Fun times

We had a wonderful time on our road trip. The needlework show at Woodlawn was great. They had more painted canvas entries this year and I particularly enjoyed seeing them. (Jane of CH - check out the 3 mermaids on the sofa - they are a hoot!). All of the entries were lovely - lots of samplers, rugs, geometrics, pulled work, cross stitch and needlepoint. Amazing stitching in every room of the house.

Our visits to the shops were successful. I was able to pull threads for 2 canvases in my stash. I added a few "new to me" threads to my thread stash. AND, you will be proud of me - I followed the SFS 2009 rules - NO new canvases were adopted. MJ came home with a fantastic dog canvas. We've nicknamed him Dudley and he HAD to go home with her.

The class with Brenda Hart was lots of fun. We met some amazing women who were working on some of the most spectacular canvases I have ever seen. I hope our paths will cross again at some point. They were great ladies. Brenda's suggestions were fabulous. Her suggestions for my witch were great. Some of them are out of my comfort zone but I am going with the flow. That is why I took the class isn't it - to get new ideas and suggestions and to broaden my horizons? I was one of the last folks to have my second consultation with her so I don't have as many stitched areas to show you as I had hoped.

Her hair was a bit tough for me to do - I need lots of practice on those corkscrew curls. I used patarnayn wool and her hair is a bit bushy for my taste. I may take it out and use a thinner thread. What do you think?

Brenda's choice for her cape was totally different from what I was thinking, but I love it. I would have made her into a superhero with some sort of shiny/synthetic looking cape. Brenda made her into a fashion queen. The ermine cape is so much better for our lady. I am supposed to put either french knots or beads in for the black spots.

Brenda chose very flowery stitches for her dress. I was able to get a few rows of the yellow part of her dress done. An orange or red bead (or a combination of the two) is supposed to go in the middle of the flower stitches. The green section of her skirt is a different flowery stitch.

The cats are done in petit very velvet and their whiskers will be silver kreinik. I did have time to stitch the velvet part on the cat at the very bottom of the dress.

I've nicknamed the witch Isabel - it just seemed to fit her personality. I think she will be great fun to work on. As you can see, this is a large canvas. It will not be something I can take with me when I travel or do stitch dates. This is a sit at home with the floor stand kind of project. I will keep you posted on my progress. She is not included in my SFS 2009 goals so I will have to fit her in between declared projects.