Wednesday, October 21, 2009

My First Design

No, that's not totally accurate. This is the first design I have published. It's titled Tea Stack Bookmark. You are free to copy for your personal use but please do not sell as a chart or kit.

Tonight, I am going to stitching the model of the bookmark and will upload a pix when I am done.

My inspiration for Tea Stack came from my sister Claire. I had designed a coffee themed bookmark last year. She made the comment that I should make one for tea drinkers like her. Thus, this one is for Claire.






Monday, October 19, 2009

It's been a while...

It's been a while since I last posted. The fair had two days of excessive rain and three days of sunshine and heat. But the people did come. I enjoy my time spent in the Grange booth, tellingn people about the benefits of Grange membership. I get to meet a lot of very nice people.

The State Grange session was on the 1st, 2nd, and 3d of October. Bill and I stayed at the session. We had an enjoyable time even though I was fatigued.

Good news! Good news! My knight coaster won third place in the Harvest of Handicrafts contest. It is a cross stitch piece that started life as a small $1.97 hanger kit from Wal-marts which I mounted into a coaster frame. I now need to stitch three more of the knights or perhaps I can find other knightly charts to make up the coaster set. Hmmmmm.

I can't believe that my younger grand-daughter will be turning 1 year in a month's time. It seems only yeaterday, we were worrying about her as she laid in the neo-natal unit at Women & Infants. Now she is a rambuncious curlytop full of smiles.

KC's older sister is now 4 and taking dance classes. JMC is so full of energy and Fancy Nancyness. I think JMC would change her outfit at the drop of a pin. She loves being a princess. Of course Grammy helps by knitting boas and etc.

What I have Stitching: I am still knitting a bag during my Needles & Hooks group. I have a core group of 5 people attending every Tuesday noon. I am X-stitching several small items for my exchanges for the various yahoo groups I belong to. My Monopoly board will be picked up again for regular stitching time after Christmas. I also have a couple of SAL's which I am undertaking. One is a small Biscounu for my NEXstitchers@yahoogroups. The other is a weekly SAL that I am just beginning at Friendlystitchers.

My turn to enable. I have to tell you all about Brooke Nolan who designs the cutest and most beautiful cross stitch figures. Her latest set which is Dicken"s Christmas Spirits. I particularly love The Spirit of Christmas Past because she looks a bit like a young girl dressed up to portray Saint Lucia on Saint Lucia's Day in Sweden. When I first saw this I thought of my Swedish ancestors and now have this design on my very long wish list. Please stop by her site and check out all of her lovely designs: http://brookesbooks.com/

I have been enabled by the best of them and it seems my stash and to-do list is just expanding out of control but I wouldn't have it any other way. One of these days, I know I will have all the time in the world to stitch and then it will end because of arthritis or my lupus; until then I WILL stitch onward. Stitching is my meditation and serenity in a world of confusion and pain.

I have designed another bookmark which after I fine tune it, I will be publishing here. So stay tuned for it.