Stitching with a Shimmy

Shimmying through life with needles and thread…
May 10th, 2012

What I’m Up To…

tramatina1.jpg

I always feel like I need to keep to a strict schedule on the blog, and then life happens and I fall off the wagon. When this happens, I feel like I’m disappointing you, and me as well, since I love the communication we have through here!

If/when I take a day job (which is looking more and more likely every day), this is only going to become worse. How can I write for others, write for me, update my shops and still crank out designs? Eesh! It’s overwhelming. And don’t forget, teach dance, workout and dance for myself in there!

And yet there is this inner need for schedule. For consistency. For putting very specific types of posts on specific days. It’s like these days my overly logical side is in a tug of war with my creative side – and I can’t get either to put down the rope and work together. Heh. My inner world is a lot like the US Congress!

So for now I’m going to try to ease back into blogging – and TAST, for that matter. The TAST weeks where I managed to stitch improved my creativity immensely, and that’s a good thing. I’m not going to fret if I can’t keep up every week though.

I am going to try to keep up with the Thursday posts about what’s on the design table or embroidery frame, however. That’s the kind of thing I really want to keep sharing with all of you, and your feedback makes my week!

That said, stitching relieves stress. (Unless you add business stress TO your stitching!) Here’s an article a friend passed on to me about how more people are picking it up and why.

Enjoy! (And go stitch something!)

January 26th, 2012

The Stitch Dilettante moves on…

Stitch Dilettante. That would be me. ;)

One of my defining characteristics as a stitch dilettante is that whenever things get stressful I have a tendency to start a new project with string – often in a technique I’ve never tried before.

Things I’ve learned this way include: needle tatting, needlelace, reticella, pulled work, drawn work, lace knitting, and thread crochet. Add to this the fact that I’ll also start a new project just to try out something new, or because I like the “pretty picture,” and you can see how I might end up with unfinished rugs, ornaments, pillows, cafe curtains, and more tucked into nooks and crannies all over the house.

Last year was especially stressful, with my Dad passing, and my husband fially recovering from a fight with lyme disease or Starry, or whatever they’ve decide to call tick-borne diseases in Carolina, because we all know deer ticks won’t cross the Mason-Dixon line. (Sorry. That’s another rant.)

Rather than starting new techniques last year, though, I became a designing fiend. And I drew a lot – filled many sketchbooks with small doodles that really only belong in the trash can. :) I played in mixed media – how do you feel about mixed  media cross stitch designs?

And I actually started finishing my UFOs from those nooks and crannies – especially the knitting. And I started slipping out into the world more – in January I found that two of my designs had made it onto the pages of the Nordic Needle catalog – the printed one!

This year I feel in a much better position to keep moving on into the world.  It will be an adventure.

July 1st, 2011

The Fruits of Being Sick

The first results - vintage pastorals

The first results - vintage pastorals

Over the last few weeks I’ve had a horrendous ear infection – it’s kept me away from anything remotely resembling counted work – which meant, no model stitching on current projects.

It didn’t’ stop me from stitching, though, and I got the following embroidery projects completed, along with about 4 thread crochet doilies – yes, I know, those require counting, but it’s a lot easier to rip back crochet work than cross stitch!

As usual, click on the pictures to see them larger (and in their entirety!).

May 25th, 2011

FiberFest Results

Yarn closeup

Isn't it pretty?!

Last weekend I went to the Carolina Fiber Fest with some friends. It has been a long time since I’ve been to one of this type of event, and I’m afraid I forgot what the wool fumes do to me. For the most part, I was good, and didn’t spend a lot of money.

Unfortunately, I volunteered to teach my friends how to spin (Note to potential friends: Romilly is an enabler… you don’t want to shop textiles with me unless you want a new hobby, or a new toy to play with an OLD hobby…) And to do that, I had to have some of the same wool they were going to be using! :)

So I came home with five ounces of colonial roving. Pretty blue, turquoise and red.  It sat in my bag until Tuesday. Tuesday I broke down.

Same yarn, different angle!

More yarn shots.

I borrowed my friend’s new spindle – both of mine had yarn on them already… got to finish that! and I wanted to play with the weight on hers in any case so I knew what she could expect… it’s light.  And two hours of work later, I have a skein of 130 yards of fingering weight singles… I may ply it later, I might not… and a little bit more. And I still have 2/3 of a bag of roving to go! I think I’m going to have a new shawl next fall. What do you think?

*I* think it’s time to dig the spinning wheel out of storage and see what I can do with it.  I originally learned to spin with the intention of spinning my own crewel wool… Maybe I’ll pull that idea back out. Drop spindles are perfect for that, because you can spin a small amount of fiber pretty easily.  I’ll keep you posted as to how that works!

May 4th, 2011

Art at the Zoo…

Was it really my birthday that I posted last? EEP! I’d understand if you all thought I’d disappeared into the void. I haven’t. I’ve just been a mess.

Friday, instead of posting here, I went to the NC zoo in Asheboro, North Carolina. Ostensibly to draw, but I realized when I got there that Friday is field trip day – too many kids to get myself a good spot near most of the exhibits, and so I ended up mostly taking reference shots with my camera, though I did find a bench close enough to draw a page and a half of flamingos.

But I have to share this. Outside of one of the North America exhibits is a wall. On this wall is a tile mosaic. But it’s really not just any tile mosaic… it MOVES when you walk by it. I was afraid that it wouldn’t show in a video, but it did. So here it is: