Tornado, but not much stitching....

It has been almost two weeks since my last post. On May 22 a tornado hit North Minneapolis. Since that day I have been busy volunteering for the Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services. Many hours logged, so very little time for stitching. I am home again working on scheduling our volunteers for Saturday’s big clean-up. The laundry is done and the fridge is stocked so inbetween phone calls and emails, I am back to my projects.

I’ve been working on two EGA related projects. The first is a new name tag for my guild meetings. I belong to the St. Paul Needleworkers Chapter of the Embroiderers' Guild of America. We are in the Heartland Region and will be hosting the region’s fall meeting this coming October. One of our members designed a logo for the meeting and it has been turned into a stitching chart that we can use as a new name tag. The original logo features the theme of our October meeting, Land of 10,000 Stitches. I left out this part and stitched my name instead. I added a few extra stitches because my name didn’t quite fill in the space.  I used a twisted cord to finish off the edge of the tag. The Euro Cord Maker creates those twisted cords in a snap and is worth every penny, especially if you finish your own pieces.The “lanyard” is a very simple stringing of seed beads.

My second project is a Group Correspondence Course a number of us in the chapter just started. It is a Dresden lace piece called Dresden Garden. It is stitched on a very fine linen, uneven weave, that runs 48-52 count. Yes, you need to actually count those little threads as you stitch. I am part way through the first of three lessons in our book. One of our members, Susan, gave us a helpful hint. We had to draw in the outline of the design after the four sided stitch had been completed. This is somewhat problematic as the fabric moves around as you trace. Susan made a photocopy of the design and basted the linen to that photocopy. This kept the linen secure while tracing the design and was removed after the tracing was completed.

My next task is to get my kits put together for the Hardanger bookmark I am “teaching” at our guild meeting on Tuesday. And, I really should get back to working on the quilt for that soon to be born grandbaby.