Stitching Up a Storm in Alamo City

Serious hoarding issue.....

A couple of weeks ago, Mark asked me to follow him to something in the house.   While I was walking behind him, he said, "Sweetie, I think you have a selective hoarding problem."  By that time I was thoroughly relieved that he wasn't headed to my stash closet, but knew there could be two or three other options.

One was shoes.   Yes, I'm addicted to shoes.  But isn't at least 75% of the female population addicted to shoes?   I've never seen anyone on Dr. Phil because of too many shoes.

It could also be dishes.   I know people who have thousands more dishes than I do.   My very frugal and conservative MOTHER even had twice as many (we're talking in 12 place setting multiples) dishes when she passed as I do now.  But I have and keep finding dishes that I love.

It could be linens, but they're in the same closet as my needlepoint stash, so I knew I was safe on that account.

But much to my relief, he was after the books!!  He said, "You've got books stashed EVERYWHERE!"   And that is true.   I got to work and sorted through all the books in the house, and proudly handed over 7 big bags of books to a shelter for near-homeless people.  It's called the Transitional Living and Learning Center.  They take in families who are on the verge of homelessness and provide housing for them for up to 2 years.   The parents must be either working or in school during this time, and it gives them a bit of a break in worry about keeping a roof over their heads while they take steps to become self-sufficient.   Great program.  It's housed in a former convent, which is such a well-suited facility for the organization.  Anyway.   I feel better now about my selective hoarding problems.

But I'm not totally recovered yet. Last Thursday, I went to Austin for a class at The Needleworks with Tony Minieri.   He was, as always, amazing and funny.   We had several belly laughs while we were stitching.

I worked on this Melissa Shirley/Linda Holman Carter piece.   I've been busy since I got home on Saturday afternoon late, and I haven't set up anything to work on yet - here's where the real dilemma begins.   Let's see, now.   How many unfinished things do I have in the closet?   No clue where to start.

I thoroughly enjoyed sitting in class next to Michelle, who is an amazing stitcher.   And she actually finishes things.   I must sit by her more often.  I always sit by Jackie, too, who is an incredible stitcher and one of my stitching buddies.

Here's the part of the stitch guide that Tony wrote for me that I love the most:

AREA 7.  ROPE
Take some rawhide from a whip, roll it into a circle and attach to canvas.

WHAT??

Fortunately, the stitchers sitting next to me were highly creative, and they suggested I get a pair of leather shoelaces (meant for work boots) and beat them up a little bit with something.  Then, roll it into a circle and attach it to the canvas.

A friend of mine recently asked me to "leave her" this LInda Holman Carter piece (as in, when I die) that I finished a few years ago - the one that I called Frida - maybe she'd prefer this cowgirl.  

You have to love Tony.  Back to wrangling cattle.
I mean, Happy stitching.
Jane

Frida, revisited

I heard from Donna today via email who said she was anxious to see Frida finished.  Oh, my Gosh.   She's been done and hanging on the wall for so long.  After some searching, I see that I posted her, but I probably didn't categorize her correctly.  So here she is again.  I still like her very much.  Might do some things differently, but love her none the less.

She was framed by Bonnie at Art Inc. here in San Antonio.  Bonnie is an amazing framer, who specializes in working with needlework.   I haven't seen anything she's done that isn't just awesome.  She's won awards, etc.   You can totally trust her to do magic with your pieces.  

Happy stitching.
Jane

Frida is on the home stretch

Sorry to talk about this without a picture, but Frida is due to be picked up from the framer on Friday. We stitchers in San Antonio got a wonderful gift of Bonnie, who moved here from Austin about 7 months ago. She's a fabulous framer of needlepoint. I have heard several people speak of her -- most recently Colleen Church of The Needleworks in Austin. When I was up there in October for the Gail Sirna class, Colleen was still mourning the fact that Bonnie had moved to SA and said that several Austin stitchers bring their things down to Bonnie since she left.

I was lucky enough to go to the frame shop (Art, Inc.) when Bonnie was there, so she helped me pick out the frame, mat, etc for Frida. I haven't figured out where I'll put her -- I think I'll just carry her from room to room until I find the perfect spot.

I didn't have glass put over her -- I thought it would be strange with all her bling. Do any of you have opinions about that? Bonnie said some stitchers hate glass and others wouldn't frame without it. Interesting lot, we are.....

I promise to take a picture of her and post her on Friday.

Originally posted November 26, 2007

Last few passes before we ship her off

I had to take a photograph rather than scan her -- unfortunately I'm not so great at the photography, but I figured the beads on her would upset the scanner, so here she is. I still need to go over her for missed stitches and I'm thinking about tacking some random, looped silk ribbon on top of the roses in the front. I saw that technique in an old magazine -- it was a Marnie Ritter project -- and thought it might be interesting on her.

I think though, that I'm heading into the "overdone" zone, although most of the stitches are pretty simple. I'll try it and see what happens.

Originally posted July 25, 2007

New Threads from The Chaparral

Here are the threads I thought I might use for Frida's shawl. I've already done some experimenting with one -- the Watercolours 146 Moonglow, which is a bit more silvery blue than the scan shows. Turns out it's not different enough from the lilies. We'll see about the others, although I'm pretty sure 2 of them won't work.

I'm thinking one solution may be to put more blue into the arm under the lilies -- I used an overdyed silk and supplemented it with a light blue Gloriana to accentuate the folds. Maybe if I pull out the arm, or part of it, and put in some more blue it would look better.

Originally posted May 4, 2007