A great day out

Hi everyone,

Thursday was a great day. Anne, Lis and I visited the 2012 Quilt and Craft Show here in Adelaide. Although it is primarily quilts there are always some interesting things to find. It is amazing how quickly the colour and style of quilting fabrics change. This year there were lots of lovely taupes and faded reds with small delicate prints which were not there last year. I did bring home 2 pieces of fabric with an australian theme for lining on some ongoing projects. The quilt show was amazing and they allowed photographs but with the agreement that they are not shown on the web (sorry). Australia has some very talented quilters thats for sure.

I bought home some Redwork patterns to try. Anne has stitched many of these pretty designs and enjoyed them so I thought I'd give them a try. All are christmas themed and are fun pieces. Because there are very few stitches used and the pattern is pre-printed onto the fabric they will be a nice in between project to stitch at night.

There has been a little more progress on Atlantis but not enough for a photo. I will be working on it today so I will share a photo soon.

Australia has possums, Washington DC
has squirrels, isn't it cute?

Happy stitching, bye for now, Carol

Connie has confirmed that stitchers are the best people

Hi everyone,

Connie of Spinster Stitcher fame has always entertained with her life stories. But her latest post was just a very kind and heartfelt joy to read. She has offered to help folks who's life has been interrupted by the east-coast USA storm called Sandy in a very special way. Aren't stitching folks the best?

I hope lives are starting to get easier our thoughts are with you.

In my quiet life I have been able to stitch some more of Atlantis. The diamond at the bottom and the diamond a the top have been added to.

Atlantis Rising by Ro Pace, ANG 2012

At seminar we were given a chart, piece of canvas and notes to stitch a design for auction at the next seminar in California. This is the photo of the chart and how it finished up, I changed the design a little ( hope they don't mind).

ANG design for auction at 2013 seminar
in Anaheim, California

And, while I was poking around in my stitchy stash I came across a little design that just begged to be stitched. It was so warm and uncomfortable that stitching is the only thing that happened in this house on Saturday. Ta da...

Indigo Rose, Bead Blanket Sampler copyright 2004

I did manage to clean some windows on Sunday, guess what happened on Monday, yep it rained. Oh well that's life. 

This week starting Thursday is the Quilt and Craft Show in Adelaide. We don't get very many of these shows in Adelaide so we are looking forward to this one. The quilts on show are amazing and we always manage to find something to bring home. I will share photos of what jumps into my bring home basket of goodies.

Happy stitching,Bye for now, Carol

A big warm hug

Hi everyone,

This is just a quick note to send all of my East Coast USA friends a big warm hug and hope that you are safe and sheltered from this terrible storm called Sandy. Anne and I have been watching the news footage of the places we were visiting only 2 months ago and are so shocked by what we have seen.

Take care, we are thinking of you here in Australia.

Bye for now, Carol

More ANG class stitching

Hi everyone,

This week I managed to unstitch and re-stitch Graphic Expressions. The rest will be stitched when the back-order threads arrive. Pretty isn't it? These colours are very different and they are not a combination I would have come up with. Congratulations Sue, great choice.

Sue Reed, Graphic Expressions, ANG 2012

In between this piece and teaching an Assisi class I have stitched a little more of Atlantis Rising but only more of the outlining smyrnas. Not very interesting to see so I will post a photo when more of the specialty stitches are completed.

If you love antique samplers you may like to look into purchasing the new Needleprint book, Feller Collection 2. I had the chance to see a copy at the Guild meeting on Thursday night. Wow. A great book with lots of beautiful photos and close ups of the samplers with lots of great information as well. Definitely worth adding to your christmas wish-list.

Happy stitching, bye for now, Carol

PS: Great to see Nicola (stitching by a cornish seashore & Vonna of Twisted stitcher blog fame, back and posting.) Missed you both. Links to both on the right hand side.

Jobs and chores done so back to stitching

Hi everyone,

It has been a while since the last post. There has been lots of behind the scenes stitching. A border on a new chart project,one christmas ornament for family, one ornament for a friend and 3 small biscornu's (not in photo) for sale at our EG's Christmas Extravaganza fundraising sale in November.

House Ornament and Christmas Egg,from Just Cross Stitch Ornament Magazines,
New Chart Design with overdyed thread

Whew, now I know why my house chores didn't get done sooner. When I posted last time I mentioned I would show you the other class piece Anne and I took in Philadelphia. After looking at it many times and arguing with myself I have finally decided to change to colours to the original. Here is what I stitched in class using the alternative colours of red/green/gold. The more I looked the more the colours just didn't sing for me.

Sue Reed's Graphic Expressions - Class ANG 2012

The threads above are some of the original colours used, there are still a few more to come from my friendly needlework store so this piece will be unstitched and restitched using the lime green/blue/silver colourway when the backorder threads arrive. The piece is on 11 in stretcher bars so it is not a large piece like several others in the to-do basket. Yeah, how did that happen?

Talking about large projects, here is the latest on Atlantis Rising. There is a little progress on the diamond in the right hand corner. The large Sprats head stitch using Bijoux metallic thread is giving me a bit of grief in the counting department. It goes up to 100 so it needs peace and quiet to get it right. The effect of this stitch is really beautiful, well worth the effort. There is one more layer to go over the top to finish each of the sprats heads.

Ro Pace, Atlantis Rising, ANG 2012

We have been home nearly 4 weeks now and life is back to its routine. Shopping, cooking, cleaning and of course, stitching.

Bye for now, Carol.

Ps: Welcome to my new followers, we are now up to 50. Thank you so much for your support and ongoing friendship.

Beware empty canvas below

Hi everyone,

I have had a request (for you Nicki) for a photo of my class pieces from seminar. First I must warn you there is a lot of blank canvas. In classes I tend to stitch in my head and not so much on the canvas. Does this happen to you to? I spent a whole lot of time listening and chatting about what to do that I forgot to do. Lol..................The added bonus is that I will probably take out a fair bit of what is there and restitch. The piece survived 2 weeks in a very crowded suitcase but it is a little worn in some areas. But wow, did I learn a lot in those few days.

Here is Ro Pace's class Atlantis Rising as of now.

As you can see not a lot achieved for 4 days stitching but we were having so much fun I am so not going to feel guilty. To all of my fellow classmates I put out a challenge to finish at least half of this by Christmas and I will try to do the same. It is such a lovely design and deserves to be a finished piece.

Below are some photos of my classmates setting up for the first day of class. See all the smiles, they were a great group.

Now you can see why there is not much on the canvas. I highly recommend attending a seminar if you can. You will have lots of fun, make new friends and learn lots.

More about my 2nd class later, but now I am off to stitch woo hoo!!!

Bye for now, Carol

Home from ANG Seminar and Canadian/USA holiday

Hi everyone,

Firstly I must thank the committee of the ANG and all the volunteers who arranged such a wonderful event in Philadelphia. This was my first seminar and hopefully it will not be the only one that I am able to attend. Anne and I met lots of fellow stitchers who made us feel very welcome and we swapped stories and laughed lots and lots.

Anne and my first class was with Ro Pace, called Atlantis Rising. Ro was fantastic and I am sure everyone enjoyed the 4 days. Both of us came home with some of the motifs stitched and a bunch of new knowledge to lean on.  In fact one of our classmates completed over 2/3rds of the design, a very impressive result indeed.

Ro Pace and me waving to Jane at Chilly Hollow

We attended the auction, expo, cyberpointers meeting, both the welcome dinner and the awards dinner all of which are a story on there own. Oh boy, where do I start.  The auction was amazing and the prices bid for each piece even though they were in the several hundreds were real bargains for the buyers. Expo, oh oh, blew the budget badly and became a "stitching groupee" for the night. Having my picture taken with all the teachers and designers I could find and asking them to sign the charts I purchased from them. Totally unshameable, aren't I, and loved every minute. Cyberpointers meeting was a good way to catch up with the members and put faces to names. Big thank you to Anne Warner for her great welcome and great sense of humor. Hope to catch up with you all through Yahoo group. 

The second class we took was 2 days with Sue Reed, "Graphic Expressions". This class was full of helpful hints and lots of demonstration time given by Sue. We both came home with a far amount completed on the canvas. Met lots of great stitchers and learned lots.

The Marriott hotel was in a great location and was over the road to the Reading Market. Wow! you could eat at a different stall every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner and still not try everything. Personal favourite, roast turkey reuben sandwich on whole wheat and Amish apple pie. Yummmmm.

To all the people that made Seminar special. You know who you are. Thank you, thank you.
More news and photos later when I get over this bad case of jetlag.

Bye for now, Carol