Seven Small Finishes

Hey Blog Buddies,

How's your weekend been going?  I've been dabbling with a blackwork cyber-class that's just gotten underway, but more on that in another post.

I've also been doing some small projects, partly to take a needed break from all of the BAPs that are currently in progress, and partly to make a couple of small things to sell at my quilt guild's boutique coming up in early November--yes, it's just around the corner!

First up, we have BBD's Bird in Hand:

I switched the red floss in the model

for Gloriana's Holiday Blue.

I put my initials on it, so I'm keeping this one.

It was such an easy stitch

(I so appreciate monochrome projects after working on

 my 50-shades-of-gray-and-tan wolves every day)

that I decided to make one for the Boutique...

 

This was stitched with WDW's Merlot.

The colors are less bright in real life.

Next is the little hardanger piece

that Roz (former owner of Nordic Needle)

designed exclusively for retreat attendees this year.

It came with the cute, coordinating metal

heart-shaped box, which makes it more useful.

 I stitched this because I originally intended

to sell it at the Boutique.

But it turned out so nice,

and I can't buy another one because it's a Retreat exclusive,

that I decided to keep it for myself.  (My bad!)

 Here's the fourth strawberry that I've stitched this year.

They're all from Prairie Schooler.

Doesn't look much like a strawberry, does it?

Here is it, all finished up.

Now it looks like a strawberry!

I had three other stitched strawberries

that had been sitting around most of the year,

waiting to be finish-finished.

 After finishing the first one,

...they each got easier...

...and easier to do!

I won't lie, they were very fiddly,

but the cuteness factor makes up for it, I think.

Everyone from Eva at Stitching the Night Away in Illinois 

  to Cathy of Inspired Needle

kept telling me that I could finish these ornies myself,

so thanks for the encouragement, guys!

The "holly" strawberry is going to the Boutique.

Depending on my mood,

I may take another one there to sell, too.

Still hoping to make a few more small things

for the Boutique, so stay tuned.

That's it from here.

Stay stitchy, my friends.

Thanks for visiting!

April Stitch-from-Stash, a Finish and a RAK

Hey Blog Buddies,
How are you all doing?  I'm kind of excited that I have my second finish in a month, but we'll get to that a little later.  First, my Stitch from Stash report.  I knew going into April that this would be my cheat month because of the Nordic Needle Retreat.  (Did you know that they maintain a rather comprehensive boutique and a wide range of snacks in the hotel conference room set up for stitching between classes?  How is a person supposed to stay strong?)

To refresh your memory, the items pictured above are what I purchased in Fargo.  For full disclosure, I bought a package of floss bags that didn't make it into the photo.  The book and the magnifier/light were a little pricey, but it could have been much worse!

But prior to going to Fargo, I stopped off at my LNS.

Because... Cheat Month! 

Here is a very large, very expensive piece of 28-count pewter Lugana.  The photo doesn't capture how nicely mottled the color is.  The fabric and the Kreinik will be used for the Save the Stitches blackwork freebie found on the Blackwork Journey blog.  I don't really want to start another large piece this year, but this project is calling me.

Then I started talking with Cathy (yes, the owner of my LNS and I are on a first-name basis) about the Prairie Schooler Alphabet charts, and she mentioned that she is having trouble getting one or two of the titles.  They are over ten years old, and I decided not to wait any longer and had her order the remaining five titles that I needed, plus another PS oldie.  Fortunately, she was able to get all of the titles I asked her to order...

I really love all of these charts!

So that's it stash-wise for the month of April.

I can't see that I'll need anything else this year

unless I run out of thread on a WIP or something.

Now for the exciting (to me) news--my finish:

Here is Libby Sturdy's Bejeweled Tree #3

from the pilot class I took earlier this year.
This was worked mostly in Kreinik
with a couple of cards of Neon Rays thrown in.
Blingy!!

(Picture me standing up, shaking my hips and stirring a big pot.

Frightening, no?)

Last but not least, I received this groovy RAK

from Moonsilk Stitches

I love the creepy-crawly centipede fabric,

the nifty ribbon with witches and bats

and the cool skull, cat and skeleton embellishments.

What a fun package!

Thanks again, Moonsilk!

That's it for now.

Thanks, as always, for visiting!

Fargo

Hey Blog Buddies,

First of all, thanks so much for all your kind comments on my last post.  I enjoyed reading every one of them!

As most regular readers of this blog know, I attended the annual Nordic Needle stitching retreat last week with my partner in crime, Joyce.  The weather was much better than last year (a high of 78F on the trip up there!), and they had the same great variety of classes and extracurricular activities that we all have come to expect.

We took two classes.  The first was needle painting and we stitched Trish Burr's Little Bee Eater:

 

We needed a whole bunch of colors for that cute little bird!

Each person taking the class received

a blue-green "nest" (in the upper middle of the above photo)

 which was needle felted by our teacher,

to be used for our orts. 

This is my progress so far.

His claws consist of three bullion knots.

Joyce has already finished her knots

but unfortunately I didn't get a photo.

Doing the long-and-short stitch is a lot more fun that I remembered.

Our other class was a little canvaswork box.

 Each side of the box has a Jean Hilton-esque motif.

The background "icing" is done with Arctic Rays

which goes along with the theme of the retreat: "Oh So Sweet."

Here is where I'm at.

The cupcake needle minder was a gift from our teacher.

Of course there was lots of food,

a bookmark exchange,

a tea towel exchange,

a stash exchange and 

a Christmas ornament exchange.

Despite my best intentions,

I did not get around to making anything

for any of the exchanges.

I did get photos of a couple of tea towels...

Almost every one was stitched in a different technique.

One night there was a a little demo on decorating fabric

with Sharpie markers and alcohol (!)

and everyone had a chance to purchase

an inexpensive scarf and create their own art...

We had a free day, so we took a little trip

to Dakota Fiber Mills, just south of Fargo, to see

Chris and her menagerie of animals.

This is Bert, one of two yaks living there.

 She has quite a few alpaca.

They are just the cutest critters!

She even has a camel (Abraham).

Chris was a bit upset with Abraham

because he had just gone for a roll in the mud

and of course his fur (hair?) would somehow have to be cleaned!

Her dog is in the lower right corner of the photo.

She has sheep and goats, too! 

She hires someone to shear the sheep

(Abraham's hair is combed, not shorn).

Then she spins the fur and hair into roving...

...and skeins of yarn...

I purchased a big skein of sock yarn...

It's 70% alpaca, 20% wool and 10% mohair.

This should motivate me to sign up for that sock class

that I've been thinking about for the past year!

No retreat report would be complete without

photos of new stash. 

Here are some of the freebies given away at the retreat...

And here is what I purchased at "The Shop."

I didn't go crazy--you see there's only one new chart.

The portable magnifier/light works well--

I've already used it!

All too soon, it was time for us to head home.

It's always nice to be missed!

Hope you enjoyed the Retreat.

Thanks for visiting!

Friends and Fancywork in Fargo

Hey Blog Buddies,

My friend Joyce and I are back from our trip to the Nordic Needle Retreat in Fargo, North Dakota, and we had a great time!  I'll try not to blather on too much, because I have lots of photos to show you.  Let's start with the classes:

The theme of the retreat was "Tea and Friends."

We both took the redwork class on Thursday morning.

Hope to finish this one up in the next few days.

I do like the piece, but I'm afraid if I don't finish it now,

it may find its way into the UFO pile.

My second class was a whitework notebook class.

We got a doodle cloth and instructions for 70 stitches,

so nothing really to show for that.

But I can tell you that I will not be doing any projects

that call for the Mountmellick stitch!

Joyce took beginning hardanger,

and she was almost done with her piece by the time we left.

This will be put into a cute coaster,

which was provided with the kit.

My third class was intermediate hardanger.

Here's my start on the bullion bag:

The filling stitches are 14 wrapped bars and 8 bullion knots.

The piece will cover a dark blue zippered bag

which came with the kit.

I didn't get a photo of Joyce's beginning

pulled/drawn thread project.  (drat)

Our last class was kumihimo braiding.

We both finished our braided necklaces

with about an hour to spare.

I'm still looking for the right pendant for it.

But, yay, a finish!!

There were various exchanges throughout the Retreat.

We both participated in the teacup exchange.

Here is the teacup which I got:

How cute is that?

This is the one Joyce received.

(I didn't get a photo of the one she brought...)

Here is the "teacup" I brought to the exchange.

I know, it's a teapot!

I tucked some silk floss inside because I didn't stitch anything,

and the recipient seemed happy with her exchange gift.

Here are some more teacups:

On Saturday night there was a Stitcher's Showcase.

The projects that the attendees brought were just stunning:

There was hardanger...

...blackwork...

...stumpwork...

...more hardanger...

...and a wall hanging made of neckties,

just to name a few.

We went sightseeing one morning.

Did you know that,

in addition to the wood chipper used in the move "Fargo,"

they have a Walk of Fame?

That's the block for the band Aerosmith in the photo above.

Unfortunately, most of the other blocks were covered with snow!  Tee-hee.

(The weather was like January the whole time we were there,

complete with 1-2 inches of new snow on the first day!)

We saw some wild turkeys crossing the road.

You can see a toll booth a little further on.

We had to pay 75 cents just to get back into Fargo!

(I don't think this road is used by the locals.)

Oh, did you want to see the Chipper?

Well....   OK

Joyce is on the right.

The "foot", of course, belonged to Steve Buscemi's character.

Last but not least, let's not forget the swag.

Celebrities get swag all the time when they go to events.

Stitchers need swag, too!

Nordic Needle's vendors are very generous!

We did go to the store, too, because...well...

we needed more stuff!

Each attendee gets a sheet of Nordic Needle 30%-off coupons,

and I got a few things, including an LED floor lamp

with a large magnifier in the middle.

"How was all this stuff transported home?" you might wonder.

We came prepared--we drove to Fargo in a station wagon!

..and you thought I was kidding about the snow, didn't you!

Despite the wintry conditions,

everyone truly did have a fantastic time.

That's it for now.

Better get back to my redwork!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

WIPs from the Nordic Needle Retreat

Hey Blog Buddies,

As promised, I'm sharing the WIPs that followed me home from the recent Nordic Needle Retreat.  Here are the classes in order:

The  Strangest Class...

...was the Naversom class.  Naversom is a traditional Swedish stitching technique that involved mounting the fabric to a piece of birch bark.  The front side of the piece was toward the bark to keep it clean while the stitcher was out in the field tending her animals.  Therefore, the entire piece was worked from the back, and the stitcher never saw the front of the piece until she was done stitching.  To read more about Naversom, go here.

To give us an authentic Naversom stitching experience, our teacher (Debi) mounted our fabric onto stretcher bars and then taped a piece of paper over the front!  This meant that you had to work the stitching in a sewing motion rather than stabbing the needle from one side of the fabric to the other.  It also meant that you couldn't put your non-stitching hand behind the fabric to guide the needle to the right place.  I soldiered on with the paper in place for about an hour and a half, and then I took it off because I was impatient at the slowness of the stitching.  (We were allowed to take the paper off, and most of us did!)

Naversom is a pulled and drawn thread technique,

although it doesn't show up too well in this photo.

Debi used a 7-count Klostern fabric as the ground

because it has rather large holes.

This enabled us to skip the step

of removing the threads in the fabric

which we were told would have been

40 hours of prework!

The Most Challenging Class...

...was the blackwork class, for a couple of reasons:  going from 7-count fabric to 32-count fabric, and taking a complicated pattern and deconstructing it on the fly.  As a matter of fact, I was so slow in this class that I didn't even get to the deconstructing part at all!  (For some reason, the thread kept coming out of my needle.  I must have threaded the needle 20 times if I threaded it once!)  But I did appreciate the concept, which can be applied to any blackwork project in the future.  Instead of handing us a kit with a pattern, we were made to think about the patterns and how they might look on the fabric and how to shade using just one pattern (sort of "teach me to fish" rather than "give me a fish").

We were given a template with an oval to trace.

Then we had to find pictures of heads or other forms

and trace their outlines inside the oval.

(That was our pre-work.)

If you're wondering what type of head

is on the left, it's a dog's head.

I know I will use this technique in

upcoming blackwork projects.

The Most "Fun" Class...

...was the intermediate canvaswork.

My friend Cathy and I both took this class,

and we just had a fun, relaxing time,

giggling all the way through it.

This piece uses a lot of cool threads,

including a fuzzy Rainbow Gallery Very Velvet thread for the border.

The only thing I'm nervous about

are the bullion-stitch roses that go in the corners.

Technique I've Been Meaning to Try for the Longest Time

Huck weaving!

The class was on Sunday morning

and we had to catch an 11:45 flight,

so I had to leave an hour before the class was through,

but here is my start:

The piece will be a bell pull,

as you can see from the photo on the right.

And, yes, you just weave the thread through the fabric.

Monk's Cloth is often used for Huck,

but we were using Aida cloth.

It's a simple but fun technique.

Needless to say, my regular rotation

has gone on a short hiatus.

I'm looking forward to the

International Hermit & Stitch Weekend

which starts on Friday.

I have no clue what I'm going to work on,

but I would like to finish up the Naversom piece

sooner rather than later!

Hope your weekend will be fun-filled.

Thanks, as always, for visiting.