After finishing my Thanksgiving piece, I thought that I would reward myself with a little stitching for me…well why not? I think that I earned that! I haven’t done much of that lately, you know stitching for myself.

This was a class that I took at the June TNNA Summer Market. Boo Kitty, a Melissa Shirley canvas, stitch guide by June McKnight and taught by June. Great class!

Boo Kitty is finished and it went out to the finishers already! I will keep my fingers crossed that it might get back in time for Halloween. If not there is always next year. I made very few changes from the stitch guide to what I actually stitched. I think she’s pretty cute, don’t you? This would be a great canvas to stitch to put you in the Halloween mood. I am sure that your LNS would be happy to order this for you!

I broke in my new scissors this week. Premax scissors and highly recomended by Tony Minieri…well that sold me!

and my new fob! A special gift from a wonderful friend. Check out the cute little black cat! and now check out this cute little black cat….

The temperatures dropped below 90 and I guess she felt a chill! and until next time…keep on stitching.

In any language it means finished! whether it be fini! finito! Can I say it again? Finished! I am thrilled to have the backdrop off the bars and on the way to Barbara’s Needlepoint in Sioux Falls, SD to join the other pieces as they await her special style of finishing.

It had been almost finished now for what seems like forever…it just awaited the sky around the sails, a little more of where the sand met the surf and last but not least, the sails. I envisioned the idea of making the sails billowing using River Silk with either 7mm or 13 mm River Silk. I had a million and one excuses why it wasn’t finished…it was too hot, I was too tired, I didn’t feel like it, I would rather stitch on this, I didn’t feel like stitching at all and on and on. When what it really was the thought of failure. What if my ideas didn’t work? What if I tried everything and nothing spoke to me? What was I going to do then?

A dear friend asked me if it was finished? well why not? Thank you for that as I realized that I needed to get it together, so I just sat down with it and just did it. Well the ribbon was all wrong as that is all you saw, it was too big and the perspective was all wrong. I quickly did some reverse stitching, looked up the thread colors used in the other pieces of the set and got them out. Just a little interlocking Gobelin is all it needed. I was thrilled that it worked!

In case you are wondering, this is the backdrop for this set. The new year of 2013 will kick off a NeedleDeeva Select Retailers Thanksgivng Club for your stitching pleasure.

These are the select retailers that so far will be participating with this…and listed in no preferential order, but rather alphabetically.

Barbara’s Needlepoint Sioux Falls, SD  605-367-9050

Designers Desk Geneva, IL 630-262-1234

In Stitches Atlanta, GA 404-816-4612

Needlepoint of La Jolla La Jolla, CA 800-521-9811

Peacocok Alley Ada, MI 877-550-9898

Pocket Full of Stitches Lubbock, TX 800-234-1761

The Enriched Stitch Wilton, CT 203-210-5107

Wellesley Needlepoint Wellesley MA 781-235-5107

What’s the Point? Dublin, OH 614-717-9008

Now that this is finished I will reward myself with a night or two of stitching something for me and then onto other things!

Just in case anybody was thinking that I was making up the fact that it has been way toooooooo hot in San Diego, look at what the temperature was on Monday! Yesterday’s high was only 98 and today it is supposed to start cooling down. Thank goodness! Now I can get down to some serious stitching.

There was not much stitching going on last night with all the must see baseball of the last few games of the regular season. How was I to pay attention to my stitching when the games were all so good? Can this years World Series be any better than last year? Only time will tell!

Sylvester made himself comfy on top of the bag from my latest Trader Joe’s visit. and until next time…keep on stitching.

You know sometimes you just need some comfort stitching…you know sort of like comfort food? For me that is basketweave, beading and French knots, not necessarily in that order and not favoring any one over the other.

So why not do all 3 with this canvas? Wow I am in 7th heaven!

Susan Portra had suggested doing every other word in beads. The other words were to be padded with a satin stitch laid over. It worked great on the “K” and the “E”, but then the P I wasn’t so thrilled with my work. So I was going to try something else…well why not?

I learned from Meredith way back when…don’t rip out what you don’t like right away. Wait! Wait! Try your other idea first in a different area and then look at them both. You may find that the first stitch was the right one. I on the other hand liked the look of the French knots and that is the way I went. BTW, the word “and” is worked in cross stitch. It started out as a tent stitch, but it did need a little more, so I did turn it into a cross stitch.

The Keep Calm and Carry On original has really grown into quite the family of canvases! I ordered mine from Peacock Alley. How about one for Halloween? or Chocolate? or even for stitching? well Peacock Alley has them all.

Mine is pretty much done now, well all except for the background. I have my stitch selected, my threads at hand, but I need to reconfigure it for the count of the canvas. Who knows, I may even change the idea that I have in mind?

Okay Mother Nature, have you not looked at the calendar to see that it is October 1rst? well summer is still here and the temperatures again were in the high 90’s! The next few days it is supposed to hit the century mark. Okay when you see San Diego temperatures on the news, you see what is recorded at the coast. This is so much cooler than when you are living a bit away from there. The farther inland, the hotter it gets.

So the plan is not to work too hard, stay cool, drink lots of water and stay cool!

Sylvester is chillin’ and hanging out in his bag. and until next time…keep on stitching