Fandangle Blue

Another Fandangle in Blue!  These are quick to stitch and so easy to put together.

Fandangle Blue

Roz Watnemo, Nordic Needle

Kit - Congress Cloth, Threadworx

Thank you all for your kind comments regarding my Mom's birthday.  We rounded out our day by attending The Tenors concert last night in Minneapolis.  It was a wonderful way to end the day!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Springtime of Youth Sampler

It's finished!  Hallelujah!  It seemed like I was never going to get it done; so many sections were stitched over one, but I put the last stitch in less than a half hour ago.  Hooray!

Springtime of Youth Sampler

Chessie and Me

32 ct Vintage Meadow Rue Linen

Gloriana Silks

Do you love it as much as I do?  This was our sampler from the Stitchville Retreat this past April.  I would assume that it will be available for all to purchase next year.

Don't go away yet, I have one more finish.  I worked on this last weekend while on our road trip to Indianapolis.  It was an easy project to work on in the hotel.

Fandangle in Green

Roz Watnemo, Nordic Needle

Kit - Congress Cloth/Threadworx

It stitched up quickly and went together easily.  Fun, fun.  I have it hanging on one of the door knobs on our entertainment center in the living room.

Thanks for all your kind comments on my recent posts.  I will be "laying low" now for several weeks (aka "trying to get some of my existing projects done!")  Enjoy what is left of your weekend.

Happy Memorial Day!

Remembering those in our military who have served their country so that we all may be free!

It's cloudy and dreary looking outside my window - and much cooler than it should be for this time of the year!

Looking forward to spending today at home.  I have a few projects to finish up but hope to spend a good portion of the day stitching.

Here's a little project I finished up yesterday.  I borrowed little bits and pieces from other designs to create this small needlebook.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  It's going to be gifted to a special friend.

The inside is lined with dupioni silk.  I attached a double piece of doctor's flannel with an old button that matched the color of the silk.

This is the outside of the book opened up.  I used a mother of pearl shank button and stitched a loop which easily slips over the button to keep the needlebook closed.

These pictures really don't do the piece justice, the silk color is really more like apricot (less pink, more orange)...I think I need a new camera!  I hope my friend likes it!

Enjoy your day....

Some Finishing

Yesterday started out nice but it changed to rain as the day progressed.  Made for another good stitching day!  Before stitching though I worked on some finishing. That pile has grown over the last few months and I need to work on getting it down to a more manageable size!

Here are the fruits of my labor...two hornbooks and an ornament!

The hornbook top let is a design from Chessie and Me called Birds and Blooms.  I used the recommended linen, 36 ct LL Vintage Exampler, and fibers, Belle Soie and Gloriana silks.  Quick and easy finish!

The ornament to the right is from the LHN series - it's stitched on some 40 ct linen that I had in my stash with the recommended fibers.

At the bottom, Sew Petite from iStitch Designs.  I used Gloriana Schoolhouse Red silk on some 40 ct linen from my stash.  Another easy finish.  If you are interested, you can purchase the chart from Carol here.

I also spent some time last night stitching on my Chessie and Me sampler from the Stitchville Retreat; not enough progress yet to be worth sharing a picture, but I will get there soon and then will take a picture for you.

Rainy, humid, a little windy here....here's to the week ahead. Hope it is a good one!

Finally - A Post!

You probably thought I fell off the face of the earth.  Thank goodness I didn't; I'm still here.  Life has been busy and truth be told - I don't like blogging very much when I don't have some pictures to share.  We are going to fix that today though!

Here's what I have been up to lately...

...finished stitching all of my pieces for My Lady's Worke Box from Ellen Chester (class that I took last October.  You can't see them all perfectly in this photo - but you get the idea.  Quite a lot of stitching on this little lady; many specialty stitches and some over one.  Now I just need a day for finishing.

I also whipped up this little project - it's from iStitch Designs - some of you may know Carol, as she is a pretty regular blogger.  This design is called Sew Petite.  It's stitched on 40 ct over 2.  I used some linen and fibers from my stash.  As soon as I have time to do some finishing it will go on that hornbook that is in the photo.

I'm almost finished with this piece from Chessie and Me.  It too will be finished on a hornbook.  Everything is done except the beehive and the beaks and legs on the birds.  I thought I had Belle Soie Butterscotch in my stash, but I do not -- will pick some up tomorrow at my LNS.  I also have to stitch the nun's stitch border yet.  Rather than three initials, I stitched only two and then stitched 2013 over one where the third initial would have gone.

Finally, my favorite finish of late, is this sweet little biscornu.  It's the third installment for the Nordic Needle Hardanger Accessories club this year.

I used the same silk to line the biscornu as I had used under the box top.  Now I'm thinking that I might take the scissor keep apart and put some of the same rust colored silk behind the stitching too -- the dark colored silk really makes the stitching pop!  i think we have two more installments left in this club.

So, you can see, I haven't been slacking off on my stitching.  I've just been a lazy blogger.  Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Rhapsody in Blue

Wow, it has been a long time since I last posted. I've been stitching a little bit, just haven't had anything newsworthy to share - no pictures, no finishes.  I have to be honest with you; I've been a little depressed.  It just keeps snowing here in Minnesota and I am tired of it!  Early in the week, Tuesday I think, we got about 6 inches and then on Friday our temperatures were in the 70's. Mother Nature has been really fickle this year.

Last weekend and this weekend I attended Spring luncheons for our two local needlework guilds.  Last Saturday was the Needlework Guild of Minnesota's Annual Meeting.  We had a nice brunch at a local hotel and then listened to a talk about Ethnic Drawn Thread by Pat Donaldson.  She compared and contrasted beautiful embroidered pieces from over 14 different countries.Of course, this was of particular interest to me given my desire to learn more about Hungarian embroidery.  One new type of embroidery that I learned about is the Lefkara Lace that is made in Cyprus.  Google it - it is beautiful!

Yesterday, I attended the Spring Luncheon for our local EGA chapter - St. Paul Needleworkers.  A delicious lunch and an interesting lecture by a local designer/teacher/stitcher.  Carol Pedersen's topic was "Ancestral Angst" and she talked about the importance of labeling our stitched pieces with as much information as possible to ensure that generations to come won't be asking "I wonder who stitched this?" Carol also talked about caring for our needlework pieces.  It was very interesting!

Enough chatter - you want some pictures to look at, right?  I had some "finishing mojo" last evening and so while the rest of the family was either at work or at my daughter's lacrosse game (she's the coach), I set out to finish the remaining pieces for Rhapsody in Blue.  Back on March 24, I shared the finished bag with you.  Since that time, we received the finishing instructions for the smalls.  I just haven't had time to finish them!

This was an online class with the Shining Needle Society.  The project was designed by Jackie du Plessis.  Having taken a class with Jackie last summer, I was excited to work on another one of her projects.  Here are the accompanying smalls which I finished last night:

The round disc on the left is a pinkeep.  The rectangular box is a pincushion; look at those tiny pinheads that I stitched!  and then the strawberry serves as a scissor fob.  These pieces are really tiny.  I had to use magnification to put them together!

Here's the whole kit and caboodle:

I also attached my lid to the bag last night (hadn't done it the first time around).  Jackie had us make a hedebo ring to cover the stitching where the lid was attached.  Perhaps you can see it in this picture:

And one more photo of the entire piece...

I won't lie - the finishing was a bit challenging.  But it really turned out beautiful and was worth the time and effort!

Now on to my next project -- I'm nearly finished with my stitching for Ellen Chester's My Lady's Worke Box.  If I could get the stitching done this week, I could try to get it finished next weekend.  We'll see!

Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by.

Snow + Sleet = Finishing Day

Mother Nature has not been kind to us folks up north this Spring.  When we should be experiencing sunny days with moderate temperatures, instead we experienced a weekend of freezing rain and snow.  As the saying goes, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!"  So yesterday, while it snowed and sleeted and the wind blew outside, I stayed inside and got some finishing done.  Made a couple of pretty darn good soups for supper and lunches this week too!

You will have to go way back in the archives to figure out when I stitched this one; 2009 I think...it promptly went into the finishing pile and hasn't seen the light of day since.  I decided it was time to resurrect it and find a proper frame, and so I did.  Now she sits on the table next to my stitching chair.

Dutch Strawberries

Goode Huswife

Then I also put together three smalls; two of them are mine and one belongs to my friend Judy.

Here's the first in LHN's Little Sheep Virtues series:

LHN Hope

36 ct R&R Walnut

DMC fibers

And here's Chessie and Me's Liberty:

Chessie and Me Liberty

Linen and Fibers as kitted

And finally, this piece was stitched by my friend Judy.  It's one of the "tag trios" that Jeanette Douglas released at Nashville.  Judy wanted hers finished as a little pincushion

Jeanette Douglas Pins and Needles

Linen and Fibers as kitted

Is anyone else wondering who the next mystery designer is for Norden Crafts?  I think it will be Little House Needleworks...we'll see!

Until next time...

Stitchville Retreat - Part One

Just returned from a delightful weekend of stitching.  The end of the weekend is always bittersweet.  We go home happy with wonderful goodies and beautiful projects (both finished and yet-to-be finished) and also sad, because our weekend of fun is over.  Now the countdown begins for next year's retreat.

This was the fourth Stitchville retreat...each year we have the opportunity to meet one of the needlework industry's top designers.  This year's guest of honor was Linda from Chessie and Me.

Over the years, I have enjoyed stitching a number of Linda's designs; I've collected even more of them (I'm sure you can relate.)  Linda designed some wonderful pieces for our weekend retreat.

Do you remember the project that was released by Chessie and Me last fall?  It was a "Fall-ish" design that was mounted on a paper mache box...well, we were treated to the "Spring" version of this design.  We received the design and stitching supplies a few weeks ago so that we could focus on finishing our boxes.  Here's a picture of the finished box - outside top:

And a picture of the inside cover:

But our boxes didn't look like this to begin with; they were sort of a "pepto bismal" pink.  I should have taken a picture of that stage -- sorry, I forgot.  We waxed the areas of the box that we wanted to look worn and then painted our boxes black.  Here's the black box "cemetery"...

After the boxes were dry, we roughed them up a bit with some sandpaper and then sprayed them with some polyurethane and they were ready to be finished!  After securing our stitched pieces to some wool, we glued them to our boxes.  Mine turned out pretty good, don't you think?

See that cute little strawberry?  It was a gift from Linda!  I love my box, it turned out great.

Deb from Stitchville and the other Deb (aka "the Debs") did a wonderful job with the retreat as they always do.  They look after every detail.  There's always a little welcome gift in our rooms... (It looks like one of my caramels is missing.  How did that happen?)

The tables in our stitching room are always beautifully decorated...

All of those wonderful goodies came home with us!  And in addition there was a project bag filled with some additional goodies...

Details, details...those two are so good at taking care of all the details!

Our second project of the weekend was this wonderful sampler...

Love the colors and the verse at the bottom...

"In the Springtime of your Youth
Be sure the seed you sow
That in the Harvest of old age
The good there of you will know."

Of course there was more to the weekend - lots of time for visiting with old and new friends, many Chessie and Me models and stitcher finishes to "ooh and aah" over and some of the attendees brought some of their recently finished projects along.  Tune back in tomorrow for more of the fun!

A Labor of Love

Very appropriate title for this finish; you see, it took me nearly the entire day yesterday to do the finishing on this project.  Granted, I had others things going on too -- cleaning bathrooms, doing laundry, etc. (the normal things that always have to be done on the weekend ---but much of my time was dedicated to this beautiful little project.

This was a class offered through the Shining Needle Society.  I have only done one or two other classes with them; I really should do more.  It's an economical way to complete projects with great designers without the travel and lodging costs.  And, you can work at your own pace.  I do admit though, it's a lot of fun meeting them in person!

The project is called Rhapsody in Blue and it was designed by Jackie du Plessis.  I met Jackie last summer at the Needlework Guild of Minnesota retreat.  She is a special lady and a very talented needleworker and finisher.  The design ideas she comes up with are amazing.

Without further ado...

It's a sewing pouch or purse made from beautiful midnight blue silk.  The top is stitched.  That little tab on the front helps to keep the lid closed (there's a magnet inside.  There are two handles on either side made from twisted cord.

Here's a better shot of the top; the linen color is a little more accurate in this photo.

Many of Jackie's projects are stitched over one; to my delight, much of this project was stitched over two!

Both sides of the lid flip up to reveal a little needle page made from doctor's flannel.  Can you see it?  I must remember to add a needle to it today!

And here's the inside of the pouch.  Not completely finished though.  I need to tack the lid to the pouch in the back center...I have some questions about how to do that, so will complete that later.  There is a small Hedebo covered ring that also gets attached in this spot.

Tomorrow we will receive the finishing instructions for the smalls that complete this set.  I can hardly wait!

Thank you for stopping by!

Dear to My Heart

I have many things to share with you today, all of them very dear to my heart!

In addition to counted cross stitch, I love to do a little Hardanger now and then.  This is the second installment in Nordic Needle's Hardanger Stitching Accessories club this year...it is a little pocket for safe keeping of my scissors!  Here's the front...

Here's the back...

And just in case you didn't see it the first time, here's the box:

Also dear to my heart is my mother's tatting.  She came over today to test out my lights and magnifiers.  She showed me all of the crosses and hearts that she has been working on and then asked, "Well, aren't you going to take a picture for your blog?"

I have a very soft spot in my heart for a special place in Hungary...I had stitched up the Minnesota Heart some time ago and recently stitched the Hungary Heart.  Both are from Victoria Sampler...

And last but not least, allow me to share with you this beautiful example of Hövej embroidery.  I think this is from the altar cloth that Mrs. Szigethy is working on.  The picture was on her Facebook page; I know she won't mind if I share it with you.  Every hole is filled with a different pattern; ten different designs!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Stitching...

Just thought I'd pop in here and show you the project I've been working on.  Last summer, I fell in love with Jackie du Plessis (remember Briar Rose?)  When the Shining Needle Society announced that Jackie would be doing an online class with them, I had to sign up.  The project is called Rhapsody in Blue.  The finished project is a little stitching bag with matching smalls.  My stitching is done.

The finishing instructions will be provided to us on March 18.  I can hardly wait!

Long Time No Post

My mother sent me an email today saying that she was disappointed that I hadn't updated my blog since February 15!  It's not that I don't have things to post, I just haven't had time.  We're going to fix that right now.

First up...I joined the Hardanger Accessories Club offered by the Nordic Needle this year.  I enjoy doing a little bit of Hardanger every now and then and the project appealed to me.  The first project on the agenda was the Hardanger design for the top of this beautiful box.

Do you like it?  I just received the next project in the club - it's a scissors keep.  As soon as it is stitched, I will share a photo with you.

Today I worked on some finishing.  Remember my cute little pattern book from the Attic Sampler Symposium?  My friend Judy asked me to finish hers.  They are so easy to put together and so cute when finished!

Well, I'm off to watch the Oscars!

Gift for a Friend

My closest friends know that I am not always the most timely; in fact, I am generally "flying by the seat of my pants" with most things.  (I think it is a family trait.)  Eventually though, I always come around to getting the important things done.  One such important thing was a little gift for my friend Wendy Jo who celebrated a birthday back in January.  Wendy Jo has been a long time blogging friend, we've participated in many of the same exchanges together, and we've met a couple times, twice in Minnesota and then once last year at a retreat.

After returning from the Attic, I stitched up this little pattern book for Wendy Jo.  It says "A token of friendship and remembrance."  It has the fold out accordion pleated pattern pages on the inside.

Please say a little prayer for Wendy Jo if you would as she is going through a challenge right now while receiving radiation treatments for breast cancer.

That's all for today.  Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work I go.....