It seems that everybody is celebrtating Christmas in July! So not to miss out on all the fun and frivolity, and being that this IS the last day of July, I thought I would show a few of my favorite Christmas pieces from the Columbus market…better late than never!

What is the big deal about Christmas in July? well it is sort of more than the half way point between last Christmas and this one coming up. It is when you say to yourself, I better start stitching up a storm if I am going to get this finished and out to the finishers in time. Hurry! Hurry!

Now this is a stocking that I would love to stitch for myself! Santa’s Wishes and Dreams Emporium Stocking by dede. Isn’t this wonderful? Well it’s got a black cat in it and it’s a big girl stocking…what’s not to love about it?

Here’s another Santa’s Wishes and Dreams Emporium Stocking by dede. These are really great, so much realistic detail.

All of these wonderful ornaments from Raymond Crawford. How do you pick just one?

The latest creations from Sew Much Fun. Of course gingerbread goes with Christmas! This brother and sister would make a great addition to your holiday decorating or just to hang out with you in the kitchen all year long.

How about this darling piece by Kirk and Bradley? This could be the companion piece to the polar bears snow globe that I already stitched.

Even though this is not Christmas, it is close enough and what a great piece to stitch for Thanksgiving! This is from Sew Much Fun and I do have this in my I hope to be able to stitch this sometime in this lifetime pile. It was a gift from a dear friend, so it will have extra special memories for me when it is joins me at the Thanksgiving table.

The baseball game was wonderful Monday night…a walkoff win which doesn’t get much better than that. The day with Susan was even better and it just went too fast!

AlleyCat is keeping her eye on me while I was looking at threads. Or was it the look of “you disturbed my sleep, how dare you!” and until next time…keep on stitching

Are you joining in on the party with us? Our stitch along in Needlepoint Now of the 4th of July March…an Ashley Dillon canvas available from Susan Roberts. Rumor has it that she took orders for quite a few the other day! Stitch guide by Susan Portra.

Shopping for the threads is half the fun! especially when…

after you started stitching the piece for the magazine that you discover Anchor pearl cotton in size #12 is no longer being sold in the US! Elizabeth was able to track down a wonderful tatting thread which is seen on the right (and you will find that information in the magazine) that is a perfect substitute.

My left over Anchor pearl is in the middle and at the Columbus Market, Colonial Needle was able to get a very close match to it with the Finca Pearl Cotton by Prescencia #3324.

Part of my fireworks and before I stitched the 2nd part of the background stitch. I was in a beading kinda mood that evening! I really haven’t had much time to work on this lately.

Tomorrow I head up north, well all of 90 miles worth to spend a fun day with Susan Portra. Since I have been working so hard, I think that I will treat myself with a few extra hours off and drive up early! Start off with Susan’s class, then we’ll do lunch together and then… and then my 2 hours of privates. The first hour will be spent on the March as I make sure I know how to style that wonderful hairdo for the flag bearing guy and then understand that stitch for all those feathers for the American Eagle. That last hour with Susan will be something for me…something wonderful, something, well you’ll see!

BTW, do you know that there is a new march in this ever so popular series? A Valentine’s day March… is this not the cutest?

I didn’t venture very far this weekend as I have been working lots of hours to get all my work into the magazine for the September/October issue. Just a few more hours and then for me it will be some down time! baseball game tonight as we play the Cincinatti Reds, tomorrow is my day with Susan, a bead show on Saturday and then back downtown for a few more baseball games on Sunday against the Yankees and then the Baltimore Orioles next Tuesday.

I still haven’t watered all my plants, done laundry or any of that fun stuff. Well I guess that will wait for me!

AlleyCat was busy supervising my organizing project!

and until next time…keep on stitching

This canvas of Annie Lane’s came home with me from the Dallas Market. Let’s see that was a few month’s ago…

yes Cindy I promised that I would stitch this for you and well…no it’s not finished yet. But I should be able to make up for lost time in the next few weeks. Not that I will finish it in that time, but work with me here.

not one of my better pictures! I beaded the light fixture with these clear, frosted beads so that it would like the glass on a real light bulb cover. Also beading the sconce over the door.

I have these Fab Flowers from Sundance Designs and will try them along with some silk ribbons in the flower pot. I picked up a few more threads for this today.

So really I haven’t been doing much stitching these days since I got back from the Needlepoint Now Studios. What’s wrong with this picture? I am almost finished with this month’s magazine work and Tuesday I go to see Susan Portra for a few hours. We will work on part 3 of the 4th of July March and then and then…well some time for me and my stuff. I am sure that she will inspire me and motivate me and send me home all fired up that I can’t wait to get home and start stitching!

Well that’s my plan anyway and I am sticking with it…

Kids were keeping me company as they enjoyed the late afternoon sun! and until next time…keep on stitching

According to the urban dictionary, Cowboy Up means…when things are getting tough you have to get back up, dust yourself off and keep on trying! I remember that Cowboy Up was the Boston Red Sox’s mantra that year that they made the improbable comeback against the Yankees to win the World Series that year…when was it? 2004?

Sometimes that is so appropriate in our stitching. When the stitching gets tough, we try and try again, it is necessary to get back up and keep trying till you get it just right.

This is a canvas by What’s the Point? and makes into these darling little bags for the holidays or anytime for that matter. I have made several of these with a few more to work on one of these days.

So you are thinking…and yes I can hear you. You are saying to yourself, what has she lost her mind or what? What’s the deal about Cowboy Up and cowboy boots? Yes she has really gone off the deep end now.

Well don’t you know? today is National Day of the Cowboy! A way to preserve the rich heritage and culture of the American cowboy. So of course I think about cowboy boots, John Wayne, cowboy coffee and all things cowboy.

A Linda Carter Holman for Melissa Shirley and speaking of Cowboy Coffee, this is called Chuck Wagon Coffee.

A cowboy boot stocking by Boots Bailey. I know someone who is working on this canvas!

or a cowboy boot by Kelly Clark!

So join in the spirit of the National Day of the American Cowboy…

Sylvester is not a cowboy, but he is looking pretty cute as he is doing what cats do. Hanging out in the box as he waits for me to take his picture! and until next time…keep on stitching

The weekend at The Enriched Stitch was so wonderful that it took more than 1 day to tell you all about it!

Sunday was our day to stitch Raymond Crawford’s Trick or Treat canvas. It was a day filled with a beading adventure! Hex beads, Delicas, round beads in size 11 and size 14 with a variety of styles including brick stitch beading. One of these days I need to experiment with Don’s style of basketweave beading!

Some of you are not beading fans…but look at the bright side of things. You don’t need to strand your threads, no counting, no compensation, no laying of your threads, just bead away! Allot of your angst with beading could be with threading your needle as the eye is so small. Why not try a Bohin beading needle? Susan Portra has showed me to use a #10 Milliner’s needle which I like too! I like the extra length of the Milliner’s.

If you make a mistake in your beading, you can just break that one single bead with a small pair of pliers. Don’t like the whole section? well unless they are gold lined and very expensive beads, I just cut them out and let them fly! Of course my timing is always that I have just vacummed.

Step into the Christmas room at The Enriched Stitch, where you can get a glimpse of the Swirling Snowmen that Suzie just picked up from the finishers.

Here’s a shot of the entire piece! I am sure that if you gave her a call or ordered on line with The Enriched Stitch, you too could get the canvas, threads and her awesome stitch guide!

Actually I see that canvas on the wall right now! Well it was there on Sunday… I am so motivated by all the great stitching that I saw there, that I just want to sit and stitch round the clock. This weekend!

Let’s see, what was AlleyCat up to since I’ve been back?

well she’s been into the toy box as you can see!

I think she’s telling me “I have nothing to play with!”

and until next time…keep on stitching

Last Friday found me winging my way to New York City…yes New York City! for my weekend classes at The Enriched Stitch. Even though the shop is located in Wilton, CT., this was my touchdown landing destination where Suzie was going to pick me up. It was very special to me as we came in for a landing as I could view the all too familiar to me landmarks.

You know they say timing is everything…right? I left San Diego at a cool 57 on the thermostat and as we landed the pilot said “welcome to NYC where it is 97!” I knew it was hot since it was all over the news and my sister was keeping me well informed of the weather reports on the East Coast. No problem as I am sure I would be inside most of the time.

Suzie and Aggie were right there to pick me up as we texted along exactly where to meet. What did we do before we had these cell phones? I knew Suzie from market, but hadn’t met Aggie except through her amazing stitching seen on Facebook and on The Enriched Stitch blog. I felt like we had known each other for ever as we gabbed non stop on our way to dinner. I am easy to please and I always like to try the local spots which I was pleased when they obliged. We went to a darling little place where we enjoyed Passion Fruit Margaritas, plantain chips with this great salsa and I had an amazing dish of paella!

Off to the hotel where I settled in for the night, to do homework of reading and rereading my notes for class in the morning. A little practice of a few of the stitches on my doodle canvas. The first day was the little red bicycle, an Alice Peterson canvas.

Thank you to my sistah Meredith who taught me this embroidery stitch to make the wheels look like wheels! It was so thrilling to see and hear the excitement from the students when they said I got it, I got it! Look at my wheel!

I also used a variation of the background stitch by Susan Portra that we are using on the background of the 4th of July March that is in the July/August issue of Needlepoint Now. Someone likened this variation to rays of sunshine coming down through the bicycle.

Thank you to the ladies in class for making the day so wonderful! Class went all too quickly and soon it was time to expore this darling little shop and enjoy some retail therapy.

BTW, be sure to notice the bicycle ribbon that Suzie found to tie the thread bags for the bicycle class together!

I guess this says it all! Just a short and sweet trip my furry felines! See you next week and hopefully I will have lots of pictures and wonderful experiences to share.

Even Mooch and Earl are looking for the ice cream!

and until next time…keep on stitching

For Ice Cream! Even AlleyCat screams for ice cream…and yes she sure does. She can be asleep for hours, I haven’t seen hide nor hair of her forever or heard the pitter patter of her little paws…but just let me set an ice cream container on the counter, she is right there to lick the bowl, lick the spoon, well you get the idea. She will meow until she gets a taste too.

So why all the deal about ice cream? Well its hot these days and there’s nothing better than cooling off by diving into a dish or cone of wonderful, flavorful ice cream. Plus It’s national ice cream month! Sunday is the actual National Ice Cream Day, but why wait?

or you could stitch some ice cream treats. How about this canvas by Pepita?

or create this amazing treat that I found on Martha Stewart’s page? I love ice cream and I love watermelon, so what could be better than this?

well maybe Tiramisu Ice Cream Cake? did I say ice cream and chocolate?

How stitching this cute little ice cream cone from Jody?

okay after writing about this, I just had to go ice cream shopping. This is my new favorite! I read a writeup in Food & Wine or was it Bon Apetit? about Talent pops…well I was on a mission.

Sorry AlleyCat, these I don’t share with you!

and until next time…keep on stitching

I am watching, well sorta kinda the Home Run Derby in NYC and thinking that this canvas would fit right it. This is on my must need to buy list so that I might stitch sometime in this lifetime. This is a new canvas by DJ Designs that he introduced at the Columbus market. The inspiration of this design is of course his larger NYC stocking. It is smaller, maybe 4″ x 6″ and is totally doable.

Do you know that his NYC stocking is the most often painted stocking since it’s inception? wow that’s quite the claim to fame!

If you missed me this morning and hope you did! I was not able to get to the blog due to technical difficulties. OMG! what’s the deal here? For some reason my IP address changed from what it was last week and why would it do that? I would get an access denied whien I tried to log on and be brilliant. I am sure that it is a safety net to keep the hackers and trouble makers out! out! Laura Z fixed it for me this morning, but it was while I was out running errands, having breakfast at The Cottage, buying threads and by the time I got home I went right to work!

Speaking of NY, I hear it’s hot! hot! hot! How about a refreshing martini? Canvas by  Lee/Colonial Needle.

or think snow and ice. Another canvas by Lee/Colonial Needle.

New canvases by dede of spice and herbs. Would be great for your kitchen!

Speaking of herbs and spices. How about these great canvases by Sally Baer’s BB Designs. Look for one of her beautifully stitched pieces in the July/August Needlepoint Now!

How about a day at the beach? This is Stilt House Composite, another canvas by BB Designs.

I have really been working up a storm and still haven’t picked up a needle! I’ve put a few new canvases on bars, bought threads, organized my stitching area, put threads, beads and whatever away and worked! worked! worked! My stitch guides are ready for my trip back East, stitch guides are ready for Needlepoint Now, clothes are ready for the travel… so I will have time to stitch the next few days.

AlleyCat was investigating my files and office supplies. Felix used to love to sleep in there, but her not so much. She would rather sleep on top of the cabinet! you might even see the corner of her box on top. and until next time…keep on stitching

This thread is! It was introduced earlier this year and I have been so very anxious to try it out! The designer ring was waiting for me in my pile of mail while I was at the Needlepoint Now Studios. Twinkle in 34 luxurious and wonderful colors. It is a twsited rayon thread with a glint of metallic, suitable for 18 mesh. The color “Comet” that I set out on top I am very partial to and will be anxious to experiment with it in a fun Halloween piece!

Look at these colors! It just makes my fingers itch to stitch and no I still haven’t done much stitching yet. What is wrong with this picture?

Well I did finish this. Canvas by Kirk & Bradley. It took all of about 1/2 an hour. I needed to do the window in the taxi and played around with some ideas for the silver snowflakes.  Since I beaded the letters and the taxi, I don’t think I want to bead the snowflakes too, since to me I see them in the back. I tried a few threads and nothing thrilled me, so they just may stay unstitched!

A new thread by Kreinik was introduced in Columbus! Facets has been around a while, but now they have wired it. These 2 pictures might help you understand more about this thread.

Thank you to Kreinik too for these awesome pictures!

Again thank you to Kreinik for these awesome pictures! and thank you too for these new threads.

I am on my last project of writing text for the magazine….yeah! maybe I just might need a little retail therapy today. Well who knows? Stitch guide awaits me and I need to mail out some packets of beads to those that took the classes from me in Columbus since I miscalculated the amount of beads needed.

I guess this is what they call photo bombing? Well AlleyCat is sure good at that!

and until next time…keep on stitching