I managed two finishes this week in between wrapping presents and generally getting ready for the holidays.  Fortunately, Nora has taken over the responsibility for much of the decorating around the house so I didn’t have as much to do this year.  I did get to bake some cookies this year – probably the first time in at least a dozen years.  I did also manage some stitching in between the festivities!  As a result I have two finishes under my belt.

The first is A Different View, our 2014 Stitch-of-the-Month project, by Kurdy Biggs.  I added Swarovski crystal bicones and Mill Hill crystal bugle beads.  I opted for the crystal as I really didn’t want to try to figure out how to distribute various colored beads in the design.  I am pleased with the outcome – just enough bling without being too overwhelming.

This is the overall result followed by some close-ups of the individual octagons.

I had a great time stitching this piece – the stitches were challenging and picking my own colors was a great experience.

My second finish was Alicia, a Tony Minieri design, that Gone Stitching in Bergenfield offered as a class entitled “Time to Make the Donuts”.  I didn’t get the connection until it was pointed out that the colorway designated as the original reminded everyone of Dunkin Donuts (duh!).  It reminds me of Rainbow Sherbet and so the piece will be designated for summer display.  I did not manipulate the Watercolours too much – just a bit around the outside row so that I got a pretty good distribution of colors.

I am now trying to get my temporary stitching room (aka the guest bedroom) somewhat organized.  I will be starting a new class at The Edwardian Needle in early January – Tony Minieri’s Out of Africa as well as our Serengeti project later in the month.  And I have a large project for a gift in late May that I must finish.  So I need to get canvases, threads and instructions into project bags so that I can easily find them.  I think that will occupy me for the next few days.

I wish you all a very happy and healthy new year!

There were only four of us that were able to make the December meeting as trips and other events interfered. The four of us did spend a number of hours stitching and beads were added to both Robin and Linda's canvases. I expect that you may see them completed at the next NJNA meeting this coming Wednesday. As we did last December, we had a potluck luncheon this year as well. You will soon be able to find the recipes for Robin's pear and grape slaw, Linda's wild rice dish, Diane's roasted vegetables, Sue's maple glazed salmon, and Sue's chocolate angel food cake with a chocolate honey glaze on our website.

Doesn't this look tasty?

Join NJNA next year for SOTM!

Sue

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I really must apologize … I meant to blog about my class at The Enriched Stitch in Wilton, CT over the weekend.  But, as usual, I got involved in other things.

Saturday, if you remember, was a horribly rainy day.  Driving up to Wilton was something of a challenge but the class at the end of the trip was well worth it.  The shop is on two floors with downstairs for canvases, threads and all of the accessories you can imagine while upstairs is devoted to classroom space.   I of course didn’t take pictures of the shop (I seem to have some sort of phobia about taking shop pictures), but you can view some photos on the shop’s website www.enrichedstitch.com.

Once we all dried out, the fun began.  Mary Susan is a wonderfully patient teacher not only sharing her thought process in picking the stitches and threads, but demonstrating stitches as we went along.  We started on the door wreath, which is stitched in Colonial Knots with Painters Thread.  My knots are generally somewhat haphazard – sometimes beautiful and sometimes pretty pathetic.  Mary Susan demonstrated (repeatedly) how to make perfect Colonial Knots and then we practiced with some embroidery floss before tackling the actual wreath.  Painters Thread is also something I’ve never used, so right out of the box I learned a new technique and used a new thread.  Painters Thread has gorgeous names – we are using Turner for the wreath and Kandinsky for the sky – the package says it is a YLI Ribbon Floss Shimmer dyed thread.

Here you can see the beginnings of my wreath.  We jumped around with the Colonial knots so that the color would be more random.

We then moved on to the moon which is stitched with a Threadworx Fine Braid.  The stitch is very interesting – eyelet stitches of different shapes and sizes.  We all thought the eyelets looked like the craters of the moon; it’s a very interesting effect. Next up was the snow on the roof.  I posted the full canvas picture on Facebook and the stitch for the snow got a number of comments.  It is a Diamond Pavilion Stitch in Silk N Colors Mint Frost with a Walnetto in Sparkle Braid (thank you, Michael Boren and Carole Lake!) in between and a Myuki Bead in the center of the Walnetto.  Absolutely fabulous!

We talked about the various other stitches and then wrapped up the afternoon working on the sky.  It is a Bargello pattern done in five different threads as well as an empty row.  The order of the threads varies throughout the sky.  Some of my fellow stitchers do not care for empty canvas so they will eliminate the empty row.  We were given a pattern to follow but I went out on a limb and actually developed a random pattern.  The compensation around the lettering was discussed at length and I will approach it with caution.

Here you can see my roof snow and the sky pattern as well as the canvas at the end of the class.

Mary Susan had her canvas finished as a stand-up music box.  The finished product is gorgeous and such a clever way to finish a piece.  I am probably going to have mine finished similar to an ornament so that it can be displayed on an easel. I know you are all shocked that I’m not thinking about framing it!

Here are pictures of the music box.  Isn’t that finishing just fabulous?  You can buy the music box through the internet so you get whatever music you like.

I am taking some time off over the holidays and I hope to catch up on some of my in-progress projects before I get started on more new projects in the New Year.  And so maybe you will see some progress on this (and other) projects in 2015. Until then …

Here’s the Wildflowers colorway on pink canvas

Mariposa — Cherries colorway

The stitches go pretty quickly and are fun to do. I do like the Cherries on pink canvas. I also finished the Wildflowers colorway on pink canvas — it is very soft and reminds me of the frosting on a wedding cake. Can’t figure out how to add a second picture so I’ll do another blog entry.