I'm telling you it's getting harder and harder for me to make it through the events. And it takes longer to recover...darn getting old is taking a toll on me. I've been exhausted all day, but I can't seem to just lay down and sleep. So I've decided to blog instead. The weekend was wonderful, fabulous, and I just can't say enough about the fabulous designers but the attendees as well. It was a great group of stitchers, Everett (the only brave male attendee) and 68 women, so it was a bit busy, but everyone I saw had a smile on their face the entire time as they ran by, either to go to class, go to lunch, go to dinner or get to the reception. So a big Thank You to all the stitchers who came to the event. We really appreciate your traveling, leaving your family, to spend the weekend with us. And of course a big Thank you to Cathy, Janice and Vicky for bringing such fun and wonderful projects for the attendees. The projects were great...Janice, Noteworthy Needle... prepped the pumpkins so the stitchers could hit the ground running on that project and I am fascinated with this project. Janice left the Salty Yarns pumpkin, she asked if we wanted her to take it home to finish, but of course, I said NO, I want to do it. Unfortunately, I left it in the car by mistake and I'm too tired at the moment to go retrieve it...but after a short rest, I'm going to get it so you know I'll be working on it tonight. I've already told Sara I want to do several. And Sara gave me the kit to do the 3 new Halloween designs to go with the Apothecary Series I already stitched and finished so I'll be trying to get them done before the 31st. as well. Can't wait to get to work on this stuff. And with CA Wells Memorial weekend coming up I told Debbie, Stasi Buhrman, Stacy Stinson, hell, everyone bring a pumpkin since I have one of the drills and we can punch the holes and stitch these pumpkins on and off all weekend. I say on and off as I'm told your fingers get tired and you have to take breaks. But let's face it there isn't that much stitching to do and the holes take pearl cotton, so I expect this to go fairly quickly. If it's anything like the last projects I had, that will not happen. In the last blog I blogged about the 2 kits I was forced to design (yes, I was forced-and it was my own fault- so I had to force myself). While I had finished the stitching on Friday, Saturday morning I was packaging the kits, with the help of Brian and Vernon, so I made the deadline but never again people. I've never liked the designing part of counted work, and this just reminded me of that. But here are the two designs...
This was "The Gang's All Here" designed to go on the top of one of the tin boxes I've been going on about. So the design is 2" X 2" and fits on a tin box, stitched over 1 with 1 thread on 32 ct. PTP Pampus linen. I finished it with black chenille around the design. The 2nd design had to be different in size due to the fact the original tin box was discontinued. This required!a lot more design, ugh!
This was called, "Pumpkins for Sale" and it too was stitched on 32 ct. Pampus PTP linen over 1 thread using 1 strand. I cannot tell you how relieved I was after getting them to the stitchers, but I am serious about never having to design again. HATED IT! My theory has always been that I don't need to design my own as I love what is being designed by others and wouldn't be able to think of anything greater than that. Glad I'm done with that. Since I started the blog I slipped out to the car and here's the result of my pumpkin stitching. Sara and I went to Serendipity Quilt Shop to get some fabric and on the way back stopped at Michael's to get more pumpkins, just in case my order doesn't get here by the weekend. It's going to be a pumpkin palooza at the hotel for CA Wells Memorial Weekend.
While the stitchers enjoyed their pumpkin project, some complained about fingers hurting, and needles bending and breaking. So I had the benefit of watching out for that. These are stitched using the loop method of threading your needle as 2 strands of pearl cotton are needed. I decided to see if I could use just one strand if things would go smoother. And I have to report, for me, they did. I didn't have to tug the needle through the hole as it just slid on through so my fingers weren't sore, no needles broke or were bent. The disadvantage was that I had to go in and out of each hole twice, but frankly I didn't mind because it was easier to stitch. I did find the stitch a bit awkward at first and I tried several different ways to hold on to the pumpkin while I stitched but finally just gave up on that as it's going to take some getting used to when you are sewing on a pumpkin. In the beginning, I also had to look into the pumpkin and find the holes as I couldn't figure it out. I would think the needle was on the hole when I was actually 3-4 holes away. That was frustrating at first, but a few letters in I started to get the hang of it and by the time I got to about the 5th letter I was no longer looking into the pumpkin. It really just requires patience to get used to holding the pumpkin, finding the correct hole and you will be good to go. Now I can't wait to get more pumpkins and create a pumpkin display. Thank God Janice has books to go with this, and not just Halloween but also fall. Fun times ahead stitchers. But before I get more pumpkins I'm back to the 2 Brenda Gervais projects I put on hold before Jamboree to say nothing of the Sampler Santa which I had started. No wonder I don't want to design, I'm too busy trying to stitch what I already have, and couldn't finish these if I lived to be 500. Got to run, stitching to be done. Talk to you soon. Have a wonderful weekend and I hope your needle meets your linen or Aida this week.
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