Finally in Texas

Another couple of uneventful traveling days.  The weather is fantastic.  

Wednesday

I have a serious question about parks in the desert.    Why is it that shade is so hard to come by.  When I lived in the desert I knew that shade was a premium.  It amazes me that every park we stay in has the West sun shining on the passenger side of the coach which is the area where you want to sit out in the evening.  It baffles me.  If you are in the RV park business i would think you would be more cognizant of what your customers needed.   However on the other hand if you are here in the winter, which is snowbird season, perhaps you like that sun in the evening.  Not my thing.   In addition, the WIFI service is not available, so you are getting this update a day late, Marj.  Sorry about that.  The park is Little Vineyard in Demming, AZ.  It is not one of my favorites.

I had a heck of a day with Autumn Leaves.  Holy cow I must have stitched, pulled out an re-stitched the zig zag three times.  It was so frustrating.  I have figured out that when I cross stitch I count blocks….open spaces…when I needlepoint I need to count threads.  I got so frustrated I had a cocktail right after lunch!  ha

Jasmine is enjoying the view from the front dash!

I am working on Mini Mandala IIB in the evenings  I had wanted to get more done, but that is just not happening for some reason.  

I am looking forward to finishing this third in the series of three.  Ready to frame them and hang them together.  

Thursday

We made it to Texas and are in Fort Stockton for the night.  We will be in Blanco tomorrow in time for the weekend.  

The weather is still great, warming up as Texas heads into summer.

I managed to finish the last portion of Autumn Leaves today.  It was not too bad and I am glad to have it finished.  I still have some of the extra metallic and detail to complete which should be no problem (she says confidently).  What I will do with it, who knows.  Perhaps I will frame it.  I have another Laura J. Perin project called Lilacs that looks like a companion piece to the Autumn leaves.  I will be doing that one during our next trip.

I will be posting from Blanco for a few months.  Hoping not to have another major flood this year!

Thanks for visiting.

Needlepoint News

Autumn Leaves Laura J. Perin Cyber Class

I received the first "lesson" and got a little work done.  I have found that counting for needlepoint is different than counting for cross stitch.  I think the deal is that you have to count the threads, not the holes.  I am not quite sure, but I know I have had to pull out several areas and redo them when they did not work out properly.  It is very interesting working with the metallic ribbon (the gold part of the border portion).  I have never worked with it before.  It is surprising easy, but it does fray quite a bit.

Grace Dimensions Kit

It is interesting.  I am having the same counting problem.  Since this was a pretty inexpensive kit (compared to most kits....it came from Amazon), I am using it for practice.  Hopefully it will help me with the other needlepoint project.

Those pinkish stitches were fun to do.  They are called Teardrop Jessica stitches.  Surprisingly easy once I got the hang of them.   This thread in the kit is all what appears to be a 6 strand DMC type cotton so there is a certain comfort level.  There is a little metallic threads for finishing but that shoes not be a problem.  I am hoping I will get better as I am not sure I am happy with the continental stitch (I think that is what the half crosses are called).  I am beginning to completely understand the use of a laying tool.

I got these started because I want to do them while we are traveling in a couple of weeks so there will not be any progress until December or so.

Thanks for visiting.

Needlepoint: A New Needle Adventure

I have been so happy with all the specialty stitches I have learned this year thanks to Chatelaine designs and all the wonderful facebook posts that I have been drawn to branch out.   I just enthralled with the stitches I have learned so far and am always looking for  a place to use them.  I have not been called to do any hardanger I think because I cannot bear the throught of cutting holes in something I spend hours stitching!  I am a big chicken I suppose.

I have done a few needlepoint kits in the past that were basically just half crosses; tent, continental and basketweave.  I got a little bored with them frankly.

After a visit to a shop, I have been looking again at Needlepoint sites and have realized a couple of things.......

There are incredibly beautiful pieces out there that are far beyond the typical 'half cross" technique that I have done before.  There seem to be thousands of variations on the tent and continental stitches.

Needlepoint canvases can be VERY expensive.....as can the fibers used.  But oh my are they beautiful!  There seems to be a huge difference in the hand painted canvases versus the canvases I have dealt with in kits I have purchased and worked in the past.

Many Needlepoint canvases do not come with "instructions".  There are "stitching guides" available in some cases, but they, too, are expensive.  For the most part, it seems that needlepoint stitchers pick their own fibers and stitches and create really amazing things.

So I have gone a little crazy trying to find out where to learn some of these wonderful stitches and found a Cyber class offered by Laura J. Perin (a needlepoint designer).  I am thrilled to be a part of it and will be posting my progress.  It is called Autumn Leaves.

I was luck enough to get the last kit available.
Just what I need is another project!

Today, Monday, November 2, 2015 the "kit" came in from Laura J. Perin.  I am so excited about starting on this new adventure that I am over the moon!  So, I put the binding on the mono canvas and looked through all the instructions....I have to decide how I am going to mount the fabric on either 11" stretcher bars that I have or a scroll rod.

I choose the teal option for this project.  The fibers are just beautiful.  This will be a first for me.

I use seam binding that I get from thrift stores to bind the edges of the mono canvas.  The canvas is very stiff so this makes the edges softer and I do not like using masking tape for some reason.  Hopefuly this will work

I have not yet found any other participants in this class but I am sure some will emerge as time goes by.

For those who follow me, I think I am going to tag these posts as needlepoint so you do not have to suffer though them if you are not interested.

Thanks for visiting and stay tuned for the "progress".