Needlework Emporium

A quick swing by with a report from my visit yesterday to the 2nd annual Needlework Emporium in Bethesda, MD. It was a 2 1/2 drive, but well worth it! I met two friends from DE/NJ there, one whose blog you may be familiar with, Robin from Crafting with the Stitch Witch, and Stacy S. We spent a couple hours perusing the dozen or so vendors (it was not a large show, but was jam packed with goodies....vintage buttons, trims, linens (hankies, table runners, etc.) pincushions and sewing accessories. Here are some shots of a few booths:

 I picked up a few goodies myself...some (?) bone/ivory  purse handles (which I also thought might work for the top of banding), tiny pearl rectangular buttons, a delicate 'B', some trim and a teeny tiny thread winder.

This vendor had a number of precious hand drawn (colored pencil) drawings that she added buttons to. Stacy S. found this one for me...can you see why???
 

Last, but not least, is this adorable fish pin cushion by Deborah Hartwick .
 This just made me smile every time I looked at it and I thought it quite appropriate since my maiden name is Codd......it even came with the fish bowl and buttons!  She stuffs her pincushions with sawdust and they are  solidly stuffed and have such a nice weight to them. Have a look see at her website by clicking on her name above.

You may want to check out Robin's found treasures on her blog:Crafting with the Stitch Witch

We ate a quick lunch at Balducci's, a local grocery store that had fabulous sandwiches....then a 2 1/2 drive home , going in different directions. 

It was a busy day, because last evening we went out to dinner at a Hibachi restaurant to celebrate my daughter's birthday. Here is a shot of the group:

 

and the hot milk cake I made for dessert:

 Rich, on his own, had done a 9 mile hike, so it was early to bed for us!!!

Thanks for stopping by and your "twisted threads" of friendship!

Stasi

Recap of Catherine Theron Weekend and Stroll Addition.....497

Another great weekend was had at Salty Yarns, my home away from home. I am so lucky to have these opportunities for wonderful classes within a fairly easy driving distance. I held off driving up on Thursday because the rains were so heavy here at home and gale force winds in Ocean City. I left at 7:00Am Friday and had an uneventful drive, making it there in time for a nice lunch with some of the ladies. Friday evening Sara had a reception for us at her place with yummy appetizers and desserts. We also received our goodie bag and it was a whopper, as usual....lots of finishing supplies, a small cutting board and ruler, an adorable needle threader from Puffin & Co. and even a tiny humbug kit....we are so spoiled!!!! And take note of those fun band-aids!!!

Saturday morning was the first class that went from 9:30-3:30 with a lunch ( provided by Salty Yarns) break. We did some basting, started a little stitching and went over finishing instructions. Catherine is a very good and laid back teacher! There was an evening stitch in and show 'n tell accompanied by delicious desserts. Sunday's class ran the same time and before you knew it the weekend was over. I drove home Monday morning and back to reality!!! 😉 (class pictures were shown in my previous post)

Of course, there was a lot of shopping going on after class and I succumbed to some stash enhancementl!!! I bought my Nashville requests and then some. Bad Stasi...bad Stasi!!! Here's my haul:

Two charts from The Blue Flower (I bought a third as a I gift but it's in the mail) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really like this new designer and the saying on The Color of Winter "The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination". I'm a fall/winter girl!!!

A Plum Street, couple Little House and Teresa Kogut

I also loved the saying on the Plum Street chart "He is a gentleman, and I am a gentleman's daughter. So far we are equal."

A Mani di Donna, Shakespeare's Peddlar,and two Jeanette Douglas

A cute corner gauge, hornbook and silk floss

I am definitely a chart collector, aren't I ????

On the sewing front, I have my SAl all caught up:

And I've been working on the Quilting Bee:

 

My stroll addition is the birth sampler I made for my older daughter. Her birthday was the other day and she turned 41...can I possibly be that old??? I never had the time to do a birth sampler when my girls were young, so they were each gifted one on their 18th birthdays. Here is Roots and Wings Birth Sampler  by Pat Rogers. I had never officially added this to my stroll because my daughter can't put her finger on where it is, but I recently came across a hard copy photo of it. You can see my younger daughter's sampler here: Jess Birth Sampler

Spring is visiting today and I have a window open; it feels lovely! I am driving tomorrow to Bethesda, MD to go to The Needlework Emporium
 I am meeting a couple friends and will report when I get back. Hoping to see some great needlework accessories and, perhaps, find a treasure or two or three....we'll see!!! :)

Thanks for stopping by and your "twisted threads" of friendship!

Stasi


 

Rainy Day Blogging.....

It's a very rainy day here but, thankfully, we aren't dealing with the massive flooding in the midwest. My heart goes out to all those affected by rising rivers and  levee breaks; I can't imagine the loss and wish safety to all. Seems odd to now segue to stitching but here goes: 

I have been doing a lot of stitching in the evenings while binging on Project Runway All Stars. Somehow I had missed that starting in January and had a little trouble finding the past episodes. I finally was able to get them via my Roku on the Lifetime channel, but it was 11 episodes with ads streaming ever so slowly throughout the shows. I am finally caught up and can watch it on regular TV. This season is it all past winners so it's been pretty exciting!!! 

Anyway, on to the stitching..... I had to start Quilting Bee by Blue Flower and am almost finished the bee...just one wing to fill in. I changed the fibers to some silks (one strand over two threads) I had on hand and the fabric to 40 count Meadow Mist Newcastle. It's a pale blue rather than the goldish brown the original was stitched on. Sorry pictures aren't too good, but it is very dark and overcast.

I also have been keeping up with my iStitch SAL....5 weeks complete:

And I started and finished stitching  a sweet little design that Vickie (A Stitcher's Story) had passed on to me. Our friend, Robin in VA, had sent Vickie some charts and Vickie had forwarded me a couple she thought I'd like...and I did! So thanks to both Vickie and Robin for Spring Frolic by Homespun Elegance.  I changed out the fabric and opted for a dark green rather than the original dark blue that was called for. I also switched the DMC threads to over dyes and added a tiny pearl button for the tail.

I have my Guild meeting this afternoon and then I'm off to OCMD for a weekend of classes with Catherine Theron at Salty Yarns. Today at VGN we are having a needlepoint class, taught by one of our members. It's a strawberry scissor case by Margery Williams. 




The two Catherine Theron classes I'm taking are:

Quaker Scissor Pocket

Americana Sewing roll

 I am all packed and ready to go....just hoping the rain cooperates and my 4 1/2 hour drive doesn't turn into something much longer. I have my books on CD to keep me company, but a REAL person would be so much more desirable!!!

Thanks for stopping by nd your "twisted threads" of friendship!

Stasi
PS. I am on Instagram now as bee_stitcher.....come pay me a visit!!!

A Few Stitch Finishes and an add to the Stitch Stroll....(496)

Greetings...how are things in your neck of the woods? Weather is still crazy here...temps up and down..lots of dreary days, but the sun is shining this afternoon and feeling like spring is just around the corner.

I had a relaxing weekend with my brother and sister-in-law. They drove down from Baltimore to attend the Banff film festival with us for two nights 
(Rich and I went all three), but we mainly hung out and chatted all weekend. Nothing on the stitching front while they were here...sadly they just don't get it!!!

I do, however, have a few things to share. First up is my Stitch Stroll addition,  a gift  for the couple that hosted our Disney trip. I took the logo they had printed on our tee shirts and  made an ornament. I found an outline for Mickey Mouse ears, graphed it out and then filled in with the colored circles. Here is the tee shirt:

And here is the ornament: 

Here's a little tip I may have shared before but the cardboard coasters you get in restaurants work great for mounting ornaments!!!

Next up are some stitch finishes which will be added to the ever growing finish-finishing pile!!! I really need to set aside a day soon to get these done.

This is the band for the Blackbird Designs Merry Christmas. (see post on Feb.7 for top piece) I'm figuring I will have to add some stitching, as I go,  to make this fit around the top piece.

Here is Summer Schoolhouse #4 by WTNT ...pincushion, hornbook and strawberry.

Next is January from A Year of Celebrations by Hands on Design. Now this series has had a major overhaul. I had started by stitching March on 18 count linen, over two, and I just didn't like it. It seemed too big for the cigar box (see post on Feb.10) and I don't enjoy working on that large count linen. So, I had been chatting with Meg from Live to Stitch and she mentioned how her friends stitched on perforated paper in the car. DUH!!! Hadn't I just completed 48 calendar pieces for my Samsarah calendar....in the car....on 14 count perforated paper??? How quickly we forget!!! So, I ran and figured out the size on the paper... and I like it much better. I can still stitch it in the car, which I did to and from Nashville. I had high hopes of getting most of the 12 completed on the long drive, but managed 1 3/4! :) The downside is I have to fill in the background, but I actually think it looks pretty darn cute. What do you think? Here is the original version and the new version, side by side:

I'll be doing March over on the perforated paper.

I am all caught up on my Amethyst Sampler BAnd SAL with iStitch Designs. I chose to do this one in greens and am using Glorianna Blue Grass and Avonlea Green.

I made a little error in counting with the box on the left and added some tiny bees above the urn. That caused an issue with the box on the right, so I added the row of numbers at the bottom of the alphabet. The alphabet on the right I will worry about when it ends but will probably add a heart motif. 

Finally is my newest start, A Stitch in Time by WTNT. I love the colors in this and am using the called for fibers. I'm also using the called for fabric, 35 count Gunmetal linen by WDW (it's much more grey in person).

So that's what's happening in my neck of the woods. Hope you have a good week and thanks for stopping by and your "twisted threads" of friendship!

Stasi
 

The Nashville Experience....

Greetings friends!!! I am home from my travels to the Nashville Needlework Market  and pumped about all the new designs/designers that I saw there. I am so grateful to Sara and Sally for asking me to help out this year and making it such a special experience for me. It was such fun to reconnect with old friends and meet new designers; it's a LOT of eye candy to take in and becomes a bit of a blur after 3 days, but so inspiring!!!  There were 130+ designers/vendors exhibiting over four floors of hotel rooms.

Here is how it works for those who don't know. This is a wholesale show, open only to shop owners. It is held in an Embassy Suites because of their great set up. Their rooms all go around the perimeter of a large atrium and each designer has a suite. They usually sleep and have extra stock in the bedroom section and set up their wares/displays in the front area. Most have banners that are hung on the railings letting you know where they are located.

Sorry, the banners are so hard to read!

 There are classes on Friday for attendees then some early bird shopping Friday evening (some designers will open Friday night but not  the majority). Saturday the shopping begins in earnest with some shop owners standing in line to be the first to get new designs or limited editions. This is a sticky point for a lot of shop owners because you can't be in 10 different places at once, but it seemed there weren't a lot of these this year and if the designer ran out, you could still order and get them sent later. Sunday, shopping continues until the show closes at 4:00. I accompanied Sara on the floors, then ran the items up to Sally, in her room,  for pricing when our pull cart got full. 

I brought home a few things, but will pick most up in two weeks when I go to Salty Yarns for  Catherine Theron's weekend. Sally and Sara gifted me these as a thank you:

 I picked up a few spools of vintage seam binding from Kathy Barrick and some Glorianna silk floss, which I'm thinking may be for my next iStitch SAL. 

Since some of you were interested in what caught my eye there, here are the items I ordered from Sara:

 

 

Little Cabin in the Pines by Thistles

 

Autumn Acorns by The Blue Flower

Harvest Hymn by The Blue Flower

The Color of Winter by The Blue Flower (I love this saying)

  So, I guess you can tell I was taken with a new designer, The Blue Flower. I really liked her pieces and hope to see more of them in the future.  

I did forget to mention the excitement we had Wednesday evening. I had just fallen asleep, and it must have been a deep sleep, because I nearly jumped out of my bed when I heard an alarm going off. At first I thought it was my phone waking me up but started to hear a voice saying "this is an emergency, please leave your room and evacuate the building immediately.  So, I had the sense to put on my shoes, grab my coat and purse and head out in the hall. Sara was already there and trying to reach the front desk  to alert them we had Sally in a wheelchair and couldn't get her down the steps ( we were on the 7th floor). So we, as well as many others, were hanging over the railings trying to see what the heck was going on!!!   Sally, with her usual wit, stated she couldn't go anywhere and would go down with the ship!!! Luckily, an all clear quickly came and we could return to our rooms. I'll admit to having a racing heart at that point and a bit of trouble falling back to sleep. Turns out an employee had accidentally set the alarm of; we heard the fire department was not too happy! 

Hope you're all checking websites to see all the new goodies from Market. It takes a lot of work , both pre, during and after market, for these designers to get their work to us. We need to support them, and the shops, as much as possible so we can continue to reap the benefits of their talent.

Thanks for stopping by and your "twisted threads" of friendship!

Stasi

Nashville Market

My official badge...I even still had my badge holder from years ago

Dropping by with a quick post from Nashville...actually we are in Franklin, TN. Sally and Sara picked me up Tuesday afternoon and we drove a few hours then stopped for the night. We arrived at out hotel in Nashville Wednesday afternoon and settled in...just a few designers at that point. Thursday the designers and shop owners started rolling in throughout the day. Sara and I went out to lunch at a cute little place called the Puffy Muffin, where I had the most delicious ginger iced tea. Then we went to a spice shop in Franklin, but mostly we've been sitting and stitching.
Today The designers will continue to set up their rooms and we can do some early bird shopping tonight. Tomorrow is when the REAL shopping commences. Here are some photos I've taken so far:

My room at the Embassy Suites

Nice little stitching area

Designer banners hanging from the balconies in the atrium

The show bible ( this has all the pertinent info as to what floors/rooms designers are in)

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for stopping by and your "twisted threads" of friendship!

Stasi