Classes – sudukc's needleart & other musings

Taking a goldwork class

My first new adventure for 2022 is a goldwork class. I have several goldwork projects and ideas I would like to do but have had very little instructions in this media.

I audited a class from a local guild teacher, but didn’t do any actual goldwork. Our guild also had a teacher come for a class but it was more of a design class in goldwork than an actual hands on class. And I did computer work for a goldwork class (Golden Petals) taught by Toni Gerdes (www.tonigerdes.com) but I didn’t have time to stitch this one either.

I have 3 or four goldwork kits I’ve purchased and a couple projects on my drawing board I really want to stitch. So although I’m familiar with the technique I have never actually been in hands on class until now.

I am signed up to take a goldwork class with Clara Warschauer (www.clarastitching.com) . It is a small Shamrock and I can hardly wait, class starts Jan 17th.

Before my mother started a new project she would gather up every conceivable supply, tool, book, whatever she thought she might need to successfully complete the project. I am my mother’s daughter in some ways and I have been gathering up supplies for some time. My mother always had everything meticulously organized and although I fight organization I find myself being exactly like she was sometimes. So..

My class project has its own little box with every thing that came in the kit plus I have print off pre-workout instructions, wrapped my hoop and marked my pattern.

I wrapped my hoop with bias tape and drew my Shamrock on the fabric. Both hoop rings are supposed to be wrapped with woven tape ( I bought my tape when I bought my frames), cotton strips of cloth or bias tape. I did this but first one was so tight didn’t think I would get fabric on the frame and be able to tighten screw. So I only wrapped inner hoop on second frame as a back up; but fabric did fit…wonder of wonders.

Clara asked that we have cutting board to cut metals. I happen to have one from one of those guild class I audited. It is a computer disk holder, a polishing bag (you used to get these free in hotel rooms to buff your shoes or some high-end make- up companies put some of there products in these soft bags. And my bank gives away eyeglass cleaner cloths that work.) and a piece of card cut to fit box. You also can make on by just cutting a piece of velvet or felt to go around card…or if you are handy with sewing machine, make a bag. Put card in bag and place in tin.. and you have a cutting board with lid …this will be handy if you have extra gold cut and have to stop stitching (heaven forbid.)when you have a box with a lid, just put a lid on it and when you return everything is where it should be. Handy tip for those who have little friend around.

Clara also asked for goldwork scissors. I am covered here, I have every type of scissors imaginable. From top down: double curve, curved blade, snippet scissors, goldwork scissors (serrated edge), new embroidery scissors and surgery scissors ( one blunt tip). I have others types8 handy in my sewing room too.

She also said a mellor and a light box would be nice but optional. I have a mellor and I made my light box. I use a plexiglass see though ruler (made for quilters and used with rotary cutters), fabric weights but four of anything of same height would work and my phone with a white image and full brightness on the screen or a small flashlight to fit under board. Or use window; tape design on window and tape fabric over…nature’s own light box.

A stand is needed and I have stands…floor stand, lap stand and a clamp. Don’t know which I will use yet, but will let you know and why.

But that’s not all I’ve collected for my class, after all I am my mother’s daugter. I have this carrying case with most all my goldwork tools in one place.

Extra needles… the container holding needles is a Q-tip travel container. You can get them at discount stores or drug stores, they cost about a dollar and you get q-tips too (I think I had quite a supply of q-tips for a while)

I have gold thread( silver thread in drawer), extra felt with spare needles,, a thread bobbin, a thimble, needle threaders (because one does not always work), and beeswax.

Tweezers: read you should learn to use and not touch gold much. The oil from your had may tarnish gold. Also have read to wash hands but don’t use hand lotion…oils again. I have blunt tweezers, pointed tweezers , very pointed tweezers, and bent tweezers.

And miscellaneous stuff that I usually always have when I’m stitching. A light and dark lap cloth; if you use this under your needlepoint makes holes easier to see. I thought it might be useful under cutting board in case some gold pops. My extra eyes…don’t go anywhere to stitch without them. A ruler with metric measurements. And an ort box, although I don’t think any gold will be thrown away. And a good light source. I have several choices plus windows. And finally my stitching buddy; Jiminy has been with me for a long time.

So as you can see I am ready and waiting …can you tell I am excited? I’m going to bring my computer, notebook and phone up to my sewing room this week end to make sure I have good zoom reception otherwise will have to stitch in my office…guess I better clean a spot…it’s still a mess.

I’m also going to read more of the goldwork books I have collected this week-end. I’ll report on these later..

Thank You for stopping by again.

Hope you find time to do whatever makes you happiest today. Used to say stitch but whatever makes you creative, hope you have time to do it today and every day…

ttfn…sue

Burrrrrrrrr: Ann Strite-Kurz More catching up…

ED Note: I was out of my blogging phase when I stitched this and so pictures are incomplete…I am trying to be better now that I am back to blogging about taking pictures as I stitch. But sometimes I get carried away and forget…

After I finished Mr & Mrs I took a couple weeks off and just did knitting or Kumihimo…anything without beads. But one day I was looking through my stash and came across this piece. I have always loved it, it is an adaptation of a Charlie Harper print and I love Charlie Harper prints.

Ann-Strite Kurz (https://www.annstritekurz.com/ ) has always been one of my favorite teachers. If you read Ann’s resume it is very impressive…she is one of those teachers who has forgotten more than some of us will ever learn.

I own many of her books and I follow her article every month, Using Common Stitches in Uncommon Ways, in Needlepoint Now (https://www.needlepointnow.com/). Our guild had her teach an applique class one time and I loved it; I still use the techniques I learned in this class.

I love her work but was never able to get into one of her classes at ANG national seminars…My luck of the draw never seemed to work and most of her classes seemed to go to lottery.

Somewhere along my stitching path I had acquired one of Ann’s teaching pieces, Br-r-r-r-rdbath, (probably a stash sale or someone gave this to me). It has been one of my favorite pieces for a long time and had been waiting it’s turn in my stash, so I pulled it out…time to do an Ann piece.

Ann’s books are so well written that I knew her instructions would be no less and they were everything I expected them to be…excellent. Ann’s instructions and diagrams are some of the best. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into…I was looking for a fun easy stitch but this was going to be a learning piece. But you know what I have always loved this piece so it became my at home project.

First you basted guide lines on the canvas and then I started the design…

First you stitch the Smyrna outlines (dotted lines in picture)…then you started the border designs. The borders (A & B in picture) are truly a lesson in “Using Common Stitches in Uncommon Ways”! If I remember correctly, there were at least four steps to each border and then BEADING. Remember I said I was trying to avoid another beading project? Well at least you waited until the design was completed to add beading maybe I would recover from the Mr & Mrs beading.

Then I started the design part of the piece and every area was a review of a previously learned skill or an adaptation Ann has created to enhance this design (area C the birdbath.) I loved stitching this piece…okay maybe love is a strong word but I liked the challenge it presented. The leaves (D in picture) became a challenge for me and then I decided, this was my piece and I was stitching it for me and so if the leaves were giving me a fit I needed to adapt and overcome. The leaves became my change to the piece; I had stitched the first two (D in picture) as instructed and was having a devil of a time, so the rest of the leaves are my adaptation of the instructions. This was my fun relaxing piece and I was keeping it that way. I’m the only one (and now you too) that notices that the leaves are a bit different …but then aren’t all leaves in nature different?!

The body of the bird was a relaxing stitch, nothing I didn’t know how to do. But the wings were my next challenge. I love the look of Blackwork but it is really a technique you have to study to be really good at it. Ann’s instructions were wonderful and easy to follow. I made a couple mistakes but Blackwork is a technique some spend a lifetime perfecting. If you would like to pursue this technique, there are several books written about this technique. Here are the ones I have in my library:

Ilse Altherr; Reversible Blackwork, Book 1 and Blackwork & Holbein, Book 2

Becky Hogg; Blackwork RSN Essential Sitch Guide.

Marion Scoular; Why Call It Blackwork?, Folio of Blackwork Patterns

Ann Strite-Kurz; The Heart of Blackwork

Leslie Wilkens; Blackwork Made Easy;

Jane Zimmerman; Blackwork Embriodery Patterns, The Art of English Blackwork

By the time this piece was completed and I was ready to start the beading, I had decided that I would add the sequins (you use a bead here to attach the sequins) but the border was going to be sans beading. I liked the look and I was not into that much beading again.

So here is another project under my belt and it is also in a ready-made frame. I really do like framing pieces when I can do it myself, and then they don’t end up in my to finish later pile. So another project is completed but I still have more to catch up and then maybe by summer I will be back to finishing projects or sewing.

BTW, if you really love Charlie Harper designs, the Meredith Collection (http://themeredithcollection.com/) has them in needlepoint; you can see them at The Meredith Collection: http://themeredithcollection.com/collection/charley-harper/needlepoint.

When I get caught up on some of my stash, I will add to my collection here.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have time to stitch today.

ttfn…sue

Beading and Kumihimo

After our herringbone bead sampler class at Florilegium, my friend Nancy and I set out to discover what KC had to offer in bead shops and like any specialized needleart stores in our area there are few. We ended up finding a home at Bead Boutique KC (http://beadboutiquekc.com/) or (https://www.facebook.com/BeadBoutiqueKC/). Andrea is the owner; expert beader and enabler…just look at my stash.

We came away from our first visit with an easy leather stringing project; we could make a bracelet and scissor fob. And of course we ordered more to teach all our friends and grandchildren. It is a fun easy project; I have even done this with my Granddaughters. I made all my Grandsons a fact similar key-fob of a Boy Scout totem they wear when joining the tribe of Mic-o-say (https://www.hoac-bsa.org/tribe-of-mic-o-say) at H. Row Bartle Scout Reservation (https://www.hoac-bsa.org/bartle).

We set up a private class and learned Peyote: even-count. We signed up for a Basics of Beading meetings on the first Saturday of the month to learn different techniques from a basic beading book, Mastering Beadwork by Carol Cypher. We all bought it and a few others and more beads. We made a square of even-count peyote but I have to have an end result, so I looked through the two new books I decided to make beads.

There are two types of peyote beads: zipper and in-the round. I mastered the zipper method. And what do you do with 30 peyote beads; you make a bracelet. I also learned the ladder stitch for joining the beads, how to make a beaded clasp and a Pequot edging; not bad for a first project.

Our next class was an odd-count Peyote class. We made an American flag and I used size 8/0 beads because I was still trying to limit my stash accumulation. And I was also unsure of my ability and 8/0 beads are easier to do than 11/0 beads and definitely better than 15/0 beads, especially when learning. I hang this on a stand with all my other flags.

I have been very neglectful in attending the Basics of Beading

meetings and need to get back into them; but before I became so lazy and weather became cold I did attend Double-sided peyote diamonds project at the Basics of Beading meeting. My color choices were too close and it is hard to see the changes. I have these diamonds but haven’t decided how to use them yet.

In the meantime I had finished my herringbone sampler we had learned at Florilegium and Andrea suggested rather than buying more different beads I buy just buy size 11/0 in a matte black and finish this necklace. Well, it took me a couple months but I finally had two bead projects under my belt. Someday, I am going to buy or have enough beads to make a companion piece like the one in Bead Talk.

Then we found Kumihimo with beads. We had learned basic Kumihimo from Gretchen at Florilegium, but this added beads. Several books later and a stash of beads and we were off and Kumihimo beading. I started off with a red beaded necklace that I was going to use some of the leftover beads from my even-count peyote RWB bracelet but haven’t done anything with the R-W& B beads yet. Maybe I’ll get back to doing something with the R-W&B beads since it’s almost that time of year again; but I finished the red necklace before to Christmas.

But before I finished the red necklace I made a Kumihimo with Magatoma beads scissor fob. After I had strung most of the beads I noticed these beads have an up and down to them….but at this point I didn’t care. I thought I had been careful to sting them all going the same way. Let me preface this, depending on the look you are going for; if you string all the beads in the same direction, one way the beads will lie down like hair or scales of a fish, the other direction they will stand out and if you do a random stinging you will have a completely different look. Mine all laid toward the bottom of the scissor fob like fish scales…but trust me, it was pure luck.

Last fall the group had planned another beading class; it originally was designed to be a necklace but Andrea thought it was to not pliable enough to be a necklace and so she had made them into two inch beads and put them on a chain. I have finished my twisted peyote beads and have to pick a chain but in the meantime decided to make a bobble for my red necklace to wear at Christmas. I chose green beads and in a couple days had a twisted peyote bobble to wear on my red necklace. It is easy to get on and off so I can make others (remember the R-W&B beads

I also have bought Kumihimo books by Karen DeSousa and she has a twisted bobble with a twist. I was making it for St. Patrick’s Day but after I got it finished I noticed it is so similar in color to the one I made at Christmas; and I think it will be difficult to slide this one on and off a necklace; so I see more beading in in my future.

I have accumulated so many to do projects not to mention the beads and books with so many ideas I like that I am now a bead addict too. I have accumulated I had to get another bookcase for my overflowing library.

I believe this sort of fills you in on the last year and half of my creative life; now I just need to find the time to do all these creative projects and the ones running through my head. I do have a few others to share but I think my next post is going to be needlepoint. It is my main love and I do have several needlepoint projects to share with you.

Don’t forget March 30 National Stitching-In Day.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have time to stitch today.

ttfn…sue

Florilegium

I think I will keep taking the trip down memory lane by shop or type of technique (sorta off), so I will try and not forget anything. Second stop Florilegium…

If there is one place to go to get your creativity going this is it; the most wonderfully creative place in the Midwest! So if you are anywhere near Kansas City and St Joseph, make Weston, MO a sure stop on your itinerary. I would allow minimum half a day because after you step into the creative world of Florilegium (http://florilegium.com/) you may only come up for air when your stomach growls for food (great places to eat in Weston, Mo. too.)

Gretchen (pictured on left) is the artist and owner and she is another person I would just like to follow around and watch the creativeness dripping off of her. If only I could carry a basket and put some of her creativity into a basket and bring it home.

Cathy (pictured on right) is the store manager and is soooooo sweet, just talking to her can lift you up. She claims she’s not that creative but I’ve seen pictures of her house and yard. I think she is creative. And her munchies are very creative….I’ve eaten my fair share.

I never go in here that I don’t feel so inspired, it is eye candy for the creative. And I always want more.

AND this is one of the places I have been learning new things; I like to think of it as expanding my creativity, that sounds so much better than increasing my stash.

But in order to catch up quickly I am just going to list what we (there is always a group of us headed that way) learned in no particular order. We make a day of it; leave KC after rush hour, arrive about 10AM, stop for lunch (great bar-be que place (Tin Cup) in Weston) or Gretchen has a lite lunch if we are having afternoon class. If we don’t have afternoon class we shop and head home before evening rush hour starts. I love my days spent in Florilegium; whether you learn a new needleart or you just go for the eye candy, you are never disappointed.

Our first class was a beaded tassel. I forgot to take a picture but imagine place mats with everything laid out like we were having a meal. I was awe struck, I was also a bit dismayed because there were these two very fine knitting needles laying there and I knew that most of us did not know how to knit…

Sure enough Gretchen wanted us all to knit an “I” cord so long…we all looked like deer in head lights…knit? No, we are needlepointers. Gretchen never missed a beat…she told us to pick up our wooden bead, and thread our tapestry needle with our silk ribbon. She explained how to start covering the wooden ball with the ribbon. And while we were all engrossed in doing this, Gretchen slipped out of the teaching area, grabbed a different tassel and was back before our wooden ball was barely covered. I’m not sure anyone else noticed she had left the area, but since I was a needlework teacher, I was watching her to see how she adjusted to our bump in the road. Trust me, it did not faze her and I was in more awe of her. Not only is she soooooo very creative, she is calm as a cucumber.

We spent the morning making a tassel. Just before class was over Gretchen slipped out again and came back with a basket of yarn and needles. She placed it in the middle of the table and told us all we were going to have our first knitting lesson. And we did. Everyone tried to cast on several stitches and then she had us all knit. We knitted both directions. She suggested we go home get some size 8-10 knitting needles and a skein of sports yarn and knit the skein. When we were finished with that skein to get another and just purl the skein. And when we were ready to start a project , just come back and she would help us.

We all left that day with more than our tassels, but then that’s a given when we go to Florilegium. You can order the tassel on her webpage or just drop by and sit a spell and Gretchen will be happy to start you on your creative adventure with her. We also had picked out our next adventure…beading.

ED Note: A group of us get together a couple times and either finished our tassel or made another. And I have a bookmark that we need to do sometime this year. We usually get together again for most of our projects or just to stitch on our favorite things.

Beading was our next adventures…there were two adventures…

We made a beautiful Rose necklace; the technique is bead-weaving. The highest rose was supposed to hold the gold ring in place around your neck, but mine kept slipping. So I improvised and added another leaf to wrap around the gold ring; this worked sometimes but not always. So I decided to take the top rose off and to reattach above the brass ring. The third time is working; the necklace still goes over my head but the rose above the ring keeps the ring from sliding up. This was my first attempt at beading and so I may someday re-bead because I think with wear the beading thread will stretch…I’m not sure I stretched my beading thread before I used it.

Our next venture was Herringbone stitch. It was adapted from the book

Bead Play by Beth Stone. This was a fun little venture into a new stitch and also different beads. I really got into this and you will see my little piece again down the road. The hardest part was the diamond, but the instructions are in the book and by the time I got to it I had taken a Peyote class and was familiar with that technique too.

And yet more adventures were awaiting us at Florilegium: two types of needle-felt we learned.

Victoria Hart Ingalls (http://www.victoriahartingalls.com/) taught us Proddy Flower needle-felt and later some took Victorian Heart Fine needlefelt (http://florilegium.com/florilegium-events/). Victoria has been doing this a long time I have a bunny I purchased from her when I thought I might want to take up needlefelt. I went to a yearly gathering they have in town, but it was overwhelming to me at the time and I decided needlepoint was best for me at the time. I loved the Proddy Flower and finished mine and used some of the techniques later to make Christmas ornaments.

Our next needle-felt endeavor was needle-felting; we made a needle-felted 3D sculptures taught by Kate Barsotti, a really creative person. You can Google her and also see some of her things on Pintress or at Florilegium (http://florilegium.com/whats/kate-barsotti-needle-felted-creatures/).

My first meeting with Kate was at a Fiber Guild meeting where she presented an introduction to needle-felting and a mini needle-felting class. I though at this class she was so cleaver in the way she presented things. She had a huge box (10 inches long—industrial size) of Band-Aids and told us the needles are sharp and to be careful but if we needed any her Band-Aids were handy. The other thing about her classes is that she does not have a specific 3D project for you to make. She just starts you off making a core of needle-felt and when you ask what you are making; her answer is, “The felt will speak to you.” Mine was a baby Eagle.

At Florilegium Kate taught (http://florilegium.com/inspiration/beginning-needle-felting-kate-barsotti-nov-2016/) and we got to spend more time and learned about the different needles and felts and to see some of Kates work. This time my felt spoke up and said “I wanted to be a penguin”. And so a penguin was born.

Since my first steps into needle-felting I have acquired a stash and have made a few ornaments and animals but this is another posting…

We have never taken knitting classes at Florilegium but we have added to our stash and I really want to experiment with freeform crochet and knitting:

http://florilegium.com/one-small-thing-among-many/

http://florilegium.com/one-small-thing-returns/)

As the weather is getting more spring like I see a trip in my future…a day in Creative land.

Next time a trip to the bead shop…but for now I have not given up needlepoint, so I am off to stitch although I should practice knitting too…no I am going to needlepoint today.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have time to stitch today.

ttfn…sue

Finished UFO – Catherine Jordan class

Last week I was suffering from creative dry spell…it usually hits when I am overwhelmed, just finished a project or am putting off something. I was/am suffering from all the above.

Overwhelmed:

I have enough projects to complete or start to last several lifetimes (but I add to my stash, never know when you will need that one thing you do not have.)
I have so many things I need to finish…remember my desk
And then there are the pieces I need to stitch…deadlines
And the ideas that are floating around in my head and in my idea notebook

Finished a project, but more about that later

Putting off: Not that I’m putting off I just spent the last couple weeks taking pictures of projects I have not shared and I am still deciding how to present

BUT while going through my stash for something to do I found a UFO that fit 4 0f the five suggestions for wetting my stitching fingers…

1. Spend some time with your stash. That’s where I found this UFO
Finish a UFO. Need I say more…it’s a UFO
Practice a stitch/technique you haven’t mastered or would like to learn. This project is right up that alley
Look ahead to projects you must finish. Okay, I am procrastinating on this one.
Just keep active. That’s what I’m doing.

So I decided to work on my Contemporary Forrest Necklaces by Catherine Jordan. I have always loved this piece and when it was offered online several years ago (2014 I think) I enrolled. I don’t know whether I got overwhelmed by the class or it was a time constraint issue but I only got as far as painting the canvas/felt and cutting it out. I think I may have even tried putting some tree trunks in because one of the felts has marks that look like I may have taken a needle through it.

Anyway I had kept all the instructions and even the online comments and some of the pictures so I thought I’d give it a try. First, I re-read the instructions and all the online comments and then I picked one of the sets (I have five sets to stitch)

I started the tree trunks; they are wrapped thread technique using DMC Floss. Pretty simple but I still took them out once because I did not like them and when I re-stitched the trunks could not tell much difference so I thought maybe I was being overly critical of myself or maybe just trying to put off the next step.

I decided to go with my tree trunks and see where I ended up. The tree leaves were a challenge. Not the method, I understood that. Where to place them, where to attach them and how many was the challenge.

I decided to follow Catherine Jordan’s instructions to the letter and so the first tree on each side of the canvas is stitched according to her directions; Buttonhole stitch using more DMC Floss. By the time I got to Side B, I may have gotten carried away doing the red one but by then I had done the first set of trees and was feeling both confident and overwhelmed at the same time.

Let me give you insight into my thought process… When I revisited this UFO I had decided I could make several sets of these to represent the seasons…In my mind I would just whip them out one after another. In reality, the trunks for one canvas took me the better part of two days and the leaves for one tree another half day. By the time I had finished the one felt with leaves, I knew that four sets of canvas was not going to happen. This was supposed to be a fun project to get my creative juices flowing and while it was doing just that, I did not want it to turn into a project that I felt compelled to complete all four seasons.

So on the Side B felts, that could also be used as the front, I stitched the leaves with an autumn color pallet.

joined

I joined all the canvas together and placed them in the frame, and fluffed the leaves. Now I have two completed projects: Side A and Side B. I love the piece and now have my very own. I also think I want to bead a chain to use with this, but for now a simple gold chain will work…Just goes to show you, once the creative genes get to flowing…one thing leads to another.

I have saved the felts, threads and instructions for another day and maybe I will revisit or find something new to try with the felt…never know.

This project also gave me another blog post…my thoughts on written instructions. So over the week-end I am going to put my thoughts together and write a quick post on this for the beginning of next week. Until then…

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have time to stitch today.

ttfn…sue

Feb 8th: Feast of Hari-Kuyo

Bloggers and diary writers are left brained.

No apologies, no excuses…I am just totally right brained and when my left brain does click in I don’t think about blogging. I do get messages that some of you out there are still reading my blog and I thank you.

Today I got two emails from a friend in NC, Pam B:

Greetings from NC. I first learned of the Festival from your blog. This year I shared it with my local ANG chapter and they too were charmed by the idea. I am wishing you well and remembering happy stitching times…

and a second email:

Yes, please do get back to your blog! I miss it and I know that others do too. I actually had it set up to send me an email when you had a new entry and I often refer to it for how to’s and encouragement to learn new skills. No guilt — but do come back to us!

Thank you Pam, it jolted me into the present and a whole bunch of guilt. I have really been remiss in sharing with all of you my stitching friends. I am sorry and will try to do better.

I had been stitching last week and broke a needle, so when I put it in my broken needle bottle I remembered Feb 8th is the Feast of Hari-Kuyo. I even had the thought that this would be a good day to try and start blogging again. So today when there were two consecutive emails, the first from a Temari friend reminding us that today was the Feast of Hari-Kuyo followed by the second email from my friend Pam. I decided to stop whatever I really wasn’t doing important and to blog. (yes, it does take me getting hit by a two by (four) email to get my attention).

I had been reading the first email that had a link to Wikipedia Hari-Kuyo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari-Kuyo) first and was researching this: “Threads of the five Buddhist colors were used with the needles”. I brought up a sight that listed these colors and their meaning:

Five Main Buddest Colors: “Pancha-varna in Sanskrit” means Five Pure Lights

Order of colors (Blue-White-Red-Green-Yellow) should be either top to bottom or left to right. In top to bottom order, it is to spread good fortune, peace, sympathy and wisdom.

Also look at chart on Five Wisdom Buddas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Tathagatas)

ED NOTE: Can you tell how deep I get into things…no wonder I never have time to blog…

Meanings:

Blue: Purity & Healing

Buddha: Akshobhya “Immovable One” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akshobhya)

Represents consciousness as an aspect of reality.

Body Part: ears

Element: Air (sky & space)

Meditation: helps transform anger into wisdom

White: Learning & Knowledge

Buddha: Vairocana

Body Part: eyes

Element: water (air & clouds)

Meditation: cut delusion of ignorance to wisdom of reality

Red: Life Force & Meditation

Buddha: Amitabha

Body Part: tounge

Element: fire

Meditation: transforms delusion of attachment into wisdom of discernment

Green: Balance & Harmony

Buddha: Amoghasiddhi

Body Part: head

Element: nature (water)

Meditation: transforms jealousy into wisdom of accomplishment

Yellow: Rootedness & Renunciation

Buddha: Rainasambhava

Body Part: nose

Element: earth

Meditation: transforms pride into wisdom of sameness

These are my needles wrapped for Hari-Kuyo

After about an hour into this first email tangent I returned to my emails…and there was Pam’s email. So I figured it was a “sign” and so I stopped reading my emails and finished wrapping my broken needles so I could blog about all this. I wrapped them in the five Buddhist colors. I put them in a pot in the back yard to bury when the ground thaws (winter and cold here.)

I took pictures, took time to semi get my thoughts together and voila, “Here I am” So now that I have started blogging again, I am making no promises. You can see from my desktop I have way too many irons in the fire and I just seem to juggle everything I want to do to keep my nose above water and I can get carried away on a tangent at a moments notice. I am going to spend some time looking at my blog and seeing where I left off and filling in some of the blanks. In a nutshell, this past year I have:

*Finally learned to knit…I am a novice at this and have not progressed very well.

*Took up needlefelting, although I have not given this as much attention as it needs

Both of these art forms need practice and I just don’t give them the attention they need. But I do have a small stash to help guilt me into keep trying.

*Taken up beading and I do like this hobby in fact have now expanded

my stash to include beads

*Kumihimo both with and without beads.

*AND of course needlepoint. Needlepoint will always be my first love.

*Temari I still like these and need to make them more often

*And various other projects/ideas that are in my stash on buried on my desk.

*And last but not least the finishing of needlepoint I have neglected too.

As I said, I will go back and spend some time looking at my blog to see what I have been neglecting to share and to share some things I have been doing. I am not making any promises as to how often I will post but I do hope you will check back every now and then to see what I have been up to and what I am doing now.

Thank you Pam B for the kick in the backside…

And Thank you ALL for stopping by, I hope you have time to stitch today.

ttfn…sue

P.S Dee hope you got an update! And thanks again for reminding me I was neglecting a nice part of my life.

Hari Kuyo: Broken Needle Celebration

I like to think of this day more as a celebration than a memorial service. I know in Japan it is a solemn occasion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari-Kuyo).

I used to have more needles to share on this occasion, I changed needles every month; but lately I have been keeping my old friends around until they are no longer useful. I am hard on needles, sometimes when my arthritis in my hands acts up I use a pair of needle nose pliers to help me stitch and as you can see sometimes it is hard on the eye of the needle. Other needles especially my finishing needles tend to bend with use; but I use these (in fact I kinda like these sometimes best) until they eye breaks and then I have to replace. And occasionally I will use a needle that is not the correct size and I will break the eye right off.

Disposing of these needles is my big problem, I hate to bury them in the yard since they might work their way to the surface and a little person foot could find them. And I don’t want to pollute the streams or hurt our fish and wildlife. One year I saved them and put them in the needlebook I finally completed (https://sudukc.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/hari-kuyo-february-82013/). And another year I put them in frozen yogurt (https://sudukc.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/the-festival-of-broken-needles-hari-kuyo/) and sent them to a landfill…but that didn’t seem right either. This year I have wrapped them in the canvas they so often traveled and tied it with a thread that they so often carried through the canvas; but I have not decided how to dispose of this. Any ideas? I wish someone would come up with an idea to repurpose these needles. I often look at the wine cork art on Pintress (cork craft) and think needles…that can we do with these?

This year I decided to celebrate the day with some new needles…they have been on the market for about a year but I just keep putting off buying them but this week-end I remembered. Your local needlepoint shop can order these from Colonial Needle Company (http://www.colonialneedle.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?search=yes&keywords=Bullion) They carry Bullion needles in both sharp points and tapestry points. These needles come in one size, equal to a size 20 tapestry needle and three lengths 7 inch, 5 inch and 3 1/2 inch. I have not tried them yet but I have several ideas on the stitching board that have these needles in mind (I will keep you posted). And who knows, maybe we will eventually see these needles in a size 24 too.

Other people on the web have celebrated Hari Kuyo too:

Vicky DeAngelis over at Mostly Needlepoint celebrated this way…and the Love canvas is speaking to me! Thanks Vicki for helping out my stash enhancements)

http://mostlyneedlepoint.com/a-tradition/

http://mostlyneedlepoint.com/whats-new-2/

Susan Elliot at Plays with Needles celebrates too:

http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-gift-of-harikuyo.html

http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.com/2015/02/two-days-until-harikuyo-2015.html

And then Carol-Anne Conway at Threads Across the Web visited a Japanesee needle shop…lucky girl! http://threadsacrosstheweb.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-needle-in-market.html

Click on some of her links and you will wish we had shops like this in the USA:

Oh I need the egg sewing box: http://www.hakotou.co.jp/

The sewing boxes are wonderful and the pins from here would make marking Temari balls such fun:

http://justhungry.com/postcards-kyoto-misuyabari-and-hakotou-lovers-sewing-and-handcrafts

I’m going to continue to celebrate the day by stitching and enjoying the beautiful (60 degree) February day.

Thank you for stopping by to visit, I hope you find time to stitch today or do whatever helps you be creative! ttfn…sue

And a word from my stitching…

I joined the ANG CyberWorkshops for Michelle Roberts’ Ukrainian Eggs class. I received my instruction book a few weeks ago; the other supplies I already had, so I am ready to go. I spent one evening reading the instruction book (Michelle’s instructions are so good). I even have several of the Ukrainian Egg books in her bibliography that I have dug out. I am probably going to have to put this project out of sight…I want to start it now…looks like such fun. And lately we have been testing the web connection, so I’m really getting excited now.

I am also stitching on Debbie Stiehler’s Tomato but it is not a project I can take in the car…need a stand to stitch…going to have to find a small project to stitch for my to-go piece. Debbie has retired from active teaching, but if you were ever privileged to take a class from her, you know what fun she is. I love this piece and have put all the base lines in so now it’s just a matter of stitching along. I can tell some patterns are more difficult than others but that is the beauty of a Debbie Steihler piece…she keeps you on your toes (or I should say fingers).

And then I got a great surprise, the answer to my “to-go piece” prayers…

Who in their right mind is going to tell their DH that they can’t buy canvas(es) when he says I would like to have a some lighthouses to go with our ship pictures, why don’t you stitch me some. Oh a collection in the making, I love it. I sent him to ABS Designs (http://www.absdesignsonline.com/) and he picked out about 30 he liked! Now this is roll-reversal, but I made him look again and be reasonable to start…he picked out three he liked and I added a fourth. I kept a list of the others and let’s just say his birthday, anniversary; Christmas and Father’s Day are taken care of for the rest of his and my life. Lucky I also have a grandson that will like these someday too.

And then he was looking through my current issue of Needlepoint Now (http://www.needlepointnow.com/) and I heard him chuckle…and he said this is a funny canvas, you need to order this. Since I already ordered it from Wellesley Needlepoint (http://www.wellesleyneedlepoint.com/) (months ago); it arrive a couple days after he said something. He thinks we have a great delivery turnaround time; “That didn’t take long, did it” …when the opportunity opens you don’t have to tell me to twice to keep my mouth shut. Yep, we girls are fast.

Of course now his mantra is, “I don’t want to hear you say you have nothing to stitch.” Glad he doesn’t look at my office and closet very closely.

I’m off to choose my new stitching project threads…don’t want DH to think I am not doing my part to start his new collection…and I did say I needed a something small to stitch.

Oh more finishing, I need to get caught up so I can send this stuff to someone else…maybe I can interest my daughter –in –law into finishing…she likes to sew. She makes American Girl doll clothes and sells them on Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/alldolldup). If she has the patience to do doll clothes maybe she’d like needlepoint finishing…hum-m-m.

And it will be a couple weeks before I get back to finishing, I am taking a break to house and dog sit at my niece’s house…This is my favorite week of the year, nature and stitching and no cooking if I chose not to do so. Just me, and my stitching…DH is there too, but he comes and goes…cooks too. I’ll take pictures, it is so tranquil and peaceful.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have time to stitch today! ttfn…sue

Asian Collage Completed and an inspirational day

Happy Dance… a very happy dance!

Asian Collage is quilted and finally finished, framed and almost hung…Oh did I luck into a deal. Took piece to a Hobby Lobby looking for black bamboo frame (I had been several other places too). I hate it when I get an idea in my head how I want something finished and I can’t find it. Well anyway, here I am at Hobby Lobby, they had a wide bamboo (about 1.5 inches) black molding. The lovely lady in the frame shop is measuring my piece for the matting and frame when all of a sudden she says, “Honey, you know if I make these mat just a bit smaller you could use a premade frame and I think there is a black one over there that would look very nice, but it’s not bamboo.” So over she goes and back she comes with this frame and lays it on the mats and needlework. Then she says, ‘Honey, this frame will save you over a hundred dollars.”…well bamboo was my choice and “Honey” is not my name or favorite term of address; but a bargain is a bargain. So I asked her how long it would take to get my mattings cut (thinking minimum one week) and when she said 15 minutes and I could take everything home. I was sold, a quick turn around and a bargain too, who could ask for anything more and you can call me “Honey.” So this is my under $50.00 finish!

And then this week end my local guild held their Christmas Party and it was wonderful! The program was Victoria Crowder Payne. She is one of those talented, inspirational, creative people who, if you are luck, will pass through your life more than once. She shared the store of her creative and personal life with us and shared her work as well as her project and sketch books. If you have a few hours, grab a cuppa tea and visit: http://freedomofstitch.com/ AND http://www.fearlessstudio.com/. I am off to grab my cuppa(s) and visit these again to see if I missed anything on my first visit.

Only 15 days left until Christmas, I think I should start my shopping. I just hope it warms up, single digit temperatures just make me want to snuggle in and stitch.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have time to stitch today!

ttfn…sue

Soap Box & Stitching

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving; we did, lots of food and family, just what Thanksgiving is all about. I think it is very sad that this was the 150 year since President Abe Lincoln proclaimed this a national federal holiday and we have consecutively celebrated it as such. But no mention of this fact just that our greedy big box stores and media needed to put the almighty dollar ahead of family values.

And thank goodness for Tony Rohr, my 2013 man of the year who stood up and said enough. I think it is ironic that Pizza Hut announced on Thanksgiving that they were hiring him back when the day before they said he was not fired but quit. Pizza Hut missed the out by not saying, You’re absolutely right and all Pizza Huts will be closed on Thanksgiving and we will reopen on Black Friday with a Black Friday special of $x.xx pizzas…no limit….People would have flocked to their doors.

And then on Saturday to add to the media frenzie the reports were out: Thanksgiving day shopping was up 20%…no duh…1st time for this…but Friday sales were down 20% …hum could this be the Thursday sales? But then these retailers never figured in the expense of paying these employees and the overhead of lights, water and heat to operate these stores. And the gravy on the turkey was when it was reported that Penny’s, Target, K mart and Macy’s were caught selling things at higher prices than the tags were originally marked or the items had previously offered in their stores at lower prices. Their answer; it was a price point adjustment…it was an adjustment all right…greed.

We used to have “Blue Laws” nothing was open on Sundays and holidays that was not essential. Some groceries, drug stores had limited hours but other than that it was police, fire and emergency personal. And you know what I survived!

And that’s my soap box stance for this year…don’t start me on Christmas…but just so you know I am thinking of creative ways to buy gifts this year that do not support those big box stores that were open on Thanksgiving. I would rather pay a little more for that toy at a local, home owned toy store or shop that supports my local economy than line some corporate exec or shareholders pockets.

But there was one good thing that came from this shopping/media frenzy…I stayed home all week-end! And so last week-end I had time to finish my stitching…I did not shop.

And SundayI thought I was ready to do a happy dance and send this needlepoint off to the framer…But, oh no, I forgot I had one more step…

Removed canvas from stretcher bars:

Placed a piece of nice muslin… and yes there are varying degrees of muslin just visit any JoAnn’s fabric just to see how many types of muslin there are not to mention natural or bleached…I used natural. Okay press flat so there are no folds or wrinkles, place over top of stretcher bars and wrap to back of bars and secure with tacks or staples, pulling taut, not tight but taut without much give but not tight enough to bounce a quarter off the surface. Over the muslin place a piece of natural batting… secure to sides of stretcher bars with tacks or staples. I did not pull the batting other than to make it lie flat on top of the muslin. Then on top of this I put the needlepoint back on the stretcher bars pulling snuggly.

Then I took a nap 😉

Now it is time to stich around each of the motif/patterns with beading floss over two threads…I’m going to do the foreground first and then mid ground and finally background…

Be back one of these days…

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving; you had time to spend with family and stitch too.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have time to stitch today! ttfn…sue