Mystic Stitcher's Hideaway

It was a fantastic experience ... This was a whole new venue for me ... small [about 30 stitchers] and intimate, with approximately 15 hours devoted to stitching one project, having the time to actually learn and practice a new skill and actually getting to a point where the project is at least half done. In the past I have gone to two CATS events with it's one or two hour classes where one merely sees a stitch or technique demonstrated and, at best, gets to stitch it once or twice on a doodle cloth before moving on to the next class. The end result is that two years later, I have still completed only half the CATS projects from 2005 and 2006. But I am literally itching to finish my hardanger pocket and get started on the other pieces in the kit: a tuffet with lots of hardanger, a scissor case and fob, and two needlebooks. I actually learned how to do hardanger weaves, wraps, dove eyes, Grecian Crosses, Kloster blocks and blanket stitches ... and was able to cut my threads successfully ... a minor miracle, so far as I am concerned. Okay, so I had to go and wash my hands immediately after the cutting ... talk about sweaty palms ... but it worked and it actually looks presentable. Thea Dueck was a fantastic teacher: the epitome of clarity and patience. I would take another class with her should the opportunity present itself. And I will definitely want to go on another Stitcher's Hideaway ... meeting stitchers, enjoying the project, eating some very nicely catered meals ... it was all a very lovely break from the end-of-year madness at work.

Off to Mystic Stitcher's Hideaway

My husband and are packing ... we leave today at noon for Mystic Ct where I will be attending the Stitcher's Hideaway and he will wander the seaport meeting up with me [and the other stitchers and their tag alongs] for meals. I am looking forward to this and have been working diligently on the pre-work for the past two days. I am the sort who always works to deadline - I turned in my bachelor's thesis the day before my wedding. That was 37 years ago and I am still a down to the wire kind of person ... it's not that I procrastinate, it's just that I take on more than is reasonable and then juggle everything till it all works ... or crashes about my head. Most of the time it works.

Anyway, this time, at least, I probably should have started the pre-work earlier. The whole reason I signed up for this class was to learn hardanger. So what do you think the assigned pre-work is? That's right: all the Kloster blocks and blanket stitching on the pocket and, time permitting, the Kloster blocks on the tuffet pin cushion. So it is all very slow going ... very paranoid stitching ... stitch, count, stitch, recount, stitch, count yet again, frog, stitch, count, frog, count, stitch, re-count, pray, curse effusively and creatively, stitch ... well, you get the idea. But the finished project will be worth it ... a whole set of Thea Dueck [Victoria's Sampler] stitching accesories ... the design references the locale with all sorts of 19th century tall ships, ladies, lighthouses, etc.

I am looking forward to this immensely ... partly because I will be meeting some people I "know" only through stitchery message boards, partly because I will enjoy the project/classes/teacher, and partly because my professional life has been a mad whirl since mid September and will not let up till January ... so this provides a much needed break halfway through the career-related insanity.

Shall report on the hideaway upon my return.

A small finish

Well, I have finished the Glory Bee blackwork ornament and though I have no shortage of stash, I take an inordinate degree of pleasure in using up the odd little bits and pieces of fiber and fabric left over from other projects. I was able to stitch this piece using up the two lengths of green cotton floss left over from my Shamrock bookmark and a small scrap of 35ct linen that I had received in trade for some charts. It just warms my frugal little heart. And now, I have picked up the Cross-Eyed Kat Red Snowfight Dragon again and am moving along nicely on this piece: the head, right arm and wing as well as a really good start on the snow. But I really must get to work on the pre-work for the Mystic Retreat ... I leave for Mystic on Thursday.

October Goals

I always think I am going to accomplish so much more than I actually do and consequently set impossible goals for myself whether it's school work, administrative paperwork, housework, reading or stitching. The stitching goals for October were no exception.

I did finish my designated "freebie of the month": Star Light, Star Bright from LHN and even managed to stitch it up into a rather attractive throw pillow. And I did finish three of the Workbasket Quaker pieces for my Quaker quilt [that makes 10 down and 4 to go]. This month, I stitched the Cat, the Mouse and the House. That leaves the frog, the swan, the tortoise and the hare ... but they will have to wait until after Christmas ... I have a number of gifts and ornaments left to do. I finally finished the Passion de Croix SAL for the 123stitch board ... the last to do so. And I stitched a Trick or Treat bib for my grandson, Liam. Furthermore, I managed to complete a number of sewing finishes: made up the 2006 JCS Imaginating Santa & Sue Hillis Merry Christmas into Christmas ornaments with beaded trim, made throw pillows of Glory Bee's Home Sweet Home and LHN's Summer Place and Starlight Starbright , as well as stitching up the Waxing Moon Checkerboard Pumpkin [with my additions] into a trick or treat bag for Liam and assembled two biscornus and a name tag. I took Heartstrings Bittersweet Season to the framer and brought home Dragon Dreams Stormbringer.

But I did not do any work on the TW Autumn Faerie or Crosseyed Kat's Red Snowball Fight Dragon, and only a little work on the 2007 JCS Sue Hillis Spool Tree ornament, nor did I even start the Prairie Schooler Ltd. Edition Santa and the current year card Santa as I had hoped ... the Santas were supposed to be finished and at the framer by Halloween. Also not started is the TW Woodland Angel stocking for Liam [supposed to be done by this Christmas]. Nor did I start the pre-work for the Mystic Stitchery Retreat [8 short days away]. My other goal, to transfer all my photo files to Photobucket so I can learn to add pictures of my work to my blog and to some message boards I frequent has yet to be achieved ... I have been taking pictures of finished work faithfully but still need my husband's help to download them to my personal files and need a tutorial in then transferring them to photobucket.

One of November's goals will have to be to set more reasonable goals.

Some recent projects

I am going to see if I can get my husband to help bring photos to this blog ... but first I'll have to get my photobucket account up to speed ... have lots of photos to load and sort. That being said, I am very proud of the two biscornus I have just assembled though I gave one away before I photographed it [won't be making that mistake again] and the two Christmas ornaments I just stitched up ... even though the 2006 JCS Imaginating Santa was, IMHO, way too huge to qualify as an ornament even though I stitched it on the recommended count linen. The only tree it might actually suit would be the tree in Rockerfeller Center. And then there is the Halloween Trick or Treat bag I just stitched up for my brand new grandson ... okay, so at 3 months of age, he won't be doing much trick or treating this year ... but I stuffed it with three board books, a light weight flannel sleeper I had made for his father some 27 years ago and I'll be adding one of those bibs that look like fingertip towels with an aida insert. I used the Waxing Moon free chart "Checkerboard Pumpkin" as the basis for the trick or treat bag and added Liam's name done in what I am calling "candy corn" lettering [orange/yellow/cream from bottom to top], the phrase "Trick or Treat", some candy corn motifs and another checkerboard border around the whole. I am using the same candy corn motifs to make a border for the same "Trick or Treat" lettering on the bib. I used thin wale black corduroy to make up the tote bag and hope he will get a few years use of it when he is old enough to go trick or treating. Other than that, I have been working on my Passion de Croix SAL - I'll probably be the very last in the 123stitch group to finish it since I had to start all over again after a disaster when an overly damp pressing cloth caused a major bleeding of color. I have also been working on my Workbasket Quaker house. But soon I will have to turn my attention to the prep work for the Mystic Stitcher's Hideaway ... I received the kit in the mail last week and have been downloading all the additional instructions that have been e-mailed. I admit to being somewhat intimidated since some of the pre-work involves Kloster blocks and the very reason I was attracted to this Hideaway was the chance to learn basic hardangar skills ... which I definitely do not have as yet. Oh well, I shall do my best and stitch very carefully and slowly with the instructions always at hand and maybe I won't have to rip the whole thing apart when Thea sees it for the first time.

Off to work now.

Biscornu

I just stitched up my very first biscornu using the very clear instructions on
www.own-two-hands.livejournal.com
... a step by step picture tutorial which also includes a whole bunch of freebie charts. I did the olive branch, the cats [which I stitched in black with a Needle Necessities autumn leaves border to give it a Halloween look], one of the geometrics [also in the Needle Necessities autumn leaves] and one of the Algerian tile designs [in what was labelled Caron Waterlilies Peach Sherbert ... but was probably mislabelled at the store because it doesn't look remotely like Peach Sherbert as pictured on the Caron site]. All of the above were stitched on left over bits and pieces of linen or laguna from my scrap bag. Even the flosses were leftovers from other projects. So, with virtually no financial investment, I learned a new skill. Don't you just love the internet.
If anyone here has been curious about these little irregular pillows/pin cushions/whatever, the above mentioned site is a great place to start.
I have to admit that until I found this site, I was somewhat intimidated by the "finishing" part of the project. But guided by the photos in the tutorial, I found the whole process amazingly easy and I am quite pleased with the finished product. Though I have stitched four of these little projects, I have only "assembled" the olive branch biscornu. I hope to assemble two more today since it is my day off and all I am doing is laundry and a little pick-up housekeeping with the rest of my day devoted to stitching. I'll post pictures when I've got them all done.

Mea culpa continued

I didn't realize there was a limit to what could be put in each entry and was stunned when my computer stuttered in mid-sentence ... I hit the Enter button thinking to advance to the next line only to discover I had inadvertently "posted" an incomplete and unedited post. Oh well, I will learn how to do this eventually. I had started to say I had ordered all of the Sue Hillis Santa series and two of the Prairie Schooler Santas that I had wanted ... since I have many goals to meet over the next few months ... I believe I will save them for the Christmas vacation. It will be fun to stitch something Christmas-y during the actual season instead of the usual September/October/November time frame required to get them done for the season.

As to goals, I am slowly learning to moderate mine. For October, I want to work primarily on finishes. I need to finish two Homespun Elegance pedastal pincushions. Then there are the two samplers from CATS Stitching Circle Dinner 2005 [the Stoney Creek & Lori Birmingham pieces] that I wish to use as the covers of a crochet needle book for my mother's Christmas gift and the Liz Turner Diehl Sampler that I wish to use as the cover of a needlework tools case for myself. I plan on using the 2006 CATS Liz Turner Diehl Autumn pillow band as a bell pull instead and have a lovely acorn trimmed hanger for it. I need to hem and affix the LHN Seasons of Plenty samplers onto their appropriate prefinished pillows as a Christmas gift for one of my sisters. I also want to finish the Modern Art Goddess I stitched in #5 perles on 10ct tula into a wall hanging for my daughter as a Yule gift. There are three biscornus awaiting assembly. Finally, I have a trick or treat bag to finish for my brand new grandson. That makes 14 items to sew ... and still leaves another half dozen or so in the basket awaiting attention. Did I say I was learning to moderate my goals?

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa

I will never again criticize, even within the privacy of my own thoughts, a blogger who does not post regularly. I started this blog in late summer and then school began and the days raced by. Here it is mid-October and I am only now returning to this blog. Happily, I have not ignored stitching in all this time and have completed a number of projects, including: Dragon Dreams' Stormbringer, Wiorkbasket's Quaker Cat and Mouse, Leisure Arts Corner Bookmark Dragon with Crystal Ball, Glory Bee's Home Sweet Home, LHN's Summer House and Starlight, Star Bright, Heartstrings' Bittersweet Season, and from the 2006 JCS Ornament issue, Imaginating's Santa and Sue Hillis' Merry Christmas. Finally, I have completed the stitching on 3 biscornus [front & back] and have only to stitch them up. I have also stitched a name tag to wear to the Mystic Retreat in November and have assembled it and only have to bead the edges to give it a pretty finish and then attach a pin back. I have done quite a bit more work on the Passion de Croix SAL and have started Workbasket's Quaker House, Sue Hillis' ornament from the 2007 JCS issue and CrossEyed Kats Red Snowfight Dragon. I have also managed to get quite a bit of sewing finishes done: made Best Witches into a stand-up, made Dragon Dreams Morning and Evening Dragons into a double sided gift tote, finished another of the LaDeDa Cardinal ornaments, finished the Imaginating Santa as a large pillow ornament, and the 2006 Sue Hillis ornament as a smaller "pillow" with a scallopped beaded edging that I was quite pleased with ... even made a beaded loop for hanging it, finished up Rainbow Gallery's Blackwork Victorian Lady as a scissor case and Japanese Lady as a scissor fob, stitched up a long-completed stocking for my son and trimmed it with twisted cord, and made the Home Sweet Home, Summer House and Star Light, Star Bright pieces mentioned above into throw pillows. I have also received the Thea Dueck kits for the Mystic Retreat in the mail and need to get started on the pre-work. I also ordered all of Sue Hillis'

Goals

Ever since May, I have been setting stitchery goals for myself ... at first, they were wildly optimistic goals but I am learning what I can and can not do ever so slowly. My goals are getting more reasonable and attainable as each month passes. I have been trying to do at least one freebie, one bookmark and one ornament a month while working on larger projects. I usually end up working the freebies into gift totes or pillows for friends and relatives or a door banner or stand up for my office at school. I am accumulating bookmarks to give as end-of-year gifts to my 55 catechists ... several years ago, I gave all of the catechists a Christmas ornament and I figured a bookmark would be another doable sort of gift for so many. The current ornaments are to be used as package trim on the Christmas gifts I give my family. As to the other goals, I am trying to work systematically through all the larger projects in my stash ... I have been somewhat extravagant with my purchases in the past two years and have vowed to purchase only fabric and floss until I have made a serious dent in the charts filling two bureau drawers. I've gone three months without buying a chart but I will, of course, buy the annual JCS Christmas ornament issue. But other than that I have been exercising restraint. Even if I never bought another chart again, I probably have about 4 years worth of stitching in my stash. That seems somewhat irresponsible when there are people on this planet wondering where their next meal is coming from ... so restraint is the order of the day ... and maybe some of that "stash" money can be used in a more responsible and charitable fashion

Duty Call

Survived the duty call ... and yes, it was just as bad as I had anticipated. Cigarette smoke everywhere, potbellied men lifting their t-shirts to display imaginary washboard abs, much too much alcohol flowing about, one woman dressed in tight shorts displaying muffin tops below an extremely abbreviated blouse ... the whole ensemble set off with open-toed 3 inch spiked heels in fire-engine red ... might as well have been in a red light district for all the skin on display. And she was one of the more conservative dressers. I suppose I am a terrible snob but I do believe in dressing to suit one's body type and one's age and I am inclined to think less of people who don't exercise common sense in choosing a wardrobe. Ah well, at least, I won't have to repeat the experience for another year.

On the way to the barbecue, stopped in at Michael's looking for some fiber-fill and pillow forms ... only to discover they no longer carry these items ... but did manage to pick up some adhesive backed felt to line a lidded basket and some fabric glue ... all items on my list ... and, on impulse, picked up another stitchable bib for the new grandson. I'll probably have to brave the Palisades Center Mall to get the fiber fill and the pillow forms as well as some fusible interfacing and braided cord trim that I need. It's probably not the best weekend to head for the ugliest mall in America with school starting so soon. However, I wasn't able to find a decent selection at JoAnn's on- line. You'd think the on-line selections would be greater than those in the actual brick and mortar store but such is not the case.

And I really do want to continue my finishing marathon as per my stated goals for August. So far I have managed to finish the Dragon Dreams April Fool freebie and the "123-ers stitch it best" freebie as pins; to stitch the Dragon Dreams Morning and Evening Dragon as two sides of a gift tote small enough to double as a nursery door knob decoration for my grandson, to sew and stuff LaDeDa's Cardinal Christmas ornament, to finish Rainbow Gallery's Victorian & Japanese Ladies as a scissor case and a scissor fob, and to finish Brightneedle's Plant A Garden freebie as a large gift tote, and to affix the braided trim to a stocking I made for my son two years ago. I've got Waxing Moon' Best Witches nearly finished as a stand-up ... just need to make some braided cord to trim it with. But I still have a whole bunch of finished stitchery in the pipeline awaiting attention: Stitching the Night Away's Modern Art Goddess [wall hanging], the 4 Little House Needleworks Seasons of ... series [pillows], 2 Homespun Elegance Pedastal Pincushions, 4 Prairie Schooler Halloween designs [wall quilt], Dragon Dreams Elemental Dragons freebies [bellpull], CATS 2005 Stitching Dinner Samplers [a crochet needle book for my Mom and a Stitching accessories book for me] 3 Passione Ricamo Halloween designs and Cross-Eyed Cricket's Raven [wall quilt], Liz Turner Diehl's Autumn Pillow Band from CATS 2006 [bell pull], Waxing Moon's Checkerboard Pumpkin [Trick or Treat Bag] Cross-Eyed Cricket's Hat in a Cat [Halloween Doorstop Stand-up] JCS Christmas Annual Strawberry Needle Emery [Christmas Ornament] and one of the biscornus that I have been stitching up so quickly. That makes a grand total of 17 items awaiting attention ... thus the need to head on down to JoAnn's for fabric and interfacing and trim and fiberfill and pillow forms and ... so on and so on ...