Filed under: Christmas Ornaments, Embroidery Guild of America, Fiber Art Now, Fiber Forum, Other People's Pieces
I couldn’t find a ball of DMC #8 Pearl cotton in a particular color locally. So, I ordered it from Herrschners in mid October. I was surfing the website and found a garland of Christmas lights on plastic canvas. So I ordered the kit as well. I couldn’t get just one ball of DMC #8 Pearl, right?!? I had Bill put the kit away and today I opened it having forgotten all about it! I have a string of wooden light bulbs. These will be cute too.
Since I am not ready to be a full member of EGA’s Fiber Forum, I signed up for EGA’s Friends of Fiber Forum ($10/year) https://egausa.org/fiber-forum/. It’ll be a great start to see what goes on with the group.
I also got a year (4 issues) of Fiber Art Now (https://www.fiberartnow.net/). The website has tons of things to explore once you subscribe including their digital archive.
Quite a diverse selection! From plastic 7 count canvas to fiber arts.
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 Pieces, 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!
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.
My second stop in Arizona was Quail Run Needlepoint where I picked up a Christmas Cactus ornament. Particularly appropriate because we spent Christmas in Arizona & had sent a picture of Bill standing next to a big cactus saying it was our Christmas Tree this year. We were amazed at how big they grow. Later, we did see a few decorated ones. Eventually, we’ll have a decorated cactus as a memento. Perfect!
I found the most incredible thread for it too – Sea Grass (104) from The Thread Gatherer. It is flat & thin – will really elongate the natural shape of the cactus. Then, the gold Rachelette (A47) will criss-cross on top of the Sea Grass. Not that I needed much for the gift boxes but I picked up Sparkle Rays (PS03) for the yellow gift box and ThreadworX #8 braid (710541) because I doubted I had any bright yellow or blue in my stash. While I knew I had enough reds to choose from, I never tried City Needlework thread (#45), a Chinese silk.
The Quail Run seal matched the brown bag and was a perfectly fine presentation. The edges of the canvas were taped. And, I got a 10% ANG discount. They had the books, charted designs, painted canvases, Watercolours, and Waterlillies. So far, 2 wonderful stores!
I found a note that this piece is called “Western Star” by Katrina at Quail Run. Katrina doesn’t have an internet presence. She lives in the mountains of Colorado & comes into the store periodically and sells her painted canvases.
It will make a wonderful remembrance of Christmas in Arizona!
These make a lovely set from my mom’s ornament collection but I am not sure who made these. Nor can I credit the designer. Merry Christmas everyone & thanks for visiting my blog!
I think these are more of my Grandmother’s ornaments – Happy Holidays!
These are beautiful ornaments that I bid on and won at the ANG silent auction this year at Seminar in Philadelphia. The Diamond Geometric Ornament was stitched by Joyce P. and finished by Karen B. at The Pine Needle Shop. And, the Heart Ornament was stitched by Margaret Q. and finished by Sandy W. All of them did beautiful work. I do love ornaments and I think these are ones that can stay out throughout the year. I’m sure I have a little wall left somewhere!
The woman who made and sold these ornaments was only asking $1 for 3 of them! I gave her double that & still feel guilty. She should have gotten at least $2 for each! The embellishments were put on with a bit too much glue (I cleaned them up some). And, the continental/tent stitch is done slanting left to right instead of right to left. But, they are cute & are decorating my office at work!
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