finished pieces

I promised I would post the two pieces I just finished stitching for A Collection of Designs so here they are:

They were fun to do and worked up really quickly, I started one night about 6 and finished the next night about 11. Don't worry, I didn't sit there the whole time stitching on these. Janet wanted the same colors used in both these pieces since they are a set. The circles on the candy cane were a challenge especially the gold ones. I used Kreinik 002v which is very stiff and had a hard time making the outline stitch lay very well. You can see that the green circles which were also Kreinik look better because it was a softer twist. Actually, the red Flair was my favorite for the circles because it did exactly what I wanted it to and looked good. I know some people don't like Flair but it's one of my favorite threads, it spreads out and covers the canvas for straight stitches but you can pull it tighter and it gets smaller for other stitches. I don't do any of the melting it that some people do, I cut it on the diagonal and just watch for any little threads to appear when the end starts to ravel and then cut it again. I also use a larger needle to open up the hole so the canvases doesn't tear up the thread as much.

Next project for Janet is to finish the very first one I started for her and then got stuck trying to find all the color of beads it needed. I'll post a picture when I'm done and you'll see what I mean. The first thing I saw when I looked at the canvas was beads for the letters, I got so hung up on it that I couldn't see beyond that even though I have had trouble finding beads. It would help if I could find my entire Sundance line but some how they have disappeared in the move. If the beads don't work, I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

Time to start packing for Seminar. I decided I didn't want to make the two hour commute every day so I'm staying in San Antonio part of the week and then will come home on Wednesday and go back for the rest of seminar.

Cindy

Another hot day

Well it's going to be another hot day in the Hill Country, temperature is suppose to get into the 100s again and no sign of rain.

I spent a big chunk of my day yesterday trying to organize my Kreinik stash. What a mess.

I just finished the stitch guide for the Alamo for the Yarn Barn in San Antonio. The canvas is from Squiggee Designs and will be available through the shop starting with seminar. I took a little liberty with Gail's design and made the columns in the front look more like the actual Alamo. If y'all are coming to seminar or go to the Riverwalk, you can tell people you know someone who has been in the Riverwalk. I did an archeological dig there for 2 years. We found lots of interesting stuff but no sign of the Alamo cannons which was our main goal. The dig was sponsored by NUMA (if you are a Clive Cussler fan, you might not know that this is the real name of the organization he sponsors that does marine archeology). Regretfully, I never got to meet Clive because he always came just after I left.

Speaking of seminar, tomorrow is the big day when we move all the exhibit pieces down to the the hotel. From the few pieces I saw when I was there one day helping check stuff in, it's going to be a fantastic exhibit.

I'm shipping off a bunch of models to A Collection of Designs today and got the background on two done last night so tonight I'll work on the glitz stuff. I'll try to post pictures later this week of some of the pieces.

Time to run errands.

Finally, Baltimore

Aarg!! Someday I'm going to figure out why it takes me forever to get signed on to this blog. It's taken me over an hour just to reach this page. Okay, now that I've vented on to the fun stuff.

I just got back from The National Needlearts Association (TNNA) market in Baltimore. TNNA is the organization for retailers and wholesalers in the needlework industry. I was meeting with Jeremy from Kirk and Hamilton who had flown over from England to attend the show regarding a project we're working on and to talk to Rebecca and Brad Wood from Rebecca Wood Designs. As a side benefit, to fill up on Maryland Crab Soup and Crab Cakes.

I delivered the canvas and stitch guides to Jeremy for the Midnight Sheep Heart and got a new project for the Dallas Market from a new designer they just introduced.

I had a great time even though it poured rain most of the time we were there and I filled up on crab cake. Saw some great new designs from Melissa Prince Designs, I'm in love with her Halloween banner and it was great to see Wooly Dreams back.

Need to go run errands but will try to get back on this afternoon and post some pictures of things I'm working on.