Three Things to Finish Fan

Fan's broad yellow border is done now, so I need to turn my attention to the things I need to do to finish her up so she and her companion canvas Butterfly can head off to the finisher in plenty of time for the ANG Auction.

I need to do several things with her kimono--finish the last sleeve in backwards I stitch, then add the gold dots and green trefoil leaf pattern, and finally add the green edging to one sleeve. Then I have to tackle her fan (should I use beads there?) and the butterfly in her other hand. I also have to finish the pale yellow backgroud on her right side and stitch the rose border including a row of tent on the outside to make life easier for the World's Greatest Finisher, Summer.

There's a lot to go but much of it won't take long. Hurrah! The end is in sight!

And double hurrah--it is finally spring in Chilly Hollow. The redbuds are blooming and the dogwoods are thinking about it. And we have Virginia bluebells everywhere. See the photo above? The buds are pink but they turn blue as they blossom. There are masses of them covering Morgan's Island in front of my house. It looks smoky blue there each morning when I drive to work. And there are plenty along the driveway, too. I took a photo for you. It's odd but in another month the flowers, those broad green leaves, everything will have vanished entirely.

And next spring, they will come back to enchant me all over again.

Stitch N Pitch

Like baseball? Like to stitch? Live near Houston? Sunday, May 4th is Stitch N Pitch day for the Astros-Brewers game at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. Head to this website for more information or to buy tickets. The password is stitch.

http://www.astros.com/stitchandpitch

The eye candy is Brad Ausmus, catcher for the Astros. Sorry, Brad's married with two cute little girls.

He illustrates this article because he's my second cousin. Feel free to wave!

So Much Beauty, So Little Time

I haven't done anything more on Fan--too busy at night--but I have been thinking about all the great new designs showing up on other stitching blogs. And it raised a question in my mind.

Just how do you choose a design for your stash? There are so many choices! We are really very lucky in that there are so many designers making beautiful things for us, but that means somehow we have to decide which new thing will join the collection. How does one decide?

I keep a list of things that I like. If I consistently over time admire a design, it stays on the list. Sometimes I will like something because so many other folks like it. If there's a lot of email chatter about a design, if it shows up in a lot of online shops, if a lot of my friends are stitching it, well, it shows up on the list. But then it has to stand the test of time. If I start to lose interest, it comes off the list.

Then I have to think about cost. Resources aren't unlimited here in CH and I have a stitching budget that I don't exceed. I watch for items on my list and when something comes up on sale someplace, then that's the decision point. Do I want to buy it?

I use several criteria in choosing whether to spend at this point. Do I own a similar design already? If so, doesn't matter how much of a deal it is, I won't buy it. I don't want to repeat myself.

Do I have a lot of ideas about how to stitch it? Is is a good place to try something new I want to learn about? Does it seem to whisper to me? Is it something I have fallen in love with? Will that love last?

Now that I have Blogs, I have a responsibility to readers. Is this new thing going to showcase something that blog readers are likely to be interested in? Does it illustrate how to do something that folks want to know? Is it large enough (but not too large) to work on publicly? People lose interest in large pieces in my opinion but you do need to have more than 1-2 postings on a project.

Finally, is this something I want for my own house or to give as a present for a loved one? Or to donate to the ANG Auction (a favorite charity of mine)? The final piece needs to have a home beyond a drawer, after all!

How do you choose?

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If more convenient, visit my main blog at
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Brenda Is A Purple Tulip UPDATED

If you don't read the blogs that NP designers and shop owners have, you are missing out on some great information and inspiration.

How about Ruth Schmuff's idea to have a Sandra Gilmore floral design painted based on some of Ruth's friends and colleagues? Brenda Hart is represented by a purple tulip! To see the canvas and read about other "flowers" look for the 4/5/08 entry here.

http://tistheseason.org/blog/ruthsBlog.html

Speaking of inspiration, check out what Rosalyn Cherry-Soleil has to say to her Flight of Fancy cyberclass students and to us about stitching.

http://www.stitchamaze.com/cyber_class_thoughts.html

The photo above is from a Leigh Designs canvas of three Japanese masks. Rosalyn is stitching this, with progress photos on her website. Check this one out and also several other large pieces she has underway here.

http://www.stitchamaze.com/work_in_progress.html

Finally, watch Laura Perin design a new sampler on her website. I love the small, smaller, large and largest primrose patterns!

UPDATE: Laura has added a second design in a spring and autumn version on her blog. It's fascianting to see how she changes a rose to a grape, a willow leaf to a grape leaf, tosses in beads and changes colors and Poof! You have something totally different.

http://two-handedstitcher.blogspot.com/

Inspiration is all over the Internet if you know where to look.

Dog Show

Last night I finished stitching Fan's hair and worked on the broad yellow border. I'm happy to report that three sides of the border are finished. Only the bottom remains but it'll be a bit tricky as I need to compensate for the one thread less in the paint job. This, naturally, makes for not exactly riveting blogging--stitch over four threads three times, turn, stitch over four threads three times, turn, repeat endlessly--so here's a parade of dog portraits from Squiggee's blog. Aren't they great? Each dog seems to have a different personality. These are real dogs, not generic representatives of the breed.

http://www.squiggeedesigns.blogspot.com/

Squiggee is the painted canvas designer Gail Hendrix, whose work you have seen on The Point of It All's beautiful and classic canvases. Gail has started using up the leftover canvas from her larger pieces for fun little ornaments under the Squiggee name. You can see Gail's work here. Please note that although she does a backup blog like I do, her two blogs are not identical. She often posts one picture in the 360 blog and illustrates the same blog entry in the Blogspot blog with a different photo. To get the full Gail experience, check both places. And if you didn't get here right on time, look for the April 13 blog entry.

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-OB4LKpQiarOD7lr5svmEAE1LT3DQ

http://www.squiggeedesigns.blogspot.com/

http://www.thepointofitallonline.com/

Anybody got treats for the dogs?