Country Garden Stitchery

I have been needing some new inspiration lately. I have been reading the new 2008 Best American Mystery Stories and they are pretty good. I think it is funny they call them mysteries as some of them aren't, not even a little. I do enjoy reading most of them for the writing quality. I think maybe I need something a little more happy though. I need a really funny author, know of any. I tend to seek out the serious authors, I need a change I think. I have also been seeking change in my design work too. Fairies came to mind since I like nature and that is where they live. I have been working on new ideas for embroidery, cross stitch and greeting cards with fairies. They can be very cute, and not very cute I have learned. I have become very interested in all of them and all the beautiful artwork done now on them. I bought the new 2009 Linda Ravenscroft calendar, absolutely stunning. I hadn't heard of her work until I found the calendar at a gift shop in Fernley, Nevada. I have also ...

I am finished with my new book! Yay! It is a book of sketches from many years of exploring the Nevada desert and ghost towns with my family. Watercolor paintings, pen and ink drawings and sketches along with journal entries. The places include Unionville, Nevada; Rochester, Nevada; Lovelock, Nevada; Humboldt City, Nevada and a few other places. A few animals and other nature creatures we ran into. It is a fun little gift book, something different, especially if you like history and art work. It is available in my Etsy store for the holidays.

First snow today! We woke up to fat fluffy snowflakes coming down and coating the grass. It melted quickly more into a rain, but wow what a great ski season in the Sierras if this is an indication of the weather to come. I have been busy sewing things for the holiday crafting this season. I decided to use a technique from the industry and leave my serged edges exposed on some patchwork scarves and they turned out neat. I used variegated threads in my serger that match and I really liked it. It is fun to play with all the cute fabrics out now in the quilting shops. Quilting shops are so fun to visit. We had a shop hop here in our area and it was a great success, lots of people had fun. The online needlework show was earlier this year and it was a fun time as usual, lots of new patterns to see and emails from wonderful stitchers all over the world. Now it is time for me to get my sketches and threads out to plan for a new set of cross stitch and embroidery patterns for 2009. Thinking of ...

I spent Labor Day weekend sewing and tried a quilted runner with triangles again. Everything was going along smoothly and I was thinking to myself this is great so nice and quick. Well....beware when confidence gets to high.... i had forgot to put in a triangle or two here and there in the block strips i was making. I was wondering why i had all these little triangles left when i was ready to put on the sashing... I was reading the directions and not paying close enough attention to the illustrations. I almost hated quilting again for awhile. I had to take apart all my pretty little triangle blocks and insert more. It was a kit so i had limited fabric, fortunately the pesky triangles didn't stretch and they were salvagable and the quilt looks okay. I like quilting again since it did turn out okay and I look forward to another project, however probably not with triangles. Need a break from those. I have been working on many embroidery projects too and drawing the autumn nature scene...

I remember hearing "life can change on a dime" and I never really understood what that meant. I guess I thought it meant very quickly, unexpectedly - but what does that have to do with a dime. Because it is small? The smallest, thinnest coin? Still don't know but my father died unexpectedly last week and that thought came to me. My life does feel changed, a bit empty and it has brought me to a new level emotionally and mentally I think. Feeling a hurt so truly and deeply does bring change. On a happier note I am going to be doing a flower arranging class. I love flowers and am really looking forward to the colors and different flowers I will learn about. I am hoping for some healing too. I looked at the flower bouquets at my father's celebration of life ceremony and they were beautiful. Lots of yellow flowers ~ buttery yellow gladiolas, sunflowers with huge chocolate colored brown centers, sunshine yellow daisies. Yellow is a happy color and I am thankful for all of ...

I am very happy that my embroidery and watercolor book is finished. It seemed to take most of my time for awhile. I put 24 embroidery designs in it along with lots of watercolor florals. The embroidery book is a collection of all my embroidery booklets - tulip embroidery, sketches from nature embroidery, daisy embroidery, and garden cart embroidery. It has a finished project of each category to show what the design looks like stitched up. I am publishing another book with my desert ghost town drawings in it that I have collected in my journals since my children were little. Very excited about that. It should be finished very soo. I have also been getting ready for the online Needlework Show in September. Wow, almost need another vacation. I have the new Amy Butler design book and I have been slowly perusing it in the evening for relaxation. I love it because it is very different and fresh and brings lots of ideas to my brain. I got a couple other sewing books too - "S ...

I am very excited! I finished my wall quilt this past weekend and it is hanging in my hallway. I kind of designed it as I went using fabrics I found on a weekend trip to Idaho. I had a great time browsing the quilting shops. They are one of my favorite kinds of shops to visit, so cozy with all the fabric and color. Lots of rain for Memorial Day and is still raining, my flowers are very happy now. Much better than last weekend with temperatures way too hot for this time of year! Going to start on my autumn pumpkins now I think. I really like this quilting