Spring and Lavender

Spring is finally here and April is almost over. We have had lots of rain here. Hope everyone had a good Easter.

It's hard to believe that Easter has come and gone. At first it seemed to be so late that I could be so much  Spring/Easter stitching done. The only project I was able to complete was a few tatted crosses. I encluded the in a few Easter cards that I sent out. I wore the small green one to church on Palm Sunday.

 Tatted Cross from Free-tatting.com

sz20 Lizbeth White and sz80 DMC tatting cotton green

I had to tweak the pattern and instructions a bit to match the model but, this was a nice, quick pattern.

My other finish so far this month is another set of smalls, French Lavenders by Jackie du Plessis. This was a gift that I received for Christmas, and I am so excited to have it stitched and assembled.

Thanks for stopping by,

Gwen

December 2013

To say that my posts have fallen by the way side is an understatement. I hope that this post will get me back on track. I have been stitching since our last visit all-be-it very slowly. I have almost made it to the half way mark with Margery Dean. Note well, my goal was to have it done before the end of the year. Not going to happen. Hopefully I will be done by February and that will be my accomplishment for Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year. Keeping my toes crossed. (Need the fingers to stitch and type.) ;-)

In October I finished a piece that had been in the finishing basket for some time. Whine and Weave was an online class of Jackie's. There was much whining while I was weaving but, I did finish. Then came the finishing, for some reason after starting I put it aside. I pulled it out in Oct., and now have a completed project that I am pretty happy with.

In November, I was fortunate to be able to attend the Jackie du Plessis Workshops hosted by Jean at The Attic. The site was great and of course a visit to the store is always a treat.  I will be working on finishing the stitching on Ebony and Ivory in January. I am almost done with the necessarire.

This piece was a treat from Jackie for attending The Unplayed Piano class. It's all stitched and ready to be assembled.

Not much stitching this month. Hope to be back on track after the First of the Year.

Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

Potporri

 I look at the date of my last post and I am amazed that a whole month has past and I didn't make one single, solitary post. I must admit, I have not made as much progress on my current projects as I had planned.

In the past few weeks I did take a couple of classes that I truly enjoyed. The first was Appalachian Spring a counted canvas project with Michael Boren and Carol Lake. I chose the Arabian Nights one of the nine colorways offered.
I just returned from Celebration of Needlework. While there I was able to visit with some friends I had not seen in a quite awhile. We had a great time together. I took 3 classes there Winter White with Eileen Bennett, Vintage Sampler with Julie Norton and A is for Acorn with Jackie du Plessis. Two whitework pieces and a fun Etui. Looking forward to getting those done.

Since our days are getting longer, I should be able to post some pictures by the weekend.

Thanks for stopping by,

Gwen

March: Week 1

Several stitching friends and I,  have signed up for Jackie du Plessis' Class offered by the Shining Needle Society. The project is Rhapsody in Blue. It's a very cute sewing basket, with a pinkeep and strawberry. We are to have the stitching complete and be ready for an online finishing instructions on the 18th. This is my progress so far.












The stitching on 2 of my SL Quaker Pincushions is complete. Yeah!!  I am pretty excited about that. I have 2 more to go, I also need to get going again on Margery, she languished this week. I worked a little filling in the flowers.

Quaker Pincushion
Scarlet Letter









Off to work on some Easter ornaments. Time is running out. Hope you are having a blessed day.
Gwen

Alphabet Finish

My work schedule often puts a dent in my opportunities for stitching. Last week was one of those weeks when not much got done. I did finish stitching the alphabet on the Darning sampler. The group leader recommended stitching the alphabet and numbers before starting the darning patterns, but I'm stitching in a slightly different order. Since finishing the alphabet I have completed the first 2 darning patterns. I don't have an up to date picture but I hope to complete 2 more patterns and have good enough light this weekend to take a decent picture.



The Darning Sampler
Trenner Needleworks


 
This week I started the pre-stitching for a class I will be taking with Jackie du Plessis in June. Looking forward to this class and seeing friends.

Thanks for stopping by,
 Gwen

My Finishing Accessories

Has it really been 2 months? Where oh where does the time go?

In August I attended 2 classes in Atlanta, GA with Jackie du Plessis of It's Fine-ally Finished. The classes were sponsored by The Sampler Guild of Georgia. Jackie taught "Buttons a Bounty" (BAB) and "My Finishing Accessories" (MFA). Both classes focused on the assembly of the project. There was no pre-stitching for BAB so I still have that one to stitch. I took MFA at Celebration of Needlework in 2006 along with 2 other stitching friends, Deb and Carol. This year Stephanie decided to take the class with Jackie in ATL. We, (Deb, Carol and I) decided to pull out our pieces from a year ago and take the finishing again along with Stephanie, and get the job done this time. Thanks to Jackie for the extra prodding, pushing and encouragement. I now have a completed project. Deb and Carol have also finished their projects. We have challenged Steph to have hers done by Oct. when we get together again for ASG in Louisville, KY.