Opportunity Drawing

Having my stitching area a little more organized last night seemed to help me focus. I was able to finish wrapping the mari I want to use for the ornaments, and make good progress on stitching the second one. Last night I thought it was finished, but when I looked at it this morning, I decided it needs another round of gold. So no pictures of that. Instead, I have pictures of the items for the opportunity drawing for our October Guild show. Here is the information for the show.

This first item is a beautiful alphabet sampler with a stitching motif. The frame on this is perfect.



This is a piece of charted needlepoint in autumn colors. Here too, the framing is beautiful, with a very nice suede mat.



This is a very nice stitch encyclopedia.



I don't have a picture yet, of the lap/wall quilt with a Christmas theme. I can't wait to see it.

This robe and nighty combination will be included with the smocked dress I made. The green stitching on the nighty is so pretty and delicate! And any dolly would be happy to cuddle up in the green robe.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend! I hope to get much stitching done.

Too much!

I'm feeling like I have ADD, and it's all my own fault. I have too many projects started:

The yellow smocked dress
The rag rug,
2 temari for me
1/2 dozen temari for guild
preparations for temari class
class temari for other guild
pin cushion summer project
crewel chatelaine
thimble ring for Ma Mercerie September group
tatting class
fused quilt kit
and the Ribbon work brooch kit I just rediscovered.

So what did I work on last night? Well, I sewed a button on DHs work pants. Period.

I did clear up my stitchy chair area, found the second pattern for my chatelaine, charged my iPod, filed a bunch of threads, archived many CDs after putting the music I wanted in to my iTunes, corraled all the materials for the above mentioned list, and found a bookshelf close to my stitching area for my temari books.

I think I need a Labor Week! I certainly am looking forward to a day off, so I can work on that list. I'll see if I can get something to show tomorrow.

Tatted Heart

I finished this on Saturday, but couldn't take a picture of it until this morning because I had left my camera elsewhere. I hate it when that happens.

I am quite proud of this heart, even though, now that I look at it, I can see I didn't follow the pattern exactly. I also had to open the final ring, because I was so excited about being done that I closed it before joining to the first ring. I managed to get it open, thanks to the instructions on Jon's site (thank you!).

When I looked ahead to the next lesson, I see that it's about starting and finishing projects without knots. I guess I should have waited to make this one.



The reason I am trying to learn shuttle tatting, as opposed to making things with needle tatting, is because of the process. Watching my grandma tat was very interesting and mysterious when I was growing up, and understanding what is going on, and being able to duplicate it is very satisfying to me. Even with my little bit of practice, I can occasionally get into a rhythm and my hands look like my grandma's hands! I'm not planning on making a lot of tatted lace, but I'm very pleased I know how to.

I had a very nice piece of mail yesterday. This is one of my JTA certificates. I got two, one each for the two levels I completed, but I'm not sure which one is which. Also, I was very glad it came with a little diagram showing which side was up, otherwise I would not have known. This is correct, and it reads left to right.



They look hand-written to me! They are very fancy, with a gold embossed border and the red signature block. I want to get them framed. Thank you Barb, for being my teacher and guiding me through this whole process.