Welcome Summer

The calendar and the outside temperature may say Summer has finally arrived but my stitching this week says it is Christmas, Halloween, and Valentine's Day. There has also been a little bit of a summer theme this week with some work on Sunflower and Berries.

I want to get the lavender Confetti Streamers finished in the background so that I can stitch the vines on top of them where necessary. I like this NeedleDeeva canvas so much. Robin King did a great job with a nice mix of simple but effective stitches. It has such a nice airy look to it. Perfect stitching on a hot summer evening.

With the Christmas Banner behind me (and thank you so much for your very kind comments this week on the banner!), I have felt a little more free to stitch on a variety of projects this week. Continuing the Christmas theme with Christmas Parade, I have started stitching the wooden wagon being pulled by the polar bear.

The Weeks Dye Works cotton floss colors that Amy chose for the wagon are perfect choices for stitching wood. I'm using Swiss Chocolate and Kris' BonBon.

Last weekend I finished stitching the moon and worked on the sky for a little bit. There's still a lot of sky still to be stitched. I am stitching all the right slanting rows of pattern first so that when I turn the canvas to stitch the left slanting pattern, I have a few stitches to run my threads under as I move from one "lozenge" to another so that I'm not carrying the thread across open space.

My easy stitching this week was this little heart from Associated Talents. It is one of the hearts from the club at Fireside Stitchery. I could put my feet up in the recliner, my cat, Little Girl, could sleep in my lap, and I could stitch in comfort. It's nice to have a little project like this that can be easily picked up and put down and, before you know it, it's finished. I aspire to having a Valentine tree full of little hearts like this at some point.

What's a week without a little stash enhancement? These two canvases/stitch guides/thread kits arrived from Amy's this week.

These are just two of the poison bottles from Kirk and Hamilton. Amy has a great picture of her finished Frog's Breath bottle. The bottle's "feet" are little green frog's feet - so cute!

Amy and Jill have been tempting me with all of the new canvas photos from the TNNA show they have been posting on Facebook this weekend. My list of stitching projects is growing by the day!

I have a little bit of work I need to do at my desk today but I hope to get in lots of Sunday stitching time. Making a tomato pie is at the top of my list, however. Very few ingredients - pie crust, tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, and parmesan cheese. Paula Deen made it on her show this week. I have made it in the past but had forgotten how good it is. I'm looking forward to eating that throughout next week!

Hope you had a great first week of summer! Have a great week ahead!

Drum Roll, Please!

WAIT FOR IT......WAIT FOR IT......

IT ONLY TOOK 8 1/2 MONTHS

AND

THOUSANDS OF STITCHES

BUT

THE CHRISTMAS BANNER

IS FINISHED!

Wow! The stitching momentum really picked up this week on the banner as I inched toward the end of the 6th and last reel of Kreinik Size 4 #3231 and the end of my stitching. I stitched faster and faster as that last reel of Kreinik began to run out. Why I stitched more quickly as the thread ran out, I don't know. I suppose I was hoping that if I stitched more quickly that the area needing stitches would run out before the thread did. And, it did. I finished with about 2 inches of Kreinik left.

The gathered ribbon on three of the leaves were actually the last stitches. The icing on the cake! 

The Christmas Banner is the second of Amy Bunger's home studies in which I have participated. Let me just say to anyone who has ever considered one of Amy's Home Study projects and has not taken the plunge, please take the plunge! You will enjoy it and learn so much! Amy has everything so beautifully planned out and organized - you can't help but succeed. The selection of threads and stitches is breathtaking. As usual, Amy's creativity exceeded my expectations and she has helped me create an heirloom that I hope many generations of my family will enjoy bringing out at future Christmases. Thank you Amy! And let me also thank Jill Wilensky at Amy's who organized the stitch guides and threads  and sent them to us each month. Not once was a page out of place or a thread missing. Thank you Jill!

A big Thank You also goes to all of my stitching friends who looked at my pictures and read the blog each week and encouraged me along the way. That means a lot to me! If you ever wondered how there could be so many letters in the word Christmas and would I ever run out of letters to stitch so that you could look at some other stitching that didn't involve pears or letters, thank you for keeping that to yourself! Your kind words instead were so appreciated.

This blog post is beginning to sound like an Academy Awards acceptance speech! But, I do want you to know that as I sit and stitch by myself each night that I value each of you who stop by the blog and read about my stitching.

I actually stitched a little on Christmas Parade and Sunflower and Berries this week as well.  Christmas Parade has the moon and a little more background completed. Sunflower and Berries has a few more leaves and background Confetti streamers completed. Those streamers are slow-going! I'll have pictures to show you next week but by now you realize where my stitching was focused this week.

Well, this was a really good stitching week! I hope your upcoming week is great as well!

Stitching a Polar Bear

I was determined to stitch more this week and stress less about work. I'm happy to say I accomplished both! The work load isn't going away anytime soon so it's better to just accept it and move on. On the stitching front, I have tried to work on the background of the Christmas Banner a little every day even if no other projects have been touched. I could stitch those Fly Stitch brackets in my sleep! I think that's what makes it so easy to devote a little time to the banner each evening - it has become mindless stitching. I still feel that I am on track to completely finish the banner by the end of June. Looking forward to that last stitch!

Now, from the Christmas Banner to the Christmas Parade -

The polar bear has a fur coat this week! That's what a Saturday's worth of stitching got me and I'm very pleased with the way he turned out. I just realized that the sunlight shining on the rug behind the canvas is showing through in the photo. That's not the Northern Lights making an appearance on the canvas.

There was additional stitching on the Parade this week but it no longer exists. It was ripped out - very carefully, I might add. I stitched the snow on the branches of the Christmas tree. The snow is stitched with one strand of Soft Sensations on top of the straight stitches of the Chevron and Point pattern on the tree. I really hated the thought of removing that thread from the already stitched tree but leaving the snowy stitches was a worse option. After an email consultation with Amy, I'll try putting the stitches in at a different angle to see if that will be the look I am going for.

My Bestitched "Whimsy" canvas by Melissa Shirley arrived this week. I love the canvas which Melissa designed exclusively for Bestitched. The threads, beads, and sequins are perfect. I have enjoyed watching Margaret Payne's, my stitching friend from the Sunflower & Berries class, progress on Whimsy on Facebook this week. Margaret dove right in to this project as soon as it arrived this week and she has already completed quite a few of the flowers. Her needle has really been flying!

It's a rainy Sunday here in Georgia. A perfect day for stitching but first there's some work at my desk calling my name.

I hope there's no work calling your name today and that there is lots of time for stitching instead! Have a wonderful week ahead!

A June Christmas Tree

Earlier this week I wasn't even sure I would have any Christmas Parade progress to show you. It was a crazy, stressful week at work that didn't leave me with much energy - physical or mental - for stitching in the evenings. But, Thursday evening I decided to get to work on the Parade and chose the Christmas tree to stitch this weekend. Amy selected a Chevron and Point Stitch for the tree. It was a little tricky getting it right especially since I started the pattern at the top of the tree - the smallest area in which to establish a pattern (I told you I didn't have a lot of mental energy for stitching this week!). I kept making mistakes so after removing the upper stitching twice, I switched to establishing the pattern in the lower, larger part of the tree and worked my way back up to the top. The tree is stitched in Splendor and Gloriana Silk which has some beautiful shading in it.

The next step for the tree is to add the star at the top, the snowy branches using Soft Sensations, and lots of red beads which will really give a festive look to the tree. The snowman's scarf was added as well as the little sprig of holly on his hat. Red beads will be added to the holly sprig.

I'm not sure where my stitching will take me next on the Parade - maybe Santa's coat, the snow on the tree, or the snowman's wagon. Stay tuned....

I am enjoying watching the celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee on the BBC this morning. It's a shame the weather isn't better. It looks like a very cool, rainy, windy June day to be out on the Thames. I'm sure it is an amazing spectacle to see and hear in person. Love the pageantry of all of this!

Well, I'm hoping for a better week ahead than this past one. A little less stress and a lot more stitching  would be welcome! Hope you have a great week as well!

The Parade Inches Forward

The harsh reality of the end of vacation has set in this week. The looming deadline for a work project is threatening to take away my evening and weekend stitching time. But, I'm determined to squeeze in my stitching somehow!

I chose some small areas to work on this week that I knew I had a good chance of being able to finish. Santa's hat and his backpack received some attention as well as his beard. The beard is stitched in Weeks Dye Works overdyed cotton floss. The stitch is Victorian Slide variation. The backpack is stitched in Burmilana.

I also finished up some work on the snowman's face and body. The Silk Lame Braid adds some nice shimmer to the Scotch stitches on the snowman.

Background work on the Christmas banner continues behind the scenes. I found a few hours worth of stitching time for it this week working on Step 2 of the background and finally starting to work again on Step 3 using the #4 silver Kreinik fly stitches that bracket each square. Step 3 is really tedious for me. I suppose it is because the stitches are small and it takes several groupings of the squares before you begin to notice any difference in the appearance of the background. It is definitely worth the time to add these stitches. I have to just remember to concentrate on the area in front of me and not worry about how many more sections are still waiting to be stitched.

Enjoyed watching the Gran Prix of Monaco this morning and looking forward to the Indy 500 and NASCAR later today.  It's a good day for stitching in front of the television! It was 94 degrees out yesterday so being inside today is not a bad thing!

Hope your stitching is going well and that you have a great week ahead!

A Little Bit of Heaven in Memphis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Mother's Day!!

Good morning and Happy Mother's Day! We're off to a rather dreary, rainy start to Mother's Day here in Georgia. My morning was brightened by the arrival of a glorious vase of white roses from Andrew and Anna. When did florists start delivering on Sundays? I don't ever remember receiving flowers on a Sunday before. But, I'm delighted to receive them no matter what day of the week it is!

The NeedleDeeva Sunflower and Berries canvas is a cheerful piece that will brighten even the rainiest day. There wasn't a lot of stitching accomplished on it this week. It was a hectic work week that didn't leave much energy in the evenings for stitching. But I did finish the beading on the three blossoms and large leaf in the upper right of the canvas.

The Christmas banner languished in a corner of my office this week. It received no love at all from me all week long. I think I'll bring it back to the den this afternoon and put in some serious work on the background. It deserves a couple of hours of attention!

My excitement is building as I begin making my preparations to drive to Memphis this week for Amy's Needlepoint University. This time next week I will have spent three wonderful days at Amy's working on the Christmas Parade canvas (my Christmas gift from Andrew and Anna) and enjoying the company of my stitching friends. I couldn't ask for a better vacation!!

I had some tedious work at my desk this week filling sample bags for an upcoming tradeshow. I decided to bring the iPad into the office and see what I could find on Netflix to watch while I stuffed bags. I settled on The Borgias - Season 1. OMG - I am officially addicted to this series! I read a description of the Borgias that called them the "original crime family". Is that ever an appropriate description! Life in the 15th century was rough! Justice or revenge was swift and brutal, illness was everywhere, and marriage vows and vows of celibacy didn't amount to much. I'm finding it fascinating! I think the second season is currently being shown on Showtime to which I don't subscribe. I still have quite a few episodes to go on the first season but I am already anticipating Season 2!

I look forward to sharing my experiences at Amy's this week with you. I hope I'll have a chance to post something Friday or Saturday - depends on my internet connection at the hotel.

Have a great week ahead!