The Fur was Flying This Week!

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you know you put in several good hours of stitching time and yet you don't feel like you have much to show for it? That was me this week.  Perhaps it's that way because the major areas and characters on Christmas Parade are stitched and now I am down to smaller areas and the details.

One of the details I finished this week was the cute squirrel. I love his bushy tail. The tail was stitched using Laura's Turkey Work as is the fur trim on Santa's coat.

Santa now has a furry brim to his hat. I am still amazed that all of those strands of Threadworx can be carefully cut down into what looks like a sheared fur. It's a messy process but tape helps clean up the mess as you go along. I trimmed and trimmed the fur on Santa's hat and decided to stop and come back later to trim some more if needed.

I also finished the majority of the work on the sky. I still have Kreinik tent stitches to add to the sky on the left of the canvas and a few areas across the top of the canvas where I need to fill in with some stitches.

We had a welcome hint of the changing of the seasons this morning. It was a nice cool 64 degrees when I woke up. I know we still have some hot, muggy days ahead of us in September but this morning's temperatures give us hope of cooler days to come.

I succumbed to the siren call of Pinterest this week. Have you made the plunge into Pinterest yet? It's an amazing way to waste a lot of time but have lots of fun in the process. I've picked up some great DIY ideas for projects around the house, holiday decorating ideas, and have cooked three recipes that I found - a slow cooked turkey recipe, a zucchini/squash feta cheese casserole, and crispy baked zucchini fries. Give Pinterest a try - there's no way that you won't find something of interest to you!

To all of my friends who are attending the ANG Seminar in Philadelphia, I hope you have a wonderful time! Learn lots of new techniques and come home and share them with those of us who couldn't make it to Seminar.

Have a great week ahead!

The Parade Keeps Moving Along

It's been another week of stitching progress on the Christmas Parade canvas. Just sit me in front of the television and give me great PGA Championship at a favorite spot along the South Carolina coast coupled with Shark Week and I will show you how much stitching I can get done.

This week I added a good bit of the snowy ground. Before I do too much more of the ground, I think I will work on the trees in the background and figure out how the ground area will work into the trees. On the painted canvas the trees blend into the snowy ground. There is a suggestion of the trees' shapes (tent stitches) that will need to work with the bold bargello pattern on the ground. Should be interesting to figure out!

The wagon wheels are finally complete and you can see just a hint of additional elements to come with the red ribbon bow at the front of the cart. Eventually there will be streamers that hang from the bow and the addition of the ribbon reins that attach the harness on the bear to the cart.

Santa now has a stitched candy cane walking stick held by stitched fingers and thumb. A green sleeve
cuff peaks out from under the fur cuff on his sleeve of his coat. Not that you can tell from the photos but the green cuff is stitched using a detached buttonhole stitch.

This first photo of Santa was taken after I stitched Laura's Turkey Work on the sleeve. The sleeve cuff is a very small area - maybe 15 threads across by 15 threads down (on the diagonal). It took a couple of hours to add all of that Turkey Work that you see in its uncut state. This is the first time I have ever attempted Turkey Work so I was surprised at how long it took. Before starting my work on the cuff, I watched the Turkey Work section on Amy's DVD Just Fur Fun several times. It was just like having Amy sitting right next to me. I highly recommend her How'd You Do That? DVD series if you haven't tried any of them.

The photo above is of the trimmed Turkey Work on the sleeve cuff. It's amazing to see how all of those loops trim down to a thick, sheared fur cuff. I used four strands of Threadworx overdyed floss for the fur. There is still a lot of Laura's Turkey Work left to stitch on Santa's coat. I'll be loopy by the end of this week - sorry I couldn't resist the pun!

Even though I finished the Christmas Banner two months ago, it took until this week for me to finally wrap it up and ship it off to Marlene's in San Francisco. I loosely rolled it and sealed it in a ziploc bag for its trip across the country. It is accompanied by three Creepy Characters Halloween ornaments and a  Kelly Clark Halloween apple ornament. I had a conversation with Matt at Marlene's about how the banner will be finished and I feel confident that the next time I see my banner, I will be one very happy stitcher!

We had a bad storm on Friday that really took its toll on quite a few of the old trees on my street. Last week I had lost a huge limb on the 60 year old oak tree at the end of my driveway. The damage to the tree came from a diseased area within the tree and wasn't storm related but it will require that the tree be taken down. Fortunately, it is the city's problem to handle and won't require my pulling out the checkbook to pay a tree service to do the work. The tree has a notice on it from the city saying that it will be taken out. My neighborhood has been so sensitive (and vocal) to the loss of trees in our area due to disease and also storm-related problems that the city gives everyone a week to voice any concerns about the loss of another tree before it is taken down. The storm on Friday damaged at least another four or five trees  just in my block.  It's so sad to see these old trees being lost.

Well, time to get back to that Turkey Work! Hope you have a great week ahead!

The Night Time Sky

Last week I said that I wanted to concentrate my stitching time this week on the night time sky for the Christmas Parade. And that's exactly what I did. It doesn't exactly make for exciting blog news or pictures but I'm really pleased with my progress.

I knew I would run out of the background color before the weekend so I called Amy's and Jill pulled their last two skeins of the color and dye lot I needed and put them in the mail to me. I think two skeins will be just the right amount to finish up the sky. I spent Friday night and Saturday adding the diamond shaped areas of Kreinik tent stitches.

It is a good feeling to see this much of the canvas covered in stitches. The next big push on this piece after finishing the sky is the bargello snowy ground.


Having the Olympics on television every night for the last two weeks has been a great companion for me as I stitched. As much as I have enjoyed the sports and the athletes' stories, I think I'm ready for it to be over. I abandoned the Olympics on television this weekend for the PGA Golf Tournament at Kiawah Island, SC and thoroughly enjoyed all the views of the beautiful beachfront along the Atlantic Ocean. I know I just spent the weekend at the beach a few weeks ago, but I'm ready to go back!

It's nice to see the sun this morning - especially after the weather we had yesterday. We had 5 inches of rain - most of it coming in a two hour stretch of one thunderstorm after another during the morning.

Well, the blog is short and sweet this week. Maybe I'll have more than background stitching to show you next week.

Have a good week ahead!

Olympic Stitching

I don't think my stitching this week would win me any Olympic medals but watching/listening to the televised coverage provided hours of time to put in some serious work on Christmas Parade.

I tried to cover lots of areas on the canvas this week. The snowy ground is stitched in a bargello pattern with three shades of blue Needlepoint, Inc silk.

The goose needs a bow or ribbon around her neck. I think I found the perfect 1/4" burgundy velvet ribbon in the clearance bin at Joann's yesterday. It cost me all of $.50! My bargain of the week! While I was at Joann's I also found some glittery flat snowflake buttons that I hope I can use on some future Christmas-themed canvas.

It may not look like it but I spent a lot of time working on the sky in the upper right of the canvas. I had decided to start stitching the tree branches in that area and had threaded up my needle with the brown silk when I realized that stitching the branches before stitching the background was not the smartest move on my part. It is so much easier to compensate and count threads for the background pattern if the branches are not stitched. I plan to focus my stitching attention on this area of the canvas this week and get the other part of the pattern that moves in the opposite direction in place.

What is a week without a package arriving from Amy's? Glad I didn't have to find out! Another little treasure Amy and Jill picked out at the Columbus market arrived on my doorstep.

This is one of the Associated Talents Halloween spiders in a sort of Halloween ribbon plaid. Each canvas comes with a stitch guide and the metal spider legs upon which the finished canvas sits. Looks like a fun little project, doesn't it?

I'm looking forward to more Olympic stitching this week. What did I watch in the evenings while I stitched before the Olympics?

Have a great week ahead!

Birthday Surprises

I just celebrated one of those big birthdays this week. You know, one of those where you move from one number where you have been for a decade to a new number where you hope and pray to spend another decade. With the help and love of family and friends, my birthday was a wonderful occasion this past week.

My incredibly sweet Andrew and Anna treated me to a surprise stay at the Ponte Vedre Inn and Club at Ponte Vedre Beach, FL last weekend. I didn't find out what was planned until I was about to take the exit off I-295 to their place. Andrew called just in time and re-routed me to Ponte Vedre which is about 15 minutes from Jacksonville. I arrived to find myself already checked in to a fabulous beach front room with this incredible view.

The beach was literally at my doorstep! The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Hot and humid - but what do you  expect when at the beach?  I hadn't been in my room more than 30 minutes when my next surprise arrived - my brother! Andrew had gathered our small family together to celebrate my birthday weekend.

We had a fabulous meal at Ruth's Chris Friday evening and celebrated again with more friends and family at another surprise dinner on Saturday night. The surprises just continued throughout the weekend! Saturday we drove up the coast to Fernandina Beach so that I could make a stop at The Bristly Thistle.

I enjoyed seeing Michele's great shop as always and her beautifully stitched pieces that are displayed around the shop. I added a couple of canvases to the stash - Mehitabel, one of the Creepy Characters from NeedleDeeva, and one of Kelly Clark's Heritage Series Christmas ornaments. We finished up our trip to Fernandina with a tasty lunch across the street (the name of the restaurant escapes me) where I had a fried green tomato stack (tomatoes, goat cheese, and red pepper jam) and pulled pork spring rolls. Delicious!

My needlepoint companion for the weekend was this cutie pie from Melissa Shirley:

I am using a stitch guide by Carolyn Hedge Baird for the little July 4th girl. Carolyn has written a wonderful stitch guide for each of the children in this series. I believe the series came out a couple of years ago but are still available. I have a companion piece that has a little boy dressed like Uncle Sam holding a flag. I can't wait to stitch her curls and the big blue bow in her hair!

Continuing with the patriotic theme, my July 4th Parade canvas, stitch guide, and threads arrived from Amy's just in time for my birthday. I love it!

I want to put this on the stretcher bars - now! - but won't let myself until I am much further along with the Christmas parade canvas. But this was the incentive I needed to pick up the Christmas parade and get back to work on it.

I spent my Saturday working on Santa's coat. It is stitched in a lovely Bargello pattern. I'll post a better picture next week. Night time lighting leaves a lot to be desired. See that beautiful wooden, handcarved laying tool at the top of the canvas? A very special stitching friend sent that to me for my birthday. I will treasure it for many years to come!

Not only did I receive my July 4th Parade canvas this week but my Melissa Shirley Bloom canvas arrived as well. I bought it specifically as a companion piece to her Whimsy canvas which I purchased earlier this summer from Bestitched. The flowers within the letters are the same as those in the Whimsey canvas. I love the background stripes which are in pink, peach, and cream. Lots of fun to look forward to with these canvases!

And last, but certainly not least, I finished the Sunflower & Berries canvas! I absolutely loved this project. A NeedleDeeva canvas and a Robin King stitch guide make for a perfect piece of needlepoint. Robin's class at In Stitches in Atlanta in April was so much fun. I learned a lot and also got to meet so many of my blog and Facebook friends at the same time. Let's do it again!

So, that was my birthday week. Pretty good, wasn't it? I love my family and friends for making it such a special one!

And now the Olympics are here! Let the marathon Olympic stitching begin! What are you stitching during the Olympics? Can we reach the finish line on some of our projects?

Go Towards the Light

Purple has been the color of the week as I moved on to the border of Sunflower and Berries. I definitely got off to a slow and frustrating start. The slanted burden stitch is not a difficult one but the dark purple threads on a dark purple background add to the "burden" of stitching the border. These old eyes of mine just aren't up to dark threads on a dark background.

Once I realized that good lighting was going to be essential for me to be able to stitch this border, I moved my stitching to my office to take advantage of the late afternoon sun. It made all the difference for me. Between the bright, natural light and a my back-up stitching light, I finally started to see some progress on the border. Good thing my office is at home!

Now, it's three sides down and one to go. Hopefully I can wrap up this project this week. Once the border is finished all that remains are the ribbon petals on the sunflower. Maybe I can show you a finished piece next week!

I never get tired of looking at the stacked beads on the sunflower so here's one more picture of it in the late afternoon sun.

The latest little heart from Associated Talents was finished this week.

I liked the braided Memory Thread element. I had never thought about braiding it before now.

In the midst of my early week frustration with the purple border on Sunflower & Berries, I decided to put Kirk and Hamilton's Frog's Breath on the stretcher bars. I'm using a stitch guide by Amy Bunger.

I love the green ThreadWorx color that Amy chose for the bottle. I did have to laugh because of the black threads on the black background. There was just no escaping that scenario for me this week!

That's my news on the stitching front for this week. Hope you have a great week ahead!

Inching Towards Completion

This week I devoted all of my stitching attention to Sunflower and Berries. The end of this fun project is in sight and this week I was able to add a few of the fun elements to the canvas.

The first bit of fun to be added was the little sprinkle of orange sequins in the upper left of the canvas. When the light hits them, they really sparkle. Next came the two remaining strawberries.

The strawberries are stitched entirely with French knots on a piece of muslin in an embroidery hoop. Then you baste around the berry and cut it out. When you pull the basting threads together it gathers up the muslin under the berry giving it a nice rounded shape and then you stitch the berry to the canvas. This technique is known as stumpwork. It's fun and the strawberries add so much dimension to this piece. You'll have to try it sometime!

Speaking of dimension, just look at the stacked beads on the sunflower -

I absolutely love these stacked beads! It's like a little forest of beads on the canvas. Robin King, who wrote the stitch guide and selected the beads and threads, chose the most wonderful tortoise shell color for the beads that are used in the stack. They positively glow! Great choice, Robin!

It's time to turn my attention to the deep purple border. I'll be using a dark purple Kreinik and Splendor in the border. Nothing like dark threads on a dark background for aging eyes! I noticed that when I had my eyes checked this week that the phrase "as we age" was one that the optometrist used more than once. Hope the order for my new contacts arrives quickly!  I can use all the help I can get! The border is stitched with a Slanted Burden stitch. A Burden Stitch - hmmm, I hope the name doesn't imply that it will be a burden when it comes to stitching! It would be interesting to know how this stitch got its name.

The heat we endured last weekend was still with us for most of this week. It is slightly cooler this weekend - only in the upper 90s. Who would have thought that the upper 90s don't feel so terrible when compared to 105 degrees? I was looking at my poor hydrangeas this morning and noticed the scorched areas along the edges of the leaves. I have two small crepe myrtles in large pots on the patio and their leaves are scorched as well. We have had a couple of thunderstorms this week but the storms produced mostly wind and thunder and very little rain. I was really concerned the evening of the 4th when one of my neighbors down the street put on his own fireworks show for about an hour.  Everything is so dry but luckily he didn't cause any problems with all the sparks flying everywhere.

Hope you get to stitch in a nice cool place this week!