Another Great Weekend in Atlanta

So, in case you missed it, I started the month off heading to Mesa, AZ with DF Heather for a weekend of stitching. Ok, let's be real, it was a partial day of stitching and lots of stash enhancement opportunities. Then I came home, worked to pay for that trip, and then proceeded to head off to Atlanta for 6 or so days of fun, stitching and more stash enhancement with my peeps up there after only being home for barely 10 days.

I worked from Jean's on Thursday but we managed to make a trip to Eat.Sleep.Knit's store. Now I've done some damage on their website. But as scary as the website is the store/warehouse is even more so. The proof is in the picture.

That's just my haul. DF Jean managed to have a pile just as nice. In all that is a full sweater and who knows what else.

Now, I was there to take a class at In Stitches with Tony Minieri Friday through Monday. But that didn't stop us from heading over to The Nimble Needle and checking out what they had. I like to make sure I support small business as many of you well know, so of course I couldn't leave empty handed.

 A little something for mom's blue & gold tree....eventually.

 Something for my stitched tree...eventually. 

And of course I changed the colors!

(Quick Jean...don't look!) I had to have the Halloween shoe.
And really, didn't your mom tell you about kissing lots of frogs? 

Then Friday we packed ourselves up and headed to In Stitches. Heather met us and she and I managed to get started on our project with Tony. About 2 hours in Heather leans over and says to me in a very low whisper, "I couldn't figure out what we'd be doing for 4 days!" That was way funnier than it sounds, believe me. By the end of the day my canvas looked like this...

No really, that's a day's worth of class. And that was a LOT of work. Tony kept the class moving and I kept up. By Monday, that's day 4 for those of you trying to keep track, I was a little punch drunk but still going strong. I think it helped that Jean & I decided back a few months ago that it would be fun to really try and relax some that weekend and to get a hotel room in Buckhead near the shop for Saturday and Sunday night. It helped some not having to get up quite as early as if we'd stayed up at her house.

We really treated ourselves, well and I found a good deal, and we stayed at the Grand Hyatt, which used to be Hotel Nikko. The Japanese garden is still there, but I didn't get out during a morning to get pictures. If you're staying in the area I highly recommend this hotel. The staff was wonderful and the whole place was beautiful. Unfortunately Jean started feeling sick Saturday and by Sunday she was slightly miserable...maybe really miserable. So she went home and I hung out Sunday evening with DF Heather watching the final NASCAR race and rooting for Tony Stewart to win. I even had Heather rooting for him, although if she'd seen Carl without his helmet before the race started she might have been yelling a different tune at the TV. Heather went home after the race and some dinner next door at Brick Tops and then met me Monday morning for breakfast at The Flying Biscuit cafe. Then we grabbed a ride from the hotel's shuttle for our final day of class. By the end of the day this is what my canvas looked like...

For those familiar with this pattern you might notice that the colors I have are a bit different than any of the pictures you can find online. That's because I went with the "fuchsia" colorway, which is really more a jewel tone take on the original. Love the colors and I'm planning on working on this next year. It's an amazing piece with lots of great stitches. Learned lots of great techniques as well during the 4 days.

Now most of you are wondering what other trouble I managed to get myself in to while wandering around such a great needlepoint shop for 4 days. Wait no longer...

I mean really? You expected me to by pass this? As Heather told her dear husband it was a triple threat. Lots of great blue/green colors, bunnies and they are in Medieval dress. I was a total goner. It really was sad. Plus Tony Minieri himself was there and kept giving me ideas for stitches and pulling colors from the vast supply in the shop. For four days we had it laying on a table in one of the rooms and would just pull fibers and play with what would look just perfect. I forgot to lay out some of the fibers I bought already to get a start on this, but let's just say I'll be working on this for a nice long time. Heck, I don't even have stretcher bars this will go on yet! Oh, and that brown dress is changing colors thanks to Mr. Minieri's suggestion. Now to finish the Mermaid so I won't feel too crazy about putting this in the rotation come 2012!

Of course all good things must come to an end. So it is with getting to hang out for 4 days stitching and looking at fibers and great canvases, spending time with old friends and making some wonderful new ones. Tuesday I had to get back to work and fly home, in that order.

Thanksgiving was a day spent with my parents, nice and quiet. Didn't even cook. I took them out to dinner so we'd have a relaxing day for a change. Didn't even make it to shop on Black Friday (oh please stop...I know what you're thinking...why would I need to shop after my two out of town crazy stash hauls...and you might be right.)

Now I'm on the countdown to Christmas. We'll be starting to decorate this week I'm sure. Takes time to put all those tree's up you know. Of course now it's dark at like 5 so it's time to have trees with lots of lights to brighten the darkness.

If you want to know...

Earlier this month I took a trip to Mesa, AZ with DF Heather and took the infamous Chocolat with Jackie du Pleissi. Much fun ensued. She introduced me to her friend Annette who is apparently my twin separated at birth! The three of us had a great time.

Now, if you want to see pictures and a really good recap of what I did you need to head over to Heather's blog and read the post. My camera decided to hide on my and I didn't have it on the trip. Plus Heather does a much better job of letting you know all the fun we had (and the food we managed to find to eat).

I will show you my stash enhancement. I'm not sure what kind of fumes Jean pumps into the store to make you go all weak and have no will power to resist the patterns, fabric and threads, but apparently I'm hyper-sensitive to it. Here's what I couldn't resist...

 Mary Corey with my own twist. 

Changed all but the alphabet color, and working over 1 on 40 ct.

 Some things off my wish list.

Changed the fabric but that's all.

And then Heather surprised me with the great project bag

Obviously it's perfect because it has bunnies! But that's not all. Inside was....

That would be fabric for Spring Quakers. I had the pattern and the threads. Now I just need to get some things out of my rotation, or not.

So that was my weekend in Mesa. I'm proud that I managed to blog about it in the same month. Next up the weekend in Atlanta taking Tony Minieri's class, Antique French Ribbons. Not too many pictures from that, but there is more stash!

Honoring Veterns Day

It's days like today that I hope we all stop and think about the sacrifices that many have made so that we can all enjoy many of the freedoms we enjoy. Many of you who have read my blog and know me know that my family has a long tradition of serving our country in the armed services, well mainly the Navy. My brother Doug is retired from the U.S. Navy, his son, another Doug, is currently active duty Navy. Both my mother and my father's fathers served in WW2 in the Navy. One was lucky enough to come home, the other did not.

My mom's family served on both sides during the "War between the States" and I've been told that we even had members who served during the Revolutionary War. If I'm not mistaken someone in our family has served during every war the U.S. has fought since the start of this nation.

So today we take a few minutes to pause and remember and honor the many, many brave men and women have served in our military to make sure that we can live in a country that, while it may have it's problems, is still one of the best experiments in government by and for the people this world has known. There are still some of those great men and women who served in WW2 around, and if you are honored enough to know one, or are related to one, I hope that today you will say thank you for their amazing service. Same goes for those who served in Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and the current wars we are waging. And don't forget those who just put the uniform on and served even during  the years when there wasn't an active "engagement" going on. Their willingness to stand guard is what has kept us free.

Thank you Veterans and may God bless you for you unselfish service to this country I call home.

A Return of the Themes

Some of your know my DF Heather (or as many of us call her "The Magic That Is Heather") and her great blog. Some of you may also know that she and I spent the last weekend together in AZ (hey H you need to blog for us 'cuz you have the pictures!) and while we were there we not only stitched, ate and bought more stash, we spent some time talking about fun things. Heather mentioned she was thinking of resurrecting monthly themes like we have done in the past. I LOVED the idea and mentioned it would be fun to have some alliterations. (Not sure why but it sounded like fun to me.) We laughed, we talked, we laughed some more at some wild ideas of words that start with "J", and "O" and well a few other letters.

In the end Heather came up with a great list and you should head on over to her "Theme-a-licious" post from yesterday to read all about it...and sign up to join the fun.

And yes, I have already been planning what I could stitch for each of the themes. I love making lists. Plus the last time we did this I managed to get quite a few things finished and made some good progress on other items.

Camera should be here tomorrow. Until then I'm picture free.

No Eye Candy

So, here's the deal. I've lost my camera. I went looking for it before I went to Arizona for Chocolat. Couldnt' find it. Figured I'd come home and "bam" there it would be right in front of me. Well, no "bam" no nothing. I'm at a complete loss. I've looked through all my bags, in my office, all over the house. NO CAMERA. I realize it's not that large so it could be hiding anywhere, but seriously? It's a nice Nikon point & shoot, about 2 years old. Takes fairly decent pictures. I really like it because it will fit in my purse and doesn't weigh a ton.

What's a girl to do?

Buy one of these is my answer.

Should be here by the weekend. Then maybe I'll have some pictures to share. And I'll probably find my sweet little camera as well.

Stitcher's Bucket List

Chris over at Tot Hill Farms blog posed the question what is on your stitching bucket list quite awhile ago. Let's face it, we all have one. It would be really easy to say, "Finish all the pieces I took a class for" or "Complete everything in my stash (really, who thinks that's something that's doable?? have you seen my stash??). So here's what I decided on this week.

1. Finish at least one of the HUGE Chatelaine pieces I have in my stash. The two top contenders are "Misty Morning Vineyard" and "Tuscan Town". I have the most done on MMV so it might actually get finished.

2. Complete all 5 of Rae Iverson's Gate series. I have 2 completed and on my wall. I'm SO close to having Winter Garden Gate complete. See...

For those not familiar with this one I'm missing the mirror image of the assisi stag and some initials. (and a date to show when I actually finished it. Then I only have 2 more to do. 

3. "The Wind Blows" from The Scarlet Letter. I'm not sure exactly why I love this piece, but I do. I have to stitch it some day. I have the pattern, just need to college the rest of the goodies for it.

4. I want a "Noah" wall. I have several charts that are Noah, all that I love. I want to do them so I can have a whole wall of them with a picture of my maternal grandfather on that wall as well. (Yeah, his name was Noah and he was in the Navy, died in WWII, and finally I was born on his birthday.) 

5. Along those lines I've started an "alphabet wall", a "Quaker wall" and want an "A&E" wall. I have at least 1 of each so I've got a start, but I want more....MORE I say! Here's my current list for each wall:

Alphabet Wall

• Stitchers Row (finished)
• small prim hornbook (finished)
• La-D-Da bunny (finished)
• Illuminated Letters Sampler (Samplar Workes)
• Poppy Maye Russell (Heartstring Samplery)

Quaker Wall

• An Emblem of Love (finished)
• Spring Quaker 
• Mary Peacock

Noah Wall

• The Flood
• A Weeping and a Blessing (Barrick Samplers)
• Noah's Stocking (Carriage House - but not as a stocking)

A&E Wall

• HallowEden (finished)
• Mary Corey (The Linen Sampler)
• and here's where I get stuck I need some more in my stash. I welcome ideas from those of you who read this blog. (Hey Siobhan which other ones should I add? You've stitched so many great ones I trust your judgement.)

6. Visit the V&A and really spend some time looking at their collection. Maybe even come away with some ideas for a design of my own.

I'm sure there are other things on my list, although right now these are the ones that come to mind. If you look, that's a lot of stitching. Who knows if I'll manage to finish any or all of these, but it's a nice little list. Maybe I'll take a look at it once a year and see if it changes.

Weekend Fun

I have to admit that I have been a bad, BAD blogger. I had this written right after my weekend in August (gasp, that was like 2 1/2 months ago!) and it sat in my blogger folder as a draft since then. Why you ask? Because I kept meaning to take one single picture which I never did. So, I'm just going to post this 2 1/2 months late and beg your forgiveness. At least it has some good eye candy in it. I'm going to try and do better. I have some things to share from both my stitching and my knitting. So look for them. Thanks to those who have stuck around even when I have been quiet. And now what I did the weekend of August 19th.

_________________

I promised a report on last weekend's festivities and I don't like to disappoint. It took awhile to get around to blogging it, but hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Friday morning DF Jackie picked me up and after loading up her car with my "essentials" we headed to have a quick breakfast before going to Camp Blanding for the weekend. We were lucky enough to meet up with some friends of mine and stake out a nice spot of tables in the middle of the larger of the 2 rooms. Everyone got all set up and as they started sewing, I started stitching. Now, before you get all excited that I accomplished everything I set out to do, let me just warn you that I always set goals and rarely make them happen.

On Friday I worked on a couple of things. One was the Hemstitch Pillow, which was a class I took YEARS ago, like in 1998 or something crazy like that. It's a neat piece and apparently will take me a lifetime to finish since when I pulled it out of my bag it looked like this...

I managed to finish that 2nd row. So now the after...(ok, so there's no after picture. Which is what held up this post for months....MONTHS.)

I also worked on Daughters of Longbourn. I love this piece and hardly ever work on it. So I decided it was worth working on Friday. Here's what it looked like before:

Actually I had a little more than this done, but not much. And here's what it looked like when I put it away after a stitching and talking and looking at other people's pretty quilts and eating and talking, did I mention there was some talking?

For me that's a lot of work!

Then Saturday morning was a little hard. I had to go to a funeral so I didn't have a lot of time that morning and came back after lunch. There was also the presentation of the Quilts of Valor to Camp Blanding. That's always something to see. I did make a good start on my Chocolat for the class in November. It always takes me awhile to figure out how to get my piece sewn onto the stretcher bars! But you can see, it's going to be fantastic!

 This thread is fantastic and really I think I have plenty of time to get it done...no really.

I also managed to put in some time on Margaret W. Brown. This piece is just so sweet and if I haven't mentioned it before I just love the more muted colors that Jean at The Attic did as a conversion. Plus all those silks are just wonderful to work with. A little before....

And what it looked like after....

Jackie and I had discussed that we wanted to finish another project from our trip to Mesa in January. We decided that we could do an entire small little sampler that we got and put it in the cool frame we received during the weekend. Well, we did! Look, isn't it just too adorable?

The pattern called for the colors to be black, scarlet and a gold, but I decided to use some threads from my stash and go a bit more red, white-ish and blue. I'm working on getting this fixed so it can hang on my "alphabet wall". I need to find one of those small sawtooth hooks to attach to the back.

I did manage to add some things to my stash. There is a "sale" room where anyone can bring things that they no longer want to others can procure those items. I managed to procure several charts, and even some that were fully kitted up with fabric and fibers. All at a great deal. I also managed to "encourage" the purchase of a Singer Featherweight machine. It needs a little TLC, but was still a good deal. I almost wish I'd bought it since it was a 1935 which just might be the year my mother was born, but that can't be right so it's a good thing Eva took it home with her.

I did purchase a little bunny that's just too adorable and complete handmade by the very talented Heather Lynn. His name is Dusty and if you hurry over to here and scroll down you can see much better pictures than the one I took below of where Dusty is living for now. Although I think he likes being the bunny protector of my growing collection of "primitives".

That's all I have to share for now. It was a great weekend. I had a load of fun and can't wait for the next one in January.