Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, General comments, Needlework in Progress, Pieces of Eight
Looking again at my works in progress pile, it doesn’t look as big as I thought it would. Yet, there is work to do in everything you see. Since I like immediate gratification, I decided to work first on the 4 southwestern-colored octagons (top picture, middle left) from the Pieces of Eight project we did last year at our ANG Chapter.
And, it’s first because I want to give it (bottom picture) to my framer (Dan at The Framers Workshop in Philadelphia) who I’ll be seeing this weekend to drop off the 2010 SOTM for framing. I got lucky finding a 5″x5″ matte in the brown frame. I just added a few stitches along the edge & into the unstitched corners (a Byzantine filler).
I can’t remember who gave me the suggestion of “Four Corners” but thanks. That is the only place in America where 4 states touch. And, they are Utah, Colorado, New Mexicao, & Arizona.
Come join us at 7:15 pm on the 2nd Mon of each month just 30 minutes from Center City Philadelphia & 10 minutes from King of Prussia. Or contact us at: MainLineStitchersChapter@needlepoint.org for more information.
Last year’s mantra was “Connect” with other needlepointers & I’ve done that!! Over 36,000 hits in just under 1 year. I met some wonderful people at my first ANG Seminar, won a 2nd place ribbon, & a national award! It was amazing. And, our Chapter meetings have been well received.
As 2011 is set to begin, I have to decide what to do to make 2011 half as good as 2010! I don’t do resolutions as they can be so elusive & I am left with guilt & disappointment. Well, my husband & I went shopping just before Christmas for fun! When I got the last 2011 Monet weekly planner/calendar, I realized that I want to focus on my needlepoint adaptation of Monet’s Poppy Field in 2011 – that is going to make me most happy & be the most fun & that’s why I stitch. The 4-day class I took at Seminar was Landscapes so that I could make my 5th (& last?) attempt at this piece. Since returning from Seminar something keeps getting in my way.
And, I’ve decided that’s my mantra for 2011 – “Focus and Recommit”. While I’ll focus on the Monet piece I also want to recommit to the 18-month Tudor Gold class that I began 8 months ago. I’ve also decided to free myself of a few almost finished projects – not all of the ones stored in my messy cabinet – just those ones that are cluttering my immediate vicinity. Below is a picture of my most recent pending projects.
I’m glad I saved my college friend (now a life coach), Ann Daly’s newsletters. They are going to help me recommit, prioritize, & do what’s important to me – FOCUS! Many thanks to my BFF, Ann, for all her wonderful insights & encouragement. I gain nothing financially from her work just free guidance from a good friend’s newsletters. Since most of us don’t live in Austin, TX, check her out at www.anndaly.com !
Best wishes for a Happy, Healthy New Year!! Melita
The Peace Rose is beautiful! Thanks again to friends of Myrl Good, the Princess Grace Boehm Rose Award sponsors.
As I’ve mentioned, for our ANG Chapter Project this year, we are doing samplers. Last night we had a sampler “Show & Tell” at our monthly meeting. Folks brought in a wide variety of samplers such as miniature, wedding, couching, stamped cross stitch, & historical ones. We didn’t stitch at all but had fun looking & talking about the individual histories of the dozen or so samplers people brought to share. Good time!
I’m back from Columbus Ohio, all unpacked, & ready to blog!! The seminar was a great experience. I can tell it takes a lot of effort in advance & during but it is well worth it! While I’m used to writing trip reports for work & writing in my travel journal, I know you don’t want to know what happened every day but I have to share my first impressions of Seminar.
Unfortunately, my husband, Bill & I arrived late on Saturday so I missed the first-timers get together. All we saw at the bar that night was all the hairdressers sporting some wild outfits & hairstyles for their 3 day affair. But, I got up early to volunteer at the hospitality desk. I enjoyed that & can honestly say that anyone should consider spending at least a shift there. It is easy & fun. Luckily, Barbara Richardson was working there too & informed my husband about the Jack Nicklaus museum in the area because the weather was a little iffy for the first few days of the week when he was planning on golfing.
I shopped briefly at the bookstore which must be more difficult to work at than the hospitality desk because I got charged $5,124.00 for 2 June McKnight booklets! Thank goodness for the void key. Then, since Sunday was our 23rd wedding anniversary, we wandered the North Market & had a wonderful scone for breakfast, went to a used bookstore, & a few antique stores in Columbus for a few hours (& to get my husband oriented to the area).
The exhibit area opened Sunday at noon & I hadn’t known that the ribbons would be awarded that soon. So, when my husband & I wandered in later that day, we found that Beautiful Ohio (on my blog) had received a Second Place ribbon in the Adaptation non-professional category – boy were we pleasantly surprised! This is the first time I submitted any needlepoint to be judged. I submitted 3 other pieces that I’ll blog about in the days to follow but they didn’t win anything. I did get very thoughtful, useful feedback on those pieces from the judge’s critiques (which I was given on the last day). Well, it wasn’t long until the Welcome Banquet. We sat with some folks from various parts of the country & enjoyed chatting with them. Even though Beautiful
Ohio qualified for the Princess Grace Award, since it was a second place winner, I was shocked when it won the Princess Grace Award. What a wonderful surprise!
We topped off the evening by meeting & having a drink with Josie, a fellow stitcher, her husband & my husband’s golf partner for the trip, Tony. What a nice couple! And, thanks again to you both.
Over the whole rest of the week, it was so nice to put names with so many faces of stitchers & teachers. And, in halls & elevators, I heard “Oh, you’re the Melita who blogs all the time.” more often than I expected! I’m glad you enjoy it as much as I have been. So, thanks for telling me – I really appreciated it.
Pat Rusch was gracious to take over in Lois Kershner’s absence for our Landscape class. I learned several things regarding perspective & implied lines which made driving home more distracting than usual – as I do most of the driving & was looking as much at the terrain as the road!! I created a stitch guide, selected threads, stitched some, & look forward to reading the booklet in more detail now that I’m home. I’ll finish Santacicle first though so that I can get it to the finisher in time for Christmas.
Filed under: General comments
I celebrate 6 months of blogging with my 99th post (Cypress Tree) today! I’ve gotten about 22,800 hits since I started in mid-Jan. And, I accomplished what I set out to do – connect with the needlepoint community! This has been a fun 6 months – you’ve seen some good & some bad.
And, I’ve posted most of my completed bodies of work (at least ones’ I still have or have taken pictures of before gifting them). I’ve saved a couple for each month & the first of the month’s calendar. So, you won’t be seeing as many new posts unless I am reporting on my progress of ongoing projects (SOTM or Sun Flower). It does take time to blog. And, if I’m blogging, I’m not stitching. Now, hopefully, I will be able to check in on other bloggers more often.
Thanks again everyone!!
Woodlawn was a wonderful needlepoint exhibit sponsored by a talented and committed group, Nelly’s Needlers. They deserve a standing ovation for the work they do for the month of March. They are “a volunteer organization responsible for preserving and promoting the tradition of the needle arts among the general public . . . “. They are dedicated as 3 meetings a month & 50 hours of community service work (such as work in classes to teach juniors) must be completed to be an active member.
FYI: All entries must be by a living person. For juniors, work must be completed within the last year (no such restriction for adult). Commercial includes charted or painted canvas, printed graphs, kits, class projects. We saw every technique displayed. And, canvas work is defined as embroidery stitched through an even-weave canvas (traditional using 1-4 stitches or multi-stitch using 5 or more stitches).
I was surprised to see a piece I had completed last year, Exodus Breastplate – I’d recognize it anywhere. And, my husband was the first to spot the first of 3 different Pieces of Eight displayed, each of which has been personalized by switching colors or adding additional stitches.
Catherine Jordan’s surface embroidery (IMG 3972, 3973, 3974, 4014) is amazing – you can see through them. They are so small but are whole scenes! Of the vast embroidery, the stumpwork impressed me most – possible because I hadn’t seen that before. The 3-dimensional effect of the bird was life-like (IMG 797). I saw some surface embroidery that makes me want to get back to the Brazilian embroidery I learned a year or so ago – just lovely work. There was a cross-stitch of dogs that looked like a photo. The crewel sunflower was spectacular (IMG 866). I thought the original lillypad design was stunning – not a large piece but it popped when you walked in the room – did for me anyway (IMG66)!! We never would have known but one of the hostesses told us that one piece had actually stitched on a bra (IMG3936)! In case you misplaced the link to the photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/sets/72157623455198693/
Thanks to Jane (http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/) for instructions: If you want to look up the items that won awards that I mention, enter the IMG number in the search box. BEFORE you push Enter, use the Search pull down menu to choose Preservation Nation’s albums so that you don’t get results from all over Flicker.
For the People’s Choice Award, my husband & I both voted for a commercial piece that didn’t win a ribbon or even get honorable mention. It had a colorful multi-stitch needlepoint center design with a mat of a gold stitched frame design surrounding it & then framed again with a real frame. It was beautiful. It’s by Nancy Poe (#60) if you get there – unfortunately, it is not a photographed piece. Our 2nd place People’s Choice award goes to Gail Stafford (#67) for a small but original landscape design.
I learned how to spread Flair on a wire to create a wing of a dragonfly! And, lunch was delicious – don’t pass on the lemon tart!
We enjoyed Alexandria – beautiful city – loved the Frank Lloyd Wright house & spent most of the rest of the time walking/eating/drinking our way along King Street which was bustling – our feet are tired!
Thanks to Jane/Chilly Hollow for directions to ‘In Stiches’ – GPS didn’t recognize Pear Tree Court. They have a lovely store, classroom area, nice variety of items. I bought threads for the 2010 ANG Seminar name-tag contest. I thought it appropriate to use Sampler Threads from The Gentle Art as they are located in Ohio! And, ‘In Stitches’ found a chair for husband so he could read as I browsed. Wonderful weather & weekend wandering!!
Filed under: General comments
I finally figured out how to change the top banner! So, until I decide on a personalized one, I’ll pick this in honor of our record-breaking snowfalls this winter.
Filed under: General comments
I just figured out how to change my tagline! And, how to fix the clock – I’m not on UTC time now – who even knew there was a Coordinated Universal Time! There is a lot of functionality to blogging that I haven’t figured out yet but I’ll figure it out over time. I don’t want to cut into my stitching too much – especially after sitting a computer all day long.
Melitastitches4fun's Blog 
Filed under: General comments, Project Gutenberg
The Ladies’ Work-Table Book (from 1844)
Containing Clear and Practical Instructions in Plain and Fancy Needlework, Embroidery, Knitting, Netting and Crochet
Irish Stitch.—This is the production of an Irish lady of high rank. Bring your needle up No. 1 over four threads down 41, one stitch back two threads, up 22 down 62, up 43 (observe this is in a line with 41) down 83, up 64 (in a line with 62) down 104, up 102 down 62, up 81 down 41, continuing thus over the square. The spaces left between every other stitch must be filled up with half stitches; for instance, up 81 down 101, up 83 down 103. It is also some[67]times worked covering six and eight threads of the canvas at a time, coming back three or four threads, in the same proportion as the directions given. This stitch is proper for grounding, when the design is worked in tent or cross stitch; and the effect would be heightened by two strongly contrasted shades of the same color. It can be applied to a great variety of devices, diamonds and vandykes for example, and many others which will suggest themselves to the fair votaries of this delightful art. It looks pretty, and is easy of execution.
Basket Stitch.—This is the same as Irish stitch, but the arrangement is different. Work three stitches over two threads; these are called short stitches; and then the long ones are formed by working three over six threads, the centre of which are the two on which the short stitches were worked. Thus you must continue the short and long stitches alternately, until you have finished the row. In the next, the long stitches must come under the short ones; and this diversity must be kept up until all the rows are completed. To finish the pattern, you have only to run a loose film of wool under the long stitches on each of the short ones, and the task is done.
Project Gutenberg is a wonderful resource!