Blackwork Exhibition

Hey Blog Buddies,
I got the latest copy of NeedleArts magazine in the mail today, and, being the blackwork fan that I am, when I saw the cover, all I could say was "oooooooooo!"

The Embroiderers' Guild of America (EGA)

is having a contemporary blackwork exhibition at their

headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky from now

through the end of June.

The cover features one of the prettier pieces on exhibit--

and there were a bunch of very "interesting" pieces

illustrating the story inside the magazine.

Now that I've seen selected photos of these beauties,

there may be a road trip to Louisville in my future!

In other news, I was the winner of Sharon's giveaway!

I got this cute Purple Heart chart

by Ewe and Eye and Friends,

and a bunch of limited edition GAST overdyed floss,

in an array of happy spring colors.

Can't wait to stitch the heart!

Thanks again, Sharon!

I've made some progress on

Variations on a Theme of Rhodes:

The sheaf stitches are new, as are the small squares.

I'm actually a little farther along than this photo shows,

but I stopped at a point where the elements were not symmetrical,

and didn't want to photograph the piece that way.

(I'm a little nutty in that regard.)

I went to a scissor holder class on Saturday.

It's my first painted canvas in almost forever.

Hey, I mounted it on the stretcher bars!

Does that count as a start?

This project should be a lot of fun.

Last but not least,

my right mitten and left hand are very happy

that I completed mitten #2.

I will be wearing these when I go out this evening.

They have already seen action at

the local home improvement warehouse store

earlier today.

Well, that's it for now.

Hope you had a fun, stitchy weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

The Last Dance

Hey Blog Buddies,
This will be the very last post featuring my Circle Dance quilt, I promise!  I had my pieced top quilted by a very talented lady named Inta from my quilt guild.  She got it done in record time.

Can't see the quilting very well?

Don't worry--I have more photos.

Inta is a free-motion quilter,

she doesn't use pre-programmed software.

When I suggested that I wanted to emphasize

the curved seams in the quilt,

she did a lot of very dense quilting with circles!

This is the back, which is solid yellow!

The color's all wrong, but you can sure see the quilting!

Needless to say, I'm quite happy with the finished product.

It will be going up on my wall very soon!

But to reiterate:  no more curved seams for me!

Hope you have a fun, stitchy weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

February IHSW

Hey Blog Buddies,
I got a bit of stitch time (and a bit of knit time) in this weekend, and I have one finish, and half of a finish to show you.  First my stitchy finish:

This is Lizzie*Kate's

A Bit of March, stitched on 40-count Heritage linen.

I attached only 2 of the 3 buttons provided.

As I was reaching for the third button,

I dropped it, and it just disappeared.

I don't think it fell into my chair,

but that's the only explanation that makes sense.

The buttons look a lot larger in my piece

than in the photo of the stitched piece.

That's the chance you take when you switch to

40-count from the recommended 28-count!

Next, a mitten update:

You can see that I've finished(!) one mitten,

except for the blocking.

I think this wants to be the right one,

although with this pattern,

you can wear either mitten on either hand.

Our final class will be embellishment ideas,

which should be fun.

I've started on the second mitten, too,

and hope to finish knitting (if not embellishing) it

by the end of this week.

I don't believe I'll ever be a fan of

knitting with 4 double-pointed needles!

I've even signed up for a class on continental knitting

(because I'm a thrower).

We'll see if you can teach an old dog new tricks.

That's it for this weekend.

Click here to find out what the other hermitters

have accomplished.

Hope you had a fun, stitchy weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

Valentine Project Revealed

Hey Blog Buddies,
Now that Valentine's Day is over, I can show you the "secret" project that I was stitching:

This is Love Tokens from The Gift of Stitching e-magazine.

The designer is Nancy Pederson.

I stitched the hearts as called for in the design,

but switched out the blackwork squares.

This was the photo I used for

Jo's Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop,

so that's the reason for all the secrecy.

I am still using the leftover Gloriana silk

from when I stitched CT13 last year!

We've now arrived at the 2nd International Hermit & Stitch Weekend

for 2013, starting today!

If you've never heard of it

and/or want to get in on it,

hurry over to Joyce's blog and check it out!

The more, the merrier!

This weekend I'm hoping to finish a little Lizzie*Kate Flip-It

for March that should have been finished

a week ago, except that (ahem) knitting

has kind of derailed my stitching rotation.

That's it for now.

Thanks, as always, for visiting!