Hari-kuyo…one of my many irons

One of my irons…and literly using an iron for this one.

I signed up for my first online class, Hari-kuyo and I am loving it…not getting much done, juggling all the irons I have going right now. The first picture is a picture of Susan’s neddlebook, the one I hope to have someday…and the second picture is all my supplies, my pressing is complete and I even basted the outlines on covers. I need to catch up this week-end, hope to get embroidery completed. I have printed off the instuctions and watched the videos just can’t seem to find hands on time.

And Susan is an enabler too. Talked about a silicone pressing sheet, I don’t have one of these BUT I know I need one…shopping shopping shopping (yet something else to do)…

This class has been fun and Susan has done a wonderful job. Her kits are great and the videos are so good. I just love Susan’s work, if you haven’t visited her blog, Plays with Needles (http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.com/ ) do so please; it is inspiration plus. Her Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Your Majesty, Beading and…just click on anything on the right column of her blog… you will not be disappointed.

Okay need to start the running and juggling, maybe someday I can even run with scissors…don’t hold your breath waiting for the video.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have time to stitch today!  ttfn…sue

Wilanna Bristow

Yesterday I rea in the EGA newsletter (also printed below) that Wilanna Bristow had passed away. Wilnna was my first national teacher. The class was a design notebook class; “Design, Everything begins at a Point”.  Today, I have a great notebook reference on design and wonderful memories of my first national seminar. Thank you Wilanna for sharing you knowledge about color and design. I still pull color and design ideas from magazines, take pictures and keep other ongoing notebooks on color and design.

No one ever told me that most notebook classes seldom have a finished product and so I diligently pursued my design to an end. I showed Wilanna the finished notebook when she came to Kansas City to teach and she told me few people finish a project for a notebook class but this was a good example of how an original idea changes and becomes its own design. The design has a few flaws that after all these years even I can see, but it is a great cover for my class notebook.

Started with picture of the tulips and decided to do stylized design…Somewhere I decided that a color wheel would be good and so the stylized tulip became the stylized color wheel…This was in the beginning days of my computer learning and I played with the design on the computer. Knew I wanted very little or no compensation so I adjusted the tulips even more. And finally the finished project…a cover for my notebook class.

Thank you Wilanna.

Hope everyone has time to stitch today!  ttfn…sue

Wilanna Bristow: From EGA mailing list: It is with deep sadness that I report the passing of Wilanna Bristow. Wilanna was the last of the three founding members of the San Antonio Chapter. Although she has not been active for several years, she will be sorely missed by our chapter members and EGA members across the country who were touched by her talents as designer, teacher, and mentor. Her obituary may be viewed here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sanantonio/obituary.aspx?n=wilanna-bristow <http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sanantonio/obituary.aspx?n=wilanna-bristow
&pid=155266037&fhid=5701> &pid=155266037&fhid=5701

or http://tinyurl.com/88be5km

If you knew Wilanna, please take a moment and sign the on-line guest book. I know Bill and Lizzy will appreciate it very much. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to: The Embroiders’ Guild of America, Inc., <http://www.egausa.org> www.egausa.org.

Computers & One Long Panel

I know I have been gone almost two weeks but I have trying to get everything converted over to the new laptop…long, arduous, boring job, but I don’t want to leave anything behind. This picture looks like dueling computers and some days that is how it feels.  And of course one thing leads to another and then you are off on a tangent to remedy that problem before proceeding. I thought I would fall off my chair when DH announced he thought in the next day or two he would have everything transferred over to his new laptop…I should be about a month behind him but I was thinking all I needed was one program purchase and my email. Tonight I want my DH to explain the new email system to me because I do not think I am getting my emails as I should. I did manage to transfer all my contacts from one computer to the other with import/export  and my DH did it all by hand. I’ll keep you posted; this process has been like major house cleaning and trust me, I rather be stitching.

But of course, I have been stitching too. This week was the last of Laura Perin’s, One Long Panel (http://laurajperindesigns.tripod.com/index.htm) class at the shop. It has been a fun class and interesting to see how everyone has kept up. I went by the evening class and took pictures so you can see all of our hard work. I think I am probably the most behind of all of us and many of my friends are taking great delight that I am not one of the first to be finished. Notice the pink color-ways, mine is on the left and I cut the green out. I put them side by side so you can see the differences.

Thank you for stopping by and spending a few moments with me; hope you have time to stitch today! ttfn…sue

More on the classes

My desk is looking better but still has lots of projects to complete; four down four to go and that is the computer work.  Stitching projects are still holding at four, well maybe five in the nest…millions in the wings (I’m going to live forever if my needlework round-toit projects are any indication.)  I think I will refrain from signing up for another class for awhile but I won’t make any promises.

Many of you are heading for San Antonio and the national ANG seminar (http://www.needlepoint.org/Seminar-11/index.php) … have a great time and keep us posted about all the good times. I’ve always thought they should call it the “Great American Stitch-in.” When I did attend, there was always a place where everyone could gather and stitch into the wee hours of the morning. I learned lots of new ideas, new techniques, found new threads and met many great friends here…I do hope they still have this area…that’s what we are all really about…stitching, learning and sharing. So all you wonderful stitchers have a great time, stay cool and keep us posted on what’s happening.

Here are my first two Christmas presents completed; now if I can just remember where I stash them and to whom I plan to give them. There was one small hitch with the finishing but the framer made it worth the mi$take ; one was suppose to have a blue mat, but two pictures framed for under $100 is very rare (one would be rare), so I’m not complaining.

Here’s the progress on my class, Laura Perin’s, One Long Panel (http://laurajperindesigns.tripod.com/index.htm). I am keeping up with the class and this week I have two weeks to complete the area (our instructor is headed forSan Antonio). I try to make every class or even just a project I do learning experience.

First I started stitching the border, I always pay attention to the where and how I going to anchor my threads, so I sometimes change the stitch order, especially if it does not affect the appearance of the stitch. I did this for the Overlapping Cross stitches in the border. Our instructor for the class suggested we stitch the sides of the border as we go because there has been a discrepancy in the count (more about that later) so I just stitch far enough to complete the next session but I do make sure I have places to hid travel threads and bury threads starts and stops.

I happened to notice while stitching the first panel that I did not care for the green in this overdye with the other thread choices, so I removed it. Yes, I added to my ort jar…gone. Now you might ask why I just didn’t choice another thread with no green…remember this is a class and the threads were in a kit. Purchasing a new thread was an option, but I also could purchase one more overdye with the same dyelot number in case I will need it (and it looks like I will).  So I am manipulating the thread by removing a portion of the thread…

And I am also watching the placement of these stitches. Before stitching areas of the piece, I am really thinking about the order/ direction I am placing the stitches.  I am not only watching where the colors may be placed but I am watching how I place the stitches. I noticed when doing the first panel I could see the travel threads being carried from one stitch area to the next, but if I thought about the placement these travel threads were not so visible. So I made a decision to take the time to plan my stitch order while I was still trying to place the color in a pleasing placement. You can see when I hold the canvas up to the light  the open areas and when you look at the front close up you can see it too.  It may have been unnecessary but it was an interesting study and I will know.

On panel 1 and 2 when stitching with the overdye I placed the center stitch of these areas first and then placed the outside stitches next. I did not pre-plan panel 1 (LP Area 2) this way; the instructor/ moderator suggested this placement to get the stitch in the correct place. So after panel 1 was done this way I decided to repeat it for panel 2(LP Area 4)

 On panel three (LP Area 6) I stitched both sides of the area (Herringbone) at the same time so the overdye was symmetrical, others in the class stitched up one side and down the other (I’ll try and take a picture of this and show next time.) I also tried not the have the overdye cross the open areas where the Rhodes Stars were to be placed. And when I stitched these Rhodes Stars I buried my travel threads.

The rest will have to wait for another day, must get back to the computer.

Those of you heading for San Antonio have a stitching good time and if you have a blog don’t forget to write!

 Thank you for stopping by and spending a few moments with me; hope you have time to stitch today! ttfn…sue

My plate and table run-n-n-nth over

If I don’t post this today, it may never get posted.

I was picking up the house yesterday, my nests seemed to be spilling over into other areas, so I decided to put the current projects and business on the table to sort and prioritize it. Hum-m, my plate seems to be pretty full right now, but then my life seems to be that way… feast or famine; all or nothing; too much, too little. Oh well, it is the nature of the beast! After I felt I had the house back at a manageable level of messydom, I started to sort through the table (after all, we do use this table to eat off of several times a day.)

Here’s the rundown of this mess…looks kinda like the 12 Days of something….

#1-5 are needlepoint stitching projects:

#1 (two pieces) are the class I told the guild I would do for them. Trust me I have stitched and restitched this several times in different ways. Not that the project is difficult, it is not; I just keep making stupid mistakes. But the research is all completed and I have several of the areas charted so I am not in panic mode over this project…yet.

#2 is another shop project/class I wanted to do. I am doing it in afternoon class at the shop, it is my two hours, once a week to socialize with other stitchers and allows me inhance my stash all in one trip. The class is Laura Perin’s, One Long Panel (http://laurajperindesigns.tripod.com/index.htm) and as soon as we get a bit further I’ll take pictures to how all the color choices look. The evening group has some cool combinations also, will try and get back and take pictures of theirs too. I was current after week one, but with the looks of my table I may be behind after week two. Hopefully I can find time to keep current.

#3 The Eagle…poor guy seems to have gotten pushed to the back of the list…But I do have several years before I need to have it completed. Although, my 6 year old Grandson, to whom this eagle is intended to be given, informed me the other day; “Grandma, my eagle is not making a lot of stitching progress, I would like to have it finished before I am an Eagle Scout. And you know Grandma 10 years will just fly by.” From the mouths of babes or maybe just too big for his britches.

#4 These are 3 painted canvases I just could not live without. Now I have them, stitching is another story. Someday…

#5 is another project I started (must have had a slow day), maybe I’ll put this one in the car…It’s a small one and I could work it when I’m waiting on someone or stuck in traffic. This is a Just Nan kit, Sunny Summer Happy Garden (http://www.justnan.com/index.htm) that I am doing on canvas instead of linen. I just love the sunflower pin that came with this design; I’m a sucker for do-dads! And I love all the little pins and charms she adds to her kits.

And of course I must not be able to count above #5 because I missed #6, but I’m sure there is something in this heap of to do’s there must be a six.

#7-10 are projects in various states of completion for other people. Some have minor rework, some are wait pilot classes to finish, others have not even been begun. I’m sure #6 is here and probably a couple more.

And one of those included in #7-10 is the paperwork for my #1. I have that one about 75% complete.

#11 are two uniform skirts for one of my granddaughters…they need to be shortened. I don’t get why the uniform company does just not make these shirts shorter; since time began (or at least since uniforms were introduced) girls have shortened these skirts. They are pleated skirts that have had the folds set in cement and so no matter how many times you press them before and after you hem the skirt those folds are set and so the skirts flare at the bottom…Been this way since before my boys went to the same parochial school. One down,one to go but it is pined.

#12 And see that bit of gray metal shinning through at the bottom of the pile on the left? That is my new computer that I have had little time to do anything but register. System 7 is going to take some looking at, I may even see a Dummy book in my future.

And speaking of books, I have two of those I am trying to read also. One is stitching related, not to any project I’m doing but just to read and the other is “The Help.” Would like to read the book before I see the movie (when I don’t know…do you think I could stitch with a small light in the theater?) Maybe, if I’m lucky,  I’ll get the book read before it comes up on my Netflix list.

Okay, now that I have spent time blogging I guess I best get back to work and conquer some of these to-dos.

Thank you for stopping by and spending a few moments with me; hope you have time to stitch today! ttfn…sue

Final visit to The Neigborhood (s)…almost

Well, maybe one more…Will take them to the framer in the next couple weeks and show you when I get them back.

Well, it is still very very warm but the weatherman has promised relief the next two days…I think these weather people should take up needlepoint, maybe they would get better results.

I have been working on “The Neighborhood”, the classes are over and I did finish stitching the houses, but I saved all the windows to do last…BIG Mistake! I had forgotten how much I dislike Marlitt. For those of you, who have never had the misfortune to use this thread, let me explain…Marlitt is a 4 ply rayon floss with a mind of its own. You can dampen the ply, use a laying tool and it still acts up. And when you have over 34 + places you stitch with this stuff it really becomes a labor of love or hate. But as you can tell from the pictures I have completed “The Neighborhood.”

Hey notice by the windows I stitched this piece twice…68+ places to use Marlitt…such fun. But as luck would I ran out of Marlitt and did not have a back up skein. I did have DMC Satin Floss; looks like Marlit, same color, 6 ply instead of 4 ply…I’ll  try it. Now call me crazy, but I dampened it used 4 ply instead of the 3 Marlit and I really thought it laid nicer, I didn’t think I had to fight it as much and I can’t tell the difference. Notice I did not say, I’m in love with this thread but I did think DMC Satin Floss handled better than Marlitt.

And yes, I stitched this twice. My DH loves everything I stitch, but seldom says more than this is nice, but he did say this piece would look great on our family room wall. Humm-m-m justifying finishing…a gift for DH!;-) And I like this piece too… it truly is a sampler of architectural stitches. If you want a fun piece to stitch, this would be one.

Oh yes, remember the last time I blogged about “The Neighborhood” (http://sudukc.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/more-to-the-neighborhood/ ), I was going to compare pictures from my old standby camera to that of my Droid phone. The Olympus are on the left, the Droid pictures on the right;  I thought the quality was pretty much the same. My phone pictures were large files for whatever reason because size-wise they were the same. I liked the brown roof of one better and the red roof of the other. I have noticed I do better with non antimated subject matter on my Droid…people seem to blur quicker. Maybe I just need to learn my phone/camera better (I’ll put this on my tuit list.) But now I can take look for new camera off my tuit list until the next time I get a bee in my bonnet. My old friend will work for me and I know just how she works, so for now my trusty Olympus Camedia C-5500 with its 5.1 megapixels is safe.

I’d like to stay and gab but I barely am going to get this blog posted. I have two other projects for other people on my desk and I am suppose to be writing a project for my guild…gotta go…work this week-end.

Hope everyone has time to stitch today and this week-end too!  ttfn…sue

More to the neighborhood

The Neighborhood is getting larger. Another two houses were pretty easy stitching besides the fact that someone in class thinks we should put a sign on the green house that says, “Paint me!” I love the red roof stitch and think it will become one of my favorites. It adds texture and direction…

Remember last time, “this roof was a challenge.”…the brown roof?  In the close up picture you can see it very well. I think that stitch was the challenge of the piece. It might be a toss up between the brown roof and the green roof, both were different but effective. I forgot to include it in the last post but here it is…Susan Jones called it a Byzantine but I thought it was a small Milanese. What’s interesting about this stitch is that depending on how you chose to stitch it the effect with an overdye will be quite different. I chose the method on the left. 

 

 

 

 

I was reading Consumer Reports Magazine (August issue) this week, an article about phone cameras. I think next time I take pictures of this canvas I am going to us my phone Verizon Droid X and my trusty Olympus Camedia C-5500 with its 5.1 megapixels to see the differences. I have looked at purchasing a new camera but I haven’t been able to justify the expense in my mind when this one works and I like it. But we will compare pictures next time to see if I see any differences.

We are having a Heat Warning or Advisory this week-end. I really hope it lets up, I do worry about the elderly and those without air conditioning. No matter what the weatherman calls it, the weather is just plain HOT! So I guess I will be forced to sit in my air-conditioned house and stitch…Oh no, such a burden!

Stay cool and…Hope everyone has time to stitch today!  ttfn…sue

The Neighborhood part 3

The Neighborhood is growing. Two more houses have been completed. I really am enjoying this piece, it is a sampler of stitches for architecture.

See the top house…this roof was a challenge. I liked it but it was a stitch to take care with and then of course it changed direction at the hip of the house. The siding of this house was a 4 way continental but for me was a challenge as I normally stitch on the diagonal and this was stitched row by row so the thread on the back side would not show when viewed from the front. See the difference in the diagrams? I would catch myself trying to revert to “my way” but with the exception of maybe one or two miss-steps I think I did pretty well.

My photo is a bit off, but then I’m a bit off this week too. Holidays always throw me off…I never know what day of the week it is until we have a full 5 day work week. I’m better with Monday holidays than Friday holidays too, so next week I’ll be back on track.

Hope everyone has time to stitch today!  ttfn…sue

New Adventure: Garden Art

My friend (SH) got me this cute little sign for my garden; little did she know how prophetic this sign is. I am the lady who moved into her first house next to a home of a master gardener. We had a fence between our yards and on my side was a one and half foot stripe of garden that ran the full length of the back yard. I really think it was the barrier between and the garden wonderland adjacent to my weedy back yard.  The first year we lived there I diligently went out and began to pluck this area from front to back. I was about a third of the way down this ten mile (so it was only 40+ feet…looked and felt like ten miles) when my saintly neighbor, Mrs. Mac (short for MacIntosh) looked over the fence and very politely asked me if I would like Mr. Mac to come help me. I immediately knew something was amiss but kept on plucking. About four more plucks from my garden (I use this term loosely), Mrs. Mac said that she would send Mr. Mac over to point out the weeds…Yes I was 1/3 of the way down the ten mile road and had left every weed known to mankind and plucked every flower coming up. Well, isn’t one man’s weed another man’s garden? Guess not.

At this point in my life I had one of those epiphanies…I was never going to have a black thumb! I realized the only thing I was meant to raise was sons and I better concentrate on this because I was an only child and from a family of girls to boot. Mother of sons was going to be a full time job and I had a lot to learn!

I told Mrs. Mac that maybe Mr. Mac should put up a concrete barrier between our fence lines and I would remember to tell Mr. D to put down extra weed killer close to their fence line. I then picked up my trowel and headed into the house to bake cookies (something I was good at and a peace offering to the Macs for failing gardening 101.)

For weeks I had nightmares about weeds and flowers…then I also remembered I had two wonderful Grandmothers whom always had a houseful of flowers and plants. They both were members of the garden club and had beautiful gardens BUT I never remember spending anytime with them in their gardens. The next morning I called my Grandmother who was still living and asked her if I ever helped her in her garden. After a long pause, this saintly woman said, “Gardening didn’t seem to be your thing honey.”  Oh the repressed memories, I was going to be in garden therapy the rest of my life!

I have come to the realization that there are things in my life that I am never going to be great at doing but that does not keep me from admiring the beauty of all these things. Gardening is one… I love a beautiful garden and appreciate all the work that goes into maintaining a garden. And I seem to gravitate to people who love to garden and have beautiful gardens.  AND if I ever win the lottery, I am going to hire a gardener and have that beautiful garden in my yard too.

Back to the reason for today’s post…my friend and I signed up to take this garden art class but ended up going to different sessions: her session (http://fromthesummersgarden.blogspot.com/2011/06/first-hypertufa-studio-of-summer.html  ); my session (http://fromthesummersgarden.blogspot.com/2011/06/hypertufa-2.html )

I know; why did I sign up for anything to do with gardening? Here are my reasons (pick one or all): my goal this year was to try several new forms of expressionism; I am planning on wining the lottery and want some yard art; I do these things just for the fun of it and learning something new.

I went this week end (and it was a blast. I met 11 new people; three came from St Louis just for the class, and two other groups of three were families out to have some bonding time. It was so much fun to see everyone’s expressionism and how we each came to this class with our own ideas. Hypertufa is this really cool mixture;  light weight but very strong and can be molded into shapes, carved, covered with a thin layer of portland cement (not all cementis created equally nor is it concrete) or not to make a multitude of garden  art.  The Hypertufa we made is all “green” and does not use peat or perlite but organic additives.  Steve, our instructor and artist,  was so patient with all of us and Davy his assistant got a work-out too. We made a large bowl shape using leaves for the design and covered the leaves with hypertufa then cement, also a square planter, and a gargoyle head in hypertufa and cement. Steve taught us how to cover leaves and make stepping stones out of cememt.  I’m sure Davy is now counting his days until he leaves for college and surely went home and told his family…”Don’t Davy, please …” me for the next two weeks.  I want to go back again, it was just plain fun!  And anyway, I’ve never been anywhere before that I was told “my bottom wasn’t big enough” and “my mouth was too small”.  I love this place! I could make stepping stones, little signs and yard art forever…I know I can have a garden of stepping stones and yard art. Thank you Steve and Davy for a wonderful week-end experience!

I better get back to my real world and stitch. I hope everyone has time to stitch today! ttfn…sue

P.S. Garden pictures are from Steve’s garden. You could have just walked around here all week-end and never seen it all. Beautiful!

The Neighborhood House 2

I want to share my new architectural needlepoint skills, “The Neighborhood” is proving to be quite a lesson in learning. I love the way Susan Jones has subtly marked the corners of the house (A in photo) by starting and stopping the stitches rather than outlining the corner or changing thread color. She also has offset stitches to give dimension (B in photo), and uses overdyes (C in photo) to suggest shading. And the roof stitch of house two (D in photo), while easy to stitch, takes a moment to watch the count; a great shingle stitch.

I love this piece and when I first started stitching this piece had no one in mind, just liked the piece. Now that I am stitching it, I have several people I think would like this as a gift. And that brings up a question: “How many times can you stitch a piece from the instructions you purchase without being in copyright infringement?”  Read U.S.Copyright Law: http://www.copyright.gov/title17/ especially Section 107 Fair Use: http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap7.html  and http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html .

I mentioned that I might want to stitch this piece more than once in the class, and many felt that I could stitch it as many times as I wished from one set of instructions as long as I was not selling them. I pointed out to them, that if this were a painted canvas that would not be the case.

I’ve read the copyright law and I think it is a bit confusing on the subject of multiple uses. I read this as I need a copy of the instructions for everyone I stitch, but it also states I can contact the owner for permission to use more than once. So I did send an email to the source I had and received this reply:

 As long as you purchased the full pattern from your LNS you may stitch it as many times as you wish using your original set of instructions.  You may not make copies of the pattern or any part hereof and give them or sell them to friends nor may you make the design or any part thereof and sell it  –  the design is for your use only to make for yourself and/or as gifts.

Truthfully I was a bit taken back by the responses. I feel like if I stitch it 2 or 3 times I should do something more than pay for the chart-pack once. If it were a painted canvas, I would have to purchase two or three. I know that some designers of chart-packs are adding a special embellishment that will require you to purchase additional chart-packs if you wish to have the embellishment.

AND then there is the question:  What do you do if you want a chart-pack or instruction book that is no longer in print (and you know this for a fact)? What if a shop wants to teach such a piece in a class and they have only three copies of the instructions and 6-7 possible students? What if that original designer has either passed away,  is no longer teaching, and you have tried every means to get in touch with the designer; can you make copies for a class? I think there are many great designs out there that should be taught again and again…they are classics.

I’m not sure where I stand on either issue, but I do know that I think I owe it to the art of needlepoint to do more than buy one chart-pack or instruction book and reproduce it 3 or 4 times. Maybe the answer to both questions is to donate a portion to a local charity or stitching guild of your choice.

What do you think is “Fair use?”

I hope everyone has time to stitch today! ttfn…sue