I have also received some lovely pictures from Dana Spernal. Just a treat to see some of these pieces that are my favourites done by stitchers. I love it! Here are her pictures too. My Stitching Treasures a perennial favourite, Take Time to Read – my most favourite thing to do besides stitching, and Mandala Sampler – a truly wonderful stitch for modern times. I most tell you I also took the photo of my shot of Mandala Sampler and put it to canvas, oh my gosh it is just grand. I put it on 16 x 16 and now it hangs in my living room, it looks just like I stitched it just bigger. Seeing has how my samples are always on the road I needed my picture for my wall and now I have one!

I have also received lovely pictures of a new piece that Pam of Olde Colonial Designs and I have taught at a few places. We will be releasing this at Nashville next February so look for it to come, I know some of you have been asking! I won’t post those pictures till February!

Love that you are sending pictures and I will get better at inserting images into the posts and adding to the ‘zen cart’ and all these computer things that are always a huge learning curve for me!

We were in southern AB last weekend and I have to show the canola fields – they are beautiful! Have a great few weeks ahead -I will post the new pattern in a month – Take time for Friends, the match to Friendship Sweet Bag! Look for it to come.

We are also getting our Shepherd’s Bush boxes ready as you can see with going across the ocean there will not be alot of time upon return so we have been very busy getting the product ready for both events. I am running to the printer tomorrow with the Take Time for Friends piece to get it printed….. and am printing all the class product here at home. The printer is ‘hot’!

Hope you are enjoying your summer stitching.

On to my new projects for release. We are opening for general release “Once Upon A Tree” the popular pattern first designed for Just Cross Stitch Magazine that started in 2008. As usual it has an embellishment package available for it that has all the silk threads and beads used in the piece; skeined per season. There are 4 skeins – one for each season and then the beads are labelled.

To finish off the series of biscornus started in February we now have Summer Biscornu Stackers and Winter Biscornu Stackers. Summer comes with the buttons and one length of overdyed silk and Winter comes with the buttons. They both use DMC floss as did Spring and Autumn. They are such fun to look at, I have them in my office where I can see them readily and enjoy – it is summer right!

I am hoping to work on the website with some more pictures, some corrections to a few things and generally try to make sure the patterns and embellishments that go with each other are the right ones! This is my wish to do over summer along with continuing to design for all my projects next year and events.
I hope that you all have a lovely summer and get some vacation in and enjoy family and friends.

But I have to tell you about the ‘Lima’ boys! What can that be you say! Well to get to Celebrations in Nashau, NH it is an all day affair with the airlines, and of course on the day I left Calgary the rain went to snow and our plane was late leaving then we had to get de-iced and so that made me miss my connection to Manchester, NH in Toronto so along with 2 young fellow who were travelling to Lima we got stranded in Toronto for the night.Now it is not what you think, we only had a drink and dinner! On a full plane out of Calgary all other passengers could get connectors that afternoon on later flight except for me and the boys from Lima, as I came to call them. It made for much more fun than a dreary evening in the hotel room waiting to leave the next day.

The gals who got me for class at Celebrations a mere hour after arriving in Nashau had a bit of a surprise as I was rather wound up but I did settle down and thank you girls for not making me feel so bad about my first 1/2 hour rant! I got it out and on we went with a lovely Thistle lavender bag class. How wonderful to see you all at Celebrations, it is so nice now that I am getting to know some of you by name and face! I love that. Thank you all for your words of encouragement and lovely visits in between all the busyiness of the show.

In Montreal with the Lakeshore Stitchery Guild we enjoyed our luncheon immensely and what a great little place – they let us visit all afternoon. A view of the Lake of Two Mountains (lac des Deux Montagnes) and a beautiful day was a treat. On my flight out of Montreal to Toronto I have to tell you – those of you who watch Hockey Night in Canada will know – I talked/met at baggage claim and walked out of the baggage area to the main arrival level in Toronto with Ron Maclean and Don Cherry!! Imagine! It was great, I was hoping I wouldn’t make a fool of myself, but I did tell them that I stitch while my husband watches hockey, and they both said “STITCHING?” and were probably disappointed they weren’t the main event!

Once in Toronto I taught for the Niagara Guild in St. Catharines, my home town where I went to high school and once again had a surprise when I went to Fort George;  working in the kitchen circa 1812 was a highschool friend who I hadn’t seen in many, many years, well since grad, and she recognized me right away and called me by my maiden name – very cool! The stitchers in Niagara were awesome and we had a wonderful time sharing and stitching together for 2 days – it went by all too quickly, it ended rather abruptly when the power went out but we were almost done the second day anyway.

As you can see it was a fun filled month and some exciting things making for good stories. Now I have to be back on the designing board and get some of my projects for the end of this year and next year started and done! Look for fun things to come, look for me at an event to come, you know I love meeting you so make sure you come and say Hi!

As ever, jeannette

From there I will fly to Montreal and we will have a lovely luncheon with the Lakeshore Creative Stitchery Guild on the Monday. Please let Heather know if you will be attending. I look forward to seeing the Quebec stitchers; our time at  Manoir d’Youville was terrific just a few short years ago. I hope the weather is as lovely as it was then. The beautiful weeping willows across the water still hold bright in my memory.

Then it is down to the Niagara area where I grew up and see  familiar faces there too. What a blessing it is to be able to come back to places and share of our love of stitching and share in teaching and helping each other grow in our fervent interest of stitching. I hope that at each event we can learn and grow in our abilities as it gives us such pleasure and also it is such a fun social time. When I worked in nursing there was never very many people  interested in stitching as I was – although one of the psychiatrists I worked with was and we would huddle in the staff room and ooo.. and ah… over what each other was working on, what fun. Now that I am more immersed in it – I certainly don’t feel so alone with my passion and if you ever thought of taking a class or come to an event I can only say – you are missing out if you don’t go!

I am using the Mandala Sampler to create a couple of fun things, one of them is a tart pan pincushion which turned out really cute and Pam from Olde Colonial says she will have a frame for me for the other Mandala.

The round circle patterns just lend themselves to some fun things, I am stitching the over one – one right now in another different colour and it should be cool I think as a pin wheelie – I have a few other Mandala patterns that might be fun too… we shall see, it seems like for the fun stuff I run out of time! See I am doing it last minute before I leave.

Enjoy! think of other fun stuff and we shall see you soon at an event!

In stitching,

jeannette

Just a reminder that the On line Needlework show is starting today. Do go have a look at it, you will enjoy seeing the different designers and your local needlework shop can easily order what you have in  mind.

www.needleworkshow.com/

Now I look forward to the next venue! We are madly packing boxes and shipping off to Celebration of Needlework in Nashau, NH. It has been chaos and I sincerely hope I have remembered everything. It is an event of excitement and sharing of our passion of stitching. Hope to see you there.

My last event for the spring is in St. Catharines where I grew up, how absolutely thrilling it is to go your home town and teach. It will be great to see family and friends and make new stitching friends. Just remember to bring scissors and stretcher bars/Q snaps and you are welcome at any event!

In stitching, jeannette

Tomorrow I get to have fun all over again in Portland at Acorns and Threads. I love Portland and love the stitching gals that I have met there and look forward to seeing some familiar faces. The great part in doing some classes here on the west side of the continent means a direct flight! oh yay! These days it seems that most flights are connectors and one is always stepping on and off the airplane, a direct flight is a treat and with the time change about the time and bit I leave here; I get there!

I am working on Summer and Winter Biscornu Stackers and getting Once Upon a Tree ready for general publication. I am also working on some projects for Just Cross Stitch and Antique Sampler and Needlework Quartley.  And of course my fall classes and some fall releases.  You will see on the events page that I have added an event. It was an absolute treat to meet Tina and Teri  of Shepherd’s Bush last year at Dyeing to Stitch’s retreat and we really felt a connection and kindred spirits we are. So it is with pleasure that we can continue to share in our love of stitching by doing an event in Utah. We have just put the finishing touches on the spring classes, just the printing to do, covers made in photoshop, all the written stitching and finishing instructions…. just some last  minute editing.

Again I am off to pack…. the dog misses me so… she cries when I come home. I dread when I leave for Celebrations as I will be gone close to 4 weeks. I will be in New Hampshire for 5 days then on to Montreal for 3 days and then the Toronto /Niagara area for teaching and visiting  for the rest. My 2 sisters live there and my niece is getting married so we will enjoy some family time.

Again my sincere thanks to the Spokane Falls gals  for all their wonderful gifts, you sure didn’t have to but I am enjoying them!

I hope you are all enjoying some of the new patterns and I am working on Summer and Winter Biscornu Stackers while you are stitching Spring and Autumn! I should be able to have them out for June, between all the events planned this spring. I will also release the Once Upon Tree Sampler that they were inspired from.

We are down to our last 10 units of the first four pages of the Album. If you were considering doing this project…. well now would be the time!

I just have to tell you because you know of my surgeries of the last few months and guess what! I walk about 5k (3 miles) about 4 times a week. It is amazing to me! What a blessing to be able to walk and enjoy spring in it’s coming glory and feel so alive with these new knees. It is a miracle.

Hope you got a chance to look at The Gift of Stitching magazine and the project we did for them featured on the cover. Look for more magazine treats to come this year!

Well, I had better get the suitcase out and pack my things and check off my list. Spokane Falls stitchers I look forward to seeing you all on the weekend!! I’m sure we will have fun and we will do some great stitching.

Fondly, jeannette

The event at Cincinnati Queen City Sampler Guild was terrific. We were able to miss the snow storms and have beautiful sunny days in a great classroom setting that made for 2 wonderful days. We had lots of fun and enjoyed meeting each other and stitching together. I have now added to my border story of a few years ago with a new chapter of crossing the border. I forgot to tell them of my wanderings in the Dakota hills, you didn’t know there were hills did you, just prairie you think, well we found them, my friend and I, but that is for another time.

Nashville Needlework market was just great. To be at a much newer hotel and a larger foyer to hold the visiting times in the evening and a more open bar was a nice change - you know that my husband had to watch the US/Canada hockey game, the first one  -the one that we didn’t win, in the lounge at Embassy Suites in the US – too bad eh!

Look under the Design heading and you should find all the new things. Once they are there for a bit, I will move them to their respective series placements. I should have had those Vancouver Olympic Game Canadian mittens for sale!!

As you can see the next place for an event is Spokane, how nice to go back to some familiar faces and share in our love of stitching. I look so forward to seeing you all.

The other thing that I meant to tell you earlier is to look for the design – “An Anniversary Sampler”  in The Gift of Stitching Magazine that I did for the 50th Issue Celebration. I think they are doing a special so have a look – you can trial it for free the month of March.  It has the thread winder on the piece as memorabila but I have put an alphabet and a small design to stitch in the middle for a memory/celebration of your own. As my friend said to me- you are now a ‘cover girl’ Jeannette! Imagine!

I have had an email from a stitcher in England finishing the MSA into a fold out. Have a look below. What a treat! Thank you Marjorie!!  Remember if any of you want to share just send them and we can add your wonderful Album also.

Enjoy!