Friday, July 20, 2012

Model finished!

Yes, I finally finished the model I was stitching and mailed it back to the designer. She posted a photo of it on her blog here. This is a photo I took of it before I mailed it back to her.


It was stitched on 40 count over two with Belle Soie silks. The finished size is roughly 12 x 12 inches.

I am now on to other projects, namely the sampler I am doing for the EGA Master Craftsman program. I selected my colors and have started the outside border. I'm stitching on 36 count over two with a single strand of Weeks Dye Works and The Gentle Arts. After working on 40 count the 36 count seems huge!

This month our EGA chapter did an outreach project at a local library. We've done this for a few years now. We teach two different stitching projects to participants in the library's teen program. I have a couple of photos from the session we did embroidering on jeans pockets to create little purses.


We cut out small pieces of cardboard to slip inside the pockets so the girls wouldn't accidentally stitch through both layers. Some used buttons as an added embellishment. The purses were finished using a long twisted cord that you can see coiled up in the bottom photo.

Another fun thing our guild did this month was our annual Potluck and Stash Reallocation. We all donate our unwanted stash, bring a dish to share and shop for new treasures from the stash of others! All of the money raised goes back to our chapter. I love this annual event and always come home with my share of "new" stash. The only problem is it usually adds to my already full list of projects I want to work on!

Monday, July 9, 2012

Progress made!


We are just finishing up a heat wave. We had way too many days of excessive heat warnings which included dew points in the 70s and temps in the 90s and we were even over 100 a couple of days. We are finally cooling off and are in the 80s again. 

To keep cool I’ve been spending a lot of time sitting beneath a fan with my feet up and stitching. I finished the model I was stitching and it has made its way back to the designer. It should be ready soon for sale to the shops so look for my photos in another post.

I’ve been working on my sampler design for the EGA Master Craftsman program in Counted Thread. I finished that this weekend and will select my thread colors today so I can get started on it. It needs to be sent in for evaluation between September 15 and October 1.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I finished my very first pair of knitted socks. I really liked doing them and had my friend, Susan, help me a couple of times when I was stumped with the directions. I think they turned out nicely for my first attempt. I used a self patterning yarn which makes it look nice without the bother of changing yarn colors.


I also worked this very simple pincushion from a kit I purchased from another stitcher in my guild. 


I continued work on my huge flag…



…and I started to stitch on a cute piece from Little House Needleworks. It is a scissor “bed” that also has a matching scissor fob. The blue included with the kit is quite a bit lighter than what is shown in the pattern photo so I will rip out what I stitched and redo it in a blue to match the little bed. I'll post a photo update once I have the color changed.