Framed

I finally got some things framed:

Twister, finished 2012, this piece will hang in our entryway along with other black/white/red things.

Mystery Retreat, Las Vegas, 2009, this huge project has been finished for 5 years!.  I had it stuck on my wall with tacks in Vegas, but now it is finally properly framed.  I actually use this piece as a stitch sampler and refer to it often!

My version of Jean Hilton's Puzzle Purse, my "Puzzle Piece".  The Puzzle Purse was a Cyberpointers' SAL in 2013.  I did not want a purse, so reworked the design area into a square.  It was quite a challenge, which was Jean Hilton's intention!  I'm pleased to have it framed now.

BITS & PIECES

I don't have any pictures to show you yet, but will report on my adventures anyway!

I just got back from the Mystery Retreat in Portland, OR.  It was really fun, I had a great time & learned new stuff!  I hope to be able to show you pictures later on.  I stayed an extra day to do some sightseeing and wished for more time.  Portland is a terrific city!  I did manage to see the famous, spectacular rose gardens and visit the Saturday Market, which is kind of an arts & craft show/sale held every weekend. 

My Mad Miters on-line workshop through CyberPointers started this week.  I have been busily answering questions!  It will be such fun to see these projects develop.

My trunk show has been received by Rittenhouse Needlepoint in Philadelphia and will be displayed during the ANG Seminar there next month.

It is summer in Las Vegas which means HOT HOT HOT.  We have had a few thunderstorms so far this summer which do cool things down for a day or so.  (It was cool, cloudy, overcast most of my stay in Portland.  Glorius!  Even though I wasn't prepared for that & had to buy a fleece jacket!) 

What have I been doing?

So far this has been a crazy busy summer!  We spent 2 weeks in Reno where we went for Jason & Monica's wedding.  The wedding was at Lake Tahoe and was very nice.

I signed up for way too many "monthly" projects.  Although I have worked on all of them, I haven't posted about all of them & I need to get that caught up so you can see what I've been working on.

Plus I am piloting Ro Pace's "Illusions", which she will be teching at Seminar this year.  I have completed one quarter and will show you that soon.  It's a very pretty piece!

Then there is all the stuff I can't show you!  I will be teaching a Correspondence Course called Bargello Techniques for ANG.  The model will be shown at Seminar in Philadelphia, but I can't show you here until after Seminar, I think.  I think registration opens in November.

I have shipped two pieces, the Diamond in a Square Mad Miters and Twisted Metal to the Seminar Exhibit.  Let me know if any of you see them there!

I will be doing a Trunk Show for Rittenhouse Needlepoint during Seminar!  I am very excited about that.  This week I will get everything printed up & packed to mail next week.

Next week I leave for Portland for this year's Mystery Retreat.  My prework is finished, but I can't show you any of that till after the Retreat.  I am looking forward to this little mini vacation.

Next I will start posting about projects with pictures!  Stay tuned!

IT'S FINISHED!!!!

I can't believe it! The Mystery Retreat Project is finished! I put the last stitch into the bottom section yesterday. What an accomplishment. Started at the Mystery Retreat July 2009. Once I made this my "Sunday project", progress was consistent. The bottom section took quite awhile to do as it has so many isolated stitches. This is one of the most ambitious projects I have done in years. I'm feeling pretty proud of myself & doing a MAJOR Happy Dance!!!

Mystery Retreat Project Progress #9

I worked on the Mystery Retreat Project yesterday, almost all day. I spent quite a lot of time trying to decide how I want to arrange the colors. The pattern has darker shades than I want, plus the green & lavendar are scattered all around the section. There are 9 distinct areas in this section and I have decided to concentrate the colors in each section. So that, some will be all green & ecru, some will be all Lavendar & ecru and only a couple will have all 3 colors. And I am mostly using the lightest or next to lightest shades.

Soooo, I have now totally finished the 2 lower left sections. The upper right section is almost finished, I'll probably do that one next week. I hope that this will go faster now that I have made some decisions about it!

Mystery Retreat Project Progress #8

The last 2 Sundays I have worked on the last section (the bottom section) of the Mystery Retreat Project. This section was designed by Linda Reinmiller. I am adjusting the colors slightly to make it more muted. To begin with, I had to rip out most of one of the "strings", which I had stitched at the class. I had made a counting error. I made lots of counting errors while stitching these 5 "strings"! I think the part of my brain that counts has been on vacation!! Anyway, yesterday I finally finished all the strings & they are correct, I think LOL. They are important to be correct as so much of the remaining motifs count from the strings. I got the first batch of multi-layered stars (8 of them)completed last night. The other motifs that are there were done in class. I'm hoping to finish this piece by Halloween!

Mystery Retreat Project Progress #7

Yesterday I completed the Left Side section on the Mystery Retreat project. I decided to leave the star in and added the Bargello. I think it turned out OK. the pattern had called for a kind of darning pattern in just one #4 strand of gold metallic. I thought that it would be much too light weight and not balanced with the rest of the piece. Only one more section to go!

Mystery Retreat Project Progress #6

Here I am again, back in Las Vegas, and reasonably functional. I still have some organizing to do, but I can usually find things! It is still pretty warm, but not as bad as it was last month. It is pretty much in the mid to high 90s now.

Yesterday I started back to work on my Sunday Project, the 2009 Mystery Retreat Project. I got quite a bit done on the Left Center Section. The picture on the left is the detail of the section I'm working on. The picture on the right is the whole project to date, in case you forgot!

This section is my least favorite. There is another motif to do kind of in the middle of the Irregular Eyelets. Then I will have to decide what I want to do about the rest of it. I don't care for the center star - it looks squashed to me. I am considering trying to rework it & make it less squashed. After that, there's only some backstitching in a pattern & I think it is too light for the rest of the piece. I'm thinking of putting in some Bargello in a zig zag pattern instead. Stay tuned!

Mystery Retreat Project Progress #5

I have been working on the Mystery Retreat Project and this weekend I finally finished the 3rd Section. This section was designed by Debbie Rowley, of DebBee's Designs, and has been a fun challenge. The only real change I made to this section was to the ecru & green sections at each end. The straight lines of ecru Neon Rays were supposed to be squiggly and I made them straight. This piece will now rest for several months. I will be going up to Reno in a couple of weeks for the summer and it is too big to haul back & forth!

Mystery Retreat Project Progress #4

I worked on the Mystery Retreat project several times this week, but mostly yesterday. I am working on the right-side section. I have completed the center motifs which took hours & hours, but they sure turned out nice! The very center is a "Padded Double Fan Doubled over a Double Fan Doubled!!!!!! So there are 3 layers and 5 different threads. The only thread that was a problem was silk which is stranded & difficult to lay nicely in the Double Fan Doubled. The two motifs above & below that are Padded Pyramids. Again, multi-layered, this time 3 layers, 2 of which are the padding. These went quite fast actually. Oh and then there are the giant Rhodes at each corner of the center motif. Those are in Neon Rays, which I steam ironed cause I didn't want to wait for it to dry! It'll be 2 weeks before I get to it again, but I hope to complete this section fairly quickly once I get back to it.

Mystery Retreat Project Progress #3

The next project I worked on over Easter Weekend was the Mystery Retreat Project. I finished the center Z-shaped section. There are some hard stitches in this section! The big ecru Amadeus' were fun, but the little green layered thingies at top & bottom next to the Crescents were really hard! They were supposed to be in the sort of purpley color, but I decided to do them in the green. One picture shows you the entire section and the other is a detail of the part I worked on Sunday. Next I will do the right-side section.

Mystery Retreat Project Progress #2

I have worked on the Mystery Retreat project several times, even though I did miss at least ONE Sunday! I have been working on the center section, which is kind of "Z" shaped. It seems to go on forever! The only change I've made is: There is supposed to be some gold threads and I am using Kreinik #4005 (Sugar Cube) instead. I will put in a little bit of gold to keep the sections tied together.
The first picture shows the entire project. The 2nd picture shows the center section. The 3rd picture shows the detail of one end of the center section (it mirror images at the center). I tried to enhance the color, but just ended up with 3 different things! Oh well, you get the idea! The colors are shades of green, ecru and touches of a kind of taupe-y rose. I will probably tone down the rose parts sometimes. The darker rose shade is a little too purple-y for me.
I will miss working on it this Sunday, so it will be a couple of weeks before I have anything more to report.
Addendum: The pictures got rearranged by Blog. The top 2 show the center section & detail. The picture to the right is the whole piece.

Mystery Retreat Project Progress

Some of you may remember that I went to a Mystery Retreat last summer here in Las Vegas. It was great fun and the project is super, but huge! This project is now my weekend project. I am planning to work on it on Sundays, and sometimes Saturdays. The Mystery Project has 5 sections, each designed by a different designer. I started working on the top section last weekend and yesterday I completed that section. This top section was designed & taught by Patricia Hartman. It didn't quite fit on the scanner, but it is mostly there, just cut off a little of the left side (which is just like the right side). I had to make a few changes as I messed up the positioning of one of the stitch patterns: The Herringbone down the center was supposed to be offset - not right in the middle! But the middle is where it was, it was really pretty, and I didn't want to take it out. So I just made necessary adjustments to the other patterns. I also changed the Bargello areas on either side because those areas were too small now to work right with the intended pattern. I think it turned out pretty though!

NeedleArts Mystery Retreat 2009 Pictures

I didn't get pictures posted yesterday, so here they are. They aren't very good, but they're the best we're going to get right now. Above are the top and bottom details, and to the left is the whole piece. As you can see, I didn't get all that much done! The canvas is Eggshell, the colors in the piece are ecru, sage greens, a soft rose, and metallics. The stitches are wonderful, many are new to me and some are quite a challenge. These teachers are "known" for making up new stitches! I won't be able to stitch on this again for several months. I actually left the piece down in Vegas (I flew back to Reno this morning). I have other projects that demand my immediate attention, so I figured I'd just save it to work on when I go back down there in the Fall.

NeedleArts Mystery Retreat 2009

The Mystery Retreat is over and now I have a huge project to finish! I highly recommend this retreat! It is relatively inexpensive as these things go. You get a mystery project that has distinct sections, each designed by a different teacher/designer and then each section is taught by it's designer. It is a super concept and the retreat was a lot of fun. The photo shows the prework finished; sorry about the photo but it is ecru thread on eggshell canvas & just doesn't show up very well!

Day 1: The morning session was with Linda Reinmiller. Linda designed and taught the bottom section of the piece, which she calls Starry Night. Many of the stitches she used are star variations, layered stars, spider stars, multi-colored stars, large & small. Linda's instructions are comb-bound and her diagrams and directions are the best!! I've taken a class from Linda before and she is always very well prepared. Can't get much done in 3 hours, but we tried!
The afternoon class was with Pat Hartman. Pat designed and taught the top section of the piece, which she calls Desert Ribbons. The stitches are Bargello patterns, wrapped stitches, herringbones, leaf stitches, rhodes variations. Again, 3 hours just isn't very long! In class, I only completed 4 trips of the 6 trip Herringbone! We wrapped up before 4PM as most of the ladies were anxious to get to Stitcher's Paradise for a shopping spree!

Day 2: The morning class was with Debbie Rowley (DebBee's Designs). Debbie designed & taught one of the side sections, which she calls Child's Play. Stitches are layered, padded, Crescents and Jessicas, Rhodes and fillers. Debbie's instructions are spiral bound and her diagrams and directions are excellent. Debbie had us work on a doodle cloth as some of her stitches need to be learned before putting them on the "real" canvas, especially the Double Fan Doubled!!
The afternoon session was team taught by Pat Hartman and Mary Knapp. This section was designed by Linda, with input from Pat & Mary, and it is called "emergenZ". This is the center section of the piece and is kind of a "Z" shape. It uses stitches such as Crescents, Amadeus, Rhodes, Jessica variations, couching and woven stitches. Again, Linda came through with comb-binding and superb written instructions and diagrams.

Day 3: Just a morning class today, and it was with Mary Knapp. Mary designed and taught the other side section. Mary's stitches are fans and eyelet variations and an unusual Star in the center. We got more done in this morning session, but ended early as some of the ladies had planes to catch. Some of us kept stitching till noon though.

We had a lunch buffet both days that was very nice, salads & sandwiches. The facility was lovely and well air conditioned! A must for Las Vegas in the summer! Again, I highly recommend this retreat. All of the teachers are excellent and the projects are beautiful. It is an annual affair, so keep tuned to their website for next year's location. www.needleartsmysteryretreat.com There should be a picture of this year's Mystery on the website soon.

I will stitch on the piece today and add some pictures later.

Mystery Retreat

Today I am flying to Las Vegas (I must be nuts, it is 107 degrees there!) to attend the Mystery Canvas Retreat, go to www.needleartsmysteryretreat.com for details. This years Mystery is a 2-1/2 day retreat, featuring classes with Pat Hartman, Mary Knapp, Linda Reinmiller and Debbie Rowley (DebBee's Designs) who have created a Mystery design for us. I have completed my prework and am on my way. Since we have a house there, and my husband is there, I will not be staying at the hotel, but will drive back & forth (only about 10 min.) each day. The piece is large - I had to get 15x28 stretcher bars! I have been wanting to do this retreat ever since I heard about it several years ago at the ANG Seminar in Tucson. So it is finally here. I don't know how often I'll be able to post the rest of this week, but I'll try! I think I will be able to post pictures after the retreat. Wish me luck!!