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Thursday, October 6, 2011

I am still alive and stitchin'

Hi everyone - I hope that you are all great! I am fantastic, but super-busy both at work and at home, so I have been slacking both on the blog-posting side and the blog-reading front. I hope that I will be able to shape up soon! I apologize for not keeping up with all of your blogs, but that is the big goal for Sunday! As always, thanks for all your comments; they mean so much to me. I am still in awe every day about the fact that blogging is such a wonderful connector to stitchers all over the world. I am still as excited about blogging today than I was when I started.

Well, enough blubbering - let's get down to business! As you may remember, last weekend I took two classes with Sherri Jones of Patricks Woods; The Lucet and Hare Pyns. We had a blast and we learned so much! Now I have taken 4 classes with Sherri and I am always impressed with her teaching skills, her personality and sense of humour (her stories are simply hilarious!) and her fantastic designs. I have never taken a class with her without learning something new.
We started off with the Lucet class on Saturday morning. We were about 20 ladies, I would guess, and we were lucetting our little fingers off all day long. So much fun!
Here is Sherri showing off various types of lucets:
.. and here is a small sample of different types of cording you can make with the lucet (beaded, flat, square, multi-colored - you name it!):
DH often claims that I am "easily amused" (is that a bad thing? - I don't think so) - and he may have a point... Apparently I found something to really laugh about here - note that the ladies around me look more skeptical than grinning their faces off like yours truly.... ;-)
Here is a close-up of the Rovaris necklace upon request! (Thanks for taking the pic Froggie and enjoy Joyce! LOL)

Lady P was the hostess for the Lucet class. We crashed her house on the way out to dinner and wow, we were in heaven! She has a vast collection of gorgeous samplers everywhere. I took photos of pretty much all of them, but I will only give you a teaser here.
The is Lady P next to her Dutch Beauty. I can not even begin to tell you how pretty this sampler is - or how huge it is!
A true Kentucky couple's home - samplers on the wall and NASCAR on TV!
Part of Lady P's smalls collection - is this not just the best piece of furniture for a fabulous display?
And this is a fantastic - simply beautiful - large box topped with a Periwinkle Promises sampler. I am pretty sure that this was a class project.

Well, I had too much fun to remember to get my camera out. Dinner was great - Sherri, Lady P, L-bug and a new friend, Amy, and I went out for dinner at a steak place. We had such a nice time. Amy is just the sweetest lady and she got us all desert off the menu simply by giving the waitress one of those puppy-dog looks that you can not say no to. Amy is also a blogger - she blogs e-v-e-r-y d-a-y - can you believe it!? If you get a chance, please swing by over to check out her blog and say hi - she would love to have you stop by, I'm sure: Thread in Hand!
After dinner, L-bug and I went back home to her house. She was kind enough to let me stay over from Friday night to Sunday, which decreased my travel time by 150%! She is the sweetest friend one could ever wish for; she left chocolate and candy in the guest-bedroom for me, had a full breakfast menu, and let me play in her stash for hours. What 4-star hotel has a stash to play in? Not many, I bet!

The Hare Pyns finishing class started early Sunday morning. We were about 12 ladies at various stages of completion and we had a great time! I brought my sewing machine all the way from Kentucky and was so annoyed that I could not get the tension of the sewing thread right through the entire class. It wasn't until I was all packed up and half-way back home that I realized that the thread spool should have been in the vertical position and not the horizontal position - sigh!!! Well, that's what happens when you try to sew too early in the morning... LOL
I love the concept of "finishing class". I am pretty good about whipping up the stitched part of a design, but the finishing step is one that generally takes me a loooong time to get to.
Well, I did not get everything finished in class - far from it - but I got enough done to motivate me to stick to it. Lookie what I finished yesterday night!
The only thing that I am not 100% happy with is the overlap of the ribbon used for the pocket border. I have one corner that sticks out too much and I do not like the look of it. However, it is way too late to try to fix it, so unfortunately, it is what it is. I am very happy about most of the rest (but I seriously do have to invest in a great pair of scallop fabric shears so that my felt pieces don't look like I chewed them into shape....)

Well, so one project down, hundreds to go. It does not help that I accidentally picked up a bunch of new kits and patterns from Sherri. I am really excited about starting on a couple of these, but seeing that I have a 20-project WIP list and that the lucet piece will require many hrs of TLC before I have manufactured the required number of yards of cording, I will have to brace myself. By the way, did I mention that I am going to another stitching retreat in about a week? I'll tell you more about in my next post.... Wink-wink...

And speaking of stash - a huge box awaited me today when I finally got home from work ay 9:30 PM. Stash!!!!! The pile of silks in the front is for the Shores of HRH SAL that Valerie of A Shenadoah Sampler and I are planing on doing here soon. Oh, I can't wait!!!!
I know that 9:30 sounds pretty late to come home from work, but today was a special occasion. We had in our Swedish representatives and customers for meetings at work all day today. It was a lot of fun to speak Swedish and it is also easier to ask and discuss harder questions a lot more directly in someone's native tongue, so I was invited to come along to do the wine and dine thing. Dinner was held at one of the local Bourbon distilleries and we had such a great time! The weather was even good enough that we sat outdoors for most of the dinner. The guests did not want to leave, but luckily they did not have a choice (good planning on the hosts part...) since the chartered bus came and whisked them back to the hotel at 9PM sharp! Good thing too, they are leaving town 5:30 tomorrow morning! :-o
Well, I need to get up pretty soon here too, so I'd better get going (I can hear DH snoring all the way from the bed-room...). Bubba is sitting behind me on the couch back-rest and seems a bit antsy, so it is time to get him back to his cage for some night snacks, I think.

Well, since Henny is already in bed, I guess that I don't have any choice but to end this post with some bunny pictures.
Bubba says "Do not touch my carrot!!!"
It is a hard life being this cute. Better take a nap...
Looking at Bubba napping makes me tired too. Time to get to bed!
Good night and sweet stitching dreams to everyone!

18 comments:

  1. Jenny, Your class piece and pictures are wonderful. You got some great stash (especially the ones that came in the mail). Love that bunny :-) ~~ Christie

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  2. OMG, your Hare Pyns is soooooo gorgeous!!!! I always find that there's something I'm not happy with when I finish things, but no one sees the flaw but you, I promise. Wonderful work! Bummer about the sewing machine at class. Ah well. I have to check out this lucet thing. I think I've heard of it, but not sure. I'd love to take a class with Sherri Jones someday. Your necklace looks great -- and coordinated well with your outful! Loved seeing Lady P's house too! Great stashing -- I love stashing. lol! Must be a great advantage in so many ways to be bilingual. I wish I were.

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  3. hello dear,great stitching..really everything is so wonderful..and lovely stash..
    and bunny is my sweetie pie..so cute..
    keep well dear and have a lovely weekend.
    hugs xx

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  4. Love your Hare Pyns finish, Jenny--it really is stunning!! And thanks for sharing the photo of Lady P and her Dutch Beauty--amazing...

    Love the photo of Bubba protecting his carrots :)

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  5. Dear Jenny,
    I was so great to meet you and L-bug last weekend. Thanks for the plug for my blog! I was amazed at how you did all the finishing for Hare Pyns so quickly. It looks beautiful. I had such a good time at the classes and going out to dinner. I hope to run into you at a stitching function soon.

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  6. Your Hare Pyns piece is beautiful. Such a great piece, love the fabric you chose. It is just perfect.
    Bubba is so cute, I'm sure he gets tried often from keeping up the cuteness. A bunnies life must be very stressful. ;)
    Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Love your Hare! It really is soooooo pretty. A stunner for sure. :)

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  8. Thanks, Jenny! My eyes automatically went straight to your necklace when I saw you pic! :D

    "Accidentally picked up some stash".... ROFLMAO!!!!!

    Your Hare finishing looks awesome and Bubba.... what's there to say other than awwwwww!!!!!

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  9. Ciao jennycomplimenti per la classe e per i lavori che si sono visti,il tuoconiglio e' sempre piu' bello,ciao jenny un abbraccio.

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  10. Hi Jenny,

    What a great post - I read it yesterday during my lunchtime at work and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately my work computer does not always let me comment on blogs, so I have had to wait until today.

    It is such an interesting post - I almost felt that I was there with you with all your great pics and stores of your classes. Your hare pyn finish is really impressive.

    Hugs, Kaye xoxox

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  11. Bubba is so adorable. He has such a rough life in his custom bunny bed. Hare Pyns is a beauty! Your an inspiration. I'm thinking silk ribbons will work just fine for purse strings on the Lucet bag ; 0 )

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  12. Haha, jag älskar bilden när du kör mega-smilet :) Fina syster! Wow, det blev ju superfint. Roligt att följa projektet hela vägen till slut. Du är väldigt bra tycker jag!
    Nu ska jag ut och springa tjurruset (1 mils terränglopo, håll tummarna). Pusspuss

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  13. Hi again Jenny!

    I love that pouch you have finished recently, it's very cute!

    It seems you have had a great time at your classes, wish I could have some but not much people is interested on stitching here.

    You have a big amount of new stash, can't wait to see what your next project will be.

    Have a good day. :D

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  14. What a great post. Love the finishing you did!

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  15. Glad you had such a wonderful time at your retreat! I really love the finish, and I couldn't see what you were talking about not looking right!

    Great stash enhancement - I am doing some of that myself! shhhhh

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  16. thx for sharing. I cannot imageing seeing a stitched Dutch Beauty - it is an incredible sampler (i've seen the pattern)

    Lucet class looks like fun. One day I'll have to learn how to make cord from a lucet.

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  17. Wow!! Your Hare Pyns is exquisite! What a gorgeous piece of artwork. I loved seeing the photos of your friend's house, too--beautiful! I had to laugh at the NASCAR on TV with the sampler above it. Too funny. Here it'd be golf on the TV with a sampler above it! I'm glad that you had such a good class! Love the new stash, too.

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  18. Jenny,
    Your Hare Pyns is awesome, need to get back to mine. I love the way the stash just stuck to you. LOL

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