On another adventure with Orna. This is a 6-month class where we design our own geometric piece! I’m sure that Orna will make the process fascinating and fun. We have own own private Facebook group.
I picked up the kit yesterday and it includes:
- 45 threads (Soie Perlee, Trebizond, Kreinik 1/16 ribbon, Kreinik #8 & #12 braid, Planet Earth 6-ply silk, Silk Mori, Neon Rays, Gumnut Yarns, Needlepoint Inc Silk, Silk ‘N Colors, Waterlilies, and Watercolours) in wonderful colors. There were 3 or 4 options to choose from. They came in a 2-sided hard plastic box. Orna packages are always lovely. But, I wanted to spread them out to easily see them all.
- 11 packets of beads in various sizes and colors
- 3 pieces of canvas
- 24 watercolor pens and 3 brush tips (again, I wanted to spread them out to easily see them all)
- Desert Island Stitches, Vol 1 for small spaces (which I didn’t have and from skimming it today, it’s a great reference)
- Grid paper, a notebook, packet of blank stock paper, and a ruler
I’ve enjoyed looking over everything and am excited for class to start soon! It all fits in 5 of the plastic, stackable trays except for the grid paper (from the Container Store). And, I have made room in a cabinet so I can get to it easily.
Filed under: Come Design With Me by Orna Willis
This came to be named Come Dance With Me by the members of the class because of all the wonderful colors. Orna explained her process as follows, “I work with colors like a dance. I take two steps in one direction and then at least one step in the other. I like to start with strong colors and after I’ve worked with them I counter it with calming colors.”
In mine, there are a couple of unintentional differences because I counted wrong but I actually prefer less movement in the scalloped border. And, there are a couple intended differences including using only 2 threads of DMC floss 4124 for the orange French Knots so that the overlayed Bijoux would lay flatter (thanks to Linda’s suggestion – it’s always good to talk concerns over with her) and one French Knot for each middle area on the outermost border because two seemed too scrunched. I’m very happy with what I learned from Orna Willis through her thought process, the amazing threads, and stitching the design. Thanks Orna. All done and ready for her next design class!
Filed under: Come Design With Me by Orna Willis
This is a remote class mainly to follow how Orna designs a piece. And, it’s been interesting because she explains her thoughts as she goes along by sharing success as well as sections unstitched. As with many of Orna’s designs, there are amazing colors being incorporated. We got a kit of threads in the mail, lessons via email, and follow conversations via Facebook. I’m picking up a variety of wonderful tidbits including her preference for brown canvas because it fades away as you stitch better than white, eggshell, or sandstone. This is most of Lessons 1-3 completed (missing some French knots).
Filed under: Embracing Horses
Embracing Horses is a design by Laurel Burch. I just got back from a 3-day class at Nashville Needleworks with Laura Taylor. This piece is a stretch for me because it is so large. I’m working on 22″ x 16″ bars! The stitch guide that Laura put together is great – also challenging which is one of the reasons I took the class. It’ll be fantastic. There are different stitches than you find in books. I enjoyed Laura as a teacher – she demonstrated everything, checked on our progress, and had interesting tidbits to share! All my classmates were such nice ladies & fantastic stitchers. A wonderful 3 days.
Bill & I had a blast doing the bourbon trail in Kentucy. And, in Nashville enjoyed Johnny Cash Museum and Willie Nelson Museum. Then, with Linda enjoyed the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Old Opry! Nashville is a fun city. We’ll be back!
And, Connie has a fabulous store – three rooms! There she is with my stitching buddy, Linda. Look at all the canvases and threads!! Truly amazing. I got lucky & won one of the 2 gift certificates ($150 off next year’s class went to a local woman). The $50 gift certificate was promptly spent on a LOVE canvas (not pictured here) that I’ll use as my travel piece for my next trip.
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.
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