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Thanks to everyone for taking their time to visit me during the year especially Carol, Rachel, Roseanne, and Karen for commenting as often as they did. My goal has been and continues to be to connect to the stitching community. So, while I love it that you visit as often as you do, I do wish more of you would leave a comment once in a while – it makes blogging so much more fun! But, that said, I have also found that even if nobody visited, I enjoy keeping track of my needlepoint in this manner.
Several people mentioned in the ANG Yahoo Group that they wanted to make a database of all the projects that they own and have yet to do. That sounds like it would take me forever! And, it sounds like it would be more depressing than I care to ponder. There are so many projects I’d like to do & ones in my head that I’d love to create that sometimes I just don’t know what to work on! I think I’m going to do a list of pending projects like I did in 2011. I see that some of those 2011 projects are still sitting undone. Two of those projects were more complicated than I expected. Since then, I have purchased and begun several wonderful pieces from classes I have taken, designed something that excites me, and been given a canvas that has interesting possibilities.
So, my mantra in 2013 is going to be PASSION. “Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” – Oprah Winfrey – My choice of projects in 2013 will be what I have a passion to stitch! And, I hope you find your passion in 2013! Continue reading below to read an interesting summary of my blogging from 2012.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 22,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 5 Film Festivals
Click here to see the complete report.
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!
Both ANG CyberPointers and ANG Mainline Chapter decided to do the Ornament Quartet by Marilyn Owens from the 2011 Chapter Handbook (http://www.needlepoint.org/CPB/images/Ornament-Quartet-Composite.jpg). And, I have finished the String Art one. Looks nice but I think I made up a new stitch by accident! Look closely at the Walneto. They don’t match. So, does that make it a Meleto? I realized when I saw Ann’s at our December Chapter meeting – she was leading us through the design & had pre-stitched the ornament. Everyone agreed that mine was fine and not worth ripping out.
It is on a light green canvas & I used Perle Cotton #8 Color 3041, DMC Floss Color 3041,Pebbly Perle P66, and Kreinik #8 braid Color 023. I have to do one more ornament of the four for a set of . . . I don’t know which of the remaining 3 designs I will select but I know what it is going to be a set of.
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!
Our ANG Main Line Chapter met tonight & I gave each of the board members a gift. The woman got a felt purse, good for carrying small needlepoint projects, that I purchased at the Philadelphia Flower Show. And, I made this change purse for our male member who, as Past President, is on our Board. This is the inside:
And, the outside is stitched with Needle Necessities Spring II (355) and Splendor Designer Collection Deft Blue (S858, S868, and S860) threads using the Swirl stitch from Stitches To Go by Suzanne Howren and Beth Robertson. I got the change purse a few years ago at Needle Me in Havertown, PA.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, Christmas Ornaments, Christmas Trees, Melita's Other Completed Pieces
Our ANG Main Line Stitcher’s Christmas meeting is tomorrow night and I have been working steadily over the past few days in order to finish this for the meeting. I “stole” it last year because I thought it was beautiful and I love Christmas ornaments! I talked about this piece previously (https://melitastitches4fun.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/christmas-trees/). But, I found the tree pattern from Stitch Landscape by Little Shoppe Canvas Company for the middle tree (16) that I selected quite difficult and time-consuming. I think that is why I put off working on it for so long. So, I switched to tree pattern 13. And, I switched to slightly less bright white threads (Fuzzy Stuff FZ27 and Arctic Rays AR3). The grass was supposed to be grass pattern 4 but the top cross thread looked messy. So, I skipped that and added some white Fuzzy Stuff to add the effect of fallen snow. For the snow just below the trees at the top part of the grass, I layed Snow (00 White) by Caron and couched it with Fuzzy Snow. Then, I layed one thread of Fuzzy Stuff on top of the Snow and couched that with Fuzzy Stuff.
There is no way that I’ll pay extra for a rush to finish it so that it can hang on my tree for this year – but I finished stitching it! Thanks again Connie!! Happy Holidays. And, what will I “steal” tomorrow tonight???
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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I took inventory today and found Hope/Cure for Breast Cancer by Rebecca Powell from the Chapter Project Book (upper left corner of picture). My ANG Mainline Chapter is doing one as a group for a community service project. I took the sketch that was provided & made a diagram to follow but the vertical intersecting lines didn’t fall where I had hoped. So, I’m scratching that canvas. In fact, I have an idea sketched out for a companion piece as our next community service project. If it turns out, maybe it would be in a future Chapter Project Book! That would be very exciting, educational, and challenging to go through the process of creating not only the stitched piece but writing up the directions, getting it pilot stitched, and writing the proposal. Stitching actually sounds like the easy part!
Moving to the right, I got a Stitch N’ Zip purse and card case set and the 2 cases just below at Nimble Needle. I am hoping the finishing is easy. Has anyone used these? Any tips?
On the upper right corner is the lovely Dragon Fly, a SharonG canvas. I made good progress on this before I stopped to finish my poppy field piece.
On the corner of the Dragon Fly is an ornament that I made a Kumihimo braid to edge the sides. My Mainline Chapter were fortunate to have Karen at Nimble Needle visit our group to show us how to finish an ornament. It got buried in a pile & I forgot to finish it.
Below that is Nancy Cucci’s piece from a 2-day class for Stitches in Sterling that 4 of us from my Mainline Chapter took with the Delaware Seashore Chapter. There was some pre-work and I did get a good amount done during the 2 days. But, it got set aside because of Mainline Chapter projects, the holidays, and my poppy field! According to my blog entry in Oct 2011, I have a design of my own floating around that I had been inspired to create – I wonder where I put that. Where does the time go?
It is easy to spot my newest canvas that came from Tapisserie in London, England and was a gift from a coworker. The store was kind enough email me the PDF of the stitched model. They deviated from the painted canvas using beads for the crown. I love the Royal Blue background and powder blue profile. I am going to do the EIIR differently. I ordered some beads and have some threads to experiment with before I tackle the canvas.
You can see I have 2 round ornaments to find a design for & stitch. This finishing is going to be easy as long as I make the round insert the correct size to start off.
The pen should work up quickly & will be a gift for my husband, Bill who has quite a collection of pens already!
It is easy to spot the canvas, Vases by SharonG. My Mainline Chapter wanted to take a summer class & so 7 of us headed to Nimble Needle for a Saturday class with Sharon. We all voted on what canvas to stitch so that we could work through the stitch guide during the 1-day class. For me, this came too close after the other SharonG class I had taken & too soon before the 2012 seminar in Philly to permit me any time to work on it since the class. But, I absolutely love the canvas.
In the middle on the bottom, I have the Ornament Quartet by Marilyn Owens. It is from the ANG Chapter Project Book. And, both my local Mainline Chapter & CyberPointers selected this in 2012 to do as a group. I have one done & the second is almost done!
Another project selected by both my chapters is the Ort Box by Marilyn Owens. Well, it is stitched but not lined and assembled.
I know I have at least one more project started from seminar 2012, Tar River Trail, a 2-day class with Gail Stafford, that has not been worked on since seminar.
I won’t even think about the other projects that reside in my basement cabinet! I know I have several in this batch of works in progress (WIP) that I have a passion to work on. The hard part is deciding which one to work on first. I have heard that some people work on different ones simultaneously. Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to try that approach. How do you prefer to work – one project start to finish or pick up different ones on different days?
Happy New Year everyone!