Fabric, in thousands of colors.
Quilts, made of thousands of pieces.
Inspiration, found in thousands of ideas.
What does home mean?
It’s been a long week here — actually a long month — well, really a long year so far.
2016 has been full of stresses and April chock-full of busyness. My quilt guild had a very successful show over the weekend. My part in the show prep started way back in July of 2015 and finally ended at about 6pm on Sunday.
The week was full of appointments and various duties and responsibilities, culminating today in a wonderful, restful time at our Spirit Stitchers group at my church. I spent the day talking, eating, knitting, talking, looking at others’ projects, knitting, talking ……I ended the day taking a dog for a walk, and I don’t have a dog, but a good friend does and we walked the town. So, I generally had a wonderful day.
But it felt so good to come home, take off the blue jeans and crawl into favorite knit yoga pants and a decades-old, favorite Mickey Mouse t-shirt. Note that you do not have to actually do yoga to be very fond of yoga pants. My husband is out of town so I had the quiet house to myself to do whatever I liked, which was mostly nothing.
Usually home means coming HOME to our wonderful property and house and my wonderful Hubby. But tonight it meant knit pants, feet up on the futon, quilting magazines, glasses of iced tea, and not much else. Home . . . . . welcome . . . .
Needlepoint – My First Love
It is said that you always remember fondly your first love. Well, my first crafting love was Needlepoint. It all started on my very first computer programmer job. My cubicle mate was a great gal — Pam — and she loved to needlepoint. Me, just fresh out of college and unused to having any spare time, did not have any handcrafting hobbies. And this is actually a bit strange since my Mom was an avid crocheter and also did hand embroidery. Anyway, ladies in our department always took the same lunch hour and on one of these, Pam and I ate quickly then walked across the neighboring mall property to the far side where existed a needlepoint shop. And, my love of handcrafting got its start.
I believe my first completed piece was a turtle — and I still have it. I also still have the memories of working with the scratchy wool yarn. Fast forward to today — and, my oh my, it is not your grandmother’s needlepoint anymore. I took needlepoint sampler class in 2007 and learned that stitches were now different and thread choices were out of this world. My sampler was done in a set of merino wool fibers. And my current project contains shiny metallics, silk, and all sorts of other wonderful stitching goodies!
I’m becoming reacquainted with my first love — and we’re having a good time together.
Mr, Cardinal, my current project:
And here’s my reunion piece, the sampler, almost done:
Mixed Media Possibilities
Some inspiration for art journaling-
Crafting by the fireplace
Taking advantage of the cold weather (there’s lots of it and snow) and a plentiful supply of firewood (thanks to two hurricanes and a freak October snowstorm in the last 2 years), I’m enjoying some relaxing crafting time by the fireplace.
In line with my word of 2014, possibilities, I realize that you cannot just keep starting things but have to finish a few too. So, here’s my first needlepoint sampler from a class at A Stitch in Time a few years ago. The light blue, partly finished in this picture is the last round. Then I will dig out the DVDs with the instructions on finishing projects and give this one a whirl. I think it will be a small pillow for the bedroom, which is decorated in yellows and blues!
