I love, love, love…did I say love visiting Elizabeth and all the “things” that we do every time that I am in the Pacific Northwest. She wasn’t here this time, so I had to keep up the rituals on my own! Even though I am back home with the cats now…

Saturday Market is one of my favorites and is held every Saturday morning in downtown Eugene. It is the longest running fresh air market in the US featuring the most amazing produce, cheeses, breads and so much more Check out the size of those radishes! There are arts and crafts and foods to sample and food to order to eat there or take home.

I saw someone walking around Saturday market with this pink box from Voodoo donuts and of course I had to ask where it was. I have read allot about this place and heard the rave reviews about their donuts, so I needed to check it out for myself.

There was quite the line, so it must be good!

I joked with the young man behind the counter that he should be playing for the Red Sox. The donuts were worth every moment of the wait! The regulars suggest that I try an Ole Dirty Bastard or ODB for short which is a donut with pb and crushed oreos. Very good… and I also tried a buttermilk pumpkin bar that was exceptional.

Of course no visit is complete without a little stop to Mindy’s. She wasn’t there today, but I will come back another day.

Soon it was time to head back to the house as I am sure the dogs will be missing my company. Plus I can get some work done. The night would be filled out with some stitching and partway through the night I had a visitor. It’s was as if Reggie was saying, okay enough of that stitching stuff …”pet me please” and I gladly obliged.

and until next time…keep on stitching

I left my adoptive fur children and the Needlepoint Now Studios and headed home. I was sort of a little sad to leave Reggie, Shawnee, Mable, Ollie and Elmore James the Cat… but it was time to come home. I was missing it and all things associated with living in San Diego.

I especially missed the cats, their meows and just being home. Well I was welcomed by that first Cat Tail Speak…yes they were a little afriad of me! I didn’t expect that reaction. Or was it my suitcases?

Soon enough they both started meowing up a storm as if they were saying “Don’t you love us anymore?” “why did you leave us so long? we were lonesome and missed you!” and everything else I can just imagine that my cats were thinking. They started settling in and soon enough…

AlleyCat was giving me the cold shoulder…

and then shortly thereafter all was forgiven and we all settled in for a nap. AlleyCat is under the covers. Home sweet home.

This morning I am headed for breakfast at the Cottage with some dear friends, a little retail therapy and of course some threads!

and until next time…keep on stitching

Well did you? For some of us, we got an extra hour of sleep this morning….for me not so much. The dogs didn’t realize that the clocks fell back an hour and that it wasn’t time for me to get up, let them out and serve their morning snack. All they knew is that it was time for me to get vertical! Guess who is the boss around here? well it case you didn’t figure it out, it’s not me! Well we did all go back to bed and sleep a but more.

For me it was an extra hour of stitching last night as I burned the midnight oil keeping my little stitching fingers very busy. So many canvases to stitch and such little time! The clock is one of the vignettes from Lani’s Alice in Wonderland.

The issue is printed and is at the mail house getting ready to arrive in your mail boxes, soon! soon! soon! This is the biggest one ever at a total of 72 pages…wow can you believe that?

Allot of hard work and many, many files and so much more go into putting together one of the Needlepoint Now magazines. Countless hours are put in by numerous contributors between stitch guide writing, drawing the charts, editing, editing and even more editing and that doesn’t even take in account the hours it took to design the piece, stitch it, write the notes, make sure all threads are there and accounted for and then answer dozens of questions that we will have.

At the Studios all this work is done under nose supervision and paws of approval. The poodles are part of the studio activities each and every day and this is the way we walk to work. The poodles know when you are running late leaving the house and they start pushing you out the door! All you need to say to them is lets go to work and they run to the door…Shawnee usually leads the way barking as if to say “okay lets go! why are you poking around?” It was about 7:45am and the sun still hadn’t totally risen.

Shawnee leads the way and Reggie is behind him.

Mabel joins the group as she leads the boys to work.

Last but not least is Ollie. They are looking at me as if to say “well let’s hurry-up!”

What are you stitching these days? an extra hour of stitching for us on Sunday since the clocks fall back.

and until next time…keep on stitching

Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday that is celebrated on November 1rst & 2nd. The belief is that the gates of heaven are opened at midnight on October 31rst and the spirits of all deceased children are allowed to reunite with their families. The following day on November 2nd, the spirits of the adults come down to enjoy the festivities that have been prepared for them. The cemeteries are decorated, a favorite meal and a bottle of tequila might be placed at the grave to ready for the return of the spirit. I think that it is a touching and moving tribute to your dearly departed loved ones.

Sugar skulls are a well known symbol for the celebration of the Day of the Dead as they are created to adorn the festivities for the departed souls. Sugar art was brought to the New World by Italian missionaries in the 17th century. Mexico, abundant in sugar cane learned quickly how to make the sugar skulls. The skulls would represent a departed soul as they were placed on gravestones or home made altars to honor a particular spirit.

I could ramble on about all the nuances of Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead Celebrations, as I find it totally fascinating…living in San Diego, the goings on are all about us.

The most important icons of the Day of the Dead celebrations are the calacas, which is a skeleton having fun in their afterlife,  pan de muerto (bread of the dead) which is baked to offer as an offrenda (offering) at the altar, calaveras (sugar skull) and altars decorated with strings of flor de cempazuchitl (marigolds.)

Over the years the Day of the Dead canvases have not been quite as elusive to find as their popularity grows . This canvas that you see here is by Needle Deeva and stitched by me. This is just one of the sugar skulls that was all beaded! All beaded you say? am I out of mind? just think this way about beading…no plying your threads, no compensating stitches, no laying of threads, no counting…what’s not to love?

If Day of the Dead canvases are on your stitching wish list, there are wonderful canvases by Sundance and also many amazing pieces of artwork by Manuel Salas that are being painted onto canvas by Tapestry Fair. Oooh if I only had the time to stitch them all!

It really is! Halloween is a very favorite time of the year for me. But I have been thinking that I haven’t even been home the last few years for my celebrations. The last 2 years I have been with the Deeva taking classes at Diversions with Tony Minieri. Speaking of Deeva this is a Halloween Heart from NeedleDeeva. These hearts, ooh these hearts, well you know they are a quick stitch, usually just a few nights and that’s why I love stitching them.

Now this year I am with the poodles at the Needlepoint Now studios. The magzines have been printed as Jaime and D’Ann are very busy getting the early sends ready. The early sends are the advertisers and contributors as they get a preview copy. Carol is putting the finishing touches on the newsletter as e-mails fly back and forth across the globe as we await a thumb’s up from Elizabeth.

This Melissa canvas really puts me in the Halloween spirit. This is a must do for me! well after all doesn’t that look like AlleyCat?

Meredith was in the Halloween spirit last month! and actually she is back at A Stitch in Time right now teaching her magic on canvas.

Mr. Boo from Melissa Shirley! This picture was from Melissa’s Halloween booth at market.

Mooch and Earl have been having fun getting ready for Halloween too!

My style of trick or treating! we could be having a Game 7 of the World Series on Halloween…or will the bearded Boston Red Sox end it tonight?

and until next time…keep on stitching

Today is National Cat Day! “What greater gift than the love of a cat?” Charles Dickens once mused. Cats are one of the most beloved human companions of all time. They were first domesticated in the Middle East’s Fertile Crescent as early as 12,000 years ago. When humans relied on hunting as their main source of food, dogs were most useful, but when the first agricultural societies emerged, cats became invaluable. Domesticated cats became responsible for keeping grain stores free of mice and other rodents. Today, cats can be found in 34% of American households, making them the most popular house pet in the United States.

Pet lifestyle expert and animal welfare advocate Colleen Paige established National Cat Day in 2005. In honor of the occasion, celebrate cats and the unconditional love and companionship they give to their owners. If you don’t own a cat, volunteer at your local animal shelter or make a donation. It’s the purrrrfect way to show you care!  Quoted from punchbowl.com

This is Cat love canvas by Unique New Zealand and this is the one that I would be stitching if I wasn’t working on about 27 different must have to stitch…well I might be exaggerating just a little bit, but I am sure that you get the idea.

I figured that since I left my cats alone with the cat nanny, I could at least honor them by talking about them! This was how I left Sylvester. One of these days I will figure out how to pack him in that suitcase.

shhh and please don’t tell those cats of mine where I have gone! please as there will be no living with them.

I am fully ensconced in the beautiful Pacific Northwest at the studios of Needlepoint Now while I d-o-g sit. Yes you read that correctly. Let me introduce you to my fur children from front to back-Reggie, Shawnee, Mabel and over to the left is Ollie. 4 standard poodles with larger than life personalities, full of energy and lots of love and kisses to go around.

I have also been working away while I am here. I am learning more of the goings on of the magazine…such as the final proofing, the final-final proof from the printers, which is in the process of being printed right now. In a few days some boxes will be delivered to the studios so that we can send out the preview copies that go to all the advertisers and the contributors. Your issues are mailed from the printing service after an updated mailing list is given to them, so those copies never come through here.

The newsletter is being designed and proofed and readied for delivery to you…soon!

I’ve also been busy on the projects for the January/February issue. Checking all the threads and asking the designer all the questions that I have for them….such as did you mean this? or that? or I am being challenged finding bead or thread color so and so, can you check that for me please? More lessons on Illustrator are coming and actually I am supposed to get an update installed on my Mac this week.

I am stitching away at night on a great new project that you will see in a future issue. Working with numerous cards of Flair, which my fingers seem to be sore when I stitch with that, even though I am using a bigger needle. Does that happen to you too?

So I am sure you are wondering exactly why I am here and d-o-g sitting? well Elizabeth along with her husband Jay are in China!

After finding out from Elizabeth that Facebook, Twitter and blogging are banned in China, it really makes you stop and realize that the freedoms that we have here are not to be taken lightly.

They are on a Pat Dalton Textile Tour to visit silk factories and so much more. Elizabeth has taken one of Pat’s tours before, and loved it so much that she wanted to go again..but this time she went with Jay, so that is the reason why I needed to stay with the kids. I am honored and humbled that they asked me!

I am sure that you will see lots of articles and pictures coming up in the magazine, which I know I am looking forward to that.

and until next time…keep on stitching

I am sure that you think that this is my favorite October color. But come on, lets get serious…

this is my favorite October color! The game Thursday night was amazing. A great pitching duel and of course Big Papi went deep. It can’t get better than that. I hope for just as a good game tonight and tomorrow and the night after. Well you get the idea.

Mutts is into the October color…

My absolute hands down favorite cartoon! Thanks for brightening my day each and every day Mooch and Earl and the entire cast of characters…

Halloween is almost here…just a few short days away.

I have been working and stitching up a storm these days! and you ask what am I stitching on? well something for the magzine that I will wait till Elizabeth gives u the big reveal. At this point, I want to be respectful and it’s really not up to me at this time. But I promise that it is something wonderful!

I am struggling with 1 of the stitches and have spent more time the last few nights stitching and restitching and stitching again. I have even been trying to chart it so that I can “see” it, but that’s not even helping. Time to put it away and stitch on something else.

Lion, hear me roar! but I really think that he is just yawning…

and until next time…keep on stitching

Today is Frankentstein Friday! celebrated each year on the last Friday of October…

Frankenstein Friday pays homage to one of the greatest gothic stories of all time. In 1818, Mary Shelley wrote a novel about a young scientist named Victor Frankenstein who discovers how to give life to inanimate bodies. He creates a monster that pursues him to the ends of the earth and eventually destroys everything he holds dear.

People often mistakenly use the name “Frankenstein” to refer to the hideous monster (famously played by Boris Karloff in the 1931 film), but Victor Frankenstein never gives his creation a name.

So let’s see what Frankenstein canvases we can find. This one is by Kelly Clark…

and of course we need a bride of Frankenstein! also by Kelly Clark…

I used to love to watch those old black and white movies of Frankenstein as a kid. Do you remember them?

Even Mooch is thinking Frankenstein!

and until next time…keep on stitching