Stitching at Sea

Ahoy! We're home from our epic week aboard the Celebrity Infinity!  Myself and 18 quilty friends spent a wonderful week exploring the Alaskan ports of Icy Straight Point (Hoonah), Juneau and Ketchikan, plus a trip into the Hubbard Glacier which was spectacular. We were so very well taken care of by the wonderful staff aboard the ship (shout out to the electricians who kept our irons hot and our machines running!). In addition to plenty of sewing time, we ate so well, drank lots of delicious wine and coffee, danced, were entertained in the theatre and a few of us even played the slots and went ziplining (more in the next post!).

This embroidery hoop was my surprise for all of the Stitch at Sea Alaska participants. I drew up the design and had my pal Berene tidy it up in Illustrator so that I could print it directly onto white Essex linen through my inkjet (I cut the linen to 8 1/2" x 11" pieces and ironed them onto freezer paper. If you set your printer to 'cardstock' it will grab the thickness of the linen + freezer paper and feed it through!). 

conference room Beta - our studio for the week (design walls/batting supplied by Pellon!)

I taught two workshops on the cruise for a total of 9 hours of instruction, but we had many more hours of free sewing (one night at sea several intrepid quilters stitched until midnight!). First we played with the luscious Oakshott colourshotts which I had kitted into four Alaskan-themed colourways for my Improv Under the Influence technique class. Students had their choice of Midnight Sun, Northern Lights, Glacier or Fireweed. You can see the results here (sadly, too windy for an outdoor photo, so we took over the Grand Staircase inside the ship).

Most people stuck with the "Chess on the Steps" layout, but as you can see, a few took my encouragement to try alternate layouts for their improv borders.

The second workshop was much more precise: the mini Lonestar Circle. We were all feeling the effects of a week at sea, being well fed and toured around.  People chose their Cotton & Steel FQ sets I'd curated, cut their strips and started piecing, but we didn't get far enough for photos, really. On our final day, the sun was shining through the Inside Passage and most of us chose to pack up our supplies and head up to the top deck to enjoy some stitching in the sunshine while keeping an eye out for whales.  Many of us were rewarded with Orca sightings! I saw a baby jump fully out of the ocean (I thought it was a porpoise), but then the mama's massive dorsal fin appeared, followed by her tail. I was super excited to have my first "Orca in the wild" sighting!  

More photos and stories coming....but first a word from our sponsors:

Over the previous few months I contacted several folks in the industry and was able to put together some fabulous goody bags for everyone, in addition to collecting enough incredible door prizes that each quilter went home with a bonus as well. Special thanks to all of these generous sponsors!

    

  

                

       

 

     

  

A Down Under Swap

Consider it a Winter-Summer thing. Here, we are supposedly mid-winter (hello, can we please get some snow already?!), while in Australia it is high and hot summer.  Nova sits, patiently awaiting my end of our swap bargain, likely enjoying a long tall glass of lemonade or iced tea.  At least that's what I'd be enjoying if it was 100 degrees!

I had a peek at Nova's favs and read up on some of her likes (blues, greens, maps, linen). I was super excited to use some of this perfect Japanese linen printed with a sort of made-up map of some European city that may be Prague, or Paris or Frankfurt. Who knows what goes through the mind of these Japanese designers, but whatever it is usually produces the most interesting of fabrics! ETA: Thanks to Kerry, I can now tell you it is Berlin! This fabric was designed by Marie Jacobi for Yuwa. And Marie is German, not Japanese. My bad.

First up is a hoop project pouch so Nova can take her stitching to the beach!  It's lined with some of Lizzy House's Castle Peeps and a piece of Moda marble provides a handy divider to keep hoop and floss in their own little compartments.

Next we have the requisite swap-with-Poppyprint thread catcher.  I believe that Nova has a fondness for repurposed fabrics, so this one is lined with shirting and the outside coordinates with her hoop pouch.

And last but not least, a sweet little linen house tape measure made with Laurraine's pattern.

someone recently asked me why all my houses are either #4 or #7. It's because those are the easiest numbers to embroider in small size - no curves! Sometimes I can be incredibly lazy.

We've been thoroughly enjoying the gorgeous pillow Nova sent weeks ago. It's time for me to package these goodies up and send them on their way to the sunshine!

A-O-K!

Check out my hoop!!!

It arrived today all the way from Atlanta. Made by Ella just for me in the Misfit Quilter's hoop swap. I've never done cross stitch, but I've watched my mom carefully mark off pattern rows and count her way across aida cloth under a magnifying glass. Wow, these x's are so tiny!! I must say that I don't think I've got the patience, or eyesight for it. Just this last weekend, I was really ready for some progressive lenses....note to self: call for eye exam tomorrow.

I just love it that I have my very on "K" hoop. It is proudly hanging in my sewing room already.

I've had some seriously good swap luck lately, haven't I?

Chihuahua Princess

Ladies and (one or two) gentlemen, may I introduce Chihuahua Princess, my latest embroidered hoop project...

This is on it's way to my secret partner in the Misfit Quilter's modern hoop swap, a small swap group that I totally gate-crashed after reading about it on Twitter. I was in the mood to make another hoop. They don't take tons of time and you can have a lot of fun with them.

Her 'diamonds' are clear beads attached with a French knot.

I'm never sure that others will share my sense of humor, but I thought it would be funny to have a totally blinged out princess Chihuahua in her 80's Adidas bag letting everyone know that her other ride is a Prada. I hope no one sues me. I think every boy in my high school carried their books in those vinyl Adidas bags in the early 80's...that is until the handles inevitably ripped out of the rivets!

I'm linking up to Rachel's Celebrate Color Needlepoint pool with this hoop!

One more swap to complete: I'm making a pair of potholders for a member of the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild in a swap with my Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. We are only about an hour's drive apart location-wise and sometimes a few members of one guild will attend the other's monthly meeting. We thought a guild to guild swap would be fun. Have you ever done a swap like that?

Some Hoopla!

This day is a happy one. I've already been for a lovely 1-hour sunshiny walk with the dog and arrived home to a full mailbox.

My swap with Suzanne is now complete. She has received from me and her package arrived today. We did a side swap out of the Pretty Little Pouch swap flickr group and decided to swap a hoop & hoop pouch with each other. Suzanne had already made me two adorable, useful and much loved pouches in round 1 of the PLP swap, so I feel extra lucky.

Isn't this hoop fun?!! Both Suzanne and I ordered the map fabric panel last spring from Hancock's after seeing it put to amazing use as background in Gayle's Farmer's Wife blocks.

And here's my beautiful hoop pouch. I love this so much. I've never English Paper Pieced before (despite having purchased hexy papers a few years ago...I don't even know where those things are anymore!). I adore every fabric she put into the star and the handstitching totally makes it for me. The pouch is lined with the pink/red dot DS print from the Jo Ann line. Perfection!

This pouch is going to get a lot of well-deserved attention at my next stitch group get together. It's loaded with my latest embroidery project already!

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful work with me Suzanne.

p.s. picnik guys were "stepping over black cats" while the program loaded today....

And they're off.....

My swap package for Suzanne is complete and on it's way across the continent (visit her blog to see what she made for me! It is simply gorgeous). I completed the hoop this afternoon. I've told you all about it here, so I'll just show you the ta-da pix today.

I thought that I would try a blanket stitch sort of finish around the outside of the hoop, but it looked really awful, so I ripped it out and went with my standard ricrac embellishment. If you click through the photo of the back, I explained how I finish my hoops in the photo description.

The hoop is snug in it's pretty hoop pouch and I'm sure will be enjoying a lovely flight back east very soon. Let's hope it avoids the Twilight Zone.

I also made this Stash Trad block for Angela. She's posted a tute for it on her blog. It's a big mama - measuring in at just under 20". I keep referring to it in my brain as the Cheese and Cracker Jacks Scraps block...but Angela just calls it Cracker Scraps. I'll make a second one for our other group, the VIBees as soon as her fabric arrives. This block made me realize my yellow/mustard yellow stash is sadly slim. Must buy more fabric.

Angela requested Kona bone for the background - nice!

Now, to design my last hoop swap stitchery. I have some fun ideas for my partner in the Misfits Hoop Swap....I just hope my drawing/copying skills are up to the task!