The Internet ate my blog post

I know I posted my TUSAL.  I’m sure of it.  I’ve got the pictures on my hard drive.  But for reasons that escape me, there’s no post.

Rather than pulling my hair out over it, I’ll just slip this post in before the next new moon is upon us…..

Here’s my jar from October:

The jar took a very pleasantly large jump in October mostly thanks to my classes at the CreativFestival.  I had such a great time at the show – catching up with friends and stitching my little heart out.

 

 

 

 

Warning: the rest of this post is very picture heavy and covers my 5 days of stitching at the CreativFestival. You may want to get a cup of tea and a warm cat before continuing.

Here’s some things I was working on at the Festival.  I haven’t had much time to stitch since the Festival because my work schedule is crazy busy, which is leaving me crazy tired.

First up, Creative Persuasion, a class I took with Carolyn Mitchell on the first day of the Festival:



I got a fair amount done over the course of the class.  My kit was missing one of the balls of pearl cotton, so I opted to switch out my colours a bit – where there is supposed to be a darker pearl cotton, I’m using a lighter colour and where there is a lighter pearl cotton, I’ll be using a darker one.  I’ve had to order the darker pearl cotton on-line, but that’s hardly a bad thing.

Next up, I took my out-of-my-comfort-zone class – I made a crystal pendant with Lisa Pavelka.  I was quite intimidated at first, but quickly got the hang of it.  We weren’t able to finish the pendant in class (it needed to cure overnight), but I got plenty of instruction on how to finish it off.  I just need a cloning device so one of me can actually sit down and do it.  Here’s where it is right now:



I need to put the bezel on the back and cover the back up properly and it’ll be all ready to wear.  It’s super sparkly in the right light.  I’m glad I took the class – it was really enjoyable and Lisa was an excellent instructor (and also happens to be a body double for Julia Roberts…..).

Then I took a class with one of my favourite people (and one of my closest friends), Jennifer Aikman-Smith from Dragon Dreams.  We had an adorable little snowflake ornament to stitch.  For reasons that elude me, I failed to take a picture of my progress and today is too dreary to try now.  It’s a companion for Jen’s other two snowflakes.

Next I took a class with Linda Lachance from Northern Pine Designs.  I thoroughly enjoy Linda’s designs and classes.  I admit to wishing for better photography on her patterns because the pictures just don’t do her pieces justice.  They are so stunning in real life!  The class I took was called ‘Silvery Christmas Tree’ and I’ve already finished it.  I had most of it done in the class, as a matter of fact, but I’m a fast stitcher.

It’s such a pretty piece – perfect for winter and the holidays.  Fun, easy stitch too!

Then I spent some more time with Jen in her Sparkle Needlecase class.  I mostly worked on Nun stitch in the class and haven’t worked my way back around to it just yet.  It’s an adorable little dragon and he’ll got really well with my wizard needlecase of Jen’s that I did a few years ago.

I finally managed to squeeze in a class this year on how to make Dragon Boats.  This class has been offered before by various instructors but the timing never seemed to work out for me.  Carolyn Mitchell was teaching this time around.  Here’s where I got to during the class. 

All of the green tape and white cardboard will be all covered up with thread.  The dragon boats are very easy to make, but consume scads of thread.  I’ve inherited a large quantity of thread from various family members in the last few years – I think it’ll be a good way to use some of it up.  Plus, they’re just pretty.

After a quick break from Dragon Boats, I was back hanging out with Jen, taking her ‘Year of the Dragon’ Sampler.  This is a beautiful piece that I am very much in love with.  The colours are very unusual for Jen as there is no green in the piece!  There are lots of lovely greys and silvers though and I’m working on this when I can.  Here’s where I got to in the class:

I probably would have gotten further if I hadn’t been an idiot and skipped the word ‘the’ before ‘dragon’ the first time I stitched it.

The next day, I took a class from Lorene Salt – a new-to-me instructor.  She had an intriguing project that will make a bracelet (or cuff) when it’s all finished off.  The colours aren’t really ‘me’, but I wanted the experience of a new and different teacher and an interesting project.  Here’s where I got to in the class:



It’s actually quite an interesting stitch and I’ll probably get back to it.  Eventually.  In my spare time.  (I can hear you when you snort, you know……)

My last class of the day was another 25th Anniversary Sampler but this time, with Carolyn Mitchell.  (It was the CreativFestival’s 25th Anniversary this year, hence all the silver and anniversary-type things going around this time….)

I really enjoyed this class, particularly because Carolyn spent a good amount of time explaining all the various design elements and how precisely they were designed to relate to the Festival.  Plus, there’s purple.  Lots of purple.  How was I to resist?



The top portion is is meant to be a neckline of a dress.  It’s so pretty and sparkly.  Swarovski also donated a gorgeous crystal that will hang as a necklace within the dress’ neckline.  I’m looking forward to getting back to this one – but it’s super long – 9” x 20” on stretcher bars.  Makes it a little awkward for working on.

The last day of the festival brought me to two final classes.  First up was a class with Jen again – ‘Canvaswork Dragon’.  This was the most challenging class that we all took.  Jen provided us with a materials list but it wasn’t specific beyond ‘one skein of this type of thread, one skein of this type, etc.’ – we had to build our own colour palette.  Many of my classmates are cross-stitchers and are used to being told ‘put this fibre in this colour in this spot’ but Jen was shoving everyone out of their comfort zone by making them instead build a colour palette and then figure out where to put it all.  Doing this isn’t completely alien to me, but I pushed myself outside of my preferred colour range.  I didn’t go for purple this time, but instead went red.  I started doing a little bit of stitching in the class, but spent more time fiddling with my palette and deciding what I might put where….



I really want to get back to my dragon and finish bringing him to life.  He’s going to be *gorgeous*!

My last class of the festival was again with an instructor/designer that I wanted to meet – Carol Scott Higeli from The Stitcher’s Habit.  I’ve always admired many of Carol’s pieces for their fun and whimsy.  I took a class called ‘Zen and the Art of Cross-stitch’.  Then Zen portion didn’t really float my boat, but it was a very calm and relaxing way to end the festival – never a bad thing.  We worked on a cute little snowman ornament, which I almost finished in the class and it took me only a few minutes to polish off at home the next day:



I need to get him ‘ornament-ified’ and up on my tree this year.  He’s a cutie pie!

I’m still plugging away on my other projects as well – here’s a few update pics:



My Halloween Fairy wasn’t finished for Halloween, but I wasn’t expecting her to be – since I took this pictures she’s now got a head, hair, arms and legs.  She’s trucking along at her own pace just fine.

Well, if you’ve stuck with me this far – you deserve a medal!  Maybe it’s time to reward anyone who still reads my little blog – but I’ll think about that a bit more….  Maybe next post!

Hope you’re curled up somewhere warm!

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