• Autumn,  Class Pieces,  Retreats,  Stitching

    Autumn Gifts

    December 9, 2014

    Sweet Rindy Richards told me that she saw my Shepherd's Bush class piece on the net today, as Sue Ream (Hi, Sue!) had stitched it… and that's when I realized that I've never shown what my class piece was!

    My friend-and-framer Sherri Berkman was the model stitcher for this one (hence, the SB initials at the bottom, which several people thought stood for "Shepherd's Bush"), and once again, she surprised me with the moulding. I could not have asked for a more beautiful frame to go with this piece, which features a rabbit dashing through the woods, and crossing over a narrow thread of river. 🙂 The retreat's theme, as you may remember, was "Over the River and Through the Woods," and I loved how each of the teachers interpreted it.. what a warm and cozy theme it was to work with!

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    The little scissors fob to the bottom left corner of the model was also stitched by Sherri as a surprise to me. I was so thrilled to receive it, and will always remember her kindness and generosity, as she was going through a very difficult time in her personal life when this model was being stitched. I'm so touched that she would do that extra thing for me.. both sides of the fob are stitched over one linen thread (the reverse side has an acorn and leaves taken from the design). Thank you so much, Sherri. It meant so much to me.

    The scissors attached to the fob are the gorgeous work of Paula Sibbald from Kelmscott Designs.. I begged her to come up with something special for my class kits, and her response to me was, "Well I was just working on a new pair of scissors, and wasn't sure what I'd put on them!" This was certainly good news for me, and she took my "OH PLEASE DO ACORNS, PLEASE DO ACORNS" to heart. Thank you again, sweet Paula! They turned out beautifully, and I was thrilled to be able to include them in my class kits!

    I suppose the rabbit is now crossing a frozen river through barren trees at this point, as fall has moved on to another year. And as usual for me these past couple of years, I'm running behind it, hollering, "Wait! Wait! I've been so busy, I never got to say goodbye!" Because of this busy-ness, I decided last month that I wouldn't release any new designs for the remainder of 2014, but rather I would take some time and enjoy the season for a while. My next releases will be in Nashville in February. I truly hope to see lots of you there, and I hope it will feel like Christmas all over again, only with spring colors!

    Now, I think I'll go ask God for some snow, because that truly is one of His winter gifts to us – especially when topped with a red cardinal.

    Wait… Did someone say winter gifts? I see a new sampler in my mind…

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  • Class Pieces,  Friends,  Retreats,  Stitching,  Travel

    Fall Back

    December 8, 2014

    I have no idea why I don't post photos when they're freshly-taken, but I tend to stay away from my computer for long periods of time. Every day I think to myself, "I really should post the Shepherd's Bush retreat pictures," and every day I put it off… again, my hip issues hamper my enthusiasm for blogging!

    But I've culled the retreat photos and edited them in batches, and here they all are, finally! Well, not all… I seem to be missing some important folders that contain the other designers' teaching pieces in their entirety, and I'm completely missing the Just Another Button Company's pumpkin project they taught! (I sincerely hope you've been able to see it elsewhere online, because it's so sweet!)

    I'll just start posting in no particular order… you've most likely seen all of the projects and boutique designs presented here, but just in case you suddenly get the urge to add one or two to your Christmas Wish List, then I will be thrilled that I posted them!

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    The famous sisters… one can't help but be very happy around these two!

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    I wanted to know what these girls were laughing so hard at…

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    … but when I saw who was sitting across from them, I immediately knew. Anywhere these amigos are, there is bound to be a lot of laughing!

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    Aren't these miniature versions of the His & Hers Thanksgiving Stockings amazing? Three adorable friends made them and wore them, and of course, I was very impressed (and honored!)…

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    Here they are, and such lovely friends! I had so much fun being around them! Their stories and tattle-tale adventures are quite hysterical.

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    Another close-up of Chessie and Me's class piece… stunning!

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     The Giving Season pinkeep (pictured above) was part of R&R's class.. here are some closer looks at their main sampler. Again, I've got several photos missing that show these outstanding class pieces in all their glory! I'm so disappointed!

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    From around the boutique, set up in one of the resort's large meeting rooms…

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    Okay, I have to admit that I was sorely tempted to stitch this using Shepherd's Bush's conversion and the JABC buttons – not to mention the outstanding frame job that Jill Rensel did on it!

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    More class piece close-ups…

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    The pincushion exchange for the heifer project was a huge success! What fabulous little works of art!

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    On the last night, Tina and Teri organized the most bountiful banquet for all the attendees! The fun included a delicious dinner and dessert, Thanksgiving Bingo, prizes, and a whole lot of laughter and friendship…

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    I love this picture.. she found something awfully surprising!

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    One of the prizes was an entire frame and mat set from Rensel Studios for the Shepherd's Bush class piece! What an outstanding prize, and the recipient of this generous gift from Jill was more than thrilled…

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    One of the attendees stitched one of the mini pieces from my class while she was there (so fast!) and had some of the teachers sign it with a Sharpie, which I thought was such a fun idea! We were all nervous about putting permanent marker to linen, but it all worked out beautifully!

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    The kit for this beautiful project was a parting gift from Tina and Teri to all the attendees…

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    The 2014 Shepherd's Bush retreat was a highlight of my year! It was such a wonderful time spent with old friends, new friends, lots of stitching projects, and the beautiful scenery, all at the Canyons Resort in Park City. My hope is that Tina and Teri will continue this every-other-year tradition, as it wouldn't be an every-other-year without it. 🙂 I'm so thankful for the time I spent there.

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  • Class Pieces,  Friends,  Retreats,  Travel

    An Inspiring Weekend!

    June 26, 2014

    What a fantastic time I had last weekend at the Inspired Summer Seminar! It was one of the best times I've ever had, meeting so many new friends and visiting the gorgeous Inspired Needle shop, owned by Cathy Roginela. She was the most perfect hostess, and everyone had such a fun time.

    Friday night I got to visit the shop, and everywhere I looked, there was something new to see…

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    I've never seen so many fibers in one place!

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    This isn't the whole shop; up around the corner on the left, it continues on, where she had some of my models displayed for a trunk show…

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    To welcome all who visited the shop that night, Cathy had set up the most beautiful selection of appetizers…

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    She had several varieties of mini cheesecakes, and they were all absolutely delicious. (Salted Caramel, Vanilla Bean, Blueberry, Raspberry… too many to choose from!)

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    The next morning our workshop began at the Ruffled Feathers Country Club. It was a gorgeous venue, with beautiful sunny windows all around. We even got to witness a wedding outside! (But I didn't take pictures of that, don't worry.)

    Here's one of the tables, with everyone busily stitching away on Liberty Inn…

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    Cathy had the most wonderful thread-minders made, modeled after the flag star in the sampler, and with the weekend's inscription on the flip side!

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    It was such a lovely day, and if she holds another workshop, I'd highly recommend attending! Thank you to Cathy and to each person who was able to attend (we had 52 stitchers there!) for being so warm and welcoming to me. I'll never forget the fun I had with you, and I look forward to hopefully visiting with you again some day!

    And a huge thank you to my dear friend Karin, for allowing me to stay in her lovely home. (I'll be back soon with pictures of her beautiful stitching room!)

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  • Retreats,  Stitching,  Travel

    Dyeing to Stitch Retreat, Part 2

    October 15, 2013

    Welcome back! Here are some more pictures from our retreat weekend, which was an absolutely wonderful time! My classes were so much fun (perhaps I'm only speaking for myself! Ha!), and it was a fabulous time chatting with lots of familiar friends and newly-made ones.

    I'm sad to say I didn't get any pictures of the class pieces that the other designers taught, which is surprising, since I had several opportunities to get some. (How did this happen?) But the truth of it is, we were having so much fun laughing and being silly that it didn't occur to me to take any class piece photos, and I didn't have my camera when we were revealing them to those in attendance.

    The only ones I have to share with you are mine, which sounds awfully selfish, but I don't mean for it to be. 🙁

    The theme for the retreat was It's A Celebration! So I decided to combine two things that I love to celebrate in October: the gorgeous orange of jack o'lanterns and my sweet Sabrina's birthday. 

    This is Jack's Bash:

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    The verse reads:

    Here in the rust and autumn bower,
        the knobby gourd and bitter flower,
    We merry-make and sing Hooray!
        to our friend Jack on his birthday.

    (The word "rust" contains an old-style letter s, which looks like a half-crossed lower-case f.)

    Nicole Neville stitched the model beautifully and in record time, and I love love love the moulding that Sherri at Total Framing used for it!

    The kitted piece that the class actually worked on is called Jack's Birthday Tart, and it accompanied the larger sampler, using all the same threads:

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    Jack's Bash will be released next fall, and most likely Jack's Birthday Tart will be also. (The tart will probably have a companion or two to go with it.) I thought it was a lot of fun to make, and very easy!

    By the way, this was the sunrise that greeted me every morning from the balcony of the hotel room:

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    And as the sun rose higher, the beach grew more crowded…

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    On Saturday evening we had a huge banquet, and each person dressed in something that denoted the era in which they were born. The food was beautifully presented, and Ann and Pat (despite the challenges of the elevators being inaccessible for the better part of the day) did a wonderful job as our hostesses…

     
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    And the winner of the costume contest was…. Barefoot and Pregnant!

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    What a crazy good time that was! The door prizes were amazing, the cheering was raucus, and the whole room was full of stitchy friends who were relieved that the elevators started working just in time for the party, as the banquet was held on the 11th floor. 🙂

    I'd like to thank Ann and Pat and Sybil and Norma and all the wonderful people who helped pull this retreat together. You all are the best!

    I'll be back soon with Part 3, which isn't so much the retreat as it is what we did after the retreat was over. See you soon!

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  • Retreats,  Stitching,  Travel

    Dyeing to Stitch Retreat, Part 1

    October 14, 2013

    What a fantastic weekend the retreat was! If you've never been to a Dyeing to Stitch retreat, you've got to plan to attend the next one! It was so much fun, and the time spent with friends will always be a cherished memory for me.

    I took lots of pictures to share, so if you can play a soundtrack in your mind of lots of oohing and aahing and clapping and laughing, you'll get an idea of how it all went. What fun we all had!

    Here's how it started out, at least for me:

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    The retreat was held at the Cavelier Hotel on Virginia Beach, which was lovely! Here are some pictures of the boutique that was set up for the attendees to shop:

    Stacy Nash Primitives…(what a sweetheart Stacy is!)

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    (I have to include a photo of her Halloween at Hollyberry Farm to show you what the linen really looks like. For those of you who ordered it kitted, it isn't as gray as the photo appears, but that's the curse that designers deal with – the digital print! The model was fabulous to see in person, though, and I can't wait to get started on mine.)

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    Here's a photo of the gorgeous designs of Bonnie Woomer/The Nebby Needle:

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    (I actually just discovered Bonnie's blog, which will give you a far better idea of how the retreat went than mine will!)

    The Purple Thread… (Sharon is an excellent teacher, by the way)(and her boutique table had so much to look at, you saw something different every time you blinked!)

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    Olde Colonial Designs… (this was my first time meeting Pam and her sweet husband Bob, and I loved every minute spent with them)

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    Jeanette Douglas Designs…(my way-too-much-fun Canadian sister, who was also my roomie; I'm still recovering from our 2 am designing-brainstorming session!)…

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    I love Jeanette's imagination, and her new A Most Suitable Name series is so sweet! Alphabet Annie is my favorite, I think…

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    And of course, Shepherd's Bush has always been a super favorite of mine…(Teri and Tina are a hilarious duo when they get in front of a group, and they're so much fun to spend time with!)

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    There was so much to look at, all around the room…

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    (Love, love, love Pat and Ann's hand-dyed trims; the mini rickrack in Cinnamon is my favorite!)

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     The first night of the retreat was spent learning how to finish a beautiful stitched booklet in our Evening with Friends, taught by Sharon of The Purple Thread. I don't have a photo of the book, but it was absolutely stunning! Each page featured a different design from each designer, and the theme of the book was a celebration of life – from friends to marriage, and everything in between. I'm hoping Pat and Ann will show a photo of it on their blog soon!

    I'm not sure which night our Evening with Stacy Nash was, but I believe it was the second night we were there. The weekend went by so fast, it's a blur! Stacy had the sweetest project for us to work on (is there anything of Stacy's that isn't sweet?)…

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    I think this is a good stopping point! I'll get the rest uploaded soon, so if you'd like to check back, I'll be here! 🙂

    I do want to end today's post with saying how much I enjoyed meeting each one of you. I loved spending time at the tables chatting, looking at your photos and your beautiful stitching, and swapping pet stories. It's so much fun to get together with those who are so sweet to sign up for my classes, and I can't thank you enough for your always-warm welcome and kindhearted support. I hope you were all pleased (even if the fabric for Jack's Bash ran out before some of you even knew it was there!), and I especially hope I see you again at a future retreat.

    And of course, a huge thank-you to Ann and Pat for the many months they spent putting together such an amazing retreat. It was one of the best weekends ever!

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  • Class Pieces,  Friends,  Retreats

    A Workshop in the Mountains

    July 2, 2013

    Knock-knock.

    Who's there?

    Paulette.

    Paulette who?

    Exactly.

    I've been MIA for so long, I almost forgot how to sign into my blog. But there has been a very good reason for this… since returning from Colorado, I've had this insatiable desire to overhaul my entire house! New paint in every room, new blinds on every window, a new stitching chair in every room (okay, just one room), and new carpeting everywhere, which will arrive in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure if this mission I was on was due to the fresh mountain air or simply from being with friends who give me lots of positive energy, but whatever it was, I'll take it.

    And I must say, Colorado was wonderful! What a beautiful place to present a workshop, and the Sampler Guild of the Rockies' ladies couldn't have been more welcoming. I enjoyed every moment I was able to spend with them! The room was full of not only everyone's stitching belongings, but a large boutique area (I couldn't fit that into the photo) where I did plenty of shopping. 🙂

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    It was the Guild's 20th anniversary, and since the theme was Crowns and Jubilee, I presented a reproduction of the first antique sampler I've ever purchased, called 1837 Crowns Sampler. Here is the original:

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    The smalls I designed were based on the sampler, and I called them A Crowning Effort.

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    Judy Yunt and Katrina Devine did the most amazing job putting this workshop day together for the ladies, and I can't thank them enough for the honor of being invited to attend. The decorations were beautiful (which included fresh flowers in beautiful blue Mason jars at every table!), the gifts given to every single attendee were outstanding (stitched scissors fobs – 65 of them, front and back stitched! – black Kelmscott Storklette scissors, and beautiful beeswax crowns), and the door prizes were absolutely fantastic (Lady's Trimkeeps and stitching wallets – again, stitched by the sweetest, most generous ladies – sampler charts, and so much more!). And the food! Absolutely delicious, and I think every single person there needed one recipe or another.

    It was sad for the day to end, but I left knowing I'd made many new stitching friends. 🙂

    After the workshop was over, I stayed a few extra days at Katrina's house, along with good friends Natalia and Karin (and we got to visit Jen's house for a stitching day as well!). We had such a fun time chatting endlessly, eating everything Katrina cooked (because everything she made was amazing), and "shopping" in her stash room, which holds more kitted samplers and Natalia's stitching wallets than you can imagine.

    And did I mention that everything was organized by designer, and then alphabetically?

    I'm not even kidding.

    We also spent a day going shopping and walking around Garden of the Gods. It was such an awe-inspiring place, with the way the rocks had formed there…

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    This particular rock formation is called the Kissing Camels…

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    Hi Natalia and Karin!

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    And of course, for Instagram:

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    By the way, Katrina's house is lovely, and I'm quite envious of the view from her kitchen window in the mornings:

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    And these are her little princesses:

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    But there's one little princess that will be even more spoiled than these two, and her Grandpa can vouch for that:

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    Thank you for having me as your guest, Katrina! It was a perfect mini vacation, at least for me. 😉

    And by the way, for those of you on Instagram, you can follow Katrina as she works on her Crowns Sampler, and see the color changes she's made. It's coming along beautifully, and if I were to stitch this sampler again, I'd go with her conversion!

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    (The 1837 Crowns Sampler chart will be available at the upcoming needlework market in St. Charles.)

    I suppose I'll sign off of here and get back to my stitching a bit before I go to bed. I'm almost finished with a project I got from Katrina's stash room, which I'll show you in another post. That is, if I remember how to sign back into my blog again. 😉

    I'll see you soon!

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  • Retreats,  Stitching

    Big D

    April 26, 2013

    One more week and I'll be in Dallas! I'm very excited to be presenting a workshop at the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild there, and I'm hoping to meet a few familiar names. 😉 One name in particular has volunteered to chauffeur me around, so I'll be having a fun time for sure. Thank you, Michelle!

    I've been working since January on the project, and I hope you all like what I've come up with.

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    All of the kits have finally been shipped, along with charts and tutorials and supplies and trunk show. I can't wait to meet you all!

    And thank you, Mom, for always encouraging me when it comes to my design efforts. I love you.

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