A One Day Stitching Retreat

Earlier this April, I went to an all day stitching retreat held in the conference room of a Holiday Inn in Pittsburgh. Some of the Oglebay retreat ladies had mentioned it to me. Well, one thing led to another, then somebody forwarded an email to me and I decided to send in my reservation.

By all accounts, this was a rather hot ticket.  There is a specific mailing date and then it's first-come, first-served and then there's a waiting list after all the spots are filled.  And since the same people come year after year, I was thinking that my only chance was to watch the obituaries and see if I could squeeze in after some poor stitcher put in her last stitch.  Well, her last "earthly" stitch, anyway.  But lo and behold, poof!  I was in!

It was a very nice affair. Started at 8:30AM and included a light breakfast, a delicious lunch and then a light supper. It was supposed to end at 11PM, but I was tuckered out by 9:00 and knew I had a long drive home, so I left early. But many ladies stayed until the very end, and I know that several of the stitchers were spending the night at the hotel. For the first time in a long time, I wasn't the one who traveled the farthest.

Well, I had a lovely day.  There was stitching and eating and door prizes and contests and Show and Tell and shopping....have I left anything out?

Oh, I discovered that one of the ladies reads my blog (Hi there, Janice!),  And after reading all of my nonsense over the years, she still sat next to me for 12 hours.  Imagine that?  She's a brave woman.

So anyway, here's the project I worked on that day.  It's one of the smaller BBD charts and it's on 32 ct. Antique Ivory linen, stitched with HDF "Meadow" silk.  It used exactly five yards of silk.  And I loved every stitch.

Next post - KANSAS IN SPRINGTIME!  (or:  where is the nearest tornado shelter?)

Where to begin?

I honestly don't know where to start today.  I have about a million things to tell you all and if I try to fit it all into one post - well, it'll drive us both crazy!

I think that since Easter is coming in just a few short days, I'll show you pictures of my visit to the local "Eggstravaganza" (No snickering allowed.  My husband snickered and it almost earned him a punch.)

There were about a dozen or so egg artists there, selling their beautiful eggs.  Some of my classmates displayed their eggs, too and if you ask me, they are just as lovely as the vendors' eggs. 

There is another type of egg design, called drop and pull.  The best way I can describe it is kind of like the reverse of pysanky technique.  Instead of doing the process by waxing then dyeing, the egg is dyed first and the wax is applied as the decorative part.  The last two eggs show that technique.  Very pretty.

You should be able to click on the photos to enlarge them and see the details of the eggs.

My classmates' eggs

More classmates eggs!

And more from my class friends

Sometimes simple color schemes are perfect.

Blurry, but this egg was stunning

Brown egg at the bottom used plant material and onion skin dying

Drop and pull eggs by my friend, Joe Borytsky

More drop and pull eggs

There were also ethnic foods for sale and I won't even tell you how good that nutroll was...

Next post - loads of stitching news, including two wonderful stitching events!

They may be slow, but...

You all are too funny!  Loved, loved, loved your comments! 

But even though zombies may have that awkward shuffling gait and not move very quickly, let's be reasonable about how much needlework one person can carry, yet still move fast enough to outrun the walking dead.

For instance, if she has any hope of getting away, Theresa (Girl With Needles) is going to need one of these.

Theresa's Needlework Sherpa in case of zombie attack

My April Answer and its Tie-in to Zombies

 (Preface:  This post is a whole lot of silly.  I won't be offended if you skip it.  Really)

OK, well, the short answer to the April Question about record keeping is that over the past five years I've come to rely exclusively on my blog to record everything I've stitched.  Before blogging, I didn't even own a camera.

My parents were real shutterbugs who loved taking pictures of the kids when they would visit, and since they live so far away, they often took pictures of things around my house, including my stitching.  Mom and Dad always got double prints and then sometimes I'd get lucky and they'd send me copies.

But my most recent needlework history (2006 till now) resides locally in My Pictures and online through my blog.

But here's the thing - I've been watching the AMC series, Walking Dead. In this show, zombies are everywhere. The entire world has collapsed.  No electricity.  No mass communication.  It's all GONE. 

Of course, small groups of humans that have miraculously survived. Our main character wakes up alone in the midst of this crisis and goes in search of his family.  He decides his family is alive because although their house is empty, the photo albums are gone. And he knows that his wife would never leave without those albums, so she must have escaped.

Now in my photo world, almost everything is digital, so if a future zombie outbreak happened, I'd just grab a little thumb drive and head for the hills.  And I'd be content knowing that my needlework history is online, too.  But what good would that do if you couldn't fire up a computer? 

Well readers, we can be prepared for a zombie-filled world.  There's a company called Blurb that'll help you publish your blog as a Blurb book (for a fee, of course) and then you can just take your book with you as you run from the house.  It shouldn't be too hard to escape.  (Zombies move very slowly and they have no frontal cortex.)

But now I have a new question - Assuming that the zombies haven't entered your house yet, what needlework would you grab?  So that if someone - your husband, children, mother, friends...whoever - came into your house they would know you got out alive because they know that you'd never leave without....(fill in the blank)

I'd grab my family sampler and I'd wrap it up in the white on white baby quilt that I made for my daughter.  So those zombies had better beware.  I can be one mean cookie.

My Favorites of March

Either March is too long or else you all are too talented.  I could have gone on forever and used up the bandwidth of the entire internets, but I managed to put together a page that won't break your browser with its enormity.

Really, you all must slow down.  You're making me crazy.

Go here to see my favorites.  Divided by like a thousand because there were way too many great posts this month.

Sometimes I shake my head

Life in a fairly poor and rural county can be challenging.  It's all to easy to poke fun and be overly critical, so I try to follow the motto, "Live and Let Live." I know I'm far from perfect.

But still - sometimes I read the local rag and sigh.  Our county's drug and alcohol commission recently sponsored a social function, a Buffettman beach party, featuring a Jimmy Buffett impersonator. 

Really?  You are counseling drug and alchohol abstinence and yet you are highlighting a singer whose most famous song lyric is "Wasted Away in Margaritaville"?  Who is trying to trademark the name "Tiger Blood" for his own line of Vodka/Energy drinks?  Who also markets his own brand of beer and readymix margaritas? 

Oh, the irony...

Sampler finish and more eggs!

Over the weekend I put the last stitches into Dandy Dreams.  I can't wait to frame this one and get it on the wall next to Spring Violets. 

Dandy Dreams by Silver Creek

Stitched on "Fog" Picture this Plus 28ct linen

Charted for DMC, but I substituted with Sullivans' Threads

It was so much fun to stitch and I thought of my Kansas friends the whole time I stitched it.  Maybe you all do that, too.  When you've been stitching and shopping with friends and you think of them all the while as you stitch the things you purchased that day?  This sampler will always remind me of my trip to Kansas for the Heartland Shop Hop last year.  I spent the weekend hanging out with an old friend and meeting new ones...what could be better?

I've also been working on my Birthday project - one of the oldest samplers in my stash.  It's coming along nicely.  I decided not to change a thing about it...I'm letting it remain true to its 1988 roots. And because I'm using undyed linen and regular DMC, it's washable. So I'm stitching this in hand - no scroll frame or lap frame, and I have to say I'm enjoying its "no fuss" nature. 

Antiqued Sampler, by Eileen Bennett

Oh boy, last night was another Pysanky egg class.  It's more fun than I would ever have thought.  I may have to make eggs for all seasons, not just Easter.  

This coming Sunday the church that hosts our class will hold its annual Eggstravaganza.  (Don't snicker...my husband snickered when I said that.  Ha.  He won't snicker when he sees me taking the checkbook)  It's a festival of egg makers and designers and I really hope they let me take photos because the displays are going to be gorgeous!  They'll be selling eggs and egg-decorating supplies, as well as some other ethnic crafts.  

I've always been interested in their Easter Cloths - that's the cloth used to cover the food taken to church in Easter baskets to be blessed on the Saturday before Easter.  They're embroidered with symbols, can be quite elaborate and many are passed down from mothers to daughters through the generations.   Are any of you familiar with this?  I used to take a basket to church on Easter Saturday, filled with representations of my Easter Sunday meal, but I never had a beautiful cloth, and as time went by I somehow I got away from doing it. Just got busy with other things, I guess.

But anyway...the eggs!  I finished fewer eggs this week, because I didn't do my homework.  (Shades of my high school career are coming through).  So this week I finished a maroon and turquoise egg, a pink egg with flowers and a red egg with scroll work on the top.  The instructor was awfully busy this week, too, so I didn't have time to empty my other finished eggs.  Now I can worry about them for another week.

I wasn't too happy with this egg.  It looks like a crazy person drew on it and the colors aren't as vivid as I like.  But I do like my work on its top and you can see that in the photo with the bowl of eggs below. It's the red one at the bottom right.

Next week will be our last class of the year.  And I'll be sad, sad, sad.

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Edited to add a photo of a Ukrainian Easter Basket cloth:

Not my design, but from Ukrainian Gift Shop, Inc.

April Stitching Bloggers Question

OK, maybe some of you are really on the ball this year and your tax returns are done and neatly filed away.  Or maybe, like me, you're just starting to sort through your documents and trying to get organized.  I think I'm realizing that my household record keeping could use a bit of an overhaul.

 On the other hand, my record keeping for stitching finishes is pretty well organized.  How about you?  And that is the crux of the May SBQ. 

Do you keep records of your finishes?  We are so lucky to have so many record-keeping tools at our disposal to record our accomplishments.  So if you do, what recording methods do you use?  What do you think is important to record when you've finished a design? 


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Well readers, this month means that a year has passed since I started republishing the Stitching Bloggers Question.  I think that it's time to pass this torch along though, so I wonder if any of you might like to try your hand at this for a year?  Many of you ask questions all the time in your blog posts, so you know that coming up with questions isn't difficult at all.  I've had friends contribute ideas, too and no doubt you'll have friends who can give you great input, also.  And I think that the whole idea of the SBQ will stay more "fresh" if we take turns hosting it. 

So what do you think?  Drop me an email (available in my profile) if you'd like to host the SBQ for a bit.  If more than one person is interested, I'll just pull a name from a hat.

Eggs!

Here are some of the eggs I've made in my pysanky class. They aren't finish-finished. I still have the yucky task of blowing out the egg contents.  That's probably going to be one of the more harrowing tasks, too, because that's when your egg can crack.  Or even explode.  Pleasant, huh?  (No matter how hard I try, I don't think I could make any needlework explode when I finish-finished it.)  Then they'll get sprayed with clear coat.  I still need to improve my techniques, like drawing straight lines.  And segmenting the egg properly.  And I'd like to get a lot better at understanding the dying process.  Hmm.  I should have said that I still have improve at everything.  So don't laugh at my eggs, ok?  I've admitted my weaknesses!

This class focuses on using symbols and the designs we're using are quite traditional.  It reminds me of the symbols we see in samplers.  So these traditional designs are a starting point but really, anything goes.  For instance, the green egg was for St. Patrick's Day.  Just some little shamrocks, but it was a good exercise in dividing the spaces on the egg.

OK, so here they are a little closer.  See the black egg?  That was very cool.  It's just a medium sized brown egg.  We drew the designs on with our hot wax and then dipped the whole thing in black.  I love the negative effect.  Next to it is an egg that I had wanted to be dark red, but I left it in the dark red too long and it became dark maroon - even brown.  But it was fun to do.

I love my red fish egg.  I had missed a class, so the instructor had started it for me (notice her lovely and thin line work?  She works very smooth and fast)  I did the parts in yellow.  It's such a happy little egg.

The purple egg was probably the most difficult egg to do.  Lots of detail and lots of trips to the dye containers.  But I wanted to show you the top of it.  Just like stitchers, most of the egg decorators sign and date their eggs. 

I have two more classes to attend and I must say that I'll be really sorry when they are over.  I may have to buy my own dyes....it's that addicting!

Time to catch up a little

It may not seem like it, but I've been doing things other than ranting and raving about inaccurate reporting and stereotyping of stitchers. (Although I was glad to get so many supportive comments about those raves)

Is it a sign that I'm getting older when I get so sensitive to and aggravated by put-downs about the past? I'd prefer to think that my "maturity" has made me realize the value of our history as stitchers. Each phase or fashion has been built on a previous phase or fashion. And each phase or fashion has its own beauty and worth. I could give you a dozen examples of this, but gang...I'm preaching to the choir here. You all get it, I know.

Anyway!  I must move on.

Dandy Dreams is almost finished.  One more puff ball to go.

And I received a lovely birthday gift in the mail from Sue. (She contributes to a blog, but it's a private one.) Sue and I met through a mutual friend at a Silver Needle retreat back in 2007. Then we reconnected again last year when I went to the Heartland Shop Hop. Such a sweetheart! 

Sue is a prolific and talented stitcher. One of her more recently completed BAPs is a Prairie Schooler Santa afghan with every single PS Santa card design.  (Can't find a photo of that right now, but if I find it later, I'll show you.) And one of Sue's current WIP's is the PS Alphabet series. Will you look at all the detail?

So boy-oh-boy was I ever thrilled when this little masterpiece appeared in my mailbox!  Sue took motifs from one of my favorite sampler designers, Eileen Bennett of Sampler House, and created this one of a kind pincushion for me.  It's just too pretty for words, so here are a couple photos.

And what's peeking out from behind the pincushion?  I finally went to the framer's and picked up Live, Love Laugh.  I'm happy with it.  Not over the top, though.  I think there is a bit too much space between the stitching and the frame.  If I had it to do over, I'd bring it all a little closer in.  I really should pay more attention when I'm discussing these details and go with my gut and not assume that the framer is always correct.  I think she was in love with my fabric and so was trying to showcase the fabric and my stitching got a little lost in the process.  Nobody to blame but myself though.  And I'm certainly not complaining.  I'm thrilled that I had some Christmas gift money left over to splurge on framing!

Tonight is Pysanky Egg class.  It's time to get crazy!  I hope I'll have something photo worthy to show you after this class.
So till then...

Grandmothers, needlepoint and thoughts on a whole lot of uninformed writing

Recently, Donna posted an article published by The Washington Post that caught my attention.  Maybe I'm fired up because it's on the heels of another article that Ms. Anna (who is keeping track of the white haired lady labels) posted.  (Really?  Languishing in a design wasteland?)  Regardless, I've decided it's time I did something about it.

I have SO had it with all of the grandmother references (not to mention dusty - that really burns my butt) whenever a reporter decides that the entire needleworking world has been remade anew just because he or she has recently found some really cool needlework designs.  Like the designs they've discovered are so much more relevant and attractive. Seriously.  And like the designs they've discovered are totally new to the needlework world.  Feh.  This stuff has been around forever.  How self serving and uninformed is it to say that because it's new to you, it's new to the world?

Ok, let me take a step back here and calm down.

(Taking a breath.)

I mean, on the one hand, I appreciate that our art is getting some press and attention, but on the other hand, does it always have to come with a slap to our history as needleworkers? Because that slap is certainly undeserved. 

Long time stitchers, are we really that easy of a target that we will sit back and let writers describe us as "grandmothers stitching dusty cushions of fusty florals"?  Does any other crafting group let themselves get stepped on the way we seem to be stepped on?  Would quilters put up with this stereotyping?  How about hobbyists, crafters and artists who are non-needleworkers?  Like photographers, chefs, modelers, or potters?  Certainly not.

Do you all remember when Mo Rocca, a contributor to the radio show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me mentioned that he didn't like homemade sweaters because they were all itchy?  The knitting world rose up and responded like nobody's business and he actually offered an apology.  It's offered tongue-in-cheek, but it the knitters' message seems to have been received loud and clear.

I think that we need to be heard loud and clear, too.  So I responded  to the Washington Post article.  Maybe some of you feel the same way, and if you blog, you probably are pretty good at putting words together effectively and writing your own response when articles of this nature appear.

Now, knowing that I like to be Boss of the World, you may want to sit back and let me respond on all of your behalves.  But I'd encourage you to respond on your own and at best, the articles about us may change.  At worst?  Well, venting about it can feel kind of good.

Through the magic of Paint

Thanks to all of you for your advice to make my sampler just the way I want it.  In the end, I decided that both of those empty spots needed something, but just to be sure (and because I'm running low on thread), I scanned the sampler and then edited it in Paint.

So the results are below.  Even though all of the letters are A's right now, I'm going to stitch "PA" (for Pennsylvania) under the CE in Peace.  And I'm going to stitch my initials over the heart.  Over one.  Argh.  It's on 28 ct. linen, but it'll still make me crazy.

So now are you completely impressed with my command of photo editing software?  I should have remembered that I could do this, because I've done it before. Several years ago we were trying to take a family photo and a certain son wouldn't cooperate.  We took one picture that he looked nice in, but the rest of us looked stupid.  So then he refused to smile nicely in the pictures we took later. 

So later that day, I cut and pasted a smiling face head onto his body.  Except I didn't get the proportions right.

So then I laughed myself silly, and knew that I couldn't stop there.

Yes.  Clearly I'm an idiot.  I'd say that I need a hobby, but....well, you know.  I already have one.

Almost done but need some advice

I came really close to finishing this sampler last night, but my eyes just gave out after stitching the over-one K.  I ask you:  Where are my over-one stitching pals when I need them?  Please come over and stitch DEFG for me! 

So here are my questions.  I'm deciding if I want to put my initials (Oh no - more over-one stitching!), and if I do, where to put them.  There are two emptyish places that feel like they need something.  First, under the "CE", and second above the heart in the bottom right corner.  What do you all think?  Either place or neither place and just a simple ELO in backstitch outside the border? 

Mary Garry's Peace Sampler as of March 18

Once this is finished, I'll have this red Quaker (Well, Weathered Barn, anyway), and a green Quaker.  I just bought the threads for a blue Quaker. 

Now I just need more $$ for framing and more walls in my house.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Those Irish sure have a way with blessings, don't they?

Irish Blessing Freebie from The Sampler Girl, stitched in 2009

Such fun!

Ahhh.  Spring break.  It's the fun of having kids home for break without the hassle of a holiday.  It's really very nice. Winter break can be a killer, what with them all coming home and me being in the throes of all the Christmas prep.  It makes me really appreciate Spring break.

Colleen was home for a few days, so we squeezed in some time to bake some meringue cookies.  I hadn't done meringues in years, but it's really just like riding a bike.  We used a recipe from this site, and it was practically fool proof.  Colleen wrote about them a bit on her blog, but I'll steal one or two of her photos anyway.

Dave has been away on his yearly golf trip, and I had plans to do all kind of housework, but  - - - well, we all know how that goes.  I'd rather stitch late into the night.

So on to the stitching.  This is such a fun sampler!  I'm almost finished - only the grass below and another leaf or two remain.  But it's easy stitching and that type of stitching is nice to have when I'm stitching with friends so I'm going to put it away till then.  I have another Silver Creek chart in my stash and it's just as charming. 

Dandy Dreams

I absolutely can't thank Barb enough for letting me borrow this Mary Garry chart. I'm enjoying every stitch and it also seemed to cure my inability to count. I haven't made any counting mistakes so far, and I had been plagued by counting errors the last time I stitched something Quakerish. Of course, that doesn't mean that I didn't make any mistakes at all. In 200 years, museum curators will assume that I didn't know my alphabet, but will I care? No.

 

Peace Sampler

In other news, I ran across an article in the newspaper about a local church offering pysanky egg decorating classes.  It's something I've always wanted to learn about, so I packed my eggs and paper towels and off I went.

Now before you get all excited, this is just a photo I grabbed from this site.  These are not my eggs.  (My first egg looks like it was done by a toddler.  With his toes.)  But I wanted to show you these because any sampler lover out there will look at these eggs and understand why I love them.  The way the designs march around the egg.  The symmetry.  The symbols.  The vivid colors.  So I'm going to stick with it.  On Tuesday nights there are a bunch of crazy ladies running around a church basement, dipping eggs in dye and getting color all over the place and it's wonderful.  Oh, and burning candles.  It makes it somewhat more exciting and thrilling having all of those open flames going. 

I hope to have some of my own to show you as we get closer to Easter.  Preferably done by middle aged hands and not toddler toes.

Spring break

My daughter was home for a little while and before I know it, my son will be home.  So things are a little topsy turvy and I haven't posted since last week.  But I have been stitching.  Oh - and buying.  It's a good thing money grows on trees.  Wait....it doesn't?

I'll be checking in again later!

My Older but Better Choice

This is the design I've chosen for my Birthday month project.  I started stitching in 1984, but except for a few Just Cross Stitch issues, I don't have any designs from back then.  Still, this design goes back a long way - to 1988 - and I know that I was buying practically everything Eileen Bennett was publishing back then, so I'm going to say it's a safe bet that I bought this hot off the press.

It's a nice, nice piece.

I love the grape border. (Reminds me of my Grape Arbor Girls)

It has seven different specialty stitches, but I like them all.  There aren't any that give me fits (I'm lookin' at you Queen Stitch).

The colors aren't too 1980's.  Just a little DMC 223 and 224.

And Ms. Bennett was sure ahead of her time with her suggestion for tea-dying (and the directions) on the back.  Back in 1988, I would have blanched at the thought of that, but now, 23 years later, I'm running for the tea bag.  Maybe an old coffee filter, too. 

I'm looking forward to starting this during the month of March!  Oh - by the way - If you've mentioned that you'd like to try a Birthday month project this year, I've added you to my sidebar along with a link to your blog or your profile.  Some of you hadn't made your project decisions yet, so I just wrote "Project".  But if you want to tell me when you decide, I'll update the list.

Fun and springy

I needed something springy and fast to stitch, and I love these Britty Kitties.  He fit perfectly into a standard frame, too.

I really need to get a cat.

Me and Mary Garry are enjoying each other, too.  I could be done very soon.  Except I know I need to get the good ol' Electron Microscope out to manage the rest of the over one letters. 

Tomorrow I'll show you my Birthday chart choice. I think you'll like it.

A bit more on family heritage

Last night was book club night and I was the book selector and hostess.  I know in the past I've talked about some of the book club things that bug me, but I have to say that last night went very well.

The book I chose was Julia Child's autobiography, My Life in France.  I chose it because I'm a big fan and wanted to learn more about her.  My paternal grandparents were French immigrants, and that drew me into the book, also.

My worry was that the book wouldn't hold up for anyone who wasn't as fascinated by Julia Child as I am, but I have to say that the members (except one) enjoyed the book and the account of her life.

Then to try to bring it back home again, I created a little display of some family photos and mementos.   

Sers and Merrisse famliy photos and momentos. 

Photos of my great grandparents and my grandmother, along with her recipe book

Letter my grandmother wrote when she was ten, (stunning penmanship!) some swimwear photos and photo of the Sers family.  The photo in the gold frame is my grandmother when she was close to 90. 

One of my grandmother's demitasse cups and great grandmother's coffee grinder

It's such a coincidence that this all came on the heels of the March SBQ, because I really didn't plan it that way. Isn't the universe funny?