Royal Palm Chapter Community Outreach Project

Hope and Cure Breast Cancer Canvas

And now, back to stitching...

This is a photo of our first Community Outreach project.  It is a breast cancer canvas designed by our Vice President,  Becky Powell and stitched by 17 of our chapter members.  Check out the detached needleweaving on hope!  Thank you Becky!!  We donated the framed canvas to the Cancer Center at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Miami last year and have stitched another identical one to donate to another center.

We had such a great response from our membership that we decided to take on another project and thankfully Becky agreed to design the stitch guide.

Breast Cancer Awareness Semipostal Stamp

This project is a canvas depicting the breast cancer stamp that was issued in 1998 and is still in existence today. (I checked with The Postal Store online).   It is priced 11 cents higher than the first class rate and the difference is collected by the Post Office and donated to the National Institute of Health for breast cancer research.  To date it has raised over $73 million dollars.  Honestly, until our chapter President bought the canvas and offered it to our chapter as a joint stitching project I did not know about the stamp.

What a wonderful way to contribute to this cause that affects all of us.

Lastly, if you have never been through a hurricane and you are in the path of Irene please take every precaution.    Remember most accidents take place after the storm.  Now I sound like a Public Service Announcement.  Be safe!  Not sorry!  And stitch through a few advisories - it helps!

Linda

Happy Anniversary

Hurricane Andrew

Yes, this is the day everyone in Miami remembers where they were.  I was in my mother's  garage with two horses hoping the roof didn't blow off the house.  Our lives were forever changed by this event and our memories became "before Andrew" and "after Andrew".  Sort of resembles a buzz saw...

Too bad I can't remember my wedding anniversary!

Keep stitching,

Linda

Black Cats and Black Dogs

Duchess

Apparently there are a lot of cat lovers out there who needlepoint.  I am one too - I have 5.  Three of them are black.  They manage to show up and never leave!  Must be the farm life here (we used to have horses).

This blog entry today is dedicated to Duchess our black lab who died suddenly yesterday at the tender age of 15.  Like all obituaries this photo is from 2006  :)

She was a great companion and will be missed.

Linda

Chutes and Ladders or How I Learned to Basketweave

Pischke Pocket

My Pischke Pocket is two Sunday afternoons away from completion now and I can't recommend it enough for a relaxing way to spend the day.  I have enjoyed doing basketweave and as I have been stitching away I thought I would turn it into a review of how to correctly do the stitch.  (I just can't stop).

It's a lot like the Chutes and Ladders game we played as kids.  I live in Miami and was born in the 50s so my family lived through interesting times.  We had a "safe room" attached to our house that was fully equipped with enough to keep us safe during a nuclear event.  Remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and all those ICBMs pointed straight at us?  Well, we were not supposed to take anything out of this room...and my Mom had put some pretty cool games in there for me and my little brother.  So we played in there all the time.  Two of our favorite games were Chutes and Ladders and Parcheesi.  Actually, my most favorite thing to do was to lock him in there in the dark but that's another story (too bad we didn't have glow in the dark thread).

The way you played Chutes and Ladders was to go up the steps and down the ladder.  Little did I know I was learning the correct way to basketweave!  The canvas we typically use now is interlocking threads over and under like a weave.  When the thread on top of the intersection is horizontal (like a step) you are going UP and when the thread on top is vertical (like the rungs of the ladder) you are supposed to go DOWN.  That keeps the front of the canvas looking GOOD!

Now I have to find a way to incorporate Parcheesi into my blog!  (Maybe it's all those rules)

Keep looking up!

Linda

It's All About Me For Now

I have now officially finished my 2011 "HAS to be stitched" list and can take one of those deep yoga breaths.  You know the kind where you close your eyes and hum?

I know I still have plenty of unfinished projects and my Halloween Candies from Ruth will be coming any day, but the real pressure is off.  I have wanted to stitch this little needle case ever since I saw it at the Whimsy and Grace trunk show at Absolutely Needlepoint so I AM GOING TO GIVE IT A WHIRL!

It has a matching scissor case, but lets not push things.  Before you know it we will be having to choose our UFO for ANG and the guilt will start again!

BTW, I hate acronyms and all those people who throw them around while I stand there clueless and nodding my head....but now that I am flying I have a NOTEBOOK full of them.  How about VASI lights?  Now, I thought that was an actual word at first but it stands for Visual Approach Slope Indicator and if I had been in a plane on Sunday it would have been double RED!  I was trying to land on my own and was apparently coming in too fast and too low so had to be rescued by my husband who put us nicely on the ground.  Back to lessons on Wednesday!

Linda

Assisi Embroidery

I am program co-chair for our ANG chapter and we have quite a few cross stitchers in our group.  We decided to do this month's program on Assisi Embroidery.  Assisi stitching is named after Clare of Assisi, the patron saint of needleworkers, and her saint day falls on our meeting date, August 11.  My example is on linen (very small) which I worked under a magnifier.  It is cross stitch with a twist.  Instead of stitching the design (here the initial), you cross stitch the background and the void is the design.  Very sweet.

I have also been practicing flying! And yes it is HOT up there!

Keep looking up....

Linda