Beautiful downtown area in the heart of Indianapolis! Their football and basketball stadiums surround the area around the convention center. Old charming buildings, churches and so much more are part of the landscape…but not much time to investigate! For me all the happenings were inside, plus the weather was not that inviting to be outside. Remember I left sunny southern California where temperatures had just touched the century mark the day before.

This is the new product area for a little look see before you hit the show floor.

Onto Sample It! This is Beth with her Eat, Sleep, Stitch magnets, t-shirts, mugs and so much more. Beth is the epitomy of Southern charm and she always…did I say always? takes one of my classes!

Doug Kreinik as they debuted the newer colors in different sizes of 4, 12 and 16…

Am I missing anything?

Getting into the spirit of being in Indy 500 land… the big race is just a few weeks away.

The class schedule, so I know where my class is!

Threads, canvases, stitch guides, my doodle canvas for demonstrations, chocolate and so much more!

AlleyCat loves her little corner of the couch.

and until next time…keep on stitching

Ladies and gentlemen…start your shopping! yes well we were in the land of the Indy 500 Racetrack.

A warming welcome for our group. My arrival was uneventful and I arrived with minutes to spare to make it to Sample It! Boy I am glad that I brought a warm jacket as I wasn’t in San Diego anymore.

Meredith and the gang from Elizabeth Turner Collection took a moment from their busy night to pose for a shot! Left to right Page, Beth, Meredith…my sistah! Donna Lynne and Jeanene the owner of In Stitches, Atlanta.

one of my purchases from Sample It! some more cards of Silken Straw. I believe that you will probably start seeing this in more shops.

The Gallereria where all the newest must haves are shown off!

The morning of the opening of the show…

Where we were officially opened by the infamous voice from the Indy 500 Racetrack where she says “Ladies and gentlemen, start your shopping!”

A great show and I will have lots and lots to share with you… I am in the process of getting all the pictures from my phone to my Mac. My classes were great, loved seeing everybody as always, the new items are always exciting to see and the restaurants that we discovered were amazing. New ideas, new canvases and so much more!

Sylvester is not letting me wander far from his sight!

and until next time…keep on stitching

to buy a canvas or two! and maybe some threads or a thing or two… but I think that Sylvester has something else on his mind though.

If you are attending market and want to take a class or 2… please join us on Saturday morning as we Meet Mr.Cat by Pepperberry Designs.

It looks like I will be teaching this at Newport Needlepoint over the summer. Give Peggy a call if you want to join us in person or from far away! 949.650.8022 We need to get the canvases ordered.

or Sunday morning for

Raymond’s Halloween Train!

I plan on tweeting from market…even though I will probably need a refresher course. Anyway follow me @catangelis

and until next time…keep on stitching

I’ve made my list and checked it twice! and all threads are here and accounted for.

I usually make my thread kits when I get to market, but since I will arrive just in time for Sample It,  big girl drinks and some frivolity…I assembled them ahead of time. Just in case I might need just a little sleep when I arrive at market. The beads are bagged, the thread is ready for anxious stitchers and I will need to cut some thread lengths of a few colors. I also want to make myself a new doodle canvas, since mine is pretty full of practice stitching.

A big thank you to all of the generous vendors, making these classes at market possible!

Raymond Crawford

Rainbow Gallery

DMC

Fleur de Paris

Kreinik

River Silks

Colonial Needle

Sundance Beads

Pepperberry Designs

Amy’s Burmilana

DMC

Fleur de Paris

Glorianaa

Kreinik

Rainbow Gallery

Colonial Needle

River Silks

Sundance Beads

I just need to finish my stitch guides, so you know where I will be for the next few days. I have been so busy that I haven’t even stitched for the last 3-4 nights. OMG! what is wrong with this picture? So I probably won’t see you till just before I leave, which is Friday morning at 0dark30.

AlleyCat that is your color!

and until next time…keep on stitching

and no one noticed it? not even me? My dear sweet Helga, who is a great support staff for me with my color choices and thread selections along with Susan…commented you missed a spoke! OMG, well that I did!

So it has now been fixed, but I need to take another picture. The threads are all here and accounted for, just waiting for my needles and if they don’t come in, I will just purchase some to give out. I need to bag some beads and give my stitch guides a final look see and I am good to go.

I usually assemble my thread kits when I get to the hotel room, but this year there isn’t as much spare time, so I will do them at home. And that suitcase goes on the plane with me, along with stitchguides and models. I take no chances!

My orchids are doing quite well! They absolutely love this window…

My stitching buddy laying down on the job.

and until next time…keep on stitching

off to teach today! A quick 90 mile drive up the coast to Newport Needlepoint. I can’t wait!

If you would love to have this and stitch it in the comfort of your home, give Peggy a call as she might have one or two left over. She really put a great kit together with a few wonderful surprises in it! 949.650.8022 A fun, fun, fun canvas to stitch.

MaryAnn Jones, can you email or message me please? Thanks!

so I need to make this short and sweet and speaking of sweet, here is my sweetheart, AlleyCat…

and until next time…keep on stitching

Mooch and Earl and the gang get to together to help celebrate Earth Day.

Actually yesterday was the day…but really everyday should be earth day!

Apple stores were accepting any old Apple piece to be recycled for free and there are e-recycle events this weekend. A free cuppa was offered if you brought in your own cup and   special reuseable bags were given out in other stores.

I know that I am very concious of what needs to be recycled and what goes for the landfil.

Thinking of Earth Day brought my thoughts to this canvas by Maggie “Lavender and Poppies.” Canvas is on bars, some threads selected and even though I thought I would get some of this stitched before market…well not too sure about that!

AlleyCat was celebrating her own Earth Day as she was busy watching and talking to the birdies…silly girl!

and until next time…keep on stitching

Better know as Holly Hills Santa. I had the best intentions of getting allot more stitched on this than I did. Other pressing matters got into my way, like must need stitching and stitch guides for my classes at market…wow Mr. Cat is 5 full pages of a Word document and that’s before edits and stitches worked into it.

I was stitching with some dear friends the other day and they were a great support system as I tried this stitch and that stitch for Santa’s robe. Luckily we were in a shop and could easily purchase more threads. The red that I had originally selected was not correct, so I went alooking. I really needed this red, A Needlepoint Inc. in the Chinese Red Range 501, or Splendor S911 would also be a perfect color too. Needlepoint Inc. 505, also in the Chinese Red Range will be the darker color, but I am sure a Splendor number would work for that too.

I needed a small stitch, there isn’t much to the coat, especially on the left hand side. I wanted something that was not straight up and down or vertical for that matter, something that would work in the small areas, something that could easily compensate around the swirls. Something just purr~fect!

So I tried T-stitch, too open and then 4-way Continental and that was adding a center hole which I thought, wow Santa is going to get cold! I looked through the books and more books and then came across Dotted Swiss stitch. Which is basically a basketweave stitch with an added cross stitch every on every 4th stitch. I started my basketweave using 3 strands Needlepoint Inc. 501, but I think that if I had to do it again, I would have used 4. I will go back and add that cross stitch with Petite Silk Lamé Braid SP53. You can Google that stitch to find it charted. I am pretty sure I have it somewhere on my Mac, but where or where can it be?

Did you notice that on the right hand side of the Santa that I am basketweaving in the reverse direction? Can’t figure that out? well turn your canvas 1/4 turn as you see in the picture and stitch away! I will accent the swirls with French Knots using Kreinik 002HL in size 8 and the darker Needlepoint Inc. 505. The left hand side is basketweave worked in the normal orientation.

I will probably need to add in some of that darker thread to show the sleeves, but I will worry about that when I get to it.

See not much stitching area to Santa’s coat! I am thinking that the breast plate could be stitched in Or Nué and I will try and create my own pattern, rather than try to follow what’s painted.

After going through every single gold, the one that I have selected is Kreinik 002HL in size 8. Why that one you ask? well it worked best with the gold beads and after all I did put it to a vote! See, just another great reason for stitching with friends!

This is a galvanized gold bead 577PF and the PF stands for Permanent Finish. That is a process to the bead that keeps it from tarnishing. That’s not why I selected this bead, but it was the best color match for the Kreinik. Of course his crozier will be beaded and more as I have something special up my sleeve! I need to find just the right red bead too.

The base of the snow that Santa walks on was originally going to try Brian’s Step Stitch that I have seen on a few of the Santa’s…but now I want to be different than the rest. So with Water ‘N Ice WT1 I will come up with something else. I will create a special snowy background with the Kreinik 032 in size 8.

The fur will be Turkey work and I will use a punch needle. My sistah Meredith and I ordered this one and we like it, but now I can’t find mine!  A dear friend came to the rescue and found this one in Walmart for me. Now I am not saying not to support your LNS, but I am not sure how many shops carry punch needles.

The turkey work comes last and I am sure that I will need at least 1-2 more skeins Burmilana 3432. I would love it if I could get this on a cone so that it’s uncut, but not sure I would need that much.

I am sorry to say that it will probably be at least 3 weeks till I can get back to this. With market looming in the next 2 weeks, that will seriously cut into my stitching time!

AlleyCat was enjoying some sunshine yesterday!

and until next time…keep on stitching

Ukranians have for centuries have created these incredible, inedible eggs called pysanky, drawing intricate designs on eggs utilizing a stylus and wax. Such detail! Aren’t they amazingly beautiful?

This is in my collection of eggs, of one that I add to every year. They are still handmade eggs which I believe come from Germany. I didn’t decorate for Easter this year as I have a beautiful white tree that I usually hang all these eggs on… maybe next year.

How about stitching with some Easter Grass by Kreinik? 9032 is the number in case you want to find some to add to your stash!

How about some baking? of course my favorite Easter dessert is a ricotta cheesecake! My Mom made it every year without fail and I especially loved the crust that was just like sugar cookies. Or lemon flavored rosettes or a ricotta rice pie or … I am making myself hungry.

A new orchid for Easter of which I need to thank my sister for! She had sent me a gift card to Adelaides for my birthday. See collecting orchids for me is like buying a new canvas, I look for a new combination of colors.

The cast and crew from Mutts are stopping by to wish you a Happy Easter!

As does AlleyCat! I am headed to La Jolla for breakfast at The Cottage and a little retail therapy. I will be back Monday morning hopefully with what I have decided and stitched on Leigh’s Russian Santa. I am waiting for a thread in the mail and I am sure it’s going to be here today.

Happy Easter and hopefully the Easter Bunny brings you everything you want!

and until next time…keep on stitching

Finished! one of the best words in the dictionary…and am sure glad that I did NOT vacuum  before I worked on that swag. Wow, wow, wow what a challenge that was!

and oh by the way I should mention that this is my 2nd class that I am teaching at the Summer market! and ooh by the way this really has been finished for awhile now and all the threads are here. I am just waiting for the needles from Colonial Needle and a Delica bead to arrive in my mailbox. Come join us if you are attending the TNNA market in Indy in 2 weeks!

I envision these picture perfect ideas in my mind, but then when I get to it…well it doesn’t look so picure perfect at all. So I try this, then I try that and then I start digging through threads and beads in the house and then I try this. I started out with River Silk and then went to Neon Rays, but the shine made it too predominate…so out it came again and I went back to the River Silks. There was also a purple at hand, but it wasn’t the correct shade of purple, so I will need to made sure that it gets back to Jean at River Silks. I never ever want to take for granted the generousity of the thread donors.

So soon I will be starting on the 2nd car of the train…and actually I started on the middle car last night. Is there a specific name for that car? I know the last one is the caboose and boy that one will be fun! I like to put all the canvases of the grouping on bars as I will travel from one canvas to another.

For example when I finished the background on the stack of pumpkins, I picked up the light pole and then completed that background too. And that is why I am not an advocate of doing background first! As I worked on the bat and the bow, I wish that I had that canvas thread empty from the background…oh well and I wasn’t doing any reverse stitching.

and as I look at this picture, it looks like I might need one more Delica bead in the botton right of the pumpkin. I added the pumpkin stems and leaves after it was all finished and looked at all this orange. It just needed a little something!

Up next will be finishing up my stitch guides and checking my threads to what I ordered. I want everything to be just purr~fect!

As I sat down in my photography studio…which is what I call this section of floor between the 2 windows that meet as in a mitered corner, it seems that I was going to have an audience. This little birdie and I, we just had a stare down contest for the longest time. Well until you know who showed up!

which is where you see AlleyCat lounging. My oh my you need a manicure!

and until next time…keep on stitching