Giving up on the clouds and doing basketweave with DMC Blanc.

Mini Sock Redux

This little canvas has been a series of problems to figure out. I solved the building  then turned to Diamond Head. 

This is basketweave with DMC floss and an occasional stitch with a #8 Kreinik braid for a bit of shine. Turns out that I can stitch this kind of random. (Other kinds of random are uber difficult for me.)

Next I tried to solve my clouds  So far I've ripped out a straight milanese, little wavy, and plain basketweave.

So let's leave the clouds on go to the thing that has bothered me from the start - those palm leaves. Color is not right as painted as it's too blue. But I don't want to stray too far from what is painted.

Nailed it first try. Reverse chain stitch with Petite Frosty Rays. Yay! 

Return to Samplers

So much of this year has been spent stitching on two canvas pieces. But I have finished a sampler which means I picked up another sampler.

Photos of my finish still to come. But here's what I have picked up. All I had stitched in 2011 was my joining band. It is a design by Pamela Darney called the Yellow Rose sampler.

I'm making this as a wedding sampler. Love the Picture This Plus linen. And of course Gloriana threads. 

Last Finish of 2017

Neko Atsume cat, Miss Fortune. Done as a gift for my Virginia sister. I had the perfect frame for it. 

At my house we call these Happy Cats.  

Yes. I said I was updating my progress...

Mini Sock

Boy. New phone has led me to discover the source of my problems with the Blogger app. They haven't updated it in 2 years. And the solution is to access through your browser  Ugh.

Not a good answer. But I'm trying.

Before I start updating all my stitching for the past two months  here's a little mini sock from In Good Company. 

Started in January as mindless stitching at a retreat. Not in love with my water, but don't dislike it enough to redo! 

Mini socks can be finished flat or as an open stocking which is the perfect size for a gift card. 

This one is for us to remember a fabulous vacation staying at the Hilton Waikiki.

Mackintosh Kimono

Last week I got to runaway for two days of class with the talented Toni Gerdes. 

Now she was teaching three separate guilds all within driving distance. But the art deco Mackintosh Kimono spoke to me the most. I already have her Frank Lloyd Wright Kimono. And soon there will be a Klimt Kimono. 

I drove out to Harrisonburg to join the Shenandoah Valley ANG Chapter for this class. They meet in the Virginia Quilt Museum and occasionally we had quilt museum visitors wander around (and we were on our best behavior whenever we had guests.) Not that we ever weren't on our best behavior. But we do sometimes like to complain, in a nice way. Of course. 

Like when I opened my thread kit and realized that there were two spools of Accentuate in the same color. That's a lot of Accentuate. 

Toni started us right in on the one thing that none of us had experience with - the Wire Lace or Wonder Ribbon. What this stuff is from the Fusion Bead website:  WireLace® ribbon is an innovative product for making jewelry! Made of fine, woven brass, copper or aluminum wire and bonded with an enamel coating to create a variety of stunning colors. 

In bead stores, you'll find it as Wire Lace. In needlepoint stores, it might be repackaged as Wonder Ribbon or it might be Wire Lace. It comes in multiple sizes - 1mm, 3mm, 6mm, and 12mm. 

If you look in the column under the rose, the one with the double helix stem, that's Wonder Ribbon that we have stretched between two balloon sticks and then stitched down. With Accentuate of course. 

So we now have this sheer wire ribbon tacked down and can stitch over it. In fact, we can see through it to see our placement of the stem. Pretty darn cool. 

We got to work the various patterns of our roses. Our checkerboards. We stretched some Flair and worked jessicas over it for our rosebuds. We had some lively discussions of stitch names, learned our backgrounds stitches. In general, we had a great time and it was over far too soon. And how to outline everything.

There's a part of me that wants to zip right through this project, but something else is calling my name. In fact, I'm leaving the computer to go back upstairs and stitch some more on it. More on this soon!

Latest Acquisition

I need to just begin somewhere to catch up. So here's what a friend brought me. She found it in a quilt store.

I've never done sashiko.

This looks like fun!

 

Wow, wow

Can't believe how long it's been since I posted.

Real life has interfered.

I've got lots of catching up to do, so stay tuned.

Camp Wannastitch

Because of personal things, my ability to pack this year for camp was compromised. I totally forgot my goldwork project and Olivia Ostrich.

I made massive progress on my current crewel piece and would have finished but ran out of overdyed Pearsalls silk. Oops. 

Also finished stitching and beading my Kurdy Biggs paper piece and I forgot to bring things needed for finishing.

And my only finish was this little Fern Ridge pin called Daddy Long Legs. 

New Year, New(ish) Project

While casting around for which project to pick up first in the New Year, I remembered that the Loudoun Sampler Guild was taking on Queenstown's Phebe Nichols as a stitch along. 

I had barely started it. And worse, I already had a mistake. Started stitching and whoops, another mistake. Three threads in and I have made two big errors. Have I totally forgotten how to count? I sure hope not. 

My fabric is a Lakeside Linen, but which one I didn't right down. I used a conversion chart and am stitching with Cosmo floss. 

Cosmo is a six-stranded cotton from Japan made from long-staple Egyptian cotton. It feels yummy.