St. Charles - Galleria

Yes, you guessed right. I’m at Needlework Galleria. What a fun place to be!

Our day started out with a class from Beth Seal of Summer House Stitche Workes. It’s a cute pumpkin themed pocket. I made good progress for just a couple of hours of stitching.

We spent the afternoon at an antique mall. Found a couple of things that had to come home with me.

Back at Galleria, the early bird shopping began at 6:00pm. Our first stop was Shakespeare’s Peddler. Got up close and personal with Ham Rock. The place to be tonight was in Beth Twist’s room - Heartstring Samplery! I made a few purchases which I’ll have to share on another post.

Tomorrow will be another day!

Road Trip!

It’s been awhile! The adventures of the Alphabet Stitcher and her Partner in Crime are back. They didn’t let us go out into the world alone this time though; we have supervision this trip.

We traveled all day yesterday. Our first and only stop was a new shop to me, my PIC had already been to this one. We stopped at Village Needlework in Marion, IA.  Sadly, they are going out of business. It was and still is a lovely shop with supplies for cross stitch, tatting, knitting and crochet and canvas.  We made a few purchases.

Arrived at our destination last night.  Here’s a clue on where we are:

Hope to have more posts for you throughout the weekend.

Seeing Red

Well, the pre-work won out. This is the beginning of a red band sampler designed by Sue Hillis.

The finished piece is about 24 inches long so I have a little more stitching to do. :)

Snooty Parrot Progress

I’m really enjoying stitching on Snooty, but I have to put it away. Some pre-work arrived which I need to finish for Needlework Galleria in three weeks. I’m really loving Snooty though...

Over the weekend I stitched the apple tree and Adam and Eve. I also stitched the urn of flowers to the left. Love it!

I also picked up some framing over the weekend. This design is called “Never Let You Go” and its from Heartstring Samplery. I thought the red frame complimented the red bricks in the house.

Tomorrow night...pre-work or more Snooty?

Spring Fling WIPs

Stitchville has had a retreat every Spring for the past ten years. I was doing well at keeping up with the projects until about five years ago! I’ve got to get busy and get back on track.

2019 Project - Blackbird Designs - such a pretty set of stitchy goodness. I need to come back to this sooner rather than later!

2018 Project - Jeanette Douglas - Pity, only the scissors fob is stitched and finished.

2017 Project - Blackbird Designs - part of this project is complete, but I didn't finish the other parts.

2015 Project - With My Needle - I don’t have a picture of this one. Didn’t get into that box on Friday night! A group of us have made a pact that we are going to stitch and finish this one over the next year.

2014 Project - The Drawn Thread - I was so excited for this retreat. I think it’s the stiffness of the linen that has kept me from finishing this one. I don’t have much stitched. Maybe I should change my linen!

I’ll post a weekend stitching update tomorrow night. I need to add a few more stitches to the section I worked on.

SABLE

SABLE = Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy. Let’s continue with the WIP parade!

I love this project. I started it two years ago and made good progress on it. It is a kit from Hillside Samplings and will be a lovely Strawberry Bag with stitching accessories when finished.

This next WIP was started three or four years ago. It’s the Four Seasons Band Sampler from Sally Hesketh. I think I was worried about the over one stitching and that might be why I put it away.

One more. I’ve always loved this Prairie Schooler Christmas Village. I’ve made a good start on it!

Today I worked on Snooty Parrot. Made good progress. Adam and Eve are in!

Hope you are having a nice weekend!

My Name is Cathy and I am a Stitchaholic

I’ve been cleaning through my stash (aka the needlework shop in my basement). Oy vey. I need to get a grip on things. Either I need to stitch faster or figure out a way to live until I’m 300. Please know, I still plan to stitch everything that is in this little shop of mine.  

Tonight, I went through my WIPs (Works in Progress) and took some pictures. I also took pictures of all the lovely samplers and other projects that are kitted up and ready to go, but not started. I thought maybe we could visit my stash for a few posts. I love it when the Flosstubers share their WIPs and their stash with us!

My first photo though is of my finishing pile. Such a sad state of affairs.  There are four or five projects with frames just waiting to be stretched and pinned. See that bucket?  There are two fully stitched Betsy Morgan projects that need to be assembled. I know that there is also a Chessie and Me class piece, a beautiful Pomegranate colored needlework pocket from Hands on Design, several ornaments ... and I could go on and on. Maybe I should call in sick at work next week?

Here are my first two WIPs.  WIP number one is the Snooty Parrot sampler.  It’s about time I get this done!

WIP number two is the Sojourner Sampler from Heart’s Ease Examplar Workes.  I love the colors of the linen and the silk fibers.  I need to get this one done too.

I think I better get busy and do some stitching!

What am I Stitching?

I just finished two more blocks on Satsuma Street’s 12 Days of Christmas!  Nine and ten are finished.

I’m going to try to stick with this one since I don’t have too much more to go.

A Couple More Retreat Finishes

On our third day of class we fine-tuned our pillow finishing skills.  As you can see, our pillow has a pocket!

The back side of the pillow is finished with a wool flower and some leaves to cover the slit we made to stuff the pillow.

We also made a cute little needlebook to match the pillow.

And Cathy always has extra surprises in her classes - a fun scissor fob made out of a wool felt ball!

I forgot to include a picture of the scissor fob that we made to coordinate with the mattress finish that I posted on Thursday.

It was a great retreat and I enjoyed my classes with Cathy Habermann!

Another NGM Retreat Here and Gone

Hello Friends!

I was away at the Needlework Guild of Minnesota retreat last week which means I have stitchy photos to share.  The theme of this year’s retreat was “Finishing School”.  Many of the classes focused on finishing.  Our guild brings in three teachers, so you always have a choice of projects.  I was excited this year to have the opportunity to take classes with Cathy Habermann from Hands on Design!

Before we look at class projects, I want to share my name tag with you.  Every retreat, I stitch a name tag that reflects the theme.  I think I nailed it this year.  This is an old Mary Garry pattern.

My first class with Cathy was called Snow on the Ground.  My pre-work was complete and so that allowed me to start right in on the finishing.  Our first finish was a mattress style pincushion.  We made this cute little house complete with wool shingles!  It took most of the first day to complete.

On day two, we worked on the scissor fob and the name plate for our baskets.  These are the cutest little baskets from the Ohio Farm baskets shop on Etsy!

Cathy always has a few surprises up her sleeve.  On the first day, we made this cute tomato scissor fob/pincushion.  On day two, we practiced lacing and the ladder stitch and made this pin disk using coordinating fabrics.

Here’s the whole project!

Back tomorrow with more...

The Mad Tatter Strikes Again!

The Mad Tatter has been busy.  She tatted these beautiful lace edgings to make votive candles out of these recycled yogurt jars.  All the different thread colors are so pretty!

I hope to be back with more stitchy news soon!

Oops I Did it Again

Facebook Marketplace is addicting...

Pre-Work

Working on my pre-work for an upcoming finishing class with Cathy Habermann!

The linen color is more blue than it appears in the photo.

Thunderstorms and flooding here tonight!

Lynn’s of Madison

We had fun shopping at Lynn’s.  She caters to artists who paint and draw, needleworkers, and does framing.  In addition to looking through her charts and excellent linen selection, there is always wonderful eye candy on the walls.  Here’s a tour of some of the framed needlework.