You know why I named the blog Mostly Needlepoint? because most of the time I would talk needlepoint, but then there would be other times when I wouldn’t.

A great baseball season (well for me it is always a great baseball season) was supposed to end yesterday. We saw many greats say goodbye to this great game, the players that I grew to know and love as my passion for the game magnified. Thank you for all the wonderful memories.

A no hitter won in the most improbable way by a young pitcher for the Miami Marlins and the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays that played their hearts out inorder to play yet another day. So tonight, yes tonight we will have what they call a play~in game, which the winner of this game will keep their season alive for yet one more day!

So basically in comes down to a playoff game before the playoffs start…

I may need to stop by Costco for a hot dog or two to enjoy while I am watching the game. To really put me in the spirit.

Promise to be back to needlepoint stuff this week with more from the goings on from the Fab Four class and stitching…really!

It’s amazing how they seek out the sunshine no matter where it is!

and until next time…keep on stitching

This canvas is a Linda Carter Holman for Melissa Shirley Designs CH116 “Chuck Wagon Coffee.” For many of us coffee is a natural part of our day to day ritual. Mornings are powered by a cuppa, whether it be brewed at home, Starbucks, Pete’s, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf or at any other of your favorite coffee spot’s.

You know come to think of it, I think the Italian’s were way ahead of this coffee thing. Growing up I remember the corner coffee hang out with the fancy imported steaming espresso machines spouting out delicious cappucino’s and enjoying that with some pastries.

This canvas is by Maggie and it would be a fun stitch for your coffee corner!

Another Maggie canvas! Come to find out that the Cuban Coffee that I fell in love with when I was in Miami starts out with espresso. My gracious hosts told me how to order it at Starbucks…now if they will understand “solo wet macchiato” here in San Diego, I will be all set! If not I might just order the Salted Carmel Macchiato instead….but I will wait till the weather cools down a bit.

Ronda Ahrens canvas with a more colorful interpretation! Coffee derives from Arabic word meaning to “to put one off” or as if you are putting off sleep. Legend has it that a shepherd noticed that his goats experienced a higher level of energy after getting into the wild coffee berries. He sampled the berries himself with the same stimulating effects and word of it quickly spread to Arab regions. Coffee became a popular import in Europe and slowly made its way to the US. It didn’t experience much success until the Boston Tea Party, when colonists rebelling against the tea taxes, developed a taste for the coffee. Consuming close to 400 million cups of coffee daily, America now consumes the most coffee in the world. How many cups of that do you account for? Are you the type that absolutely has to have a cup as soon as your feet hit the floor?

I am not one that needs coffee or caffeine that soon in the am….but sooner or later. I am a tea drinker and most of the time it is iced variety. I do enjoy a hot cup of tea in the colder weather or after a wonderful dinner out and with a delicious dessert. How about you?

After my morning tea, it will be a day of stitching and baseball. Afterall, today is the last day of the regular season…and how did they play 162 games so quickly? Goodbye to Andy Pettite who also is retiring, and I knew that I was forgetting somebody the other day. Thanks for the memories.

AlleyCat’s most favorite nap spot! It used to be a skinny box, but not so much anymore. and until next time keep on stitching

Have you ever taken a class with Susan Portra? Well you don’t know what you are missing! She is beautiful both inside and out and here you see her with one of the loves of her life, Kody…oh and did I mention talented too?

Bring Your Canvas to Life is her mantra and it has been for years…not canvas enhancement, not canvas embellishment, but Bring Your Canvas to Life. I had taken classes with her years ago when she owned her shop in Huntington Beach, which you probably don’t remember me do you Susan? She taught how to make “The Perfect French Knot” and so much more. To this day I still make them the way she taught me and people always compliment me on my knots and I say, “I learned from Susan Portra!” I lost track of her for years as life got in the way. I started taking from her again a few years ago. I am pretty lucky that she is close by…well if you consider 90 miles close by? In California standards a 90-mile drive is really nothing.

This was the first piece that I worked on with Susan…and yes she really did bring my canvas to life. Santa Riding the Panda by Brenda Stofft. I learned so much from stitching this piece and I just love it. Susan even helped me selected the framing, mat and the cut of the mat.

I was with Susan the other day as we finished up a few things…I think! and boy does 2 hours fly by as we talk about all things stitching, while I try to hang onto every word she says.

We started to work on a new piece that I want to start stitching. A beautiful piece by Katie Molineux of Shorebirds. Susan has some amazing ideas for this one, but first I need to do some serious bead shopping! I don’t go see her again until mid December and I tried to schedule some more time BEFORE that…do you know that she is totally sold out for the REST of the year? OMG! tell me that isn’t so?!

If you have a chance, you should try and take some privates with Susan…if you are a shop owner you should try and schedule this lady for a class or two or three. Well you get the idea… Do you want to see some more of her work?

Now I did not stitch this…this amazing canvas Viola and Martini by Leigh Designs but after seeing this I want to! Make sure to look at the original canvas and see how Susan really brought it to life.

Okay time for some thread shopping and home to stitch for the day.

I sat on the floor the other day to water some plants and look who I found? and until next time…keep on stitching

How fun is this? a color party put on by Bedecked and Bedazzled. So what’s a color party all about?

A fun selection of threads, crystals and beads that arrive in your mailbox every month. New threads, exciting threads and beads that are brought together by color. This was our first month…pink, and look at those wonderful Miyuki beads!

We’ve had pink, green, purple, yellow, blue, orange, red and now white with such wonderful choices as Miyuki drop beads, Gloriana, Belle Soie, Gumnuts, rhinestones, Swarovski crystals, sequins, Treenway Silks, Soie d’Alger, Rainbow Threads, Soie Perlee and so much more.

Ruth always adds her special touches, such as the threads presented in a color co-ordinated draw string bag and a crossword puzzled written around our threads. I was thinking that this was our last month, but there is 1 more yet! She is talking about continuing this into a new “seasonal” color party. You know, Halloween, Fall, etc…

It’s been a good baseball week, but on the other hand, yet a tough baseball week. Great ball as teams try to win those last few wild card spots and that might not be decided up until the last minute…or they might even need a playoff game (or what they call a play in game) to determine who gets to go to the playoffs.

The tough part has been saying goodbye to great players that are retiring such as Mark Kotsay of the San Diego Padres, Todd Helton of the Colorado Rockies and of course as the Sandman, Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees, exits. Quite a sendoff last night at Yankee stadium and I guarantee you, there was not a dry eye in the house…in any house, including mine.

One of my favorite movies A League of Their Own, Tom Hanks has this great scene “There’s no crying in baseball” but for this night, just this once…there can be crying in baseball.

This is what I go through more often than not…

Somebody’s keeping my spot warm! and until next time…keep on stitching

Last I left you Meredith was modeling that great witch’s hat while inspiring our stitching repetroire at the Fab Four class at A Stitch in Time in San Marino, CA.

Meredith is helping Maryellen who is working the on the 5 stitching witches by Melissa Shirley Designs. Each teacher was asked to work and design on their own witch and you will see soon or later that Meredith sure added her own special touch to hers!

I know that she was explaining something very wonderful here…excpet that I can’t remember what it was!

Meredith was working with Elizabeth on her Winter Tree of LIfe by Zecca. Meredith’s nametag had a background stitch of little wine glasses!

Another Melissa Shirley Halloween canvas that Meredith is working on with Nancy!

Kristen is praying to the stitching gods as she hopes for that perfect stitch. oh please, oh please, give me a great stitch!

Notice the Charley Harper canvases that someone is “thinking about?” and that my sistah Meredith has taken her shoes off. A girl after my own heart, as that is usually me.

Meredith is working the room as she helps Pat with her peach on her Valentina Heishman canvas. I seem to remember that the peach was my favorite fruit on that canvas!

She is working with Liz on the cat canvas by Maggie…you know the one that I swear Liz is stitching for moi?

Check those flowers out! Just wonderful…

I love what they have been doing on this Amanda Lawford fish canvas. Wrapped spider for the gills and off canvas needle weaving is really bringing this piece to life.

Did you know what yesterday was?

Happy National Punctuation Day!

In honor of this very important holiday, we (Huffinton Post) decided there’s no better time to reveal our biggest pet peeves when it comes to society’s lack of proper, well, punctuation.

I know that I fall into one of those groups by using way too many exclaimation points. I have been trying to curtail the use of them. Writing for the magazine has helped me too and even though it goes through many edits, I try, I try, I really do! See there I go again.

Now is she sticking her tongue out at me? and until next time…keep on stitching

Every few months I take all my plants, orchids and succulents over to the sink to give them a little extra TLC. I check and make sure that there are no ills or unwanted visitors hanging out on my plants. Sylvester thought he would see what is going on and maybe get a little drink from the faucet, which he loves doing!

So you are wondering why all this extra fuss and muss? well if there is a bug or a fungus amoung us, it could or would travel to more of the plants. Having the orchids is like having fresh flowers in my house all the time.

This orchid in the front is the latest one that had to come home with me. I was especially attracted to this one because of the variant color in the orchid…see they are not all the same coloration? See buying a new orchid I liken to finding a new canvas.

I did allot of baseball watching this weekend, some stitching and hung out with my bud, Brenda Hart, talking stitching and trying to solve all of life’s problems. Have you ever taken a class with Brenda? Well you don’t know what you are missing…speaking of Brenda’s classes…

Mary Alice, the creator of the Blue Bonnet tells me that Brenda’s classes are filling up fast!

So if you have ever wanted to take a class with Brenda, think about Blue Bonnet! Thank you to Designers Desk for this great picture of Miss Brenda.

The birds were driving AlleyCat crazy yesterday. Notice yet again she didnot clean up her face right after her mid morning snack? ooh you silly girl.

and until next time…keep on stitching

Now that the ANG seminar and the Fab Four class is but a memory…it is time to start thinking and planning my stitching adventures for next year!

First up on my calendar is the Blue Bonnet Studio Time Needle Arts Retreat, February 15th-18th, 2014. I had the best time last year just taking the 2 days, so this year I am staying for 4 days, doubling my fun and learning experiences!

I am going to do the canvas enhancement class… do I want to work on this new Laurel Burch canvas by Danji Designs?

or the October Basket by Melissa Shirley Designs? I am sure that she used AlleyCat to model for this! What do you think? Ooh such decisions!

So if you are looking for a little getaway with wonderful friends and amazing stitching, think about the Blue Bonnet Retreat. Featuring such amazing teachers as Brenda Hart with great stitch choices in her canvas embellishment classes, Debbie Stiehler teaching for probably the last time with her Imari Collage (before she retires!), Terry Dryden with her Pear Duet, Nancy Cucci with her Amazing Grays, Japanese Embroidery and so many more great classes and choices!

A visit to The NeedleWorks, a night of shopping in a boutique setting and an evening banquet all located in the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort. What could be better than that?

I discovered the quickest way to clear a room! Take out the vacuum…ooh you silly kitties.

and until next time…keep on stitching

In traditional skylore, a harvest moon is the full moon closest to Autumnal Equinox which is in just a few days. The moon waxes a bit larger each night to the full moon where it will shine brightly all night long.

The Harvest Moon always seems to be bigger and brighter than usual. That it is a result of the closeness of times of the moon rise, which way back when would give more light for the farmers. Doesn’t the Harvest moon seem to be the biggest of them all? Not! It is just an optical illusion.

Okay now what does the moon have to do with needlepoint? Read on…

One of my finishes is this canvas by Sharon G, entitled Cat’s Night Out with 5 cats sitting under the moonlight. It is not a full moon in this one though, but work with me here! The moon was done in a small balloon stitch which came from one of Brenda Hart’s books using Bijoux Glints.

The framers and I both fell in love with this purr~fect frame with the look of squares embedded in the black wood. Sort of mimics the little Scotch stitches in the canvas. Accented with a suede mat in a gorgeous rich deep purple…so dark that it looks black. The predominate use of Kreinik 002C that was used to stitch the border, carries over onto the mat where it was sewn into the mat and accented with brads. My framers are ooh so clever!

This was also the piece that I entered in the ANG exhibit this year. I didn’t tell anybody, didn’t say anything, just entered it with no expectations, no hopes, nothing. I just wanted to be able to share my work…plus I enter something every year, so why not? Well it was a ribbon winner and took home a first place ribbon in the painted canvas without stitchguide division. Maybe I need to do it that way more often!

Another moon on a Sharon G canvas. I really do love working on her canvases…can’t you tell? This moon was beaded. Was I crazy? or should I say what was I thinking? You know I love the way it came out! My framers got very creative and I absolutely love the results.

What are you stitching on these days? It is time for me to get to work and get back to stitching what I should be stitching… no more goofing off for me! The baseball has been very good lately as we wind down to the last week of the regular season while teams battle now to be able to play on into October. So I have no excuses not to sit and stitch!

A little kitty tv for Sylvester. and until next time…keep on stitching

Seriously, there isn’t a Charley Harper canvas out there that doesn’t speak to me in some way! This one is called Cat O’Nine Tails….now if you say well there are only 7 tails, can’t you count? well the cat’s tail and the mouse’s tail round it out to make it 9. This had to come home with me from the trunk show at Needlepoint of La Jolla. I have some great ideas wandering around in my head for it. But first I need the time!

Another one is Cleopetria as you look at this sleek obelisque looking black cat! AlleyCat you are not. She stands in the shadow of a Sphynx. This one had to come home with me from the trunk show at A Stitch in Time.

Charley Harper’s unique minimalist approach is unmistakable. From his groundbreaking mid-century illustrations for Ford Times Magazine and Golden Books, his impeccably composed posters to his whimsical serigraph and glicée prints, Charley Harper’s art is a beloved treasure and inspiration to an entire generation of artists and generations.

His canvases are wonderful for stitches! Large expanses lend themselves to amazing techniques with all types of threads, beads, Turkey work and ooh so much more.

This was my first Charley Harper that I did years ago called Fishful Thinking. Do you see the cats face behind the fish? My amazing framers freshened it up and gave it a new look…

If you really need to add a CharleyHarper or 2 to your stash Needlepoint of La Jolla is having their trunk show right now! Give Michelle or Bill a call at 858-454-0082

and I would stitch any, did I say any Charley Harper and it doesn’t even HAVE to have a cat as the subject matter

AlleyCat is chillin’ and looking like the sphynx. and until next time…keep on stitching