Shopping and Stitching

Saturday I picked up Susan and her son and we headed to LaPorte to visit House of Stitches.  Susan will be moving soon and this might have been our last chance to hang out for a day. 

Susan’s son was kind enough to take our picture out side the shop:

I was looking primarily for fibers for the Victoria Sampler Summer Biscornu Contest (join the group and click on “files” for more info) and found some pretty things…  We also had fun chatting with the ladies who work in the shop.

Anyway, after our shopping, we stopped for lunch then spent the day stitching at Susan’s place.  What a fun day!

Also, I wanted to share the blog award that Eva gave to me a while back.  Thanks so much Eva:

The rules say to nominate others for the award, but I’m short on time so maybe in the future!

An Award!

Thanks to my friend Susan for sending me this nice award and for her kind words about me on her blog:

She has become much more than a “stitching friend” over the years and I treasure our friendship. I sure am going to miss her when she moves!   Tomorrow we are meeting up at House of Stitches for what could be our last shopping trip together for a while! 

Yesterday I took a day off work and went to Cedar Point and spent the day riding amazing rollercoasters…  I can’t believe I live so close and have never been there.  Anyway, I haven’t been on a rollercoaster since my college days… and wow… speed and acceleration have come a long way!  One ride went from 0 to 120 mph in 4 seconds!  Woo hoo!  By far, my favorite coaster was the Millennium Force!  Super fast and super smooth.  I can’t wait until I get to go again!

I haven’t made any big strides in stitching to share… just working a bit here and there on a biscornu…. maybe I’ll have some progress to show by the end of the long weekend?

Pretty Little Scissor Case

I’ve been working on this cute little scissorcase in the evenings and finally finished it up last night!

J Designs

This was a kit given by Julie Norton during the Round Robins at Celebration of Needlework.  It is stitched on 22 count pale pink fabric with DMC.  I don’ t think I’ve ever worked on anything lower than a 25 fabric count, but this unknown fabric was soft and thick and made the over one stitches in the vines a breeze. 

The buttons on either side are meant to hold the folded over edge in place, rather than being a fastener of any type…. and since I cut the fabric a bit short on top, the buttons are over the symrana stitches, rather than below them where they’re supposed to be.  I think it looks OK though.    I finished it with a ladder stitch around the edges.  The kit also came with a leather sheath that fits inside the stitching to protect it from the scissor tip.  What a fun and satisfying stitch!

A Couple of New Starts

I started Chatelaine’s Alhambra Garden a while ago.  I was inspired by seeing it IRL at a couple of stitching GTGs and the kit itself was a gift.  I’m enjoying the eye popping colors and the symmetry makes it fun to stitch and not too chart intensive (not yet anyway…).  You’ll see over on the right side where the holes look a little larger than the rest… that’s where I ripped out a whole section this afternoon when I discovered an error that was just too big to fudge.  This is pretty uncommon for me – I am the self-proclaimed queen of fudging stitching errors!  I can’t even remember the last time I pulled out this much stitching!!  Plus, due to symmetry I would’ve had to try to repeat the error on the other three sections and starting anew seemed like a much better option: 

Chatelaine’s Alhambra Garden

The next new start is the Lavender Hearts Biscornu from Sweetheart Tree. This was started as a travel project that I took to Celebration with me. This will probably become my weeknight project as I don’t like to pull out all of the stuff for bigger projects (like Alhambra or Alpine Seasons) on weeknights:

Sweetheart Tree’s Lavender Hearts Biscornu

I’m contemplating starting a small kit I got at Celebration from Julie Norton.  Its a cute little scissor keep that is stitched to surround a leather sheath – or as Julie called it, a scissor sheath condom… LOL.  Its pink and very simple and elegant looking.  I somehow feel compelled to work on all of the little kits I got in round robins. 

Thanks also for the help, support, and comments regarding my previous post.  I’ve known about this since it initially happened, however seeing my cousin in the video prompted me to post it in several different places online.  I’m sure all good thoughts, positive energy, prayer, or whatever your personal beliefs affords you are helpful. 

Happy Mothers Day to all Moms!

Family Sadness…

My cousin’s husband was involved in a car crash about three weeks ago and disappeared from the crash site. No one has heard from him… he’s just gone!

I cannot imagine what it would be like to be in her situation, with a newborn, two young daughters and not have some sort of resolution.

Here’s a link to the newstory. The video is an interview with my cousin, pictures of her missing husband, and some shots of the town where I grew up. If you have the means to further publicize this… please help. If you live in CT, keep your eyes open.

Seeing her in this video just made me sit here and cry for her.

Drawn Thread Fob

I finished the stitching for this while at the Celebration of Needlework and finished it tonight!  Not only does it say “Celebration 2009″ on back, but I’ll always remember stitching it the company of great friends.    This is the Drawn Thread “Front Yard Flowers.”

I like it!

Celebration of Needlework 2009

Wow.. what a wonderful time I had at Celebration of Needlework!

Thursday morning, Susan and I flew from Chicago to Manchester, met up with Jenny at the airport, then the three of us headed to the hotel.

We dumped our things in our room, had some lunch, then hit the shopping mall.  I just looked and made note of things I liked then did a small amount of purchasing later on…

Jenny and I had a class with Teresa Layman called “Bumbling Bullions.”  Teresa is a wonderful and patient teacher and had samples of bullions that she had added to various pieces of clothing on display – beautiful!.  The majority of the class consisted of practicing bullions with different doodleclothes, needles, and fibers.  Teresa demonstrated the stitch and also helped troubleshoot less-than-perfect stitches and offered guidance and advice to each individual in the class.  I didn’t really get to work on the actual class project, which consisted of small floral and other motifs made with bullions and finished as buttons.  They look like quick stitches and I’m looking forward to working on them. 

Jenny and I met up with Susan and her friend Fran for dinner away from the hotel, then Jenny and I attend the Make It Take It Round Robbin class.   (It turns out that Erin was there too, but we hadn’t met her yet!)  We met with six different designers and received cute little project kits and had some time to talk with the designers about the project (and various other subjects – LOL).  We had the pleasure of meeting with Susan Greening Davis, Cynthia Zittel, Catherine Theron, Louise Henderson, Pam Reed, and Pam’s daughter (who’s name I don’t remember).

Friday was pretty much a free day.  We camped out at a table in the lobby and stitched most of the day and made a trip or two to the mall.  We had people come by who recognized us from blogs, etc and chatted.  Eventually, others from The Wagon started showing up and we all planned to go out for dinner:

 From Left to Right:  Me, Jenny, Carol, Robbin, Susan, and Erin

After dinner, Jenny, Erin, Robbin and I all attended the two Round Robbin sessions and had a really good time!  We got kits from lots of different designers – all who spoke about the design or gave instructions on finishing!  Susan Greening Davis, Lauren Sauer, Eileen Bennet, Jackie du Plessis, Julie Norton, Barbara Jackson, Catherine Strickler, and Marsha Brown.  Saturday morning, we had breakfast, then Susan, Jenny, Erin and I attended our Intermediate Hardanger Techniques class by Julie Norton, where I learned to do the amazing Eidelweiss filling stitch.  It was a really great class!

We had lunch, met up with some other Wagon stitchers, did a litle show and tell, and shopped before Susan, Jenny, and I went back to the airport to head home.

Standing:  Carol, Kate, Robbin, Me, and Erin  Sitting:  Jenny, Susan, and Erin

Overall, I had a wondeful mini-vacation!