Taking It One Day at a Time........762

 Not much stitching has been accomplished over the last 10 days...life has gotten in the way. My Mom fell on 7/11 and broke her hip. It was replaced and she was in the hospital for 6 days, then moved to a rehab facility. My Dad is pretty helpless, pretty much due to my Mom waiting on him all his life. So, my two brothers, Rich and I are taking turns staying with him. It's a small apartment and we slept five nights on an air mattress...more to come! :) We're doing long stretches since it's a 3 1/2-4 hour drive for us, one way. 

My Mom is in good spirits most days, but is anxious to get on the move and go home. She's a tough cookie!!!

Stitching there is not ideal, but I took my very old Visual Mate and was able to work on a gift for a friend and Santa's Delivery #2. I can't share the gift, but here is Santa:

He's stitched on white 18 ct. perforated paper that I colored black with a sharpie.

Since I've been home, I've been working on a piece or an exchange I'm in with a fall theme. This is by Milady's Needle.

I also was able to take my Zoom class this past Saturday with Beth Seal of Summer House Stitche Workes. This was a fun class and we made the paper flower topper and wax holder in class. I had my pre-stitching done, so was able to finish all the pieces on Sunday. This is the The Golden Apiary .

Not sure what the next few weeks few weeks will hold, but counting on my needlework to get me through. Thanks for stopping by and your "twisted threads" of friendship!

Stasi 

Surviving the Heat Wave.......759-761

 It has been a HOT summer!!! We finally had some rain on the 4th, but it didn't last long. We've been watering plants daily and it's getting old. On the upside, lots of stitching and finishing has been going on. We went to NC to visit Rich's brothers, one lives in Wilmington and one was flying in form TX. Sadly, the TX brother and his wife arrived with Covid and wound up spending their time in a hotel room for three days. We only spent a short time with them, while they confirmed with a test, but my other SIL and BIL wound up getting it. Somehow, we miraculously didn't!!! We still managed to enjoy our time there. A cousin of mine took us out on her boat for a ride up the Intercoastal and we did make it to the beach one day where we met up with my younger daughter and family, who were vacationing in the area. We had  a blast with Jax playing in the waves. Here is a shot of him in his swim wear!!!

Now on to some needlework. My friend, Lisa, gave me one of the SB mini bags and chart. Can you guess which one???

You got it...Buzz!!! A quick and fun stitch, that is pre-finished, so when you're done, you're done. And speaking of bees, check out this pair of boxes I found in the clearance section at Home Goods!

I finished the 1889 Alphabets,  by Needlework Press, piece on a spool...another quick and easy finish! I did this on a 28 ct. banding with Vikki Clayton silks. I decided to coffee stain the piece after I stitched it to make it look more vintage. I changed the last name to my grandmothers since this was a Czech sampler and my maternal great grandparents were from Czechoslovakia. I could leave the initials as my grandmothers were AM; I also changed the date to the year my grandmother was born. 

 

I also finished Fauna, The Fairy Witch, by Brookes Books. I did leave off her hat though, since I liked the white hair. This is my July ornament for the #12in24ornamentsal. I just love her!!!

Now, some WIPs.... I finished the stitching for an upcoming Zoom class with Beth from Summer House Stitche Workes. This will be a drum and a pincushion. 

A friend loaned me this chart from Scarlet House; it was a retreat piece and hopefully will be available to shops at some point. 

I put some time in on these two:

Live on Little by Plum Street

Bristol Green by Dutch Treat Designs

And, finally, I made 7 pillowcases for the charity, Beds for Sleepyheads, from Stitch Con and mailed them off to Keepsakes.

 

Now it is off to JoAnn's and Costco before it gets too hot. I hope you are staying cool, if you're experiencing this heat wave, and enjoying nicer weather if you are not. Thankfully we can stitch in climate controlled environments. How did we ever do it before A/C???

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

Stasi

Recent Finishes and Finds......755-758

 Greetings.....I thought I'd share some recent finishes today While at StitchCon I finished a piece I am doing for a friend, so can't share that for a bit. Then I started on my project for Stitch Camp with The Colorado Stitcher. Our project for June was to pick a monochromatic design and add a pop of color or take a multi color design and stitch it in one color. I opted for the first and stitched Merry Christmas 2020 from Hello from Liz Matthews. I even got to share my start with Liz herself! I stitched it over one on 29 ct. natural Glenshee linen with Vikki Clayton silks. I added a piece of tiny green chenille around the edges since I was a little "off" on my sizing for the foam core. It was the perfect size for a little stand I had gotten after Christmas one year.

Speaking of cross sticth camp, here is my camp badge added to my camp project bag. It's the one on the left, center. 

I FFO'd this piece at the end of May......One Nation by Samplers Not Forgotten. This was a club kit I bought from a friend.  It was stitched on 40 ct WDW Beige with WDW fibers. I changed up the panel on the left by substituting a section from A Primitive Hare Chart, Patriotic Queen of the Needle.  

    This project was received by it's recipient, so I can now share, A Second Helping of Strawberry Sweeties by Wendy KC Designs. This was stitched on 32 ct. flax linen with Belle Soie silks and Petite Treasure Braid.

I've been working on my fairy witch, Fauna by Brookes Books. and have the stitching complete. I now have to finish her. I am not doing her hat as it covers most of her white hair. I had so much trouble reading this chart and accidently reversed some colors, but I think she turned out wonderfully. She reminds me of Galadriel in Lord of the Rings. 

On to my finds while antiquing..... Lisa saw this necklace and pointed it out to me...had to come home with me...as did the tiny thimble.

Misc. finds at good prices

I love alphabets and stitching alphabets. I found this cool box of ribbons, one roll with each letter of the alphabet...26 in all, of course!!! I loved the box and took it off the shelf. All the spools proceeded to spill out and roll all around the floor; I was scrambling to scoop them all up. The holes in the sides of the box, 13 on each side, allow the ribbon to pass through to the outside. I'm not sure how "vintage" this is, but I had never seen anything like it.

My favorite find was this signed print by Catherine Grunewald. There was some damage to the mats a tiny section of the print that I think I can press out. She was very popular back in the late 90's and I bought a few of her prints then. I just googled her and she passed in 2021. I will remove the mats and reframe.  It's a small poster size and was only $25!!! Couldn't resist!

Well, that's it for today. We start watching 2 of our grand kids today and the next 5 days. Half of them are on their way to a baseball tournament in Atlanta and the other two had obligations here. We'll be back and forth between our houses as they're only 5 minutes way.

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

Stasi

 

Stitch Con 2024 Recap........754

 

It is hard to even start recounting my experience at Stitch Con, but I've been home a week now and thought it was time. This post will be photo heavy, but I hope it will give a you a "feel" of what it was like. 

My friend, Lisa, and I started our drive to Dayton, OH on Saturday June 1st. It took around 9 1/2 hours with stops for breaks and lunch. We spent the night at a friends house then split up the next day. Lisa went to a mutual friends lake house and I drove down to Cincinnati to visit a few of my friends and my old neighborhood. We met back up Wednesday and checked into our hotel near the Sharonville Convention Center. I won't bore you with the details but our hotel experience was less than satisfactory!!!

Thursday morning we were up early and headed to the convention center to stand in line. Stitch Con officially opens at 10:00AM but people were lined up starting at 7:00AM. One of our table mates got their around 7:30 to assure we had a table where we could all sit together...it worked!!!

Everything was very organized and we landed at our table by around 10:30. Keep in  mind , there were over 330 people there!!! 

We each received a goodie bag upon entry from Keepsakes and a make it take it (scissor fob/zipper pull kit) when leaving.

I had a great group of tablemates.....4 out of 6 are floss tubers....Shellie @antiqueneedleworkers, Kari @tiger.lily.designs, Lisa @ladyhuzzahpresents and Sally @SallySallyStitchesAnd

 L to R: Jenn, Shellie, Kari,Lisa, Sally and moi

Our table was filled with projects, snacks, gifts etc..

The room started filling up quickly...

....and I have to admit, it was quite overwhelming and LOUD!!! I did have trouble hearing my tablemates across the way and tried to do a lot of lip reading.

There were flags you could put on your table if you had open spaces for those attending alone. This was a great idea!!!

Along the wall, for about 1/3 of the room were set up brag tables where you could share some of your work. This is just a small section!

 I took these two pieces to share:

There was an area where you could try Q-snaps and a few lamps.

And a freebie section where you could drop off and charts you no longer wanted and perhaps find a treasure or two. 

They had photo op spots set up to create memories....

Then, there was the Annex!!!! A separate room set up with 47...yes I said 47 trunk shows. There was fabric, fibers, accoutrements and charts, charts and charts!!!

If you couldn't shop yourself out at the Annex, the Stitchy Bus would take you to the physical store, Keepsakes to shop some more. Keepsakes is located in a sweet house and is jam packed with all the goodies...definitely worth the drive over. 

I participated in the smalls exchange on Friday. We all got a chip when we arrived and depending on the color, red, white or blue, that was the group we were assigned. I was red and went Friday afternoon at 2:00. 

Very hard to choose a bag!!!

This is what I made for the exchange:

Porcupine Bag and Scissor Fob by Handwork

My recipient, Jan.

This is what I received......

......from Tara......

My partner was a younger stitcher...waaaay younger than me...and was so excited to give me my gift! I always wanted to do one of these Lila's Studios Easter designs...and now I have one!!!

I'm going to insert here how thrilled I was to see so many younger stitchers in attendance. They are the next generation of stitchers and we need to support them and keep this craft ,we are all so passionate about, going!!!

Then there was Barb's charity for the year. we had a speaker one night about it who was just a delight!

The charity is called Beds for Sleepyheads and we were raising money to buy beds for children and adults who are currently sleeping on floors and such.

There were baskets for a raffle......

....and an auction the last evening. It was incredible how much money was raised!!!! It costs approximately $250 each to provide a bed (headboard, mattress and box spring). Enough money was raised weekend A to buy about 126 beds. I just saw on FB that Weekend B beat that and over $70,000 total was raised between the two weekends!!!  That's a LOT of beds!!!  The lady from the charity told us about one of their clients who did not have a bed to sleep in. She asked what she did for a living....she was a barista at Starbucks. So when you think about it, we're there buying expensive coffee drinks and the person waiting on you can't afford a bed to sleep in at night. I've always known stitchers to be generous, but this was astounding....and obviously needed!!!

The there were the gifts!!!! I can't believe all that I came home with from project bags to needle minders to counting pins to stickers to scissor fobs...and it goes on. I am not going to post photos of all that, but let me assure you, it was amazing...and fun. I made up about 160 things to give away, but some people had something for everyone there. I thought I had taken a photo, but must not have. But I gave people a pick up stick along with a twizzler like candy in a cellophane bag. I printed labels that said "pick me up and I'll help you stuff". They can use to help push out there corners in a ;pincushion or pillow. 

Here are the special gifts I received from my tablemates...sorry it's a bit hard to see but there were project bags, an ornament, a pincushion, a spool, re fibers and trim, a sticker, waxer, scissors and candy. If I forgot something, I apologize.

Here was my table gift....I found these at an antique store, but they had never been used. I'm assuming vintage product that had just been sitting around somewhere. Anyway, I had seen where people clean up old glass oil bottles, fill them with crushed walnut shells and then 'pour' into your project opening in a pillow or pincushion. I always feared it would be hard to get all the oil residue out, so these "virgin" bottles were perfect. I made a tall skinny bag out of a fat quarter and put the bottles, half full of the lizard litter, in them. The walnut shells are always a mess and I'm hoping this makes it a lot easier/tidier.

Wow, this IS really getting long...I will close with some fun photos from the photo op spots.

This is Martha in the middle and we are all holding floss cards she made with a photo from a gift she received from our dear friend, Robin in VA

We met up with Ruth, a fellow member of the DVHSG

The last night we were able to meet up with two friends, who happened to be in Cincinnati with ladies that had met at another retreat last year. We enjoyed dinner at The Montgomery Inn...hence the bibs for the lip smacking BarBQ sauce...and made four new friends to boot!!!

My travel buddy, Lisa

I'm going to close and call it a day, but not without thanking Barb, Steph and crew for an amazing time. I had told Lisa early on, this was probably my one and done Stitch Con, but now that I'm reliving the wonderful experience, I may have to amend that. If you have any inclination to go in the future...DO...it will be a weekend you'll never forget.

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

Stasi   Whew...this one wore me out!!!!

PS I did get stitching done, but that will have to wait for another day....please check back!