kerrykatiecakes

I am so excited!  The emails came out today letting everyone who registered for EAC Seminar 2015 in Calgary (Stampeding Stitches) know which ones they got into!  So, (drum roll please) here is what I'll be taking! Cuori e Fiori (Hearts & Flowers) - Kathryn Drummond My first two day class will be Cuori e Fiori with Kathryn Drummond!  This class is in Punto Antico embroidery, also known as Italian Cutwork, and I'll be making a beautiful set of needlework accessories. Midnight Miniature Hazel Blomkamp I am taking a one day class on the "free day" rather than signing up for a tour since there isn't a lot in Calgary I haven't seen already.  I will be taking Midnight Miniature from Hazel Blomkamp.  Hazel is the author of "Crewel Twists" and "Crewel Intentions", a wonderful stitcher from South Africa.  What an opportunity! A miniature of the design featured on the cover of Hazel's book, Crewel Twists, this design...

I have been enjoying working on Diane Scott's canvaswork apple so much the last few days and have completed the first section. The joy of working with such beautiful threads!  Silks and metallics - who could ask for more?  I can't wait to start the next section this evening...

I am trying to be disciplined and work on my huge pile of UFOs.  At the very least I would like to stop creating a bigger and bigger pile!  So, my fun stitching right now (fun being something that doesn't have a looming deadline) is Diane Scott't three dimensional apple.  Nothing exciting to see in this photo - still working on the outline.  If you haven't seen Diane's beautiful fruit designs though, you should check them out.  They are  exciting!  I'll post my progress on this piece as it moves along.

The latest issue of Embroidery Canada arrived in my mailbox this last week and I was very pleased to see my article on bullion stitch in it.  Embroidery Canada is put out by The Embroiderers' Association of Canada and I look forward to every issue with great anticipation.  It's great and I usually sit down and read it cover to cover within a day or two - more than I can say about a lot of the ones I buy! lol So, I have been writing articles for the last little while, each one focusing on a certain stitch, variations of it, and photos of examples to try to entice readers to give it a try and see what they can do with it.  It is sort of a natural continuation of the Build a Seam series here on my blog.  What can I say?  I love stitches! I want to send out a big thank you to my friends at Crazy Quilting International  for allowing me to use photographs of some of their beautiful work.  Phyllis Latham shared the incredible little white bird on this...

I did a guest post for the Embroiderers' Association of Canada blog last week with lots of photos of a crazy quilting round robin I was in some time ago at Crazy Quilting International.  It was an Under the Sea theme - one of my favourites so lots of great eye candy.  Here is one of the blocks so you can get the idea. This is the DYOB block I embellished for Nicki Lee - lots of fun with the silk ribbon embroidery seahorse. Along with the eye candy, there is a giveaway on the guest post I did.  You can head over to my post on the EAC blog and leave a comment to be entered to win a copy of Crazy Patchwork by Janet Haigh - a great book! You have until February 1st to enter so run right over and leave a comment - good luck!

Time to start working on those New Year Goals of mine!  I do this every year because it really helps me to achieve what I am trying to do.  They are a work in progress so I'll post them over the next few days.  Here are the first two: 1.  Stitch 15 minutes a day .  I make this resolution every year and it is the best one because it works!  If you stitch for 15 minutes every day at the very least you will stitch 1-3/4 hours a week.  Really though, if you start stitching you are likely to stitch longer.  The other problem this resolves is if you don't stitch today, you are more likely not to stitch tomorrow, and so on and so on.  Try it - it works! 2, Enter Competitions.   I am not putting a number on this because it depends how many I find.  I am talking of stitch related competitions of course.  For example, right now on Virtual Threads we are having a little competition to design a logo for EAC Seminar 2018, which our cha...

What does this have to do with stitching? Not much, but it has a lot to do with why I am not getting any done!  We are a one washroom household and with the recent influx of returning kids and grandkids there are between five and seven people living here at any given time.  So, if you are a man, i.e. my husband, this would seem to you to be the best time to rip apart the washroom and start renovating, right? Right.  The tile needed replacing on the floor.  I might note that that is the only thing that really needed replacing - it was simply worn out.  The rest is purely cosmetic and the result of "man-think" - if you are replacing the floor you should really rip everything up and put down a new subfloor while you are at it.  If you are putting down new tile, you should really paint the walls first - you don't want to paint them once the new floor is down. ( Personally, I still liked the dark forest green the walls were painted last time.) It goes with...

Well, it is a good thing I have not posted my goals or resolutions for this year yet because I would be off to a very bad start doing my first blog post of the year on January 13th!  I have been keeping busy though and finished my first UFO left over from previous uears. The idea for this journal cover came from a random piece of Ukrainian embroidery I picked up at the thrift store.  At least I think it is Ukrainian, correct me if I'm wrong please. Anyway, it is just too lovely not to make use of and the size lent itself to almost covering a daily journal.  Since it wasn't quite wide enough, the green aida was added on one side and I cross stitched my friend Jo's name on it.  I guess I let the cat out of the bag here on who is getting this. There are simple flaps folded over and sewn  to hold the cover on the journal.  The whole thing was stitched by hand as I went along with the book itself for a guide. Fun little project, nice little gif...