Goldwork Heart II - background is done!

Over two months ago, I started the background on my Goldwork Heart II (a retired ANG GCC from Michele Roberts). Because I had been doing so much double-running work on a recent finish, I decided to try a different type of blackwork background, done all in running stitch. See my previous posts about this background - here and here.

I'm dancing now because the background is done! This single-running blackwork was actually ideal for the piece, because the gold thread was quite stiff, and I didn't have to turn as sharply as in double running. I kept all of the thread ends on the outside of the background (not ending in the middle of the heart).




After the background was all done, I used a size 12 pearl cotton and did a tent stitch over 2 all the way around the outside, pulling the thread ends to the back of the work as I went. Each end was stitched over at least 1/2", and then cut off. Here's the finished result. I'm not too concerned with how this outline looks, because it will not show when it's framed. This is just a way to tie off all of the ends.

This background is the same pattern on front and back, but it is not in the same place. On the back, it's actually offset by half of the pattern width and height. It's easiest to show this at a corner. Here's the top right corner of the piece from the front:

And from the back:




Now I can get started on the "real" goldwork part of the piece!

Examplar IV: A Trellis Stitch Strawberry

The past two nights I've been working on Examplar IV. I've finished all the single-strand tendrils and strawberry tops. Each side of the border is different. The tendrils and leaves are the same on top and right, but the tendrils change on the other two sides. Some sides have symrna cross leaves, others have queen stitch leaves. And the strawberries are made with different stitches on each of the four sides!

I've started a strawberry on the top in a cross stitch variation, but I really wanted to try the trellis stitch. I only stitched it on a tiny doodle during the class. After MIL mentioned that this stitch is covered in detail in Darlene O'Steen's The Proper Stitch, I put this book to real use (i.e. not just browsing & drooling!) for the first time since I picked it up at the end of last year. Here is the result. I'm pretty happy with it, considering I hadn't done this stitch prior to last week in class.


I'm off to try another strawberry...

(Edited to add a link to trellis stitch instructions, as found in one of Jane Nicholas's books. I hadn't tried Google's Book Search feature before, but it's really useful!)

Class Pieces from seminar

In Monday's post, I mentioned the two classes I had taken, but didn't show any progress pictures on them. We made quite a bit of progress on Kathy Fenchel's Picnic Hampered! in class.
While all of the raised work is a bit of a challenge, the most challenging part is the tree! I'm an engineer, so my brain has been trained to work in straight lines. This works wonderfully for charted pieces, geometrics, etc. Kathy urged us to make our trees look natural, the more gnarled the better - i.e. messy. So, I tacked down some brown felt (used to pad the basket) to add some lumpiness to the tree, and started to stitch up the tree in all the colors of brown and black in the kit. This uses chain stitch, stem stitch, outline stitch, and wrapped backstitch. I'm leaving the thread ends out front, and stitching right over them. If they get wrapped up in the stitches, all the better! So, while messy is not a word I frequent in my stitching vocabulary, I'm trying my hardest to make it so. And part of that is just not trying - just letting it happen.

The other class plays more to my neat and precise stitching mind (although my family will tell you that I'm rarely neat anywhere else!). Here is the bit of progress made on Catherine Theron's Examplar IV. Since then I've finished the strawberry stems all the way around, and have started to add the curliques to the vine.

Four of us took these two classes, and the other three all agreed with me when I mentioned that while both of these pieces were going to be a challenge, they both suited a different stitching mood. As a result, both will have their place in my (rather loose) stitching rotation.

Seminar Exhibit - Before and After!

*** Warning - picture intensive post!!! ***

Before - Very Boring:

















After - Fun to browse!

































No other words are needed! :-)

Back from seminar!

Wow, what a trip! Last night I returned from the Mid-Eastern Region EGA seminar in Chautauqua, NY.

My MIL & I left Wednesday morning at 8:30, arriving at Bellinger Hall on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution sometime around noon. We found the room in which the exhibit was to be held, and started labeling the pieces that had already been brought in by our fellow seminar workers. We ordered out for subs for us and for those doing setup of the vendor and registration areas, the opportunity baskets, and classrooms.

At some point we registered, got our room keys, and brought our luggage in. The rooms were not fancy - just dorm rooms with single beds, a small desk and wardrobe for each, and a shared bath for every two rooms. Most people, including us, specified that we wanted a private bath, so, for the most part, only every other room was populated.

By 6:00 PM Wednesday most of the exhibit entries had arrived, and some folks went out to dinner. I joined the crew that shared 6 delivered pizzas! After dinner, four of us went to work setting up the exhibit, and were done by around 9:15. (I'll share before and after pictures tomorrow, since I don't have the camera hooked up right now!) In all, we had about 65 pieces of needlework on display.

On Wednesday night, the bed I occupied was the hardest bed I had ever used. It seemed to me that I didn't sleep much, but I think I just kept waking up - frequently. MIL had brought a pillow from home, and gave me the one on her bed. I ended up sleeping on it, just so my back wouldn't be on the hard bed.

A routine started as of Thursday:

• wake up at six, take turns getting ready (and stitching while the other was doing so).
• breakfast at 7:30 - eating and lots of chatting.
• back to the room to pick up stuff for class at 9.
• At 11:55, run out of class to get the exhibit opened at noon. Coach the three people who signed up to monitor it, and trust that they'll figure out how to take turns monitoring and getting their lunches.
• 12:10 - Go have lunch, and compare notes with people in other classes.
• 1:15 - the exhibit (and the attached vendor area) is supposed to close, provided we can get excited stitchers to finish up purchases and viewing, and find the guy who's supposed to lock everything up. A couple of times I resorted to flickering the lights so people would look at their watches and realize they had 10 minutes to get back to class!
• 1:30-4:30 - back in class.
• 4:45 - repeat the exhibit opening routine, then shop for a bit, and actually take time to look at the exhibit! Once I actually had time for a bit of a walk outside!
  
• 6:00 - exhibit closed again, and we all head to dinner.
• 7:30 - exhibit opens, coach more helpers, etc. I usually headed back to my room for a bit of quiet time!
  
• 9:00 - exhibit closes for the night. Then I could find the ladies from my chapter who tended to meet in somebody's room, with hilarity ensuing! We had about 17 people from our chapter there, and all of them are lots of fun!
• Somewhere around 11:00-12:00 - clean up, change into pj's and tumble into bed.
  

The funny thing was that the bed became more comfortable every night! :-)

As for the classes, they were both great. The sampler class with Catherine Theron was pretty packed, with maybe 17 people. She handled it wonderfully, going over a stitch or two and giving us lots of time to practice and add it to our sampler. We finished going over all of the stitches by 11:00 on Friday, and then we reviewed all the central motifs in the sampler, going over what stitches were used where. Again, she broke this up, going over two to three motifs, then giving us time to stitch before we went on and talked about other motifs. By the end of class on Friday I had the main vine of the border done all the way around - and it met correctly!!!

Saturday and Sunday was Kathy Fenchel's Picnic Hampered! This is another fun piece, with plenty of challenges of its own, but it's a completely different "mood" than the sampler. There were only 6 other people in this class, three of whom were in the sampler class with me. I think we're all having more difficulty with stitching messy, random tree bark than with the detached buttonhole on the sampler! One of the other people in this class was Karen Wojahn, the national president of EGA. She sat next to me, and I was honored to get to know this lovely lady a bit!

Since the opportunity basket drawings were scheduled for lunchtime on Sunday, and we were all going to leave right after class, Saturday evening was the last exhibit showing. A few people in Studio Time were going to take down the exhibit on Sunday. As I was shutting things down Saturday, the vendors were starting to pack up. One of the vendors had brought 10 items to the exhibit, and requested hers back. I pulled all of hers, and mine, and MIL's, just to get them out of the way. Then, the owner of the pegboards we had used decided she wanted those back now, so I pulled the rest of the items off the pegboards. I was reluctant to leave a partially-disassembled exhibit open as the vendors were carting out their things, so I found a few more exhibitors in the dining room and offered to give them their pieces at that time. I found the ladies from my chapter, and got those out, too. So, out of 19 exhibitors, I distributed pieces back to all but 4 on Saturday night. A glass of wine later, and I slept the night through!

I took today as a vacation day, figuring that I'd need a day to recover, and I'm sure glad I did! Seminar was great, but it was also very tiring!

Happy Birthday to me...

Yup. It's that day. My company has given us our birthdays off this year, so I've been home all day but haven't picked up a needle! I've been working on stuff for the exhibit and washing clothes to go to seminar.

I'm so excited! This is my first seminar, regional or otherwise! I went to CATS a few years ago, but really want the longer classes that seminar offers. I'm taking two 2-day classes: Examplar IV from Catherine Theron and Picnic Hampered! by Kathy Fenchel. Plus with the exhibit, boutique, a teacher's showcase one evening and merchandise night another, it will be 4 days of nothing but needlework! I'll be back Sunday night, but I'm taking Monday off from work to recover! :-)

Anyway, when I've found some time to pick up a needle, I've been working on the Gay Ann Rogers mystery piece. I finished the bedroom, and have been plugging away on some of the borders.

I love the bedroom - this is the only time I've been able to say I stitched an entire sampler in under an hour!

I found out this week that some of the Jim Wurth kits for May will be shipped late. Since I was one of the later people to sign up for the series, my guess is that my kit will be delayed. With two new projects from seminar, though, I don't think I'll miss it too much!

I probably won't get a chance to post tomorrow morning before I leave. Stay tuned for a full seminar report on Monday!