On Friday after picking up Linda and before heading to Horseshoe Bay Resort, Linda and I shopped at The Nashville Needleworks. It’s a lovely, huge store! There are tons of threads, a nice selection of canvases, and an incredible amount of beads. No counted designs as far as I recall. And, the class or stitching room in the back is fantastic. A great size, open, bright, and lights are at each seat!
I found this adorable boot by Kelly Clark, a stitch guide to go with it, and the threads.
Since I had too many ornaments for our little table top Christmas Tree, I finally decided to create another tree to hang some hand-crafted ornaments. I still have a few that didn’t fit. The board is the center part of a black poster board trifold with the side panels removed. One side panel is taped on the back to add some spacer for the push pins. I used black duct tape to protect the edges and green duct tape to make the tree.
All the ornaments have been hand-made by myself, my mother, and my grandmother or bought at a craft show except for the 3 wooden ones near the top because I wanted a couple of more snowflakes and a big star to top the tree. Most are cross stitch designs but the bottom center one is my own needlepoint design with one of my favorite Christmas pins.
Filed under: ANG Keystone Garden Chapter, ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, Christmas Ornaments, Christmas Ornaments, Melita's Other Completed Pieces, Santacicle
Here’s Santa’s row – they are so cute together hanging in the hallway. The one on the left is my Santacicle by Janet Casey Ziegler from a class at my first ANG seminar.
Linda’s Snow Globe Santa by Janet Casey Ziegler is in the center.
Peg Dunayer’s Triangle Santa ornament from Needlepoint Now (Nov/Dec 2007) was finished through Nimble Needle and I absolutely love it! The sparkles just make it a little more special. My ANG Keystone Garden Chapter stitched as a project in 2014 and when I got it back I forgot to post it too – been slipping on my blog.
Wishing one and all a happy holiday and a healthy New Year!!
Filed under: ANG Keystone Garden Chapter, Christmas Ornaments, Melita's Other Completed Pieces, Other People's Designs, Santacicle, Snow Globe Santa, Triangle Santa Ornament by Peg Dunayer
This Snow Globe Santa by Janet Casey Ziegler was stitched by Linda from my ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter. I was thrilled when she gave it to me last Christmas but I forgot to place it on my blog. So, here it is for posting this Christmas!
And, I was just as happy to get a Christmas Basket this year from Linda. Yes, she’s also a beautiful sewer.
I did make pillowcases for a charity, Ryan’s Cases for Smiles, earlier this year. Linda helped me with them too because it had been 40 years since I’d used a sewing machine. The two we made are in the upper left corner of the picture. Then, I made 2 more at our Community Day at work using a regular machine and a surger. It was fun. One of the women in my group enjoyed the event so much that she is getting a sewing machine for Christmas. Linda kept her eyes open for sales & found a great deal from Steve’s in King of Prussia, the Anna model, half off for just $200 and a great machine for a beginner. It almost makes me want to take up sewing!!
But, I have tons of needlepoint projects started and ideas of my own that I want to work on and 3 big events with classes coming in 2017. Linda and I are both attending Blue Bonnet for Toni Gerdes’ classes Fire & Ice and Bronze Purse in February and Nashville Needleworks in April with Laura Taylor for Embracing Horses. Then, I will take a 4-day canvas embellishment class at ANG Seminar in Anaheim with Cynthia Thomas after taking her Creating Diagrams and Stitch Guides using Microsoft Office class. I didn’t forget about my husband, Bill. We’re extending each trip to take in local sites. And, we have a non-needlepoint train trip across Canada planned for July-August (actually, I will stitch but no classes). We’ll be married 30 years in Oct 2017 – lots of fun times ahead!
Finally, the proper weather to get back to stitching Patti Mann’s Nov Mums (9110) which I got at Rita’s Needlepoint over the summer. The stitch guide is from Betsy at Fireside Stitchery. She had that ready after I got back from seminar. Working on the background (a mosaic darning pattern) today.
I am reading Wicked by Gregor Maguire. And, I find a reference to trapunto! While I haven’t done any, I do know the term.
According to wiki, Trapunto is Italian for “to quilt,” ans a method of quilting that is also called “stuffed technique.” A puffy, decorative feature, trapunto utilizes at least two layers, the underside of which is slit and padded, producing a raised surface on the quilt.
Glinda approached slowly, either through age or shyness, or because her ridiculous gown weighed so much that it was hard for her to get up enough steam to stride. She looked like a huge Glindaberry bush, was all the Witch could think; under that skirt there must be a bustle the size of the dome of Saint Florix. There were sequins and furbelows and a sort of History of Oz, it seemed, stitched in trapunto in six or seven ovoid panels all around the skirting.
I had to look up furbelows. I found out that means a pleated or gathered piece of material like a ruffle.
This example of trapunto (brown puffy areas) is from Sandy Arthur’s Gated Secrets, an ANG Correspondence Course.
Filed under: Christmas Ornaments
This is called “Poinsettia Ornament” and is a companion to another ornament called A Hilton Holiday also designed by DebBee’s Designs.
When it comes back from the finisher, I’ll post both together.
Filed under: Grandma's Heart
Grandma’s Heart is for Rose (a dear friend) to give to her granddaughter. Isn’t it adorable?
It’s Paragon Needle craft counted cross stitch kit from 1986. It’s on 14 count Aida, used DMC cotton floss, and is 5″ X 9″.
The larger flexible hoop with the wood grain finish looked a lot nicer than the wooden hoop surrounded by lace would have looked.
By ordering earlier and having my husband put them away, I had totally forgotten about the first two needlepoint gifts shown below.
This is a Mindy canvas called Hearts in Heart.
I’m sure that I’ll learn a lot from this color tool.
And, I’m finally getting a subscription to this magazine. I resisted for years because I didn’t want to be tempted by more projects. But, it’s fun to read anyway!
The kit was given to me as a thank you gift from Michele Roberts (her design was to read “stitch on”) & I continued the thank you by stitching it for Roya (coworker) who gave me the Queen’s canvas. Roya has family in the UK & she knits (easily switched). So, this seemed perfect. And, she liked it!
The frame is from Michael’s.
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