Happy Canada Day

In celebration of Canada Day, I have a chart to share with all of you.  I charted it many years ago for a workshop I was teaching at the Creative Sewing & Needlework Festival in Toronto.  It is stitched in the Continental/ Tent Stitch on a 10ct canvas using Anchor Tapestry wool.  The larger canvas is great for teaching at shows, as one never knows how good the lighting will be, and for a pillow the wool wears better than cotton.  At the time my son, Christopher, was in elementary school and had wanted a Canada themed bedroom. The room looked great, right down to a 6' totem pole.  Over the years his room has slowly transformed into a NFL decorated room with a heavy emphasis on the Chicago Bears, his team.  Today the only sign remaining from his childhood room is this Canadian Flag pillow.  It sits on his window bench among his other pillows.

Click here to download the Canada Flag chart

Have a great Canada Day !!!!

Background! Background! Background!

I have never thought of myself as a pink person, but it was the soft pink I choose as background for my "Stitch for a Cure" cancer ribbon pillow.  What is it they say?
"Never say never!"
So over the past few weeks I have started filling in the background.  Although stitching with knitting wool is quite different than tapestry wool, I am very pleased with the result. 
I could have had the background done by now, were it not for the high temperatures we had over the past week.  When handling wool while it's HOT, my hands feel sweaty and my internal temparture goes way up!!   I can stand it for only about an hour (after the sun has gone down, of course), so it has been a slow process.

But my time has not been waisted.  I've have been working on my "Palm Tree" sampler design, the 5th tree in my Tree Sampler series, and it's all done.  I love it!! It looks great.  Now I just have to stitch it.  If all goes well, I should be able to release it by August.

Prom Night

My son, Christopher, was at his Prom tonight.  He met up with his date, Lauren, at the banquet hall.  Don't they make a lovely couple?  The dinner and dance runs until midnight, and knowing my son he'll be ready to come home by then.  He's not the "party 'til you drop" kind of guy.  

So while I'm waiting for him to call for his pick-up, I'm working on my "Stitching for a Cure" pillow. 

Last weekend was a perfect weekend for stitching 

- it rained, and rained, and rained.  

We had gone up north to my parents' cottage,

 and I took a few stitching projects with me.

Friday evening I had worked on my pillow.  I stitched the darker colour in the ribbon border, only to then discover that I had not brought enough of the second ribbon colour.  So I started filling in the background.  I stitched a full skein of 7322 DMC, to get a  feel on how this colour works with the pink.  I quite like the aqua-greenish shade, but I wasn't convinced about using it as the background.  My other option had been a soft yellow, but of course I did not bring any of it with me.  As it turns out, I was glad I had to put this needlepoint on hold.  On Tuesday I popped over to our local knitting shop and found a wonderful soft pink, it was exactly what I had envisioned in the first place. The above photo I had taken before ripping out all of the aqua-green, to show you all 3 background options.

On the Saturday I sat in the kitchen, watched the rain come down, and finished  this Huck Weaving table topper.  Huck (Swedish) weaving is so fast and lots of fun.  I had the centre Star pattern all finished by dinner time.  

It will look great on my table at Christmas time.

The fabric is 11ct Stockholm and the threads are DMC's perle cotton #5 - 3 shades of red and a Gold.  The pattern is from an old German magazine my grandmother had sent me in the 80's.  Patterns never really get old!!!

I'm charting the pattern and will make it available with some instructions to all interested at no charge as long as you purchase the fabric and threads.

Happy Stitching!!

For the love of Needlepoint

Not having much time to stitch before the NeedleWorkers MarketPlace, I have done nothing but for a while afterwards.  I'm always inspired after a show and this year my thoughts were on needlepointing my "Stitch for a Cure" Cancer Ribbon design.
The cross stitch model was for my Mom, but to needlepoint it into a pillow is pure me.

First I converted the thread colours of the pink ribbons to wool, and once they were stitched I hit a little snag.  The cross stitch model was stitched on 32ct Lugana "Pink Whisper", a beautifully pale hand-dyed pink.  In needlepoint the background needs to be filled in, and there is no wool colour close to that fabric colour.  To further complicate things, the palest pink wool shade available I had already used.  So I decided to turn my attention to the border, until  I could sort my background dilemma.  This then made me think about the words - Mother, Sister, Wife....  When I first started this needlepoint I thought of using a Perle Cotton #8 to backstitch the words, but backstitching over the Continental Stitch is not the easiest.  So the idea of charting them into full stitches and stitching them around the perimeter as the border hit me,  but I also love the existing interlocking ribbon border. 
The interlocking ribbons are to signify all of us interwoven with one another in supporting those in our lives conflicted with cancer and in our combined efforts, prayers and hopes to finding a cure.  So because of all these options tumbling around and fermenting in my head I have not been able to put needle to canvas.  Awww the torment!!!! - will I ever get this all sorted and actually get back to stitching.


As a result of all of this, this is how my needlpoint looks today, and has done for a few weeks,   I think I  have it almost all figured out -  and I can finally get back to stitching.

I'll keep you informed on my progress, if you wish?

I wish an Angel for you!

Many of you may have seen me wearing this pendant at the NeedleWorkers MarketPlace last month.  I had designed and stitched this Angel in secret, as I wanted it to be as much as a surprise for my mother as it was to be for our Gitta's Getaway 2012 attendees.  (The hinged pendant is available at Gitta's)

It all started with a Christmas card my mother received from my cousin in Germany.  Inside the card my cousin had inserted a poem "Ich wuensch einen Engel fuer Dich" by Annemarie Wagner .  My mother was greatly moved, both by the sentiment and the poem.  So much so that she asked me to translate the poem into English as she wanted to share it with everyone at our (at that time) upcoming GG Retreat.  With the already large workload and plans for the Retreat my mother was quite accepting of the fact that I may not find the time.  However, the closer we got to our Retreat and many of the plans being completed, I found myself thinking more and more about the poem.   So I translated the poem, charted and stitched the Angel all in secret.  Then with the help of my daughter, we laminated the chart and the poem into a bookmark, and presented it to everyone at the Banquet Dinner.  And it being Mother's Day tomorrow, I wanted to share it with all of you.

On the front of the bookmark, on a feathery cloud,
was a photo of the pendant with the poem. 

 This is the poem translated into English:

I wish an angel for you
to protect you always,
with all its love and goodness
through the day and through the night

I wish an angel for you, 

to sooth your soul 

through all your pain and sadness,

 now and for eternity

 I wish an angel for you
to be by your side always
when you are in the darkness
and guide you to the light

On the reverse side of the bookmark was the chart with stitching instructions.
Click here for your angel.

I wish an Angel for each and everyone of you. 

 Take care and  have a great Mother's Day

Awwww......it's over!!!!!

Over the two days of the NeedleWorkers MarketPlace almost 300 stitchers came from far & wide to enjoy a show that was tailored just for them.
They were greeted with a show guide and a free handout of the Collaboration Sampler's border and layout.
They then visited each designer boutique (hotel suites),  shopped, viewed the designers fabulous models and products, collected all the portions to the Collaboration sampler ( one from each designer), and generally had a great time.

This, and the photo just below on the left are of Gitta's Suite.   In our Suite, we exhibited most of our own designs as well as featuring 2 models from a NEW designer Snow Dragon Designs.  The photo below & on the right is of another designer that also exhibited at the NeedleWorkers MarketPlace, X's & Oh's.

In total 15 designers exhibited at the Market, each bringing their own unique flair.



The Collaboration Sampler was your free gift for visiting the NeedleWorkers MarkePlace.  The border pattern that you collected at the entrance then indicated all participating Designers and where within the sampler their free pattern was inserted.

In the Collaboration Sampler the border is stitched with Gloriana Silk #180, Tulip Festival.  It is a variegated silk, and it is the colours within this fibre that unites all the designs, each as unique as its designer.  Starting from the top left, that Butterfly was contributed by Alma Laidlaw of Sew Fancy Inc.  The top right is by Jeannette Douglas.  On the next row the Islandic Poppy was designed by Roxann Blazetich-Ozols of the Beadaddict and could be found in the suite she shared with Black Tulip Designs.  Next, the Canvaswork pattern was designed by Carolyn Mitchell.  The three Tulips were available from Birtstitch. The sentiment was designed by Joanne Gatenby of X's & Oh's, and the Iris is Brenda Franklin's creation.  The Swedish weaving band very obviously is from Christine Allan's Swedish Weaving.  The Butterfly is from Linda Lachance of Northern Pine Designs, and the Celtic Dragon is thanks to Laura Dickson of Enchanting Lair Designs.  And lastly the Hummingbird is my design - Kathrin Ellison of Gitta's Designs.

I  had also prepared an accessory pack, available for purchase, which included everything except the fabric and the DMC floss; it included 6 yards of the Gloriana Silk, the 28 Swarovski 4mm bicone crystals, the Bee button, and the Kreinik metallic threads.

The Sampler was a big hit.  

I'm already working on the layout and border for next year's Collaboration Sampler.  So if you missed out on this year's,  make plans for next year's Market to collect the 2013 sampler.

 Mark your Calendars - the NeedleWorkers MarketPlace for 2013 is planned for either April 5th & 6th OR April 12th &13th.

Stitch for a Cure

Although, I have been working on new  designs for Gitta's Getaway and the NeedleWorkers MarketPlace next weekend, I also managed to finished my "Stitch for a Cure" design.  I designed it for my Mom, and all the women in our lives that live with cancer.  My mother is a breast cancer survivor (15 years) and then two years ago, just before Christmas, she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  My mother, being my mother and not wanting to spoil everyone's Christmas, had kept this to herself.  My mother is a fighter;  as well as suffering through chemo and radation therapy, she searched out alternative medicines to boost her immune system.  She is a constant inspiration; never giving up.  Today her cancer is receeding and she is getting stronger.
I will release this pattern at the NeedleWorkers MarketPlace.  It will be $20.00 (cash please), and the entire $20.00 will be donated to the Credit Valley Hospital Cancer Centre, where my mom received her treatments.  The nurses there are exceptional, and this is our ( my mother & my ) way of giving back.   
 The chart will also be available at the shop and through our website.