Living the Good Life

Flying Needles This Week

2012-03-04T11:09:00.000-05:00

The fifth kit for the Christmas Banner arrived from Amy's right on schedule this week. I had finished the I and the S pears ahead of schedule so, while I waited for the next kit to arrive, I went back - all the way to the C and the H pears - and worked on the silvery brackets of fly stitch that make up the third component of the background stitch. It isn't my most favorite part of the banner to stitch - it is a time consuming stitch with 4 fly stitches to each square. But, I found that as I plugged away at it and got into a rhythm of stitching, it became much less tedious. I took a photo of my progress but decided not to use the photo as it really doesn't do justice to the subtle sparkle that the fly stitches add to the background. You really have to see it in person to appreciate what this third stitch adds to the finished look.

I wish the color of the Vineyard Silk Classic that we use in the background of the T pear had shown up better. It is called "Mojito" and is the exact color of the tiny mint leaves that are starting to appear in my herb border outside the back door. Mojito is a wonderful rich green and the perfect name for this background color. The background and the T worked up very quickly and will allow me to spend this next week working on the gold flowers. Satin stitches and lazy daisies sound like fun for the week ahead.

My other stitching project this week is Kelly Clark's Candy Corn Halloween Apple with a stitch guide by Amy Bunger. It is such a nice change to work on a 9" square frame as opposed to the 40" frame for the Christmas banner!

This project feels like it is just zipping along but it really isn't all that much different in size from that of the Christmas pears. There are just less design elements within the apple. With the black background of the apple needing to be stitched this week, I hope I can find time for some daytime stitching. I need all the light I can get when stitching a black background - the eyes just aren't what they used to be!

The sun is finally out this morning after what seems like days and days of rain - and wind! It is so hard to watch on television the destruction of lives and homes that the weather has brought over the last week. I think it's time for another donation to the Red Cross. Will you join me?

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

Cars and Stars

2012-02-26T10:26:00.000-05:00

It's another good Sunday for stitching in front of the television. Lots of cars at Daytona today and just as many stars in LA for the Oscars tonight. I have actually seen one of the movies for which there are quite a few nominations - The Help. I hope Billy Crystal does well as the host tonight although anyone would be an improvement over the last couple of years. I would rather be watching Downton Abbey at 9:00 tonight but since the season's shows have finished I suppose the Oscars will have to keep me company. Anybody else watching tonight? I almost prefer the pre-Oscar fashion show on the red carpet to the actual award ceremony.

Well, another month is coming to a close and two more pears on the Christmas banner are complete. I enjoyed these two very much but I'm always eager for the supplies and guide for the next two to arrive. Until they do, I'll be working on the background.

One thing you can say about this banner - there's never a shortage of background to stitch. Since the background is made up of three different stitches, it isn't difficult to find yourself needing to work on at least one of them.

As I finished up the S pear this week, I had a little stitching time on my hands and found myself looking for something small to work on. I remembered Hootie Owl needed just a little more stitching to complete it. Hootie has been languishing in the project basket for too long but he is now a finished project.

I've now stitched three of the Creepy Characters from NeedleDeeva and am looking forward to stitching a few more of them. The hard decision has to be made - which one will be next? Actually the next small project will be Kelly Clark's Candy Corn Halloween apple. I'll share a picture of that one with you next week. I just started it on Friday and there isn't enough stitched just yet to be picture-worthy.

In eagle nest news this week, the Decorah eagles now have three eggs in the nest. Mom laid egg #2 early in the week and egg #3 came Friday evening. The Raptor Resource Project which operates the cameras at this nest have shown us some fantastic views from the eagle's perspective this week. The nest is at least 90 feet up in a cottonwood tree on a farm in Decorah, Iowa. The camera operator panned the camera on Thursday to show us the beautiful snowy landscape over which Mom and Dad eagle reign. A fish hatchery, a trout stream, corn fields, and a farm make for an ideal nesting site. We can start looking for the eggs to hatch around the end of March. It is so touching to watch the eagles carefully roll the eggs with their beaks and curl their talons in when they settle themselves onto the eggs. At the Norfolk nest, the eagles are still making additions to the nest and building up the "crib rails". They continue to "enjoy each other's company"but there are still no eggs. In the past at this nest, the latest an egg was laid was in late March so perhaps there is still hope for an egg this year. The female has been sleeping in the nest the last few nights, Maybe that's a sign - hope so!

May your favorite driver and favorite actor/actress/film cross the finish line first! Have a good week!

Rainy Days and Sundays

2012-02-19T10:33:00.000-05:00

It's a rainy, dreary day in Georgia today. Makes me glad I ran my errands on Friday and Saturday and have no reason to have to leave the house today. A day like this also makes me doubly appreciative of the beautiful flowers Andrew sent me on Valentine's Day.

Don't these beautiful tulips and irises brighten your day? They have certainly brightened my entire week! They arrived here on Tuesday tightly closed - I couldn't even identify the irises but they opened a little bit more each day and by Thursday this beautiful arrangement was in full bloom.

The S pear has been fun to work on this week. I particularly enjoyed watching (and stitching, of course) the 4 waffle stitches come together. It looks intricate but it isn't a difficult stitch. You just need to pay attention to the placement of each stitch. Although now that I look at the photographs, I realize that I did not finish the stitch correctly. The last four stitches are in Petite Very Velvet and the last stitch slides under the first PVV stitch. I didn't do that so now I need to go back and fix it.

The lighting is so poor this morning that my canvas photos are looking washed out. Sorry about that! Yesterday I started working on the periwinkle stitches in the cream colored areas of the pear. I think that's what I will be doing for the rest of today.

In eagle news this week, the Mom eagle in Decorah, Iowa laid her first egg of the season on Thursday night. I was so excited to be watching as the first signs of her labor began. I think it took her about 15 or 20 minutes to lay the egg. It is about the size of a baseball. Dad was in attendance but out of camera range of the nest. I was surprised to learn that they don't continuously sit on the egg. It seemed that the eagle couple let the sun do some of their work yesterday. Fortunately it was a beautiful sunny day in Decorah yesterday. The Mom and Dad were never far away and Dad was seen defending the egg from a curious squirrel who lives in the lower portion of the nest. There are also some mice who live below the nest as well. I hadn't thought that mice could climb 80 or 90 feet up but they seem to have found a good home in the nest. Mom will probably lay another egg today or tomorrow and hopefully a third one in another two or three days.

In Norfolk, Dad eagle and female eagle #3 seem to have settled on each other as mates. Both have been at the nest numerous times throughout the day all week long. I think we will see an egg or eggs soon. They have been "enjoying each other's company" a lot this week - several times a day, in fact! That's the phrase the moderators on the discussion page use instead of "mating" since there are so many school groups of various ages that watch this nest cam and follow along on the discussion.

Time to get some stitching done so I'll say goodbye for this week. Hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

2012-02-14T11:09:00.000-05:00

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Brrrr! Winter Has Finally Arrived!

2012-02-12T11:29:00.000-05:00

I think winter finally blew in to the Southeast last night. The temperature yesterday dropped steadily all afternoon from the low 50s into the upper 20s by the evening. It's a beautiful but chilly morning and I will be interested to see if the buds on some of the trees and shrubbery in the yard made it through a cold night.

I really enjoyed stitching and finishing the I pear this week. It helps that good sized portions of the design area were only lightly covered by threads. Amy's choice of a blackwork design for the leaves was perfect. The painted canvas coupled with the Wildflowers thread in the Kelp colorway is an unbeatable combination.

The green stripes on the S are done in a Kalem stitch. The stripes work up fairly quickly and then you can move on to the Van Dyke variation stitch that Amy has designed for the sides of the green stripes.

Pretty soon I will have to back up across the room to get a full picture of the Christmas banner. It's hard to believe that there will only be a two more guides and thread kits to look forward to in this Home Study. I can't recommend Amy's Home Study highly enough! There are always so many wonderful stitches and stitch combinations not to mention an array of wonderful threads to try.

I'm looking forward to an afternoon of golf at Pebble Beach - even if it means only being there via television. The views that have been televised this week have been spectacular. What a beautiful location! I hope to get a lot of stitching time in today.

Anyone watching the Grammies tonight? I can't decide if I will watch or not. I would like to see Adele and Lady Antebellum but I don't know if I am interested in seeing anyone else. I'm sure there will be some kind of tribute to Whitney Houston. She had such an incredible voice - too bad she couldn't conquer her inner demons.

How can I be thinking about watching the Grammies when Downton Abby is on for two hours tonight? I hate that this season is almost over! It seems like it just started. I wish I knew where I had seen this article but if you search Google for Downton Abby articles you may find it. The article is about how differently the actors/actresses on DA look in real life compared to the characters they portray. Wait until you see O'Brien and Mrs. Hughes in real life. They are beautiful women! It was amazing to see the photographs.

Hope you all have a good week and enjoy your stitching projects!

Super Bowl Stitching Sunday

2012-02-05T10:54:00.000-05:00

I think I'm ready. The food is cooked - slow cooker pulled pork for pre-game lunch and Taco Chicken Chili for game time. The snacks are ready - guacamole and chips. The computer and iPad are at the ready for keeping an eye on my eagle nests. And most importantly, the Christmas banner is ready for lots of stitching attention this afternoon and evening.

Our fourth kit for the I and S pears on the Christmas banner arrived this week. Amy has worked her magic again with the stitch and thread selections for these two pears. I absolutely love the colors that Melissa Shirley used for the I pear and Amy chose the perfect threads to carry out Melissa's vision for it. This pear works up fairly quickly. It was a treat to start with something as simple as basketweave.

The background may be simple but the leaves require some careful following of the stitch diagrams. After some initial frustration with myself for not being able to follow the diagrams, I finally settled into the blackwork pattern that Amy has chosen for the leaves. Amy has given us a really great tip for couching the outline around each of the leaves. I'm looking forward to working that technique later today.

It's been an interesting week at the Decorah and Norfolk eagle nests. The Decorah eagles have been actively courting each other and working on their nest. Dad brought Mom a rabbit this week and she quickly pulled all the fur off the rabbit before eating it. Now there is a lot of soft rabbit fur lining the nest bowl - a perfect place to lay this season's eggs. At the Norfolk nest this week, it's a different situation. Those of us who watch this nest have come to realize that Dad Norfolk is quite the player! He has had at least three females at the nest over the last few weeks. The most recent female was ousted by the second female on Thursday evening. I guess Dad is going to let the ladies duke it out to see who will be the next Mom Norfolk. The Bachelor has nothing on Dad! Watching this nest is true reality TV!

I downloaded the UStream app to my iPad and now I can watch the Decorah nest on it. Last night I found out about another browser app - Photon - that will allow me to watch Flash video - the Norfolk nest cam. I love this app because there are so many videos you can't watch on an iPad because of Apple not supporting Flash. The Photo browser app is a great way to get around that.

I leave you with a little bit of springtime in my yard here in early February -

Have a fun Super Bowl Sunday!

"R" You Ready for Some Beading?

2012-01-29T10:06:00.000-05:00

Considering that last week I really didn't have any pictures of the "R" pear to show you (because I hadn't made much progress!), today I am giving myself a pat on the back for having accomplished quite a bit of stitching this week.

None of the stitches that Amy chose for this pear are difficult to stitch or particularly time consuming. The overall effect of the patterns and color reminds me of an upholstery trim or maybe ribbon.

I started beading the R last night and, if I can get a good bit of Sunday stitching in today, I should be able to finish the R before the next lesson arrives this week.

It is a beautiful, if seasonably, chilly morning for a change in Georgia today. Our poor flowering trees have been fooled by the warm weather we have had lately and are beginning to bloom. It's the end of January, for pete's sake! I have a few daffodils in the yard and they have already bloomed. When I was in Jacksonville last weekend, I noticed that Anna's car was covered in a light dusting of pollen. That's at least six to seven weeks too early for pollen to appear. Makes you wonder if winter will arrive in February and March this year or perhaps we'll just have a mild winter.

Hope you all have a great week as we say goodbye to January and welcome February!

Stitch On!

A Wicked Weekend in Jacksonville

2012-01-23T17:54:00.000-05:00

Yes, it was a wicked weekend in Jacksonville as in Wicked, the Broadway musical! For Christmas this year, Andrew gifted me and Anna tickets for the Sunday afternoon performance of this fun show. We had a wonderful brunch at The Blue Fish before heading to the theatre. The weather was so mild yesterday that the restaurant was able to open the sliding doors to its sidewalk dining area and the French doors to its courtyard. I ordered a fried green tomato Eggs Benedict with cheese grits and Anna had ciabatta bread French toast with bacon. Delicious!

We loved the show - the cast, the music, the story, and the set were incredible! I was familiar with a few of the songs from the show but it was nice to put them into the context of the story. As we left the theatre to head for the parking garage, we could hear a street musician playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow on his saxophone - so appropriate!

No needlepoint photos in this post - sorry! I worked on the R pear this week but didn't make enough progress on it to warrant a picture. I have enjoyed seeing Amy's and Jill's photos of the great canvases they are seeing in Phoenix. I think we will all have some fabulous projects to work on after all our shop owners return from market.

There has been a ton of activity this week on the live critter cameras I watch. Jewel, the black bear, delivered two cubs on Sunday afternoon; the Decorah eagles nest was completely covered by snow twice this week (thank goodness there are no eggs yet); NX (one of the rock star trio of Norfolk eaglets born in 2011) is back on camera again during her recuperation (an unfortunate encounter with a vehicle while eating roadkill) at the Wildlife Center of Virginia; and the two eaglets born last week at Jordan Lake in North Carolina have doubled in size (only a slight exaggeration). It was a busy week in the world of wildlife! I loved it!

I'll be more diligent in my stitching this week and have some pictures to show you next time. This month is moving right along and before you know it, it will be time for the next lesson for the Christmas banner to arrive from Amy's. I'd better get busy!

Have a good week!

Two Pears Down, Seven to Go

2012-01-15T10:56:00.000-05:00

I think I said in last week's posting that I hoped to have started the topiaries on the H pear by the time I wrote this week's blog post. I guess I underestimated myself! With the exception of the leaves, I have finished the H.

I love the cute little pots the topiaries sit in. The stitches that make them up are so simple and so perfect. There were lots and lots of French knots to be stitched! I stitched and stitched yesterday accompanied by a few television shows I had DVRed during the week and two football games. With two more football games today, I should be able to finish up the leaves and get started on the R.

Are any of you fans of Downton Abbey that is currently being shown on PBS? I am so happy it's back for the second season! If you haven't watched it but may have been a fan of Upstairs, Downstairs many years ago, don't miss Downton Abbey! From what I read in magazine and newspaper articles, it has a huge following. I'm not surprised at all. I think PBS is repeating last week's 2 hour season premiere tonight before the 9:00 pm airing of the new episode.

Enjoyed my eagle watching this week and my dual monitors. There is an eagle nest (with camera) at Jordan Lake in Apex, North Carolina where two eaglets hatched this week. Dad Eagle has been taking care of Mom and the kids with regular deliveries of duck and fish. He also gives Mom a break and sits in the nest so that she can stretch her wings.

At the Decorah, Iowa eagle nest this week, winter finally arrived. I tuned in to the nest cam on Thursday to find the nest completely covered in snow. Mom and Dad were no where to be seen although someone captured on video Dad attacking an intruding adult eagle who had come to check out the nest. The intruder hasn't been back and Mom and Dad are bringing a new covering of dried grass to the nest despite the snow.

The other cam I am following closely, especially this weekend, is at the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minnesota. This cam is placed in the den of a black bear, Jewel, who is showing signs (as of yesterday) of going into labor and preparing to give birth to her cub. There is sound with this camera and you can hear Jewel's heavy breathing. The biologists studying the bears say that bears are usually in labor for 22 hours or so and they think Jewel went in to labor around 5:00 pm on Saturday. If you are interested in seeing Jewel's den and maybe her newborn cub, here's the link http://www.bear.org/livecams/jewel-den-cam.php

Well, there are lots of cameras to watch and stitches to be stitched today, so I had better get to it. Sending you wishes for a great week ahead!

Back to Stitching

2012-01-08T00:22:00.001-05:00

Hope you all had wonderful holidays over these past few weeks! I know I did but it is sort of nice to get back to a more regular schedule. I stitched very little over the holidays and I am looking forward to getting back to some serious stitching.

The third kit for the Christmas banner arrived from Amy's just in time for the new year. This kit will cover the H and R pears. I worked earlier in the week on the third step of the background stitch. It is definitely the more time-consuming of the three stitches that make up the background. We use a silvery Kreinik for this step that adds a subtle sparkle to the background. Very nice!

The last few days I have worked on the background of the H pear. I really like the striping and the topiaries. Once I had finished the light green striping I was ready to start the Rice Stitch for the areas between the light green stripes. I realized very quickly that my canvas had been painted differently than Amy's because I only had three threads between the stripes and the Rice Stitch that Amy calls for in the stitch guide uses four threads. A late night email to Amy for stitch suggestions for three threads brought a new stitch to my Inbox on Thursday morning (Thanks, Amy!). Now I am working a 3 x 3 cross stitch with a strap stitch over it. If you are stitching the banner, count the threads between the light green lines and if you have only three threads between them, give Amy a call or email her for the stitch or send me a message and I will send it to you.

The new stitch works perfectly. The Kreinik we use for the strap stitch is so colorful, hence the name "Confetti Gold". You see flecks of metallic greens, golds, and sometimes turquoise depending on the light. I've made good progress on the background this weekend and can hopefully finish it up in the next few days. Maybe I will have started the topiaries by the time I post next weekend.

While I was in Jacksonville for Christmas, I stitched on two of my Melissa Shirley candy canes. I have had these for a few years and just needed to add the beading to both of them. It was easy and quick to finish both of them and didn't require a lot of concentration.

You might remember that last year for Christmas, Andrew and Anna gave me a gift certificate for a Rent Amy day. What a great gift it was! This year they gave me an equally wonderful gift certificate from Amy's that will cover the cost of the canvas and stitch guide for Susan Roberts' Christmas Parade.

This is the canvas I will be stitching at Amy's Needlepoint University in May. I am so excited to be going and to be stitching this canvas. I haven't even stitched this one yet and I already want to stitch the others in this series. Did you see the July 4th Parade canvas in Amy's January newsletter? There is a big eagle leading the parade and seeing the eagle sealed the deal for me on this canvas. I've got to call Amy's this week and have them order one for me.

Speaking of eagles, the eagle nest cam at the Norfolk Botanic Garden (Norfolk, Virginia) will be going live in the next couple of weeks. The male eagle (Dad Norfolk) and his new mate (no name for her yet) have already been busy renovating last year's nest. New cameras have been installed and all of us in Eagle Nation eagerly anticipate the cameras going live. The new female has been photographed sitting in the nest as though she were trying out her new home. Educated observers think that she is a young eagle (4-5 years old) and that this might be her first nest. Fortunately for her, she has chosen a mate who has raised 15 eaglets at the Garden. Hopefully, we'll see some eggs in late January or early February and little eaglets in early March.

In preparation for the eagles' nesting season, Andrew and Anna gave me her computer monitor which she doesn't use any more and I have set it up in my office so that I can view two monitors at once. One monitor for the Norfolk nest cam or the Wildlife Center of Virginia Critter Cam and one monitor for work. I am addicted to the live cams and I am not ashamed to admit it!

Time to get back to some stitching now! Have a good week everyone!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T07:49:00.000-05:00

I just want to wish you all the best in 2012! Thank you so much for visiting the blog! We have a lot of stitching ahead of us this year and I welcome your company!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T00:01:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas, friends! Thank you for joining me on the blog this year! I treasure each one of you!

Love to all of you,

Melinda

Thank You, Pioneer Woman

2011-12-22T15:27:00.000-05:00

I love Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman. But, today, I really love Ree Drummond! I watched her Christmas special on the Food Network last weekend and was immediately inspired to make her cinnamon rolls. I had read about them on her blog and read the recipe in her cookbook numerous times but never could commit to actually making them. Until yesterday and today.

Yesterday I made the dough and refrigerated it overnight (not necessary but it fit my schedule). Today I rolled out the dough, slathered melted butter on top, and sprinkled lots of sugar and cinnamon all over it. I only made a half recipe and, when all was said and done, I had enough for four pans of rolls.

I quickly learned that I had not rolled the dough tightly enough, but when they cooked you would never have known that I had not mastered the "roll". I wish I could describe how my house smelled during the 15 minutes or so it took them to cook. Heaven should smell so good! While the rolls cooked, I made the icing.

I didn't follow PW's recipe for the icing mainly because I couldn't find the maple extract that she called for. I looked at two grocery stores and neither one had it. I added vanilla extract instead and eliminated the little bit of coffee that she also called for. I wasn't convinced I would like the icing with coffee and maple extract anyway.

In no time, the rolls and the icing were ready. The icing is poured over the warm cinnamon rolls and it just oozes into every little spot it can get to in the rolls.

This recipe is so unbelievably delicious and fairly easy to make. I can't recommend it highly enough! In case you think you might like to make these delicious rolls for Christmas morning, here's the link to the recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/. (Not my spelling of cinnamon)

As I said, I only made half of the recipe. I don't know what I would do with eight pans of cinnamon rolls (well, I do, but I would never fit in any of my clothes again) unless you are giving them away to family and friends. It would make a very welcome gift!

How tortuous will it be to smell these tomorrow for four hours in the car as I drive to Jacksonville? I'll be sure to put them out of reach on the back seat where I can't get to them!

I hope your holiday baking is all finished, the gifts are wrapped, and that your holiday travels are safe ones!

Mystery Solved

2011-12-20T19:35:00.000-05:00

I posted on Sunday a photo of the sheep canvas that is part of my Melissa Shirley Nativity series. I want something small to stitch and I settled on this canvas which I have had forever.

As I was sorting through the stash for threads to use on this piece, I realized that I had no idea what the object(s) are on the back side of the sheep. I asked for your help identifying what I was looking at. I appreciate everyone's suggestions. It's hard to choose threads and stitches if you don't know what the object is that you are stitching!

I decided that no one would know better what is painted on the canvas than the artist herself. So I sent Melissa a message on Facebook and asked for her help. She very kindly replied to my question yesterday and enlightened me with her response. The large brown object is a basket with a domed top with a tassel that hangs from it. The smaller red object to the left of the basket is a bota bag or a wineskin. Makes perfect sense now, don't you think? Melissa even offered to touch up the painted canvas if I thought it would help. How nice is that? I don't think the canvas needs it but she was so kind to offer!

So, the mystery is solved! I just thought you would like to know.

Five days until Christmas!

Christmas Countdown

2011-12-18T12:18:00.000-05:00

The gifts are bought and wrapped and ready to load into the car for the trip to Jacksonville later this week. That leaves time for some guilt-free stitching.

This week I finished the beading on the "C" pear. I love beading and find it very relaxing and especially love watching the beads line up in a nice, even row. For the most part, I've also finished Step 2 of the background around "C" and look forward to working on Step 3 this week which will be adding brackets of fly stitch. Amy has chosen a beautiful, pale icy green Kreinik for this step. I can't wait to see how it completes the look of the background. There is still the stem and the leaf to complete. The leaf has some ribbon work on it which I may leave to be stitched until the banner is almost complete.

I've been looking through the stash this week for something small to stitch and finally settled on the sheep canvas that is part of my Melissa Shirley Nativity series.

I pulled some threads out of the stash yesterday and actually found all that I needed. I can't quite figure out what the object(s) is on the right side of the back of the sheep. Is it a box, a bag and lantern? If you know what it is, please tell me!

Can you believe we're only a week away until Christmas day? I can't wait! I'll be spending Christmas with Andrew and Anna and then will look forward to them coming to Augusta for New Year's. I hope all of you have a wonderful couple of weeks ahead with memorable times spent with your family and friends. Enjoy your stitching time this Christmas! Hope Santa brings you something fun to stitch!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

2011-12-11T13:23:00.000-05:00

Can you believe that Christmas is just two weeks from today? I went to the mall this morning for my one trip of the season and, if I were a merchant there, I would be wondering where everyone is. Of course, I arrived at 10:00 AM when they opened so I had no problem finding a great parking place and plenty of sales associates to help me. There were so few shoppers! I hope for the merchants' sakes that all the shoppers are heading their way this afternoon and in the next two weeks ahead.

I promised you a picture of my Melissa Shirley Nativity figures with their new backdrop.

I found this mirrored cathedral-type window backdrop on a Christmas show on QVC a couple of months ago. I added my grandmother's Boehm angels to the grouping and some handcrafted sheep as well. I need to add some greenery or straw but haven't quite figured out what to do to bring it all together.

The "C" pear on my banner has been so much fun to stitch this week. I was very pleased with my progress. I finished the Helen's Lace background stitch and the snowflakes. Amy did a beautiful job with the snowflakes. They were perfectly diagrammed to follow the painted canvas. Even my background stitching worked out well around the snowflakes.

Last night, I moved on to beading the "C.

I hope you are finding some time for yourself and your stitching in the midst of this crazy/wonderful time of year. Take some time in the evening and find a good Christmas movie on television and settle in with your stitching. This week I watched The Polar Express and Elf - two of my favorites. I haven't watched Love Actually yet and have only seen parts of The Holiday - my two favorite romantic Christmas movies. I never miss either of those movies at Christmas.

There's a little more shopping ahead for me this afternoon so I had better get to it. Have a wonder-filled week ahead!

The First Pear of Christmas

2011-12-04T12:02:00.000-05:00

I eagerly anticipated the arrival this week of the threads and stitch guide from Amy's for the first pear of the Christmas banner. I wasn't disappointed! Amy sent a beautiful selection of silks, metallics, ribbon, and beads to stitch the pear and begin the background.

I completed the entire border just in time for the first pear kit's arrival so I have been able to turn my entire attention to stitching the pear this week. The first step of the background pattern was my starting point. It was just an evening's work to stitch the framework for this composite stitch background. I like the pattern just as it is with just the boxes but there are still cross and oblong crosses to add within the boxes and then a French stitch to complete the design. It looks complicated but each component taken separately is quite simple.

The pear is stitched using a subtle, hand-dyed Gloriana stranded silk. I'm finding the Helen's Lace stitch that Amy chose for the pear to be a challenge. For me, it isn't a stitch to work on when there are any distractions around me. I spent a few frustrating hours on Friday starting and stopping and ripping out. I tried Amy's tips for working Helen's Lace but even her tips couldn't help me. I finally took a break and set the canvas aside and decided to decorate my little Christmas tree. Evidently, a break is what was needed and when I came back to the canvas, I stitched a nice diagonal row that set me up for much easier stitching on subsequent rows. I worked steadily on the pear yesterday and made good progress. It just requires a lot of concentration - at least for me.

More work on the pear is ahead this afternoon. The "C" will be beaded and the leaf will use the Gloriana ribbon included in the thread kit. The snowflakes will be stitched in "Marshmellow" Kreinik and the red Hi-Lights I used in the border. Lots of work still to come on the first pear!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It's hard to believe that it was only a week ago that we were still eating leftovers. I had a fun stay in Jacksonville over the holiday weekend with Anna and Andrew. When we weren't eating leftovers or watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and football, we drove down to Ponte Vedra on Friday evening to the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse for their Christmas tree lighting.

It was a festive evening in a sort of tropical fashion. The temperature was mild so people were dressed in shorts and sandals and many of the children were dressed in their Christmas finery. The clubhouse was beautifully decorated with a variety of themed Christmas trees throughout. Once we made it out to the large lawn outside overlooking the 18th green, we saw "snowflakes" drifting through the air. Actually, a bubble machine on the roof was blowing very tiny bubbles our way that gave the illusion of snow falling. The carolers sang, the hot chocolate was served, and the tree was lighted. It was a very nice evening!

I finished my Christmas decorating yesterday. I'll take some pictures this week of my Heritage series needlepoint ornaments on the tree. They are so pretty! I'll have to stitch more of them. I finally found a backdrop for my Melissa Shirley Nativity figures. It isn't a creche but it has a sort of Renaissance feel to it that I really like. I'll get some pictures of it as well. I have a sheep canvas that I have never stitched that accompanies this group of figures. I really need to get it out and work on it. There are also some shepherds I could add to the grouping. Future projects for 2012? Hmmm....

Hope you avoid any Christmas craziness this week and find some time to stitch. I know I will. Have a good week!

Christmas Banner Progress

2011-11-20T12:33:00.001-05:00

I thoroughly enjoyed my stitching on the Christmas banner this week and, as a result, I am halfway finished with the border!

As delighted as I am with the partially completed border, I have to admit to my inability to follow directions. After I had finished the upper left crenellated border of mosaic stitches and Smyrna crosses, I looked at Amy's directions and diagram and discovered that I had not changed the direction of the mosaic stitches for this portion of the border. I suppose if I were deliberately choosing to ignore Amy's instructions, the direction of this little mosaic stitch would be the place to do it. Although to me it's a glaring mistake, if I look at it objectively, it isn't noticeable. The most aggravating thing about my mistake is the fact that Amy could not have made it more clear as to how the border is to be stitched in written instructions and in diagrams. Sorry Amy, I'll pay more attention in the future.

The border really is beautiful with the sparkly, deep, rich greens and red. The golds are the perfect complements to the red and green. Once you start the Rhodes stitches, the border really moves right along. I'm anxious to see what's planned for the first pear but, until that lesson arrives, I'll continue work on the next half of the border.

When I wasn't Christmas stitching this week, I was stitching for Halloween. I'm making nice progress on NeedleDeeva's Hooty Owl.

Hooty's such a cutie to stitch and so nice and small compared to the Christmas banner. Little Girl is always happy when I stitch Hooty because that means she can sleep in my lap while I stitch - something she can't do when I stitch the banner.

I was out in the backyard yesterday and realized it was time to check the Christmas cacti that I had hidden under the Japanese magnolia and sasanqua back in April. And here they are -

After brushing away the fallen leaves and white sasanqua blossoms, the blooms on the cacti were visible. It's time to bring them inside and enjoy the beautiful blooms. Every year it amazes me that with so little care all summer that these plants put on such a beautiful show in November and December.

I'll be driving down to Jacksonville this week to spend Thanksgiving with Andrew and Anna. I haven't been down there since the July 4th weekend - hard to believe! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family! We all have so much to be thankful for so take some time this week to count your blessings!

Home Study - Settling In

2011-11-13T16:26:00.000-05:00

This week I settled in to my stitching on the Christmas banner. I wish I could say I had settled on which floor stand to use. During the week I kept the banner on the K's floor stand in my office. I remembered an old standing Ott Lite that I had hidden away from myself in a closet and brought that in to the office. The light makes a huge difference as the natural light this time of year in the office and my desk lamp just weren't doing it for me.

Today I moved the banner and the K's stand into the den so that I could stitch and watch TV. I have a small den - maybe 10' x 15' - and the K's stand with the banner on it is just too much in this small room especially where my stitching chair is located. But, I was willing to try it, nonetheless. I got settled and pulled the stand in close enough for comfortable stitching only to realize that I hadn't brought my threads with me from the office. I was so aggravated with myself! All the while I had been trying to get settled, my cat, Little Girl, had a panicked look on her face as she tried to figure out how she was going to sit in my lap with this contraption in her way. She climbed on the table next to me but that didn't get her any closer. Then she climbed on to the arm of my chair and squeezed herself under the canvas. She couldn't get any more settled than I could.

Since I had no threads with which to stitch, I had to move the K's stand out of my way - no small feat given the heavy base on the stand - not to mention moving the cat out of my way. I retrieved the threads and came back to the den to rethink whether I would be happy stitching this canvas in the den. At some point I decided to move the K's stand out of the way and try the System 4 just to see if it would even hold the banner. And, sure enough it did - as long as it was clamped in the middle of the frame. So I may try this when I want to stitch the banner in the den.

I don't want to bore you with the details of how and where I do my stitching but maybe it helps someone else who might be trying to figure out where and how to stitch a canvas the size of the Christmas banner. If nothing else, I learned that both my floor stands will work and each has its advantages and disadvantages.

Until Amy has us start on the pears, following my progress on the banner might be as exciting as watching paint dry. There is a lot of border to stitch on this project and that's all I am working on this month! I think I made good progress this week stitching the crenellated border. I finished the crenellations along the left border and half way across the bottom border. I started on the top border this afternoon.

The Rhodes stitches are the next step in completing the border. I may stitch some of those in the left border just for a change of pace this week. I wanted you to see the cute magnet that Amy sent with the first banner lesson. It's the perfect accessory for this Home Study.

I enjoyed having a small project to work on this week - my Frankenstein from Needle Deeva. I finished up Frank yesterday and Hooty Owl is already on the stretcher bars as my next small project.

Frankenstein was as much fun to stitch as Fraidy Cat and those two are patiently waiting now for Hooty Owl to join them before they head off to the finisher. Thanks NeedleDeeva and Robin for this fun series of Halloween ornaments!

That's my stitching news for this week. Hope your stitching went well this week! If you can stand it, I'll show you some more of the crenellated border next week! Maybe I'll have some Rhodes stitches to show you instead!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

2011-11-08T21:01:00.000-05:00

I had a wonderful weekend at Hilton Head - my first trip there in almost 8 years! Andrew was there to cover the Concourse d'Elegance for BMWblog.com for which he writes. BMW (the key sponsor for the Concourse) provided he and Anna with a room at the elegant Inn at Harbor Town, a 2012 BMW 5 series to drive Saturday afternoon, and a sporty, bright yellow 2012 BMW Z4 convertible to test drive on Sunday morning.

I didn't have a chance to ride in the Z4 but I enjoyed our drive through Sea Pines Plantation in the beautiful white 5 series we were given to test drive. One of our stops in Sea Pines was at the beachfront house my family owned for many years.

We had many good times at that house. Not much as changed about the house except for the houses around it which are all new or completely renovated. In fact, it was refreshing to see that Sea Pines had not changed a lot over the years. Much of Hilton Head has changed tremendously but standing there on the walkway to the beach in front of our former home, you could almost imagine that 13 years had not passed by since the last time I had stood in that exact place looking out at the ocean. Everything looked just as I remembered it.

Anna and I started our Saturday morning off with a brisk walk around Harbor Town. We didn't linger very long as it was a chilly, windy morning. Their good friends, Brian and Spring and daughter, Harley, snapped this picture of the two of us.

We left Harbor Town and headed out to the two Tanger outlet malls where we did a little shopping at the Bare Escentuals outlet store, Talbots, J. Crew, and Banana Republic. We picked up some great bargains and did a little Christmas shopping as well.

On Sunday Anna and I joined Andrew at the Concourse and enjoyed seeing all of the fabulous antique cars. These were the creme de la creme of antique automobiles. Since BMW was the key sponsor, they had many (if not all) of their latest models on display. Here I am my with favorite of the day - the 2012 Rolls Royce Phantom coupe.

Too bad I couldn't drive it home!

On the needlepoint front this week, the Melissa Shirley Christmas banner arrived from Amy's. This is Amy's current Home Study project. I couldn't wait to get it on the stretcher bars and try it out on my new floor stand. Mounting it on the stretcher bars proved to be a challenge. The third attempt was the charm. The problem for me was to get an even tautness across the 40 inches of canvas. I could get either end of the canvas taut enough but not the middle. Amy came to my rescue with a few suggestions and also pointed me towards her August 2011 newsletter in which she described mounting the Thanksgiving banner on stretcher bars. A little steam in all the right places was the trick to getting my banner mounted to my satisfaction.

I have set up the canvas and floor stand in my office. It will be a little easier to work something this size in a more open space than I have in my den where I usually stitch.

The only problem with having this canvas in the office is that it is a terrible temptation to take a few minutes out of the work day to stitch. I had thought all day yesterday and today that I could give in to that temptation for just a little bit but Work prevented that. I've stitched a little bit of the border.

I'm looking forward to a block of time at some point this week (but certainly over the weekend) to just sit and do some serious stitching. I may move the floor stand into the den for the weekend stitching - can't miss the football games. Amy has written another fabulous stitch guide - you aren't surprised, are you? The diagrams for the border are excellent and cover all four corners. You can't see it in my pictures but Amy gave us a beautiful pear magnet that was designed just for this project. Thanks, Amy!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and find some time to stitch!

What a Fun Halloween Season!

2011-10-30T11:25:00.000-04:00

I hate to see the Halloween season come to an end! I have really enjoyed all my Halloween decor and will miss it so much when it is packed away this week. Too bad I have no needlepoint to show for Thanksgiving. One of these days I'll have to choose something from Melissa Shirley or Kelly Clark to stitch in honor of Thanksgiving.

Just because the Halloween season is officially over on Monday, it doesn't mean the Halloween stitching has to come to an end. I made some nice progress on the NeedleDeeva Frankenstein canvas this week.

On Saturday I worked on the black and orange background around Frank's face. It's hard to see the stitch but the orange dots are French knots using a Kreinik thread, a tent stitch in a black Petite Very Velvet, and a continuous Mosaic stitch in Elegance. In person, it's a great stitch - wish you could see it better in the photo. This area kept me company while I watched the Georgia-Florida game yesterday. It's about time Georgia beat that particular rival!

Last week I promised you a picture of the Bottle Bouquet canvas.

The flowers are stitched using River Silk ribbon. The stitch itself is a French knot on a stalk. The beads in the center of the flowers are such a beautiful dark honey color - very nice! This bottle was a quick stitch but also one of the smallest bottles in the group. I think the others will take a little more time.

On Saturday I tackled the assembly of my K's floor stand in preparation for the arrival of the Christmas banner this week from Amy's. First I assembled the Evertite stretchers. The 40" length of the stretcher presented a challenge - just because of the length. I hated to do this, but I had to get the hammer out to encourage all the sides to come together. I used a folded towel over the bar to protect it from the hammer. I'm glad that the sides are only 11" in length! Once the Evertites were assembled, I moved on to the floor stand and the arms to hold the frame.

While I have the basic instructions for the K's Creation floor stand, there weren't any instructions for the assembly of the arms that hold the frame. After an hour or so of trial and error (many!) and a trip to Lowe's for a couple of washers and wing nuts, I finally assembled the stand.

Wow! Is it big! If some of you who are stitching the Christmas banner have purchased a similar set-up for your floor stand and are looking at how mine is set up, just realize that this might not be a correct assembly. From what I can tell, this will work. But only time will tell! I set this up in the living room and you can get an idea of the size of the assembled frame in relation to a fairly large leather chair in the background and my fireplace. I may have to do my stitching on the banner in my home office where I have room to maneuver the stand around and can move my chair up to the stand instead of the other way around.

Andrew, Anna, and I are headed to Hilton Head next weekend. I haven't been there in almost eight years and can only imagine the changes to familiar places since then. I imagine there won't be too many familiar places any more! My family had a home there from the mid-'60s through the late '90s so I have seen lots of changes to that island over the years. Andrew will be covering the Concourse d'Elegance for the BMW blog for which he writes. BMW is one of the major sponsors for the Concourse and the organizers have provided Andrew and Anna with a room at the beautiful Inn at Harbour Town (I'll be at the Crowne Plaza) and passes for all of us to the Concourse. Anna and I may make an appearance at the Concourse to check out the cars but I think the outlet mall and other Hilton Head shops may be calling our names instead. We'll have a fun weekend and November is always a beautiful time to be at the South Carolina coast.

Hope you have a wonderful week ahead with no leftover Halloween candy to tempt you!

An Abundance of Needlepoint This Week

2011-10-23T11:10:00.000-04:00

This week I felt like Christmas arrived two months early with all of the needlepoint canvases and finished pieces that arrived on my doorstep. Just a few weeks ago I packed up a box of finished canvases to send to Marlene in San Francisco. I had no idea that I would see the two Halloween pieces in time for Halloween this year. But, they are here! Here are a couple of pictures of "boo".

The day before I sent "boo" off to be finished, I was shopping at Hobby Lobby and found some cute Halloween buttons which were perfect additions to this canvas. You will see that I added a little spider and a bat. I liked that they had a matte finish and were on the smallish side so that they weren't the focus of the finished piece. Marlene and I had talked about finishing "boo" as an easel-back but I am much happier with this type of finishing. "boo" is sitting in front of my huge Jim Shore black cat holding her lantern and sitting atop a pumpkin. She is surrounded by the black feather wreath I found at Target a few years ago.

I also now have my Kelly Clark Halloween apple in time for Halloween this year. I will definitely have to do the others in this series for next year. The back of this ornament is finished in a deep orange raw silk.

There were four finished Christmas pieces in the box from Marlene as well. Again, we had talked about finishing Noel as an easel back but obviously they thought better of that idea and finished it in this cute way.

I also have three new Christmas ornaments to add to the tree this year or give as a gift.

I couldn't be happier with all of these finished pieces from Marlene. It is such a gratifying feeling to have six completely finished projects from 2011 in my hands for use this year!

Now, on to the canvases that arrived this week. I now have a Kelly Clark witch hat (skeleton and snake) from The Bristly Thistle. NeedleDeeva's Hooty was also in the same box.

The other new canvas that arrived this week came from Amy's in Memphis. This is from Melissa Shirley's new series of fairy tale witches. May I introduce Helowise.

This is really a beautiful canvas and Amy has chosen a wonderful palette of thread colors for Helowise. It's fun to stitch the brightly colored Halloween ornaments but this is a nice change of pace to use more subtle autumn colors. I wish the photograph did the colors justice! Amy has written a great stitch guide for Helowise.

On the stitching front this week, I finished stitching Fraidy Cat. He was such fun and Robin did a fantastic job with the stitch guide and thread choice.

I had such fun stitching Fraidy that as soon as he came off the stretcher bars, I put Frankenstein on in his place. I started Frank on Saturday.

How do you like my little bit of bat bling on this canvas? I saw this bat magnet on Amy's website and knew I had to have him for all of my Halloween canvases.

The only piece I didn't photograph this week is Bottle Bouquets. I made some nice progress on the first bottle and actually finished stitching the bottle and have almost finished stitching the flowers and leaves. I think it's the smallest bottle of the group so it's no wonder it has gone so quickly. I'll show you a finished bottle and flowers next week.

My bank account is telling me that that's enough needlepoint for one week! I still have the Melissa Shirley Christmas banner to arrive next week but that should be it for awhile. I have more than enough projects to keep me busy well in to the early part of 2012!

Hope your week has been filled with time to stitch! I think I spent more time this week looking at newly received projects and finished pieces than actually stitching. It's another beautiful autumn day and I think Frankenstein is going to see some time spent outdoors being stitched today.

Have a wonderful week ahead!

A Perfect Fall Weekend and My Small Obsession with Eagles

2011-10-16T13:30:00.000-04:00

I hope you have enjoyed as beautiful a weekend as I have here in Georgia! We have had bright blue skies, mild temperatures, and just a hint of color in the leaves. And, I only swatted one mosquito the entire time I was outside yesterday. I took advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday to spend the better part of the day on the patio reading and stitching.

Stitching continued this week on Fraidy Cat and he remains such a fun project.

The main focus of my stitching this week was on the background around Fraidy Cat. Robin has used a composite stitch in this area that is completed in several steps. I took this photo of Fraidy yesterday during the morning but I finished stitching the rest of background during the Georgia-Vanderbilt game (Go Dawgs!) last night. The spider up at the top still needs his legs, eyes, and teeth but I think the next section to work on will be Fraidy himself. I've had such a good time with Fraidy that I called Michele at The Bristly Thistle and ordered Hooty from her (and a Kelly Clark witch's hat). The stitch guide for Hooty is featured in the latest issue of Needlepoint Now. Fraidy, Frankenstein, and Hooty will make a great trio of Creepy Characters! If you love Halloween stitching, the Creeps are a must have!

In other needlepoint news, my bottle bouquet canvas (Mary Lake Thompson/Melissa Shirley), threads and stitch guide arrived from Pocket Full of Stitches. I'll be stitching this bottle by bottle starting with the bottle and flowers on the left.

The stitch guide is by Laura Taylor of Aristeia but with some thread modifications by Rhea at Pocket Full of Stitches. The first bottle uses threads like Panache, Kreinik, cotton floss, River Silks ribbon, and Gloriana ribbon. I have been wanting to stitch with ribbons and it looks like I will have lots of opportunities to do so with this canvas. I hope to get this on the stretcher bars today.

I'll have a little bit of spring and summer to stitch all winter long with this project. Each month PFOS will send a new thread kit for one of the bottles.

Have I told you about my recent obsession with eagles? I suppose an eight month obsession is recent, isn't it? I started watching the live camera in the eagle nest at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens back in March not long after the three eaglets hatched. It was fascinating to watch the Mom and Dad feed and protect the eaglets, make continuing improvements to the nest, and, in general, just live their lives. Until the morning of April 26, when those of us watching the cam (thousands of us) noticed that Mom had not been back to the nest for an unusually long time. The terrible news came later in the morning that an eagle had been struck by a jet landing at the airport adjacent to the Botanical Gardens. It was confirmed later in the day that it was the Mom eagle. I think I went through a box of tissues that day! To make a long story (5 months) short, the decision was made by the Virginia Dept of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Wildlife Center of Virginia to remove the eaglets from the nest and take them to the Wildlife Center in Waynesboro, VA to be cared for until they could be released back into the wild. The general consensus was that Dad Norfolk would be unable to feed three quickly growing eaglets all by himself and that all three eaglets had a better chance of making it if they were removed to the WCV where they could be cared for. The great staff at the WCV built them a nest in a large flight pen and set up a live camera so that those of us who had followed the nest at the Gardens could continue to watch the progress of the eaglets.

I watched all through the late spring and summer as they grew, exercised their wings, made short hops to perches near their nest, and finally their move to the big flight pen where they could begin practicing flying. In late July, the three eaglets were taken to Berkeley Plantation along the banks of the James River for their release. One of the three (she's called NX for the lettering on her leg band) was outfitted with a GPS transmitter. The eaglets were released and flew away as expected except for NX. She flew just a short distance and landed on the ground in the woods. She was re-captured and it was determined that the trip from Waynesboro to the James River, the July heat, and the outfitting of the GPS unit had exhausted her and brought out her lack of maturity. So NX was taken back to the WCV for some rest and a little more time to mature. She was successfully released in August and now her GPS unit sends data once a week or so on her whereabouts. She's about 60 miles from her release site now and spends most of her time along rivers in Northern Virginia not far from the Chesapeake Bay.

Yesterday, the Norfolk Botanical Gardens dedicated their new eagle plaza to Mom Norfolk with the unveiling of a beautiful bronze statue of an eagle in flight in her honor. There were over 1,000 people in attendance and I would have given anything to have been there. The thousands of us eagle-obsessed fans are now known as Eagle Nation and we have helped raise the money for the new plaza at the Gardens and have helped the Wildlife Center of Virginia win a $225,000 award from Chase Bank Foundation for the work that they do at their center. It's been an amazing 8 months!

And now the best part - Dad Norfolk has recently been photographed in the Gardens at the 2011 nest site with a new lady in his life. They have been making additions to the nest (nestorations) although mating and nesting won't take place until January or February. Evidently their early work on the nest is part of their bonding process as a new couple. We don't know where this female eagle came from but she is a big, beautiful bird. Both birds were seen flying over the Gardens yesterday during the dedication ceremony. I won't say I went through a box of tissues yesterday but as I followed the events at the Gardens via the internet yesterday, I did find myself reaching for them quite a few times. I'm excited for what promises to be new beginning for the Norfolk eagles in 2012. I'll also be watching the nest cam for the Decorah (Iowa) eagles who are also making additions to their 2011 nest.

Ok, I've gotten the eagles out of my system for today and now you know about my other obsession besides needlepoint. I apologize in advance when tidbits about the eagles and the other critters I am watching at the WCV leak out. It's an obsession. What else can I say?

Have a good week!

My New Halloween Friends

2011-10-09T12:33:00.000-04:00

This week, just as I was trying to make a decision on which canvas to pull out of the stash to stitch, two new Halloween friends arrived on my doorstep. Meet Fraidy Cat and Frankenstein from NeedleDeeva.

The stitch guides are by Robin King and she has really pulled out all the stops on these Creepy Characters. There are no less than 23 threads in this one character! Fortunately, many of the threads can be used on the other characters. Robin's guides are written and illustrated with excellent attention to detail so that along with the photo of the finished ornament, there is very little doubt as to how a particular stitch or section should look. Thanks, Robin!

I wasn't able to begin stitching Fraidy Cat until Friday evening but there is already a good bit of progress to show you on Sunday morning. I completed the two green/yellow borders yesterday and this morning have just completed the skip tent purple section that is the background for the spider web. Stitching the spider web is next on the agenda.

It didn't take long for me to realize that it will be difficult to not stitch all of the Creepy Characters. They will make a great quick, small project to have on hand especially if you have a larger, long-term project in the works - as I will as soon as my next Home Study with Amy arrives in November. I can't wait for the Melissa Shirley Christmas banner to arrive!

It's time for Sunday lunch and football, so I'm out of here for now! Hope you have a wonderful week and enjoy this wonderful fall weather!

Halloween Decor

2011-10-03T19:12:00.000-04:00

The Halloween tree is up in all of its orange and black glory. The sad thing about it is the lack of any stitched ornaments. Next year will be different and hopefully I'll have many to show you. But, the tree is fun with lots of sparkly garland and ornaments.

I love the top of my tree with its sprays of candy corn and gum drops. There is also a bow with pumpkins and black and orange metallic ribbon streamers.

The cute shop here in Augusta where I buy a lot of my holiday decor, Cudos, had a fun set of face decorations for pumpkins. Here's the ultra-friendly pumpkin who sits at my front door.

Doesn't he have a sweet face? My daughter-in-law, Anna, was with me at Cudos this weekend for a wreath making class and while I was there, I bought a similar kit to the pumpkin for a Thanksgiving turkey. Anna and I had fun in the class and learned lots of creative things to do with grapevine wreaths. We also got a preview of the wreaths they are preparing for Christmas. Wow!

The cold I had last weekend continued in to this past week. I finally went to the doctor on Thursday and was given some antibiotics and some prescription strength cough syrup. I can't remember when I have felt that bad. I'm on the mend now - no more fever and the cough is a little less bothersome every day. But as a result, there wasn't much stitching accomplished last week. Last night, I finished the beading on Keep Calm and Carry On crown bringing that stitching project to an end. Here she is -

Now, what comes next? Time to look through the canvases and figure out which one will be brought out into the spotlight. I still have several canvases to work on which I took with me to Amy's back in the spring. Linda Carter Holman's Island Lady with the basket of fruits and flowers or LCH's Belles with the large hats and high tea? Check back with me next week and see which one I choose.

Have a great week with lots of time for stitching!

They're Creepy and They're Kooky

2011-09-24T18:00:00.000-04:00

Mysterious and spooky,

They're altogether ooky, the Halloweenie Family. Dr. Acula and W. Herr Wolfe were reunited with their fellow Halloweenies this week following their return from a visit with Marlene in San Francisco. They are as handsome as their fellow characters. I have a wonderful sense of accomplishment when I look at my Halloween mantle this year. I don't think that I have a favorite character because each one is unique in its own way. As each character arrived, I learned new techniques and stitched with threads I had never used before. I have to thank again Kelly Clark for her incredible canvases, Amy Bunger for her detailed stitch guides that really brought these characters to life, Jill at Amy's Golden Strand for organizing the canvas and thread shipments each month, and Peggy and Robin who started Needlepoint Study Hall to help those of us in the Home Study group with techniques and moral support. It was a wonderful stitching experience in every way!

How do you like my witches' stockings and boots hanging above the fireplace? Maybe the Great Pumpkin will fill them with some goodies on Halloween? I found the stockings at Pier One and they aren't actually meant to be used as I have done. At Pier One they are shown on the front legs of a chair. So the chair looks like it is wearing stockings and witches' boots. It's a cute idea but I like my use for them much better. If you need some cute Halloween decorations, Pier One is a great place to start. I was tempted by just about everything they had.

I'm still working on my Halloween tree and will show that to you next week. My tree is crying out for the Creepy Characters ornaments from NeedleDeeva. I hope to start on those soon but it may be another week or so before Amy's is able to send them to me.

No sooner had Marlene sent my last two Halloweenies back to me, I turned around and sent her more pieces to finish for me. I sent her the three Heritage Series ornaments, the witches' hats ornament, the Noel canvas, and the "boo" canvas. I'll wait for her to call me to discuss my finishing options for Noel and "boo". I'm not sure what to do with either of them.

I had hoped to finish Keep Calm and Carry On this week but ran short of the Kreinik braid I am using for the diamond crosses. Jill at Amy's kindly got my emergency order out to me and the threads arrived yesterday - just in time for stitching this weekend.

I may have my threads with which to stitch this weekend but I don't have the energy for stitching. Some sort of nasty virus settled in with me on Thursday and I have done nothing but cough and ache all over for the last two days. As of this afternoon it still isn't showing any signs of going away. I'm just hoping for a few hours of quality, cough-free sleep tonight.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and accomplish a great deal of stitching! Take care -

Boo! To You

2011-09-18T14:12:00.000-04:00

The last black bead was added to "boo" last night bringing this canvas into the completed projects category. Thanks to the SyFy Channel's James Bond double header last night, I got in a straight 5 1/2 hours of stitching time. I can't tell you how many times I have watched Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace but I never get tired of watching either one. It's nice to check another project off the list but I will miss "boo" because it was such an easy little project to pick up and stitch a little and put it back down. I'm debating this afternoon as to whether or not I will include this canvas in with some others that I am sending to Marlene to finish. I am planning to send my three Kelly Clark Heritage Series ornaments and the Witches' Hats ornament out to Marlene this week. "boo'" just might go with them although I will probably not get it back in time for Halloween this year. Speaking of which, Marlene called this week to let me know that Sarcoph A. Gus and W. Herr Wolfe are on their way back home just in time to join their other Halloweenie friends for the Halloween holiday season. Perhaps when I post on the blog next week I'll be able to show you their photos.

Another project nearing completion is Keep Calm and Carry On. I finished the lettering this week and last night experimented with a couple of threads for the diamond cross fillers in the background. I tried a lovely lavender Petite Very Velvet but it was just a little flat looking and didn't add any interest to the background. Next I tried a silvery lavender Kreinik braid and that was just what was needed - a little silver sparkle. It is subtle but effective. I'll be working on the diamond crosses this afternoon and evening during the football games. Maybe I'll have another finished project to show you next week. Fingers crossed!

I'm waiting to hear from the girls at Pocket Full of Stitches about Melissa Shirley's Bottle Bouquets class that starts in October. I had a difficult time trying to capture a photo of the canvas to show you but you can read about it on the POS blog. I've always loved this canvas by Mary Lake Thompson and look forward to the class. This will be a long term project of about 8 or 9 months from what I understand.

Jill from Amy's emailed me last week to say that the Melissa Shirley Christmas Banner home study had been moved back one month to November. I can't wait for that one to start either!

This is the last week of summer and I can't say that I'm sorry to see summer go away. It has been one long, hot, dry season! The cool weather the last few days has been such a relief. Now if we could just get some rain. My Japanese magnolia is already dropping leaves and it isn't because of the approaching autumn; it's because of the lack of rain around here.

Hope your first week of autumn is a lovely one! Enjoy your stitching!

Carry On - September 11, 2011

2011-09-11T12:19:00.000-04:00

This morning's lead editorial in my local newspaper, The Augusta Chronicle, is entitled "Keep Calm and Carry On". It references the poster printed in Britain during World War II aimed at boosting the morale and steeling the resolve of the British people in the face of the possibility of invasion by the Germans. It is a fitting saying for many events in life. None more so than the events of this day ten years ago. But, as the editorialist went on to say, keeping calm doesn't mean doing nothing. It doesn't mean forgetting what happened on that beautiful September morning in 2001. It means moving forward and carrying on with building a United States that would make those who died that day proud of the country for which they gave their lives.

A Little Help for My Friend

2011-09-04T11:06:00.000-04:00

Last week my cyber stitching friend, Diane, commented that she is stitching along with me on Kelly Clark's Witches' Hats apple and also on &more's "boo". She was trying to figure out how to bead the bow accents on the apple and asked if I would take some pictures of how I tackled that part of the canvas. Diane, it's really very easy - as you will see.

I gathered all of my materials together - beads, wire, and a little double sided tape for the beads. I was unable to find the black 28 gauge artists wire that was suggested so I had to go with a dark copper wire of the same gauge. The color didn't matter too much in the end as none of it showed. I cut about a 10" length of wire as Amy told us to do. The next step is to bring a length of wire from behind the canvas up to the front.

Bring one end of the wire up from the back on one side of the base of the bow knot and the other end of the wire up from the back and on the other side of the base of the bow knot. The wire is thin so it's a little difficult to see in the photo, but I think you'll get the idea. After both ends of the wire are on the front of the canvas just slide them back and forth until you have an even length on each side of the knot. Then comes the easy part - just add your beads in any pattern you choose.

Once you have added the appropriate number of beads for each piece of wire, you take the end of the wire on each side and sink it into the top part of the knot. After checking that you have added enough beads (or perhaps need to take away a few beads), you will want to secure the wired beads on the back of the canvas by twisting the wire together.

The other pieces of beaded wire are handled just the same way. For the upper areas of the bow, I brought the wires up from underneath the outside edges of the bow and sank them on the inner areas of the bow near the knot.

Twist the wires together on the back side of the canvas just as you did with the knot wires. Once I finished all of the beading, I took a piece of black beading thread and tacked down the wires so that I had them secured to the canvas and had the wire shaped like I wanted it. The picture below was before I tacked down the wires.

Diane, I hope this helped you. I can't guarantee that this is exactly the method that Amy had in mind in her stitch guide but I got the job done and I am pleased with the results. I appreciate Robin taking the time to remind me of the photos of the apple canvas in the March issue of Amy's newsletter. The beaded wire really adds a wonderful finishing touch to this fun Halloween canvas. I'm sorry to finish it! But, I know where I can get more when I want them!

I completed the two white stripes on "boo" that have the jack-o-lantern darning pattern. What a great pattern, don't you think?

I photographed "boo" Saturday morning, but last night while I watched the Georgia-Boise State game, I almost completed the orange stripe on the end. I'll use a Fyre Works coppery color to stitch the strap stitches over the Scotch stitches.

Continuing with the Halloween theme, I can't remember if I told you last week that Dr. Acula and W.Herr Wolfe have safely arrived in San Francisco for their visit with Marlene. Hopefully they will come home in time for the gathering of the the Halloweenie family in October. I think there's a good chance that they will.

It's a quiet Labor Day weekend around my house. Perfect for some concentrated stitching I think. Hope your holiday weekend is everything you want it to be!

What a Week!

2011-08-28T12:31:00.000-04:00

What a week this has been! We started off the week with an earthquake on the East Coast and ended the week with Hurricane Irene. Irene turned out to be a non-event for us in Georgia but I know that is not the case for so many of you in North Carolina and points north. This morning I had a quick email from my stitching friend, Linda, in New York and she is safe, thankfully. I hope to talk to her later today.

The Virginia earthquake on Tuesday was felt all the way down here in Augusta. I had just sat down to have a late lunch about 2:00 p.m. when I felt a slight back and forth motion. I wasn't sure what I felt until I looked at the mirror across the room and saw it moving. The movement didn't last long but it was long enough to be a little unsettling. We have several fault lines that run through this area of Georgia but I wouldn't have thought we would have felt something that happened as far away as Virginia.

Did you see the Pioneer Woman's new show on Food Network yesterday? I thought it was a great look at a fairly ordinary family working, playing, and eating together. On the menu was chicken-fried steak, some killer mashed potatoes, a breakfast sandwich, and a tomato salad. I enjoyed seeing Ree's family and finally learning the names of her children as well as seeing Walter and Charlie (her Bassett Hounds), Cowboy Josh, and the tons of cattle they raise on their ranch in Oklahoma. Hope you get to catch one of her shows on Saturday mornings on Food Network.

I completed another orange stripe on "boo" this week. I've said it before but I'll say it again - I love these sampler-type canvases. You'll see the latest Grandinroad catalog behind "boo". It's their Halloween catalog and it's just filled with all sorts of fun Halloween decorations. If you don't get the catalog, be sure to check out their website - especially if you are having any kind of Halloween party. So many spooky things with which to decorate.

There's not too much more to finish on the Witches Hat Drizzly Apple. I have just a little more background to stitch (by the way, the background color is not as neon orange as it looks in the photo - it's a rich tangerine color) and I'll finish it off with the beaded edges for the bow. This was another fun, fast project. I am quickly running out of quick-stitch projects. It's probably just as well as I have two large projects that start in October - the Melissa Shirley Christmas banner from Amy's and the Melissa Shirley Flowers & Vases from Pocket Full of Stitches. Can't wait to start both of those!

My autumn clematis was looking particularly pretty early this morning so I thought I would share a picture of it with you. This is such a beautiful flowering vine but it is so invasive. It would take over the yard if you turned your head for a second. I hate to compare it to Kudzu but you understand if I do make the comparison. It's a good thing this vine has such lovely, delicate white flowers because that's the only good thing about it.

We had a nice, mild early morning here. Fairly low humidity and a temperature around 70. The temps have already moved up to the low 90's however and we still have long afternoon of heat ahead of us. My Little Girl was enjoying the early morning coolness and agreed to have her picture taken.

Let's hope this week is a little less exciting than last week! Hope you have a good one!

Revisiting Halloween

2011-08-21T12:41:00.000-04:00

My stitching attention this week turned from Christmas ornaments to Halloween-themed projects. Once I finished all of the compensation on the background of the July Heritage Series Ornament, the rest of the stitching flew along. I finished it earlier this week.

The three ornaments I stitched from Kelly Clark's Heritage series were fun projects - quick and easy (except for the background on the Ruby ornament). I highly recommend them! All of the stitch guides were by Gina Liuzzi.

So, now my attention has turned to Halloween again. I've had the "boo" canvas by & more for almost a year now. I bought it from Amy's last year when I was in the midst of the Halloweenies and couldn't find time to fit it into the stitching schedule until now. The stitch guide is by Amy Bunger.

I like the fact that this design is a nice change from many of the usual Halloween canvases we see, i.e. cute, spooky characters. "boo" is a sophisticated Halloween canvas. Don't get me wrong - I love the spooky characters! This is just a nice variation on the Halloween theme.

The other Halloween project I started this week is Kelly Clark's Drizzled Witchy Hats Halloween apple. Again, I purchased the canvas, threads, and stitch guide from Amy's. I started the bow late in the week and began working on the hats last night. Another fun and quick project. Be sure to check out my stitching friend Linda's finished Witchy Hats apple. It's so cute - finished like a candy apple.

Continuing along on the Halloween theme, please take a look at Jane of Chilly Hollow's blog. She features some wonderful detailed photos of Nancy's finished Haunted House. The Haunted House was another part of Amy's Halloweenie Home Study last year. Nancy had shared a photo of the finished house on Facebook a week or so ago, but it's nice to see more detailed pictures. She really did a wonderful job on this very large, very detailed project. My Haunted House is languishing in its pillowcase, I'm sorry to say. But, one day I'll bring it back out into the light of day and finish it. Nancy provides the inspiration to keep plugging away at it. Thanks, Jane and Nancy, for sharing it with all of us.

I finished two more books this week and was sorry to turn the last (electronic) page on both of them. I finished No Rest for the Dead - a collaborative effort by numerous mystery writers. I also finished State of Wonder by Anne Patchett. I highly recommend both books - very different types of books, but both very enjoyable. Next on the list is to get re-acquainted with Tom Clancy's Against All Enemies which I started a few weeks ago and put aside for other books that more quickly captured my attention.

I'm watching a show on Southern barbecue and my stomach is reminding me that I have some pulled pork in the refrigerator just waiting to be eaten for lunch. Time to eat!

Have a good week!

And the Heat Goes On!

2011-08-13T12:05:00.000-04:00

I love the summer but I'm really ready for this one to come to an end. The heat has just been endless lately. Has it been that way for you as well? We did have an unexpected respite last night - it rained nearby and the temperature dropped to a balmy 83 with a nice breeze about 6:30. We had enough of a breeze to keep the mosquitoes at bay for awhile. I think that was the first time in weeks that I have been able to sit on the patio without being driven right back inside by heat and mosquitoes. It was wonderful!

There has been more reading done around here lately than needlepoint which is why you didn't hear from me last week. I finished several books in the last couple of weeks. I loved The Help by Kathryn Stockett and can't wait to see the movie. The book was excellent and from what I am reading about the move, it will be as well. Hope to see it this week sometime. I also finished The Dog Who Came in from the Cold by Alexander McCall Smith. I've told you how much I love his books and this one is no exception. Can't wait for the next one in the series. Another quick read this week was Marine One (the author's name escapes me for the moment). It's a legal thriller about the deadly crash of the President's Marine One helicopter. It was one of those books that you can't put down and stay up way too late to finish it.

My stitching progress has come in fits and starts lately. I am currently working on the July (Ruby) ornament in Kelly Clark's Heritage Ornament series. The other two ornaments were very quick stitches but this one has taken more time than I had expected. I have to say that I did not enjoy any of the red lattice background stitches on this piece. It was nothing but compensation the entire time and it took most of the week to finish the background. I'm ready to start the gold stem stitches for the vines and the french knots for the tips.

Despite my feelings about the tedious background, this will be a beautiful ornament when finished and worth the effort on the background. Isn't that always the case?

I'm also still working on Laura J. Perin's Garden Gate project. I've completed the fence and brick walkway portion of the design. The missing fence areas are left open so that the area can be filled with all of the flowers that Laura has planned for us. We won't have to be stitching over already stitched areas of the canvas. This morning I began work on the grass while watching Yard Crashers on HGTV. Appropriate TV for this project, don't you think? I would love to have Ahmed crash my back yard and work his magic. Maybe I need to hang out at Home Depot more often!

Laura has created a lovely summer project in Garden Gate. Her instructions, graphs, and photos are excellent. This has been a fun change of pace from painted canvas.

I was looking through the canvas stash the other evening and pulled out the "BOO" canvas from &More and its stitch guide and threads and the Witches Hat Apple by Kelly Clark. I think those two are next in line once I have finished the Ruby ornament.

Hope your stitching is progressing more quickly than mine these days! Have a wonderful week!

Familiar Faces

2011-07-30T17:51:00.000-04:00

Although in the back of my mind I knew that these two familiar faces were on their way home to me, I was happily surprised to find them on my doorstep on Monday afternoon. A perfect birthday present for me!

Sarcoph A. Gus and Dev L. Mann have been visiting out in San Francisco with Marlene. These are two very handsome gentlemen all finished in a very masculine steely gray silk with black and silver cording and gray feet. I'm sorry I didn't get another view of their finishing that shows off the fabric but it is a perfect match to the background color of both characters. So now six of the eight characters are ready for Halloween. I'll try to remember to send Dr. Acula and W. Herr Wolff to Marlene this week so that I can have all of them together for my Halloween mantle decor this year. I hope everyone in this group fits on the mantlepiece! It will be crowded!

I finished my Kelly Clark April Diamond Heritage Ornament this week. I am addicted to these ornaments!

Tonight I plan on starting the July Ruby in this series. These ornaments are like potato chips - you can't stitch just one! And, they stitch up so quickly! I didn't work on it every evening and I still finished it in less than a week. I may have to see if I can order some more of these or maybe just try to wait until the Creepy Characters from Needle Deeva become available. I know they will be a fun, quick stitch.

While I finished one project this week, of course I had to start another. I enrolled in Laura J. Perin's cyber class for Garden Gate and that started on Monday. Laura sent us a complete kit last week with her typically excellent stitch guide. This week we received the first of her emailed instructions. She has written her lesson in a very conversational style which makes you feel like she is there in the room with you guiding you along as you stitch.

I didn't have the opportunity to begin this project until last night. It's been a very long time since I worked on Congress Cloth. It's nice to work on this soft green color. The white in the picket fence really pops off the green background. For my Garden Gate, I opted for yellow roses instead of the pink roses featured in the cover photograph.

You might be wondering what happened to my Keep Calm and Carry On and Peony Collage projects. Progress continues on Keep Calm although two weeks ago I found myself completely stressed out over this canvas because of a dye lot change in the lavender Splendor I am using for the background. I was about 1/3 of the way through the background when I used up the original Splendor I purchased for this project. I had already ordered extra Splendor so it was all ready to go. I compared the new threads to the old on the cards and everything looked fine. However when I began to stitch with the new threads, there was a slight change in the lavender color. My original lavender had a very slight grayish tint and the new lavender has a slight pinkish tint to it. Under the Ott light, it is (to me) a glaring difference. In regular room light and without direct light on it, you don't notice the difference in color. I know that I will always see the exact spot where I began the new thread. But I hope that once I add the accent threads and stitch the wording that the color change will not be as noticeable to me.

As for Peony Collage, it had an unfortunate encounter with a cup of coffee last weekend. Fortunately, the canvas is ecru to begin with which hides the coffee stains fairly well and the threads are, for the most part, variegated in color which also hide any spots of coffee. I'll go back to this project at some point knowing that once the background is added that it will disguise any lingering coffee spots. One corner is a little buckled from where I blotted it with water but I think if I can dampen it again and put it on the Evertites that I can straighten it out.

I'll leave you this week with a peek at a beautiful little plant I bought last week.

Have you ever seen this before? I hadn't. It is an ornamental Oregano! It doesn't look like any oregano plant I have ever seen but smells just the way you would expect oregano to smell. It is the softest green with shades of soft pink and lavender. You have to look very closely but when you do you can find very tiny pink flowers. I found this at The Fresh Market. I think it's so pretty!

Hope you have a great weekend and week ahead!

Time for Summer Reading

2011-07-24T17:29:00.000-04:00

My summer reading list has been growing by leaps and bounds the last couple of weeks. Many of my favorite authors have all released new titles this summer. I have already finished several books and have several more being read at the same time.

So far this summer, I have read (and thoroughly enjoyed!):

Summer Rental - Mary Kay Andrews. I love MK's books, especially the ones that come out in the summer. This quick, fun read takes place on the coast of North Carolina as three friends come together for a month long stay at the beach. What's a summer read without a little anguish, a little romance, and a little drama? I wanted to be at the beach everyday I was reading it.

007 - Carte Blanche - Jeffrey Deaver. I love all things 007! Jeffrey Deaver was chosen by Ian Fleming Publications to write this new James Bond novel. He does a very respectable job. It has all the required elements of a Bond thriller. A handsome, suave James Bond, pretty girls with ridiculous names (Felicity Willing (oh please!)), evil and creepy villains, exciting locations, and lots of action. I loved every minute of this read.

Corduroy Mansions - Alexander McCall Smith. I will read anything Alexander McCall Smith writes. I have read all of the Ladies No.1 Detective Agency books and all of the Isabel Dalhousie series, not to mention the 44 Scotland Street series and the Portugese Irregular Verbs series. Corduroy Mansions give us humorous glimpses into the lives of the tenants of Corduroy Mansions in London. We meet a wine merchant and his grown son who won't leave home, a health food store manager, a secretary to a member of Parliament, a student hoping to snag a job at a prestigious auction house, and various friends and relatives of the tenants. Oh yes, and there is Freddie de la Hay, a Pimlico terrier. Freddie plays an important role in this book and becomes the star of the next book in the series, The Dog Who Came in from the Cold (I'm about halfway through this one).

At the moment, these are the other books being read or waiting to be read on the iPad:

Portrait of a Spy - Daniel Silva. I've read all of his Gabriel Allon books. Allon is a spy who is also an art restorer. Silva's novels are my favorite spy thrillers. I'm saving this one for when I have finished reading several that are in process right now.

The Help - Kathryn Stockett. I had put off reading this book for the longest time in fear that it would give a very skewed view of the South during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. So far, I'm happy with what I have read. This novel examines the relationships between the white women who employ black women as household help in Jackson, Mississippi. The movie version of this book comes out in August.

State of Wonder - Ann Patchett. I loved Ann Patchett's bestseller, Bel Canto, so much many years ago. This novel is set in the deep, dark jungles of the Amazon where a research scientist for a pharmaceutical company tries to uncover the reasons behind the mysterious death of her colleague. It is a beautifully written adventure and I am taking my time as I read this one.

Against All Enemies - Tom Clancy. I have, for the most part, always enjoyed Tom Clancy books. Especially his earlier books. This one seems to harken back to those great Jack Ryan books of the 1990s. Clancy introduces us to a new hero, Max Moore, an ex-Navy seal. The action starts immediately in the dark off the shore of Pakistan with the transfer of a Taliban prisoner and then immediately jumps to the drug cartels of Mexico and South America. Lots of action in this one and lots of governmental agencies to try and keep track of. I'll be reading this one for a while!

No Rest for the Dead - 20 Mystery and Thriller authors. This is a great collaboration of writers such as Sandra Brown, Jeffrey Deaver, Lisa Scottoline, and Alexander McCall Smith (just to name four of the authors). The mystery centers around the death of a curator at the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts. Each author writes a chapter. So far, so good. I think I'll enjoy this book.

With all of these books to read, there hasn't been a lot of stitching around here this week. Despite all of these books, I did get a good bit done on the April Diamond Heritage ornament series. These ornaments stitch up so quickly. And, for the most part, I find that I don't need to use the floor stand. That's always nice! This is my progress so far this week -

Andrew and Anna came for a visit this weekend to help me celebrate my birthday this week. I love to see them arrive and always hate to see them go. Anna and I went shopping at our favorite local store, Cudos. They were having a fabulous Christmas in July sale yesterday. Anna found some incredible deals on some Christmas ornaments and I gave in to the temptation of a Mark Roberts garden lily elf. Here he is in all his spring and summer glory.

I'm usually not one for the whimsical side of things but I have always loved Mark Roberts elves. I have two wonderful Christmas elves of his and always hate to put them away at the end of the Christmas holidays. I think this elf can remain out from the spring through the summer. The best part is that he was 1/2 price! This was my birthday gift to myself.

Speaking of birthday gifts, Andrew and Anna gave me this fabulous Dooney & Bourke leather bag and the red patent D & B wristlet. I absolutely love this turquoise bag! Andrew picked this out all by himself - didn't he do a great job? I immediately transferred everything out of my old bag and into this one. If I had bought myself a new purse, I would have gone with a "safe" color like brown or black. But, it's so fun to step out of my comfort zone and carry a turquoise bag.

My stitching friend Linda sent me a fun birthday surprise in the mail this week. I didn't get any pictures of it but you can see one of them in the photo of my ornament this week (the green magnet in the upper right). She sent me a set of magnetic paper clips that make a great needle holder. What a fun surprise - thanks, Linda!

I think we have all had a terrible time with the heat this past week. I hope the heat in your area breaks soon. Maybe we'll all get some rain soon to cool things off.

Stay cool and have a great week!

Christmas in July

2011-07-17T09:53:00.000-04:00

This morning I took advantage of an unusual break in our July weather to sit outside and stitch a Christmas ornament. Our oppressive temperatures and humidity took a turn for the better this weekend and we have had cooler temperatures than usual. Yesterday we had our first below 90 high temperature since May. This morning I couldn't resist the 69 degrees and dry air that has moved in. I know it won't last as I saw the forecasted temps in the 100s that are in store for us for later in the week.

I am working on the April White Diamond ornament from Kelly Clark's Heritage Ornament series. The stitch guide is by Gina Liuzzi. If you are looking for a quick stitch with maximum impact, these ornaments work up very quickly. I finished the August Peridot ornament earlier in the week. It's quite a pretty ornament.

I spent yesterday morning watching The British Open and stitching on Peony Collage. What an incredible swing in the weather conditions they experienced on Saturday! I suppose it wouldn't be a British Open without driving rain and howling winds. Peony Collage is moving along as you can see.

I hope to finish the box on the upper right during today's final round of the Open. The small boxes within the larger one are filled with two shades of pink "flowers".

I was so thankful this week that my stitching friend, Linda, had successful surgery to repair her rotator cuff. Soon she'll be able to get back to some serious stitching! I had expected to receive an email from her stitching sister, Denise, letting me know that the surgery had gone well. What I didn't expect was to get a call from Linda just a little while after her return home from the surgery earlier in the afternoon. She sounded wonderful and we had a nice long chat about our needlepoint projects.

Thanks to all of you who left such nice comments on the blog and on Facebook about Queen Elizabeth! She is currently still on the stretchers and propped up on the sideboard in the dining room. Everytime I walk past her, her "emerald" earring just twinkles at me. I have some very specific ideas about her framing and feel as though I almost need to interview a framer before turning her over to anyone.

Have a good week everyone!

May I Present The Queen!

2011-07-10T11:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was all about The Queen. I had been waiting for a day like yesterday to come along so that I could devote myself to finishing Her Majesty. Placing the ribbons on the sleeves was the major piece of the puzzle to be finished. The Gloriana ribbon in Autumn Gold was a beautiful choice by Amy. The shading from light to deep gold is perfect. The ribbon actually has a much deeper shade which I chose not to use. It was as simple as just cutting out the shading that I didn't want.

After finishing the sleeves, the next step was to add the "pearls and amethysts" to her hair comb. She also is wearing a beautiful "emerald" drop earring. Her ruffled collar prevented adding the earring for her other ear. I kept looking back at the color copy I made of the canvas before I started stitching just to check the collar placement. It really is painted as high as it appears with my ruffled ribbon. I'm happy that I added the ruffled ribbon and didn't just stitch the collar. The ribbon adds such dimension and is so "over the top" which is in perfect keeping with the rest of the canvas. The last embellishment I added was the set of false eyelashes - the icing on the cake!

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this canvas! It is a wonderful design by Melissa Shirley and Amy Bunger worked her magic with a fabulous stitch guide. Two very talented ladies for sure! The next step in this journey is to come up with the perfect framing suitable for a Queen. There's nothing subtle about this lady and I think she lives up to her inclusion in Melissa's "Wild Women" series.

I took a little break from the blog last week while I was in Jacksonville for the July 4th holiday weekend. On my way in to Jacksonville on Friday, I stopped at Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island and visited with Michele at The Bristly Thistle. I was hoping to see the progress she had made on Kelly Clark's Noah's Ark and I was delighted to see that she has almost finished it. She has done a beautiful job with all the stitch and thread choices. It is quite a big project and I didn't realize how many separate canvas pieces make up the ark. She hasn't photographed it recently for her blog but keep checking back because she may have some exciting news to share about this project.

I took the opportunity while there for a little stash enhancement. A few weeks ago I had ordered from Amy's one of Kelly Clark's Heritage Ornaments - the August Peridot. Michele had several in this series as well so I purchased the April and July ornaments.

This is a lovely series with stitch guides written by Gina Liuzzi of A Stitch in Time. I am working on the August ornament and it works up very quickly. I had better get started on the other two as finishing deadlines for Christmas projects are looming.

While I was in Jacksonville, I had some help with stitching the August ornament. Elvis, Andrew and Anna's youngest cat, was extremely interested in my stitching. That lime green Kreinik braid was just too much of a temptation!

I'll leave you with my recent progress on Laura J. Perin's Peony Collage. I love this project and enjoy the changes in color that come with using the Watercolors thread. I'm looking forward to Laura's cyber class that starts in a couple of weeks.

Hope you all have a great week!

Let There Be Light!

2011-06-26T17:31:00.000-04:00

The big excitement at my house this week was having a new back door installed. I love it - especially the extra light! - although it has completely freaked out my Little Girl (my cat). She doesn't seem to understand why she can all of a sudden see out the back door. She doesn't adapt very well to change. Here's the before and after:

While the carpenter was here this week, he also rebuilt the fence across the backyard and fixed the garden shed door that the wind blew off the hinges last week. It was a great week for home improvement here!

In stitching news, I received a surprise package via FedEx yesterday. My Evertite stretcher bars for the Melissa Shirley Christmas banner arrived unexpectedly. Have you ever seen 40" Evertites? I certainly haven't, but here they are -

Wow - these are the XXL size! I remember telling Jill at Amy's to go ahead and order them for me but I just didn't expect to see them at my doorstep yesterday. Wish it were time to start the Christmas Banner Home Study, but we still have a few months to go.

While the Evertites were sent from their home out in Oregon, I received another small package from Amy's with the ribbons for the Queen's sleeves, some more Splendor for the "Keep Calm" canvas, and a skein of Watercolors for Peony Collage. Since so much of Peony Collage involves the use of Watercolors, I had not been able to stitch much this week. Last Sunday, while I watched the US Open, I was able to stitch most of the French Ribbon detail since it didn't involve using Watercolors. I fell in love with this little section of the canvas. It's such a pretty, feminine detail.

The photo doesn't do the ribbon detail justice. The pale pink and pale peach sections are so subtle - such a nice color combination.

I'm looking forward to the July 4th weekend in Jacksonville with Andrew and Anna. Last year they were here for the 4th and we went down to the Savannah River to watch the fireworks display for Augusta. This year, I'm looking forward to an evening of fireworks on the beach.

Hope you have fun plans for the July 4th weekend!

Looking Back and Looking Forward

2011-06-19T12:21:00.000-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BLOG!

Living the Good Life blog began a year ago today on June 19, 2010. As I wrote my first post on the blog, I was in the midst of stitching Bridezilla in the Halloweenie series, I had just met Paula Deen, and Andrew and Anna had only been married two weeks. I have Andrew to thank for encouraging me to start a blog. He knew I would enjoy sharing my enjoyment of stitching with people of a like mind. And I have - more than I ever imagined! The blogisphere has been a very friendly place this last year! I appreciate all of you who have stopped by the blog and followed my progress on various projects. Whether you have commented or not, your presence has been noted and I thank you. I finished quite a few projects since June of 2010. The Halloweenies Home Study was completed not to mention the Noel Canvas and the Fall Trees. There's a lot to look forward to this year as well - the Creepy Characters from Needle Deeva and Robin King and, in the fall, the Melissa Shirley Christmas banner from Amy Bunger. Hope you will continue to stop by the blog to see what I'm working on next!

If not for the blog's birthday, I might have started out this post with "It was a dark and stormy night...". We have had two nights this week that were dark and stormy. Wednesday night was particularly bad with very damaging winds. Many trees were lost around my neighborhood but, fortunately, I escaped any damage - only nine hours without electricity. Last night was a different story as another storm barreled through the area. I woke up this morning to find one of the heavy wooden double doors on my garden shed hanging by one hinge. One more thing to add to my growing list of jobs for a handyman. Just wish I had a handyman!

On the stitching front this week, I spent an afternoon working on the Queen's ruffled collar. It's a little "over the top" but, then, what isn't on the Queen? Jill emailed from Amy's to let me know that the gold ribbon for the Queen's sleeves had finally arrived so everything is coming together for a big finish for Her Majesty.

I also found time to work on Peony Collage and finished up all of the boxes.

The only difficult part of this project so far is the counting! Now that the foundations are laid, I look forward to filling in the boxes with interesting patterns. My only problem is that the main thread is back-ordered but I will start a search for it this week to see if I can find it elsewhere.

I had planned to start working on "Keep Calm and Carry On" during April, but here we are inching towards the end of June and I am just now starting it. Back in April, Amy gave me a wonderful stained glass pattern to work as the background. I gave the pattern a try but quickly realized that there was so much compensation involved that it would hardly do it justice.

So, I switched gears and went in search of another pattern. I found what I was looking for in an old Maggie Lane book. She calls the pattern "Flat Stitch with Diamond Cross Filler". The flat stitch uses Splendor and the diamond cross filler will use Kreinik braid and/or Petite Very Velvet. I'm finding the nice, flat lavender stitches to be very soothing - appropriate for this canvas, don't you think?

Guess who's vacationing in San Francisco? Dev L. Mann and Sarcoph A. Gus. They've gone to see Marlene who will complete their finishing. That just leaves Dr. Acula and W. Herr Wolff and they are anxious for their turn to visit with Marlene. Halloween will be here before we know it. This was evident to me as I walked through Hobby Lobby yesterday and saw the Fall garlands and wreaths hanging in the floral department. At least the Christmas decorations had not been put out - yet!

I'm looking forward to an afternoon of watching the US Open and getting lots of stitching accomplished. Hope you have an enjoyable afternoon planned as well!

I've got to go now - there's a cupcake calling my name! Happy Birthday to my blog!

A Lazy June Weekend Perfect For Stitching

2011-06-12T11:37:00.000-04:00

What a laid back weekend this has been! Yesterday was spent watching movies, stitching, napping, stitching, more movies, stitching - you get the idea. With all that stitching time yesterday, you might think that I would post a picture of a finished Queen Elizabeth. But, no, the last little bit of detail still needs to be taken care of on Her Majesty. She has requested that her photo not be taken again until the stitching is completely finished. What the Queen wants, the Queen gets! I finally finished her left sleeve this week and added the small, pearl-like beads to the middle of the Jessicas that are dotted across the sleeves. It's a small detail but so perfect for her costume. Today I am going to finish her hand and the cuff of the sleeve. The embellishments come next - her hair comb jewels, the false eyelashes, and the ruffled collar. There really isn't a lot left to complete as I wait for the ribbon (on backorder) to come in. The ribbon will criss-cross the sleeves. She'll be stunning when completely finished!

I have been following Laura J. Perin's blog Two-Handed Stitcher for a while now as she and I share similar interests - needlework and gardening. Laura designs wonderful counted thread pieces. Some of her May postings really caught my eye - her upcoming cyber class called Garden Gate and a new project from her Secret Garden series, Peony Collage. Laura and I had a very nice chat on the phone last week as I signed up for the cyber class. She kindly pointed me in the direction of some shops that carry her stitch guides so I was able to order a couple of them. Two projects arrived this week and I started one of them yesterday - Peony Collage.

After all the reds and velvets and glitz and glamour of Queen Elizabeth, Peony Collage is a lovely, soothing study in pinks and greens - perfect for a lazy summer afternoon. I haven't done any counted thread needlework in a while but this project will be a nice way to return to it. The other project I purchased by Laura is One Long Sampler, a new design for 2011.

Talk about soothing colors - this project has them! One Long Panel just screams shady summer afternoon to me. If I had a pool, it would scream shady summer afternoon by the pool! The colors are cool greens and turquoise. Our friend, Conni, over at Spinster Stitcher stitched this piece back in January and I have admired it off and on since then. I'm not abandoning my painted canvases - just taking occasional detours along the counted thread canvas highway.

Can't leave you today without sending a round of applause to Amy Bunger on her receiving the TEN Award (Tribute to Excellence in Needlearts) at TNNA this weekend. I can't imagine anyone more deserving of this award! Cudos to Amy!

Hope you have all gotten in as much stitching time as I have this weekend! Have a good week ahead!

A Slight Detour - Crisis Averted

2011-06-05T17:52:00.000-04:00

This week I began stitching the left sleeve for Queen Elizabeth. When I originally purchased this canvas and its threads almost three years ago, the thread kit came with one card of Splendor 822 and one card of Petite Very Velvet 632. About half way through the right sleeve I knew that I would need at least one more card of each to finish the left sleeve. I ordered some more of both from Amy's and it arrived in time for me to begin the second sleeve this week. I had a little of each of the original threads left but decided to start fresh with the new threads on the left sleeve. Have you guessed where I'm going with this?

I stitched about six or seven rows with the new threads before I realized that the colors of the two threads were almost an exact match with each other. Ordinarily that isn't a bad thing, is it? However, on the right sleeve there is a contrast between the colors. The Splendor on the right sleeve is definitely a slight shade darker than the Petite Very Velvet which in person gives the sleeve a checkerboard effect.

I decided to take 2 strands of the original Splendor and lay them on top of the new Splendor that had already been stitched to see if I could darken the overall color and I think I have been fairly successful in achieving a similar look between the sleeves. I photographed the Queen before I began overlaying the darker Splendor so that you could see the before and after. Evidently my eye and the camera's eye don't see the same thing. To me, there was a glaring difference between the two sleeves. But when I compared the before and after pictures, the pictures don't show much of a difference. So, the picture in this post is of the Queen after I began adding the darker threads. I think I'll continue stitching the sleeve in the same manner as I have this morning. I suppose the moral of this story is to listen to other stitchers who have said to never stitch to the end of a skein of thread unless you are absolutely sure that the next thread you pick up is from the exact same dye lot. I'm so glad I had a little of that original thread left to add in to the new thread. Crisis averted!

Well, right about this time of day a year ago, Andrew and Anna were about to become husband and wife. Happy Anniversary to you both! Anna is a wonderful addition to our family!

Hope your stitching is crisis-free this week! I think mine will be!

Seeing Red

2011-05-29T17:32:00.000-04:00

The Queen and I have been seeing red this week as I worked on her right sleeve - red Splendor and red Petite Very Velvet. The Caswell stitch that Amy chose for the sleeves works up very quickly and very effectively. The Jessicas that are scattered about the sleeves will be filled with a white seed bead and the "icing on the cake", so to speak, will be the Gloriana ribbons that crisscross the sleeves on top of the stitching from one Jessica to the next. I enjoyed working on the sleeve this week and imagine it will take me another week to finished the other sleeve.

Andrew and Anna are visiting for the holiday weekend so yesterday morning, Anna and I headed over to South Carolina to the berry farm and bought locally grown blackberries and peaches and a few tomatoes and some beautiful okra.

Tonight I'll be making a blackberry cobbler - can't wait! I ate one of the blackberries yesterday and it was good and sweet and just a little on the tart side. The peaches aren't quite ripe yet but are beginning to have that wonderful peachy fragrance.

We also picked flowers while out at the farm - zinnias, black-eyed Susans, and gladiolas. We cut three good sized bunches for about $6 - a bargain!

We've had a wonderful weekend just being together and eating good food - barbecue last night, grilled burgers and hot dogs for lunch, and steak and baked potatoes on the menu for tonight. Not to mention blackberry cobbler for dessert tonight. Speaking of which, it's time to go make the cobbler -

Hope you're having a relaxing first weekend of the summer! Happy stitching this week!

Thank You Bravo TV

2011-05-21T18:29:00.000-04:00

How did I ever get any stitching done before there was Bravo TV? And TLC, for that matter. Today I turned on a marathon afternoon of Pregnant in Heels and, before I knew it, I had finished the skip tent stitches in the upper background of Queen Elizabeth. This is in complete contrast to the total lack of stitching that was (not) accomplished during this week's season premiere of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. I couldn't take my eyes away from the television. I thought that no one could be as volatile as Teresa but we just hadn't met her brother yet. OMG! is all I have to say! The Queen was speechless!

Back to stitching - I am finally ready to begin stitching the Queen's sleeves. They are basically half the canvas. But the stitches are nice, long, straight ones and hopefully the sleeves will move along quickly. I hope I will have a nice completed section of sleeve to show you next week.

I've enjoyed spending time on the patio and in the yard these last two weeks or so. All the pots on the patio are planted and blooming nicely. I've cleaned the grill and have used it quite a bit lately. This evening calls for hamburgers on the grill and some incredibly sweet bi-color corn.

Joining me in the yard and on the patio the last two weeks have been these creatures:

This is a cicada and they only make an appearance every 13 years. They have been underground feeding on tree roots since 1998. They are harmless despite their appearance. They're noisy, too. Last weekend they were all over my yard - the trees, the bushes, the grass. This week I'm not seeing so many and the ones that I do see are doing their best to escape the birds. I imagine no birds have gone hungry around here lately.

Time to get those burgers on the grill! Hope you're having a relaxing, stitch-filled weekend!

The Weekend Was Too Short

2011-05-08T18:37:00.000-04:00

Did I miss a day of the weekend? How can it be over with already? I accomplished everything I had hoped to on Saturday and Sunday but I would really like to think that Monday is not coming as quickly as it is.

We had a beautiful weekend here in Georgia and I grilled out Friday night and Saturday night. Friday night I cooked a pork tenderloin on the grill and Saturday night grilled chicken breasts were on the menu. Tonight - and several more nights this week - I have great leftovers and easy side dishes. I can oven roast some asparagus, boil some bi-color corn, re-heat the macaroni and cheese, or toss a salad. I love it when my meals for the week work out this way!

Look what was delivered to me yesterday -

Andrew and Anna sent me this beautiful azalea basket for Mother's Day. I look forward to planting it in the backyard. I missed not being with them today! I hope all of you enjoyed a lovely Mother's Day!

Saturday morning I was out early and went by a local nursery to pick up some plants for the patio and yard. I came home with an interesting assortment.

I have two new thyme plants, basil, two apricot purslanes, two diamond frosts, a penta, and a New Guinea impatiens. This morning was the perfect time to get these into pots and into the ground. It was sunny and cool with just enough of a breeze to move the wind chimes. I'll try and remember what this morning was like when July and August come around and there aren't any cool mornings in sight!

I made some nice progress on Queen Elizabeth this week. She now has her emeralds, sapphires, amethysts, and rubies stitched around the border. Fyre Werks threads make a nice substitution for the real gems!

I need to add a gold edging to each gem but for now, I'll go back and work on the right batwing and complete the ribbon rosettes and the diamond eyelet outer area of the batwing. My night time stitching this week has been a balancing act. My cat, Little Girl, who spends most of the day outside now that it's nice and warm, has insisted on sitting in my lap every night as if to make up for the lack of "lap time" during the day. So, I have tried to balance her in my lap and pull my canvas on the stand up and over her. It isn't comfortable (for me) but it works for her and she's a happy kitty.

I meant to mention long before now that De Selby, the editor of Spool, sent me a complimentary copy of her new, quarterly needlearts magazine. De wanted me to see her own Queen that is featured in the Winter 2011 issue. De's Queen proclaims "Off With Your Shoes!". This is a counted thread design and it's as cute as can be. If you love anything that is stitched with a needle, you will thoroughly enjoy Spool. I thought the layout and design of Spool was very current and fresh. While there were not many articles or projects devoted to needlepoint (in this issue), it was fun to see the many projects for knitters, crocheters, cross stitchers, sewers, and embroiderers. There are some fun-filled projects to be had in this magazine. Even though I have put down my knitting needles, it was inspiring to see the wonderful knitted projects that were in the winter issue. You can check out Spool online and, while you're there, enter your subscription. You may just find Spool in your local needlework store.

I hear some leftovers in the refrigerator calling my name. I must answer the call!

I hope you have a wonderful week!

By Special Request

2011-05-03T20:45:00.000-04:00

Susan requested a photo of the Halloweenie family. She has her own Halloweenies ready for the finisher. Hope these help, Susan!

The British Theme Continues

2011-05-01T12:28:00.000-04:00

It's been another week of all things British at my house, particularly in the television and needlepoint areas. I thoroughly enjoyed watching all the programs leading up to the royal wedding, the wedding itself, and the recaps of the wedding. I've watched wedding coverage on the news channels, TLC, E!, and followed the wedding online at the Daily Mail Online. Did you get up early to watch the wedding live or did you sleep in and catch it later in the day? I got up at 5:00 AM, fixed my tea and settled in for an early morning of wedding festivities. I thought Kate's dress was so elegant and so perfect for her. Did you know that the lace appliques on her dress were stitched at the Royal School of Needlework located at Henry VIII's Hampton Court Palace? Sarah Burton, who designed Kate's dress, was set up with a secret, temporary studio at Hampton Court where she and Kate held top-secret fittings. I read where the part-time embroiderers (aged 19 to 70) washed their hands every 30 minutes while stitching and changed their needles every 3 hours to ensure that they were sharp and clean. Their efforts certainly paid off. This dress has become an instant classic and their fine stitching will be preserved for generations to come.

I have to admit that I haven't taken that much care with my Queen Elizabeth while stitching her this week - no changing needles every three hours, anyway. I worked more on her bodice this week and, for the most part, finished that area. There is still a lot of work to do in the batwing area on either side of her head.

I started on the diamond eyelets in the "lacey" areas of the right batwing. It didn't take long to grow tired of tiny white stitches so last night while watching the last two episodes of the new Upstairs, Downstairs (I told you the British theme continues) on PBS, I worked on the gold ribbon rosettes around the red Rhodes stitches. I am using Gloriana 4mm ribbon for the rosettes that is gathered and stitched in place around the Rhodes stitches. It takes a while to do each one but I love the dimension it adds to this area of the canvas. I would love to think I might move on to the sleeve area this week but I think that this week will still find me stitching the batwings.

I took a look around the back yard this morning and was amazed at how many of my perennials are ready to bloom. My Easter lilies from last year are ready to bloom and some of the hydrangeas are starting to show some color. My Stella d'Oro daylilies are all starting to bloom as of this morning. A perfect way to start a beautiful May Day!

Hope your May is off to a good start! Enjoy your Sunday stitching!

Easter Greetings!

2011-04-24T19:16:00.000-04:00

I hope you had as nice an Easter weekend as I did. Andrew and Anna were in town for what always seems like too brief a stay. But we packed a lot in to the weekend, nonetheless. Saturday morning we headed out to Gurosik's Strawberry Farm to pick strawberries. It was a beautiful morning with a light breeze but temperatures beginning to head up into the 80s. The field was full of strawberries just waiting for our Easter dessert.

These were some huge, juicy strawberries! We filled up two large buckets in just a few minutes. There had been a heavy rain the day before so there was a good bit of sand to wash off our berries. Once we got home we rinsed them off on the patio and put them out on the table to dry out.

Today, for our dessert, some of these were sliced, mixed with a little sugar to make a syrup, and served over angel food cake with a dollop of whipped cream on top. Delicious! We had a pleasant Easter lunch on the patio of baked ham, macaroni and cheese with 3 cheeses, roasted asparagus, deviled eggs, and a spinach, goat cheese, and strawberry salad. Anna and Andrew made the mimosas.

I don't have much to show in the way of needlepoint this week. I had a busy week after my return from Memphis and not a lot of time to sit and stitch. I put in a few stitches on the Queen's bodice and that's about it. I wanted you to see the ear lobe that Amy stitched while showing me how to work a twisted lazy daisy stitch. It's very much like a bullion stitch and can be manipulated a little to smooth out any problems that want to creep in. The Queen has some beautiful "emerald" teardrop earrings that will be added towards the end. Also, take a look at the gold ribbon that surrounds one of the red Rhodes stitches. The gathered ribbon will be repeated around the other Rhodes stitches on the "batwings".

The Queen will keep me company this week as I watch all the specials on the Royals that are on tv leading up to William and Kate's wedding. I plan to get up early on Friday to watch the wedding. Will you be watching as well? What will you be stitching?

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

A Dream Come True

2011-04-20T21:14:00.000-04:00

The stars have aligned for me this year in terms of my being able to meet some very well known people whose talent and personality really speak to me. In the last ten months I have met Southern cook extraordinaire Paula Deen, blogger and cook extraordinaire Ree Drummond - the Pioneer Woman, Southern author extraordinaire Pat Conroy, and now this week, Amy Bunger, needlepoint teacher extraordinaire.

Melinda and Amy

I drove to Memphis on Sunday - eight and one half hours from Augusta - for my day with Amy Bunger at her shop on Monday. I don't know how I've lived my life in Georgia and have never set foot in Alabama or Mississippi. But now I can say I have. They are both beautiful states to drive through especially in the early Spring. I got to see (from the interstate) the spectacle that is Race Day at Talladega. Gosh there were a lot of people there!

I arrived at Amy's shop a little before 10:00 AM on Monday morning. There to greet me were Amy, Jill, and Peggy. Although we have never met, I felt like I knew all of them and was seeing old friends. Once I was settled, Amy and I got to work. We started on my Queen Elizabeth canvas and for most of the morning worked on her. I'll take some photos later this week to share with you so you can see what we worked on. Amy showed me how to make the ribbon flowers on the "batwings" on either side of the Queen's face. She selected threads for her lips and spruced up her eyebrows for me. We worked on the Queen's breastplate. I was not happy with the way my stitches looked and wondered if the threads were too heavy. It's not the threads that are the problem, it's the way I stitched them. But, watching Amy stitch a row of the fern stitch helped me see what I was doing wrong. The Queen also needed some jewels and Amy had just the right pearls for her. Those will be a fun to add when my stitching is almost done.

During the middle part of the day we worked on my Linda Carter Holman (Melissa Shirley) canvas. There is so much detail in Linda's work but I have several pages of Amy's handwritten notes with thread and stitch selections to see me through it.

I think you would all find it so interesting to sit with someone of Amy's expertise and listen to her talk through why she chooses one stitch over another or one thread over another. I found it fascinating. While I would defer to Amy and her choice of stitches and threads, she never failed to ask me how I saw a particular area being stitched or if I approved of a thread color.

Jill and Peggy were working hard throughout the day helping customers who stopped by the store, or phoned in orders, or placed orders via the website. Very busy ladies! But they kindly took time to pull threads for me for a couple of canvases I brought with me. They were both so much fun to be with!

Peggy, Melinda, and Jill

I enjoyed being able to see a sneak peek of the two upcoming Home Study projects for later this year - Melissa Shirley's Thanksgiving banner and Christmas banner. Amy is stitching the Thanksgiving banner at present. Both projects are large canvases (lengthwise) but Amy has great ideas for the mechanics of stitching a project of this size. I have signed up to stitch the Christmas banner although it was a hard choice between it and the Thanksgiving banner. You can't go wrong with either one! I also got to see the beautiful creche canvas for the current home study - it is another great collaboration between Kelly Clark and Amy.

I loved seeing all of the Halloweenies in their finished state. And, I got to see the finished and framed Haunted House - spectacular! The framing was fabulous. There is so much to see at Amy's - the threads, the rooms of canvases, the accessories, books, and DVDs. Unfortunately, my time at Amy's ran out and I had to say goodbye to Amy, Peggy, and Jill. Now that I have been there once, I know it will not be the last time. Next time I will just give myself a little more time to just look around and enjoy being in the shop.

I'll be sharing with you more about my projects that Amy and I worked on as they come up in rotation. It's too much to share in just one blog post. All in all, my day with Amy was a dream come true and it was everything that I imagined it would be. Amy is just as lovely, gracious, and warm in person as you would think her to be. I can't think of anyone more delightful to spend the day with. I highly recommend "Rent Amy" as a gift to yourself or your favorite stitcher.

I love Andrew and Anna so much for giving me this day with Amy! Andrew has already said he doesn't know how to top this gift when Christmas rolls around again. I hinted that I wouldn't be at all disappointed if he and Anna give me the same gift again this Christmas. Amy told me that my being there was the first time she had been "given" for Christmas. But she was also "given" as a wedding shower gift - how fun would that be? - having all the bride's friends in the shop for a day of stitching. Sounds like too much fun to me!

Hope you're having a great week!

Have Needlepoint, Will Travel

2011-04-10T12:40:00.000-04:00

Needlepoint Spring Break 2011

Last Sunday was a real treat - getting to needlepoint poolside! No drinks with little umbrellas but a nice way to spend an early April afternoon in Jacksonville, FL. I visited Andrew and Anna last weekend and we spent part of our Sunday afternoon at the pool. Fortunately I carried a small project with me last weekend. I'm still working on the Melissa Shirley golden pear ornament - it doesn't see the light of day very often but makes for a nice small project when I'm on the road. I will finish it this year, however!

My needlepoint Spring Break really kicks into gear this week as I prepare for my drive to Memphis to spend the day with Amy on Monday the 18th. Do you think I might be a little excited? This morning I brought out the canvases that I will be taking with me and spread them out on the dining room table and made my notes on what I need help with on each one. These are three of the canvases that are making the trip with me. I like the variety.

As you might expect, they are all Melissa Shirley designs. The first one with the two women is my favorite. It is a design by Linda Carter Holman and I think it might be called "This Fine Day". This canvas has been hanging near my stitching chair for the last two years waiting for its turn to be stitched. I have been happy just to look at it all that time but now I am ready to stitch it. It has really led me to being a fan of Linda's work. I now have several small poster prints of her work hanging over my desk.

The second canvas is a lovely antique rose floral in shades of blues and peaches. I had started this a while back and had planned to just stitch it in basketweave. This was before I had been exposed to the amazing variety of stitches and threads that are available. Luckily I had only stitched a little of this piece and it will be easy to rip it out and get a little more creative with it. I love the delicate background on this one.

The third canvas I bought on my last trip to San Francisco - quite a few years ago. The trip happened to coincide with the Chinese New Year and this seemed like a very appropriate canvas to commemorate that trip. I have stitched several other canvases from this collection and I love the bright colors and the Asian theme. It will be a nice to add this to the three other pieces I have already stitched.

Also accompanying me to Memphis is The Queen. I didn't work on her this week as much as I would have liked but I did a little shopping for her wardrobe. I found several ruffled white ribbons at Hobby Lobby that just might work for her ruffled collar. I'll look to Amy for her suggestions as this collar will be a major feature of this piece. There is also some ribbon work around the Rhodes stitches in the "batwing" areas on either side of her head that I need help with and also the ribbon to stitch it with. Last night I started work on her vest only to find that I was not happy with my work by the end of the evening. I'm not sure that the Kreinik 1/16" ribbon is not too heavy for this area. I'll see what Amy has to say about it.

The other area I worked on yesterday was the Queen's chest. I had to laugh out loud when I read the stitch guide for this area. Amy's directions read as follows: "Basketweave the areas above the impressive cleavage....." I hope I did the "impressive cleavage" justice with my stitching! I've never stitched cleavage before!

Here in Augusta, we're coming to the close of Masters week. I hope you have seen some pictures or watched a little of the coverage on television. It has been a spectacular week weather-wise for us although the last two days have been more like June or July than April. We had a 90 degree day on Saturday and are looking for the same today. The azaleas and dogwoods have been at their peak this week. It is always an exciting week for Augustans but I won't be sorry to see things get back to normal tomorrow. I miss "my" grocery store which is just a block from Augusta National and difficult to get to for this one week during the year. I will always be a Tiger and Phil Mickelson fan but would be happy to see Rory McIlroy win, too. If you don't follow golf, the saying goes that the Masters really doesn't start until the back 9 on Sunday afternoon. I hope you'll watch and see how beautiful Augusta National is. I'll be waving at you from my house less than two miles away!

Have a good week!

There's A British Theme This Month

2011-04-02T22:44:00.000-04:00

It must be the royal wedding making its influence known when it comes to my stitching projects this month. The two pieces I want to work on are definitely a nod to the monarchy. I mentioned last week that I have had Melissa Shirley's Queen Elizabeth (Wild Women Series) in my stash for the last two years. I purchased the canvas, threads, and stitch guide from Amy's in Memphis in their after-Christmas sale in 2008. I decided that it was time for the Queen to take the spotlight.

Cate Blanchett, eat your heart out! You've got nothing on my Queen! This week I worked on her face and hair. I loved working on her hair - French and Colonial knots - and her hair combs. I haven't stitched her lips yet and will wait until I go to Amy's to pick out just the right threads (and stitch) to stitch those Angelina Jolie-esque lips. I also need to look for just the right jewels to attach to the larger of the two combs. The painted canvas shows "amethysts" on the comb but I am thinking that pearl drops might be a nice alternative. I always think of the Elizabeth I have seen in history books as wearing lots of pearls. I have also started on the white area of the "batwings" around her head. The stitch is a diamond design using one strand of Splendor. It's a little tedious but well worth the effort as it really does give a lacy effect to the area. Elizabeth is a lot of fun to stitch - Amy has worked her magic again on this Wild Woman!

Last weekend I received an email from Brenda Stimpson at Unique NZ Needlepoint announcing that they were having a sale on their "Keep Calm and Carry On" canvases in honor of the upcoming royal wedding. I gave in to temptation and purchased the lavendar Keep Calm canvas and it arrived on Thursday.

It even came with a small package of Keep Calm tissues! Do you know the story behind the Keep Calm and Carry On slogan? From what I understand, the British government had Keep Calm posters printed in 1939 just as war was looming for the British. These posters were to have been displayed as morale boosters in public areas like the Underground. Stories vary as to whether the posters were ever actually displayed but a few remaining examples were found recently and now there isn't much you can't buy without the saying on it - even tissues and needlepoint canvas. I bought this canvas because this phrase really speaks to me. I've had some unexpected things come up in my life over the last few years and there wasn't much I could do about it but "Keep Calm and Carry On". I'm taking this with me to Amy's in a couple of weeks to pick out some stitches and threads. I think that crown is calling for beads, don't you?

I'm spending the weekend in Jacksonville with Andrew and Anna. Today is Andrew's 28th birthday and Anna's is coming up in a few days. We went downtown this morning to a farmer's market where we saw some absolutely beautiful produce. Look at these strawberries!

Anna couldn't pass up some of these huge berries. We saw beautiful blueberries, squash, tomatoes, and all sorts of other produce. It really looked like most of the vendors had grown their own produce and were not just selling what they had bought from a distributor. There were lots of crafts being sold as well - jewelry, soaps, sculptures, etc. The market is held in the Riverside area of Jacksonville under one of the many bridges that criss-cross downtown Jacksonville. Even though the temperature was a pleasant 75 degrees, it was still nice to have the shade of the bridge to keep things cool.

We had dinner tonight with Andrew and Anna's friends in celebration of Andrew's birthday at Cantina Laredo. The company was wonderful, the dinner was good, but the service was terrible. It will probably be a while before any of us return. Too bad!

Hope you're all having a good weekend and getting lots of stitching done! Keep Calm and Carry On....

Fall Trees Wrap Up

2011-03-26T14:45:00.000-04:00

I put the last stitches in the Fall Trees this morning. What a fun project this has been - full of bright, fun colors and interesting stitch and thread combinations. What more can you ask for in a project?

I must thank Ada Haydon for sharing her creativity with us in these festive tree canvases and for allowing the stitch guides to be published in Needlepoint Now. Ada has done a great job with her Tree series and I look forward to stitching the Winter Trees sometime soon. She has also been a great cheerleader for me as I have stitched the Fall Trees. Thanks, Ada!

So, what comes next? Maybe this - Vintage Pears by Melissa Shirley. I started it early last year and put it away when the Halloweenies arrived. I think it might be time to work on it again.

The stitch guide is by Beverly Churchfield of Aristeia. I was just looking through the thread kit for this piece and the colors are just beautiful. Varying shades of greens, coppers, rusts, and browns. Beads and metallics will add subtle sparkle to the pears as well.

But, while I was looking through the project stash, I came across a canvas in Melissa Shirley's Wild Women series - Queen Elizabeth I. I think this was my first purchase from Amy's Golden Strand - way back in December 2008. This project has been languishing in the stash for a long time and, with my visit to Amy's in a few weeks, now might be a good time to get this canvas on to the stretchers and get it started. I think it probably overwhelmed me in December of 2008 but now, as a seasoned veteran of the Halloweenie series, it doesn't seem so daunting. There are lots of threads but the Elizabeth stitch guide is not as lengthy as one of the Halloweenie stitch guides. And, with the royal wedding fast approaching, it seems like an appropriate canvas to be stitching.

It's a dark, thundery afternoon, but thank heavens for the rain! The pollen has been horrendous this year and this is the first hard rain we have had that might wash most of it away. I considered a stop at the car wash this morning but now I'm glad I waited. The azaleas and dogwoods are in full bloom, my climbing rose is full of buds, and the perennials in the flower bed are showing themselves after a cold winter. Spring has definitely arrived!

Have a great weekend and get lots of stitching done!

Fall Trees on the First Day of Spring

2011-03-20T11:43:00.000-04:00

The calendar says that today is the first day of Spring although yesterday in Augusta we had a record high temperature of 90 degrees. Seems like it should be more like the first day of summer. We even had a thunderstorm move through during the night. So with 90 degree temps here at the beginning of Spring, I am stitching away on my Fall Trees. My seasons are very confused!

Another few days of stitching and I will have finished the Fall Trees. I'll start on the Bat Band today.

My stitching friend, Linda, over at Stitching Sisters has finished her tree and posted a picture of the finished tree. It looks great, Linda!

This week I took advantage of a last minute opening for a Julia Snyder class at In Stitches in Atlanta. In Stitches is a beautiful shop located in the heart of Buckhead. It is filled with a wonderful selection of canvases and a huge array of threads and supplies. And, most importantly, it is staffed with the friendliest and most helpful staff. Many thanks to Mark and Bam for making my visit with them such a fun one!

After having worked on two of Julia's & More canvases (Merry Christmas and XOXO), it was a delight to meet her and work with her on the new canvas I purchased before the class. I chose a Melissa Shirley (naturally!) floral that features a deep orange/red parrot tulip.

After having written several books on needlepoint stitches, you can easily imagine that Julia is a walking-talking stitch dictionary. She immediately took me to the Silk n' Colors threads and selected two perfect overdyed threads for the tulip, a green Splendor for the leaves, a deep purple Flair for the tulip center, and "honeydew" Silk and Ivory for the background. From her book Categories for Needlepoint Stitches, she chose the Wilted Mosaic Flower stitch for the outer portion of the petals and the Knotted Stitch for in inner portion of the petals. The leaves will be skip tent or every other row basketweave with a mirrored version on the opposite sides of the leaves. The background will be a Cane pattern.

There were 9 other stitchers in the class all with very different projects to work on. Julia circulated around the room stopping to offer helpful suggestions or words of encouragement to each student.

That's Julia in the center of the photo. She's such a warm and friendly woman and so knowledgeable! If you ever have the opportunity to take a class from her, don't hesitate to sign up! I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and look forward to another class at In Stitches in the future.

Speaking of classes, my day with Amy Bunger in Memphis is less than a month away. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to it!

Hope it feels like Spring this week wherever you are - and not like summer or winter!

A Little Fall Bling

2011-03-13T17:19:00.000-04:00

It's been a busy week and I haven't made as much progress on Fall Trees as I would have liked - but, progress is being made nonetheless. Yesterday I was able to add the Swarovski AB sequins to one of the trees. Wow - that's some bling! I probably could have added the sequins to one of the other trees if I hadn't spent so much time admiring how they looked. I am easily distracted by bling!

I think I say this every week but I wish my camera skills allowed me to capture the wonderful play of light off the threads and particularly the beads and sequins on these trees. I use a little point-and-shoot Nikon Coolpix which I love but it has its limitations (and so do I). My thoughts are starting to come together on how I want to see these trees finished. But, I'll wait to tell you about that when I am closer to finishing this project.

In other needlepoint news, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to attend a Julia Snyder class in Atlanta at In Stitches this week. In Stitches sent out an email about space having opened up in one of Julia's classes and I decided to take the opportunity to meet and work with Julia. She will be working with each student helping to choose threads and stitches on a canvas of our choice. I think I'll choose something from In Stitches wonderful selection of canvases when I get there. I don't have any of Julia's books so I look forward to adding some of them to my needlepoint library. I'll be sure to let you know next week what we worked on. It will be a mystery until then - even for me!

Anna and Andrew came to visit this weekend and have just left to drive back to Jacksonville. While Andrew went on an overnight fly fishing trip to North Carolina, Anna and I had our own "girls weekend". We had a great lunch on Friday at Very Vera here in Augusta (Vera beat Bobby Flay in a throwdown on the Food Network - carrot cake was the featured recipe). We did a little shopping and then went for manicures and pedicures. We ended the day with dinner at Kurama's, a Japanese steakhouse, and came home to watch Vicky Christina Barcelona on DVD. Saturday we took our time getting out of the house but did a little more shopping and had a nice outdoor lunch at My Friend's Place at Surrey Center.

The highlight of our girls weekend was to hear Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, speak at the Savannah Rapids Pavilion late Saturday afternoon. Ree is the author of The Pioneer Woman blog. She is also the author of The Pioneer Woman Cooks and Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. What a delightful, down-to-earth woman she is! She was making a quick swing through Georgia to promote the Black Heels book and this visit to Augusta/Evans was sponsored by the Columbia County Library. While I am very appreciative of them bringing her to Augusta, I wish that they had ordered more of her books to have available for sale and that they had taken credit cards instead of cash and checks only. I had brought my cookbook copy with me to have signed but Anna had planned to buy the Black Heels book only neither of us had enough cash with us and they ran out of books anyway. I hate to think how much the Library could have made if they had ordered more books and made it a little easier to buy what they had. I organized many book signings in my previous work and this one could have used some more organization.

But back to the Pioneer Woman. On Thursday she was in Savannah to film a show with Paula Deen for the Food Network. She didn't know when it is scheduled to air but be on the lookout for it because it will be a great show. I read a comment somewhere that there isn't enough butter in Georgia when these two women get together to cook. I don't think that comment is too far from the truth! Ree was accompanied by her husband, the Marlboro Man (in his Wranglers, boots, and cowboy hat), and her two sons. Her two boys are precious and her husband is a fine looking cowboy! Here's a picture of me and Anna with Ree -

We had such a good time having the chance to meet Ree. After following her blog and reading her books, we feel like she's another good friend of ours. We're also looking forward to her next book (a children's book) about Charley, her bassett hound.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and I am so blessed to have a sweet daughter-in-law and the most wonderful son. We have a good time together.

It's hard to write about all the blessings in my life without thinking of all the people in Japan whose lives have been completely turned upside down. They need our help and prayers right now. I've just made a donation to the Red Cross for the earthquake/tsunami victims. Will you consider a Red Cross donation as well?

Candy Corn Morning

2011-03-06T16:17:00.000-05:00

I made nice progress on the Fall Trees this week. This morning was spent working on the candy corn. I am adding the Accentuate strand over the top of the candy corn stitches to add some subtle sparkle. I apologize in advance for the poor picture quality. We have add such a dreary, wet morning and afternoon today and the light has not been the best for picture taking.

I enjoyed adding the Swarovski jet beads in one of the upper bands and I see that I will be doing the same in a larger section below the candy corn. But looking at my bead supply, I just realized I don't have nearly enough to bead three more sections. I'll have to email Ruth and ask for more.

One afternoon this week I was in the drive-thru line at Chick Fil A and noticed a mini van that pulled into a parking spot nearby. I couldn't help but notice what was written in cursive across the van's rear window - "Single Mom Doing Her Own Thang". As I contemplated the deeper meaning of this statement, a very pregnant woman (the Single Mom?) with pink hair got out of the van and crossed in front of me carrying an empty Mount Olive pickle jar. I can't really imagine why she was taking an empty pickle jar into Chick Fil A but I almost wish I had stuck around to see what she came back out with. Isn't that bizarre?

A big thanks to USA Network for having an Indiana Jones marathon today! Makes for good company while stitching!

Have a good week everyone!

Halloweenie Family Portrait

2011-03-02T11:27:00.000-05:00

This time last year I was just beginning to stitch the Halloweenie characters from Amy's Home Study. I am so excited to be able to say that I have just finished stitching the last of the eight characters, Dev L. Mann. I gathered all the characters together this morning for a family portrait. Here they are!

What a wonderful needlepoint experience this has been! I can't thank Amy, Kelly Clark, Peggy, Jill, Robin, and all of the ladies at Amy's Golden Strand enough for making this such a fun project this past year. And a big thank you to all of you out there who read the blog and have left such kind, encouraging comments on my progress. While I am ready to move on to other projects, I am a little sad to say goodbye to this Home Study. It certainly won't be the last one!

I haven't mentioned it in a while, but my trip to Amy's for my "Rent Amy for a Day" that Andrew and Anna gave me for Christmas is quickly approaching. According to one of my widgets on the Dashboard, it is exactly 46 days and 21 hours until Monday, April 18th. Am I a little excited? I can't wait to share this experience with you!

So, I'll say goodbye to the Halloweenies and turn my attention to another Halloween related canvas - the Fall Trees. The canvas design is by Ada Haydon of Eye Candy and I purchased it and the thread kit from Ruth Schmuff.

I am really looking forward to this canvas! There are such wonderful threads, color combinations, and fun stitches to be used. I thought I might be a little burned out on Halloween, but you can't look at this canvas and feel burned out about anything!

Hope everyone's having a great week!

Keep stitching!

Speak of the Devil!

2011-02-27T10:43:00.001-05:00

Dev L. Mann and I will soon part ways - probably this week. In addition to the background, there are still a few details to finish up - the nest of grass under the crow, the crows' beaks, Dev's mustache, and the logs under the flames. Nothing too time consuming.

I am disappointed in the photograph of Dev L. Mann this week. It really doesn't show any of the sparkle and shine of this character. In person, the gold and orange flames on his tunic really catch the light.

To be honest, of all the Halloweenie characters, Dev L. Mann was my least favorite. But that was before I stitched him. As I just mentioned, photographs just don't capture how the Neon Rays, the Fyre Werks, the Accentuate, and the Painter's Threads bring this character to life. The slightest movement of the canvas brings a great reflection of light off of the threads. Now that Dev L. Mann is almost finished, I am as fond of him as I am of all the other characters.

The calendar may not say that Spring has arrived, but Mother Nature is not watching the calendar. In my backyard, the Japanese Magnolia and the Pink Perfection camellias are in full bloom.

I haven't checked my azaleas yet but I hope that we won't be seeing them bloom until at least a month from now. Here in Augusta, we always hope that the azaleas wait to bloom right before and during The Masters Golf Tournament the first full week of April.

Speaking of The Masters, I am wrestling with the idea of renting my home during that week. I haven't rented to anyone in the last 4 years. Many people in Augusta rent their homes during Masters week and I may have waited too late this year to find a renter. Schools are closed in our area that week and so many families take their money from renting their home and head out on vacation for the week. It is a HUGE undertaking to get your house ready to rent. It means cleaning out closets and dressers, scrubbing bathrooms top to bottom, and doing the same for the kitchen. It also means having the outside of the house cleaned and the yard and patio looking their best. It is extreme spring cleaning taken to the max.

I still haven't decided if I will rent, but if anyone who reads the blog and might be coming to Augusta during Masters week and needs a 2 BR, 2 Bath to rent, just let me know. I'll go into cleaning overdrive for you!

Not to rub it in for my friends in colder parts of the country, but I think I'll head outside now. Temps are supposed to be near 80 today and there's not a cloud in the sky! I'll take Dev L. Mann with me and keep working on that background.

Stitch on -

Moving Right Along

2011-02-19T12:33:00.000-05:00

Looking at the progress I have made on Dev L. Mann, I must wonder if I did anything else but stitch this week. This character is definitely stitching up much faster than previous characters. And maybe since we are at the end of a year-long project, it isn't such a bad thing to have the last character be easier and quicker to stitch.

This weekend I hope to finish Dev's asbestos tunic and start work on his face. There are still the logs on the fire to do and the beaded gecko to stitch as well. I think I see background work in my future this week.

I had better get in my stitching for the weekend today as I'm headed to Savannah for the day tomorrow. I'll meet Andrew and Anna there and we'll have a nice day together. I haven't seen them since Christmas and I miss them both even though we talk regularly by phone.

It should be a nice day tomorrow to be out and about in Savannah. We have had such nice weather this week. I even opened the kitchen window yesterday to let the fresh air in. Unfortunately the nice fresh air is full of something that has started me sneezing and running for the Claritin. It's hard to stay inside when it's in the mid-70s in February. I was looking at all the tender little leaves that are beginning to show on my hydrangeas and said a little prayer for them that we have no more hard freezes before spring really arrives.

Hope you have all had a little taste of spring this week! Enjoy your weekend!

Seven Down, One To Go

2011-02-13T11:09:00.001-05:00

This week I put the final member of the Halloweenies Home Study on the stretcher bars. This time last year we were putting the first stitches on the Haunted House and the first of the characters hadn't even arrived. There are many stitches left to be completed on the Haunted House but I am pleased to say that seven of the eight characters are finished. Here's the finished Sarcoph A. Gus:

It's a shame that photographs (mine, anyway) really don't do Gus justice. You have to see him in person to appreciate the play of light on the beads of the outer case. There were so many fun design features on Gus that went beyond our usual stitching - the beaded crook and flail with the tassel, the muslin wrapping on the mummy, and the skull rattle with the beaded tassel. Amy went all out on this character! All of her directions were so easy to follow and ensured a successful outcome.

Now it's time to turn my attention to Dev L. Mann. This week I started with the bottom border and used a new thread for me - Painter's Threads. It is a ribbon-like thread with an iridescent metallic thread running through it. When used with Fyre Works, it makes for a shimmery, sparkly border. The metallic thread in the Painter's Threads really picks up the light. I can't wait to use it on Dev's pant suit! I think Dev L. Mann will have a lot more "spark" to him in person than what comes across in the photos.

The geckos don't have their tails, feet, or tongues yet. I wanted to move on to the the jack-o-lantern because I enjoyed that stitch so much when we used it in a previous pumpkin. I can't say I enjoyed working it this time. Because of the placement of my tent stitches for the darker lines on the pumpkin, I found myself having to compensate a lot of stitches in a small area and that was no fun. Maybe you can plan your stitches better than I did. There's a lot going on with this pumpkin. Rhett makes his appearance in the middle of the pumpkin's nose, there's grass for the bird nest, and then the crow in the nest.

Just as an FYI - Right above the bottom border is a thin purple border that calls for Fyre Works. The thread list indicates that this color is included in the new threads kit for Dev; but, this is not the case. Peggy and Jill kindly responded very quickly to my question about this thread. The dark periwinkle Fyre Works is found in the Dr. Acula thread kit. So look for it there - there is plenty left from the previous kit to use in the border of Dev L. Mann. Thanks Peggy and Jill!

Yesterday and today we have had a nice hint of spring - warm sunshine and bright blue skies - and robins everywhere. I spent a little time yesterday out by my back steps cutting back my rosemary plants that were about to completely block the walkway to the patio. When I planted them a few years ago, I had no idea that they would thrive as well as they have. Today I need to cut back the thyme plants which have been peeking out from under the rosemary. I usually have a pot of cat mint right there by the other herbs but it doesn't make it through the winter like the rosemary and thyme do. My cat loves the mint and I have seen her checking out the pot to see where her favorite green plant has gone. This time of year all she can do is rub her cheek against the pitiful stems that are the only thing left of the plant. I've bought catnip plants for her but she prefers the cat mint. Hang on a little longer, Little Girl, it won't be long before I can replant that pot for you!

I wish you all a happy Valentine's Day! I hope you get to spend it with those you love!

XOXO!

The Devil Went Down to Georgia....

2011-02-06T12:53:00.000-05:00

He was lookin' for a soul to steal. With apologies to Charlie Daniels, I think he was looking for his other Halloweenie friends. The UPS man delivered him in a pouring rain on Friday afternoon. Steam was practically rising off the box. Dev L. Mann is one hot Halloweenie character!

There are some familiar elements from other characters but always with a new twist from Amy - the logs and fire, the crows, the pumpkin, the geckos, and, of course, Rhett, the rat who makes an appearance with each character. There are some fun stitches and threads involved in stitching Dev L. Mann's asbestos pant suit.

I hope to start Dev L. Mann later in the week once Sarcoph A. Gus is finished. It's hard to believe that we have reached the end of the Halloweenie characters for this Home Study with Amy. What fun they have been and how they have stretched my needlepoint abilities!

Wrapping Up Sarcoph A. Gus

2011-02-06T12:34:00.000-05:00

This week I worked on wrapping up Gus - literally. Not in the sense that I finished him although I am close. All of the beading is finally finished and although I enjoyed beading the different patterns and seeing how it all came together on the outer case, I'm not sorry to put down the beading needle for a while.

Amy gave us excellent directions for creating the stained, time-worn wrappings for Gus. Working with the muslin wraps was a fun, rainy afternoon activity this week. After tearing the muslin into strips, I sprinkled the strips with some strong coffee and let them dry.

Once they dried (which took no time at all), I sprayed them lightly with water and then sprinkled instant coffee over them and left them to dry again. I have to admit that at this point, I could foresee a trip to the fabric store to buy some more muslin. The very dark spots caused by the instant coffee had me worried.

But there was no need to worry! As the strips dried, the stains from the instant coffee granules faded nicely. This was the final product.

The stains on the muslin wraps perfectly match the thread colors that Amy chose for the stitched wraps. Gus is all wrapped up now in his stitched and muslin wraps. His outer sarcophagus case is complete with the addition of the crook and flail. Again, excellent directions from Amy on creating the tassel for the flail and the beaded crook.

There's not a lot of stitching left for Gus - just the geckos in the lower border and the remainder of the background. Can I finish him this week? We'll see!

Beads Beads Beads

2011-01-30T13:06:00.000-05:00

I don't think I've ever beaded this much in all my life! Actually, I know I have never beaded this much. Gus has lots of bling these days with more still to come.

Two more sections to go on the outer sarcophagus case. I finished the green section last night - love the pattern! Then I decided to take a little break from the beading and stitched the floor and part of the purple and teal border. I ran out of my purple thread but have asked Jill at Amy's to send me another skein when she ships Dev L. Mann this week. Can you believe the time has come for our last Halloweenie to be shipped? Where did the year go? I'm pleased that I can look at four completely finished pieces and two stitched pieces waiting to go to the finisher.

I wish I could have sent some of my friends up in the frozen North a little bit of the beautiful day we had yesterday here in the South. It was 70 degrees with beautiful blue skies! Today is pretty much a duplicate of yesterday and I feel the need to go soak up some winter sunshine.

I'm headed outside! Have a great week!

The Beading Begins

2011-01-22T14:34:00.000-05:00

It has been all about the beads this week with Sarcoph A. Gus. I imagine that will be the story for this weekend and next week as well. I have completed the bottom rows of strings of beads and the lower red section of the case.

I usually keep my beads in/on a Tacky Bob and work from it when beading. But with this much beading, Tacky Bob just isn't doing it for me this time. So, I improvised and laid down a strip of double sided tape along the right edge and sprinkled my beads onto it. It works very nicely and I only lose a few beads to gravity every now and then. I have "lost" a lot of the coppery orange beads to their not fitting through my beading needle. I'm using Bohin beading needles which I love and they seem to work well with the other beads. It seems like every other orange bead I pick up won't fit through the needle and it's a little frustrating. Good thing that there are plenty of beads to choose from. It's time to move on to the blue section!

We've had a beautiful couple of days and, although it's in the low 40s today, it looks like it should be a lot warmer. My backyard was covered in robins the other day and this morning I saw cedar waxwings swarming all over a bush that was covered in berries. My camellias are about to burst into bloom - a few more days in the 50s and I will see the bushes covered in bright pink flowers. So nice to have some color in the yard in January and February!

Hope your stitching is going well and that you are getting a lot accomplished! Have a good week!

Golden Gus

2011-01-16T13:57:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm pleased to say that Gus is moving right along. I think I made some good progress on him this week. I have shifted over from the mummy to the outer sarcophagus case. That's where the real fun is!

Gus's beautiful golden face works up quickly although I confess that I don't like stitching with Accentuate. It gives a very nice effect but I'm glad that there wasn't a lot of the face that required stitching with it.

After stitching his face, I moved on to the red bib and the teal shoulder areas. The actual stitching is very easy. It was deciding where to place the stitches that gave me pause. This painted area of the canvas (the lower part of the hood, bib area, and shoulder area) is a little difficult to figure out what is what. I did a lot of referring to the photo of Gus in our stitch guide. From the way in which my canvas was painted, the black hood was longer on the left side than the right. I decided that I wanted it to look more symmetrical so I extended the black a little further down on the right than what was painted. I know there will be a golden hand in this area later on that holds the crook and the gold stick with the tassel. If I am off on my placement of parts of the bib or the shoulders, I think they will be covered up with these other elements.

I'm glad I took the time to take a close look at the beaded ornament before I began stitching the black hood. That allowed me to place my black stitches where they needed to be around the ornament and still have room for all the beads as the ornament is graphed. I haven't completely finished the ornament - there are a couple of more layers of beads to add on certain parts of the ornament. I'll come back to add those layers later on.

I took some time away from stitching yesterday to go to the movies (too bad you can't needlepoint in the dark). I saw The King's Speech and absolutely loved it. You have to go see it. In case you don't know anything about it, it is the story of King George VI's (Colin Firth) attempt to overcome his stammer with the help of his speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush). There are some great actors and actresses with small parts in this film - Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Claire Bloom, Anthony Andrews. It is a very touching, uplifting story and one that gives the audience reason to applaud at the end of the movie. How many movies do you see these days that make you want to applaud? I hope this film wins lots of awards at the Golden Globes and Oscars.

The snow and ice are almost completely gone - thank the Lord! We're in the 50s today so whatever is left - even in the shade - won't last for long.

Hope this finds you warm and snow free today!

Noel is Finished!

2011-01-12T13:25:00.000-05:00

I am pleased to report that my Noel canvas is finished. I have to thank Beth Gantz (designer) and Ruth Schmuff (stitch guide & threads) for a truly fun project. Noel was one of Ruth's Mystery Class projects for December.

Photographs really don't do the colors of this canvas justice. The reds are a true scarlet and the greens are bright and clear like a Granny Smith apple. I took another photo so that you could see the effect of the beading in the darker green stripes.

I stitched the beading after I had attached the jingle bells and enjoyed the soft "jingle" sound every time I moved the canvas. It was delightful!

While I am happy to have a finished piece during the 2nd week of January, I will miss working on Noel. Not that there aren't plenty of other projects waving their hands to be noticed! Sarcoph A Gus will receive my full attention now. Well, maybe 95% of my attention. I would love to finish my XOXO canvas with Valentine's Day coming in a few weeks. I don't have much more to finish on this one.

The sun is out and it is still only 35 degrees, but that is enough warmth to begin melting the ice. I can't get to the car yet for all of the ice, but maybe tomorrow it will all be gone.

Stay warm and dry and off the ice!

SNOW DAY!!

2011-01-10T15:04:00.000-05:00

Today is one of those rare days in Georgia when the weather shuts everything down. We started with snow in the early evening last night. It changed to sleet and snow during the night. Then it changed to sleet this morning and freezing rain in the late morning. Despite the fact that there is ice in the trees and on the power and cable lines, there isn't enough to disrupt any of our power or cable services. Here's a view out my front door this morning.

And here's a view of the backyard out my bedroom window.

As you can see there isn't a lot of snow but what there is is covered in ice. It's a pretty sight nonetheless.

I cooked enough food over the weekend in preparation for the snow and ice to feed a small army. The army and I could be snowed in for a week and not run out of food. I've got chicken spaghetti (thanks Pioneer Woman!), white bean chicken chile, curried chicken salad, and chipped pork barbecue and hash. There's a chicken theme here because that's what was on sale at the grocery store. I made a run out to my favorite barbecue restaurant on Saturday and picked up the meat and hash. That's for supper tonight.

In light of all of this cooking, it's a good thing this box arrived this week.

After a couple of hours of relatively easy assembly, this is what was in the box.

It's my new recumbent bike - and I assembled it all by myself! It fits perfectly in a corner of my bedroom so I'll be able to watch the tv while I work out on the bike. It is almost completely silent when you pedal which is a nice feature. It has various levels of resistance and it also has a little computer that has five or six programs in it that gives you different types of workouts. I ordered this from Amazon and couldn't be happier with how substantial and how well made it is. I had such a workout just getting it from the front of the house to the bedroom and putting it together that I didn't ride for more than about 10 minutes yesterday. I'm hoping this will help me get some good exercise without putting any more strain on my already bad knees. As absolutely wonderful my love of needlepoint is, it is such a sedentary hobby and when you tend towards sedentary activities anyway, it's a double whammy. Wish me luck!

I made some nice progress on Gus last night and finished up his satin stitch wrappings except for his arm and hand. I also stitched the beaded gecko that he holds. The gecko is a nice glittery addition to all the beige and brown on the wraps. I'll post some pictures later in the week.

Hope your week starts off bright and sunny, unlike mine!

Progress Update on Noel and Gus

2011-01-08T14:45:00.000-05:00

It has been a week of slow but steady progress on my Noel canvas and Sarcoph A Gus. But, progress nonetheless. Noel has really been a joy to work on. It's such an upbeat, festive design with fun threads. I am still working the scarlet basketweave border across the bottom of the design.

I love stitching with the Planet Earth silk. It is so soft and lustrous - such a pleasure to work with! It has been a while since I worked this much basketweave at once (not that it is all that much basketweave to stitch) and I am enjoying it. I find basketweave to be very soothing and relaxing. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I can get the border finished.

On the Halloweenies scene, Gus's wrappings are coming along. The wrappings seem to me to be fairly free-form in their design. I don't believe any two stitchers will stitch the wrappings the same way.

There's still a lot of work to do on Gus's wrappings. I bought some instant coffee at the grocery store today to use on the actual cloth wrappings that we will apply to Gus. I'll have to go back and read Amy's description of how she got the right "look" for the wrappings in last month's newsletter and, of course, in our stitch guide.

I've been watching the Weather Channel all morning wondering if their forecasts of snow and ice for Augusta on Sunday and Monday will come true. The snow isn't a terrible thing for us but the ice would surely be. We haven't had a bad ice storm in several years. When we do, we usually lose electricity from falling limbs and trees. I decided this morning to go on to the grocery store/pharmacy to pick up a prescription and a couple of extra items. It was busy, busier than most Saturdays but there was plenty of bread and milk. Why people buy bread and milk when faced with an ice storm, I don't know. If you lose electricity, you can't cook the eggs. I guess you can eat a lot of cereal and use up the milk. After the last time we had an ice storm, I went to Target and bought a small Coleman stove and some fuel. I've never even taken it out of its box and that was at least four or five years ago. I'm glad it's on hand but I hope I don't have an opportunity to use it.

Hope your new year is off to a good start and that you are getting lots of stitching done! Stay warm and out of the snow!

Noel Letters are Finished! Welcome Gus!

2010-12-31T18:03:00.000-05:00

Today I finished beading the letters in Noel. It took two full tubes of beads and just a few from a third tube to complete the letters. I spent a week of dedicated beading on the letters. The beading lends so much texture and dimension to the canvas - well worth a week's work.

Ruth has lots of fun planned for the bottom red border and I'll get started on that tonight or tomorrow depending on how interesting I find the Chick-Fil-A Bowl tonight. Would love to see South Carolina win - apologies to fans of FSU! I hate to see SEC college football come to an end for the year.

This morning I dealt with the not-so-fun part of Christmas - the dismantling of the Christmas decorations. Andrew was home for a short 24 hours earlier this week and he helped me put away the decorations that had to go to the attic. What's left to do now is find a place downstairs for all of this:

Basically I end up finding places here and there to store these things until next year and hope that I remember where I put them when Christmas rolls around again.

My new friend, Sarcoph A Gus, arrived late yesterday afternoon via the big brown truck. He will be magnificent - the majority of the outer sarcophagus is beaded! I thought three tubes of beads for the Noel canvas was a lot but Gus has it beat. There are 12 colors of beads for this canvas.

As you can see Sarcoph A Gus is on the stretchers and the stitch guide is ready for the notebook. I gathered all the required threads together last night from the previous characters' kits. I haven't quite decided where to start - bottom border or the mummy himself. Amy and Kelly have worked their magic again with this canvas.

Have you see the January newsletter from Amy's? It's always so fun to read and there is so much great information inside. I loved the "article" on our next character, Dev L Mann. Did you know he'll be wearing an asbestos pant suit? Too funny! I enjoyed seeing Caron's 4 finished Halloweenies. She finished hers as easel-back stand-ups. Good job, Caron! Jill gave us a great "how to" tutorial on finishing
a personalized tote bag. Amy has added another Melissa Shirley banner to her Home Study series for next year. Another decision to make - stitch the Thanksgiving banner or the Christmas banner, or stitch both?

Not too many hours left until we say goodbye to 2010. Stitch-wise, I don't think I have ever finished so many projects as I have this year. The Halloweenies have been challenging and lots of fun and just the right size project for me. These characters pretty much pushed all other projects to the sidelines. While I hate to see the Halloweenies come to an end, it will be nice to pick up some stitching that has been put aside for the last year.

I have a standing rib roast in the oven tonight for my New Year's Eve dinner - it smells so good! My plans for the evening include football, more football, and lots of stitching. I hope whatever you have planned is festive and safe.

Thank you for supporting my blogging these last six months! I look forward to more blogging this coming year and would love to think that maybe I will actually get to meet some of you in person this year!

See you in 2011!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2010-12-26T15:18:00.000-05:00

My holidays started out like this on Thursday as I prepared to drive to Jacksonville for Christmas:

The back seat was similarly packed as was the front passenger seat. I had a pleasantly uneventful drive to Jacksonville. I had my iPod with me and listened to podcasts of interviews with authors such as Jeffrey Archer, Ken Follett, Daniel Silva, Ree Drummond (aka The Pioneer Woman), and Pat Conroy. I didn't know until recently that Barnes & Noble has such an extensive list of author interviews available for download on iTunes - and they are all free!

We had a lovely day yesterday - lots of gifts and great food! We feasted on standing rib roast, squash casserole, broccoli rice casserole, and the best mashed potatoes that Anna made with sour cream, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and chives. Anna's mom made a beautiful apple pie and we also had a sinfully good peppermint bark cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory.

I have to tell you about my special gift from Andrew and Anna. I don't think I have ever been reduced to tears over a Christmas gift before, but I have now. Andrew gave me a large, very light gift to unwrap. He had dropped hints on Christmas Eve about having to assemble my gift so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. What I didn't expect upon opening the gift was to find a gift certificate for Rent Amy for a Day! Can you believe it? Do they know me or what? I get to spend a whole day with Amy! I can't imagine a more wonderful, thoughtful gift. Andrew and Anna are even talking about taking the road trip with me to Memphis whenever we work out the schedule with Amy. Details to follow....

I have had some time to sit and stitch on Noel this weekend so I've made some progress on the beading.

The third and final lesson in the Mystery Class arrived just as I was leaving on Thursday. There were all kinds of fun things in the package - green jingle bells and cute buttons that will be added to the bottom border. I appreciate the designer of Noel, Beth Gantz, dropping by to comment on the blog last week. Beth and Ruth are make for a talented combo!

While I've been in Jacksonville, I have actually missed some snow in Augusta! I think it could probably be described as a dusting - but snow, nonetheless. I hope all my stitching friends along the east coast have all the food and drink they need and don't have to leave the house for the next couple of days. Sounds like you're going to be hit with a big storm! Be careful!

Hope you all had the best of Christmases with your families and friends. I know I did!

A Little Christmas Stitching

2010-12-19T18:32:00.000-05:00

This week I put away the Haunted House (apologies to my fellow Halloweenie stitchers) in favor of working on my Noel canvas which is one of Ruth Schmuff's current mystery classes. You should see what she has planned for the bottom section in red. She gave a clue (at least for the Jingle canvas) in her email blast that arrived today. It involves jingle bells. I just don't know if the Noel canvas will have the same embellishments.

I finished the background of blackwork last night and am now ready to start on the letters. You see those three tubes of beads in the lower right of the canvas? That's what I have in my stitching future - at least until Sarcoph A. Gus arrives. Thank goodness for Pay Per View as movies kept me going through the work on the background. I finally watched Sex and the City 2 - all two and half hours of it. I had read disappointing reviews of it but thought that it couldn't really be that bad. I was wrong. It's that bad. Any movie that has you wondering how much longer until it's over is not one you will be singing the praises of. It's ironic that in this movie about women, I liked the men (Mr. Big and Aiden) more than I liked the girls. Glad I didn't waste more than $4.99 on this movie.

The second movie I watched was the Disney version of A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey. Gosh, I hope parents didn't take their little children to see this - it was scary! Well done, but scary.

And then I watched Love Actually. I love that movie and watch it throughout the year even when it's not Christmas. I love the actors, the music, the scenery - everything about it.

I may not post again until after Christmas, so let me take this opportunity to wish you all the merriest of Christmases. I will be with Andrew and Anna and hope that you, too, will be with the people you love most. Hope Santa brings you everything you wished for!

Food Network Overload

2010-12-12T19:26:00.000-05:00

This weekend I've watched Giada in Aspen, Ina in London, Sandra in her white winter wonderland, how candy canes are made, how honey-baked hams are glazed, how Sara Lee makes 4.5 million pumpkin pies a year, not to mention Aarti's vanilla and black pepper pork loin. I think I gained ten pounds just watching tv! So you would think I could have made sugar cookies and icing from scratch this afternoon. But, no, Betty Crocker was my go-to girl for the cookie mix and the icing. On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being absolutely delicious), I would give Betty's sugar cookie mix a 2.

The icing tastes like birthday cake icing from the bakery. My problem with the icing is that it doesn't harden. So, I have several plates full of cookies with soft, gooey icing which, if covered with foil or wrap, will be ruined. How many cookies can I eat this evening? The other cookies on the plate in the photo are cheese straws. I made those on Saturday.

I wish I had some needlepoint to show you but there has been so little progress made on any of my projects that it wasn't even worth a picture. It would pretty much look like whatever I showed you last week. My second lesson for the Noel mystery project arrived this week. All of the letters will be beaded. Lots of beading - 3 tubes worth - but from what I see of the finished 2nd lesson, it will be well worth the extra work. As for the Haunted House, it's been too cold to work (at least that's my excuse). I have finished the balustrade on the left side of the house and can now start the wall area below it.

As I am writing this at about 6:30 PM EST, our outside temperature is right at 32 degrees. At 2:30 this afternoon it was 54 degrees. It was already windy today but now that the cold front has moved through, the winds have really increased. These colder temps have really slowed down my stitching at night. All I want to do after dinner is get under my down blanket with the Kindle and read until I fall asleep.

Hope you all have a good week - stay warm and get that shopping finished!

Literary Bliss - Just for a Night

2010-12-08T17:59:00.001-05:00

I was a happy camper last night. I got to spend the evening with Anna and Andrew and Pat Conroy. I love Pat. I don't think there's a writer who puts two words together better than he does. He was at Neptune Beach (Jacksonville Beach) last night at The Bookmark to sign copies of My Reading Life, his newest non-fiction book. I feel a connection to him that I really can't put into words. Maybe it's that he writes about places I have known for most of my life.

I stood in line for an hour and a half waiting to speak to him and have my books signed. He is such a gentleman, very kind and gracious. He told me about getting lost trying to find the Borders in Augusta last year and getting lost again upon leaving Borders. I bought Andrew and Anna a hardback copy of The Great Santini which he personalized for them: To Andrew and Anna, for love of family, Pat Conroy. For my copy of My Reading Life, he signed: To Melinda, for love of story, Pat Conroy. He spent time with each person as he signed their book and engaged everyone in conversation. That's so unusual these days. Most book signings are very regimented - one book only, no personalizations, no photos, etc. Not much more than a chance to say hello and move on. While the book signing was very non-regimented and an "anything goes" type of event, it made for a long evening waiting for him to have a little quality time with his fans. He would sign as many books as you put in front of him.

It was fun to see the festive holiday lights at Jacksonville Beach last night. The cold (very cold) air and the lights, good food at Ragtime, the holiday decorated small shops, and the company of Andrew and Anna made for a really wonderful evening. I was sorry to have to drive back home again this morning! But my Little Girl is glad to have her momma home with her this afternoon.

Another frigid night here in South. Stay warm wherever you are!

Slow Start to the Construction But There's a Plan

2010-12-05T12:56:00.000-05:00

I enjoyed pulling out the Haunted House from its pillowcase and seeing that I have actually made progress on this project. Not enough progress to be caught up with where we start with Kit #4, but enough to not feel too discouraged. I think my stitching plan for December will be to concentrate on the lower half of the canvas. Yesterday I started in on the balustrade with all of its accompanying partially detached needleweaving.

The needleweaving moves along at a nice pace. I stitched the left section yesterday while I watched the disaster (for South Carolina) that was the Auburn/Carolina football game. This afternoon I'll work on the right balustrade and then start in on the raised stem stitch for the top of the balustrade. Amy gives us a nice outline for working this portion of the canvas. I'm looking forward to stitching the arched pillars on the first floor but want to complete the second floor balustrade first.

The UPS man snuck up on me Thursday night and left some packages at the door that I didn't see until Friday morning as I was backing down the driveway. Glad it didn't rain that night! One of the packages was from Ruth Schmuff and it contained this:

Ada Haydon's Winter Tree Canvas along with the November/December issue of Needlepoint Now where you will find the stitch guide. What a perfect project for the dreary winter doldrums - lots of sparkly color to boost your spirits - hot pink, orange, turquoise, lime green.

That's what the big brown truck brought me on Thursday. The Mail Man brought me this on Friday:

Kelly Clark's First Thanksgiving canvas with the stitch guide. This was my eBay purchase last week. I'll have to purchase the threads but that won't be difficult to do. There were five or six accompanying canvases to this "background" canvas. It was hard to decide which of them I was going to bid on but I eventually decided on this one.

When I walked through the floral department at the grocery store last week and saw all the Christmas cactus on display, I was reminded to go out in the backyard and bring mine inside. Every April, once the chance of a frost has passed, I take my cactus outside and put them under the Japanese Magnolia and hydrangeas where they get shade all summer. And there they stay until the first of December when Mother Nature works her miracle and I bring them out of the bushes covered in blooms. Thought you might like to see one of them in this morning's sunlight in the kitchen.

These have always been one of my favorite seasonal flowers. I would much rather have these at Christmas than a poinsettia.

While I'm sharing favorite Christmas things, I want to show you my most favorite Christmas ornament. He's Nutcracker Crunch by Christopher Radko. He has the place of honor in my dining room on a bed of ornaments.

Last but not least is my new Christmas favorite this year. My Santa Man in the Moon pin. I have always wanted a really special Christmas pin and I have finally found it.

There are all sorts of wonderful little charms that make up his beard - candy canes, Christmas trees, packages, stockings, nutcrackers. I just love him - he makes me happy. I told Andrew and Anna that they will have to watch me because the older I get, the more sparkly I like things. But, if you can't be sparkly at Christmas when can you?

Hope your holiday decorating and shopping is going well or almost finished! Save some time for stitching1

Where's My Hardhat?

2010-12-01T20:52:00.000-05:00

It's construction time again in the Halloweenies world as the next phase of the Haunted House begins this week. My threads and stitch guide arrived from Amy's today. There is so much to be done! All of it fun and interesting, mind you, but just a lot to do. Looking through the stitch guide reminded me that I still have a lot to catch up on from Kit #3. In kit #4, we'll get to apply false eyelashes to someone's big eye on the canvas and learn to make a hangman's noose. My canvas has been safely tucked away since the end of September so it will be fun to get it out again. I remember thinking when I put it away that I had really made some nice progress on it. Hope I still think that tomorrow!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I spent my holiday with the newlyweds in Jacksonville and we had a fun time as always. Anna and I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for the three of us and it couldn't have turned out better. We had already had one huge Thanksgiving meal at her grandparents' house earlier in the day but we still found room for our own turkey, dressing, rice and gravy, squash casserole, spinach and cheese squares, and Sister Schubert rolls that evening. To quote Rachel Ray, "Delish!".

I got a little bit of stitching done over Thanksgiving. I took my XOXO project with me to work on. It had been a while since I worked on it but I did complete the third stripe and started on the fourth. It's a fun project as are all of the & more canvases. I particularly like the dimension that the stitch in the third stripe adds to the canvas. Here's a picture of my progress:

My Mystery Class Noel canvas arrived on Monday from Ruth Schmuff. Very cute and looks to be a fairly quick stitching project (unless you are stitching 5 other things at the same time). I love the way Ruth packages her threads in fun, festive bags. I really felt like I was opening a gift for myself when it arrived - it was that festive. Here's a quick look:

I must thank Robin for including a photo of my Halloween mantle in the December issue of Amy's newsletter. There's lots of good information (as always) in the newsletter and a great look at our next Halloweenie character coming in January.

That's it for tonight. I've still got work to do and some deadlines to meet, so there won't be any stitching tonight. Next time I'll have some photos of the construction work. Have a good week!

Full Moon Tomorrow Night - W. Herr Wolfe is on the Prowl!!

2010-11-20T14:03:00.000-05:00

Yes, the moon is full on Sunday night and W. Herr Wolfe is off the stretchers and ready to roam. I began Herr Wolfe right after October's full moon and finished him last night just in time for the November full moon. Here he is in all his finished, ferocious glory.

What fun he was to stitch! I miss him already! This week I took care of the small details such as the beading on his belt, his buttons and button holes, and the "X's" background. I enjoyed the "X" background. It isn't a mindless background because it does require careful counting but once you are get into the rhythm of it, it's very enjoyable.

The two friends are re-united and will be cooling their heels in Augusta until after the first of the year when they go to visit Marlene in San Francisco.

Construction begins again on the Haunted House in a few more days. In the meantime, I think I will work on the Fall Tree by Ada Haydon (see the September/October 2010 issue of Needlepoint Now). The bright, bold colors that Ruth Schmuff has pulled together for this project are really calling my name.

I went to an early, 9:00 AM class on Holiday Decorating at Cudos this morning. Got some wonderful fresh ideas for decorating around the house. It's so easy to decorate in the same way year after year. I don't know how many years in a row I have lined my mantle with my collection of Santas. It always looks nice but it's time to do something different this year. I think that for this year's Christmas mantle I'll focus on my mother's Herend green Chinese Bouquet soup tureen. I bought some beautiful red, green, and gold beaded ornaments to fill the tureen and add some sparkle to the mantle. We'll see how it develops.

My Christmas needlepoint is sorely lacking. I have some Melissa Shirley Nativity stand-ups which I will show you at some point during the holiday season. And that's it. Perhaps once the Halloweenies are finished I can turn my attention to catching up on my Christmas stitching.

I'll leave you with a link to a recipe I just tried - Nantucket Cranberry Pie. It is so simple and so absolutely delicious! It really is a cross between pie and cake. There isn't a pie crust per se but more like a crusty sweet cake on top of the cranberries. The cake batter is flavored with almond extract which is a favorite flavoring of mine. The whole house smells like almond sweetness right now. I wouldn't ordinarily eat a dessert like this in the middle of the afternoon but there was no way I was letting a warm pie that smells this good go without eating until this evening. Thanks to the Pioneer Woman for this great recipe! And, she beat Bobby Flay in the Thanksgiving Throwdown this week on Food Network. If you don't know who the Pioneer Woman is, just take a few minutes and explore her blog/website. She's the best! I read her blog(s) everyday and never fail to find something to laugh about or a recipe I want to try. In fact, I may need to go have another piece of her Nantucket Cranberry Pie right now!

I wish a very happy Thanksgiving to all of you! Take some time this week in the midst of all the cleaning and cooking and preparations for Thanksgiving and remember to think about all that you're thankful for. I'm thankful for all of my new stitching friends who are stopping by the blog and leaving kind, supportive comments.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Fierce but Friendly

2010-11-14T17:38:00.000-05:00

I had such fun this week stitching W. Herr Wolfe's face and fur. I loved seeing his face come to life with each color and stitch. I think he's probably more friendly than he is fierce, don't you think?

I'll be finishing up the green French knot ground cover this evening which will allow me to go ahead and complete the bottom straight line borders. I practiced a few of the twisted Lazy Daisy stitches to be used on the pumpkin stems and found that I need to practice a little more. I didn't have a problem with them when we used them on Stirha's logs under her cauldron but, since we are using a different thread this time, my threads aren't stacking up like I want them to.

My Autumn Trees canvas arrived from Ruth Schmuff this week. What fun this canvas is going to be! I love the thread kit as much as I love the canvas - hot pinks, oranges, reds, Swarovski sequins and beads - it's so colorful!

Andrew and Anna were here for the weekend and are, sadly, on their way back to Jacksonville. Anna and I had fun yesterday attending a Christmas tree decorating workshop at a local store, Cudos. Their head buyer/store decorator gave a great hour-long demonstration of different tree decorating techniques. It was pretty amazing and so interesting to see how all of those "professionally" decorated trees in the stores get that way. Here's the top one third of a tree that we were shown how to decorate yesterday -

There are no ornaments in this upper part of the tree - just floral picks with either sparkly greenery or glittery green and red stars and balls. The bright green object on the upper left is a lighted top hat. There were some color co-ordinating lighted gift boxes scattered throughout the rest of the tree. The decorator's advice was not to "overthink" the decorating - just go for it! He told us that he lives in a small 2 bedroom bungalow and has a total of 13 Christmas trees decorating his house. Can you imagine? He has one Christopher Radko tree that has about 300 ornaments on it! All of the decorations used on the trees in Cudos are available for purchase but it's a little overwhelming trying to decide which ones to add to the decorations you already have. I'll have to go back when the store is a little less crowded. Andrew brought all of my decorations down from the attic so I can begin the decorating process any day now or at least the planning process. When do you start your Christmas decorating? Or have you already decorated?

Hope you all have a great week and find some time for stitching!

Halloween Isn't Over, Is It?

2010-11-07T11:33:00.000-05:00

Well, the calendar says Halloween is over, but in my little stitching world, Halloween never ends. There are still three Halloweenie characters to finish and a Haunted House as well. Then there is my "boo' canvas waiting in the wings and the autumn trees from Ruth Schmuff that will arrive any day now. Can't forget the two Halloween-themed ribbon candy canvases by Melissa Shirley, either. One of these years I will get around to a Christmas theme - my Christmas needlepoint is severely lacking!

I put away the Halloween decorations today and had the same feeling that I usually have in January when the Christmas decorations are packed away for the year. The house looks so empty! But, just for a couple of weeks and then I can decorate for Christmas. Poor Thanksgiving gets lost (decoration-wise) between Halloween and Christmas.

I may try to remedy that situation in part by signing up for Amy's 2011 home study featuring Melissa Shirley's Thanksgiving banner. You can see the Thanksgiving canvas here. Very cute!

In the Halloweenies world, W. Herr Wolfe is pleased to have the major work on his pants and jacket finished and his tombstone, too. This afternoon I'll get started on his face. The stitching on this character seems to be moving along more quickly than some of the others. Hope you're finding the same thing in your stitching as well. Here's the werewolf's latest photo:

Why is it that you take a photo of your stitching and all of your mis-stitches (for lack of a better term) immediately pop out at you? Is it the different lighting? Or is it a case of looking at something so much while you stitch it that you really don't see it anymore? Does that make sense? There are a couple of places in the stitched areas that bother me (but not enough to make me want to rip them out and start over) that I didn't notice until I took the current photo. I suppose we are our own worst critic!

That's it from a chilly Augusta - 33 degrees and a light frost this morning! Have a wonderful week!

The Bride and Groom Return Home and Other News

2010-11-02T15:17:00.003-04:00

Bridezilla and her Groom returned home yesterday! What a wonderful surprise! They're sorry they missed Halloween but it was a low key one around here anyway, so they didn't miss much. But, I'm thrilled that they are back! Marlene worked her magic again and they make a lovely couple.

They were anxious to see Stirha and Frank and renew their longtime friendship. Everyone posed on the mantle for a family portrait.

Seeing the four of them together made me realize that the mantle will be a crowded place once all of the Halloweenies are finished.

The UPS man has no idea how happy he made me yesterday! Not only did he bring me the wonderful package from Marlene, but he brought me a package with this in it from Amy's:

I resisted this canvas as long as I could (which wasn't very long if the truth is told). I'll finish the XOXO canvas first before starting this one, I promise. I love these striped canvases by & more. So much fun! Check out the snazzy zebra print tissue paper that my goodies were wrapped in!

The other highlight of my day was finding out that Pat Conroy has a new book - My Reading Life - and that he will be in Jacksonville (Neptune Beach, actually) on December 7th for a book signing. Guess where I will be? My Reading Life is a work of non-fiction for Conroy and is about the books and characters that have influenced him in some way or another. I downloaded My Reading Life onto my Kindle this morning and am looking forward to a nice cup of Tazo Chai Tea as I sit down to begin reading it this afternoon. Conroy says that he will never own a Kindle - he likes the way real books feel, look, and smell. I do, too, but I wish he would give it a try. Even though I have downloaded the new book, I'll be buying the hard copy as soon as I can get my hands on one.

I think I should probably go do some work. Too many needlepoint and book distractions today!

I voted - did you?

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T16:35:00.001-04:00

Boo, y'all! Hope your Halloween weekend has been a wonderful one - mine has! I just drove home from Jacksonville where I spent the weekend with Andrew and Anna and their kitties, Buddy and Elvis. While I hated to leave all of them, I needed to get home to my own Little Girl who spent the weekend home alone. She (and the house) seem none the worse for the wear. She is an indoor/outdoor cat, so for her to spend the entire weekend inside by herself is quite a change. At the moment, she's happily lounging in the sun on her favorite chair on the patio.

We were an unhappy group Saturday afternoon at the conclusion of the Georgia-Florida game. Our Bulldogs lost in overtime. This afternoon I think I was passed on I-95 by every Georgia fan heading north out of Jacksonville who attended the game. I've never seen so many silver, black, and red cars decorated in everything imaginable that featured a bulldog or the Georgia "G".

W. Herr Wolfe didn't get to make the trip to Jacksonville this weekend, but I took a photo of my progress Friday morning before I left home.

I think I made some nice progress last week. My work schedule has eased up recently so I had more time and more energy to devote to stitching. I love the pumpkins as always, especially the one on the left since we haven't used that stitch before. The darker pumpkin has such rich colors which look great next to the blue pants and green jacket. In Amy's Tips in the stitch guide, she notes that the fabrics are supposed to have a thick, coarse look to them. I think she certainly achieved that look with the stitches and threads she chose for the jacket and pants. Both stitches move along easily. For the pants, once I had stitched the initial dark lines in continental, I chose to start the main stitch for the pants with the continental stitch portion of the pattern. It just made it easier for me to see where I needed to go with the pattern. Tonight I look forward to settling in with the stitching on the upper portion of the jacket.

Don't miss Amy's November newsletter that was just posted. There's lots to read about our Halloweenies project. I must go out and buy the eyelashes for use in the next phase of the Haunted House. Have you bought yours yet? Be sure to check out Colleen's photos of her finished Halloweenies - they look great!

Speaking of finished projects, look what was waiting for me when I returned home:

Marlene did another great job with my "merry christmas" canvas which I purchased from Amy's last year. The fabric is a small white on white stripe with a pale green cording around the pillow. The cording around the needlepoint itself is red, green, and white. It looks so beautiful on my white sofa in the living room but it will be just as pretty on my white bedspread in my pale green bedroom.

Bridezilla and her groom didn't make it into the box from Marlene's. I had not really expected them to but I hope it won't be long until they return home.

Hope you have a great week and I hope no tricks are played on any of us tonight!

Goodnight Dr. Acula, May You Rest In Peace

2010-10-24T17:07:00.000-04:00

Say goodnight to Dr. Acula as he prepares to find a nice dark place to rest while his friend, W. Herr Wolff, steps up for his time in the spotlight.

I finished Dr. A on Saturday after receiving some last minute beading suggestions from Amy. I appreciate Amy and Robin trying to help with my struggles with the peyote beading on the coffin handles. But, as you will see from the photo above, despite Amy's attempt to help, I was unable to stitch the coffin handles in the peyote beading technique called for in the stitch guide. I could never get my beads to stack correctly or get the tension correct. After a total of about three hours spent on the beading and being unhappy with each attempt, I finally decided to just go with the string of beads on the two rows. I think it looks perfectly acceptable and much better than if I had continued with the peyote beading. The coffin handles rank right up there with Frank's pants on the frustration meter. Both defeated me!

On the other hand, there was so much I loved about stitching this character. I loved the shading and stitches on the coffin itself and the knobs. I think Dr. A's kitty is adorable in her matching coffin with the green lining. I also really enjoyed stitching the puffy orange lining of Dr. A's coffin. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I was surprised at how prominent the candelabra became in the scene once it was stitched. I was glad we had some previous experience (Haunted House) with the stitch for the candelabra

before tackling it. The other element that I enjoyed was the background stitch. I could have kept going with the X's!

So, many thanks to Kelly Clark for another great Halloweenie design and to Amy for creating a wonderful stitch guide and thread selection!

Now, it's on to our werewolf friend. Despite the fact that I didn't get started on him until after the full moon had passed, W. Herr Wolff is pretty pleased with the moonlit nights we have been experiencing lately. We stayed up late last night stitching the bottom border and waited until this morning to add the moons and stars.

I'm not thrilled with the moons I stitched and the stars are just ok. I think I would have preferred using the moon and stars charms that Robin used on Katt Z. Witch. The second border is moving along very quickly - always a nice thing!

We have had another beautiful weekend here in eastern Georgia. I've spent the greater part of the afternoon on the patio. An added advantage to that is that I haven't had to listen to the phone ring with one robo-call after another from all the candidates running for office. Election day can't come soon enough - in so many respects!

If I go back inside, I may give in to the temptation of fixing the Betty Crocker Chocolate Molten Lava mini cakes. It was one of the Buy One, Get One Free items at Publix this week. I have had hard time passing up the BOGO items.

Well, that's it for me. Hope you all have a great week and squeeze in some quality stitching time!

Have You Been to the Pumpkin Patch Yet?

2010-10-23T12:12:00.000-04:00

Or are you waiting for the Great Pumpkin to pay a visit? It won't be long now!

This is the pumpkin patch at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. I would take any of these glass pumpkins home. They were available for purchase in the garden shop - about $200 each. Not surprisingly, I didn't take any home with me!

Night time in my kitchen when the lights are off and only the candle is lit.

I'm off to go work on the last little bit that needs to be finished on Dr. Acula. Check back tomorrow where hopefully we will all see a finished photo of Dr. A. It's too beautiful a Saturday to sit inside and stitch so Dr. Acula is going out into the sunlight one more time. It's really killing him, though. Just kidding, no vampires were hurt in this stitching project.

Dr. Acula Caught Out in the Broad Daylight!

2010-10-17T18:39:00.000-04:00

What was I thinking taking the good Dr. A out in the broad daylight this afternoon? I was thinking that it was too beautiful an afternoon to spend inside stitching the background for Dr. A! We had the most beautiful weekend and I tried to spend as much of it outside as I could. I had to bring work home again and fortunately it was work that could be done at the table on the patio.

For background entertainment, the annual air show that takes place at the airport about a half mile from my house was in full gear all afternoon yesterday and today. I have seen lots of airplane acrobatics, a precision flying team, and parachutists without leaving the comfort of my own patio. I didn't see this, but I did hear/feel the jet truck that roars down a runway at 325 miles an hour racing (and beating) a plane flying above it. This is one of those events that always signals the fall season for me. It makes me a little wistful, too, as it was a tradition for my father to take my son to the air show. My father passed away several years ago and my son is now grown and has moved away to Jacksonville. But, the air show keeps on going!

You are probably growing weary of reading that I haven't made much progress on Dr. Acula. I continue to think that my work schedule will slow down but I suppose it really won't until college football begins to wind down. I can't remember if I told you that I work for a company that produces a novelty product for the collegiate market. We're thankful to be so busy, but really! All this work is cutting in to my stitching time!

Dr. A survived his trip outside in the daylight but is much happier to be back in the house. He isn't accustomed to be stitched in daylight hours, especially outside. I'm making progress on the background and would love to think that I'll finish that part this week. I keep forgetting all of the beading that needs to be done for the coffin handles. There are little bits and pieces of other things to be finished - hands, Rhett Reviens, single line borders, and the big spider web in the upper right corner. Nothing major but it all adds up. W. Herr Wolfe is being very patient as he awaits his turn to be stitched.

I spoke to Marlene in San Francisco on Friday about my "merry christmas" pillow. We talked about the finishing and decided to go with a white on white striped fabric and red/green/white cording. We also talked about Bridezilla and the Groom (the honeymoon continues, I hear). They will be coming home from San Francisco soon! She couldn't promise them in time for Halloween, but that's ok.

Another weekend is drawing to a close. Can you believe October will be drawing to a close soon, too? Gosh, that means Christmas can't be far away! Oh, dear!

Have a good week every one!

Closing In

2010-10-10T17:52:00.000-04:00

I couldn't decide whether to title this post "Finish Line in Sight" or "Closing In" but finally went with "Closing In" as I am finally closing in on finishing Dr. A. What with great SEC football yesterday afternoon and catching up on The Real Housewives of DC and Rubicon this afternoon, I planted myself in front of the television for the last two days and gave Dr. A my (mostly) undivided attention. Since I last posted I have completed his cape, suit, candelabra, grass, and most of the two bottom borders.

The impact of the candelabra on the canvas took me by surprise. I had not expected it to have such a presence - not that it's bad or anything, but the size of it seems so much larger stitched than it did unstitched. I particularly like the stitch "construction" of the candelabra. The crescent stitch on the candelabra arms had me remarking to Dr. A that Amy is one clever lady. It's a perfect stitch for that area.

I have a little bit of the lavender border to finish tonight and then will work on finishing the spiders and adding their webs. With any luck, I could finish Dr. A this week. W. Herr Wolfe is calling to me to hurry up!

I thought I would share with you one of my other Halloween decorations. This witchy kitty is a Jim Shore Heartwood Creek piece I have had for a few years. She is sitting within the black feather wreath I bought at Target last year. She's holding a lantern that has a small battery operated candle inside. I found some tiny, battery-operated amber colored lights at QVC that work on a timer and so at night she is surrounded by little lights. I love these lights because you can set them to come on when you want and they stay on for 6 hours and turn themselves off. I put the other set on the black branches on my mantle with my other Halloween decorations.

Time to get back to the lavender border - the weekend is about to slip away and my free time with it! I want to wish my Canadian stitching friends a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow! Eat some turkey for me!

Autumn at the Atlanta Botanical Garden

2010-10-04T18:33:00.000-04:00

Andrew, Anna, and I spent some time on Sunday morning at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. We couldn't have had a nicer day - crystal clear skies, a light breeze, and temps in the upper 60's! The gardens were decked out for the fall and Halloween. Their special exhibit right now centers around chocolate - everything from cultivation of the cacao tree to the finished product. When you walk into the Visitor's Center, you are enveloped in the scent of chocolate. That's a great way to start a visit anywhere, don't you think?

Andrew took lots of pictures and I wanted to share a few of them with you.

I was so happy to see the Dale Chihuly piece still in the fountain. It must have been purchased following the Chihuly in the Garden exhibit in 2004.

These pumpkin topiaries (I think that's what you would call them) are so cute and I am seriously thinking about copying them - on a smaller scale - in the two planters at my front steps. I think you could get a piece of iron rebar or something similar at Home Depot and impale (!) the pumpkins and gourds on it and place it in the pot. Don't you think it would last outside until Thanksgiving?

If my knee had not been bothering me, I would have walked over to another part of the garden and been able to see this fabulous cornucopia in person. I'm glad Andrew and Anna got to see it. Look at all the glass pumpkins and gourds! You could buy smaller versions of these in the garden gift store. I resisted the temptation and it was the hardest thing I did all day.

The pumpkin patch featured glass pumpkins as well.

This steel sculpture with the glass pears is another favorite of mine.

I'll leave you with this incredible orchid photo. The color combination was unbelievable. I wish I could tell you the name of this orchid, but I didn't see its label. The conservatory is filled with many exotic plants just like this one.

If I lived in Atlanta, I would surely be a member of the Botanical Garden. It's such a lovely, peaceful place in the middle of the city. It would be a great place to escape when the traffic and the hustle and bustle of the city becomes too much. Hope you enjoyed this little escape with me!

Stash Enhancement

2010-10-03T19:57:00.000-04:00

I just returned home from a great weekend in Atlanta with my son, Andrew, and daughter-in-law, Anna. Andrew was in his BMW blogging/photographer mode at the Petite LeMans north of Atlanta on Saturday where he spent the day photographing the race and the BMW racing team in particular. Anna and I spent the day shopping at Lenox Mall and had a delicious dinner at The Buckhead Diner (the white chocolate banana cream pie is highly recommended!). If you are shopping at the right time of day in the Neiman Marcus shoe department, you will be served champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. No, we weren't buying - "just looking" at the Manolos. I was wearing my Birkenstocks - I'm surprised they let me in the shoe department there!

This morning after breakfast we made a trip to the Atlanta Botanical Garden. It was such a perfect day to visit - not a cloud in the sky, mid-60's - just beautiful. If you are ever in Atlanta, make an effort to get there! I didn't take my camera but Andrew took some great pictures which I'll share with you later.

When I arrived in Atlanta on Friday, my first stop was at In Stitches, a needlepoint boutique in Buckhead. It's located in a cute little house on Shadowlawn Drive. I was excited to discover that they were having a Melissa Shirley trunk show. They had a nice selection of large and small canvases in the show (and in the shop, of course). No way I was walking out of there without an addition to the stash! Here's what I bought -

Melissa Shirley's Gold Pears - one striped design and one damask design. I started on the damask pear with an antique copper Kreinik braid. Each of the designs comes with some "velvet" leaves. Love them! I also picked up a couple of new Zecca magnets.

I couldn't resist picking up one of Melissa's Ribbon Candy canvases with a Halloween theme (imagine that!). The ribbon candy canvases are featured on the cover of the current Needlepoint Now. This is a particularly good issue. I love the projects that are featured this time. Note to self - remember to renew the subscription to Needlepoint Now!

Thanks to the ladies at In Stitches who were so attentive and helpful!

This past Thursday afternoon there was a thumping and scratching sound at the door after the UPS man dropped off a special package at the door. Look who has arrived!

I don't think I'll even put the Wolfman on the stretchers until I have made a little more progress on his buddy, Dr. Acula. The Dr. is already put out with me because I haven't been showing him much attention these last two weeks. I was disappointed to learn that the stitching diagram for his coffin was incorrect. Oh, well, that part has been done for quite a while and I don't think I'll be taking it out. No one will ever know - unless you tell them! You won't do that, will you?

Our W.Herr Wolfe is quite striking with all that fur to be stitched. I love the pumpkins and the moon in the background. Hope I can get back on a regular stitching schedule with him.

I look forward to sharing some photos from the Botanical Garden with you later this week. Hope you have a wonderful week!

Dressing the Doctor

2010-09-26T21:57:00.000-04:00

Dr. Acula has been most patient with me as I attempted to get him dressed this week. Despite him being a "doctor", he has been no help to me as I coughed and sneezed my way through the week. The dust, dirt, and heat at our warehouse finally got to me this week and stirred up my allergies. Dr. A didn't know whether to prescribe the cold/flu medications, the allergy medications, or the high blood pressure cold medications. Don't tell my real doctor, but I think I took an assortment of all of the above at some point during the week in an attempt to rid myself of the watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing, cough, etc.

Dr. Acula is dressed for the most part. He needs his bow tie, buttons, and the gold trim for his cape. Today I added the orange puffy lining to his coffin. Photos don't do this part of the design justice. There's so much more dimension to it than a photo can deliver. I've added the green outline stitches around the upper lid and can see that it will take 2 or 3 rows of brown outline to fill in the outer edges.

I'm disappointed that this canvas won't be finished by the time W. Herr Wolfe arrives at the end of the week. But, it's just been a crazy month with work and all that has come with it. My plan is to work on the candelabra next, then move down to the grass and our friend, Rhett. I'll tackle the bottom border and then finish up with the "X" background and the large spider web.

Did I tell you that Bridezilla and her Groom are honeymooning in San Francisco? They heard such wonderful things from Stirha and Frank about Marlene's that they wanted to go there, too. I don't think they will make it home in time for Halloween, but there's always next year. I sent my Merry Christmas canvas with them and I hope I will get that one back in time for Christmas.

I gave into temptation yesterday and called Ruth Schmuff at Bedecked and Bedazzled and ordered her 3D holiday tree series. The Halloween tree looks like this. Ruth offers this as a one sided tree or as a 3D tree. The tree series stitch guide will be featured in Needlepoint Now magazine so Ruth will be sending the canvas and the threads/ribbons/tchotchkes, etc.

And, as if that wasn't enough, I also signed up for one of Ruth's mystery classes. I want to stitch the Beth Gantz Noel canvas as seen here. I must have lost my mind (although maybe I was under the influence of too many cold medications!). I am counting on my work load slowing down by the end of October and having a little more energy at the end of the day for more stitching. But, never fear, the Halloweenies continue into the new year and they will remain at the top of my stitching priority list.

It's a rainy night in Georiga for the first time in weeks! It's supposed to continue into tomorrow and Tuesday. It couldn't be more welcome!

Have a wonderful week!

A Busy Week = Little Stitching

2010-09-19T18:28:00.000-04:00

It's been a really busy week at work. I usually work from home but the last two weeks have found me working at our warehouse for most of the day. I don't know what the September temperatures have been like for you, but here in Georgia it's still in the mid-90's every day. Our warehouse is not air-conditioned and by the time I come home, the heat has worn me out and I don't want to do much more than just sit in front of the television. And, as a result, I haven't stitched a lot this week.

I stitched a little bit on Dr. Acula's cape this week and today I added the detail to his face. I had to break out the heavy duty clip-on light to stitch the black cape. Without it, I couldn't see the black stitches on the black canvas.

I just have to say that I can't imagine that there's anyone who can detail a face like Amy. Dr. Acula is the 5th Halloweenie character we have stitched and each of the faces has been so expressive. Everything from the shading of the skin to the eyes, mouth, nose, and hair really brings life to each character. And they are charted so well, it's hard to stitch it incorrectly. Thanks Amy!

September is moving by so quickly, don't you think? We'll be welcoming the next Halloweenie before we know it.

It's back to the warehouse in the morning for me. Will my stitching friends in Canada please send some cool autumn air our way? Have a good week everyone!