Elephant Decorating the Tree

When the Kathy Schenkel trunk show arrive, I knew I had to stitch this elephant. I posted the picture of the plain canvas in early February. I couldn't start to stitch until after my copy of the canvas arrived at the end of February. (For trunk shows, the first person who signs up gets the canvas).

Once the trunk show left, I was able to start stitching. Above is a picture of the finished canvas just before it went off to be finished into a mini stocking. It will have an elephant insert.

I stitched the elephant using petite very velvet. Of course, because it's for Christmas, there is lots of glitter on the floor, on the tree's ornaments, and even on the wallpaper.

My husband and I used to read a group of kids stories about the Large Family. The Larges were elephants; the titles and stories were particularly amusing for the adult readers and kids liked them too. When you read a story over and over again, it's good to enjoy it. Anyway, the elephant decorating the tree brought back the enjoyable memory of the "Large" elephant family.

Nancy's Coat Ladies

Nancy took our first coat ladies class last summer. Didn't she do a great job!

The fun part of this class is that it lends itself to the more novice stitcher and the more advanced stitcher, like Nancy. In order for Nancy to get more out of the class, we encouraged her to choose her own stitch for the coat on the right. In addition, she felt comfortable changing the colors used.

We will be teaching this great class again in the fall. I must admit it is one of my favorite pieces.

Kathy Schenkel's San Francisco Mini Stocking

I don't usually stitch ornaments but right now, I am in the middle of stitching Kathy Schenkel's mini stocking of an elephant decorating a tree. I also ordered the NYC and the New Jersey mini stockings. (The NYC mini stocking has an apple for its insert; the New Jersey mini stocking has a seagull.)
Today we received Kathy's brand new San Francisco mini stocking. The insert is a brown seal. It's perfect for the traveler or your favorite Californian. My husband grew up just outside of San Franciso so he will be receiving an unstitched one for his birthday on Sunday. Then I will have to stitch that one before my NYC one.

So suddenly I am stitching four mini stockings (plus the doors and my Rockefeller Center Stocking and a purse.) How many are you stitching?

I will be traveling next week to Nebraska and have quite a big of time in between flights. I am hoping that I will use the time to stitch these ornaments!

Kansas City Rooftops

I designed this piece as a teaching piece. Sue Dulle did the student booklet layout for me and edited my prose. She was a delight to work with.

She liked the piece so much that she asked for permission to stitch it. Of course, I was honored and thrilled that someone wanted to stitch it.

Above, I have posted a picture of Sue's stitched piece. She has it beautifully framed and then entered in in the National Needle Arts Exhibit. I just wanted to share Sue Dulle's entry into the NAN exhibit.

Seeing hers, it made me realize that I need to frame mine, too. In case you want to read more about Sue's piece, you can read her blog at www.sudukc.wordpress.com.

Finished Piece

Nina is a really fast stitcher. She wanted to do something special for her husband's birthday so she stitched his initials. The monogram was designed to fit into this handsome Lee jewelry box. Several other customers are doing canvases that fit into this jewelry box. Either would make a lovely gift.

But there is a very limited supply of these jewelry boxes so if you want one, let us know immediately!

Learning to Post Pictures

I know you have seen the photo of the finished Valentine's Day Door but I am practicing how to post pictures myself. I do love this door and really fell in love with Silk Lame when I was stitching it.

Jane's Chair

You know how people often say that they would like to come back as another person's dog or child or something. Well, I want to come back as Jane's grandchild (either one of them). For her first grandchild, Jane did a lovely rocking chair with a Winnie the Pooh Design. For her grandaughter's first birthday, she has completed this lovely rocking chair with a Beatrix Potter figure. It is perfectly stitched and just lovely. Jane is an incredibly precise and fast stitcher. This is only one of the projects she has finished in the past year.

Blog Pictures

I realized that when I posted this picture, it wasn't small enough. I have been learning to post the pictures myself on the blog and it is definitely a learning process. I've decided that the Microsoft ads showing kids doing fantastic photo manipulations are aimed at the wrong audience. Instead, they should show a 58 1/2 year old woman easily posting pictures to her blog! Of course, I am still sorting through deciing what size they need to be!

Valentine's Day Door.

I am so excited. Last night I put the finishing touches on the Valentine's Day Door. The finished door is so vibrant and three dimensional! I loved using the new Silk Lame by Rainbow Gallery. It's part of the Door Club.

I plan to start working on the Spring door next unless the Patriotic Door takes hold of my imagination. To be honest, that's the one I want to work on next and then I want to do Autumn followed by Spring and Summer. Oh well, we'll see how disciplined I can be.

New Belts

Some great new canvases arrived today. We received a Happy Everything belt for the person who likes to celebrate every holiday! We all received a crew belt. It's perfect for the crew member in your house whether they are in high school, college or even a graduate. I know there are lots of crew people out there.

Chanukah Door

I am so excited! Tonight, I finished the Chanukah Door for the The Doors Club. Although there are dreidels in the door, I think it would also be a great winter door -- you would just have to stitch beyond the dreidel shape.

This is the second door that I have finished. I hope to finish the Valentine's Door tomorrow night. I'll then be 1/3 done. I plan to stitch the Spring or Patriotic Door next

Packing and Unpacking- Books & Canvases

We spend Tuesday and Wednesday packing up the Kathy Schenkel trunk show. It is a delightful show to have and many of you got some fabulous canvases to stitch.

The last two days we have spend unpacking all the boxes that arrived earlier in the week. We got our order of Stitches To Go plus two new books - Julia Snyder 's Categories for Needlepoint and
Suzy Murphy's Mini Stitches. Both books look great. I can't wait to sit down with each one.

We only received a couple of the new books but if we run out, we'll be glad to order more.

Then we unpacked lots of canvases. We got some new tallis bags, a wonderful lady drinking tea and a group of Lee canvases.

Finally, the new Wiltex wool threads arrived!

Black and White Hen

This is one of my favorite canvases. I ordered it at the show but it hasn't arrived yet. The hen has such character!

We have been receiving canvases from the show this past week. We've gotten in some wonderful tallis bags, ornaments and the wonderful Vogue Lady that Judy Hendrickson stitched. The picture is posted on a previous blog - Finishing January 11, 2009

Audrey Hepburn canvas

This remains one of my favorite canvases. It's by Shelley Tribbey and comes on #13 mesh and #18 mesh. I love it that although not a picture of Audrey Hepburn, it definitely seems like it is Audrey.

What do you think? Also, notice the fantastic finishing.

Another Chandelier

If the mermaid chandelier is just to big a project for you, consider this much smaller chandelier by Shelley Tribbey. It's a different pillow and the finishing makes all the difference.

I'm so excited. We just figured out how I can add pictures directly. It will mean that the blogs can have more pictures. I've been sending them to
our computer guy to upload. This is fantastic.

Mermaid Chandelier

It's always fun to open the packages that arrive at the store. Finishing is often the most exciting because you get to see how the piece actually turns out. But there are some canvases that just call you to pick beautiful threads and stitches.

One of those canvases arrived last week. Terri had ordered the Mermaid Chandelier about six months ago. It is actually hand-painted by the artist, Barbara Elmore. When it arrived this week, everyone was just taken away by how beautiful it is.



Gretchen and I have started to pull threads and to think about stitches. We will have it for another week or so while we create a suggested thread and stitch guide so try to come by to see it.