Halloweenies Arrived

Here is a picture of everything that arrived in my double coffin size box. I had ordered a Sterling small purse in pink and a custom canvas by Beth Hunt to put in the small purse. Also ordered Julia Snyder's new book Darn Fillings. Also in the box was the last Home Study for the Nativity. I got two camels since my daughter, Jennifer, is also doing the Nativity.

The Haunted House with stitch guide, threads and stretcher bars was the first item that came out of the box. Loved the poem and surprise. Cannot thank Jill and all her helpers enough for putting together the kits. You can really appreciate all the hard work that went into putting the kits together. Special thanks to Amy for another spectacular guide. The House is on the evertite bars and is waiting for its first stitch of mortar around the shingles. Hope I can keep up with everyone. I still have to finish the Shepherd and now start the canvas for the Sterling purse.
Off to start stitching the roof.
Linda

Donkey is Done

The first picture is Kelly Clark's NYC Santa. This canvas is an exclusive to Rita's Needlepoint on 79th Street in NYC. I shipped off this canvas to Amy's today for the June Cook Up Class. I am so looking forward to taking my second Cook Up Class with Amy. Last year Jen and I had such a great time and I am looking forward to seeing Amy and all my friends at the store again.

The humble Donkey is completed and traveling to Amy's with the Elephant. Even though the Donkey might be humble Amy worked such magic on him. Her thread selection on the Donkey's body was done with eight different colors. We blended two different color threads in four needles to work his body. As I stitched, I saw the donkey actually come to life. The blending of the different shades made his coloring very realistic. Amy's attention to detail is just amazing. The Donkey's eye is very simple but I felt that this one small detail just brought him to life. The rope and mane were the last two details that helped bring the Donkey to life. I know I say this every time I finish one of the Home Study Canvases but I am totally amazed of the talent that Amy has.

I can only imagine the fun and challenges the Halloweenies will present. Hoping to have the Haunted House by the end of the week. I will immediately mount the canvas and start my new needlepoint adventure with Amy. This adventure is going to be different since we have the Needlepoint Study Hall blog and all us Halloweenies can share our experiences. Oh, what fun I am going to have.

Linda

What Have I Been Doing

I am getting ready for the Halloweenies. I thought I would stitch a Princess and Me Ornament for my Halloween tree. Nothing like getting in the right spirit for the arrival of the Halloweenies. I am going to do the hair for the little witch with the new DMC memory thread. Will be stitching over the hair and doing the corkscrew curls on top of the background. Waiting for our LNS to get the memory thread in. I am totally excited about the arrival of the Haunted House. Will keep you posted on its arrival and my progress on it.

In addition to working on this small ornament, I am finishing up the Donkey for the Nativity Home Study. Will post a picture by Monday. I just have the beading in the background to do. Then I am off to work on the Shepherd. Hope to get most of him completed before the Haunted House arrives.

I have also been washing all the baby's clothes, sheets, towels etc. Only a month left to go, hopefully, before the blessed day. The room is almost complete. Will post a picture of it when it is completed. I am so excited to have a grand baby. Jen is feeling really great and looks wonderful. She was even on the Martha Stewart show on Tuesday. She was chosen to ask Martha's trainer a question.

On Monday, I will be shipping Amy our finished Elephants and Donkeys along with our canvases for our Cook Up Class in June. Jen is sending a really cute canvas for the baby and I am sending a Kelly Clark Exclusive canvas to Rita's Needlepoint in NYC. It is a NYC Santa. Will post a picture of it with the Donkey on Monday.

Have a wonderful weekend stitching.

Linda

A Little Late for Christmas

Ok, so this ornament didn't make it in to Stitch by Stitch for the Christmas finishing deadline. It just got back this week, and I was still happy to pick it up. This is a delightful ornament by Jody Designs Needlepoint. This is the same designer that did the lovely inserts for my bookends that I worked on this past summer. Jody uses such beautiful, vibrant colors; we're so lucky to have so many gorgeous threads to work with. I stitched this ornament completely from stash, using some Vineyard Silk. The beads on the criss cross hungarian were a new idea for me.

So I already have the first new ornament for next year!

Denise

Newsletters & New Sites

Just a quick heads up: Threadworx has a brand new newsletter that is just so cool! And there are stitch guides included, for charted as well as painted canvases. The newsletter is 49 pages, so there's all kinds of info there; I haven't really read most of it yet.

Take a look, & subscribe:

http://www.threadworx.com/

Also, Lee's Needle Arts new owner, Colonial Needle let me know that their Lee's website is up as well:

http://www.newleesneedlearts.com/

Happy browsing!

Denise

Santas are Done...!

Here's what I've done over Christmas vacation. Wait. I didn't get a Christmas vacation. Oh well. I guess what I mean is...This is what I've been working on since...Thanksgiving!

The first is a Princess & Me Santa with a star. Princess & Me canvases usually come with a stitch guide, which I refer to but not rely upon. I followed many of the stitches suggested (except the bullion knots for the nose...how silly!), but picked threads all from my stash. I'm going to have him finished as a standup Santa.

And here is my larger project--the Strictly Christmas Squatty Santa. I got him from Ruth's Bedecked & Beadazzled about two years ago, & have been longing to get him done. I did another Squatty Santa from Ruth about two years ago; a photo of him, Santa with Cats, completed, is here too.

Next up is finishing the SOTM kimono, & then....back to the Sharon G Ponza scenery. I picked up quite a few threads for this at Edwardian Needle, but have to get back to stitching it.

Tomorrow I pack up the needlepoint ornaments (in my brand new, acid free tissue paper), and, as far as I'm concerned, now I'm ready to start the new year.

I am going to try very hard to restrain myself as the newest TNNA items show up here in the blogosphere. Very hard.

Denise

Happy New Year

I want to wish all of you a very happy and healthy New Year. I hope you get a lot of stitching done this year and have fun working on all your projects.

I finally finished the Elephant to the Nativity Home Study. Amy really did a magnificent job on this stitch guide. The techniques and threads used really brought him to life. He took me a good two months to stitch and was worth all my hard work. I look at him and still cannot believe the talent that went into choosing the right stitches and threads to make him into such a masterpiece. Now I am working on the Donkey. He is much smaller than the Elephant and has no embellishments - so he should not take that long to stitch.

As you can see from the second picture, my Angel of the Lord arrived. I really was not expecting her back before Christmas since she went in after the deadline but Amy's angels got her to me the Tuesday before Christmas. What a wonderful and unexpected surprise she was.

If you read Amy's January Newsletter, you saw that there is going to be a Needlepoint Study Hall Blog for the Halloweenies. How exciting! The Halloweenies begin in February and I cannot wait. The Nativity should be just about completed for when the Halloweenies begin. This is going to be such fun having a blog to follow along with out stitching. Now we will be able to watch the progress on each of the Halloweenies along with helpful hints and tips. Check it out at www.needlepointstudyhall.blogspot.com. Robin did an outstanding job on setting up the site. Wonder if she would give the Stitching Sisters some ideas.

Have a wonderful New Year with all your new stitching projects.

Linda