short break

As you may have noticed, I have been a little busy, and I haven't had much time to post. I just wanted to let you know that I will not be able to post at all next week, I hope you don't miss me too much. I will be back, hopefully, the following week, and I may even have some stitching to share. My absence will be for work, but I do hope to have some stitching time.

See you soon!

Crewel Chatelaine

A couple of months ago our EGA guild class was taught by my friend Marj. I've been working on it for a couple of weeks, and it went very quickly, so much so that I was amazed.



Didn't it turn out beautifully? There are satin stitches, buttonhole stitches, french and colonial stitches, chain stitch, outline stitch, long and short stitch, lattice stitch and closed fly stitch. It is very useful as well. One of the stitched items is a pin cushion, and the other is a pocket. The band is 2 layers thick, finished very nicely so you cannot see the back. The yarn was wonderful to work with, and it brought back very fond memories.

When I was in high school, a crewel project was instrumental in helping me keep it together. The living situation I was in was not the best, and I was young, immature, and very homesick. One of the things that made it bearable was the crewel kit my mom had bought for me to work on. In the evenings I had time to stitch, the process of stitching relieved my loneliness and comforted me.



There are not too many stitches in it, mostly satin stitch, outline, chain, and cross stitches. It is the first kit I made and finished. Now that I look at it, I'm not even sure you can call it crewel, except that it was stitched with yarn. The pattern was printed on the fabric. My uncle framed it for me when it was done, he used to frame my aunt's water colors. It is discolored in places but it still looks very pretty. I have it next to my bed, and enjoy looking at it in the evenings.

This project started me down the road I have traveled for years. Thank you for this project Marj! It brought back many good memories.

Successful show

Yesterday was our Guild show, and I think it was very successful. We had attendance of over 200 people, and we broke even. I think we really raised awareness in our region of the fact that embroidery is alive and well. I took some pictures, trying not to get faces, except where I had permission.

We asked for a donation of $2 entry fee, and provided a program booklet with the committee's names and the names of those who exhibited, and those who donated their time to make "opportunity drawing" items.



We had a display of some of the projects we have taught and worked together from our education programs. I was impressed by all the variety and quantity of work on this table.



We had a Christmas ornament sale, with over 100 ornaments made by members and donated for the sale. Most of the finishing was donated as well!



My last picture is of the member boutique; the guild collected 20% of the sales from this area.



I worked at the Opportunity Drawing table, and of course, I didn't get any pictures of that, or of the exhibit itself. There were some beautiful things displayed!

DD2 and C came to look at things. C was excited because she got to start a needle case. She has already asked me to finish it for her, but I think we will work on it together next time she is over. However, she was very disappointed in the show. In the first place, she didn't think it was fair that the doll dress her grandma made wasn't automatically hers, but she coped with buying a ticket and putting it in the basket for the drawing. She didn't understand that it was a drawing though, when they were ready to leave she asked her mom "When are we going to pick up the dress we bought?" I think I better get busy on the yellow one I promised her.