wooley thoughts

THE RUG CAMP THAT WAS

2012-01-26T17:15:00.000-05:00

I had hoped to do a long post about Off the Ocean rug camp which ended yesterday. However I have been extremely busy and feel I better break this up in two posts.

First I am going to show you my rug which I absolutely adore.

I selected Dianne Kelly from Ohio for my teacher again. I have had Dianne as a teacher 3 or 4 times before and I love her wool - I have always liked every rug she has planned for me and this one is no exception.

My canvas was adapted by combining two lovely cross stitch patterns by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle fame. Yes I did contact Brenda months ago and ask her permission to create her design on rug hooking canvas. Most designers have no problem with this as long as you purchase the chart (s) and do not mass produce their work which I would never ever consider anyway. Just common sense stuff. My friend and our local certified rug hooking teacher Katie Puckett took the charts and did the tracing for me to linen. To say I am pleased is an absolute understatement - I AM IN LOVE with my project. It is evidenced by the amount of hooking I did in 4 days. Last year my camp experience was disasterious - I was very sick - missed one whole day of class in the bed and tried to breathe life into a former project. To say I was miserable last year was also an understatement.

Anyway - without further ado - here is my precious Santa and Ewe.

EGADS ! I have no idea why these came thru sideways - I don't know how to fix it either because when I saved the photos on my desktop they were correctly positioned. Oh well - rug hooking is so large - I think you can all see the photos so I'm going to press on here.

TOO CUTE ! I just love how they came out.

No those stringy gold things on the feather tree are not going to stay that way - it is just a technique used to make a small dot like an eye - once the hooking is filling the backround - those long strands will be cut even with the loops.

My sheepy is just precious - I used the same wool in the swirls to do Santa's wooly trim on his hat. Of course Santa shares the wooly warmth of his friend.

the holly border and the reindeer, tree and house on the other side that I did not focus in on are elements that came from the Sampler of the Season chart also by With Thy Needle. It is a perfect way to frame out the Santa and Ewe. Just love the folky look of this design. You can't see much of the backround but it is a snowy whitish grayish bluish color. Can't wait to see more of the backround go in.

Stay tuned for the exhibit photos from this rug camp along with some impromptu shots from the hooking room.

THE SMELL OF PINE

2011-12-24T12:27:00.000-05:00

AWWWW Christmastime - How I love it - the music - the lights - the decorations - the festive occasions - seasonal stitching.

Here is something I have been working on for the past couple of weeks and am really loving how it is coming out. It is Poinsettias and Pines by Blue Ribbon Designs. I changed my fabric to the lovely Sugar and Spice linen from Australia - I ordered it several years ago and I think it is called Marble Crunch. I love how Naomi does her sparkly linen. The threads are Belle Soie as charted except I had to change the white to a pale silvery gray on the snowflakes so they would show up better on this linen. In the new year I hope to get a real camera so I can take better photos - I am using my IPhone and think they should be better but alas they still look fuzzy and crummy. My nice Canon digital got stolen when our house got broken into a couple of years ago and I did not ever replace it. Anyway you get the idea - I am missing one tree there but I will finish it up today.

The other piece I worked on earlier in December was Merry Christmas by BBD from the Joyeaux Noel book. I am shortening it up a bit from what was charted but I know the wording will fit. It is on a leftover piece of R&R fabric with the called for Crescent Colors cotton. It will be a cute pin pillow one day.

I am starting a new project tomorrow on Christmas Day - It will be a fun one instead of a serious repro sampler. I am starting 6 Fat Men by Lizzie Kate. I loved the bright colors she used - all overdyes and I am using some long stashed 28ct Antique Cotton linen by R&R - I thought using a larger count linen might make it more whimsical - of course for those who do beautiful over one stitching or on a very fine count - that also has the same wonderful effect to make some things very whimsical.

I'd love to hear what from you if you are starting a new project for Christmas Day or New Years. Our sampler guild (Azalea) is starting Ann Dale as an SAL for 2012 (and maybe the rest of our lives LOL). I hope my supplies will be here for a NYE/NYD start but most of our group has been wait listed along with the rest of the country for the vintage pear linen. I managed to find a piece from Traditional Stitches - Janice is great to deal with - I had ordered the Mystery Sampler and several other things from her in 2011 and was extremely pleased with her customer care.

Well - I thank each and every one of you for visiting my blog this year. I have new followers but it still vexes me as to why those followers don't show up on my side bar any more. I see this same thing on others blogs so I know it's not just mine. Anyway if you are new to my blog - welcome!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas spent with family and friends and that you find time in the hustle and bustle of the holiday weekend to spend time with your needle.

Merry Christmas ~ ~ ~

MAGICAL SANTA

2011-12-11T16:26:00.000-05:00

Having a new Santa come to live at my house can be a magical thing. Especially this Santa.

My dad is a very prolific stitcher - I have shown his beautiful work many times before. Sadly he does not really care for stitching samplers but he did do the lovely Rachel Hyde for me and I'm hoping he may be interested in stitching the Solomons Temple sampler on the cover of the new SANQ.

This is the Winter White Santa - design number 100 for Mirabilia. He prefers Mirabilia designs and has stitched many of them over the years.

This was our first experience using Michaels and while they were not inexpensive like I was hoping - they did do a wonderful job. My mom picked out the gorgeous moulding all by herself and I must say it is absolutely perfect for this piece - she also picked the silver gray velour mat used on the top. When I arrived at Michaels that day - she was struggling for an inner mat and I picked the midnight blue. So this beautiful Santa is already hanging on my wall - I went out in wind and ugly weather to pick him up today.

With no further ado - here he is

apparently I can't take straight photo to save my life - sorry about the crack on my couch cushions.

Between the horrible lighting and my crummy IPhone photo - you really can't see any of the beauty and details in all the beading.

A close up shot of the frame moulding and a bit of the beading around the tree. Take my word for it - it is just a lovely piece - I can brag because it is my dad's work and my mom's framing choices - so I'm allowed to gush over this piece. EXQUISITE ! So magical - that is all I can say.

THE SURPRISE IS REVEALED

2011-12-05T17:47:00.000-05:00

Last week I showed a few sneak peek shots of a needlepoint ornament I completed in a finishing class I took in Savannah at the French Knot.

Since the ornament is christmas related - I wanted to make sure the recipient was able to enjoy it during the holiday season.

With no further delay here is Kris' Kats

I am SOOOOO proud of the finishing on this ornament. I wish I was a better photographer and if I used a real camera instead of my handy IPhone I would probably get better results. Anyway - you can see the previous post if you missed it for details close up on the details of the ornament.

Two of these sweet kitties appear in Kris' current avatar - the little tortie Maize placing the star on top of the tree and the silver striped all male Curtis Willis. The black one on the bottom and the Siamese have gone on to the rainbow bridge but I knew them both. This ornament just jumped into my hands last year when I attended the finishing class at French Knot. I knew DF Kris would love it and I was not disappointed in her reaction. I do think she loves seeing the kids in this whimsical colorful ornament.

Thanks for all your kind comments in the previous post - I'm glad I could do the reveal sooner rather than later.

Hope you are all enjoying sights and sounds of the season. Cheers !

GIVEAWAY AND A SURPRISE

2011-12-01T18:09:00.000-05:00

I am terribly remiss in doing a blog post to show photos and thank Lauren from the awesome Rugs and Pugs blog for the wonderful giveaway gifts she sent to me. I think everyone knows I LOVE WOOL - hence the name Woolwoman and Wooley thoughts - I knit with wool (well mostly) and I hook with wool and sometimes I stitch with wool too.

When I signed up for Lauren's giveaway - I never dreamed I would win. NEVER - however I did WIN and WOWWEEEEE did I win.

Lauren send a lovely box of textured wool already washed and dried and ready to hook. Lots of lovely wools - I was in shock - first that I even won and then how lovely the gift was.

Then buried inside the box was this darling scrabble stand and blocks spelling wool - now I just need to find the woman blocks and I'll be happy as a clam. This is right up on the shelf with my favorite wooden trinkets.

Buried in the box was this awesome silver pendant - I had seen these on Lauren's blog but had no idea that was part of the giveaway - It looks great on one of my favorite silver chains and Lauren did not know this about me but I wear a lot of silver jewelry and am never without a silver pendant around my neck. The first rug guild meeting I wore this to - our local teacher and director of Off the Ocean rug camp just had a fit over it. A crummy photo but you can see the w o o l engraved into the silverware handle.

Many thanks Lauren - you rock !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was in Savannah again recently and took another awesome ornament finishing class from the French Knot

I took this same class from Audrey last year and finished my seahorse into an ornament. It hangs year round keeping miss mermaid company in our sun room. Last year - the finishing was very different - everything was done either on a machine or stitched by hand. This year the glue gun was my new best friend.

I was very apprehensive about gluing - Oh My I thought - GLUE - egads - not sure I can put glue on my beautiful ornament but Audrey assured me that unless it was an heirloom piece that she would not hesitate to finish with glue and that many finishers use glue. OK - so let's jump into the gooey glue. I had never in my life handled a glue gun - I guess that is why they call it "hot glue gun" DUH - it does get very hot. Anyway - here are just a few sneak peeks of my ornament - it is going to go to a DF of mine and just in case she sees the blog - I don't want to spoil her surprise but I could not resist telling you about my great class and showing a few sneak shots.

Audrey has an extensive collection of trims, baubles, fabrics and treasures. If you love needlepoint, fibers or accessories and you are in Savannah - do pay her a visit . She also does lovely and unusual finishing and has a website to purchase from if you can't pay a visit in person. Her wall of fibers is not to be believed.

Look at the darling tassle that hangs on one side

I adore the christmas lights that are on the bottom of the ornament. I did sew all these on by hand. They were the finishing touch on my ornament and I think they are perfect to set it off and give it some whimsy.

I will show a photo of the finished ornament once it is gifted.

I have been working on nothing but this ornament - I knew I had a deadline and simply had to finish before this class. So I have no other stitching progress to show and I did not allow myself to do much knitting either. Nose to the grindstone and I did get it done.

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday. Can't believe today is December 1st - Christmas in 24 days and counting. only 30 days till 2012 - I hope each and every one of you has a wonderful holiday season - turn on your favorite christmas songs and enjoy the season !

WHAT !!!!!! LOOK WHO'S 50 TODAY

2011-11-14T16:11:00.000-05:00

Jody or JD as he sometimes calls himself is 50 years young today. I can't believe how the years have flown by. Ours is an interesting story - I have known Jody since he was just a kid riding his bike around our neighborhood. He was and still is best friends with my only cousin - they are only 4 days apart and grew up in the 'hood together. While they have somewhat drifted apart - they still keep in touch by phone but since we have all moved away from the area we grew up - the boys are now seperated by about 25 miles. So in essence - I have known Jody for probably 40+ years and we have been together as a couple since 1980 when I finally saw him one day with my cousin and thought 'HUMMM' - is that Jody??? Wow he has grown up and is pretty cute. I was in between boyfriends at the time and since he is almost 5 years younger than I am I had never viewed him as anything other than "my cousins BFF".

Jody is a very talented musician - he has played in various bands over the years and has been really missing not having any equipment to not only fill some void in his life but also just to keep limber and stay involved with making music. So for his 50th - I bought him a new Ibanez bass (don't ask me the model - there were dozens of them and I get confused) it is a beautiful very deep navy blue metallic and I think the color was called metallic thunderstorm. He also got a "combo" amp - it pales in comparison to the giant stacks of towering equipment he used to have when he was playing in local bands and doing gigs. I'm really glad he moved out of that phase but I have no doubt he was good enough to be in a professional touring band - I'm just selfish and glad he did not go down that rock and roll highway.

I wanted to get a photo of him holding the guitar but he was too shy.

Here are just a few shots of my best friend Jody. My soulmate - my buddy.

This one taken on the porch at my parents house at the lake is one of my faves. I think he is still a very handome dude and has lots of beautiful thick hair - I'm always trying to get him to let it grow long again but that is selfish of me. Who wants all that long hot hair to deal with down here in sweltering NE FL.

Having fun on the lake - that must have been summer before last because the lake was so low this past summer from no rain that my folks could not even get their boat out of the boathouse.

Happy Birthday my love - may you have many happy healthy returns.

THE PARTRIDGE on PEAR

2011-11-03T18:02:00.000-04:00

I always struggle with blog titles - pardon me for being silly. There is a partridge - I tried to think about finding a pear to take a photo of but I could not. Thereby - my silly blog title. There is a partridge and it is "on" pear - vintage pear linen that is . har har

Too bad I am such a poor photographer - however here is a photo of my finish of the BBD partridge bonus chart. It was stitched with the called for Belle Soie silks - two strands so the color is vivid and rich.

I used a wonderful pre-made box I found on vacation at 3 Sisters Antiques and Needlework in Knoxville Tenn. It has stenciled colonial type designs on all 4 sides and the top which is now covered. I thought it was just perfect.

Looks like I had too much light on the subject but I could not get the designs on the box itself to show up. It has ball feet and it was a gift for DF Carol for her October birthday. I gave this to Carol when she came up for our EGA guilds workshop with Ellen Chester (more on that event in another post) and I just did not get a photo of Carol with the box. I'm sorry that opportunity slipped by me. Anyway I am "finishing" challenged so I was pretty proud of my accomplishment. I ended up pinning the piece to the mat board instead of lacing like the BBD instructions said - I just could not get that to work - of course I have zero experience in that realm so I was quick to get exasperated with it. Once I pinned it - then gluing the chenille to the box did not work for my project either - so I had to couch the chenille in place to cover the pin heads. All in all - I was very pleased with the finish.

Here is the darling little Liberty Hill Scissor Box set. It was SO wonderful and really came in handy with the partridge finishing and using all those nasty pins which needed to be corralled and contained but yet within reach. It is always fun to add to my LH collection.

Two blog posts in one week - WOW - amazing. I still can't figure out why my "followers" dont' show up on my blog any more - if anyone knows how to correct that problem - please enlighten me. Next post I hope to show a few photos from the wonderful workshop we had with Ellen Chester. Until then - happy stitching/knitting and hooking.

IT'S A WOOL THING

2011-10-28T16:57:00.000-04:00

While in Auburn AL a couple of weeks ago - I went to a favorite quirky cafe. This place takes up about 3 acres - it is a nursery, garden accessory and now fresh market with a cafe. I think it is called the Crepe Myrtle Cafe. Anyway - how fun to see all these beautiful fall flowers and pumpkins. So festive!

Sure would have loved to take some of this stuff back home with me but I did bring back some great stuff this time. Do you know about Wickles - they are based out of Alabama and they make the best condiments and pickles. We can get some basic stuff here in NE FL like their Hellish relish - awesome! your tuna salad will never be the same. Anyway - they have a whole case of Wickles products at this market and I love their pickled okra as well.

The other awesome thing I did was visit this great new yarn shop in Auburns sister city of Opelika.

The Yarnhouse Studio is AWESOME! It looks tiny from the outside but once inside - WOW - did I say WOW - the shop is gorgeous.

Owner Cary said it was a jewelry store and they had beautiful built in shelves made of lovely wood.

There was a knit night going on so I was able to visit after I got off work. I was so pleasantly surprised at how welcoming Cary and her Mom were.

Not only do they have gorgeous yarns but they also have some yummy fabrics. You might say this was a one stop shop for anything creative you might have in mind.

they also teach weaving and spinning -

Found some beautiful Malabrigo Rios there. I had one skein on hand from Savannah but it did not match too well so I will definitely have to blend the two skeins.

The gorgeous Madeline Tosh Vintage which I had never tried before in Cove - A really dreamy colorway - the new Knitscene Winter issue has a shawl done in Vintage so i am NOT-SO-PATIENTLY waiting on that to arrive at the LYS - I was going to make something else with it so I already know the yarn is beyond wonderland to knit with.

Another absolutely gorgeous yarn I found at Yarnhouse was Fiberphile MCN - OMG - Too bad there was only one skein in this colorway - which is Fortress and it is a fingering weight - will make a nice shawlette - do you see a Trend here with yarn buying. Yep Fall is here and I am in the wool fever.

This beautiful beginning is a baby afghan I am making for a friend who is having her first grandbaby in the spring. This is Spud & Chloe Sweater in Ice Cream. I had a lot of trouble choosing a pattern - I wanted something that would move along that I could finish in a few months but I also wanted something delicate and elegant. I settled on Heirloom a pattern by Madeline Tosh.

Well - Happy Friday - I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and if you are like me - Loving and living the wool life - ENJOY!

CLOUD HOPPING AND A FALL FINISH !

2011-10-11T17:24:00.000-04:00

Oh my goodness - time just flies on by - I can't believe it's been so long since I have made a blog post.

It is officially fall here - not according to the temperature - it was 85 just now when I made a Starbucks run. EGADS - had to run the A/C on full blast and I got an iced pumpkin spice latte instead of a seasonal hot one.

I wanted to introduce you to Petunia the Pig - She looks kinda like a pony - I tried getting a side shot but looked like a baby donkey so this is it. This is by the same folk artisan that did my Harriet the hare and the bunny baby on the giant carrot. The Jack is distressed wool and I love his face. Actually this was a birthday gift from my mom and it has been put away until it was time to come out and play.

I have been busy with work and when I'm real busy with work that usually means lots of travel. Have been taking more trips on the company plane lately. Here is a shot of the beautiful clouds on a recent trip home on the plane - it looks so surreal when you are up in the air.

and the finish - WHOOOOOOO - I finally finished - well finished the stitching part on the BBD Partridge from the Loose Feathers Part 1 booklet - I can't wait to show you what I have planned for this piece. I just need to get to the finishing part - yep - don't faint - I am going to do that myself and hopefully next post I will have the real finish to show you. I used the called for Vintage Pear by LL and the called for Belle Soie silks - 2 strands made the coloring very vivid. This was my first time using Dinky Dye silks and I must say I was very impressed.

For a long time I was stumped on what to do with those wheat sheaves/sheaths or whatever they are and I apologize to anyone who knows way more than I do about farms and so forth. I put this close up so you could see how they were drawn on the far right and how the stitched ones looked on the far left. I think this stitch is working out well. The orangey ones are a mix of Vineyard silk and Planet Earth stranded silk and the golden ones are 2 colors of Planet Earth - I actually love that fiber too - my first time using it as well. I'm not a big fan of the vineyard - it gets easily distressed and to me looks just like perle cotton. I asked a fellow ega member about it and she said maybe I was using too long a strand - well not in my opinion and then she said I should pay careful attention to make sure I was stitching with the correct grain - EGADS - if I have to be so particular about all that - I would just avoid using it. I'm not knocking their product - just sharing my observations - I don't want negative comments because I am ditzing someone's favorite silk. We all have our preferred products to stitch with and I'm just sharing my opinions.

Here is the full shot - not much left to go now - I wish I had picked it up earlier this summer so it would be done for the fall season but alas I am always a day late and a dollar short. I'll enjoy stitching it in the season and when it is done - it is done ! I am not sure what to do with the sky - I definitely want black but I might experiment with Gloriana Florimell in Antique Black - I adore this fiber - but then I adore Soie D'Alger the base for this thread. I don't know what fiber to use for the stars - I do want them sparkly so I am thinking Krenik probably but I'll try several things until I find the perfect solution.

I never could understand what those black things below the fence were meant to be - rocks? Buckets - oh well whatever they were - they are going to be dirt in my field and I will put in those grassy shoots last on top of all the stitching. I have really enjoyed this piece. Just a reminder it is Autumn House by Melissa Shirley Designs and I just went wild with stashed fibers using many different things. I did buy a few new things but at least half or more of it was from my vast stash of threads.

Haven't shown my Spanish sampler in a long time. This is only 1/2 of the sampler - the right side is stitched. Sad to say this piece has not gotten much attention this summer - it is is fondly referred to by Jody as the "lap robe" (inside joke) and therefore if you get the hint - this is a 1/2 yard piece of linen and during the dreadfully hot summer months - it was just too hot to work on especially under my bright Daylight lamp. I need to make a point of working on it at least one night a week so that some forward progress is being made.

This is a SAL with the Attic and I saw the first finished Spanish in Jean's recent newsletter. I think the SAL leader has changed a few of the colors in the bands more to her liking - not sure I will make changes - I typically like to be in the ball park of what the original sampler looked like.

So - that concludes a brief tour of what's been going on around my house. I have not been hooking much but hooking always ramps up in the fall and winter. Hopefully I will have enough progress on my scarecrow to show a new photo next time.

Hope you are all enjoying lots of stitching, knitting, hooking, pumpkin pickin' apple eatin' and fall festivals in your neck of the woods. Thanks for stopping by my blog and please leave a comment - I love to hear from ya'll !

A TASTE OF FALL

2011-09-12T18:28:00.000-04:00

Well friends - I am just back from 10 days off work - it was a great vacation. We spent 8 days in the Smokie Mountains in Tenn. We we first arrived Labor Day weekend it was sweltering there - I think it was 98 even hotter than when we left FL. I have loads of family type photos so if you want to skip to the stitchy stuff - feel free to do so.

My folks went up a few days earlier than we did but we have shared a condo space for the past couple of years at this same complex and that worked out well. We both have our own vehicle in case too much togetherness begins to creep into our space. We all get along very well and we have our own bedroom and bath so it works for us.

Here is a shot from the balcony and down below is the cottage we stayed in last year. they were nice but NO view at all so we preferred to be in the tower.

If you have been to Pigeon Forge Tenn - you are familar with the Christmas Store and maybe the Christmas Inn owned by the same folks. Well now they have the Partrige and Pear restaurant. We went there for dinner last year but Mom found they were open for lunch so that was our first stop on Saturday. Here is a shot of their beautiful mantel. The entire restaurant is decorated for Christmas year round. there is a neat photo of my folks and Jody with Santa but it got out of order and I can't seem to fix it.

This is a shot of the haul from the farm stand in the No Ga mountains on the way home. This Longaberger gathering basket is running over with 3 kinds of beans and peas and bell peppers - Have you ever seen a purple bell pepper - I haven't - so there is one in there that is purple. Fresh apples and see the huge heads of cabbage just cut from the field. One variety of peas was so fresh - it still had the morning dew on it when the box was dumped into the bin - oh and the fresh corn too that did not get into the shot.

I love pottery. These 2 soup bowls and a little container for sweetner packets are from the Pigeon River Pottery. They have so many gorgeous pieces both decorative and utilitarian.

Here is a shot of Jody on our favorite perch. We did not get to enjoy the balcony as much as we had hoped to. The view of the Smokie mountain range is incredible. We had 3 days of rain and dreary weather when the effects of Lee headed up our way. Thankfully we did not get any of the horrible flooding issues that folks up north got. How sad they got both Irene and Lee - it has been a dramatic and odd storm season and not to minimize the pain and suffering and loss of property and disruption to their lives but I surely hope we don't get any storms in NE FL this year.

We enjoy collecting BBQ sauce too - not just collecting - we use it - See that 1/2 gallon jug of Applewood Farm BBQ sauce YEEHAW - we were thrilled to see it put up in this quantity - we usually have to buy 16oz bottles and hope they last thru the year. We got Tomlinson's mustard last year and it is unique. The no name bottle came from a backwoods BBQ Shack (yes that's the name) in Toccoa GA - on the edge of the mountains - the food was great and their sauce was interesting.

This is just outside the Pigeon Forge Pottery - every where you look in the Old Mill complex the flowers and beds are gorgeous.

Here's the Santa shot outside the Partridge and Pear.

The highlight of the trip for me was visiting 3 Sisters Antiques and Needlework in Knoxville Tenn. I was excited to finally be able to visit the shop - it definitely did not disappoint. Deb the owner said they had a webpage but I have never been able to find it so I can't provide a link to it. They have some awesome antique pieces and while the stitching stuff is contained to one room - it is nicely interspersed with the antiques and collectibles.

I consider myself to be a pretty savvy sampler shopper but Deb had a few things on her walls I have never seen. I did not get any photos of my mom perusing around but believe me she was busy collecting her own stash haul. Mom got the new Needlework Press chart called How does your Garden Grow and made her first foray into Belle Soie silks.

Here are the 3 charts and linen I got. I knew I wanted the BBD Halloween Eve and was delighted it was in stock along with the called for confederate gray linen. Apparently I missed Eve by La D Da when it came out in 2004 or maybe that was before the A&E craze hit. Anyway she had a shop model and it is too cute and I found a great Silkweaver linen called Rock Quarry that seemed to go nicely with the silk colors.

Heartstring Samplery was new to me. They had this model on the wall too and stitched on this gorgeous Silkweaver linen called cinnamon ? something I can't remember but it was just too beautiful not to get some and I love the sampler.

Mom and I were supposed to be stitching Halloween pieces on this trip and I did bring along All Hallows Eve by Chessie & Me but the over 1 alphabet got to me right away. I did not have anything but my tabletop OTT light and no extra magnification other than my prescription glasses - so I just could not work the over one when not at home so fortunately I brought along my BBD Partridge. I got tons done on him.

The other project that captured my attention was this shawlette pattern which I downloaded off RAV - it is called Tanta and it is by Emily Ross - it has a very cool sawtooth border on each edge of the shawl. For any knitters out there - it is done in Malabrigo Sock and the Arbol colorway. That is my "taste of fall". I figure I am about 1/2 way done.

Here is a close up shot that shows the beautiful fallish colors of this colorway and better detail of the sawtooth border. I could see myself doing this same pattern again - it is an 8 row repeat and has just enough variety to be interesting but not enough to require your full attention.

That about concludes my "taste of fall" tour. We were delighted that Lee did bring much cooler weather to our vacation spot. All week last week it was in the 50's at night and in the 70's during the day - it was glorious to be cool again after such a long hot summer. The minute we left the mountains on our way home on Saturday - it was roll up the windows - close the sun roof and turn on the A/C - oh well - at least we had a preview of what's coming to us within the next few weeks.

BIRTHDAY GIRL

2011-08-23T14:10:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my DM birthday - I think she looks great for her age - she would kill me if I published her age in print.
Here she is surrounded by the gifts from her girl group and her family. Standing up next to her is a new OTT Light that we got for her so she can see really well when she is stitching at my house.

She and my dad invited Jody and I to join them for dinner at Morton's last night - it is our favorite "special occasion" restaurant and the meal certainly did not disappoint. So that was a treat for all of us.

Here is a great photo of Mom sporting her beautiful "Just Enough Ruffles" scarf handknit by DF Henrietta. It is a beautiful subtle shade of green and actually looked great with what she had on. Look at the beautiful card Henri created for Mom's birthday greeting. Henri is so creative with her paper crafting and she also is holding an awesome BBD chart "Gathering Basket" - she is already looking forward to stitching it and finding some cool pins to stick in the pin pillow. It's so great to have thoughtful friends like Henrietta.

DF Kerrie gave my mom a neat sweetgrass basket. I am sick I did not get a photo of it at rug guild on Sunday. it was a very unusual shape and I think mom intends to use it for a snippet basket to put wool clippings in. Kerrie picked up this neat basket while in Charleston recently. The art of basketmaking is still alive in Charleston but the prices have gone up dramatically in the past few years and the basket maker told Kerrie they are having to go farther and farther away from Charleston to obtain their grasses for making the baskets - why they even come to NE FL to harvest the grasses. Coastal building is really inhibiting the growth of sea grasses - how sad this tradition is slowly dying out .

I showed a beautiful Noro jacket in the last post I was knitting for my mom. Since I had not gotten very far along - I decided not to give her a WIP but keep plugging along and maybe give her a finished jacket for Christmas. That gives me a few more months to get it done.

I have no great progress photos to show on my stitching. I did get some good hooking time on my scarecrow at rug guild on Sunday. I'm having lots of fun with him and dreaming of my first Pumpkin Spice Latte and cooler weather in September.

Hope you are all having fall feelings of your own and enjoying time with your needles and hooks!

IT'S A BEACHY THING

2011-08-12T18:31:00.000-04:00

Oh my goodness - what a week this has been at work - I have been trying all week long to make this post. I did not want my friends and followers to think I had succumbed to the heat. I know we are all oppressed this summer and I for one am ready to bid the summer of 2011 bye bye but here in NE FL - I know we have at least 1 more month of really hot weather and it can be in the 90's even into October. I just hope and pray we don't have any bad hurricanes come our way. With all the extreme heat - it always fires up the Atlantic and starts creating storms this time of the year.

On to the fun stuff - the meat of the post - what everyone wants to see - the photos.

Every year for the past umpteen years - we have spent at least one long weekend at St Augustine Beach. I have spent a lot of time in St Aug in my life - I adore St Aug - my grandmothers sister raised her 4 boys in St Aug and their families were reared there so I had lots of cousins and many visits to that area in my life. It is very familiar and I know my way around very well. We have favorite restaurants we always eat at while in town and occasionally we try something different. So come join me and enjoy a few shots of last weekend.

Here is the view of the pool area and beach from our condo balcony. I must say this is as close to the beach as I got - it was so dang HOT - I just wasn't interested in going down there during the day. It was much more fun to stay inside and look out the glass and stitch and knit LOL !

Here's my best friend ( my DH) JD - we did manage to sit out on the balcony for a couple of hours and had a breeze so we didn't expire. While we were sitting out there someone down by the pool was grilling hamburgers and the power of suggestion and sense of smell was so great we decided that we simply must have a hamburger. So we went a few blocks down the street to the Oasis.

Oasis is a true beachy dive - however the food is very good. They have 3 stories of seating including a roof top - this area is interesting - it has 4 walls and even has windows in the walls but no roof - it was amazing that a breeze picked up and just at dusk - it was nice enough to sit in this area that was open to the stars. It was a really neat experience - it's not often that one can sit outside in our area especially in the summertime - what with the ravenous bugs and oppressive heat - it just doesn't happen often.

Very early Sunday morning - like 5am - I could not sleep - so finally at 6am - I got up - walked out on the balcony and snapped this shot of the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean - A rare sight for Ms Mel indeed. Anyone who knows me well knows that if I had my choice I would stay up late and get up late but with work - I am obliged to get up at 7am - getting up before dark is reserved for early flights or vacation departures only !

Sunday morning after we checked out - we had already decided that we wanted to try a restaurant down in the historic area called the Bunnery - We had to park and walk about 1.5 blocks thru the historic district. It wasn't so bad going to the restaurant but coming back at almost 11am - YIKES it was just SOOO hot - I stopped for a quick shot of this beautiful courtyard - it is near the Columbia Restaurant and St George St for anyone who knows St Aug.

Here's my buddy again reluctantly standing for a photo opp next to some old well type thing. He's sporting new sun glasses and we decided they look a lot like those Gargoyle glasses that Arnie wore in the Terminator movies. I guess that was a popular expensive brand in the 80's - his are cheapy knock offs but they looked good on him. Plus who doesn't love a sovenir from a get away.

Just so you know that I do still stitch - this is a shot of the new BBD Loose Feathers bonus piece - those beautiful silks that Alma used in this piece just got me - Plus I love LL Vintage Pear - This is the first time I've used Dinky Dyes silks and I was very impressed with them. The only thing I hate is using 2 strands - AACCKK - but it really does make the colors pop and show up beautifully on the linen.

Closer view of the stitching I have accomplished - A lot of it was done at the beach - I always associate fond memories of stitching certain pieces in certain places. Do you do that too?

For the last shot - here is a jacket that I started for my DM - for any knitting fans it is Noro Furisode - a silk/cotton/wool blend. I hoped to finish it for her birthday but since that is just a couple weeks away - I am doubting i can but it is a short jacket and has elbow length sleeves so there is hope.

I have not been hooking at all - so no progress to report on any rugs. However my next post will focus on the Olde Green Cupboard retreat which is coming up next weekend. I will hopefully get tons of hooking done next weekend and hope to take a lot of photos. this will primarily be a quilt retreat and I hear there will be about 150 people in attendance. Better take my earplugs I guess ! No offense to the quilters out there but hooking is basically quiet compared to the machine noise and can you imagine the chatter from 150 excited crafters. Should be a blast.

I see that I have gained a few followers - welcome ! for some reason - I can't very easily see the followers any more - wonder if Blogger has messed that up too. I love hearing from you so please do leave me a comment and please come back and visit again real soon.

SURELY FALL IS NEAR???

2011-07-18T17:01:00.000-04:00

What a stupid title to this blog post - with record high temps all over the country and the heat index here at 100 + and rising thru the week - I must be delirious from the heat or maybe just day dreaming about fall when I was plundering thru my rug hooking projects on Saturday night looking for something new and different to work on at rug guild yesterday. Meet Mr Fancy Pants. Here is a close up shot of him - Jody made me laugh - he said he looked like that Jeepers Creepers thing in the horror movie - like he was going to jump up and get you any minute. He said he has a sick sadistic look on his face - AAAWWWW - now wasn't that mean of him - I think he is sooooo cute and doesn't look mean or creepy at all to me.

I love this canvas with the whole backround filled with pumpkins and pumpkin leaves. I thought the bird looked like some silly tropical bird instead of a crow so I had someone redraw it for me - I think it was DF Henri or maybe DF Karen - honestly it has been so many years since this guy has seen day light I don't remember who helped me redraw the bird.

My goal is to do every single pumpkin in a different shade of orange and use a lot of textures. It is a very busy canvas and really does require quite a bit of study to make sure you are seeing everything correctly that is going on in this canvas. For any rug hookers out there - the canvas was designed by Bev Conway and is called Punkin Patch or maybe Pumpkin patch and I did this in a 2 day workshop with her some years ago. I've only worked on it a time or two since that workshop about 5 years ago but he is such a cutey and I sure needed a blast of fall feelings yesterday. I am doing this mainly in a 6 cut mostly with wools I bought from Bev at the workshop. I have a lot of browns so I am hoping to find stash for the aged picket fence in the foreground.

Next up is the Figurehead shawl FINISHED and on time for the Camp Loopy KAL with the Loopy Ewe shop. For anyone interested in the knitting stats - it was a design out of the Summer Knitscene mag knitted with the called for Spud and Chloe Sweater which is a worsted weight 50 wool/50 cotton - lovely yarn.

This photo is more accurate of the true colors - one of the requirements for the Loopy project was the item had to be striped - anyway - here is the cool horn button I found in Savannah last week.

Yes there has been stitching going on in my house but I just did not feel like trying to take another WIP photo of that huge Spanish sampler - I do enjoy working on it but Jody's nickname of "the lap blanket" does paint a picture for how big this sampler actually is and working with that all over my lap and under the OTT light - it is a hot project so I don't work on it as often as I should. I have fallen far enough behind in the Attic SAL that I no longer feel obligated to work on it when I don't want to. In sampler world - I just don't have anything that is screaming my name - I have enjoyed working on the Plymouth Sampler a few days here and there but no dramatic progress on it either. I have been doing some fun needlepointing on the Autumn House and maybe next post I will show you a WIP photo on that one. That is what I am really enjoying doing at the moment. Oh and I have just started the 2nd Camp Loopy project with the Loopy Ewe - mittens of all things - well my logic was that I had a better chance of finishing mittens than gloves and certainly more than socks. To participate - you had to knit one of those 3 items using cables.

I'm going to leave you with a beautiful breathe of summer - This hibiscus on our patio has done really well. It always reminds me of sultry summer days. I hope you are enjoying your sultry summer day doing what you love to do most. Clink ! and Cheers to you all ~ ~

HAPPY HARES

2011-06-30T10:41:00.000-04:00

Well well - finally a finish - the Hare rug is complete. It is a gift for DF Anne Marie - the same dear friend who made the gorgeous crayon box jackets for my mom and I. She is uncertain exactly how she wants to use or display Momma Hare and her bunny babies so I'll try to show another photo of it when it is completely done.

This design was adapted from a freebie by Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers - with her permission it was transferred to linen rug canvas. It is hooked with cuts 4,5,6. This little rug has been thru a lot - I pulled out about 1/4 of the original backround I started hooking in which was a very pale aqua - so pale that when I got to Momma bunny - she faded right into the backround - AAACCKK - didn't notice it right away because chocolate boy bunny looked great. So I pulled all that out and started with the pretty sky blue backround - then I got to Momma Hare and her dress faded into the blue backround - another pitfall which had to be corrected. Then as I'm hooking along I began to panic that I was not going to have enough backround to finish - since this was something I pulled from stash - EEECCKKK - there was no more. So I finished with just a few strips to spare. I think it is darling and in spite of the couple of snafus it has been fun to hook. So - I am busy trying to decide what my next focus piece will be - having finished TWO rugs this year - I am on a roll. Perhaps I should put my BIG Antique Blue Basket up on the frame and shoot for a finish on that beautiful rug. It is too big to carry to rug guild so I have to choose a smaller rug for guild. Oh so many rugs so little time to hook . . . . . .

I 've also been doing a fair amount of knitting in June - and BTW - can you believe today is the last day of June (heavy sigh) I just don't know where this month has gone - truly - time is flying by. This is a small shawl called Figurehead and is published in the most recent issue of Knitscene for any interested knitters out there. It is a KAL with the Loopy Ewe - a great online shop I order from. Sheri the owner has a great blog and is always doing fun things to include her "away" customers. We are "camping" this summer and all doing projects of our own choosing except to participate in the incentives - your yarn had to be purchased from TLE - if you finish in the appropriate time frame - you get entered into some great giveaways. The only requirement for this project was that it needed to be striped. Lots of knitters are working on and have already finished Daybreak by Steven West - that is one I would really like to do in the future. One good thing about this type of KAL - you see many projects you'd like to do in the future and also what color combinations work.

I was shocked when I recieved my order from TLE - apparently I had met the criteria to become an official "loopy groupie" and I was truly astounded with the generous gift that came with my order. A neat plastic project carrier with TLE logo, a lovely sock pattern and a special colorway just for the TLE by Lorna's Laces - their Shepherds Sock yarn in an extra large skein. Oh AND a $25 GC for the next time I shop with them. OK people - Sheri and her crew know how to do internet right - they know how to entice you to order - they process your order quickly - you get tracking on your order and an email when it ships - you get frequent buyer credits which add up to a free GC AND the best of all - they have a tremendous supply of the best yarns from all over the world. Sheri's blog is awesome - she even does giveaways on her blog of great stuff - not just junk she needs to move out of her shop. I guess I sound like I am gushing over TLE but I feel it is truly a stand out in online shops and if you are a knitter or want to be a knitter or even if you just enjoy reading a great blog - check Sheri out. She also posts some awesome recipes on there.

Yes I am stitching also but I just don't have anything noteworthy to post. I am back on my needlepoint again - working on the Autumn House - I've been avoiding those hay stacks too long and I want that piece on my wall for the fall season so I will show a progress photo soon. Samplers (sigh) I am still plugging away on the Spanish SAL - those rows get longer and longer - I am about to finish up the April assignment so now I am two months behind. Yes it's a drag but I knew it was inevitable that I would fall behind so that's no shock. My eyes are not always up to stitching on linen after staring at a computer screen all day at work. Knitting and np are just easier on the peepers - for me anyway.

I hope you are all gearing up for a very happy and festive 4th of July weekend. I have a 3 day thank goodness - I'm sure we are going to my folks lake - they have a great community fireworks display over the lake which we enjoy every year. Probably won't get back to blogland before the 4th so I'll wish everyone a safe and happy holiday.

JUNE JOY

2011-06-10T17:19:00.000-04:00

Well - I had to come up with a catchy title for this blog post. I don't have anything joyful to share with you. I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I last posted. Furthermore - I can't believe I have almost no progress on anything to show you - I have been knitting more these past few weeks. I am in the home stretch on the Madeline Tosh KAL "Sugared Violets" I am working on. Here is the latest WIP photo - there is one more eyelet row and then I start the fleurette border. It has been a mindless enjoyable knit so far. the yarn is MT Pashmina and the color is Wash which is out of the box for me - however it is green - it is just a very pale pastel type hand dyed green. I wanted something suitable for spring and this was the best I could do w/o ordering on line and I wanted to support the LYS.

This lovely lady is on Garden Glade - I got this beautiful linen and conversion from the Attic. This sampler just says "summer" to me - the rich colors and cool backround - I have enjoyed working on it when taking a break from the Spanish Sampler SAL - also with the Attic. I had a photo of it downloaded but when I brought over to blogger - I imported a previous photo and I can't seem to get the current WIP to load - URGHHH- anyone else hating blogger these days??????

I hope everyone is gearing up for a very nice weekend. I wish I had a more exciting post but I mainly just wanted to pop in and say hi and I hope everyone who has kids and relatives graduating from HS and college that you enjoy the festivities and enjoy your weekend.

MEMORIAL DAY

2011-05-30T09:01:00.000-04:00

Good morning and Happy Memorial Day!

I hope you all have great plans for today - barbeques beaches and blue skies. Today is not a holiday in our company so I am "working" today however I will be attending a BBQ at one of the local stores. That will be a nice break in the day and something special that we don't do every day.

I have been working on a little patriotic piece by Handwork - the America pillow. It is on BOAF Sparrow and done in the called for overdyed cottons. It is so fun to work on something like this - I don't typically do these colors. I've made good progress in the past two days. I think I am going to keep it out this summer and make it my "fun" piece to break to when I am tired of working on my samplers.

I promised a photo of the new persian oriental rug I started last weekend in my workshop. Here it is - I need to do some tweaking here and there. I'm not happy with how the larger red flower came out - not enough contrast so I need to add some outlining of a lighter shade of red or perhaps that yellow green. Overall I'm very pleased with how it is coming out.

Here is a closer photo - you can see what I mean about the larger flower needing some enhancement.

I did not say before but this is hooked in a 5 cut and some stems in a 4 cut. I am proud to say that all the wool except a few pieces came out of my stash cupboard. I had purchased all the yellow greens from the teacher Eric at a previous workshop so I definitely wanted to put some of that in the rug and I also wanted some of Linda (the workshop director) in the rug so the beigy brown center of the pomegranate is from her lovely wall of wool.

This is a KAL I have been doing on the Madeline Tosh board on Ravelry - only knitters will understand all this jargon. It was called MADMAY and the object you chose to "knit a long" was supposed to be finished in May to be eligible for the prizes - oh well - it won't be finished in May but I have enjoyed working on it - I need to put on a longer circular needle - that one is getting crowded with stitches so it would not lay flat. The yarn is MT Pashmina in a color called Wash - the yarn is yummy to work with and I would highly recommend it. There was as great article in the new Vogue Knitting mag that just came out about the Madeline Tosh company. Take a read if you are a fan of this awesome hand dyed line out of Texas.

I'm going to leave you to celebrate the day in whatever way you enjoy most. Whether it be quietly stitching or lounging around the pool, lake or ocean. It's a day that we Americans should all hold dear to our hearts and always remember those who have given their lives for our freedom.

HEAVENLY HIAWASSEE

2011-05-26T16:04:00.000-04:00

Oh my goodness - the rug hooking workshop I attended this past weekend at The Hookery in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North GA was simply heaven. It was held at the home of certified rug hooking instructor Linda Bell - her home is perched high up on a hill overlooking Lake Chatuge and with a stunning view of the Blue Ridge mountains. Linda engaged another national level certified instructor Eric Sandberg to teach an intimate workshop of 14 at her home. Apparently Linda does a spring and fall workshop every year and invites guest teachers. She also has classes in her studio that she teaches all during the year. I was excited to be able to attend and met many nice women. I learned so much from Eric - his style of teaching is a bit different from most instructors I have taken classes from. The whole first day was spent learning about the color wheel and how placement and usage of color in your rug could make or break the overall quality and appeal of the piece. This type of lesson would be applicable to any type of design work - quilting - needlepoint - home decor placement - etc etc. - I had Eric in a 2 day workshop some years ago and he was on the same track but has honed things tremendously and I would say this is a teacher not to be missed.

After the lecture on the color wheel was over - we all took our canvas, wool bags and chairs out to the covered patio just off of Linda's studio which is on the ground floor of her home. One by one Eric called out each student to discuss her canvas and see what wool and colors she brought to contribute to the design.

Some people had everything they needed to make a successful color plan and some he said "go shopping for this, this and this" - Linda had two WALLS of wool and Eric had a whole table full he brought from home.

Here is Eric's table overlooking the covered patio. Who wouldn't love that view !

This was my view from where I was sitting in the workshop - total bliss - huh?????

Here is a beautiful oriental that Eric is hooking. The rug will be for sale to the highest bidder when he completes it. It is 5 ft X 7 ft and is hooked in a 3 cut - it is an old Pearl McGown pattern but I don't remember the name. His current highest bid is $4500 - a pittance of what this rug should be worth - so if you have $5000 to spend and want this rug - it might could be yours.

For some reason - I did not take a photo of my persian oriental. It is a small rug - I think 18" X 30" but a very interesting design and I was pleased with the color plan. We did not get a lot of hooking done on our actual projects because Eric also gave 2 dye demos and a finishing demo so I guess maybe that is why I did not include any WIP's of the projects in this workshop.

Since I was in a hurry to get a post made before the holiday weekend - I did not take any WIP photos of my needlework or knitting either. Actually there has not been a lot of progress with my stitching or knitting lately.

So for those of you who are lucky enough to be taking off on a trip for Memorial Day weekend - have a great time. I have sampler guild on Saturday and we'll probably hang out around the pool and cook out on Sunday - Don't forget to remember all of those who have fought and gave up so much for our freedom in this great country. America the Beautiful - sing it loud and sing it proud !!!!!!!!

ANNUAL RUG GUILD HOOK-IN

2011-05-18T18:06:00.000-04:00

WOW - miracles never cease - 2nd post in less than a week.

This one is mostly just photos from the informal exhibit we held at our recent hook in. The Northeast Florida Rug Hookers hold one hook in every year in May. We had about 30 hookers there. Most were guild members but we did have a group from the Ocala guild and the Citrus Belle guild and one friend even came from South Florida.

I'm going to make this short and sweet - I am on my way to another rug hooking workshop in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NE GA right on the NC border. Linda Bell is hosting Eric Sandberg at her studio The Hookery for a workshop and he is focusing on wide cut orientals. YEP - I am starting another oriental - this one will be much smaller than the dreaded albatross I spoke about in a previous post. I'll have another report from the workshop when I return next week.

So on with the show . . . . . .

This rug is a pictoral hooked by a guild member - Lynn did a great job using a lot of as is wool and it was so much fun to see her work on this rug and be there for the binding and throwing on the floor of a great finished rug. CONGRATULATIONS Lynn for a beautiful finish.

This is not a very good picture of a beautiful 3 cut rug by Connie Charleson - Connie is a NE FL resident and has been a rug hooker and teacher for well over 50 years. She is amazing at 88 still teaching - still dyeing - still hooking and still creating patterns. She said this rug was hooked in 1964 and look at the color retention.

This sunflower is from Connies line of patterns - also hooked with a 3 cut - what a stunning backround. It was hooked by a student of Connies but I won't say because I am not quite sure who laid it down.

I did not hear whose pictoral this was but it is so pretty. I think maybe it was by one of the gals from the Ocala guild.

This very beautiful purse/tote was done by one of our guests from the Ocala guild. What gorgeous colors - I love the crewel type elements in this design.

Sorry but I have no idea who did this lovely street scene. It is out of focus and I apologize to the hooker.

DF Susan hooked this beautiful Angel Sampler rug - I'm not sure of the cut but I think she used 6,7 and 8 - it was worked at a rug camp in Texas and the design is by Bea Brock as well as the color plan. I worked on this same design at the hook in but mine is a runner and not as big as this one and my color plan is completely different with a dark stormy night sky. I will show mine to you soon.

This WIP is done entirely in a 4 cut by another guest at the hook in. Michelle does exquisite work and has won many prizes for her rugs at our local rug camp. I think she said that she did all the dyeing for this rug herself.

Another 3/4 cut beauty - I'm not sure of this guests name but she attends every year and it is always a pleasure to see her beautiful creations.

Another Bea Brock canvas and color plan by a fellow guild member Nancy. The colors are bold and dramatic and that olive green backround is just perfect.

I think this rug was also done by a guest from the Ocala rug guild. It is in a 5/6 cut I believe I heard someone say. Love the scallop border - very pretty in person.

Last but certainly not least - Here's ULYSSES !!!!!! DF Karen started this darling guy at Ocean rug camp last year. He makes me smile every time I see him - he is too cute for words.

That's all folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUTTONHOLES AND BUNNIES

2011-05-12T14:19:00.000-04:00

Well its been a while since I've made a post. Thought I would get this done last week but its been crazy busy at work and I am usually able to take a short break to visit blogland. Nevertheless - here it is almost the end of another busy week.

I am looking forward to our rug hooking guilds annual hook in this Saturday. We have about 30 members and guests coming. Our guild members all bring a dish or dessert to share and our guild purchases the main entrees. Hopefully I'll have some photos of this event to share next post.

In my last post I mentioned going to a needlepoint class down in central florida at Needle Orts. The class was so much fun and it was good to see Deb the owner again and a few women I knew when I took classes at my beloved Black Sheep in Winter Park. Those days are gone forever and it has been very hard to get back into needlepoint. The shop owner was a dear friend and mentor and I enjoyed spending time in her shop - we became close personal friends over the 20 years I patronized her shop. So now I am tryng to find my way back to needlepoint thanks to the local chapter of EGA which I joined last year. All those ladies mostly do canvas work and they have inspired me to dust off my NP books and projects and become involved again.

I don't have much progress to show you on my class piece which is a bunny tree by Ruth Schmuff. I'm embarrassed to say it took 2 hours to complete that one purple flower I am going to show you. There is also a bunny next to it that flower that just needs his fluff and bunny #2 will be completed - at this rate - this will be finished in time for Easter 2020 LOL ! Ok - it is fun using all those great fibers - I do miss that about NP. I also paid a visit to my other new fave NP shop in Savannah last week - the French Knot and stocked up on some silk threads for a canvas I bought from her in the fall. I'll show you in another post.

The title of this post refers to the fact that every one of these flowers are edged in a buttonhole stitch - that's why it took 2 hours to complete one flower. It is lovely and I am really enjoying the fibers but getting that butonhole stitch to lay just right is tedious and time consuming. I'm sure the results are worth the effort.

Is this wool gorgeous or what??? the color is called Poodle Skirt and I found it on my foray to Savannah last week. This is a gorgeous cowl from the Shibui Luxury book - The Staccato variagated yarn is a wool silk blend and you knit it together with 2 strands of Silk Cloud which is a kid mohair/silk blend - to say it is heavenly is an understatement. I have been in a huge knitting slump for so many months it's really hard to believe. However one visit to Wild Fibre and I'm back in the saddle again. Knitting every night is such a zen thing for me. Even if I stitch for a couple of hours - stopping and knitting a few rows before bed really seems to relax me and prepare me for a rest ful night.

Is this mermaid pin pillow precious or what !!! DF Carol stitched this darling SB piece for me. She even did the finishing herself and put on that dreamy ruched edging. The lovely scissors in the photo are KAI scissors from Japan - I had never heard of them before so I was excited to add them to my collection of scissors. I found some interesting info on the KAI website and would love to order a rotary cutter from them and a pair or fabric scissors even though there is certainly nothing wrong with my little used Gingher fabric scissors. Carol has made me so many treasured gifts over the years - she knows that I love mermaids.

Look at the perfect fabric she found for the back of the pinpillow. I think you can see the ruching even better in this shot.

I did not get to make a post for mothers day but we had a great one. My mom has been wanting an orchid so here is the one I found for her. What lovely creamy yellow blooms it has - sorry I don't remember the name of the type of orchid. She also got some pandora earring charms and a new pandora pendant to hang on one of her bracelets. We love collecting pandora and I still have not shown a photo of the new leather pandora bracelet I got for my birthday. Next time !

the last photo is the sad progress I have made on my Spanish SAL. I am not even 1/2 way across this band for April. I do have a very valid excuse - I am using the Attic's silk conversion for their SAL - on this particular band - the Belle Soie color was so light those golden leaves just faded completely into the backround. I kept on stitching them until I had about 6 done and was having such a difficult time stitching the leave because I could not see the thread against the linen - URGHHHH - So I found the color that Theresa at SP actually used in her chart (Gloriana Lacquered Gold I think) and did another flower in that silk - OMG - WHAT a huge difference it made - so then there was the dreaded task of pulling out 6 leaves which I could hardly see - I was so scared I was going to pull the linen threads by accident. That took several sessions because it was just so unpleasant and so unproductive. AAACCCKKK - Sooooooo - that is my sad story as to why I am behind - very behind on my April assignment. Plus the lure of the buttonholes and bunnies did not help my plight. I'm going to keep at it - I really do enjoy stitching on this sampler but I really like forward progress. Here's hoping all my friends in blog land are making lots of forward progress of their own.

IT'S BUNNY TIME

2011-04-22T16:13:00.000-04:00

Well it's been bunny time for a while around my house. I love bunnies, I have bunnies out all around my house for Spring - it's amazing how much bunny stuff I have collected over the years.

I have been around and around the mulberry bush with my Hare Easter rug. When I started putting in the backround - I was losing the contrast between the lighter bunnies and the too light backround shade - urgghhhh - so I had to get into my stash and I found a lovely medium blue - praying I have enough to finish the backround - once I started getting the backround put back in - I hated how Mommy bunny's dress looked so RIP - I pulled out her dress and rehooked in a lovely cranberry checked wool - looks great now - then the flower stems were fading into the backround - RIP - those came out and I rehooked in a perky spring green that my mom was using on her bunny rug. I used a lovely spot dyed wool for the border and plan to put a few more rows of border in - it reminds me of easter eggs. I'm not hooking the carrot border as I orginally intended - I have another much bigger bunny rug that does have a carrot border - so that will be quite enough hooking of carrots and bunnies.

Here is my progress to date and I'm sure after Easter I will be less motivated to work on it and will move on to another bunny rug that is my oldest rug WIP and simply must be finished this year. I think it looks far better than it did and I am quite pleased with the changes I made. It was worth the ripping and re-doing.

Next bunny related photo is a canvas class I am taking at a not so LNS tomorrow. For any NP fans out there - this is a Ruth Schmuff design called Bunny Tree - look closely and you can see the bunnies all over the tree. She has it finished as a flat stand up and that is what I intend to do with mine - however once again - I'm afraid once April is over the fascination with my bunnies will fade. I have not done a needlepoint class in years so I am excited about actually attending a real class.

This lovely finish belongs to my DM - she finished this Vierlande sampler in January. It is framed in a weathered dark red painted frame. It looks great with the piece which appeared in a SANQ issue in 2010 and is repro'd by DF Lorraine Mootz. It is a sampler from her personal collection. It was an Azalea Sampeler Guild SAL for 2010 but I think only my mom and DF Henri have finished it. I started it but it will probably never be finished since I can enjoy my moms.

Next is a very cool bracelet that I designed and DF Sharon put together for me. Sharon is in our rug guild but she does awesome beadwork and we have been collaborating on this bracelet for a while. She picks up interesting stones that she thinks I will like - LOTS of stones - I could have probably made up 25 bracelets considering all the stash we played with. It's big and gaudy and I LOVE IT !!!!!!

What no stitching WIP's - NOPE - I am dreadfully behind on my April assignment on the Spanish Mystery SAL - The April band is very time consuming and after doing 4 of those leaf thingys - I realized that the silk color that was recommended was fading completely into the linen color - urghhh - so I found the original silk color the designer recommended and it looks a million times better and I'm glad I stopped and started over but GEES LOUISE - it seems like all I've done since January is pull stuff out and redo it. We won't even talk about how my knitting is going. Let's just say I've been in a huge knitting slump - I almost always knit a few rows on something at night before I go to bed and after I have done some stitching. I have been trying to focus on that bunny tree class piece this month but even before that - I have drifted out of touch with my knitting. WHY? who knows why that happens - I am trying to recapture my knitting mojo by participating in MADMAY on the Madeline Tosh board on ravelry (a great on line knitting community) - the event includes lots of KAL's and several things chosen are on my list of things to do and I have some lovely MT yarns stashed up just waiting to be brought out into the light of day.

So - that's about all that's new in my neck of the woods. It's awfully hot here in NE FL and dry too - I'm the only one in the office today - everyone else took off for Good Friday and I'll be leaving soon myself. Wishing you all pretty colored eggs and lots of chocolate bunnies !

Happy Easter !

GIVEAWAY AND GIFTS

2011-04-12T16:18:00.000-04:00

Now I can quit saying "I never win anything" - Did I ever win a great giveway from Joanie over at Joanie's World . I was so excited to win Joanie's " I'm sick of winter" giveaway. The box came last week and was I ever over joyed when I saw the hoard of goodies inside the box. Take a look at what I won.

Sorry for the blur - I think I was shaking a bit I was so excited and trying to get as close as I could. Of all the lovely stitching projects Joanie showed on her last blog post - this heart just really caught my eye - I loved it so much - imagine my surprise when this was in the box - cleverly mounted on the copper oil can - I have been coveting one of these oil can creations. To say I am thrilled to have one of my own is an understatement. Joanie used beautiful fabric - (duh - why didn't I take a photo of the back) that beautifully matches both the stitching and the copper oil can and also used that neat chenille trim for the edging. It is so prim but yet so elegant too. I LOVE IT JOANIE!!!!!!!!

I guess Joanie also knew what a silk hound I am - she included 3 beautiful skeins of silk to add to my stash and I'm already pondering that red in a mono sampler. The note cards above are so pretty.

Last but not least - the little bit of winter included in the box. These snowmen pieces are painted on slate - they are too cute for words. Even living in NE FL - I still put out snowmen after christmas for a few months until the easter bunnies start coming out to play.

It was serendipitous that I won that giveway from Joanie since this week is also my birthday. I got a few gifts from friends that I wanted to show you as well.

A beautiful purl ridge cowl from DF Henri along with one of her coveted paper crafted cards. The color of the cowl is so lovely and the yarn is a beautiful alpaca wool blend - wish we had one more blast of cold air so I could wear my cowl one time before I have to put it away until next fall.

A stunning scarf kit from DF Karen - it also has a silk scarf inside the box and shows several clever ways of entwining the knitted scarf with the silk scarf to create a very unique accessory. Love the color of the hand dyed yarn and the fiber is a silk blend - OOH LA LA - so soooft. in the little bag is tiny skeins of yarn made into earrings and a skein of the fingering weight from the same company. This wonderful gift came packed in a neat Vera Bradley plastic tote but I forgot to get it out for the photo.

Next up is an awesome bundle of textured wools from DF Susan - I was so shocked when I opened this box - this is enough wool to do an entire hooked rug - I can't wait to dig into this bundle and see what "wooley" treasures abound. My mind is already working on future rugs this wonderful wool could be used in.

So - that is about all for me today - I have been in a real huge knitting slump - I have bought yarn - ordered yarn and plundered thru stashed yarn and projects and still don't feel any excitement. I downloaded a shawl pattern today which the designer donated all the proceeds to relief efforts in Japan. I've seen several finished on Ravelry and the project reviews say it's an easy but fun pattern. Easy and fun sounds appealing but will I really get busy with it ?????

I did sign up for a needlepoint class at a shop several hours away and have been doing some pre-stitching on that canvas. I have also been working on the Attic Spanish sampler SAL and Elizabeth Savilles. I also brought Garden Glade out for some fresh air and finished the upper body on the beautiful girl. I am very drawn to GG and can see myself working on her more but I have to be careful and not abandon Elizabeth or fall behind on my monthly assignments for the Spanish. Heaven help me - Jean at the Attic announced a summer SAL of a pretty cool looking sampler - resistance is futile!

I certainly hope spring has sprung and your bunnies are hopping. Easter will be here before you know it.

Thanks for coming by and reading my blog and celebrating life's little joys with me.

SEBRING PART TWO

2011-04-01T18:29:00.000-04:00

The landscaping and gardens at the Inn on the Lakes in Sebring FL are gorgeous - they have a full time gardener plus they also grow herbs and tomatoes and a few things for their restaurant. I showed a lot more photos last year of the gardens - this year I only took a couple.

Here is a touristy shot of my DM in front of the hotel. We were on our way to Lake Placid to visit an artisan co-op - I had been there before several times but my mom had never been. Since we had such a beautiful day we thought we'd take the short 20 minute drive. Lake Placid is supposedly the Caladium capital of the US. They are also known for having these beautiful huge realistic murals painted on all the building sprinkled around the little town. So I took mom on a little tour and also took a few shots - some of them were too dark but I think there was at least 20 or 30 huge murals painted by different artists.

This one was of particular interest to me. My matenal ancestors came from south central GA and my great grandfather owned thousands of acres of pine trees and were into the turpentine business in the early 1900's. this mural was so huge I had to take it in two shots. Wish you could see the gorgeous detail in this mural.

These are some shots of the rugs being worked on in my class. These are only a few as there were 14 students in this class and these ladies were sitting in my immediate vacinity. The first one is morning glories done in a 3 cut by a McGown certified teacher. It was gorgeous!

This is a mandarin duck - it was awesome seeing this blank canvas come alive and to this point in 4 days. I thought the color plan was exquisite and I think she plans to change the backround to a mt fugi type landscape - she had some museum quality note cards she was using for inspiration.

This one is called the Naples sampler - the colors are so "florida" and it was fun to watch this one too. Also hooked by another "teacher"

This cute rug was designed by the woman who was hooking the next rug. She has a design business (DIGO) and had some lovely canvases for sale in the camp store. This kitty is in a larger cut but I'm not sure what. Aren't the textures in the stripes wonderful !

this was probably one of my favorite rugs in the whole class - Do you remember the children's story Little Black Sambo - gosh I am probably giving away my age as it is probably no longer politically correct to call the name of that book as I remember it but anyway - that is the subject of this rug and I think she did an absolutely wonderful job with the color plan and hooking - it was in progress when she came - NO - she did not hook that much in 4 days LOL.

Gorgeous bright tropical colors are what our teacher seems to love and her students flock to get her brightly colors wool. This rug was tropcial flowers with this big lizard in the middle. I think that is our dear teachers foot - good thing she had her pedi LOL

This is my mom's bunny rug - toooo cute I think - isn't that daddy bunny just darling in his cool clothes. I love how the roof came out and the brilliant blue backround with the night sky up above is very appealing in this rug. I know my mom will enjoy hooking it.

Here is the albatross that I don't even want to claim as my rug. I HATE this rug - I have ripped out and reworked - re color planned and redone more on this rug than all the rugs I have hooked for the past 12 years - For some reason this rug just doesn't do it for me - I have thrown in the towel and finally given up the ghost - I am DONE DONE DONE with this rug - not a penny more or another minute am I going to waste on this rug. I feel bad for the designer who is a good friend of mine - she designed the rug for me and I feel bad for the two teachers and another dear friend who is also a teacher who have tried to make me happy with this rug. It just aint' happenin' - I had a number of people in my class who loved the rug and could not believe I didn't like it. If there are any rug hookers out there - it is for sale - if you are interested let me know.

That is a wrap on Sebring March 2011 - Hope you all have a lovely weekend doing what you love to do.

SEBRING PART ONE

2011-03-31T16:04:00.000-04:00

My mom and I had a great time in Sebring - it was very hot down there the first 3 days and then rained on our last day and all the way home. I took a lot of photos of the rug exhibit so I am going to have to break this post up into two parts. I am sorry if I did not photograph your rug - it was dark in the lobby area where the rugs are displayed and some of the photos were just too dark to put up on the blog. Others are not great but I'm going to show them anyway. Sorry but I did not make notes at to the makers of these rugs so again - my apologies for not giving recognition to the maker of these lovely rugs.

There was a variety of cuts and styles in this exhibit however I would say that there were probably more fine cuts than wide in this exhibit. Fine is basically 3 and 4 cut and typically does not include 5 and 6 but people who hook with 8, 9 and 10 cuts consider 5 a fine cut - not to confuse the non-hookers out there but I'm just trying to say there were more rugs 6 and under than there was 7 and up.

These two patriotic rugs are by Polly Minick - she is a well known artisan who has appeared in publications such as Coastal living, Country Home, Southern Living and sells her rugs in galleries all over the US. Polly was teaching a class at Sebring and while I love my teacher - I wish I had taken the opportunity to be in Polly's class - she doesn't teach that often. She is the other half of Minick and Simpson and has a very active blog with her sister Laurie Simpson who designs quilts. Polly and Laurie have a beatiful line of fabrics by Moda and I love their style. They are team teaching a workshop at Mackinaw Island this fall and how I would love to be able to go to that workshop.

So many enchanting rugs in this exhibit - so many hours of work goes into these rugs. I thought the exhibit was really good this year and I was pleased that Miss Merrie was debuted among all these fine works.

In Part II - I will show some of the beautiful flowers and landscaping at the Inn in Sebring and show rugs in progress from my class. I hope to get to that tomorrow but in case I don't - have a great weekend.

MARCH HARES

2011-03-22T14:40:00.000-04:00

It's a fine spring day here in NE FL - I have the french doors open in my office and a gentle breeze is blowing in off the river. If I could be stitching or knitting it would be total bliss but it is quite enjoyable for a work afternoon.

I was so excited yesterday when I got an email from Joanie that I had won her "I'm so tired of winter" giveaway. I've never won a thing so needless to say I was very excited to hear that news. Pop over to Joanie's blog and see what she is up to.

Before I show you a few fun bunnies - I am going to show a couple of photos of my main sampler WIP's - Here is a shot of Elizabeth Savilles - I am really enjoying this sampler - the silks are so lucious and so far there are only 3 colors of Gloriana being used - 2 pinks and one green - lovely isn't it !

Here is only 1/2 of the Spanish Mystery SAL - this sampler is SOOO big - I can't hardly fit the whole width in one frame - I am starting on the 4th band - thankfully it is not that light blue - I was getting tired of that color. This sampler is relaxing and easy to stitch in spite of the huge size - Jody thought it was a lap robe because when it is chilly at night I throw it out on my lap as I am stitching on it - I'm sure some of you will shreik but I don't see any harm in utilizing the other end of this 1/2 yard piece of linen to help keep me warm at night . Oops - I see a leaf I forgot - will go back and catch that one tonight.

Finally the Miss Trenners Academy box set and charts have arrived. I've been waiting for this pre-order from market for a long time - actually I have been waiting for this box set since I first heard about it from Ellen - With my Needle when I saw her in December. They are much larger than I expected and I LOVE them - I have the perfect spot for them to live while waiting for the stitching to be done. Everything Ellen does is incredible - her finishing instructions are always top notch. I am so pleased I was able to get a set of these limited edition boxes for my collection.

There is a great primitive artisan in our area - she used to sell a great deal of her creations to the Olde Green Cupboard . She has a shop in St Mary's GA called the Feathered Nest - Meet Bertram the bunny - he is soooo cute - he is sitting on a wooly carrot - his momma Harriet came to live with me last year. I will probably show some shots of more of my easter stuff in April.

I've been working on my Hare Easter lately. This was adapted from Paulette's (Plum Street Samplers) freebie design for cross stitch. I thought they needed some grass to stand in so I started adding that at rug guild on Sunday. That pale aqua around their legs is the color of the backround. My friend Katie transferred this pattern for me to rug canvas and she added a cute border with carrots which you can't see because I have it folded back - I am having second thoughts about hooking this border - I want the bunny family to be the main focus of this rug and I think those giant killer carrots might be distracting from the subdued colors in the center. I found a great easter eggy spot dye that would make a great border to finish off the rug. I know exactly where I got it and from what teacher but Katie thinks she can duplicate it as I don't have enough to put a decent sized border on with what little I have left in my stash.

Speaking of rug hooking - I am leaving Friday morning for Sebring for a 4 day rug camp with my mom and DF Susan. Mom and I have been going to this camp in March for quite a few years now. We just love going to this small family owned inn on the lakes - their meals as chef prepared and it is just a wonderful relaxing setting. We have the same teacher that we had at the rug camp in January. We are both continuing on with our new starts from January. Hopefully next post - I will have lots of shots from the exhibit and from our class to show you.

many thanks to everyone who commented on my Merrie Halloween - to finish a rug is a great accomplishment for me and I so appreciate all your wonderful comments on her. Wishing you all warm spring days, gentle breezes and little march hares in your gardens.

MISS MERRIE - TAKE A BOW

2011-03-09T10:32:00.000-05:00

Needless to say I am still ecstatic over my finish of Merrie Halloween on Sunday. She is a pretty miss in my opinion. For any rug hookers out there - she was hooked mostly in a 6 cut with hand dyed wool and the color plan and wool was by Diane Stoffel. There are some finer details in a 4 and 5 cut. The binding is not done but I consider her complete when the hooking is done. Here is a full shot of the rug which is 28" X 38" - WOW - that was bigger than I thought it was. I've been working on her a little over 3 years but of course have done lots of other things since I started her on Halloween weekend at a private workshop with Diane.

For some strange reason I have been unable to upload photos all week using my normal method of uploading the photos from my computer - the select button has not been active and is still not active. I had to mess around with loading this from webshots - good thing I remember I could still do it that way.

Here is a little closer shot of her face and the vining which I love - too bad you can't see how beautiful the wool actually - I just presume most of my readers are non hookers and don't really care about seeing a lot of fine details.

so - there you go - a BIG finish on my 11 in 2011 Challenge list can be marked off DONE - outta here !

I hope you are all having a good week and taking some time to do what you love to do.

WHAT TO SAY?

2011-03-02T13:52:00.000-05:00

I had another cheery title picked out for this blog post but I just could not force myself into a cheery mood. The news of Lisa Rowell's tragic death in Ohio hangs heavy in blogland this week. There was also another sad passing of a vibrant 50something rug hooking designer and teacher - Kim Nixon of Under the Rug studio in Tennessee. She succumbed to cancer leaving behind a family, many friends and fans. I was never able to take a class with Kim but my A&E cube stool cover is one of her designs. Both of these talented ladies will be missed.
I don't have much to show but I did finish my february assignment on the Spanish Mystery Sampler - an SAL I am doing with the Attic. It is so wide - I have trouble getting a decent photo of it.

Here is a close up shot so you can see more of the color contained in the February band and since yesterday was March 1st - I felt I had to sink a few stitches but my heart just wasn't in doing any stitching last night so I switched to knitting before I screwed up on this.

This seems like a pitiful amount of stitching but honestly - I don't get much done. This is my start on Elizabeth Savilles. I could not resist starting her since we are having unseasonably warm temps here in NE FL - All the flowering trees are blooming - I just wanted something bright and colorful to stitch. This is stitched on the called for LL Meadow Rue - vintage 36ct and Theresa at Shakespeares's Peddler so kindly converted the Olde Willow cottons for me to Gloriana silk floss and Gloriana Florimell. The colors are stunning and I am so pleased with how they look on the linen. I was working on this sunday and found an error and had to pull that whole flower out and start over - goofed up on the stem which made me 1 stinkin stitch off. Don't you hate that !

What is this mystery shot?? This is all that I have left to do on Merry Halloween - YAHOO !!!!!!!

I finished the last of the black backround on Sunday morning - All I have left is the mound she is standing on. Just a few more hours and I will have this Miss completed. Mom and I are making our annual trip to Sebring for a rug camp at the end of the month and I so wanted Miss Merry to be finished for the exhibit especially since I missed finishing her for the exhibit in January.

I got a big box of wool from my teacher for Sebring week before last. Since I revamped the whole color plan on my big oriental rug in January - I needed more wool in certain colors - so I really should spend some time with that rug before the end of the month. I would love to come close to finishing the center medallion while at that camp. She is also brining my backround to Sebring and then the color plan will be complete. I hope 2011 is the year to finish up a few rugs - I have several that could be finished this year if I just remain focused and continue to hook thru the summer months.

I'm going to leave you today with a quote from Marie Beyon Ray that really hits home in view of the passing Kim and Lisa.

"begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand --- and melting like a snowflake."

Wishing you all peace and much happiness

THE PRINCESS MERMAID

2011-02-22T16:55:00.001-05:00

Both my folks stitch - my mom stitches samplers and seasonals and my dad stitches awesome things - not usually samplers but he did do the beautiful Rachel Hyde for me a couple of years ago. He enjoys stitching Mirabilia designs and my mom and I love that he loves stitching them. We have quite a collection of them hanging in our homes. The last one he did for me was Bluebeards Princess Mermaid and I have so many of them framed - I decided I wanted this one made into a pillow. I had a very specific idea about what I wanted for this pillow - I did not want a glitzy overwhelming trim or fabric - I wanted something simple but elegant that would leave the Princess as the center attraction. I debated about sending her to california to Marlene's and I talked to several other finishers about her. One woman even refused to take it saying that Mirabilia's needed to be framed. I tried a new finisher here in Florida.
The finishing as far as fabric choice, trim choice and workmanship is great - however I was horrified to see that she practically cut off the top and bottom motifs on this piece. EGADS - wouldn't you think a professional finisher would not do something like this?????????? Plus it is a 14" pillow and I think a 16" would have been much better - it looks so small on my sofa - sad shame to have this lovely piece so poorly finished - I am sorely disappointed - oh and just so you don't think I properly communicated my wishes - NOT - I sent at least 3 very specific emails saying exactly what I wanted and truth be told - this is a 2nd attempt - she had finished as a box pillow and framed out the mermaid in fabric which I specifically told her I DID NOT WANT !!!!!!!!!!! Ok - enough with the complaining - I guess my point is - no matter how much info you give someone about what "you" want - problems can still arise.

Lot's of stash has been purchased lately - Nothing from market has arrived yet and I am trying to be good - really I am. I made another trip to Mt Dora to visit A Stitchers Dream this past Saturday and took a class on basic hardanger by Victorias Sampler. the shop owner is quite the hardanger expert and a big fan of Thea's designs. I was a complete failure - had to pull out everything I put in and start over - by that time - we had already taken a luxurious two hour lunch at the Garden Gate tearoom and all I wanted to do was SHOP! So I'll restart that class piece another time (maybe LOL)

Here is some photos (not all) of a few things that I have gotten lately. I was so thrilled when I saw on Shakespeares Peddler newsletter that she was stocking Elizabeth Savilles sampler by**** corrected from Fingerwork to Dames of the Needle. I love Terri's blog face showing this lovely sampler. Terri was kind enough to share her conversion with me but being the silk snob that I am - I asked Theresa to convert it to silks for me - Here is her conversion which is Gloriana silk floss and Gloriana Florimell - my new favorite overdyed silk - gorgeous huh?

Under the silk is Sugar and Spice linen from Australia in Gravestone - I probably won't use that color for Elizabeth but it was part of the stash haul.

Next is Mary Hannah Gipson from SANQ in the called for threads - the linen I chose I had never seen before - it was WDW Cocoa in 30ct - I would have preferred 35ct but the shop was low on linen.

These little Button Up Birdie ornament charts are soooo darling - I could not resist picking up what had been released so far - I think all in all there will be 12 of them. The linen is WDW Mocha in 35ct and I'm sure I will use the GAST or whatever they called for. I did not buy the embellishment pack - I thought it was expensive for what you got.

This is some lucious yarn - too bad you can't see the true color - it is MadelineTosh Pashmina for all you knitters out there. I have become a big fan of MT yarns - this is Norway Spruce and will be a cardi one day. I'm dying to start it but need to do a gauge swatch and so forth.

Hope to be back to visit blogland soon. thanks for reading and following and commenting - I love to hear from you.

A BEAUTIFUL GIFT

2011-02-07T18:15:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in a blog post in December that DF Anne Marie had finished a beautiful Crayon box jacket for my mom. She was also working on one for me - that was not a surprise since I supplied the yarn choices for both jackets. It was a surprise that mine was completed so quickly - Anne Marie kept that a good secret.I thought it was better to display on the couch than on my blobby body so here it is !!!!!!!!!! isn't it gorgeous?

Here is a close up of how the mosiac squares look. There are many different yarns used in this jacket however most of the base yarns are 3 colors of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran for you knitters out there.

Next up is a shoulder warmer - I guess that is a more delicate term than "poncho" - if it looks huge - that's because it is huge - I did not figure adding a very fine mohair to the worsted weight wool would add that much bulk to the gauge but apparently it did. It is not a fashion statement piece any how - just something to bump around in with jeans or wear at home if I am cold at night and believe me it is WARM.

I started this last winter and of course put it away as spring wore on. I didn't have much left to do when I picked it up again a few weeks ago - here is a closer shot that shows the halo of the mohair and the faint striping that was in the worsted base yarn. the neckline and the bottom is supposed to roll like that just in case you were wondering.

Since I'm all about staying warm these days - here is a WIP called Purl Ridge by Stephen West - a free pattern on Ravelry. The yarn is some leftover Dream in Color I had - this is a long cowl that can be doubled around the neck for a snugger effect or just wear it hanging long. It is a relaxing knit for the brain dead. I hope to wear it this season - I am probably at least 1/2 way done with it. Please take note that neither of these projects I am working on were on the 11 in 2011 challenge list. I just knew the 111 in 2011 would be a more realistic number for my short attention span.

I've been stitching about as much as I ever do - I am very pleased however that I managed to finish the January assignment for the Spanish Mystery sampler SAL with the Attic group. This sampler is huge - sorry for the tiny shot but at least it will show that this sampler is GI GANTIMOUS.

Here is a closer shot that does show February's band which thankfully has some blue and white in it. this band gets boring quick as it is just the same thing over and over across that mile wide row.

I was feeling Valentiney as I usually do the week before and decided to pull out something reddish to stitch on. I had started one of the Splendor pieces by Maureen Appleton a few months back but it is on 40ct over 2 (not over one as she suggests) and I quickly grew tired of struggling with the linen count. I worked on it Sat and Sun night and have gotten fairly comfortable with the 40ct. I'm sure I will grow tired of the pinky red I chose but for now - it is a nice diversion from the blue and white on the SAL piece. If I continue to work on it and make decent progress I'll show a WIP next post.

That's about all my news - seems like lots of stitching and handwork progress went on last week with all the stories of too much snow to venture out. I hope everyone continues to make good progress but at least is able to venture out if they so desire.

COMING UP FOR AIR

2011-01-24T17:12:00.000-05:00

Coming up for air - that is exactly how I feel today - last week whirled by me in a vacuum of being sick at rug camp - being in the office only 1 day last week and leaving on Thursday - still not 100% for a long drive to Auburn AL for a meeting I needed to head up.

I promised a complete run down of the Off the Ocean rug camp however the first day of camp I was already beginning to feel sick. I went home Friday night instead of staying at the hotel with my mom - Saturday I was worse and by Sunday I was holed up in the hotel room too sick to even get dressed or venture very far from the bed. How horrible is it to be sick at an event like this???? too sick to even get in my car and drive 10 miles to my house!!!!!!!!! It's pretty horrible I might say - I missed the exhibit on Sunday - missed seeing many friends who come to see the exhibit. I missed more than a full day of hooking/class time and my progress on this rug really shows it. On the positive side - I did get a good start on this very large rug which is an original design by friend Katie Puckett who is a co-director of this rug camp. I got to name it so it is Medieval Melody and I wanted William Morris type colors. I must admit that I started this rug about 4 years ago with another teacher - somehow it just did not come together - it did not excite me - the colors were not what I wanted - it was too monotone so I rolled it up and put it away with the thought that one day I would pull it out again and find a teacher who was willing to work with some of the wool I had previously purchased and maybe add some of their own flavor and spark to the rug. I knew I would get what I was looking for from Vivily Powers - I have had Vivily several times before at the rug camp I attend every year in Sebring Fl. She did not disappoint - after tossing out a few of her choices that were too bright for what I had in mind - I added a gorgeous dusty plum 5 value color set and a rich rusty red 5 value set all looked awesome upon her great backround color called White Trash (yep she uses cute catchy names for many of her wool color formulas) - So she will have to dye more wool for me but I have made the plunge and am quite happy with how the rug is shaping up so far. Here is a close up of the center medallion.

Vivily came up with a beautiful spot dye that was the inspiration for the whole color plan on the rug. It is the leave section of the red flower on the right. There is also a great 4 value turquoise set that is being dyed but is not currently hooked into the rug - so that will be a lovely addition to this color plan.

Here is the full view of the rug including the border which is really the focal point of the whole rug. For any rug hookers out there - I have started in a 5 cut and I might add some 4 for that looping vine in the border or any other fine detail - since there is not a lot of open backround in this rug - I will probably just stick with a 5 cut even in the backround.

Here is my mom's new rug - it's called Bunny Trails and is by Not Forgotten Farms reproduced to canvas by Spruce Ridge Studios. My mom is a meticulous hooker - it takes her a while to make progress but she does a lovely job with the actual hooking. She wanted something bright and springy and this certainly fills the bill. The house is 2 shades of yellow gold - how about that blue door ??? Don't you love the texture of the daddy bunny and his cool ty dyed shirt - Vivily was trying to encourage my mom to make a plaid dress for Mommy Bunny but I'm not sure she is going to bite on that idea. I love the rounded edge on the top of this rug - should be great fun to watch it take shape.

Here is Vivily on the right with fellow student and friend Susan Rogers on the left. Susan is doing a lovely crewel pattern called Vasa and her color plan was exquisite. Susan is a quilter convert to rug hooker - she told me she would sit and hook all day if she could and I think she has some interest in dyeing as well.

Dawn friend and a charter member of our local rug guild was hooking a stunning peacock design. The colors in this rug were so wonderful - I know it will be fun to watch this one come alive.

Ladie (yes that is her real name) was doing a neat rug that was adapted from a old post card or some type of media like that. She lives on St Simons Island Ga and I wish the photo was better - the waves at the bottom were so neat - it has a shrimp boat and a rendition of the lighthouse on the island. Her color plan was gorgeous and she said she dyed all the wool herself.

there were about 15 or so people in my class - there were lots of great rugs being hooked that I did not get photos of - sadly people were in and out a lot the last 2 days and I was mostly out of commission so I missed getting photos of many of my class mates rugs.

Off the Ocean 2011 is now a distant memory - it was their 12th camp and my 12th camp with the directors who are a mother daughter team and good friends of mine. I have been fortunate enough to take classes with many great teachers at this camp - I have started a new rug each year except this year - yes I have many WIP's which are not finished from this and other camps but when I look back over the past 12 years of rug hooking - I have had so much fun and created some awesome rugs and made many friends along that journey. I would not take anything for the experiences I have had and the time spent hooking with my mom and our friends is priceless.

GUESS WHAT??????

2011-01-14T14:55:00.000-05:00

I bet some of my faithful readers will know what this pile of stuff indicates????????????

YEP - it's time for Off the Ocean rug conference!!!! YEAH - yes this is my pile of wool and hooking frame as I was dragging it out last night to pack in the car. I am going to try to breathe life into a big rug that was designed for me but I did not get off to a good start at a previous OTO camp several years ago. The teacher I am working with this year has done several wonderful rugs for me and I have been very pleased with the results. She is also willing to work with my existing wool and just dye a few more colors and try to pull together a cohesive color plan for me. I am excited !!!!!!!! I picked her up at the airport this morning and had a nice lunch before I dropped her at the host hotel and dashed back to work to wrap up a few loose ends before checking into the hotel for 4 blissful days of hooking and visiting with my mom and other friends. A lot of these women I only see once or twice a year so it is a lot of fun. We had another record low here last night but all the snowbirds scoff at me when I talk about 23 being a record low - but hey folks - it's all relative - that is COLD for NE FL. I will be taking photos of my project towards the end of camp and probably my mom's accomplishments and some of my other friends. So next post will be a report on the camp experience this year.

This is a WIP photo of one of my 11 in 2011 Challenge pieces - it is a cowl by designer Debblie Bliss. I am so pleased with how it coming out - I would say I am about 1/3 or 1/2 done with it - it just gets seamed together to make a big circle which you wear loosely around your shoulders or can pull up over your head the way it is pictured in the DB fall/winter magazine. The yarn is a limited edition color by Dream in Color and is their chunky weight wool called Groovy and while I hate knitting with big needles (10.5 US) I do love this fabric - there is a slight cable pattern which you can barely see because the yarn is so busy.

The next WIP to show you is my Plymouth Sampler by the Sampler Company - if you also read Jeanne's Willow Tree Stitcher blog you have seen her GORGEOUS finished and framed Plymouth. I have worked on this occasionally over the past year and it was NOT on my 11 111 in 2011 challenge list however my new 2011 starts are all brown right now and I needed a jolt of color - I also needed something relatively easy to stitch - this is a nice sized piece with lots of great silks - Jean at the Attic did a personal conversion for me when I visited her shop several years ago (er - let's don't say how many years ago!) and it is a mix of NPI and Belle Soie - So I am definitely enjoying some mindless stitching on this piece.

I am making good progress with my Spanish Mystery sampler and expect to be on target with finishing January's suggested stitching. If you read the Attic newsletter - you will see the January suggested.

I also made a small start on Elizabeth J M Mears - OMG - WHY WHY DID I choose two gigantimous samplers as SAL's this year. I can't wait to get into that mock flame stitch section on Elizabeth but I am missing almost all of those NPI colors and need to order them before I can proceed. Right now I am entering rug hooking heaven and my mind is not on stitching, silks or project goals.

I have been very remiss in rug hooking in 2010 - I had hoped to have 2 big rugs to put in the exhibit - I only had about 10 or 12 hours left on Merrie Halloween plus the binding - I am hanging my head in shame that I did not apply myself more 2 or 3 months ago when the goal could have been attained. I was sitting at my frame on Sunday - frantically hooking and made great progress and then I thought - you silly goose - you can't finish this rug so just give it up. Oh well - no need to beat myself up - it didn't happen - now all that is left is to go and have a marvelous time and enjoy my new project and all my friends.

I appreciate your comments and hope you are making great progress on your WIP's and new starts. Please come back again real soon and enjoy your weekend !

FIRST FINISHES OF 2011

2011-01-05T11:49:00.000-05:00

Good day friends - I have a couple of finishes to show - Lots of my local friends laughed when they heard the story of Jody's one fingerless mitt for Christmas. Well to all those skeptics who might have doubted I would finish the 2nd mitt before NYD - it did happen !

I really love how they turned out and JD has already worn them a couple of times. I was so impressed I think I am going to make myself a pair right away so I can use them this winter.

The next finish is a scarf for my friend and our admin assistant at the office - Betsy - You might recall last December Betsy gave me a wonderful gift at christmas - an antique sampler which had been passed down in her family. For those knitters out there - the scarf is Hand Maiden Sea Silk and I don't remember the colorway but it is much prettier than this photo shows - actually the photo is pretty crummy but I was in a hurry this morning and wanted a snap before I presented the gift.

Here is my progress so far on my NYE/NYD new start. The Spanish Mystery sampler by Shakespeares Peddler and the 2011 SAL with the Attic .
It is worked on the new Lakeside linen color vintage Pecan Butter 36ct using Jean's silk conversion. This is actually one shade of Gloriana Florimell and one shade of Belle Soie - you can't tell much difference as they are two shades of brown - this is the color scheme for the foreseeable future on this BAP so I am already seeing stitchy-itis raising it's ugly head. Plus reading everyone's great challenge lists is not helping matters - I'm getting the OOOOOO - I want to do that one and oh I have that chart in stash - " I should start that one syndrome." Frances Eden is one of those which may see a start real soon. What a schlup I am - 5 days into the new year and I am already back sliding on my challenge commitments - oh well - I have made some progress on the list - I ordered yarn, purchased needle and downloaded the pattern for the beret that was on my challenge list. ( see previous post )

Speaking of challenge lists and finishes for 2011 - DF Teresa (girl with needles blog) has set up a new blog called Working to Finish in 2011 - please become a follower and add to your list of blog reading. The gals who have become contributors so far are all in our Azalea Sampler Guild group but I think this blog is going to be open to anyone who would like to post their 2011 Challenge goals, photos and finishes in 2011 in one spot. I am excited about this as several who have joined don't have blogs of their own. There are some very talented stitchers and needlewomen in our Azalea group and this will be a way for them to get their work out there for you all to see. More to come on that as our developer/creator TeresaB puts out more information about who can join or how to receive an invitation to join.

Thanks for all your comments on my Finish 11 in 2011 challenge list. I think mine should have been called "working on 111 in 2011" - that is about how many WIP's and new starts are rolling around in my head this week. You are all wonderful inspirations to me and I value your comments and readership of my blog - thank you and please come back again real soon.

CRAZY CHALLENGE FOR 2011

2010-12-30T14:59:00.000-05:00

I wanted to post my list for Crazy Challenge – I am modifying it a bit further to be my “Crazy Challenge for completing 11 in 2011. It is a collection of new starts and WIP’s. It’s a mix of all the things I love to do – stitching on both canvas and linen, hooking and knitting. I would like to be able to figure out how to pin this to the sidebar like Vonna and some of the others have done. I'll work on that.

SAMPLERS:

Spanish Mystery Sampler by Shakespeare’s Peddler - NYE/NYD new start – 2011 SAL with the Attic

Elizabeth J Mears by Queenstown Samplers - 2011 SAL on the With my Needle & Pen newsletter group

Garden Glade by CHS WIP started in 2010 - hibernating for a few months now soon to return to rotation.

Where the Hart Lives by Scarlet Letter WIP started in 2009 - supposed to be for my folks anniversary in 2010 - oh well - it didn't happen - however I am determined to finish this one so it made the list.

RUG HOOKING:

Medieval Melody by Katie Puckett KISS Rug Studio – a huge oriental/floral rug designed for me which I will start at rug camp in January

Blue Basket Antique by Edyth O'Neill – my oldest rug WIP – a 3’ x 5’ started in 2001 – I think 10 years is long enough to devote and this beauty needs to be finished and on my floor. I am on the border now so this is attainable in 2011.

Merrie Halloween by Spruce Ridge Studios - A Not Forgotten Farm adaptation – started in October 2009 – She is sooooo close to being finished - She will be hanging Halloween 2011.

CANVAS WORK:

ANG ( Am Needlepoint Guild) – SOTM (stitch of the Month) – new SAL by Ro Pace for 2011 on 24 ct congress cloth. It is a mystery which grows as the year progresses. ANG offered one in 2010 that many of the local ANG chapter members stitched and it was a neat project so this time I am jumping in.

Autumn House by Melissa Shirley - WIP that I had a ball stitching and using stashed fibers in the fall of 2010 - it should be an easy finish for 2011 *IF* I continue to work on it.

KNITTING:

Sweet Little Nothing - a beret by French designer Marie Adeline Boyer - this is a new start to go with a beautiful new wool/cashmere coat my mom gave me for Christmas. It will also be a KAL for the 1st Quarter of 2011 with online shop The Loopy Ewe and I think I have settled on the yarn and will get it ordered next week.

Debbie Bliss Cowl - WIP using exquisite hand dyed yarn by Dream in Color - this was a special colorway offered only to select yarn shops.

I've had a list on my desk for days now - adding, deleting, adding deleting projects as they come to me and as I think about how realistic it will be to finish them in 2011. I knew my list of SAL projects was growing for 2011. There will be much more knitting started and hopefully finished in 2011 than what is on my challenge list. Knitting is so zen to me - I can knit when I am too tired to even think - Simple needlepoint also can be very relaxing for me - the canvas is easier to see than linen and I usually am not following a chart - maybe a stitch pattern but not a chart like linen work.

I still adore samplers and I always dream of being like my stitching idols Margaret, Siobhan, Deb, Laurie and so many others that I hold in high esteem but I know I will never ever be like them. It's just a dream world I like to go to and wile away the hours - choosing charts, linens and pretty silks. In my dreams - I too finish huge impressive samplers and have whole walls filled with my workes.

I think the new year is great for people who do goals, lists and resolutions - to get a fresh perspective on their life and get rejuvenated. For me - I prefer to just aspire to do the best I can do - to be blessed with good health, continued employment and be surrounded by family and friends.

On this Eve of the New Years Eve - I wish for all my friends in blog land all the things that make you most happy. I appreciate your support of my blog and your comments. Peace my friends and many happy stitches in the New Year ~ ~ ~

OH CHRISTMAS TREE OH CHRISTMAS TREE

2010-12-24T11:18:00.000-05:00

A beautiful Christmas Eve Day here in NE FL. The sun is shining brightly and it is cool and crisp.

I almost always work on Christmas Eve so that others who have children can be off. Jody and I will spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my folks. We always go out to dinner on Christmas Eve - that has been a tradition in our family for over a decade now. We go to a great seafood place in a small town near Gainesville - not too far from my folks place. Then we ride thru the little towns on the way home looking at christmas lights and listening to Kenny G CD's - AHHHH - the holiday music - that is what I miss most when Christmas is over.

Here is a shot of the beautiful Christmas tree I look at every day at work. I would say it is about 9 ft tall and sure has been fragrant. We also have live garlands up the stairway and over the entry way. My boss does most of the decorating every year for Christmas and we also have beautiful red poinsettias filling the foyer.

Speaking of poinsettias - here is a shot of my meager effort in the stitching dept. I love this BRD - Poinsettias and Pines - I changed the fabric to Sugar and Spice glittery linen from Australia and I love it however I had a dilemma when I started stitching the snowflakes - EEEECKKKK - they disappeared and did not show up at all - I changed the silk out to a pale silvery gray which barely shows up - Oh well - fortunately there are not that many of these snowflakes on this piece

The other thing I have been focusing on this past week is these fingerless mitts for Jody. I finished the first one last night - I will go ahead and give him the one for Christmas and it will be a hoot - he will think it is amusing that he only got one mitt - sorta like the hat I made him 2 years ago that had a hole in the crown because I needed the extra yarn to finish a hat for my dad.

I love how it came out and for those knitters out there - the pattern is Dashing which was printed in Knitty.com but you can find it on Ravelry also. It is the male version of Fetching which was also a very popular Knitty mitt pattern - I plan to make a pair for me in the new year.

I am using some stashed Malabrigo Worsted weight yarn in Marron - which is a very odd color - looks brown until you put it next to brown - it has a rusty look but no orange - also maroonish - anyway a pretty semi solid color. I will get on the 2nd mitt over the holiday weekend and should have it done by NYD I hope.

the close up shows the cable patterning and the color a little better. It looks pinky but is not pink at all.

I did lots of blog reading yesterday and see that many of you are doing the Crazy Challenge - maybe that's not the official name but that is what sticks in my head. I wish you all luck and lots of fun but I could not handle anything like that. I also don't make goals or resolutions - just a personal thing - I don't like looking back on the previous year and being reminded of everything I did not do or accomplish - rather to focus on what I did accomplish (if anything notable LOL)

One thing I am rather disappointed about is that I did not finish my big Antique Blue Basket rug. Early last year - that is something I thought for sure I would do. As a matter of fact - I have NO rug finishes for 2010 and that does not make me happy. My Merrie Halloween is so close to being finished - not in a week but I could still finish her for the January exhibit if I really hooked a lot in the next few weeks. I'm not going to stress out about it but I am wishing I had done more hooking in 2010.

Just wanted to pop in with a last minute Christmas wish for all my friends in blog land - Wishing you peace and all the things your heart desires for a memorable holiday.

Merry Christmas to all ~ ~ ~

CRAYON BOX JACKET REVEAL

2010-12-17T12:53:00.000-05:00

This is a rather funny story. I have a DF Anne Marie who has completed/assisted/knitted about 6 of these very colorful funky Crayon Box jackets. We all took a class together at the LNS about 5 or more years ago. She completed hers - mine lingered - she did one for her mom - mine sunk farther down in the UFO pile - she completed another one for a friend - mine hadn't been seen in several years - she offered to complete mine. YIPPEE! what an offer - the hunt was on - however in the midst of all this - I moved from my lifelong home 20 miles away to another county - it tooks months to get my stash moved mainly because I was sorting as I went along - anyway - I did finally find the CB jacket stash I had kitted up.

Anne Marie tweaked my colors - pared down my too vast selection of color and textures and came up with a great color plan. Somewhere in the midst of all this planning - my mom was present and wanted to get her name in the pot for a CB jacket of her own. At that point - unbeknownst to my mom - I pulled yarn from stash and purchased more yarn and Anne Marie and I developed a color plan for my mom's jacket. This whole process has been over the course of a couple of years - you know how life gets in the way of frivoulous projects - anyway - every time we get together with Anne Marie - she is always working on my jacket and my mom ALWAYS chastisizes me "saying - are we ever going to get my yarn?" Then another friend got in line for a jacket and brought a huge tote bag full of yarn - my poor mom was dreadfully upset - "see now someone else is getting ahead of me on this jacket thing" AHHHHHH- this was sorta fun concealing this big secret from her and all my good friends were in on the secret. Once in a while my mom will accompany me in a yarn shop and she is always saying - "can we look at yarn for my jacket?" My answer would always be " Oh I don't like their yarn in here" HUMPFFFF - when did I EVER MEET A YARN SHOP that didn't have yarn I wanted to buy??????????? too funny.

So - our rug guild holiday luncheon was this past Sunday - I knew AM was going to present Mom's jacket to her. What I didn't know was that she had somehow screwed up the cuff bind off and wanted me to unbind it so she could fix it - all this while my mom was in the room - EGADS - this was going to be tricky - well I picked an oppportune time and moved over to AM's table and proceeded to unknit that bind off - once that was completed - AM took her knitting bag and moved to the handicap stall in the bathroom and finished that cuff LOL - TOOO FUNNY.

Here are a few shot of Mom and AM - bear in mind that the jacket has not been blocked and will fit much better once that has occured. For those knitters out there - the base yarn is Noro kureyon - all the trim is Debblie Bliss Soho and there are probably between 5 and 10 other yarns in this design. AM has gotten very good at putting together the color scheme and textures.

These are not the greatest pictures in the world but it will give you an idea of the color and the amount of work that went into knitting this jacket. It is mosiac knitting - you create the square and then pick up and add on another square. Quilters would probably accel at this process but for some reason I did not like knitting this because I fussed around too much with what colors went where and then maybe that texture should not go there - AACCCKKK - it was too much fussy work for me but AM seems to love it and does an awesome job.

The Azalea Sampler Guild meets tomorrow for our holiday party - there will be sweets and snacks shared by all the members. I hope to take some photos of the WIP's tomorrow.

One week till Christmas - can that be possible !!!!!! I am still shopping on line but I think I've done the last of that today. Whatever else is left to purchase will have to be done in person. I love to shop but with limited funds to spend for gifts - that is the *NOT* fun part. Thankfully my family is small and I don't exchange with many friends any more since the economic crunch has strangled everyone to some degree.

I hope you all have time to put in a few happy stitches throughout this sometimes stressful week before Christmas. I hope to get back to blogland before the holiday but just in case I don't or you don't - I wish all of you the merriest of Christmases and may all your dreams come true.

ONE FINE DAY

2010-12-09T17:45:00.000-05:00

Every now and then - you make a plan - the plan goes off without a hitch and you have yourself ONE FINE DAY ! I am pleased to say that is the kind of day I had yesterday. I wanted to attend a class being held in Savannah at the French Knot needlework shop I have been raving about for the past 2 posts - it was to learn two methods of ornament finishing for canvas work. I had been daudling along with my seahorse since last year - not really motivated to work on it except at doctor appts or when I needed a small portable project however when I heard this shop owner was giving a finishing class I was on a mission to complete the seahorse and take the class.

I arranged a business trip to Savannah which allowed me to be there the day before - so I attended the weekly stitch in on Tuesday night - It was fun to be with different people and even though I didn't know anyone - it was still fun. Then I had a lovely dinner with a business associate at the coolest place - Circa 1875 - It is named as such because the building has been around since 1875 - it was a great place - loved the food and atmosphere and I will definitely be back again.

My class started at 9am - everyone was encouraged to rummage thru the shop owners private stash of trims bobbles, ribbons and fabrics. I chose a lovely silk in turquoise for the backing. Since I am going to display my seahorse year round - I did not want it to be all decked out like a frilly christmas ornament so my finishing was a little more understated than some of the other class participants. However it came out exactly as I anticipated. I did put that gaudy crystal bobble on the end of it just for effect and figured it would pick up the light. I went with a simple vintage gold trim just to cover the seam.

Here is the back of the ornament - you can see I think I did a pretty dang good job of filling all those creavices with batting.

Here is the side showing a close up of the trim. Now I see why shops charge seemingly outrageous prices for finishing. This was a LOT of work. It took me about 4 solid hours and would have taken longer if I was fumbling around with it at home. The shopowner has everything we needed ready and set up - glue guns, pins, needles, threads, scissors, sewing machines, - everything - I was just thrilled !

I was close to finishing my ornament and a couple of ladies went home to finish. I was determined I was going home with a completed ornament so I took a break for lunch. I walked two blocks to one of my favorite lunch spots in the historic area - the Gryphon Tearoom. It is housed in an old pharmacy and lots of the original stained glass is still intact along with wooden drawers - where different things were stored the old soda counter and many other original features. Here is a photo of the lovely stained glass ceiling. I tried to get a photo of the SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) out the window where I was sitting but it was too gray outside and it did not come out.

It was actually a lot of fun to be out walking by myself in Savannah. I had an opportunity to wear some of my knitted accessories and I was not cold a bit even though it was in the 40's with a stiff breeze blowing. I'm sure some of you are scoffing but hey - way down here in the deep south - 40's during mid day is very cold and unusal for us.

Don't have much more to report - next post I hope to have a WIP photo of a beautiful cowl I started knitting over the weekend and maybe some photos of stash acquisitions from recent shopping binges. I've been having a little "merry christmas to me fever" and we're not even officially in the 12 days of Christmas yet.

Here's hoping you are having some fun of your own . thanks for your comments - I always enjoy hearing from you.

SEAHORSE SIGHTING

2010-12-03T13:25:00.000-05:00

I wish I had more progress photos to share with you but I don't seem to be get getting much done these days.

My Autumn House needlepoint canvas has been sitting since I finished the fields - I am stymied about what to do about those wheat stacks or corn bundles or whatever they are. I should start experimenting with stitches.

I did finish my seahorse - I am taking an ornament finishing class next week at the French Knot so I'll show it again when it is "finished" - this will hang next to my mermaid rug so it is not a christmas tree ornament but something I will display year round.

For anyone interested in the fibers - this was my first purchase of Vineyard silk - that was used on the entire seahorse except for the gold which is krenik braid and the backround is Frosty Rays - which I might add is the biggest pain to work with. The backround is a simple wave pattern which would be more obvious in person or with a better camera.

Here is a closer shot so you can see more detail. Obviously I had to draw in my own oval shape and I went a little too big with it initially but those big black lines won't show.

It's amazing how much fun I've been having with NP this fall. I did start this seahorse well over a year ago - and put it down. It was only in the last couple of weeks that I picked it up and decided to finish that backround and take this class.

This past week I also picked up an old knitting project that was probably half done. A beautiful tri-color wrap using a very fine gauge Rowan wool. I had misplaced the mag with the pattern in the move but a shop in Scotland was clearing out a lot of their old Rowan mags so the owner helped me pinpoint the issue I was missing and I ordered from Scotland. It arrived and I was able to pick up the garment and just keep going right where I left off - that was a big SIGH of relief - sometimes I am lost when I let things sit for years and can't pick it up again or I have completely lost interest and I am finding that re-purposing the yarn is a real AHHHH moment. Gives the lovely yarn a chance to come alive again in a new project. So next time I'll try to show some other WIP's.

This is the time of the year rug hooking really kicks into gear. I would dearly love to finish Merry Halloween for the annual exhibit here in January. that is not going to happen unless I spent some serious time with my hook and frame. It's possible at this point but that goal is slipping away day by day and as Christmas approaches there will be more and more to do and less and less time to do it. I vow to hook at least 4 hours on Merry this weekend! Pinky swear OK?

We got the tree up last night - a Frasier Fur and it is a beauty. About 7.5 ft - the lights are up and we'll finish putting on the ornaments this weekend. I can assure you my BBD "Noel" ornament that I finished myself will be the first one up on the tree in a place of prominence where I can see it every day.

I hope you are all having a great start to the holiday season with many happy times to look forward to this month. Don't forget that Jesus is the reason for the season and keep him in your busy every day life.

Be Merry and Enjoy !

TURKEY TIME

2010-11-24T17:05:00.000-05:00

I have been trying to eek out a blog post for a couple of weeks now. I take a bunch of photos of nothing important and then time slips away and I don't get the post done (sigh) - Now Thanksgiving is upon us and I am still struggling to do a post. I am still in the office and there is NOTHING going on so I thought I could maybe whip out a post and wish all my friends in the US a happy turkey day !

My folks will be coming up tonight and will spend a couple of nights with us. It will just be the 4 of us but we'll enjoy preparing and eating our meal just as if we had 12 at our table. We've always had a very small group for holidays since I am an only child and have no children. Anyway - I am working from home Friday so I almost have a 4 day to look forward to . Saturday is sampler guild and that is a fun afternoon to visit with friends and get some serious stitching done in between eating snacks, drinking coffee and chatting about eating too much over the holiday LOL.

OK - I just have to say I HATE whatever change blogger made to posting photos - it is SOOO much harder now to manipulate the photos - makes me dread having to do it which means I seem to be posting less and we all know that these posts are all about the photos. SO ........... without further ado - I am going to show you some great photos from my trip last weekend to Sweet Savannah - that was almost my blog post title but since I ran right into turkey time - that won out for a title.

Last weekend Jody and I went to Savannah - I had some business to take care of so it was a mix of work and pleasure but pleasures abound in Sweet Savannah.

We had a marvelous dinner on Friday night in the historic area at Local 11 Ten which is housed in an old 50's bank building. It was a very posh expensive restaurant but the food was excellent and we actually had a friendly accomodating server. I find that many times in this type of trendy restaurant - the server somehow didn't get the message that "he was serving" - it's like they are doing a favor by visiting your table and dropping off some food. there is no semblance of "service" to be had by this type of "server" I just get tired of this type of attitude and I'm sure you can all relate. Anyway this was a very pleasant experience.

Saturday - we putzed around and enjoyed our room at the Residence Inn - I actually slept fairly well and we already knew we were heading straight to Soho Cafe down town. I've featured them before so I won't bore you again but here is Jody perusing their artwork.

Can't you just see this portrait in one of those huge victorian mansions.

We had a lovely lunch - I think we both had the crabcake sandwich which is really done right here at Soho. I am picky about crabcakes and not everyone does them or Shrimp and Grits well but this place does for sure.

In the next block down from Soho is one of my fave yarn shops in the whole world - Wild Fibre

I had already prepped Jody for a visit to a new needlepoint shop and did not elude to a visit to any more local haunts. He knows how I can spend hours and mucho bucks in any yarn shop but I did manage a quick perusal and got a chance to say hi to the gals that own the shop. I knew they were a participating shop for Yarns on Stage - these are a collection of limited edition sock yarns from wonderful companies both mainstream and indie dyers. I was under pressure to grab something quick and hit the local needlepoint shop before Jody ran out of patience. He was running a bit thin since our lunch required over a 30 min wait. His personal limit is 15 but I got an extension because "hey it's sweet savannah" ! Anyway here is the beautiful skein of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in Sweet Pea - have no idea what I will do with it - there is enough yardage for a small shawlette - so we'll see what I can find to do with it.

So now - the real treat of this post - There is a marvelous new needlepoint shop in the historic district - The French Knot -

What a fantastic shop !!!!!!! Everything about this shop exudes elegance and taste. It was rather difficult to find on Whitaker Street which is one way with no street parking. I got good advice from the owner of Wild Fibre to park on Jones and walk the 1/2 block to the shop which is actually facing an alley off Whitaker. Anyway - it was definitely worth taking the time to find.

You can read about Audrey the owner on her website so I won't belabor those who are not interested in needlepoint.

Threads anyone?

Oh my goodness - her walls of threads were just awesome - she had several brands of silk such as Planet Earth that I had been wanting to see. I like the fact they were arranged in color families - and the canvas selection was no less stunning.

She had all these gorgeous built in cabinets all around the perimeter of the shop. All filled with awesome finished items and artfully displayed accessories and canvases.

Such a beautiful place. I can't wait to go back and am already schedule to take her ornament finishing class next month. I only have to get the ornament completed LOL

Here are some gorgeous threads I pulled for my Autumn House canvas. Audrey had some great suggestions for fibers to finish up my stitching adventure on that canvas.

Well friends - that concludes my pre-turkey day visit with you - hope you enjoyed your tour of the French Knot. Wishing you the best of holidays with you and yours.

ORNAMENTS ABOUND

2010-11-09T17:07:00.000-05:00

This post is all about our adventure to A Stitchers Dream in Mt Dora. I arranged for our sampler guild to attend a class Karen the shop owner was teaching on simple ornament finishing. We had great participation from our group - 8 members from the NE FL group attended. We got up at the butt crack of dawn and headed down thru the Ocala National forest for a day of fun food and friends. We met at Starbucks - got all "fueled" up on caffeine and headed off. It was a beautiful cool day -

I think there were 11 people in the class. Karen did a great job of helping and providing suggestions for each person's ornament.

We broke for lunch and headed to downtown Mt Dora for a lovely leisurely lunch at the Garden Gate Tearoom. Everyone throughly enjoyed their selection and we decided on the next trip down (there will definitely be a next trip) that we will do the high tea instead of lunch.

My DM Jane was the only one who finished her ornament in class - doesn't she look proud !

Here is a close up of the Prairie Schooler ornament from the JCS Halloween issue several years ago. She used Watercolors for the twisted cord edging and stitched with the recommended DMC colors on aida.

Humble beginnings on my BBD ornament - this one is from the Joyeux Noel book from last year. There are so many things in that book I want to stitch.

I am SOOO proud of my finish - I am "finishing" challenged for sure and this was the first ornament I have ever finished. However I screwed up big time and therefore had to get creative with the trim. I cut the linen too short to properly fold over and anchor down - therefore I eneded up having to lace my linen to the plastic canvas which Karen recommends for simple finishing like this. It worked out OK except a narrow edging would not cover up my huge pulled stitches. Anyway - true confessions on my blog - You can see those big stitches I had to use to " lace" the linen to the plastic canvas in the photo above.

A close up shot - I send out big hugs and good karma to DF Teresa who dug into her magic box and found this lovely gauzey wide ribbon that worked perfectly for this little piece. I converted the colors in this ornament to Belle Soie. I used PTP Dill linen called for in the book - not sure of the count. I am SOOO pleased with my first ornament finish and I definitely gained the confidence to try this method again.

Here is DF Ellen hard at work on her ornament.

DF Kerrie holding up her ornament from the newest JCS Christmas issue - the ornament is by Milady's Needle. I was hoping to show the finished ornaments from our whole group. Maybe some of them will send me photos so I can post them and share them with you all.

I did take a few other photos but for some reason - if you make any wrong moves at all with importing these photos - you can't do anything but start all over - AAACKKKK - I find this so annoying so I just had to leave off a couple of shots of the whole table full of class participants.

While I had the Joyeux Noel book out - I decided to start the little Merry Christmas pin pillow - I think I was just itchy to start something new since I finished something .

Until we meet again - I hope ornaments abound around your place too !

HOUSES

2010-11-03T12:00:00.000-04:00

Happy November ! I fully intended to get a post out for Happy Halloween but that did not happen. Before Halloween 2010 becomes a distant memory - I wanted to show you my Salem House from Liberty Hill. I was SOOOO excited to get this about a week before Halloween so I could display and enjoy it. I have it sitting on my antique sewing table. It is one of my favorite LH pieces so far. My number one fave is my personalized primitive Angel work box - I should show that one some time. The top comes off this house and stores your goodies - I'm sure it would also store a small project if you wanted to use it as a work box of sorts. The tiny house scissor adornment is just darling and the church thread minder is so pretty. The pumpkin thread winder is from another LH set but it looked good there with the Salem House items. All sides of the house are painted - It is a great piece.

The next "house" is an updated shot of my Autumn House. I am still loving working on this although coming up with the stitches for different areas is a challenge. I think I already said but I am using a mix of fibers - wool/wool blends/silk/cotton and even silk chenille in this piece.

This is a closer shot of the right side of the canvas - this house and surrounding fields are finished except for the two fields to the left of the house - they are repeats of fields already stitched so I guess the challenge was not there to come up with something different for them.

Here is a close up of the left side of the canvas. I was so excited to get in my one lone sheepy. He is stitched with Thread Gatherer silk chenille - boy was that a bear to work with. It was shredding like crazy but produced a fuzzy looking sheep. That odd thing by the house is a windmill and the field behind it was a pain to plow and plant. I used a Valdani perle and that was my first experience with it - it is a nice fiber but that diagonal romanian almost put me "under the dirt" Doesn't look too bad in the photo but it was a bit messy trying to compensate. The apple trees look a bit funky but hey - it's folky right?? I'm still stuck on what to do with those wheat sheaths or hay stacks. My plan is to finish planting the fields and complete the hedgerow all the while I am pondering those stacks and how to stitch them. I need a few more threads but am so thrilled I have pulled 90% of the threads used so far from stash.

This odd looking thing is my Boneyards shawlette - for my knitting friends - it is a Steven West design and available for free on Ravelry. He used a Rowanspun Tweed in a DK weight and I knew I had Rowan tweed in my stash - I was just surprised I had BLUE - the photo is washed out - too much light on the subject I guess because it is a pretty blue - navy and should be great with jeans - it is a rustic tweed yarn from my vast stash - something from the Rowan vault.

This yummy creature is the beginning of a ruffled scarf. Pattern by Fiesta and the yarn is Fiesta Boomerang which was also in my stash! Do we see a trend here LOL. This pattern uses the dreaded short row shaping but actually it is going pretty well.

I'm going to wish I had one of these new knits ready to wear this weekend. We are expecting our first temps in the upper 30's - we'll see if they hit or miss the mark with that. I'm SO READY! I'm sick to death of wearing summer clothes in NOVEMBER for heaven sake. I am still wearing sandals too. I'm ready for hand knit socks and cozy scarves. Winter in Florida is short but sweet for any knitter.

I have an exciting event this weekend - I have arranged for our sampler guild to attend a class down in Mt Dora. It is a class on ornament finishing so we'll come home with 1 or 2 finished ornaments. I am finishing challenged for sure so this will be fun to do a simple finishing technique and maybe it will give me and some of the other members a boost in confidence or motivation to continue and do some simple finishing of our own. We have a big group of about 8 going and will meet a couple of our central florida members for class and lunch at the wonderful Garden Gate tearoom. You may remember seeing the Mt Dora report from a class 3 of us took there this summer. We're packing up 2 car loads of friends - we'll brave our first cold snap of the season with Starbucks in hand.

One other thing I'd like to mention - when you have time - pop over to my DF Kris' new blog

http://krayolakris-acolorfullife.blogspot.com/ - She is a great knitter and stitcher and I have been encouraging her for months to make her entry into blogland. She is a lurker and reader of lots of blogs - so please stop by and become a follower and welcome her to blogland.

So friends - I'll be back real soon with some photos of that excursion and until then - thanks for stopping by my blog and I love hearing your comments.

AUTUMN HOUSE

2010-10-18T16:48:00.000-04:00

I've been visiting an old friend lately. NEEDLEPOINT - I learned to do NP before I learned to knit as a young child of about 8 or 10. I did a huge amount of NP in the 90's and early 2000's - that was before I became enchanted with samplers. There were several reasons needlepoint got pushed aside in my preferences. One of which was samplers but then came the new addiction - traditional wool rug hooking. I've been hooking for almost 12 years now and in the beginning years of hooking - I was still buying a lot of NP and taking a lot of classes. Well something had to go and with the loss of two shopowners who were dear friends and were such great mentors for me with NP - I just let it slip farther and farther from my sight. Not to say that I don't have enough painted canvases and class kits to last the rest of my life and also not to say that I did not continue to buy canvases - I do and I did ! However I would see them, love them, purchase them and roll them up and put them away. I have a tremendous stock pile of lovely things which have never even been started. All this came to light when I moved 2 years ago and started digging into my vast stash of needlework related items.

Anyway - I have been a member of a local ANG chapter for a number of years - that group is 95% canvas workers - I have become less active in that group since moving 2 years ago because it is farther away from my new home and because NP was not my main focus these days. So - I decided I would join the EGA chapter which does meet very close to my house and guess what - they are about 95 % canvas workers as well - So - every month I would drag out my little flavor of the month/in progress/basketweave project and go and stitch with them. Most of them are working on a lovely group project called Crazy Dreams which has lots of stitches and colors and fibers - all are different and all beautiful. So one day - I thought to myself - Hey - that looks like fun - I have hundreds of dollars of NP stitch books on my shelf - I know what I'm doing - I know what I like - I know color - I have a vast stash of threads on hand - Why don't I find a canvas I really like and get busy. Here is what I found:

This is a canvas I purchased out of a trunk show that DF Jill from the Azalea House had a couple of years ago. I purchased a bunch of Gloriana Lorikeet wools for it and had all those stored with the canvas.

So - I have been obsessed with this canvas ever since I decided I could do it - I could do it !

Here is a close up of the house and the growing trees and fields surrounding it.

I am really pleased with the stitches I have chosen for the things I have stitched so far. I've never done a scene like this and previously - I did not do much stitch planning on painted canvases - But I must admit - I am having a great deal of fun searching for just the right thread and stitch for a particular spot on the canvas - one of the real challenges is that all these spaces are very small - the canvas is only 10 X 10 on 18ct which does help a little with doing finite details. How long this obession will last - one never knows but I'm having a hard time wrapping it up at night to get in the bed. Last night was 12:30 and I just had to finish that smoke billowing from the chimney - I found a thread I just simply had to try. I'm having so much fun perusing long stashed threads and rummaging thru other kitted projects long left idle looking for threads that might be good on this canvas. I'm sure once Halloween is over - the allure of this Autumn House will be over but who knows - fall scenes and pumpkins are good for a while and guess what - I have a great Turkey canvas I got on a rug hooking trip to Fredericksburg TX about 5 years ago. He might be my next conquest !

I had a new shawl project to show you but the photo part of blogger is acting up and I just don't have the patience to do this all over again for the 3rd time today.

So I will bid farewell - wish you all a good week and hope I get back here again soon . Thanks for all your comments -

AWAITING AUTUMN

2010-10-04T18:01:00.000-04:00

My Halloween things are put out - the calendar says October 4th but the thermometer in my car said 89 when I went to the bank a little bit ago - WHEW - Come on Mom Nature - give us a break ! I'm so ready for fall - how about you?

I wanted to show you a darling pin pillow I got in the mail last week. It was stitched by DF Henri for me last year but I didn't have time to get the finishing done for the fall season. Nancy (lovelyinchocolate) did the beautiful finishing on this sweet little piece. It was in one of the JCS Halloween ornament issues - 2009 I'm pretty positive. It was stitched on the called for Havana WDW linen with the called for threads. Henri did a lovely job on the stitching and I used fabric I purchased last fall at the Olde Green Cupboard - our beloved quilt shop that closed in the spring. Fabric and other purchases always jog my memory of fun times there at the cupboard with dear friends - stitching, hooking and just laughing and having a good ole time.

Look at the cute rusty pins with buttons and beads Nancy put for special touches. So creative!

Here is the little display of my veggie gourds in a Longaberger basket with the little pillow propped up on the side

I think I've shown this rug before but it was my very first hooked rug that I finished some years ago - I still love the primitive look and it is special because it was my first ! Also in the photo is a cute Halloween guy that my mom bought for me recently.

This will be a short post but I also wanted to show my progress on Garden Glade by CHS - It is a chart I've had in my stash since it was brand new back in 2005 but Jean at the Attic had it as her SOM for September and I succumbed to the lovely Bluegrass linen by Lakeside she was using in her rendition. I did not realize this was an adaptation of a sampler in the American Folk Art Museum. Makes me love it all the more. I received Jean's Belle Soie conversion but I wanted to use a red that was more like what Kathy selected with her NPI choice. I came up with Gloriana Schoolhouse Red from my stash of silks. I also changed the color of the big giant leaves to Gloriana Olive Grove - Can't believe I'm actually making color changes - WHEEEE - amazing - I always feel compelled to stick to the colors the designer selected when doing a repro - I know everyone has their own opinion about how to stitch repro's but that is my personal preference - so anyway - I am enjoying this immensely as you can see from my progress in one week. For me this is amazing and last week - I hardly knit at all. GG had all my attention. Some of you would laugh at this amount of progress but remember I work full time and such as last week when I worked a full day on Sunday and till 8pm on Monday. the most I ever get to stitch on a work night is 2 hrs.

Sad this photo is so crummy - it is actually so beautiful - the colors I mean.

So friends - until we meet again - I'll be awaiting autumn !

SEPTEMBER SLIPS AWAY

2010-09-27T18:42:00.000-04:00

I can't believe how long I've been trying to make a blog post. I have been SO busy since I returned from vacation. this trend actually started while I was on vacation and I had to cut short our last day to make a quick (not really since it was a 12 hr drive) trip back home to attend to a network issue. Since I have been just trying to keep my head above water since returning from vacation - I don't have much "new stuff" to report on.

I did go to a great yarn shop while on vacation. Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows how much I LOVE visiting yarn/needlework shops when I travel. Well - I found a new shop in Maryville Tennessee before I left when I was researching whether there were any new shops that had popped up since I was in that area last year. So I found The Knitting Nest owned by Antje Gillingham who is actually a famous sock knitter and has written two wonderful books on the subject. Knitting Circles Around Socks and Knitting More Circles Around Socks is book number 2. Sorry to say she was sold out of both books when I visited there. To say this shop was beautiful is such an understatement. It was gorgeous! The floors were reclaimed barnwood - there was exposed brick on several walls and the back of her shop had an open balcony which had nice views of downtown Maryville. Come and take a tour with me - I have lots of photos to share with you.

Here is the charming downtown street and the beautiful brick exterior of the Knitting Nest.

Once inside - oh my goodness - what a wonderful layout on this shop - the space was gorgeous!

Here is a table full of Malabrigo

I'm not sure I even made it to this wall

Such lovely colors and I loved the presentation.Here is my non-knitting mother making a purchase LOL and Jody and my dad were patient husbands just wandering around and pretending to be interested.

The shop was divided into areas of interest and this is the "sock " area - all her sock books and sock yarns were in this area. There was a baby/children's area and so forth. Yes I did find many things I wanted but I settled on a new Rowan book and yarn to do a lovely transitional jacket. I have already started it so I will show a progress photo on that one soon.

I don't have a lot of other vacation photos to show you - I did not take tons of photos - since we vacation in this area of the Smokey Mountains every year - I just don't do a lot of photos any more. We did however visit a new place - my folks knew of a great steak/bbq joint in Dandridge - it is a darling little town - so quaint - wish we had arrived sooner so we could have walked the streets and gone in some of the antique and gift shops. As it were - my mom and I quickly hit one gift/antique shop which was housed in the upstairs back of the 100+ year old store where Smoky's Steaks and BBQ is located. We got there a little early and were able to nab a seat on the porch which overlooked the downtown street and an interesting cemetery with graves dating back to the civil war. I could have spent more time looking but darkness was catching us and I'm WAY too much a believer in ghosts to be walking around a place like that at dusk LOL.

Here is another shot of the quaint downtown street - Oh - I want to live in a place like this !

Vacation 2010 is just a sweet memory now - seems like ages ago that we were sitting on that porch enjoying a blissful conversation and meal with my dear folks.

I have one last photo to show you of a shawlette that I made for DF Carol's upcoming birthday next month. I am astounded with myself that I actually gave poor Carol her birthday gift in advance of her special day. Every single year Carol gets her birthday present somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas but this year I wanted her to have this to enjoy on her annual pilgrimage home to NY state. For the knitters out there - it started out to be Multnomah - a very popular pattern which has a feather and fan lace border - well - I did not like the way it was going and after putting in about 10 or 12 rows - I ended up pulling it all out and making it a MultMara shawlette. Mara is one of my favorite patterns and I pictured one I completed in my last post for another friend. Not only that - I have already started knitting another beautiful Mara for myself. So here is Carols - it is knit with Dream in Color Classy which is a hand dyed yarn. Color: Chinatown Autumn I think it was called.

I hope this finds all of my friends in blog land enjoying fine fall weather. Apparently Mother Nature forget to send any fall feelings way down south. We are STILL having temps in the upper 80's - at least we might slip into the upper 60's at night. No matter what - it is still better than 110 heat index that we had a month ago.

Thanks for visiting my blog and I appreciate your comments.

AUGUST BIRTHDAYS GALORE

2010-09-05T21:39:00.000-04:00

I have so many friends who have August birthdays not to mention my dear mother who turned 70 this year. I sure don't think she looks or acts her age.

I usually host an August birthday party every year for a few friends who are in the illustrious group. DF Karen came up to spend the weekend and she sure livened up the party with party favors for all and cupcakes too.

Here is a shot of the gift table - look closely and you'll see a lovely BBD Bluebird framed piece that Karen stitched for my folks 30th anniversary - I'm sick I did not get a close up of it but I did not - suffice to say I did not finish the "hart" sampler I was working on for their anniversary but I will finish it one day.

I also did not get a photo of the gorgeous aqua "mara" shawl that DF Henrietta knit for my mom for her birthday - However here is DF Anne Marie showing off the Mara I knit for her.

Ooops sorry - that shot is a bit blurry but she was twirling around and the others were worse. LOL

Here is Henri with her little Quaker Swan needlebook kit I gave her .

Mom getting the first glimpse of the BBD Happy Birthday that I stitched for her.

I have to show you a close up of the beautiful finish that Lois at Elegant Stitch did on this piece. It was exactly as I had envisioned it - a lovely little package for my dear mom.

and the back - we used the lovely Old Primrose Inn fabric from BBD. I LOVE how it came out and I'm so proud I actually got it completed and Lois was able to get it back to me before the party.

It was a delightful day had by all - I got two lovely hostess gifts - a lovely Pandora bead from Anne Marie and this beautiful Just Enough Ruffles scarf hand knit by DF Karen in an OH so typical "mel" color.

Karen also presented each guest with party favors - most of us (knitters) received this wonderful book

You would have thought it was a party of 10 year olds when the squeals of joy went up as the guests opened their party favor packages. It was such a thoughtful gesture but then I am the luckiest person in the world to have so many dear and wonderful friends. Greatly missed this year was DF Katie whose daughter fell at church just before the party and she spent the day in the hospital emergency room and DF Jill who was celebrating her Mom's 80th birthday out of state. Hopefully there's always next year !

Because I am currently sitting in the Smokie mountains on vacation and Jody keeps asking me what I am doing - I am going to cut this post off with these happy memories of a fabulous day with very special friends.

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day doing whatever it is you love doing !

BIRTHDAYS, BOUQUETS AND BOATS

2010-08-23T16:36:00.000-04:00

Looking for interesting blog post titles can always be a daunting challenge. The birthday part is for my mom.

We had a great time celebrating her birthday this weekend. Jody and I went to the lake on Saturday afternoon - we decided since we are so close to vacation time that we would just hang around the lake and have a catfish fry and maybe take a boat ride. That was what my mom requested. I got some beautiful flowers from the local flower shop and my assistant and I arranged them for my mom. I went foraging outside the office and found these great fox tail ferns growing in abundance so I clipped off a few and I think they made a dramatic statement in the arrangment.

Here is a closer shot

I can't believe I didn't get a single photo of my DM (sigh) I should have gotten one with her flowers - she loved them or with the special coconut essence cake I got from a local cake designer. I guess in the world of cakes you are better if you are a "cake designer" instead of a bakery LOL. No photo of that either.

After we had our delicious fried catfish, my dad's world famous hushpuppies and a few glasses of iced tea - we hit the lake for a long sunset ride. It was so much fun !

Here's Jody trying to catch some bugs LOL ! and my DD driving the boat. My mom said "don't you dare take a picture of me" - her hair was blowing and she had on no makeup - AAACKKK - I should have anyway but she was the birthday girl and I did not want to upset her.

Isn't that the most blissful sunset - the lake was so calm and beautiful and all the egrets were heading for their roost in the cypress tree around from my folks house. It was getting a little to dusky to get a good photo of them. Happy Birthday to my dear mom - the "special" BBD gift is on it's way and I'll give that to her this week - maybe I 'll post a photo of her then.

Can you believe I had a knitting finish ! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOT - I bought this yarn in the spring and this was intended for me however I need a special gift for a special GF of mine - she is a knitter too so she will appreciate the effort and hours that went into this. It is the Mara Shawl - a free pattern produced and available on the Madeline Tosh website. This shawl is so easy and I found it to be a very relaxing knit - the yarn is exquisite but the color Port is very dark - almost black with little flecks of dark pink.

Can't see a thing in that photo except the shape but here is a closer view of the tip and you can see the beautiful ruffled edge.

I loved making this SO much that I have already decided to order more MT yarn and make another one for myself. When I was on their website today perusing around - I saw another cute pattern I am now coveting and want to make out of their sock weight yarn. You get so addicted to these hand dyed yarns it's hard not to be day dreaming constantly of casting on your next beautiful project.

Speaking of beautiful projects - I just have to say - Miss Merry Halloween has come out to play after a long hot summer of hiding in the old red cupboard. She is a little more than 1/2 finished - if I would get to work - she might get to make her debut for the Halloween season this year.

Isn't she the cutest thing !

This is one of my favorite seasonal pieces - I showed her in a previous post but I've gotten lots of new followers since then and I just thought she should be seen again. It will give me incentive to keep working on that BORING inky green black backround. It looks black but it is really a very dark green plaid. This color plan was done by Diane Stoffel and is predominantly in a 6 cut but of course the tiny detail is in a 3 & 4 cut.

I don't know why this looks so washed out - the colors are really very vivid on this canvas. Oh and the design is by Lori Brechlin/Not Forgotten Farm adapated by Spruce Ridge Studios.

Thanks so much for coming around to visit me and for your comments. Without you - it would not be much fun to do a blog - so please come and visit me again real soon !

QUILTING, STITCHING AND RUGS OH MY !

2010-08-16T16:31:00.000-04:00

I have been meaning for quite some time to post some photos of the GORGEOUS king size quilt our DF Vicki (of Olde Green Cupboard fame) made for my mom. We picked out the fabric in March before they announced they were closing (which we are still mourning btw). The fabric is Moda from the BBD line called Old Primrose Inn. I sure hope I got that right and did not step on anyone's toes like I did last time I said the wrong name for a quilt line or manufacturer or something - I got a nasty gram on that one and I will just apologize right now if I got something wrong. I'm not a quilter and neither is my mom so we just don't know as much as some of you gals do about fabric lines, designers and so forth - however I'm pretty positive I got this right because I looked on the selvage and got the name AND when we bought it we were specifically looking for Blackbird designed fabric. Vicki did a fantastic job on this quilt - it is exactly what my mom was hoping for - she wanted a vintage look so Vicki chose Buggy Whip as the pattern. Some of the gals who used to work for OGC bought one of the fancy long arm quilters and opened their own finishing shop - Sorry but I don't know the name of it - anyway that is who did the actual quilting on this one.

I think this looks marvelous in "MY" guestroom on this antique iron bed but I don't think mom is going to part with it - wonder if I begged a little harder LOL.

I had a close up of the quilting pattern but it just did not show up in the photo so I won't waste the space.

Another really neat quilted item I have in my possession is this awesome carrier made by friend Susan - also a former OGC associate and who also now has a long arm quilter and cottage industry finishing quilts for people in need. Isn't this a beauty.

Sadly - I do not remember the designer or the fabric maker. I also got my mom one of these but she quickly moved it from my house to her house and I have not seen it since LOL - smart cookie ! because her's is just gorgeous also ! Here is a close up of the beautiful quilting pattern Susan used on my carrier.

Just so you know I am still hooking some - here is a shot of the border I have been focusing on. I am excited about the backround wool used in the border - it has been in my stash for about 10 years - it was the very first "project" that I had dyed for me and I just never did the rug. I actually gave away the canvas to a friend not long ago but I did not want to part with the wool since DF Judy Colley - master of the dye pot did for me. I am so thrilled that it worked so well in this rug since I had the unfortunate dilemma of not having enough of the center motif backround to finish the rug and this tea dyed interior backround can not be duplicated - I think I told you of that saga when I showed you shots of this Antique Blue Basket rug a few months ago.

Look at this awesome place I found in Auburn AL when I was there on business last week. The Market serves freshly made crepes, soups, and other healthy options. they also have the most awesome market attached to the little cafe - last time I was there I brought home dried organic beans of several types that were unfamilar to me - has anyone heard of Christmas beans? they are huge like brown limas only a deep speckled maroon color and we cooked them yesterday with some ham hocks and rice - WHOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO - were they ever good - I'm showing my "southern" now but then ya'll already knew I was a GRITS (girl raised in the south) didn't you .

One last thing in this post - HALLELUIAH - I finished the BBD Happy Birthday for my mom. It is not perfect - there are several boo boos and one glaring issue that I will just admit - even though I counted and counted - I did not center my mom's name correctly. AAAACCKKKK - since it was over one and I worked on it for hours and hours - I decided I was NOT going to pull it out. She will love it all the same I hope. I am going to have it finished into a cube with an excessive amount of ribbons.

That's the fastest I have ever stitched anything in my life - only about 3 weeks - for me that is astounding plus I did work on the Hem Stitch class piece and have done a little knitting and the Clearwater weekend was a wash for getting any stitching done. So I am mighty proud I got this done in time to get it finished like I wanted. Look at how great the Old Primrose Inn fabric goes with this piece.

So I can't wait to see this finished up and I will do a post when I get it back.

Next update - I hope to have some knitting projects to show. I've been working on a gift for a friend but Mom's took priority.

So until we meet again - I wish you happy times with your needles.

MOUNT DORA

2010-08-10T17:24:00.000-04:00

Did you know there are hills in Florida. Mt Dora is situatied west of Orlando in what is to be considered the "hills of central Florida" - it is beautiful country and Mt Dora is a charming quaint little town with cute shops and restaurants lining the streets. On Saturday morning I picked up a sampler guild buddy of mine - Linda at a Starbucks near her home and off we went. I opted to take the scenic route down thru the Ocala National Forest - I have been that way many times before and prefer to stay off the interstate highways whenever possible.

Our class was in Mt Dora at A Stitchers Dream - I had never been to this shop and until recently did not know it even existed. There was another shop in Mt Dora with a similar name that did close several years ago. Owner Karen greeted my traveling companion Linda and I at the door on Saturday morning - (why didn't I take a single photo of the shop?) I was excited with the prospects of learning something new and spending the day with DF Carol who lives in central florida. Much besides - it's been a LONG time since I was in a stitching shop devoted to counted thread work and not just a needlepoint shop.

The class was by Indigo Rose and called Six Hem Stitch Sampler. Both Carol and Linda had all their pre-stitching finished but I felt I did pretty good with what pre-stitching I got accomplished. I think they were able to cut all 6 of their hem stitch sections and I only managed to get 2 done but that's OK because I learned a lot and I definitely needed moral support when it came time to cutting those linen threads - WHOA - that was scary.

Here is a couple of shots of my sampler:

The linen is Silvery Moon and the border is Waterlilies - a very deep purple and the alphabet is Waterlilies Rainforest. there is some over one blocks done in two colors of AVAS and the pulled work and hem stitches are in Perle Cotton - a silvery gray which matches the linen perfectly.

I had such a relaxed enjoyable day at this class. Karen's shop is on the outskirts of town in a strip mall. We wanted to go to a neat restaurant in downtown Mt Dora. Even though it had been raining and was threatening more rain - we jumped in my car and went to the Garden Gate Tearoom.

Please come and join us at this wonderful respite

Oh my - that must be it - look at those gorgeous bougainvilleas on the garden wall.

Take a peek inside their beautiful courtyard - where if it was not a sweltering 90+ degrees - it would be very pleasant to sit and take tea.

Linda and Carol are waiting to go in

What a beautiful place awaited us

Isn't it dreamy with all the antique dresses and pale lighting - so ethereal and delicate.

The food was outstanding and the ambiance was perfect in my opinion. I think my companions enjoyed their lunch as much as I did. I had their signature dish "Southern Chicken Pie" which was actually unlike anything I had ever had before. I thought it would be similar to a quiche but it was more like a chicken pot pie but drier and not as creamy and packed full of delicious chicken.

I just can't say how much I enjoyed this outing - it was just so good to take a class and spend time with good friends. I will definitely be visiting this shop for more classes in the future.

I enjoy hearing from each and every one of my blog readers. I have some new followers - so welcome to each of you - I hope I can continue to interest you in my adventures.

CLEARWATER PART TWO

2010-08-05T16:25:00.000-04:00

Two posts in one week - WOW - that must be a record for me.

I promised to show you the yarn shop I visited while in the Clearwater area this past weekend. It is called Uncommon Threads and was a very nice shop. Sadly I did not have time to peruse every bin as Jody was patiently sitting in the car in the blazing 100 degree temps - I did of course leave the a/c on for him but still - it was a quick trip. They do promote spinning in this shop so there was yummy fibers and wheels there as well.

There was a class going on behind the cash register area so I could not get any closer to the spinning fibers.

Here is another shot near the front of the shop

I can shop quick when under pressure. I had already gotten the scoop from Cari on what they carry and since this is her LYS - she made it easier for me to focus quickly. I spotted a beautiful hand dyed 100% silk yarn by Claudia Handpaint. I did not know this company did silk - I have seen their sock yarn locally but that was it. This was a little more than I wanted to pay but it was 1100 yards and there is that Eiffel Tower shawl I have been toying with starting. OOH LA LA - perfect I think. The color is called Woodland Moss - it looks quite brown in the photo but is actually a "typical Mel color" a goldish greenish moss color and while I perused the bins around the store - I could not get this skein off my mind.

Then at the last minute - I spotted on the very botton bin some Malabrigo Lace - funny thing about malabrigo - you either love it or hate it - I don't hate it but I m not that enamoured with the worsted weight. I have a lovely skein of their sock yarn that I have never tried however I really do like the lace weight. I did the Ruffled Fichu in malabrigo lace and I recently started the Featherweight Cardi in MalaB lace. So I was able to snag 3 skeins of Little Lovely - which is shades of pink - all the way from petal pink to almost lipstick red.

Not sure why this photo is so orangey because it is truly lovely shades of pink.

I took a photo of the front of the shop but the glare was too bad to post. So quick trip but nice shop - if you are ever in the area of Palm Harbor - go check them out and maybe if you're lucky you'll see our blog friend Cari there.

One last shot before I go - I have been really putting the needle to the linen on the newest BBD AoTH piece Happy Birthday. My DM's birthday is this month and when this came out a couple of weeks ago - I thought ...... do I dare ........ can I ........ will I .......... I sure am going to try ..........to stitch this for her birthday. I hope she will think it's a special gift - she knows how little I actually finish - not that I am not constantly doing something - knitting - hooking - stitching but I work on so many different things - I don't get that many actual finishes.

If I had known this dang thing had all those lazy daisys in it - I probably would have skipped trying to get it done for her and just left it for my big AoTH sampler however I imagine they will be cute and I hope they will go fast.

Thanks for all the commenters on my last blog post - It was fun hearing your glory days of Rock and Roll stories and to you girls - I would say - when you're driving down the road or cleaning your house - turn up that radio and rock out to your favorite band and sing it loud!

ROBERT PLANT WOW ! ! ! !

2010-08-02T16:11:00.000-04:00

What a fantastic show - I have seen Robert Plant and his various bands (including Led Zeppelin way back in the day) but he never ceases to put on an awesome performance. I was SOOO excited about the show I wanted to start blogging the minute I returned to the hotel but I knew I would receive the stink eye from Jody for sure ! While is he also a big RP fan - he was not as impressed with the current band as he was with the Strange Sensation - his band before the Allison Krause endeavor. I saw the Strange Sensation tour in NYC about 5 years ago and it was fantastic too. Robert has a birthday this month ( yes I know I am too old to be a groupie so I have slide into the "fanatic fan" category) and for 60+ - he is just too hot to be believed - wrinkles, long curly gray/blond hair and all - it is still my dream to meet him and since I am no longer that hot 20 something 100 lb chickie I used to be - just chatting would be a pretty cool thing.

We were in a small venue in Clearwater Fl. Here is a shot of how good our seats were - I'm sorry but I don't know how to make the subject larger when I shot the picture on my IPhone (note to self to learn how to do this)

For anyone who doesn't care two hoots about this concert - you might want to bail out now - I am going to post later about my yarn shop stop and a couple of other things but this post will be all about the trip to Clearwater.

anyway - I thought the concert was very unique - they did play more RP solo songs than I've heard in a number of years. He opened with Down by the Sea which is off Fate of Nations - a little known song in my opinion but a great one. He also did I'm in the Mood (for a Melody) which of course I like to pretend is just for moi' !!!!!!!! It was fantastic to hear it live after probably 15 or so years. He did Tangerine - a fabulous Zeppelin song and Thank You another favorite of mine along with several other Zep and solo songs. I noticed he also did 2 songs from the Raising Cane CD he had done with Allison Krause and had a female singer on stage thru the entire performance named Patti Griffin - she had a sultry voice but little stage presentation. His current band - the Band of Joy is apparently a bunch of guys he played with prior to meeting Jimmy Page and getting started with LedZep - they were all extremely talented and all did songs from the newest CD - I think it's titled Band of Joy - I have to rush out and get it - it was just released last week. Well - I could go on and on but just suffice to say it was a magical evening in my opinion.

Thru a little internet research - I found a great little restaurant in Safety Harbor which is on Tampa Bay near our hotel. The Green Springs Bistro was nestled on a side street in the cutest little cottage. Brick streets and cute shops made this an interesting area - too bad we didn't have time to explore.

I think I need this mermaid mailbox ! Jody again gave me the stink eye !

Here is a shot of the interior of the restaurant which had bright colors and an inhouse guitarist who was really really good. It was interesting that the whole restaurant was filled with fellow Robert Plant fans garnering their various concert t-shrts from the past 30+ years.

The Green Springs is chef owned and had some good reviews listed. We had a fabulous meal - jody had crab stuffed Mahi and I had shrimp and grits. The wait staff was excellent and it was a super pleasant way to start off a fabulous evening.

On Saturday morning I wanted to find Cari's local yarn shop which is in Palm Harbor. I had emailed Cari last week and asked about shops to visit in the area. I did visit Uncommon threads but I forgot to take a photo of my purchases so I'll leave that post for another time.

Instead of heading home on I 75 - we decided to drive up the gulf coast - I had never been in those areas - Tarpon Springs, Homosassa Springs, Crystal River - they were quaint little spots but it was far too hot to stop and get out anywhere so I have no photos of those little towns. I knew I wanted to stop in Williston which is in horse country (Marion County) for a late lunch on the way home. The Ivy House is a neat place - it is housed in a historic home built in 1912 I think I read.

It had been about 5 years since I was there but it was just as wonderful as I remember it being.

Beautiful gardens surround the grand old home and inside there are numerous fireplaces and wood floors. Good food is the reason people flock there from far far away. I ordered fried shrimp and Jody ordered their specialty crispy oven roasted chicken - both came with fresh veggies, cornbread and a yeast roll. I was full but not too full to pass up a wonderful house made dessert. We opted to share a piece of chocolate layer cake - we both thought it was just DEE-VINE!

What a great way to end a lovely weekend !

SUMMERTIME BLUES

2010-07-28T13:22:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone ! Had to hurry with a post or July 2010 would be gone. I have been mostly stitching but don't have any photos to show for my efforts. I am taking a class at a shop next weekend that I have never visited before about 2 hours south of me. It is a Hem Stitch Sampler class by Indigo Rose - I have been working on pre-stitching for that. I've made good progress and I'm quite proud of that. I have not been to a class in a very long time so I am looking forward to a fun day in a new to me shop. DF Linda is going with me to the class and we will be meeting DF Carol. Both of these gals are in sampler guild with me and Carol and I have traveled together on many awesome trips so it will be a wonderful day spent in historic Mt Dora which is west of Orlando.

The other fun trip I have coming right up is a concert by ROBERT PLANT - WHEEEEEE - Jody and I are heading to Clearwater on the gulf coast of Florida to see Robert on tour with his new venture band of joy. Apparently there are some guys in this group that he played with in pre-Zeppelin days. I was not familiar with them but anything Robert does is gold in my book. I did not see the acclaimed Raising Sand tour with Allison Krause. The closest concert to us was Birmingham AL and that is about 9 hrs so we decided to skip it. So the last time I saw Robert was in NYC about 5 years ago. What a trip that was with BFF Jill - will never forget the excitement of being in NYC and seeing Robert Plant at the Beacon Theatre. So - a weekend away sounds great. I've mapped out a scenic route thru the center of the state - we'll stay off I 75 and go thru horse country. On the way home we'll travel back up the gulf coast and might stop at Homosassa Springs to see the Manatee exhibit. I've never been in that area of the state before and I never pass up an opportunity to do something I've never done before.

Last Saturday the Azalea Sampler Guild got together for our monthly stitch in. There were lots of gorgeous projects in progress. I wanted to show you the work of the talented and dedicated stitchers in our group. My apologies to Jill and Henri - for some reason the photos taken on your side of the table were too dark to put up on the blog. Henri finished her beautiful Hannah Horsfall quaker which was repro'd by another guild member Karen of the Spinning Monkey. Then Jill had a new start on a quaker which is to be a purse insert - I think it was Quaker and Crown but I'm not very sure I have that correct.

So here is the show:

Here is Teresa's new start on the Bent Creek Alphabet Row - beautiful rich fall colors.

Kerrie's almost finished Jane Rees by the Scarlet Letter - I'm not sure of the linen but I know the silk is Gloriana Schoolhouse Red - this is so huge and so impressive in person

Another red beauty by Linda the french sampler Marie Lucie - I think she said the linen was graziano in 38ct and the red is overdyed cotton by Threadworx.

Jackie's beautiful Quilts and Quakers - the colors are just my style and the linen is PTP Mello and the called for Valdani overdyed cottons.

Mom is rocking along on her Vierlande which was in SANQ a couple of issues ago - this was supposed to be a guild SAL and Henri has finished hers. Mom should be closing in on a finish in the next month or so. I have two rows of alphabet but that is it. Not sure who else is stitching this but I'll show more progress when I see them.

last but certainly not least is Kris' gorgeous Villages of HRH. These pieces always blow me away in person. They are so gorgeous. This is on 40ct Lakeside - not sure of the color with the called for NPI I think.

And where is Mel's progress????????? Well - I just don't have enough of that Hem Stitch sampler to show at this time. After my class - I promise I'll show you what I've been doing. I am also working SLOWLY

on the BBD AoTH - still on Snow Garden. However I am making a little progress here and there.

Knitting hummm - I'm always knitting - working mainly on two summery jackets - on a moss stitch jacket by Debbie Bliss in her summer yarn Amalfi - very pretty - I think I showed the yarn earlier this summer in one of those Savannah stash hauls. the other focus garment is the tea party cardi which I am knitting for a good friend using Spud and Chloe 50/50 organic wool/cotton - a lovely yarn in a bluish teal. I'm itching to start another shawl - I have several in mind but mainly Seraphim.

I hope to come back to visit real soon. As always - I look forward to your blogs and your comments on my blog.

FESTIVE 4TH

2010-07-05T10:31:00.000-04:00

Hope you all had a fabulous 4th of July ! Many people are off today on the 5th - however I am working today. So I thought I'd pop in and say hello and show you some photos of where we spent our 4th holiday.

My folks live on a beautiful lake about 50 miles south of us. It is so pleasant down there - fun to perch on their porch high above the lake and watch the boats pulling skiers and hear the constant drone of the jet skis. they always have a great fireworks display - a neighbor of my parents pulls a float out in the lake and sets off about 15 minutes of fireworks - nothing to compare to NYC or the Capital celebration but fireworks over water are gorgeous no matter where you happen to be. We prepared all our side dishes on Saturday so we could sit on the porch and stitch all afternoon. We were blessed with cool breezes and temps only in the 80's which made a pleasant afternoon. Here are a few shots of the lake from our vantage point.

Here's my dad putting out a woodpecker cake - I love watching all the birds come to their feeding station.

Here is a shot of mom stitching - not sure why it came out like this but it was interesting.

Jody relaxing and enjoying the view

I was going to show some shots of our stitching but the lighting was just not that great so I'll just make this post about our little family 4th of July celebration. It's times like these to be cherished and enjoyed.

A couple of stunning shots of the sunset to close this post

Let freedom ring !

MONDAY MONDAY

2010-06-21T15:46:00.000-04:00

OK - Obviously I've used that blog post title before because it auto-populated when I started typing it.

It is actually the title of a Momma's and Papa's song that I love. I am probably dating myself but I can't help but feeling like California Dreamin' and Monday Monday were all from an easier time - a time when I didn't have to worry so much about things. AHHH - guess I should never do a blog post when I am having a "blue" Monday ! I also like Manic Monday but I used that one before too !

One of my faithful blog followers asked what I had been up to - that I had not been around blogland lately. Well I wish I had tons of stitching to show for my absence here but alas I do not. I meant to get updated WIP photo of my Hart sampler but I keep forgetting - I always seem to be running late to work and that is when I seem to take all my blog photos because there is more light in my house in the morning.

I do have a couple of photos to show - Here is a shot of Workbasket's Faith Hope Love - I have been working on it for several years (yes I said YEARS) - I don't know why I don't work on it more - I love the piece - DF Henri did this several years ago for a departing priest at her church and it was stunning - she inspired me to start it too. Mine is on 36ct Lakeside vintage lentil in Belle Soie Noir. I am just about at the 1/2 way point. Maybe I should make this my "strand a day" project !

Here is a closer shot - I was afraid one skein of silk would not be enough and when I bought the 2nd skein it had a lot more light sections so I am pulling 1 strand from one skein and 1 strand from the 2nd skein to try and balance the difference and I think it is working out just fine.

On Memorial Day weekend I was just dying to start something patriotic - I always want to stitch in the current season - christmas in December - a turkey on thanksgiving weekend and flags on the 4th of July! I know - how do I ever expect to finish anything "for" the season - oh well - I really just don't care too much - whatever gives me joy at the time - it's all about the process for me - Am I having fun right now? YEP - OK then it's all good !

I thought surely I had a BBD that would work for something patrotic when oh boy ! Look what I ran across - this is the America pillow by Handwork - I had the lovely and cherished BOAF Sparrow linen in 36ct that Mary Riggs used in her model and it was done in GAST and WDW - I had all but 3 of them on hand so I could start it. YIPPEE - I stitched like crazy on this for a week - that's about the length of my attention span on any given project. I should have titled this blog post "true confessions" LOL - I have more done on it than the photo shows and since 4th of July is coming up - I have another patriotic holiday where I'll be wanting to stitch the red,white and blue !

One last photo is the new start I made on the BBD Anniversaries of the Heart series. I saw just one too many of these WIP's in blogland. I am stitching mine on 30ct WDW Parchment using the recommended threads. I wanted something big enough that I could maybe work on it at work and not have to have additional light. I am proud of what I have gotten done on it just working on it at work occasionally -

I'm not sure what that big pink hue is in the middle of the sampler - must be a reflection from the sun thru the glass or something because there is no pink hue on the linen.

Hope all my friends are doing well and staying cool - it's been horribly hot here in NE FL this past week. Highs hovering around 100 and heat index well over 100 - damaging and severe thunderstorms every day last week and I hear it thundering now in the distance. Thanks for each of your comments on my blog - I read and appreciate hearing from you so much.

THE REVEAL

2010-06-07T14:44:00.000-04:00

I've been promising for a while that I was very close to a major accomplishment in my rug hooking life. My oldest (and dearest) WIP has reached a milestone. I have completed the interior portion of the Antique Blue Basket. For any rug hooking readers I have out there - it is designed by Edyth O'Neill of Red Cape rugs - it was color planned by Joan Reckwerdt and it is hooked predominately in a 6cut. I did not like the backround Joanie sent me - it was almost white so a friend of mine that I have since lost touch with suggested tea dyeing the backround - that became an adventure since her husband passed away while she had my wool and I could not get in touch with her for almost a year - I kept hooking on the motifs but all the while worried about my 3 yards of backround wool. My local teacher and DF Katie tried to duplicate the tea dyed sample I had been given for approval but to no avail - she tried every tea brand on the market and could NOT get the same effect - she even tried commercial dyes and it did NOT work. Finally after almost a year - the woman who had the bulk of my backround wool got in touch with me and of course I was not upset because it is a very traumatic event to lose your spouse but I was glad to see my wool again. I think you'll agree - it is a wonderful effect on the backround.

Sorry that shot is blurry and off kilter - I'll blame it on Jody - he took the picture because the rug is so big I could not get up over since I am so short. I'll show some close up shots so you can see how pretty the colors are.

One last shot showing the borders - I have done only a small bit of the border - someone said along the line I shouldn't wait till the end to do the borders but I had left the backround till the end and I knew if I did not focus on getting that backround done it would not get done. Bear in mind that this rug has sat sometimes for over a year or more without being touched. I have started and finished many rugs in between starting this rug in the early 2000's - I'm just glad the main motif is done.

Somehow the photos do not show how large this rug is - it is 3 feet X almost 5 feet including the border. I'm so proud to have just gotten this part done and I love how it came out.

Friday I took off from work - seems I needed to have an upper GI series done - YUCK - that was not too fun but not horrible either. Since I also had fallen in the shower the previous Friday - I thought Jody and I should visit our DF who is a chiropractor in SO GA - we always love the drive up there - we travel the Woodpecker Trail - wonder how many of you have heard of that? It's just State and County roads up thru Georgia - I think you can go all the way to the mountains on the Woodpecker trail - that's what my grandmother used to call that route back when I was a child. It's nice to see it recognized as such with signage on the highway. We decided that we would go and eat dinner at an obscure place called Blueberry Hill - So you start off in Hoboken Ga - does it sound like a wide spot in the road - yep it is - I think they have one red light and one gas station. Heading out of town - you see a tiny sign on a dirt road

I had been to this place once before about 20 years ago but I was with our chiropractor friend and his wife (I used to show dogs with her for about 25 years) and it was dark and I thought they were taking me in the woods to dump my body - I NEVER again ventured to find this place on my own but Jody and I always try to make adventures when we can so obviously we found the right turn. We drove about 2 miles on winding dirt roads passing by wonderful 100 year old farmsteads and barns

until finally we pulled up to a dead end and a long driveway - I don't remember seeing a sign at that point but we pulled in because there was a huge dirt and gravel empty spot that looked like maybe where people parked. Here is the outside showing a huge wonderful fireplace

Up to the front door - what a neat rustic place

We got there at 5pm and we were the only ones there until after 6pm which was sorta odd for a Friday night - the place was huge inside - obviously they started out with a small wooden cabin type thing and just kept adding on. We sat in the new part that had another awesome fire pit with a copper top on it.

It was too dark inside and none of the other photos I took turned out but you can see nice shots of the view out the huge windows that our table overlooked if you look on their website. It was a nice relaxing meal and then about 6pm - they had a piano player come in - he did real honky tonk style piano and so we enjoyed listening to him. When we were leaving Jody went up to put a tip in his jar and discovered he was blind - how amazing to be so talented and be blind.

On Saturday DF Linda took me to lunch at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island. OH WOW - how plush it was - I had only been there once before many years prior for high tea. It was such a nice day having a relaxing luxurious lunch and then a visit to the local needlepoint shop - NO I did not buy a new canvas but did buy a few skeins of the new Vineyard Silk Shimmer. I saw one canvas that could have definitely come home with me but with my stacks of wonderful canvases on hand - I did not dare to spend $200 for another canvas. We headed back to Linda's house and stitched and chatted for a couple of hours.

So that concludes my weekend adventures - hope you enjoyed the trip !

THE WINNER IS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-05-31T11:02:00.000-04:00

Here are the orchids on my desk at the office. Yes I am working today - it is not a holiday in our company but we usually get released early in the afternoon. I'm proud of these little flowers because my plant has not bloomed in almost 2 years. I keep talking to her and encouraging her and she finally bloomed again.

Now on to the exciting stuff!

Here are the names of the blog commenters who entered my drawing. I wish there had been more but it makes the chances for winning much better. The lucky winner is KRAYOLA - a first time commenter on my blog ! Congratulations Krayola - please email me at mbryan10@comast.net to discuss mailing your prize.

Since I could not post without a stitchy related photo - here is a shot of the LHN Schoolgirl Lessons. I think I've done a little on it since my last WIP shot. I brought to work with me today in hopes of getting in a few stitches during lunch. Things are very quiet here today.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I hope you have flags waving, music playing, drinks cooling, grills cooking kind of day and many happy stitches in between!