January Threads Kit: MONET'S GARDEN

Welcome to 2009!  I must say I was glad to see the last of 2008 but optimism rules for this new year.  And to start off 2009 I will be adding a few thread kits each month for a currently available design.  I've had several requests lately for complete stitching kits.  It can be time consuming and expensive to collect the supplies from several different places and with the cost of shipping.....well....seemed like a good idea.

So. the January kit is Monet's Garden Oval Box.  Click on the link for all the details!

Each kit will include all the threads, ribbons, beads, needles, etc. required to stitch the design.  All you'll  need to add are stretcher bars before sitting down to stitch in your favorite stitching spot. 

I have a tentative schedule of when I will add kits (click here to see all currently available designs), but if anyone has a particular favorite and would be interested in it if the thread kit were available, please let me know.  I will look at the requests I receive and revise the release schedule if possible.   

Here's to lots of stitching time in 2009! 

This and That

Last week I was visiting two groups in Oregon and had a wonderful time.   I returned home on Monday but it always surprises me how long it takes me to re-group.  All the "little things" are done but there are several projects now happening all at the same time.  Know the feeling?  I have begun a partial re-organization of my teaching designs and thread storage boxes. I got inspired by the new Cloth-Paper-Scissors Studios  which came out on April 1st.  It has lots of great ideas for organizing all sorts of mixed media, fabric and threads.  I decided to do this job at the same time as I am taking inventory of all my thread supplies for the recently retired design kits.  As you probably know from your own organizing experiences , it means things get a little messier before they get neater. 

• Anyway, when the inventory for each design is completed, I will be adding some partial thread kits to the website.  These partial kits will be particularly helpful for stitching Seasons as it calls for several Vikki Clayton perles which are not available except in very large dye hanks.  I will have those colors packaged in small 15 yard skeins. 
• Also to be added to the website (hopefully in a week or so) are a few hard-to-locate stitching/organizing supplies such as Tacky Bobs and Twitchetts.  I use these myself and can't seem to find them on a regular basis.  
• Some more new Soy Luster Shadow colors were added last week and some will be added in about two weeks. 
• The Dahlia Instruction Book and canvas is in the works but it looks like it will not be available until May 15th at the earliest.
• Something else coming this fall is a small assortment of Stef Francis threads.  I have begun using several in my new designs and will be teaching two of them at the ANG Seminar in Indian Wells in September.  At this point only a very few are available in this country so we need to change that. 

Now I just need to find time to begin working on the flower pins I have in mind for the website.  Some combination of felt, needlefelting, stitching and beading.  The supplies have been building up for 6 or more months.....another organizing project??  

Also yet to be created.....but again.....lots of supplies have been collected.....are some large stitch magnets which will be able to hold a metal laying tool. 

Both of the above projects involve some new media and/or techniques for me. So I feel like I need to set aside a reasonable block of time to experiment.  Maybe that's the problem.  When is a "reasonable block of time" every really available? What is a reasonable block of time?  Two hours or two days?    

And last week, while I was gone, my husband cleaned out and reorganized the canvas supplies.  I think he decided if he was going to start helping cut and tape canvases for kits he needed the area to be much neater than previously.  He cut off the tops of boxes to varying lengths (these are the ones rolls of canvas come in) and then taped groups of six of together.  They sit up nicely and hold lots of different size rolls in a very small footprint.

I haven't been very good at documenting changes or progress but I have been continuing to stitch Flower Diamonds and will post an update photo with my next blog entry. 

I almost forgot!  The website has been updated with three new teaching designs.  All of them are available for workshops after the ANG Seminar 2009.  They are Safari, Flower Diamonds and Wild Roses Oval Box.

SOY LUSTER SHADOWS

My the weekend just flew by.  Lots of time on the computer.  Everything having to do with it always seems to take me twice as long as I had planned.  However, the pages for the retreat are close to being finished and I was also trying to put up on the website the first 13 (of 40 total) colors of Soy Luster Shadows.  As of 15 minutes ago they are "live" except for three pictures. Whew!  Because I use several unusual or not widely available threads students are always asking where they can get more of them.  I love to try out lots of different textures and really want stitchers to be able to use them for other projects, not just mine. 

I'm starting with the Soy Luster Shadows by Pure Palette for a few reasons.  One, they are not yet widely available, but hopefully that is changing. Two, I love the fact that it is not as shiny as stranded silk, about the same as good quality cotton floss, and so works well with cotton or silk.  But the main reason is that I love the Shadows, but the only way to use it the way I do in projects, i.e. two MATCHING threads used together in the needle, is to take the stitching lengths directly from the large dye skeins.  And the skeins don't come skeined that way.  So I decided I would need to re-skein them into 40 yard dye skeins just right to use for shading and "shadow" stitching.   

On Saturday I was very excited to hear my proposals had been accepted for next year!  Always very exciting news!! I loved stitching all the designs so I'm really excited about having stitchers see them.  Those of you who have been visiting for a while have seen the designs developing, or pictures of the finished ones. 

Even though I was busy most of the weekend I still did get out a little to enjoy the nice weather we are having right now.  But at least when I was inside, my computer desk is in a comfy corner next to the windows looking out into our backyard.  We have several hummingbirds that zoom past my window from time to time, plus a dove family visits regularly along with blue jays and robins.....all this in a 25 X 30 foot back yard.  Remember...this is San Francisco.... most of us don't have big yards. 

Well, I hope everyone had a good weekend....and not too cold!   

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