Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Harmony


This angel is from The Cross Stitcher Magazine from August 2008. She has two companions who will be in the magazine in coming months....Love and Peace. Yes I did leave off her dangly feet but I have decided that really her feet are hidden under her angelic robe-like attire.

I like her and she may be made into a flat fold later this Fall. I am also toying with the idea of perhaps , instead, making her into a stand up doll sort of thing...you know stuffed but with some weighted stuff in the bottom so she stands up...don't know how to do that...or obviously how to describe it very well...but ...that's what I'm thinking of doing...one or the other...
Maybe one of you has done it and can direct me to some instructions!

She's all I have worked on since the retreat so now it is time to get back to some of my neglected projects...the stained glass for one and I may even pull out that over-one Heart's Content piece! Or...gasp...start something new...I have Long Dog's Froth and Bubble which I quite like and also Plight of Fancy which is taking MY fancy...then there is the Jeanette Douglas "My Stitching Album" which should be in my hot little hands very soon...decisions...decisions....

And before I leave the topic of the retreat for this year, I must Thank my DH Dan who is always very supportive of the shop and all my crazy cross stitching friends and projects, for painting the garage floor before the retreat and for cooking up an excellent breakfast for those of us who were still here on the Sunday after the big day!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Retreat 2008 - Stitchers Gallery

Here are the pictures as promised...as you will see there are some amazing stitchers here!
Marie Paule is incredibly creative...Back from the Brink CWC Marie Paule...a number of JBW French Country designs
Marj...Fairy Idyll
Dani...Living (Lizzie Kate)
Dani...Dragon..DD
Katie...Ink Circles Blackstone Fantasy Garden
Ann..CdC (Ink Circles)
Colleen CdC
Christin..TW's Guardian
Marg's appliqued quilt top
Beatrice ...Nordic Angel

Bernie...Chickadees and a Prairie Schooler Santa
Beth... Amsterdam Street, Silver Lining Rose and Lanarte Irises
Beth...Tour des Marque
Beth...View from Oyster Bay (Kappie)

Angie M designs Witch

Barb...Newborn
Other Barb...Santa
Other Barb...HAED Santa..with part of her CdC beside it
Beatrice ...Celtic Cross (her first over one )




Monday, August 18, 2008

Retreat 2008

Warning ...picture intensive...


We had a great time...here is the whole group...well almost ...a couple may have had to leave early...Bernie for one and Wendy for another....This group shot was Dani's idea and her camera and photographic expertise...


The rest of these are mine...no photographic expertise here...but you can tell we are enjoying ourselves. This blog will show participants..the next one will be of some of the fabulous stitching that was on display...

Sharon Clare, Dani, Marlene
Rebecca
Barb, Dani ,Clare


Other Barb, Marie Paule, Beatrice, Katie
Marj, Helen , Dani
Helen, Marj
Marg...working on Cirque des Cercles




Isolde


Colleen, Carmen





Angie, Barb, Christin
Beth with her back turned, Rebecca, Beatrice
Beth being eloquent

There was lots of food but I guess I was too busy eating to take pictures of it or of other people eating...that's likely just as well.


The weather was glorious and what more could one ask...Thank You to everyone who came to the retreat and contributed to the potluck and who enabled everyone else along the way!
This is Paddy illustrating how I felt on Sunday evening!

Next blog...pictures of our work.





Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Richer than I....

My brothers and I were truly fortunate to have had a mother who read to us. Actually not only did she read to us but she loved to recite poetry to us. To this day all three of my brothers and I can spout lines and whole verses should the opportunity or need arise.

This stitching piece was in a magazine from the 90s and every time I was going through the magazines I would come upon it and pull it out to stitch someday...then a few months later it would go back in the file unstitched till the next time I found it. This time I followed through and will make it into a flatfold to give to one of my relatives for Christmas....or perhaps I'll just keep it on my mantle as a nice memory of my Mom.

Many of the poems she read to us or just plain recited from memory came from the old red Ontario readers (Primer through fifth book) that she taught out of in the 30s and 40s. I have her original set of books and it is so interesting to see ...things like copyright 1923...or Price 9 cents on the inside title page. It is also interesting to see the level of reading that was in those primary grade readers...much higher level, I suspect than is in today's grade one or two readers.

If I ever need all the words to The Blind Men and the Elephant, or The Gingham dog and the calico cat (The duel) , or My shadow, or The Day in Done... I know where to find them.


Edited to add.... if any of you are coming to the retreat on Saturday, I will be setting up my display racks in the garage, with the freshly painted floor (thanks Dan) so we can have a gallery of finished works. There will be room for framed and unframed pieces...and yes someone will take pictures so all of you who cannot join us will be able to marvel at all the beautiful work which will be accumulated in one place this weekend.

Friday, August 8, 2008

In praise of potatoes

I seem to be going on and on about the garden...but really for a town kid who never had a garden before I must say I am in awe every time I go out there and actually pick food!
The other day I dug up these wonderful red potatoes. The whole experience has been great and while I enjoy the beans we've had and the loads of tomatoes that are slowly ripening, the vegetable that is impressing me the most is the potato! I can dig under the ground and find these nuggets and then we can actually eat them! It's magic. Lest you think my so called stitching blog will never go back to talking about stitching I will now set your mind at rest. I actually have not been stitching very much of late with the holidays and all but finally with a little encouragement from Dani who is visiting this week I have finally got back at some. Below is the beginnings of Stained Glass Landscape (Kappie Originals). It looks better when I get the back stitching done. This time around I will actually backstitch as I go, unlike my usual method of leaving it all till the end and then complaining loudly to anyone who'll listen about all the backstitching! While on vacation I did some work on Cirque des Cercles but at some point I stitched a row over 3 instead of over 2...and well you can imagine...when I found what I had done I was unimpressed that everything below it was now wrong. So a bit of counter stitching (love that term Kathy)
and of course then I put it back in the bag and it has not been out since except for this picture.
Yes I did stitch CDC before but when Barb and I were choosing fabric and colours we could not decide which we liked better so we both ended up starting two versions of CDC. Barb, I believe has finished both of hers..I haven't.

Recently I had two finishes framed...here is Molly from Carriage House Samplings' "The girls series" The other framed piece is Glendon House's "Pretty Pumpkins"...a photo of it will follow at a later date...perhaps when I take a picture of it.
Last item...but not least...yesterday was Beatrice's birthday and the Thursday stitchers enjoyed cake (courtesy of Adriana and Lisa) and rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to you. There is a picture on Dani's blog. I did not take one because we had 11 or 12 stitchers here and it was a little hectic!...not to mention a stressed out panting dog...there was thunder!


Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Holidaying at Inverhuron

We spent three nights last week at Inverhuron Provincial Park on the shores of Lake Huron. It was quite idyllic. They were also the only three days in a row all summer when it did not rain.
We chose this park partly because it is close to Sauble Beach where we were going for Saturday and Sunday nights and because they advertised that they had a dog beach.

As you can see from the above pictures Dan and the dogs enjoyed the dog beach. Unfortunately on the Friday afternoon a Park Warden came up to us and said he was sorry but the dogs had to be on a leash. We had always kept them on the leash in the park but this was the dog beach. Turns out...dog beach means that dogs are allowed to be there ...on a leash...which he admitted makes it hard for them to swim... Anyway we had had them in the water a lot before we were told this rule and we were leaving the next day anyway so ... back on the leashes they went and we confined ourselves to walking the rest of the time.

Between the swimming and the walking we had two exhausted dogs....here we are in the messy RV...they were so tired they barely lifed their heads for a couple of days.

We spent two nights at the race track where inspite of doing very little racing this year...David managed a first in his heat race on Sunday and a 4th in the main event. I don't remember how he did on Saturday night but whatever it was Sunday made up for it.

We are now home and my next order of business is to get ready for the stitching retreat/potluck/bring and brag/enable your friends / eat and laugh day next Saturday, the 16th of August. Any stitchers in the Brighton neighbourhood is more than welcome to stop by and see some amazing stitchers and their beautiful inspiring work. It all starts around noon.
I will try to remember to take pictures of the retreat to share with you after it is over.