kerrykatiecakes

This my new blackwork design, Kick up Your Heels!  I am pretty excited about this - it was a lot of fun to design and stitch and I loved playing with the colours. Here is a closer shot if you would like to see more details - check out the purple crystals - gotta love that bling!  I designed this for my Seminar Theme Award entry.  The theme of this year's seminar was Stampeding Stitches so I dreamed up this pair of cowgirl's party boots.  Managed to snag third prize so not to shabby.  Now, what to do with the design?

It is so strange to me that I am unable to read fiction anymore at home!  According to my "sleep doctor", I lack the necessary ability to concentrate because of my sleep apnia and the resulting chronic fatique it causes.  I can read non-fiction and devour books on needle and fibre arts but not fiction.  Strange, yes?  Out here at the campground though I am able to devour books of any kind for some reason and usually read a every day or two.  So, the book reviews begin! Yesterday on my day off  I visited the thrift store and picked up A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron.  What a lovely read it was - a cross between Tuesdays with Morrie and Marley and Me!   I recommend this one to anyone who is an animal lover - you will love the gentle humour of a dog's perception of the world and events around him.  I really recommend this one 4* our of 5.

Sometimes I don't blog because I am not getting any stitching done - this time it is because I have been too busy stitching!  Lots to share and will be doing that in the days to come. A personal note first though - after a summer at home last year, I am back to living and working in a campground again this summer.  Different campground this time so no "notes from the lake" this year.  This campground is very much different from the previous one.  Besides there being no lake, there is a river AND TREES!!  I am very happy not to be sitting on the bald prairie all summer and very much enjoying waking up to so much birdsong every day.  The photo above is my home for the summer - did I mention I love the trees???

I was enjoying the Nordic Needle Newsletter this morning and as I scrolled down I was surprised to see a letter I wrote published!  lol  That was very nice!  Here is the excerpt from the newsletter: Barbara's email above brings us to our next inter-active topic: Rescued Needlework Needlework or Hand-Made Treasures I've Rescued – Have you ever found or purchased someone's needlework that has been thrown away or that you have found at a yard/garage sale or thrift store? Maybe you purchased needlework or handmade items on EBay or at an auction sale! I have! I would love to hear about your "finds" and show a picture of it, if you would be so kind as to indulge with me in this new inter-active topic! The old saying, "One woman's trash is another's treasure!" is oh, so true. I shared my rescued treasures in my last newsletter. Here is one more! Roz - you have touched on a subject near and dear to my heart this time! I scour thrift stores a...

I have been having a blast playing with my new computer program, Easygrapher Stitch Wiz.  It allows you to make diagrams of stitches - I wish I had had this when I was actively posting on the Build a Seam (BAS) stitches!  I may just have to take it up again - I wonder if anyone would be interested? Before I had this program, this is how I would do my stitch diagrams, by showing the progression of the stitch with needle and thread and then long, windy descriptions of where to bring your needle up and take it down in which direction.   Now I can do the same thing with the arrows and little numbers I can put on the stitch lines in the diagram.  Still figuring out the ins and outs of the program and how to get the arrows where you can see them!  If you start on the end with the number on this diagram though, you will be going the right way.  So, after a long absence,  Double Cross Stitch is the next BAS.  It is a useful little stitch that m...

I love making ATCs (Artist Trading Cards).  They are the perfect place to try something new or experiment with a stitch or technique.  Yesterday I wanted to make an ATC for a sweet lady I know so decided I would use Silk Ribbon Embroidery to make her a bouquet of flowers. Of course, I had to try something new so in this case it was toothpick roses.  You wrap the ribbon around a toothpick, forming the rose, and then slide it off and use little backstitches to keep it all together.  It was fun to try but a little too fiddly and small for my big fingers to enjoy - the joys of having "man hands"!  lol So, I don't think it is a technique I will fall in love with.  I am generally pleased with the total effect of the bouquet though and hope the recipient enjoys them.

I found a couple days to stitch this week on my stitching for pleasure project (as opposed to stitching for deadlines projects!  lol).  I am working on Diane Scott's "Apple a Day", a three dimensional canvaswork apple and thoroughly enjoying it.  Since I am still new to canvaswork, this is a bit of a stretch for me and I can see quite a few mistakes I would like to fix.  I have already done a substantial amount of frogging (ripit! ripit!) though and am running low on threads and having to make substitutions from my stash already.So, I will leave my errors to the end and see if I have sufficient amounts of the correct threads to fix them then. If not, they will end up being "personal adaptations to a commercial design".