OH Where have I been???

Well, as you can tell by the title and the date of my last post - where have I been!! January was a very busy month - working at a college bookstore during registration and school starting week is quite hectic and busy - 11 to 12 hour days!!! This is for about 2 to 3 weeks.

Mid January I was heading to Pine Mountain, GA to Callaway Gardens NeedleArts School, where our EGA chapter was in charge of the exhibit, bookstore and merchandise night. I was the co-chair for merchandise night with Susan. There were 10 of us that were a head of a committee to put this event together. (Callaway does the actual school portion). I also, amid all of this - decided to take two Merry Cox Classes.

Le Nouveau Palais Royal and The Diminutive Sewing Set - both which are just not to be believed. Pictures do not even come close to beautiful these pieces are. I have some of the stitching done, but not much and some of the finishing is also done on pieces that didn't have stitching on them.

While at Callaway when we had some free time I did some beading below is a bracelet that was graduated color bicones from black to navy to crystal.

This is a flag bracelet and the technique of this design was being able to make the flags wave. Pretty neat!!

Here they are together still without their clasps.

I love the designs from Fern Ridge - here is Jack the rabbit with a 3 dimensional bunny tail - cute isn't it?

Did also manage to stitch up this Penny Doll's apron - this is from Olde Colonial Designs.

This was fun and fairly quick to stitch up.

OK, so you are thinking what else have you been doing??? these projects are not that time consuming - well, you are correct - the other big thing going on in my life is we decided to built me a new sewing room above the garage - so that has been taking up most of my time - stitching these last few weeks has been just about nil!!!! I did get two exchanges pieces stitched and mailed off on time - will show you those another day along with some photos of the new room.

Construction!!! can be tiresome - but the company we hired did a great job and were finished in 4 1/2 weeks!!! not bad, but we couldn't wait to get into the room. More later.

Thanks for visiting and for keeping me a part of your blog reading - I know I have said this before that I am back to the blogging world - but this time I am in high hopes of maintaining better computer time in my daily routine.

Sorry for such a long post - again thanks for stopping by.

Roberta

Happy New Year

I know, I know - I am a bit late with my well wishes. Life has been busy as usual - but the light is definitely at the end of the tunnel. It is the beginning of the Winter/Spring semester at school and the bookstore is just busy, busy!!! We are all working 11+ hours a day!

Plus I am heading to Callaway for their needlearts school this week. Just way too much to do in such a short time.

Hope to have much more to share with you all this new year of 2012 and I am planning on lots more stitching - last year had way too many bumps so not much of anything got done in the yard, in the house and with the stitching and such.

Best wishes for happiness and good health to you all.


Roberta

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Well it is Christmas Eve day and I am wondering where this past year went!! How did my life get so busy - well 2012 will be hopefully a slower paced year and filled with lots more stitching. I learned a new word --- NO!!

To add to my busyness - my computer has been acting strangely - notice the underlining!!?? Do not know where that came from and I cannot seem to get rid of it.

The little bit of stitching I did is below - the small red and gold Whitman's Tin with smalls from a Jane Timmer's design. I also made a waxer using two small charms tied together with a ribbon with the wax pressed inbetween.

Since I do not like to see the writing on the bottom - I cover the area with felt or ultra suede and then add button feet.

Above is an ornament I received from an exchange group and below is the ornament I sent.

Since this is the 3rd attempt to post this - I will close and say Merry Christmas to you all.

Roberta

TUSAL

Well, life just seems to not want me to sit at the computer - I truly thought I would be able to get caught up with my messages and my blog reading - WRONG!!! I do see the light at the end of the tunnel, just have to get a few more things taken care of both at home and family and with my stitching projects. Working, of course, doesn't help!!!

But I did remember to take a picture of my ORTS for this past month.

The picture below shows the small container with this months ORTS and this years collection of ORTS.
This is a shot of this months ORTS.

I have been getting some stitching in and some finishing - hoping to get all my stitching done for Christmas.

Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving??? We did and we really tried not to overeat!!!

Thank you for stopping by ---- see you soon.

Roberta

Life is not slowing down

But I am still working on some small things.

Below is from a mini workshop that my EGA group put on - it is a scissor fob using ribbon, beads and the anchor is a coffee stir straw with silver filler beads on the end.
Here is a photo of the full thing - pretty cute and clever.

Here is a small scissor holder with the newly made ribbon fob attached (cannot see fob)

Below is a lovely ornament that I received from Edgar from the HOE exchange group - this is just beautiful - stitched and finished with perfection - just love it.

This is the ornament that I sent along to my exchange partner - I just love the legs!!
Now this is a spider web that was over our driveway - it was really pretty, but luckily it was quite high up.

I belong to Ikebana International and below is my design from a workshop - design something using grapes!! I thought it looked pretty good and the instructor liked it, but did take away the chop sticks that where in the vase.

Can you believe that the Holidays are upon us - Halloween this weekend and then onto Thanksgiving and then Christmas - where does the time go???

Thanks for stopping by ------------- Roberta

What I have been working on!

Over the past year and a half, I have been working on the table favors for the EGA National Seminar in Naples, Florida. There were several of us that worked on these lap cloths for this event, which happened in September (last month). I was also volunteer chairperson - so with all that going on and working, having my sister move down to Macon - life has been a bit crazy and my stitching, blogging and life in general was totally out of routine and control!!!

Below is the the silk screen that we put on the lap cloths - the name of the event was Flamingo Fandango - it was great fun, wonderful hotel, hotel staff, good food and the classes and teachers were terrific.
This is the lap cloth layed out. We had folded them and tied them with pink floss with a thread card attached - the cloths were well received.

Below is my Halloween ornament for the month - my stitching was reduced to small things over the course of the last year plus.

At the seminar I had the privilege of being accepted into two separate classes one taught by Tanya Berlin and the other taught by Jetta Roy-Finley Heath. Tanya is from England, trained at the Royal School in England and now resides in Canada. Jetta is originally from Denmark and specializes in Danish white, pulled, drawn thread styles. Both ladies are extremely talented and very knowledgeable about their skills and techniques.

Below is what I did in Tanya's class - basically it is a thread painting class using 1 strand of DMC. The boutique that was at the seminar had cut out mats to complement various pieces that were being taught at the seminar - I really liked this mat that was cut to fit the Blue Bird on a blossom branch. It is slightly off set, so it give a really nice appearance.

Now this is Tanya's piece!!! her work is just exquisite!

Now here is what I did in Jetta's class - Falstersyning Coaster - it is the style of whitework that is done on the island of Falster, just off the coast of Denmark - syning is the word for sewing - hence Falstersyning is sewing in the style of Falster.

Here is Jetta's piece, again another beautifully crafted piece of embroidery.

Well, since I didn't have enough to do, several of us were asked to do a pilot piece for Barbara Rakosnik - which she was teaching at the seminar - this is what I have done so far.

I am just loving these pieces that I now have to get finished along with the rest of my WIPS!!!

Below are two wash/dish cloths that I did manage to crochet and knit up - there also was a third on, but it was given away before I took a picture of it.

As if there is nothing to do, I also belong to the local Ikebana oranization and this was the workshop for September - manipulating leaves/line material.

I know that I went on forever, but it has been such a long time since I have been able to sit and write about what I love to do - it felt good to be able to sit here at the keyboard and share my loves with you all.

Thanks for visiting - see you all soon - I have lots of blog reading to catch up on -

Roberta

TUSAL photo

Well, it has been a month since I last entered somthing onto my blog!!! Life is finally quieting down a bit for me - but, of course, the holidays are just around the corner!!!

Here is my ORT's from this past month. I finished up the table favors for the EGA National Seminar (dark blue and pink orts) and the rest is from the two classes that I took at National and the Pilot class I did before the seminar. There is also some scraps from a small quilt that I am working on.
I will have photos of what I have been working on later today or tomorrow.

See you all soon.

Roberta, who is back to blogging!!