Ohio Road Trip

Hey Blog Buddies,

How has August been treating you?  It's winding down!

This week we went on a road trip to Cleveland.

It seems strange that I've lived relatively close to Cleveland all my life but had never visited there before.  When I told people where I was going, I did get asked:  what's in Cleveland?

Well there are a lot of things,

but this was definitely my main attraction.

It's big--a music enthusiast can easily spend the entire day there.

And, once inside, there is music everywhere.

Heavenly!

 

There are larger-than-life photos of rock stars

(they were so young in this photo!)...

...lots of displays featuring genres, artists

and geographic locations...

...and tons of cool videos which are hard to photograph.

I got lucky with this one.

My two purchases at the museum store were...

...a T-shirt with this design on it.

The clerk said that a lot of young people don't know what this is.

I still have some of mine, since I kept all of my old 45's...

...and this little gem.

Rock and roll and crochet DO go together well!

DH spent some time with me in the museum,

then he went off to visit the submarine next door.

 

  

There's a radio room in the sub,

 and DH got to make some contacts

on their ham radio.

He had to climb down the hatch to access the sub,

not something I was inclined to do.

Besides, he couldn't pry me away from the music.

Cuyahoga National Park is just south of the city.

It's very pretty and has several waterfalls.

Brandywine Falls is the largest.

Beaver Marsh was my favorite spot:

This is on the way to the marsh.

This used to be a junkyard,

then they removed all the cars and the beavers just moved in

and created this lovely spot.

If you look hard enough,

you can see DH walking on the boardwalk

on the far left of this photo.

I did manage to schedule a short visit here:

They have a very lovely store in Cleveland Heights.

This is their Hallowe'en tree--so cute!

There were lots of painted canvases...

 

...threads...

 

...and stitched models.

My stash enhancement was limited to

these two items.

It's hard to tell from this photo,

but I haven't stitched the bookmark yet.

The design is painted on.

That ends our mini-tour.

Hope you enjoyed the Cleveland area!

To all my US friends,

have a safe and happy Labor Day Weekend.

Thanks for traveling along with me!

 

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!

March Stitch from Stash

Hey Blog Buddies,

Mel over at Epic Stitching is hosting the Stitch from Stash SAL this year.  We all have $25/month to spend for new stash.  Obviously, the goal is to stitch from stash as much as possible.  So, time for the monthly SFS report.  My purchases for the month so far are three packages of beads for a blackwork freebie that I plan on starting later on in the year.  

You can find the instructions for the piece over at Blackwork Journey.  It's gorgeous and looks like a lot of fun, but it's yet another really large piece--it's called Save the Stitches and the directions are coming out in installments.  

I also got some fabric from JoAnn's.

This will be the backing for a lap quilt that I started a couple of weeks ago.  The pattern is called Semaphore and it's from the Fall 2013 issue of Easy Quilts.  Here's a photo of the model:

All my blocks are sewn. I chose an autumn colorway:

So, beads:  $4.50; fabric, $15.70.  Deduct that from the $25.00 spending money for March, and there's $4.80 left over.  Add that to my $35.08 carry-over, and I have $39.88 going into April.  (Too much math!)

I had a birthday this month, so I got some stash as a gift.

These are GHI and JKL of the Prairie Schooler Alphabet series.  There's also a little seasonal chart from Heart in Hand called A Spring Day with a cute bunny and flowers.  I still need five charts from the PS Alphabet series.  I plan on stitching them as one large piece.  Not this year, though.   (smile)

Finally, I participated in a workshop this month hosted by my Guild.  The piece was Carrots by Jennifer Riefenberg, and the pattern was so cute I couldn't resist...

See what I mean by cute?

Here is where I'm at.

Other than that, I've been stitching along on my rotation

which seems to be filled with BAPs at the moment.

This week I'm stitching on a round robin piece

which unfortunately I won't be able to show.

So that's it from here.

Hope everyone is having a lovely spring or fall,

depending on where you live.

It's technically spring here,

but we're expecting more snow (and cold) tonight!

Thanks for visiting!

Girls' Day Out

Hey Blog Buddies,
Yesterday I met my GF Joyce (who lives 60 miles away) at a new (to both of us) needlework shop:  Tomorrow's Heirlooms.  My "excuse" for visiting the shop was to pick up some kitting supplies for a couple of classes I will be taking at my needlepoint guild, which I did.  I guess Joyce's excuse was when I said "Let's meet at Tomorrow's Heirlooms before we have lunch."  While I was there, I decided to kit up a chart I've had for about a year now, Rosewood Manor's A Tree by Itself:

The fabric (on the right) is 36-count lambswool linen.

About 2/3 of the called-for floss is shown.

I had the other 1/3 in my stash.

I can hardly wait to start on this beauty.

It's a BAP:  300 x 270 stitches!

I was also looking for a very specific frame

for the piece I started on January 1st

and which is now almost finished.

The frame had to be approximately 5" x 6"

and I strongly preferred white.

How often do you actually find that kind of specific item?

Never, in my experience.

But lo and behold, after looking through a few of their frames,

I found this:

Now this might not be a very exciting photo,

but I was beside myself with glee

when this little frame jumped into my hands.

My last purchase was--dare I say it--an impulse buy:

Two Lizzie*Kate Snippets

which I will simply have to make time

to stitch this year.

I am particularly fond of

Good Things.

While we were having lunch,

I gave Joyce a little ornie I had made

and which I can now share with you:

This is Little House Needleworks' Baked Goods

stitched on 40-count Abercedarian linen.

I had finished stitching the ornament back in early December,

but put off actually making it into an ornie

until Monday of this week!

I grumbled so much about finish-finishing it

that DH suggested I just give it to her as a kit.

I thought that was a splendid idea!

But I bit the bullet, and she got a finished ornament.

Yes, she likes it--she bakes quite a bit.

Here is the back.

The cording was purchased at JoAnn's.

Since the finishing of this ornament

straddles both 2012 and 2013,

I have arbitrarily decided that

this will be a 2013 finish.

That's it from here.

Hope you have a groovy weekend,

and thanks for visiting!