The Easter Tree

It is Easter week and one of our little bunnies

will make it home from college to celebrate, the

other one has to work.  Growing up and getting a

job can put such a glitch in your plans for fun...

Today I gathered some branches from the crab

apple tree in the front garden and collected some

of my embroidered ornaments, some decorated 

eggs, some mini blue Christmas balls, a few wreaths

I made as a young bride many years ago and some

prisms from old chandeliers and decorated a tree for 

our dining room table.  Mr. Wonderful  and I rarely

eat in the dining room nowadays, the table seems

too big and empty with just the two of us.  We put 

a smaller table in our family room ~ another sign

of our empty nest honeymoon cottage.

Though it was chilly this morning and we still had

frost, it has turned into a beautiful Spring day.  The

windows in the studio are open and a gentle breeze 

is floating in.  I was able to go out on a hike today

and met up with this beauty.

Yesterday Mr. Wonderful took me out to lunch 

at our new favorite Indian restaurant.

It is close to Trader Joe's so when we eat there

we always stop at TJ's and find something

special.

I left with armloads of flowers and filled the

house with blooms.  For now, we will still have

to buy our flowers but from the look of the 

daffodil bulbs that I divided last Fall, we should 

have a bumper crop in a few weeks.

That's ME! ~ In the Land of Wonder, the Land Down Under

What a way to warm up a frosty day in the

American Midwest.  A copy of Australian

Patchwork and Quilting arrived from all the

way on the other side of the world.  AND, it

has an article about me and my book.  Oh,

thank you so much Australia ~ I can't wait 

to finally get to see you next summer.

I apologize if the photos are a bit blurry

but I admit I was a bit teary when I was

taking the pictures.  It was a mix of happy

and sad tears.  You see, the article talks

about how my Mum encouraged my 

interest in embroidery and our trips to the 

Five and Ten store where I would always 

want to buy embroidery floss while other

little girls were buying paper dolls and candy.

So, I sat down and had a big boo hoo.  We miss

our sweet girl so very much... But I know she 

would have loved this article, after all, it's why

she encouraged my interest in crafts all those

years ago.

Thank you so much Ally!  I love it!

Quilter's Holiday Extravaganza

 

Friday morning (11/22) I will be at the

Quilter's Holiday Extravaganza in Columbus, Indiana.

 

http://www.quiltersholidayextravaganza.com/

 

 

I will be demonstrating how to make my felt

ornaments in The Quilt Shoppe's booth.

Come by and say hello.

Present Perfect: Handcarved Indian Woodblock

 

This is a present I gave myself and

I plan to give myself many more...

 

They are made for printing designs onto

fabric or paper.  I often see blocks like

this on my travels but I don't buy them

since I'm generally throwing my luggage

onto trains, boats, tuk-tuks, planes and

other assorted modes of transport and

I was afraid they would chip or break.

Since this trip I only had to get home

from Houston, I finally bought one!

 

And... it is a Paisley/Persian Pickle/Welsh

Pear design which is one of my favorite

design elements of all time.  I plan to print

it onto fabric and add additional embroidery.

 

And... these woodblocks are handcarved by

families in India and the income from the

blocks being sold in Europe and the USA 

has helped 40 families earn enough money

to get electricity in their homes and pay for

their children to attend school ~ and that

is a great thing!  Here is the link to where

you can purchase them:

 

http://www.splintersandthreads.com/wooden-printing-blocks

 

I think this will become my new travel

project.  It will be something I do for me.

The presents multiply...

 

Me Time ~ July 2, 2013

 

 

Spent some time with my friends at Me Time

today.  I was working on some samples for my

Quilt Market booth.

 

A Birthday Girl was making bracelets.

 

 

Someone was transferring a design.

 

 

Someone was binding a tablerunner.

 

 

July is a big birthday month.  I love my friends

but I worry I neglect them, my life gets so busy

and I run out of time to have fun...  I'm going

to work on that ~ my friends mean the world

to me!

 

 

...and then we had cupcakes.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

 

Most of us quilt/craft designers are small

business owners and often it is a one person

operation.  So that means we work all the time...

While on "vacation" in Europe recently I was

stitching away on trains.

 

 

I place each separate project in a small

Ziploc with the precut fabric pieces and

a photo of the finished piece to show

placement of the embroidery. 

I have made a travel embroidery kit as

shown on the right which is a metal ring

with a plastic container that used to hold

beads and I roll up a small piece of felt with

pins and needles and place that inside it.  A

collection of floss on plastic floss cards and

a thread cutter.  This has traveled all over the

world and it all goes through security just fine.

 

 

This is a bigger kit that I use for car trips,

Me Time and Guild meetings.

 

 

I bet many designers on their way to

International Quilt Market are still

putting those last stitches in a binding

while in transit.  I know I have been

guilty of that...

 

 

That is how my car ended up with what

we call the Voodoo Visor.  Even if it is

really sunny, my son refuses to put this

visor down, he says it creeps him out

too much.

 

Stitching out in public in the far corners of

the world can also bring rewards as shown here:

 

http://americanhomestead.blogspot.com/2011/08/me-time-august-16-2011.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me Time ~ April 2, 2013

 

The sun was shining and the temperature was

over 30 degrees ~ finally.  So, I made it to Me Time

today after a winter of hibernation.

 

 

I'm still working on projects for future

publication so I can't show them yet.

 

 

But I thought you might like to see some

of the projects that have kept someone else's

fingers busy through the long winter months.

 

 

It has been a very long winter this year.

Let's hope for a nice Spring!

 

 

I bought some Lily of the Valley plants today,

they have been one of my favorites since I was

a little girl.  I hope to start getting some of the

perennial beds prepared this weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Happy Mistake

 

This week our cable company is having a

Watchathon.  Since we don't have any premium

channels, we have been spending many hours in

front of the tv, watching all of the "new to us" shows.

 

I have been keeping busy as we watch, I have been

doing a lot of hand embroidery for a future project.

 

Doing all of this embroidery reminded me of this

box of cards I bought for a dime, a few decades ago

at a rummage sale.  I loved that each card contained

a packet of seeds.

 

 

It wasn't until I got home and opened it and realized

it didn't have any cards but was filled with this

collection of vintage embroidery transfers.  I love

to think of a time when it was common for people

to embroider on their aprons, dishtowels, etc.

 

Me Time ~ August 14, 2012

We all had a great time at Me Time today!

We worked and laughed and we even all

got to go home with some goodies after

rummaging through Susan's "Going to

Goodwill"  bags and boxes.  Now that's

what I call Goodwill Hunting.

Sadly, the summer is winding down and we

will start to lose many of our Me Timers,

school is starting soon.

This method for embroidery thread storage

was new to me, I had never seen it before

but others knew of it from years ago.

Has anyone else seen this or is it local to

the Midwest?

Building the Empire: Hot Off the Presses!

Felt Ornament Patterns Now Available

The Felt Ornament patterns are now

available.  They are hot off the presses!

There is a class on how to make them

this Saturday, December 10, 2011 from

noon until 3pm at The Quilt Shoppe in

Anderson, Indiana.  Call 765-649-9102

for details and a supply list.

They also make great pincushions,

a perfect gift for all the fiber artists

on your gift list.



Building the Empire

Feltwork Pattern Line

I am developing a new pattern line

that brings together feltwork and

embroidery.  I have loved to embroider

since I was a little girl.  I find many

people have an interest in small projects.

I started making these ornaments

with my friend Olivia as we sailed along

the Danube from Budapest to Germany,

 visiting all the Christmas markets.

I just sent this one off to Bangkok

to someone I met there last June.

The patterns should be available

within the next month.

For anyone in Central Indiana, I

will be teaching a class very soon.

Stay tuned!

Neat to Eat: Medovnicky

To Eat or Not To Eat?

At all the Christmas markets

along the Danube I kept seeing

these beautifully decorated cookies.

They are honey cakes

called Medovnicky and

people use them for decoration

but also to eat.  They are given

as favors at weddings as well.

I couldn't eat them because

I would feel like I was

eating a work of art ~ I

wouldn't want to destroy it.

When I was at the International

Quilt Festival in Houston I met

this lovely person from Australia.

I thought her embroidery looked

so much like medovnicky.

And back in my hotel

room I was working on

this.  I thought it was so

funny that a girl in Australia

and a girl in the USA could

both be working on something

so similar and they both looked

like something from Eastern Europe.

Small World...



On Pins & Needles

Stumbling Upon Old Cross Stitch

Many years ago, I used

to do a lot of cross stitch.

Now, I only do it when

I travel, mainly because it

is so small, it is easy to pop

into your suitcase.

So I got it into my

head that I would find

these old projects and

finally get them framed

and display them on a

wall in my bedroom.

Of course, that was easier

said than done.  I had no

idea where these things

had gone to.  But as I'm

looking through boxes or

piles of fabric or digging

through the tons of old

linens tucked here and

there I have come across

quite a few pieces

from my past.

Many are ones I made

but others like this one

somehow came into my

life and became part

of the family.

I bought this one

recently just because

I liked the saying.

Some need a bit

more work.

I hope to finally finish this

one on the big trip that

is coming up.