A big warm hug

Hi everyone,

This is just a quick note to send all of my East Coast USA friends a big warm hug and hope that you are safe and sheltered from this terrible storm called Sandy. Anne and I have been watching the news footage of the places we were visiting only 2 months ago and are so shocked by what we have seen.

Take care, we are thinking of you here in Australia.

Bye for now, Carol

More ANG class stitching

Hi everyone,

This week I managed to unstitch and re-stitch Graphic Expressions. The rest will be stitched when the back-order threads arrive. Pretty isn't it? These colours are very different and they are not a combination I would have come up with. Congratulations Sue, great choice.

Sue Reed, Graphic Expressions, ANG 2012

In between this piece and teaching an Assisi class I have stitched a little more of Atlantis Rising but only more of the outlining smyrnas. Not very interesting to see so I will post a photo when more of the specialty stitches are completed.

If you love antique samplers you may like to look into purchasing the new Needleprint book, Feller Collection 2. I had the chance to see a copy at the Guild meeting on Thursday night. Wow. A great book with lots of beautiful photos and close ups of the samplers with lots of great information as well. Definitely worth adding to your christmas wish-list.

Happy stitching, bye for now, Carol

PS: Great to see Nicola (stitching by a cornish seashore & Vonna of Twisted stitcher blog fame, back and posting.) Missed you both. Links to both on the right hand side.

Jobs and chores done so back to stitching

Hi everyone,

It has been a while since the last post. There has been lots of behind the scenes stitching. A border on a new chart project,one christmas ornament for family, one ornament for a friend and 3 small biscornu's (not in photo) for sale at our EG's Christmas Extravaganza fundraising sale in November.

House Ornament and Christmas Egg,from Just Cross Stitch Ornament Magazines,
New Chart Design with overdyed thread

Whew, now I know why my house chores didn't get done sooner. When I posted last time I mentioned I would show you the other class piece Anne and I took in Philadelphia. After looking at it many times and arguing with myself I have finally decided to change to colours to the original. Here is what I stitched in class using the alternative colours of red/green/gold. The more I looked the more the colours just didn't sing for me.

Sue Reed's Graphic Expressions - Class ANG 2012

The threads above are some of the original colours used, there are still a few more to come from my friendly needlework store so this piece will be unstitched and restitched using the lime green/blue/silver colourway when the backorder threads arrive. The piece is on 11 in stretcher bars so it is not a large piece like several others in the to-do basket. Yeah, how did that happen?

Talking about large projects, here is the latest on Atlantis Rising. There is a little progress on the diamond in the right hand corner. The large Sprats head stitch using Bijoux metallic thread is giving me a bit of grief in the counting department. It goes up to 100 so it needs peace and quiet to get it right. The effect of this stitch is really beautiful, well worth the effort. There is one more layer to go over the top to finish each of the sprats heads.

Ro Pace, Atlantis Rising, ANG 2012

We have been home nearly 4 weeks now and life is back to its routine. Shopping, cooking, cleaning and of course, stitching.

Bye for now, Carol.

Ps: Welcome to my new followers, we are now up to 50. Thank you so much for your support and ongoing friendship.

Beware empty canvas below

Hi everyone,

I have had a request (for you Nicki) for a photo of my class pieces from seminar. First I must warn you there is a lot of blank canvas. In classes I tend to stitch in my head and not so much on the canvas. Does this happen to you to? I spent a whole lot of time listening and chatting about what to do that I forgot to do. Lol..................The added bonus is that I will probably take out a fair bit of what is there and restitch. The piece survived 2 weeks in a very crowded suitcase but it is a little worn in some areas. But wow, did I learn a lot in those few days.

Here is Ro Pace's class Atlantis Rising as of now.

As you can see not a lot achieved for 4 days stitching but we were having so much fun I am so not going to feel guilty. To all of my fellow classmates I put out a challenge to finish at least half of this by Christmas and I will try to do the same. It is such a lovely design and deserves to be a finished piece.

Below are some photos of my classmates setting up for the first day of class. See all the smiles, they were a great group.

Now you can see why there is not much on the canvas. I highly recommend attending a seminar if you can. You will have lots of fun, make new friends and learn lots.

More about my 2nd class later, but now I am off to stitch woo hoo!!!

Bye for now, Carol