Yes I am! and well why not? Halloween is just around the corner. I look forward to seeing all the clever costumes that everyone comes up with for Halloween. I love seeing all the decorations out and about…like this scene last year when I was in Denver at this time.

There was a freak Denver snow storm that blanketed all the Halloween decorations. Hopefully history won’t repeat itself this year!

I am giving you a little sneak peak into a new Halloween project that I have coming up. Something fresh off the drawing board or should I say the painting table from one of our favorite needlepoint canvas designer.

Sally from Rainbow Gallery sent me a great palette of Halloween threads in oranges, acid greens, purples, blacks and of course can’t forget Glow in the Dark colors. Thank you Sally! Check out my new magnet that “crawled” in from Accoutrement’s that will keep me company while working on this canvas.

Those threads really do Glow in the Dark too! Tried to get a picture of that for you, but my camera or should I say my picture taking ability wasn’t able to capture it.

I hope to start this in 2-3 weeks, just in time for Thanksgiving! What is wrong with this picture?

Well I need to get myself to work, stitch guides to print, stitch guides to write, new magazine work for our January/February 2013 issue, stitching, thinking about what clothes to ready for my trip next week.

AlleyCat just needed to check out those crows in the plants outside. I just love their curiosity. and until next time…keep on stitching.

How about you? I am in the Halloween spirit. Decorations are up, but there is no chill in the air yet here in beautiful Southern California. Summer weather has returned yet once again. We hope and pray at this time of the year when the temperatures rise and the Santa Ana winds kick in that there are no wild fires.

Santa Ana winds are hot winds that blow in from the desert. Vegetation, grass, trees and et al are very dry after 6 months of no rain. So we pray and hope that those hot winds don’t spread a fire that may have started when things are so dry. Well enough of that!

Boo Kitty has found her niche and she is very content. Check out the fabric on the back of her…

It is just purr~fect as after all she does have a spider hanging from her mouth!

I did put up one of my Halloween Trees…yes I have more than one! and hung some ornaments on it. I am looking for the little black cat that my sister in black cats, “The Divine Miss M” and M stands for Meredith just gave me. It’s there, it really is and maybe she is just hiding for the moment.

I didn’t get too wild and crazy as after all Halloween is only 2 weeks away and it’s almost time for another road trip! Yes you know I just can’t sit still forever now can I? I am headed to a Tony Minieri class with the Deeva next week where we are working on a few of her canvases from her line in our class. Then I will be home for a few days and then off to A Stitch in Time for a few days with Meredith.

I am sure that I will get more details on the class with The Fab Four. Did you call and register yet? Well why not? I wouldn’t wait forever…just saying. Just in case you missed it, here is the down and dirty info that you need. Or if you want go read it in it’s entirety, go back to the blog post from October 8th.

Due to a scheduling snafu, the famous Fab Four will instead be teaching the Long & Short of Canvas Enhancement at A Stitch in Time in San Marino, California…okay and here is the sign up sheet! You can just sign up for the class, no waiting, no hoping that you will get in, no waiting on pins and needles, no lottery selection…you are in with just a little deposit to hold your spot. Classes will be on August 29, 30, 31 & September 1, 2013.

The same format, the same style, the same fun…well maybe more! Select a canvas from your stash, select a new one from the inventory of the amazing canvas selection at A Stitch in Time, or like me…wait till the Winter Market and pick out something brand new for the Fab Four!

Well when you have a black cat…you are always ready for Halloween!

and until next time…keep on stitching

Really…are you? When I was in Baltimore at the TNNA fall market, I asked the girls with Unique New Zealand if they every thought of doing a keep calm ornament? You know these canvases must be really popular as it seems that everybody is working on them!

Well look what they came up with? I just love love, love…did I say love this? It is so new that most shops probably haven’t even seen it or are aware of this canvas! Just tell your shop that you want to order the ornament size canvases “Keep Calm and…” from Unique New Zealand. Or send ’em here to look at them. They can leave me a comment and I will do my best to help your favorite needlepoint shop or local needlepoint shop order them for you.

Okay I keep taking about canvases and here is the other one…

They are 4″ round and on 18 mesh, a quick stitch! So I actually took some stretcher bars out yesterday and was really going to put one on bars, but I quickly told myself “no you have other stitching that you need to do” and “don’t get yourself side tracked” so no I didn’t start stitching one.

I am stitching away on my new projects. First is the new NeedleDeeva project of the baker’s dozen of Christmas Cupcakes. I started on my 3rd one, but I need to finish, finish the first few so that it can head out to the finishers. I am a little stressed for the deadlines for these pieces needless to say.

So I am on a roadtrip in the morning for a few threads so I can finish them up. Was going to work on stitch guides and other computer stuff, but that will need to wait a little while. Got to get these threads! so while I am in La Jolla, I guess that I will start out my day with breakfast at The Cottage. Well why not? I haven’t been there in awhile.

AlleyCat decided that she would park herself on what I was printing the other day. I guess she didn’t want them blowing away. and until next time…keep on stitching

is finished! and I am thrilled with the way it came out…now you are saying, where is that fish that was stitched in your background?

The stitch as it was diagrammed by Brenda Hart in her 3rd book, Stitches for the Millenium has the cat stitched alternately with the fish. Remember when I said I was taking the Kreinik out? well after a few attempts and lots of reverse stitching, I finally figured that it was easier to stitch the cat first rather than the fish. You know that counting thing.

After the cats were all finished, I thought that it didn’t need the fish. I was thinking that it might become too busy. I am of the school that less is more in my stitching. Believe it or not the compensating stitches were not difficult at all! So I am considering this done and it will be going to the framers the next time I head up to A Stitch in Time. The framers is close to the shop. Even though our gas has come down a bit, it is still around $4.65 a gallon, so I will wait. I would rather spend that money on needlepoint stuff.

“Keep Calm and Carry On was a poster produced by the Government of the United Kingdom in 1939 during the beginning of the Second World War, intended to raise the morale of the British public in the event of a Nazi invasion of Britain. It had only limited distribution, and thus was little known. The poster was rediscovered in 2000 and has been re-issued by a number of private companies, and used as the decorative theme for a range of products. It was believed there were only two known surviving examples of the poster outside government archives until a collection of 15 originals was brought in to the Antiques Roadshow in 2012 by the daughter of an ex-Royal Observer Corps member.

In 2000, a copy of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster was rediscovered in Barter Books, a second-hand bookshop in Alnwick, Northumberland. Since Crown Copyright expires on artistic works created by the UK government after 50 years, the image is now in the public domain.” So now we get to enjoy these clever sayings on our needlepoint canvas, on tshirts…well just about anything you can think of!

This is a canvas that patiently awaits some of my time. I have beaded the crown, but now I need to be stitching on what I need to be stitching, not what I want to….does that make sense?

Have you been watching the news as Endeavor crawled through the streets of Los Angeles? It is way behind it’s scheduled arrival time.

Pretty amazing & these are just a few of my favorite pictures courtesy of Yahoo!

Now this would have been worth a trip up to Los Angeles…

AlleyCat seems unfazed by it all…I love the way she crosses her paws.

and until next time…keep on stitching

Did you think that I was sleeping in? Did you think that I was being lazy? Moi? No not me… but the server that the blog lives on didn’t want to get up this morning!

The finishing gods must have been smiling down on me as look at who came back yesterday? wow! It seems that I just dropped this off for finishing yesterday. It is not the best of pictures…but I love the ruching and can you see the little ball feet that it stands on? I promise a better picture of it to come.

Canvas by Melissa Shirley Designs and of course whenever I can I need to give that awesome Needlepoint Now magazine a plug…now are you a subscriber? If not, well you should be! Just in case here’s the link to sign up right now! A new issue is getting ready to head to the printers oh so very soon and will mail to you around the 8th of November.

Okay back to Boo Kitty…stitch guide by June McKnight. The canvas was designed around June’s Spooky Stitches book and such a fun piece to stitch! I am sure that your FNS… that is your favorite needlepoint shop or LNS…your local needlepoint shop would be happy to order that for you!

Now that Boo Kitty is home with us, I am really motivated to get the rest of my Halloween decorating done like now! Well anyway there are no baseball games on this afternoon to keep me from doing it. Ooh to have been at either one of those games yesterday! Well I lived vicariously through every cheer and every agonizing pitch. I am sorry to see both the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles bow out all too soon.

There was a chill in the air the other morning and guess who joined me at my desk? I keep a little heater to warm my legs and toes while at the computer and guess who was hogging all the heat? And they are actually touching each other! OMG! and until next time…keep on stitching

Okay I love these Keep Calm canvases! It is a nice open canvas and no pun intended. It is a wonderful piece for some basketweave or even better one for having lots of fun with some different stitches. Beads and French knots are done on the letters and I was on the prowl for a background stitch that would be just purr~fect!

I poured through the books as I wanted a darning pattern, a diaper pattern or just the right stitch that would make this into something special. Books and books and more books all over the place, notes and sticky notes and everything else. Decisions, decisions, what’s a girl to do?

I found this stitch that I think that this is it! First I had to make sure that the rows were aligned just right and would it count out evenly enough that I could use it? I am using Planet Earth Pepper Pot Silk Scallions and couching it down with the new Vintage Kreinik Green 4011V. I am thrilled that it is working out!

 

My next step was to add this blackwork pattern fish in between the rows. It is really coming together! Can this be the one? Ooh I am so excited!

So you are wondering where am I anchoring my threads? There really is no where to do that, so I am making an L stitch in the margin, but I really want to make sure that these threads are not going anywhere, so I sort of create a box. To keep my very long stitch which basically is from the top of the canvas to the bottom of the canvas very straight, I actually take an additional stitch in the margins and then move on 11 threads over, take another stitch and then proceed with my next stripe.

The color is not very good in these pictures as I was taking them with my cell phone while I was stitching. It is the great acid green as seen in the first picture.

So I know you are waiting to see the end result? check back in a day or 2 and you will see! I did change the Vintage Kreinik 4011V  to 015, which is my favorite Chartreuse green. I had a counting error, so it had to come out anyway. When you line up your stitches to the first row and then you discover that the first row is wrong, it all has to come out! I do like this 015 Kreinik much better. Just a hint about the stitch… it came out of one of Brenda Hart’s books.

I really am not getting very far on my Halloween decorating. Been watching way too much playoff baseball…8 games in 2 days of pushing the October drama at every turn is more than a girl can handle! I have been stitching away on my pieces for the Winter TNNA Market though. See I am working, but enjoying every stitch and these games have just been amazing!

My new addition to the Halloween decorating…AlleyCat why are you outside? and until next time…keep on stitching.

Well I guess I should sat “cat.” Just a moment or two in the life of being an AlleyCat. A comment left on Facebook after the blog about the Fab Four from Mary Ann…

“Another excellent blog! However, I understand points were deducted for having no black cats in it. How are you going to answer to your Board of Standards and Practices?”

Thank you for the great laugh Mary Ann! So since I don’t have a clue as to what to blog about this morning, nor have I been inspired by it being National Something or other day… this is all I have. The antics of one AlleyCat as she is amusing herself or should I say amusing me with this piece of paper!

She thinks that it is alive as she attacks the paper and has to keep it from getting away!

Now I think that I will hide under here so you don’t take my picture anymore! Does she think that just because she can’t see me, that I can’t see her? Funny girl that AlleyCat.

Okay I guess that I will show you my pretty face after all!

I have not gotten any farther yet with my Halloween decorating. It will get done…I promise! Until then there is lots of playoff ball on the next few days as I power stitch my way through these games. I am starting on a new NeedleDeeva project. Yes the Deeva keeps me busy!

and until next time…keep on stitching

Mary Ann do you think that I earned extra points today?

Have you always wanted to take a class with the Fab Four? Just imagine one amazing teacher in a canvas enhancment class…now times that fun, frivolity, fine threads and fancy stitches by four. What could be better than that? Priceless! wouldn’t you agree?

For the last 4 years this group of Suzanne Howren, Tony Minieri, Beth Robertson and Meredith Willett have been teaching at the American Needlepoint Guild Seminars to sold out crowds. The waiting list has been miles long to get into their classes. Have you been frustrated with trying to get into that class? not an ANG member? Been on the waiting list just hoping and praying every day for that cancellation? or just a million and one other reasons? well I have the news for you!

Due to a scheduling snafu, the famous Fab Four will instead be teaching the Long & Short of Canvas Enhancment at A Stitch in Time in San Marino, California…okay and here is the sign up sheet! You can just sign up for the class, no waiting, no hoping that you will get in, no waiting on pins and needles, no lottery selection…you are in with just a little deposit to hold your spot. Classes will be on August 29, 30, 31 & September 1, 2013.

The same format, the same style, the same fun…well maybe more! Select a canvas from your stash, select a new one from the inventory of the amazing canvas selection at A Stitch in Time, or like me…wait till the Winter Market and pick out something brand new for the Fab Four!

Just some of the amazing techniques that were taught and quickly mastered at the 2012 class!

How about needleweaving the ears on this Laurel Burch canvas by Danji Designs…

Look at the hats and dresses on this canvas by Patti Mann…

and the cats drinking champagne under the Eiffel Tower by DJ Designs…

and my favorite and the one Meredith called “this is the bomb!” a needleweaving technique by Tony Minieri on a Barbara Russell canvas…

Decisions! decisions! decions! what canvas to do? well there is time to select that. Alison tells me that if you order a canvas from the shop for this class that she will give you a 15% discount on it. Now how can you say no to that? But I wouldn’t wait forever to sign up for the class. I am sure that spots will go fast, so don’t get left out.

Okay now you say well that is the same week as the ANG seminar that is in Anaheim California? How can I do both? Well actually you can as that is what I am doing! You start out your week with a 2 days class at seminar or even a 3 day class. About an hours drive from Anaheim you have arrived at A Stitch in Time in San Marino. That drive is with no traffic. If you are flying directly to the Fab Four class, I would fly into the Burbank airport.

Lunch is included daily along with goody bags, stitch idea and thread selections. You will send a full size color copy of your canvas to them by a certain date with any notes or comments that you might have. All these details and many more will follow.

There will be a daily shuttle service to get you back and forth to the Courtyard Marriott located in Old Town Pasadena that has been selected for our stay. Located in the heart of Old Pasadena where the main streets are lined with restaurants and boutique stye shopping.

Okay all I can say is call! call! call! and get your name in…don’t miss all the fun. You’ll be sorry if you do. just saying…
A Stitch In Time
2465 Huntington Dr
San Marino, CA 91108
626-793-5217
asitinc@sbcglobal.net

and until next time…keep on stitching

I figured that if I am going to get into the Halloween mood, there is no better way to start than with my NeedleDeeva Halloween Town. I stitched this way back when and enjoyed every single stitch. See I was working on NeedleDeeva stuff way before I even knew who the Deeva was! The Halloween Town made a trip to the annual ANG seminar and took home a blue ribbon for their efforts.  If you just gotta have this, stitch guides are available for each and everyone of these characters. I am sure that your favorite needlepoint shop could order this for you.

More Halloween stitching! A heart for next years Halloween decorating that is part of an exclusive club “Beloved and Bewitched” to Pocket Full of Stitches. I am still making up my mind how to have these finished…ornaments? or maybe sticks? This is one of my favorite ones…well it has a black cat on it, what are you thinking? I love these hearts as they are a fast stitch. One or two nights and you are done!

Do you like Halloween? Of course Christmas is the #1 holiday that we stitch for between stockings, pillows, standups, ornaments and so much more. But Halloween is right behind and is slowly catching up to the Christmas stitching.

A few more of those Halloween stitched pieces. Melissa Shirley candy canes and the black cat box by Birds of a Feather. This is as far as I got with my decorating and I am thinking that I will probably finish it up tomorrow in between getting some much needed housework done. Today is reserved for baseball and stitching.

Halloween is quite a favorite holiday of mine and as Christmas, every year I look for a new  something that I can add to the decoarting. I haven’t found anything yet for this year…you know it’s gotta talk to you and say take me home, it needs to make your heart skip a beat and all that stuff.

Well the other day my door bell rang and a package was left at my door. What is it? I haven’t ordered anything lately…or have I? What could this be?

WOW! It’s a Halloween quilt from my sister! She spoils me. Ooh I love, love, love did I say love this? The acid green is my favorite color. Do you see the top stitching? a program that manipulates the sewing machine top quilts in designs of ghosts, witches and bats. I see a ghost in the middle of the far right.

She tells me this is made from Jelly Roll fabrics. They are long strips of different fabrics and rolled as if you were making a jelly roll to eat, which creates these great designs. Did I get that right my sister?

It’s hard to pick out the favorite…but I think this one could be it. Check out the cats in this block. The arrival of my Halloween quilt was purr~fectly timed to the chill in the air. The temperatures that hit 102 less than a week ago has already chilled down to need to get a blanket out.

I have a box or two ready to pack up some donations to Goodwill and look what I found? do you think I should donate her too?

I don’t think so! and until next time…keep on stitching

and so are the cats! Can you find Sylvester in this pile of stuff? Once upon a time I did awhole lotta Halloween decorating and have been thinking that I really don’t need this much stuff anymore. I decided that I was going to bring all the boxes together and go through everything. Do you remember when I commented that I had more boxes of Halloween decorations than Christmas?

Well I kid you not! This is what the pile looked like and you can see that some certain feline was having a grand time…

I have been methodically going through every box…some things are being donated to Goodwill, some things are getting a new life by travelling up to the studios of Needlepoint Now to possibly be considered for a future magazine shoot and of course I am keeping some to decorate the house!

Now that the temperatures have returned to somewhat normal for this time of the year, the nights are cooler and the days are becoming shorter…it is starting to put me in the Halloween mood. I love this time of the year! I started thinking back to my class with the Fab Four in Philadelphia and this great Halloween canvas selected by Sandy.

I am sorry but I don’t recognize the designer of this canvas and I forgot to ask Sandy. But anywho look at this awesome witch with her cauldron on top of the logs burning away.

How were they to bring these logs forward in the needlepoint? Tony Minieri’s technique of “repousse” was purr~fect. Just hearing him say this word is special, let alone seeing it done. It creates just the right look and it is awesome! These are the things that you learn in classes that make being there in person … “priceless”

I feel a road trip coming up this morning for some much needed retail therapy for threads for my newest need to be stitching now projects. That is hard work which will create quite a hunger, so starting off with breakfast at The Cottage is the way to power up before shopping. Depending on what time I get home, will I start on my Halloween decorating then and there or wait?…well you know that I need to be sitting in my stitchy chair by first pitch. If yesterdays games are any indication of what this years playoff season is going to be like, wow are we in for quite the roller coaster ride!

of course AlleyCat catnapped one of the spiders from the pile! and until next time…keep on stitching.