Froth and Bubble

This is my progress on Froth and Bubble.

That is all I have to show for the last week or so of stitching. But progress is being made.

Summer has arrived and my garden is thriving. Everything is sprouting and looking good. Unfortunately it will be awhile before there is any produce out of it but it is fun to watch it grow.

Coming up on July 9, 10 11 and 12 the shop will be closed because Dan and I and the dogs and this year Dani is coming too..will all be off to the Rodeo in Holstein Ontario. Our friend Bill does a bang up job of organizing this huge event for the Egremont Optimist Club and we have fun going there to help out.

This year Knowledge and Needles will have a small booth among the 40+ vendors. But our main reason for going is to sell 50/50 tickets for the club. Last year we, mostly Dan, sold over $7000 worth of tickets. That gave the club $3500 to donate to their various community charities and three lucky people went home with a nice chunk of cash in their pockets, one Friday, one Saturday and one Sunday.

http://www.holsteinrodeo.com/ is the link to the rodeo... it promises to be a great weekend.

My heart leaps up...

Thank You William Wordsworth...My Heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky...
This rainbow came out last Satruday evening and I had to snap it! On Thursday our own Creative genius, Marie Paule arrived at stitching with this unique and beautiful gift idea. She started with JBW's tiny chart of Tea, chocolate and coffee and went from there...creatingA gift box...

complete with toile bow...

And matching cups and saucers...

tea, chocolate and coffee in the box along with the rest of the cups and saucers...

oh and toile buttons....

I have the most amazing creative friends...

Here is my little contribution to stitching this week...my progress on Jeannette Douglas' My Stitching Album page on Cross stitches...

Celtic Ice

After a couple of incredibly busy and very tiring weeks I have finally been able to do a bit of stitching. I do hope the pace slows down a bit now, and I can get back at all my projects. Yesterday, at a delightful and relaxing pot luck lunch at Bernie's home I was able to sit quietly and put a few stitches into Froth and Bubble. I did not get too far but it was fun to dig it out again. Here are my only two ornaments so far this year. This first one is from a little kit designed by Tracy Horner of Ink Circles, called Celtic Ice. It came with the fabric, the two skeins of Carries Thread and of course the pattern.

Included in the package was this bonus chart which I also stitched using the same thread, and there is likely enough left on the skeins to do numerous more...I did this one over one on 25 count and I think it makes a gorgeous ornament...or will once I assemble it into one!

New Look in the Shop

While I was in Kingston at the Canadian Embroidery Guild Seminar, Dan painted the shop for me. It was the perfect time as the place was empty since I had everything with me in Kingston. So this is how it looked after the paint job but before the putting back started.

On Wednesday, after the paint on the floor finally dried Beatrice and Judie came over and worked hard helping me get the place back in order. Of course we re-arranged everything and I am thrilled beyond words with the result.

Here they are conferring on some important decision. Beatrice took on responsibility for the fibre wall and she did a fantastic job.I tend to like to bask in the reflected glory of other people's hard work.And here are some shots of the finished "New Look" shop.
The DMC remained in the same place because there is nowhere else to put it but everything else has found a new place to rest.
The finished thread wallShelves arranged according to designer with subject areas designated in baskets underneath. There is some fabric hanging above the shelves but I seem not to have taken a picture of the fabric but believe me it is there...just out of sight beside the sampler purse/bag hanging at the right of the picture below.Kits

Beads and miscellaneous important stuff
Once again, a big job was made so much easier with the help of my good friends. Marie Paule made me a curtain to cover the crawl space and a new tablecloth as well and they look smashing!

Thank you Dan, Judie, Beatrice and Marie Paule. You made a big job fun and easy to accomplish.

What a week

I now know what it is like to live on adrenaline for a week.



Knowledge and Needles was fortunate to have been invited to be a Boutique at the annual Canadian Embroidery Association Seminar. This year's event "1000 Islands, 1000 stitches" was hosted by the Cataraqui Needle Arts Guild out of beautiful Kingston, Ontario.

Over 200 dedicated and extremely talented needleworkers descended on St Lawrence College for the event. There were classes by world renown needle artists, 5 boutiques, a Market Madness evening with 20 more vendors and artisans, lots of opportunities to stitch and visit and it was just generally a lovely respite from our regular lives. It was wonderful being at an event with so many other people who also love to ply a needle.



Beatrice came to Kingston with Dan and me on the Tuesday to help set up out half of the classroom we were allotted. I certainly appreciated the help because setting up and deciding where to put what, was very time consuming. This is what it looked like...

The week sped by and on the whole was very busy. I found that people were hungry for fabric, especially linen!

I was extremely fortunate to have so many good friends help me.

As mentioned Beatrice came on Tuesday.

On Wednesday and Thursday I had Bernie who certainly knew what to do and was a tremendous help. There were times of dead quiet but when class got out there were lineups and I would have been pretty frazzled to have been there on my own with on one to keep an eye on things, help customers and bag merchandise. I was lucky that Bernie, who was attending the Seminar had not signed up for a class on those two days.

Marie Paule came by on Thursday ...what a saleswoman she is!

Friday, Sharon from the Belleville Guild was volunteering in the morning to help out the Cataraqui Guild, and she came in the afternoon and evening to give me a hand as well.

Dani came down after work on Friday and stayed till Sunday also.

Marie Paule and Her husband Adrien showed up on Sunday to help Dani, Dan and me with the tear down. Believe me it is easier to dismantle a display than it is to put one up!

Also helping on the home front were Yvonne and Judie who came by while Dan was at work during the week to let the girlie dogs out.

And on top of all that help, on Saturday while I was in Kingston, Dan painted the shop for me. He knew that since all the stuff was out for the trip to Seminar that I was planning to re-organize and re-arrange everything so now I can do so in a freshly painted new look shop. Next blog, I'll I publish photos of the newly painted space and the end result when all the merchandise is back on the shelves.

I am so lucky!

And here is a picture of beautiful Lake Ontario that I snapped early one morning when I was out for a walk before the shopping day began.

More Purses

I mentioned in my last blog that a few of us had gone a little purse crazy and here are a few more of our creations ....
This is Sharon's sampler bag. She has put the initials of the motorcycle club she and her husband belong to on the back. She will donate it to the club and they will raffle it off for a kids charity the club suppots.

These two bags are Marie Paule's . I love the handles she chose to complement the bags.

Yesterday I packed up the shop in anticipation of going to the huge Canadian Embroidery Guild Seminar this week in Kingston. Today I am getting my clothes and food ready. Tomorrow Dan and I will pack the RV and Tuesday we will head down the road to St Lawrence College where I hope to have a very busy week. Beatrice has generously offered to help us set up on Tuesday and I know I will welcome the assistance. I will stay in the RV all week and Dan will come back next Sunday to drive the RV home. I am really looking forward to meeting and getting to know many of the avid needleworkers who will be there honing their skills and learning new techniques.

There are only 4 or 5 shops which will be boutiques at Seminar and I am hoping that Knowledge and Needles will have many of items that the participants at Seminar "can't live without".

Where has the time gone?

I haven't blogged in ages, so to make up for it..here are a whole bunch of pictures...there are some stitchy ones further down

We had the family for Easter and here are our friend Bruce and grandson Nicholas making ice cream.

Daughter-in-law Erin, Bruce , Nicholas and Michael all helped.

Of course the best part was the eating... grandson MichaelThe dogs did not get any ice cream..Paddy

and Mollie....

A few of us have been purse mad for the last few weeks. These purses are from Rosewood Manor and called Ye Olde Sampler Purse. This is Marie Paule's first one, front...


and back! She has made a couple of others also but I don't have pictures of them yet.

This is my green bag done on 18 count aida with white thread and beads...same pattern as above and as the one I featured here awhile back..

I am currently working on another one also from Rosewood Manor called Elegance,a Wedding bag. The one I am doing is white #12 perle cotton on 28 ct white linen and it is beautiful and vintage looking..all lacy and pretty. Unfortunately the picture just comes out white...