A Little Bit of Heaven in Memphis

Please excuse my absence from the blog - I have an excuse, I promise! I've been busy stitching, eating fabulous food, and making new friends! I just returned from the most fantastic weekend at Needlepoint University at Amy's Golden Strand in Memphis. All of the students attending are able to choose canvases, thread kits, and stitch guides from Amy's vast archive. Everything we needed was waiting for us in the classroom when Linda, Karen, and I made a Thursday afternoon visit to Amy's to see what was in store for us for the weekend.

The mounted canvas, huge thread kit, detailed stitch guide, color copies of the canvas for reference, a stitching sketch book, and - most importantly - the Shopping Spree List were all laid out for us just waiting for class to begin. Also at my place was a copy of the gift certificate I received from Andrew and Anna for Christmas for the stitch guide and thread kit. What a wonderful gift it was! I shared the table with my stitching friends Linda at Stitching Sisters, her friend (who is now my friend!) Karen, and Diane at Diane's Taking Time Out to Needlepoint. What a wonderful group of women with whom to spend the next three days! All of the women in the class just could not have been nicer and you couldn't have found a more talented group of stitchers in one place - anywhere! We stitched and ate our way through the weekend! Between Amy's delicious catered lunches and then her incredible suggestions for restaurants for dinner, I don't think I burned off many calories poking a needle up and down through a canvas.

I chose to stitch Susan Robert's Christmas Parade canvas and it is as delightful as I thought it would be. Linda sat next to me and she stitched Susan's Thanksgiving Parade. If you haven't stitched a canvas using one of Amy's guides, you can't imagine the creativity that goes into the stitch and thread selections.

Amy circulates through the class stopping at each stitcher's seat to answer questions and praise even the smallest amount of stitching. She is so much fun - so upbeat and positive! I started my canvas with some background work and then moved on to put in a few stitches on the moon.

Over the weekend I added some stitching on the polar bear's knitted hat. Don't you love the curly brim to the hat? That is done in the Gathered Stitch using a twisted thread. Between that curly bit of fun and the fuzzy bear ear done in uncut Jump Through the Loop turkey work,  you just want to pat it and tell yourself that it's the cutest polar bear you have ever seen! On Sunday afternoon, I started the tummy and front leg of the bear using long and short stitches in fuzzy Pelouche. At the last minute on Sunday, Amy and I talked about adding small jingle bells to the red harness on the bear. She had the perfect bells on hand so they will be added at the end of stitching. Gloriana ribbon will be used for the reins that connect the wagon to the bear's harness.

On Saturday, I worked a little on the snowman's body. It is stitched using a diagonal Balloon Stitch with several threads. His hat will be completed with some feather stitches in green and a sprinkling of red beads. Very festive for a little snowman!

I haven't had much time to stitch since I returned home but I did stitch a little on Santa's hat. There are so many wonderful components to this canvas still waiting for some attention - Santa's coat, the Christmas tree on the wagon, the snow covered trees in the background, the little squirrel on the branch, the goose, the snowy ground, the bottom border. You will be seeing it all over the next couple of months. Hope you will stick with me on this one!

Amy had laid out the various pieces of the Melissa Shirley Thanksgiving House for us to see. It is so beautiful! This one is truly a labor of love and definitely an heirloom piece!

I'm sure I have left out so much from my experience at Amy's over the weekend. I'll try to add the bits and pieces I didn't cover today in future blog posts. I have so many wonderful memories of this time at Needlepoint University and the friendships that were made there. It really was a very special weekend!

Have a good week and I'll try to get some stitching done this week to show you over the Memorial Day weekend -