Monday, April 1, 2013

April Fool... not!

This morning I opened up my laptop and the temp said it was 18 degrees. I thought to myself, "Good one, Weather Bug!" And then I stepped outside...

So what to do on a chilly April day but continue to work on my multiple projects. I currently have three different EGA Group Correspondence Courses in the works. I am piloting one so no photos until it is officially available. I am doing one with my local chapter. It's a Schwalm piece. The last one is a beaded necklace that I am doing with the Heartland Region. I will post photos of those as I make some progress. Right now they are in the messy, not much to show stage.

I am also working on a set of Hardanger coasters that my friend, Becky, is teaching at a local shop. Of course, starting this project got me doing an internet search. I have had this site bookmarked for a long time. There are a lot of very lovely designs with free tutorials. The blog is in Spanish but Hardanger is very visual so you can easily follow along. Scroll down the page on the link to see the many postings. When you get to the bottom of the page click on "Entradas antiguas" for even more posts!

Since my last update I participated in a smalls exchange with the Sampler World group on Facebook. This is what I received: (pardon the positioning-- I can't get them to post correctly)





Isn't this a nice needlebook? The design is a free one from Ink Circles and can be found here. Look under the free charts for 2006, September and October. You'll find quite a few free charts here!

This is what I stitched for my recipient:



It is a pinkeep that became a little larger than I had intended! I found the free instructions here. Just scroll down a little on the page and you will see a link to download the instructions.

Before I finish, I must tell you about my recent Craftsy purchase. I bought a class on knitting with beads. They were running a contest on Facebook that day and I actually won the class for free! As much as I enjoy the quilting, knitting and other classes available, I do wonder why they haven't added any other types of needlework. Wouldn't a finishing class be great? Or what about classes on various ethnic stitching techniques? Maybe if we all ask for them...