seashells

I have yet to remember where I put Mom's and my other pieces of crewel, nor have I taken time to search for them. But I do have some photos of a two small kits I made in the mid-eighties for my bathroom.







These were small kits (probably Sunset), about 5"x7", and the coloring was perfect for my peach/cream/tan bed- & bathroom area. I remember enjoying the stitching very much. I think the grey/silver one was the one I really wanted, and the other was the mate.

from my mom's pointy needle

(Too soon) after my mother passed away, my sister and I sorted through her sewing/stitching/crafting things. (She would never have said "stash." They were her "things.") Most of the quilting material and supplies and projects were in an old wooden chest my father had made for the boys' toys, and still are, only now the chest is in my sister's house. The rest of the sewing stuff came to live with me. I thought I had taken all the finished items and put them somewhere safe. Apparently I did, because after an hour in the back (HOT) room last night, I only found one piece. Boy, is it a doosie! Put on your shades, dear reader...




It is actually even brighter in person.

This has to be something she purchased on a trip to Pennsylvania Dutch Country. I think those birds are distlefinks, and the colors and stylization seems very much like the "hex signs" from that area. It has masking tape on the edges (horrors! but it is what we did in the 70s), but doesn't appear to be stained, only dingy from time.

With luck, I'll remember where I stored her beautiful Jacobean work. I even think there are some Elsa Williams designs that she finished... I know there are some unfinished (and never started) kits in the container where I found this eye-catching piece.

Shepherd's Purse

Shepherd's Purse is a two-day class which Barbara Jackson taught in Chicago, September 1st & 2nd, 2007, at the EGA National Seminar. If you are an EGA member, you can see photos of the completed design either in your copy of the seminar brochure (or flip it over and it's on the cover of the March 2007 issue of the organization's quarterly magazine, Needle Arts). (Or here, on page 6, as Class 102, and there is a tiny photo here -- they seem to have taken down the larger photos.)

Below is my piece, as I (sadly) have left it since the end of class on Sunday!



I am itching to get back to it...

circles of life

    It is Tuesday night, more than halfway through EGA National Seminar 2007. We (all 600+ attendees including my DH and sons) are in the "Windy City," Chicago, Illinois, USA. Not quite a year ago we -- well, I was sans family, but there were probably still about 600+ attendees -- were in Richmond and viewed the class pieces for this present event. I still can not fathom why I decided to take a crewel class. Perhaps it was the hightened interest of some of my chapter members, i.e., Lisa and Rissa, or just the sheer number of beautiful crewel embroideries that have been designed, taught and stitched in the past few years. (Of course, some people have been designing amazing crewel work for years, like Audrey Francini and Judy Jeroy -- more about them in another post.) Whatever it was, even if only a "jumping on the bandwagon" interest, I signed up for Barbara Jackson's (Tristan Brooks Designs) weekend class, Shepherd's Purse. In the meantime, we (the Mississippi NeedleArts chapter of EGA) determined to bring Barbara to Jackson for a workshop. (Details on this event as they become available.)

    I am in love . . . or maybe just infatuated.

    I was thrilled to discover I (still)have some skill at this stitching technique. Of course, like many of us who were stitching in the 60's, it's not my first rodeo. I worked on many a Sunset kit -- and still have many of them stashed away in a trunk. My dear sweet mother loved "Jacobean" crewel work -- and I have many of her completed (and uncompleted) pieces. She favored finishing her pieces as pillows. Several of them remained on her bed or the cedar chest at the foot of her bed until she passed.

    So, too, like many things in my life, I guess this is a "full circle" kind of thing, a rememberance of the past.

    Today, Rissa, Lisa & I viewed the class pieces for next year's seminar in Louisville, when/where we will celebrate EGA's 50th birthday Barbara will present two two-day notebook classes (1, 2) at next year's seminar in Louisville (and a one-day project). Really, I can hardly believe I am most drawn to those classes.

Here I go again. Starting another blog. My "intention" here is to document, and learn, and share as much as I can about the next twelve months and my journey among the strands of wool and silk.