HO, HO, HO Finished

I last told you about this project here Catching Up on Feb. 13. I am thinking I will frame this myself without glass, so when I put it away after Christmas it will not break in the box!

It was a fun stitch!

Happy Stitching!!

Catching Up

 This patriotic project was stitched by a Festival Stitchers club member for sale at EXPO after I finished it into a flat fold.

HO, HO, HO. Is a Toni Gerdes Project I was working on just before cataract surgery and I have not picked it up again. Of course, now I have many more months to get it done! I got as far as the border, so I am almost done!

Happy Stitching!

Purple Hearts Continued from 2010

I last talked to you about this project on July 11, 2010.

I picked it back up on June 27 and have been working on it almost every night since. 

It is on 24 count black congress cloth and has been a challenge in places, but I have tons of light working and magnification. I have only ripped out stitches a few times! I am now going back to section 8, which is black on black. UGH!

Here are some photos of my progress.

How it looked when I picked it up on June 27. If you compare it to the July 11, 2010 post, you will see it is exactly the same!

Here I finished the center and cleaned up all the "spaghetti" left over from class.

June 28 working on area 5.

July 8, 2025, Areas 1 - 7 completed. 

The close-up below shows a little bit of the black on black I did back in 2010 (lower left of the center square). It is the next area to complete. UGH. 

After this area, I go back to area 4 & 10 to add beads. 

I am working on reducing my WIIPs and this one was the one I pulled out of my WIP cupboard. I have 31 projects in the cupboard (including Purple Hearts). It does make me wonder when a WIP (Work in Progress) becomes a UFO (UnFinished Object) or visa versa. 

HAPPY STITCHING!!

Merry

 This is Merry by Toni Gerdes. I ghosted this class she taught on Oct. 26, 2024. Kits to ghosts were sent a few weeks later and I started it then but put it down.

Well, now that I am on a stitching roll, I picked it up last week and below is my progress, Friday, Saturday and I finished it Sunday. Sadly, I did not take a picture of how little I had done when I first stitched it last November. 

It was a fun stitch with lots of different threads and stitches along with embellishments. My design is 7"x 9" (this varies depending on the snowflake placement).

Progress 6.6.25

 Progress 6.7.25

 Finished!! 6.8.25

Now to decide how to finish finish it!

Happy, Merry Stitching!!

Under a Copper Moon Finish & Holiday Patches

I last told you about this piece on June 29.

I have finished all the stitching!

The mountain is a piece of batik fabric. Toni gave us the mountain pattern and we placed in on our piece of fabric to decide which part of it to use. 

It was a lot of fun! It will fit in nicely with my other southwest stitching as soon as I can get them framed! We had a GREAT framer here who had a wonderful eye for color, used anti glare art glass and was very reasonably priced. Sadly he retired. But I enjoy my retirement. So,  I can't be too mad and wish him not to have a fun retirement.

So I now need a new project to stitch. I have been attempting to reduce my UFO (UnFinished Object) stash, so next up is Holiday Patches. It was a project I started in 2015 with my Night Canvas Group when I was with Foothills EGA. The Canvas group met at my house once a week.

The original project had fabric included, but the designer ran out of it, so we had to choose our own. We then had a list of threads and were to choose what would go with the fabric. Lucky for me,  I had fabric that worked with the original threads, so I did not have to figure out any substitutions. It is on 15"x16" stretcher bars.

Sometimes when I pull out one of these UFOs, I find a nice surprise. This time it is the cute snowman needle minder! 

This brings me to an odd trend I noticed. I started this UFO reduction with Yei-bi-chei, it had a second canvas (the mask) we had to applique onto the bigger canvas. So did Della Robia Santa with the garland and Under a Copper Moon with the moon.

Under a Copper Moon has fabric attached, just like Holiday Patches. Will this trend continue?? 

Happy Stitching!

Under a Copper Moon

I needed a new project to stitch on in the evenings now that I have finished American Patchwork.

So, I picked out this project that was a Saguaro ANG (American Needlepoint Guild) two day workshop in October of 2018. It is called Under a Copper Moon and was designed by Toni Gerdes, who also taught the workshop.

This photo is not how it was by the end of the workshop, I had worked on it a bit afterwards. The mountain at the left is a batik fabric we cutout, padded and applied to the canvas using fusible web.

The moon was on a separate canvas on which we heat applied copper foil and stitched over the top. It was then padded and appliqued on the bigger canvas much like I did with Yei-bi-chei.

It is on a 15"x10" piece of sandstone 18 count mono canvas and uses a variety of  solid, overdyed or variegated cotton, silk and metallic threads. The copper metallic is DMC Metallic Effects and is a PAIN IN THE YOU KNOW WHAT to work with, but it sure is effective. 

Happy Stitching!!

EGA National Seminar Report

From October 3 to October 7, 2018 I was in Louisville, KY at the Embroiderers Guild of America, Inc. (EGA) National Seminar. We celebrated 60 years as an organization!

 Members of the Seminar Committee, Executive Board, Teachers and maybe some I missed were given this embroidered name tag with back pocket. Here is the top part.










This Seminar was the last one using the old EGA logo and the new one was unveiled.

The sign on the left has our new logo

  

 The sign on the right has our old logo.

I took three classes and a miracle has occurred, as of last night, I finished all three classes!! It helped that not all were that big and being retired, I had plenty of time to stitch.

On Wednesday, Oct. 3rd, I took a one day class: Nutcracker Santa by Janet Zickler Casey. I finished it last night. The design size is approximately 5" by 6" and I plan to have it finished into a hanging ornament. Probably for our tree next year since I have missed the Christmas finishing deadline for this year.

I then took a Thursday-Friday Class: Songbird by Toni Gerdes. It is based on the needlearts of the late 1700s and honors the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework. She used stitches from the past with modern threads. It was fun. Design size approx. 8 1/2" by 7". I started it Oct. 4 and finished it Oct. 16. I also had it framed right away since, as fate would have it, I had signed up for a class with Toni through my local ANG chapter (Saguaro Stitchers) and wanted to have it ready to show her.

I also took a Saturday-Sunday class - Diamond Jubilee Sampler by Sandi Cormaci-Boles. I started it Oct. 6 and finished it Oct. 20. In an odd turn of events Sandi was teaching a class at my local EGA chapter meeting to honor our Gold Thread winner and so I worked to finish it to show her! I did not have time to frame it before class however. The finished size is 5" by 7". It uses various stitches and includes some crystals. It was fun too.

At the opening banquet I was seated with the RMR since I helped pass out the favors and it was easier this way. I am also a member of a Chapter there, so I sat with friends!

Opening banquet favor.

We had a nice boutique by ABC Stitch Therapy and I am not sure there was anything left in their shop in TX! We also got a very nice sized tote bag with zipper top. My stitching supplies and System 4 table top frame fit in just fine!

We also received a nice pair of scissors with scissor fob as our closing banquet favor.

 Last but not least, Coco says hi!! I think I woke her up when I took the photo!

Happy Stitching!!!

Carnival is Finished! UPDATE

I worked many evenings on this fun piece designed by Toni Gerdes called Carnival. I last posted about this on April 19, 2015, and finished it in less than a month. It was so much fun I did not want to put it down!!

Now to move on to another project....what will it be????

Stay tuned.

***UPDATE***

Someone asked about the threads used. I used the threads provided in the kit and as taught in class,

Carnival and a Gift for Dad

Well as you know, I am working on a gift for someone that may check out my blog, so no stitching to post the past month or so. But, I did recently take a break to take a workshop offered by my Foothills Chapter of EGA and worked on a canvas piece called Carnival by Toni Gerdes. Here is as far as I got before I started back on the gift which as a deadline. I will try for a clearer photo next time. To see the finished version, check out Toni's website. Carnival is the 8th one down (right after the Golden Petals) under two day workshops.

I also saw this cute box top kit from Mill Hill at my local needlework shop and thought it would make a nice gift for my father-in-law who has a birthday in May. This is as far as I have gotten so far.

I would be farther along but after getting all the blue and green in and started on the red, I realized I had goofed. Since this is on perforated paper and next to impossible to frog stitch (rip it, rip it) I checked my stash and had a green perforated paper. Not the same green, but I think it will work.

I think that covers it for now, I have finished the gift that I can't show you all until July, but wish I could since I could use some advice on the center... oh well.  I hope to post some more progress on the perforated paper piece and Carnival though!