Gulf of Mexico

Here are Bruce, Luci and Dan outside of Sharkey's restaurant a few days ago. And here is the beach and the Gulf of Mexico...This was one of the nicer days we have had during this trip.

Alas today was cold and wet but it was a good day for me to stay in and enter Nashville stash on my website.

Watch www.knowledgeandneedles.com (News and Specials page) for pictures of some of the great stuff I will be bringing home to the shop. It's all for sale!!!

I'll add more stuff as the days go on.

Nashville

Hi everyone,

We spent last weekend at the Nashville Needlework Market and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was in a new location this year and this hotel was much newer and cleaner . It also had an excellent retaurant.

I think there may have been fewer vendors but I still managed to spend all my money and be exhausted by the end of the weekend.

This is a picture of the hotel with various vendors banners hanging from their balconies.

Here are Dan and Jeannette Douglas with my "Stitching album" displayed in the background.And here I am with Jeannette wearing my sweatshirt that Fran made for me Unfortunately I couldn't wear it for too long as the hotel was quite warm!

This is a picture of my suitcase filled with stash. I spent yesterday entering all the charts in the inventry in my computer and then Luci helped me price them all. Today or tomorrow I will try to get the scanner that is here up and running so I can put pictures on my website of all the new stuff. Last year I took photos and loaded them in but really scanning them is much easier.
I am hoping to have the Nashville Open House the last weekend in March!

Siam Fusion

I am moving right along with Siam Fusion. This is a very enjoyable piece on which to work...of course I seem to say that about all my projects. The weather in Florida is warming up very slowly. It is great for walking the dogs and I even sat out yesterday afternoon and read and stitched and got some sun.
Sunday we watched the Daytona 500. What an odd race with the track breaking up like it did but there was an exciting finish with Jamie MacMurray edging Dale Junior. I was happy to see Jamie win and it is good to see Junior at the front again!

Florida

Greeting from not so hot and sunny Florida.
I would love to have some pictures of us lounging by the pool in the hot sun relaxing and getting tanned but alas we have not exactly been enjoying pool-sitting-beside weather. Yes I know we did not get the huge blizzard that Washington DC and the mid Atlantic states have and it is not
-2 C like at home but hey we're in Florida...we wanted better weather than this! I am getting lots of use out of the sweatshirt Fran made me though!
OK enough whining...

The girls are with us because Mollie licked away at her back leg to the point where she gave herself an infection and we did not want to leave her behind. They heve been getting lots of walks and as you can see from the photos they each got a new Florida bandana. She finished her antibiotics and her leg is all healed up and she is on a higher dose of medicam. So it was a good ploy on her part to get a trip to Florida!

I have tried to stitch outside because the light is so much better but the aforementined cool weather has prevented that for the most part.... However here are my two new starts since I finished the JD Stitching album and the Stained Glass landscape.

This is the start (upper left corner) of my Toile pillow. I am using Eterna silk and it is very light and filmy to work with. I think it will give a gorgeous sheen to the pillow though. It is on 36 ct linen.

And this is The Siam Fusion band sampler. I am also using silk for it and it too is lovely to work with.
It is on a piece of 32 count purply linen that Sharon C gave me and I am liking the look.

I love my hobby

I cannot decide which is the better photo so, since I am so proud of this finish, I'll post two pictures. It took a very long time to do this project but I have to say the result is worth the effort!

We haven't left for Florida yet but we'll be on our way tomorrow or Wednesday for sure. If there is anyone who needs something from the shop, just e-mail me or phone the house and leave a message and we will arrange for you to get whatever you need. Our house sitter is very accommodating and is willing to get together with customers who need supplies.

Here is the story..

Two weeks ago a teacher called me looking for fabric. She described the project she is planning and was hoping I could sell her some fabric at a good price. When I heard the story, I told her I would sell it at cost and promptly ordered some. It isn't here yet...but that is another story. Let's just say my supplier dropped the ball...but the aida is en route now.

Anyway...Kerri's story... Her elementary school is closing its doors forever this June because it will be amalgamated with another small rural school and both will be moving to a new building in a new location, with an entirely new name. Therefore, South Cramahe Public School will disapper into history. This year's Grade 8 class will be the last graduating class.

They are planning to have each grade 8 student design a cross stich block, and then stitch it. The blocks will then be put together into a quilted wallhanging which they will call the belonging quilt. It will go to the new school in the Fall and thereafter Kerri plans for each graduating class in the new school to also stitch a self-designed block, make them into another quilt which will be attached to the original and so on...

I think it is a great plan. It is made easier by the fact that Kerri has made it a practice to teach her grade 4 class to stitch each year. These graduating grade 8's were her students in grade 4 and are all on board and keen to get started.

My request... they will all have the same fabric and they are designing their own blocks...they need floss and needles. I told the story to the Thursday and Friday stitchers and they came through like the generous people they are...we all scoured our stash and came up with duplicate skeins, thread left over from kits, some odd ball skeins from Anchor or Coates or no name something, that we will likely never use and came up with some thread for the kids. They do not need specific DMC colours as their patterns won't be specifying 304 for example...they just know they need red!

If you are interested in cleaning out a few skeins or bobbins or loose threads from your stash you could send it to :
South Cramahe Public School
1136 Purdy Road
Colborne, Ontario
K0K 1S0
Attention : Kerri

You can also send it to me at
Knowledge and Needles
190 Smith Street
Brighton
K0K 1H0

However Dan and I are going away at the end of next week and while there will be someone here looking after the house, dogs, cats and mail etc., it is probably easier to just send it to the school.

Thank You. I wil be sure to get a photo of the finished project in June and post it here on my blog.

A finish finish!

Well...here it is ...my version of Jeannette Douglas' "My Stitching Album"
I am very proud of it!
This has been an ongoing project since September of 2008 and while each page gave me immense satisfaction, you cannot imagine how great it feels to see the whole thing right there before my eyes and knowing that I stitched the whole thing.

I was very uncertain as to how I would finish it. My good friend Sharon was here at Friday stitching last week and brought along some pages she was attaching together in an accordian for the guild. That was it, I knew that was what I wanted to do as well. She had tried to describe the technique to me but until I actually saw it I couldn't visualize my book done that way. But once I saw it on Friday, I got myself in gear...finished my last page, went for backing fabric and timtex , and then spent 2 1/2 hours Tuesday with Sharon and all day Wednesday and voila the book is complete. (Well I am omitting the last "wrought by..." page since my name is inside on the final stitching page)So thank you Sharon for taking so much time to teach me that lacy stitch between the pages and showing me how to attach the backing and make the pages stand up...and thank you to the guild for teaching Sharon the technique in the first place!
And Jeannette...what an undertaking...thanks for designing such a great project...even if I strayed a bit from your suggested colours and book design.

And if I wasn't pleased enough on Thursday and Friday to show off my newly completed masterpiece to the stitchers, look at what Fran made for me to wear when I go to Nashville...you can be sure I won't be waiting that long to get into it. Aren't I just the luckiest person to have so many generous, thoughtful friends??

There are more pictures of me in the sweatshirt on Fran's blog,

as well as some of the Friday stitchers.

I have one last question ... Dani, Beth, others??? How many new starts does my finish finished Stitching Album qualify me for?

Also...next blog...I'll tell you a true story about a local teacher and a project she and her students have tackled and if you are interested in helping out I know she will appreciate it.