Guilt Trip

Have you ever taken a class only to put the project aside in the closet where it languishes sight unseen once the class is over?

Better yet, have you ever traveled to another city to take a class with a needlepoint goddess (aka Susan Portra) and abandoned THAT project?

Here I am to confess and feel guilty about both.  We traveled to Needlepoint in Paradise in February 2012 flush with excitement about meeting Susan and getting her input on our canvases.  I took my birds  and got some great ideas on how to start and then be able to FINISH the canvas.  Fortunately, I typed up my notes when I got home so I do have some direction today.

Why did it come out of the closet?  WE ARE GOING BACK!  That's where the guilt comes in....

We each have a new canvas for her to advise on and I thought .... what if I have a question about the birds?  How would I even know if I haven't worked on them?  So now the birds have come to the front of the pile so to speak.  It's actually not too bad when you break it up into it's component parts.  There are branches, leaves, vines, flowers and birds and I have a plan for each of those areas.  The branches are all tent stitched following the direction the branch is going in.  The big leaves are two different versions of reverse basketweave.  The flowers have their own stitches...french knots, tent, diagonal satin.  And the birds are all different.

I also have guilt staring me in the face at my desk...with Susan's handwriting on the wall so to speak :)

I've got all summer to work on them and plenty of company since all those who went with me to the class are in the same boat!

Happy weekend,

Linda

May Flowers

Happy Memorial Day!

Memorial Day, in addition to being a day to honor those who gave their lives in defense of our country, is the official start of summer.  If you live in Florida, summer started long long ago!  Here is a photo of my latest flower canvas - sweet!  Those bullions were a challenge towards the end.  You need a lot of patience and preferably a padded room when pulling the thread through the needle.  And I do recommend a bullion needle for the long ones.

June first is the start of hurricane season so we will be "watching the tropics" as they say from now until November first.  There is always a long list of items we have to have - why are there no needlepoint supplies on the Channel 7 list :)

Emily and I have been doing our gardening....

Look what we found

It's a harmless scarlet snake, not a coral snake as I first feared.  There is a poem we learned in elementary school...Red touches yellow, dangerous fellow.   Red touches black, friend to Jack.  Do you think I remembered that as I was screaming "DROP IT" in the backyard?  No, I came in the kitchen and immediately googled it!

Emily and I have lost one of our 9 lives over this baby.  And not to be outdone by Vickie's cat photos, here is Emily in her element...she went swimming right after this...

Yes, I have an active puppy :)

Have a great day with the BBQ!

Linda

Boston Strong

Hi everyone,

Sorry I have been away so long....

Here is our third ANG ornament demonstrating the "diaper pattern".  I have tried to do each one in a different color theme and I chose green and gold on white canvas for no other reason than I didn't have any St. Patrick's Day decorations.  Then came the Boston Marathon bombing and I thought how appropriate to name it Boston Strong.

With the deadlines for finishing coming ever earlier each year one needs to look far far ahead and stitch out of the season so to speak.  Sort of like buying bathing suits in January :)

I have two more St. Patrick's day decorations.  This one is from the Happy Heart series - there are 12 hearts, one for each month and some of my friends had them made into a calendar/bulletin board with all 12 hearts, but I'm opting for individual ornaments.

And the best for last, my March angel

with her pot of gold

check out the cool fringe - each one tied separately

I'm on to working on May flowers so off these go to the finisher!

See you soon,

Linda