Back for Part II

I'm still reminiscing about the fun weekend in Tulsa. In my last post I told you all about Friday's events; but the main event occurred on Saturday!

Joan and I were up bright and early and one of the first ones in the door when the Silver Needle opened at 8am. We weren't going to buy anything on Saturday, having made all of our purchases on Friday night (yeah, right!) The class with the Blackbird glas started at 9am, so we did our speed shopping and headed over to the classroom.

A retreat with Barb and Alma is like a feast for the eyes...they always bring lots of models with them. From a tree adorned with some of their stocking finishes...



....to some of the Anniversaries of the Heart pieces completed and framed...



I took a picture of this finished design; I think it is the Glad Tidings chart - I really like it!



Here is the most current Loose Feathers project - Hedgerow Birds. The bag is much larger than you expect and the linen color is more gold than pictured on the cover of the pattern. It's really a pretty design!



Scattered about on the table were a number of projects that Alma and Barb have completed using stitched fragments...



... or colored copies of designs that they have stitched.



Here's Margaret Harris:



Our main project for this event was this pincushion in an oval box and a needlebook that folds in thirds.




Our main project on Saturday was to paint and wax the boxes. Barb told us that when we were finished with it, the box needed to look worn - like it had traveled across the prairie in a covered wagon! Here's a picture of some waxing and buffing in progress:




My pincushion is not quite finished yet, but it will be soon. For a look at a finished pincushion, check out Joan's post from Sunday, July 18.

Well, I think that's enough for tonight. Believe it or not, I have more to share with you. You will have to wait for Part III...

I Heart Blackbird Designs

I love Blackbird Designs. I love everything about them - their charts, the fabrics and fibers they choose for their designs, their finishing ideas. And then the two women behind Blackbird - Barb and Alma - they are just amazing. So creative, warm, and fun to be around. After seeing them this Spring at the Stitchville retreat, I hoped that I would be able to spend time with them again. Little did I know that it would happen again so soon!

My friend Joan and I were fortunate this past weekend to be able to attend the Blackbird Designs event at the Silver Needle in Tulsa, OK. It was my first trip to the Silver Needle.

The best word I can use to describe how I felt when I walked through their front door - mesmerized. The Vera Bradley collection was to my left - to my right and straight ahead was a multitude of charts, fibers, kits, fabrics, and finishes. I know I had this "kid in a candy store" look on my face for a few seconds! The shop was filled with other anxious retreat goers - it was a hoppin' place! Here's what I enjoyed most about this shop -- all the finished samples. Many projects were stitched over one and were finished into flat folds, boxes, ornaments - it was such a delectable feast for the eyes! I regret now that I did not taking pictures of some of the displays in the shop...

Our retreat started on Friday evening at about 6pm. There were many blogger friends that both Joan and I looked forward to meeting. Here's a picture of me with PJStitcher. Pam does not have a blog, but she frequently comments on blogs. It was a real treat to meet her!


Just to give you an idea as to how popular this event was - take a look at all the stitchers!


There were about 150 stitchers from 20 different states and Canada that came to this event in Tulsa!



After dinner on Friday night, we had the plesure of listening to Barb and Alma share some of their stories with us - how they met, how Blackbird Designs got started, where they get their inspiration from, etc.



Barb and Alma had brought some of their sampler collection with them. These samplers have been found at flea markets and thrift stores and have inspired some of the fabrics and cross stitch patterns. (Sorry, the pictures of Barb and Alma are a little bit fuzzy.)




One of my favorite samplers from their collection was this orphan sampler done with black thread on a white/cream colored fabric. Do you recognize it? This sampler inspired the alphabet sampler design that was used in their first fabric line.



This is the original Sarah Tobias...



And this is the sampler that inspired some of the designs in Joyeux Noel...



And some of the other lovely samplers that they brought along...




Our first afternoon and evening in Tulsa was quite nice. Joan and I went back to our hotel and looked forward to the day ahead. More to come....

Random Act of Kindness

Before you continue, I have to warn you that my pictures for this post are not the greatest. It's late and my pictures are dark. You'll just have to deal with it!

A most special thing happened today - I received this lovely pincushion in the mail from Faye (Caroliner Stitcher). I'm touched that she thought to gift me with this lovely finish. It's adorned with some really cute pins that Faye also made. Just love it. Thanks again Faye!

On the stitching front ...

...two more blocks done for A Token of Friendship. These are Lori's.

...and Lizzie Kate's limited edition summer fob. Just the stitching is done; I still need to finish it. If you want to see the finished product, check out Jill's or Joan's finished fobs.

Counting down...in less than three days I will be at the Silver Needle enjoying a weekend of stitching and stashing and visiting with Barb and Alma from Blackbird Designs!

Happy Independence Day!

Hello Dear Friends!

It's Monday, July 5 and I am enjoying an extended weekend with a holiday from work today. Yesterday was Independence Day and we celebrated by grilling burgers and watching fireworks. Of course, there was time for stitching too!

I'm also celebrating another finish! I just loved this design so much that it was hard to put down. This is Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers #3 - Evening Shades the Garden. I've stitched it on WDW 35ct Light Khaki; it's a creamy soft yellow. For the most part, I used the recommended fibers, with one or two changes because I think the dyelots weren't quite right. It's not very big, approximately 5 inches X 6 inches. This one will get framed soon!

Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers #3
Evening Shades the Garden
35Ct WDW Light Khaki
GAST/DMC Fibers

I've also been working more on This is the Day. I had run out of GAST Tomato and picked up another skein the last time I was at my LNS. Now I've run out of Picnic Basket and Pumpkin Pie! I can finish the lettering at the top and do the filling stitches top and bottom until I get more of these other two colors. I also want to find a replacement fiber for GAST Camouflage; it has too much blue in it (IMHO).

Hot, sticky, cloudy, dark -- not a fun day outside today in Minnesota. As I right this blog post it just started to downpour outside! I've been working on various projects around the house and am in the midst of cleaning through my stitching stash and finishing supplies. Couldn't be happier!

Hope you had a nice weekend; thanks for stopping by!

Two More Squares and a New Start

Howdy friends! How was your week? Mine was filled with rain and thunderstorms, plus I made a quick trip to Grand Rapids, MI for a business meeting. Never a dull moment in my neck of the woods!

Two more squares complete - yahoo! I may actually make the August deadline. If you've dropped by before, you know that I am working on this project with a group of friends. I am stitching two squares each for Joan, Jill, Chris, Jackie, and Lori, plus two squares for myself. Finished up Jackie's squares this week, now I just have to stitch Lori's squares and my own. The pattern is from With My Needle and it is called "A Token of Friendship." These are Jackie's squares:



I also think I need to have my head examined. I started a new project last weekend; just couldn't help myself! I had the itch to stitch this design and picked up the fabric when I was at Stitchville last Saturday. The pattern is Loose Feathers #3 and it is called Evening Shades the Garden. The fabric is a really soft yellow (it doesn't look yellow in the photo though, sorry.) As you can see I have most of the outside border stitched and most of the alphabet. I'll start on the flowers next.




I went searching for this pattern after seeing it finished on Irma's blog. Irma hasn't posted for a long time; I really miss her posts. She was always working on projects that appealed to me and she had a real talent for photographing her finished pieces.

We were going to go up to the lake and try to spend some time cleaning up the yard, but we've had so much rain lately that we decided it would be a wasted trip. Hopefully it will be drier next weekend and then we can get the lawn mowed and do some trimming and then maybe have some time left to enjoy the cabin and the lake!

Hope you all enjoy today and the week ahead. Thanks for stopping by!

Time is Flying By

Oh my, it has been a long time since I last posted. Where does the time go? Granted, we've had a busy spring with a graduation and all kinds of grad parties to attend. I hope things will start slowing down a little bit soon! With all of these parties and other activities, I haven't done very much stitching lately.

I have stitched a couple of hardanger doilies; this is my favorite pattern which I acquired several years ago. I copied the actual doliy that my cousin had obtained while traveling in Norway. I only have a picture of this one - forgot to take a photo of the other one before I gave it away. The filling stitches do not show up real well against the green background fabric, oh well....


And here are a couple more completed blocks for the With My Needle A Token of Friendship project that a group of us are working on. These blocks are for Chris.

The first block for Jackie is started:

I've completed three sets of blocks (two-each) for Joan, Jill, and Chris. I still need to complete Jackie's, Lori's and my own by our mid-August deadline.

I am looking forward to July. Want to know why? Joan and I are heading to the Silver Needle to see Barb and Alma from Blackbird Designs. We had so much fun at the Stitchville retreat in April that we had to do it again. The bonus is the trip to the Silver Needle. I have never visited their shop and can't wait to see it. Anyone else in blogland going to attend this event at the Silver Needle?

Looks like it is going to be a beautiful day in Minnesota - we could use a nice day. Last week some terrible storms ripped through our state, killing three people. It sounds like there is more rain and stormy weather coming in the week ahead.

Happy Stitching!

Finally Something Stitchy!

I've had a horrible case of the stitching blues lately. I seem to spend more time thinking about stitching than I spend actually stitching! Well, I've had a few distractions, like DD's graduation. By the way, thank you very much for all the congratulatory wishes! One more event to get past - the grad party is this weekend. Maybe then life will return to normal or something that resembles normal.

Here's what I have been working on lately; I pulled out a WIP and decided to put a few more stitches in it. It looks like I started this back in September of 2009 (and if I used labels it would have taken me less than 15 minutes to figure that out!) I can't find any other posts about my progress on this one after that. Let's just say that I had about 2/3 of the border complete. Either I became bored or just experienced a bad case of startitis because the piece went into my WIP basket.

I pulled it out last weekend and put in a few more stitches -



For those of you who might not recognize it, this pattern is from Hands to Work and it is called "This is the Day." The pattern was published in the February 2009 issue of Just Cross Stitch. I am stitching mine on 32ct WDW Cappucino (the pattern calls for LL Autumn Gold.)

Now, I must admit, I'm having trouble with this one. Either I've lost my ability to count, or I'm challenged by the fact that the pattern is spread out over four pages in the magazine - but I spent a good portion of Saturday night pulling out everything I had stitched that night. On Sunday I re-stitched and thought everything was good, only to realize that it's still not quite right. I ran out of the Sampler Threads Tomato thread so I can't stitch the word "Glad" until I get more. I think may need some additional Picnic Basket too. At this point, I'm going to make it work. Many of you stitched this one last year, did anyone else have trouble or is it just me?

Regardless of my counting troubles, I still love this design. I think it will look great when finished.

Guess I better run. Need to catch the news and then it's bedtime. Thanks for stopping by.

The Graduate and Her Mom...

Another milestone, another memory...my baby graduated from high school last night. I am so proud of her!



We had beautiful weather for the occasion; the graduation mass and ceremony lasted just over two hours. Then they were off to the local community center for an all night party. I volunteered until 2am; my DH worked the graveyard shift from 2am until 5am! The graduate is still sleeping, the rest of us are moving at a slow pace today.

Hopefully I will have some stitchy pictures for you later today or tomorrow. Enjoy your weekend!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

It is unseasonably warm here in Minnesota today with temps in the 80's and muggy! I expect we'll have some thunderstorms move through later today; the sky is overcast and it just kind of looks like we're in for a good storm. Good reason to stay inside and stitch!

It's been a delightful weekend thus far. On Friday night after work, I went to my daughter's last regular season lacrosse game. It was a beautiful evening to watch a lacrosse game and they won! Section playoffs start next week. After the lacrosse game I headed over to Joan's house for some stitching with the Friday night gang.

Saturday morning was spent running errands. Since my husband was cleaning the garage, my son was working and my daughter was spending the afternoon with friends, I was free to do my own thing. If you were me, what would you do? Ummm, more stitching of course! The gang got together at Joan's house again and we stitched until 10pm or so.

Which brings me to today. Too hot and sticky to do anything outside. I'll keep the laundry going and make a good dinner for my family today, but in-between time, I think I'll stitch. :)

Not too much to share with you on the stitching front. After finishing BBD Summer Basket I decided I better get busy stitching on my blocks for "A Token of Friendship" from With My Needle. There are six of us who have been working on this projects; we are each stitching two blocks for ourselves and then two blocks for each of the other six stitchers. Here are the two blocks that I stitched for Joan followed by the first block that I stitched for Jill. I gave Jill her second block before taking a photo of it. I'm now working on Chris' blocks; one of them is done. I'll post a picture of hers in another post. We need to have all of our blocks done by August and then we're going to try to do the assembly together!

I also need to send THANK YOU's to Kathy A and PJ (no blog.) Recently, both of these ladies gifted me with beaded scissor fobs. Kathy A sent one as a thank you for stitching on her Neighborhood (remember the neighborhood round robins?) PJ sent one as a thank you for sharing a pattern with her. (Note to PJ -- I can't find your email address, could you email me with it please?) Anyway, aren't these fobs beautiful? Kathy send the one with the topaz colored beads; I like the key charm at the end. PJ sent the one with red, white, and blue colored beads with the angel charm at the end. Aren't they beautiful?



Before I go, I'm going to share some pictures of my flower beds. We've been busy cleaning up around the yard in preparation for our daughter's graduation party which will be in two weeks. Here is the shady area under our deck; the flowers in this garden mostly bloom in the spring.


Are you familiar with the plant called "Jack in the Pulpit?" My mother transplanted this from her wild flower garden.


I noticed that a lupine is growing amidst the ferns:

Last summer, we put a new flower bed in around the gas meter; we needed to do something to make this side of the house look better. The flowers in this bed are blooming like gangbusters!




Here's another bed that we just planted this weekend; this one will be beautiful when the plants mature and the flowers start blooming!

A smaller bed in the front yard:

And finally, take a look at these beautiful irises. They are actually in our neighbor's yard, but we have the best view of them!


Here's to wishing you a great Sunday filled with lots of stitching!

Summer Basket Finished

Back from Orlando -- thank you for your suggestions regarding needlework shops. As it turned out, I didn't have a speck of free time. Maybe next time I am in Orlando I will be able to check out the needlework shops!


I brought back a nasty cold and have been feeling a wee bit under the weather. Since I've been kind of "laying low" I've had more time for stitching and managed to finish Summer Basket by Blackbird Designs.

Summer Basket
Blackbird Designs
30 ct WDW Baby's Breath
GAST and WDW threads

Thanks too for the needle feedback. I think I'm going to invest in a bulk package of Bohins!

Kathy A - thank you for the beautiful scissor fob that you sent. I will get a proper thank you sent off to you in the next day or two.

Until next time - thank you for your visit.

More Blackbird Designs

Hello Friends! Thought I'd stop in for a minute and show you a picture of my latest project. I'm working on Summer Basket from Blackbird Designs (Loose Feathers #38). I've had it in my stash for a little while and started it at the BBD retreat two weeks ago (or is it three?) Anyway, the linen is WDW Baby's Breath, kind of a soft pink, and the fibers are mostly GAST with one WDW - the colors remind me of Spring!




Mother Nature is quite mixed up and we are experiencing winter, not spring weather here in Minnesota. After no snow in March or April, today it snows! My DD had a lacrosse game today and baby it was cold and windy with rain and snow mixed...brrrr.....hopefully this return to winter will be short-lived.


I have a couple of questions for you:

1) Which brand of needles do you like to stitch with? Piecemakers, John James, Bohnin, other? I guess I usually stitch with Piecemakers or Bohnin. On Tuesday night I was stitching with some #28 needles from John James and I broke two of them. Very frustrating!

2) Does anyone know if there is a needlework store in the Orlando that is worth a visit? I will be in Orlando next week; not sure if I will have any free time, but if I do.....

3) I'm looking for a copy of the BBD Loose Feathers #1 called Spring's Promise. Anyone interested in selling or loaning their copy?

Thank you for stopping by to visit. To all the mothers out there, I wish you an enjoyable and relaxing Mother's Day tomorrow!

More Framing

Before attending the BBD Spring Fling retreat, I had some of my BBD finishes framed. I wanted to include them in the "show and tell" display. As it turned out, I only took two of them with, but I will share all three of them with you here.

Quaker Garden
Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers #19
Recommended linen and fibers

Special Delivery
Blackbird Designs
GAST fibers
32 ct Lakeside Linen Strawflower

Evergreen
Blackbird Designs - Loose Feathers #17
GAST & WDW fibers
30 ct R&R Iced Cappuccino

Finally, some answers to your questions --

Margaret asked why there was no house in the 4th Anniversaries of the Heart block. Don't worry, there will be; the house just hadn't been stitched yet on the piece that Alma shared with us.

Kim asked why there was a big gap between blocks 2 and 3. There are going to be some bonus charts later this year and one of the bonus charts will go in that spot.

One last photo before I go...here's a close up of the sachet that I stitched.

Hope you had a nice weekend! I'm off to my stitching chair now...