An Embroiderer's Travel Journal: The Beginning

Lately I've been immersing myself in the history, culture and literature of Scotland...

Not to mention the weaving, knitting and needlework of Scotland as well...

I wanted to bop in quickly to let you know what I've been up to...

It's a Travel Journal for an Embroiderer...and I'm having such fun dreaming it up.

Jack and I are off again to another college visit today.  I actually enjoy seeing all the different colleges and listening to all the pitches.  

But my Journal has me eager to get back home.  Happy day everyone.

Blue Monday

There's been a lot happening in the last few weeks. Events and thoughts I want to share but haven't had much time indoors to write a blog post and capture it all.

No matter how busy I've been, the bluebirds have remained a top priority.  Sorry. I know I should have said "stitching" was top priority but...

How can I resist this face?

In the early morning and evening, I've been putting out a plate of mealworms for the bluebirds to feed their growing brood.  I feed them at the same time and whistle when I put out the plate so they know when the gravy train has arrived...



I get a kick out of the male trying to cram in as many as he can...he inevitably drops them...and then has to re-pick up all of them again.

It's quite a production and it brings us great joy to watch them.

Here's the status update on the bluebird babies as of last Wednesday...

I'll take one last pic this Wednesday and then I'll need to leave the nest alone.  I don't want to frighten them into fledging too early.

Many of you thought they had nested on a bucket on the ground.  Here's what the nest box looks like...

I can squeeze the "bucket" and release it from the nails holding it to the roof...this lets me set the nest on the ground so I can monitor the nest and take pictures.   This nest type has been very successful for me and has housed many bluebird families over the years.  I'm hoping that my feeding them a bit will help their brood size.  A typical female lays 3-5 eggs and I normally get 2-3.  We'll see if they choose to nest again in the box after this brood has fledged.

I've been trying to get them to come when I call so that I can change their feeding into a box similar to Carol's of Beads and Birds.  Both Carol and Vicki W of Field Trips in Fiber are bluebird mamas and post regularly about their box activities.

So this post is for you Carol and Vicki W.

If you enjoy watching all the habits and mannerisms of the birds in your backyard, I highly recommend this book by Julie Zickefoose...

The book is broken into individual stories about experiences she's had with different species of birds...she's sheltered them, rehabilitated them, sketched them, fed them and now...written about them.  She's a naturalist, a writer and an artist all rolled into one and I'm enjoying her perspective on many of the friends that delight me in my own backyard.

In one story about a bluebird couple that nested in her yard for many years, she cautions against the overfeeding of bluebirds with mealworms.  Evidently they are full of fat and phosphorous and too much of a good thing can upset their nutritional balance.  She learned the hard way and found that overfeeding caused her birds to forget to molt...they were so busy trying to pack in as many broods as possible.  I was glad to read this before I started my little feeding project.

She has a blog here and another book which I'm going to get out of the library here.

Jack has left for a week-long service trip to Camden, NJ.  That leaves me with a little more time to get caught up on my blogging. 

Hope your Monday is a happy one!

Holy Smoke, A Table and Pope Fiction

Holy Smoke, I can't believe it's been over a week since I posted!

Of course, maybe I should use a different expletive since Holy Smoke has quite another meaning these days.

I don't know about you, but the drama surrounding the Vatican, the butler who leaked secrets and then was pardoned, the pope who abdicated and flew away in a helicopter, and all the corruption surrounding the Vatican bank (including murder) has got my imagination on overdrive.  I cannot wait to read this novel or see the Hollywood movie.  Holy Smoke indeed!

Anyway, while the Vatican is trying to get the color of their smoke correct...I mean, the first two spewings didn't look black or white to me...Just a lot of gray.

Don't you think in the 21st century we could figure out the smoke issue?  And if they can't figure out the smoke, I wonder what that portends...

Oh well.  It's a good thing I'm comfortable with gray and I've been working with gray again making a little side table with an open drawer to help in telling the story of Mrs. Rose...



I had started to work on Mrs. Rose herself but found that I needed to order some flesh-colored fabrics for her "body".  There's a lot of components to her that I've never made before so it's all new in sourcing materials and experimenting with techniques.

While that work is underway behind the scenes, I decided to make the little side table that goes into Mrs. Rose's nursing home room.

I used an Exacto blade to cut out the shapes of the table from acid-free mat board (the kind used by framers) and then sewed a felt cover over top of each piece.  I used toothpicks for the legs covered in felt as well, and pressed each of the components with an iron to flatten the nap of the felt.



I then built the table by sewing down all the components, using Tsukineko inks and outline stitches to give some shading and dimension to the little piece of furniture.



I also adding some beading to finish off the frame of the mirror.

Now I really am off to work on the birth of Mrs. Rose...her chair has been waiting for some time.



While I'm creating, I need a new book to read so I couldn't help but get into the papal spirit of things and found this list of Pope Fiction on Goodreads.

I highly recommend Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross.  It's one of my favorite books of all time.  Angels and Demons By Dan Brown was also good but its style was a bit too like his other book, The DaVinci Code.  That being said, most folks loved it.

I've got my sights set on Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess.  I haven't read that one and the reviews look good.

I bet none of them can hold a candle to what is really going on in Rome.  Truth truly is stranger than fiction.

And Holy Smoke evidently isn't very black and white...it's pretty gray.

Who knew this piece was going to be so trendy?  Just one more benefit to working sooo slowly.

Oh well, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Happy Smoke Watching everyone!

Older Faces

Older faces have so much to say.



This Indonesian woman, Paini Vert, was forced to be a "comfort woman" for the Japanese during WWII.  She is 82 now.

The aging of our faces is largely affected by genetics but they are also a road map for how we've chosen to cope with our lives.

Some cope better than others.  Look at the pictures of some of the other women who were forced to be "comfort women" and you'll see what I mean.

The face of Mrs. Rose is pretty important.  Up until now, I've only stitched faces of the young such as Your Majesty or Audrey.  But Mrs. Rose's face was full of crinkles, laugh lines and character.  How to translate that into a face profile that is only 1" tall?

Since I am unsure, I do some research and turn to artists who have mastered the art of capturing the older face.

The dolls below are by artist Annie Wahl and I have always loved their charm and her ability to express joy within the exaggerated features of an older face...



Yet her medium is wax (these are resin replicas) not fabric, so I move on...

I turned to another artist whose work I have always admired, Deidre Scherer.



Deidre is a master of textile portraiture, often exploring the fragility of life.   With fabric and thread, she has the gift of translating the miracle of all life, even life that is waning.  I have had the good fortune of seeing her exhibition, The Last Year, where she chronicled the last year of a woman's life.  It's soulful and moving...and for anyone who has traveled with a loved one through this last phase of life on earth, you will recognize the stages.  Surrounded by Family is another one of her series that is so beautiful that it hurts.  (If you do go visit, remember to click to enlarge to see the detail of her work.)

I leave my study of Deidre's work understanding the importance of shadow, contrast, and value changes in the older face and move to another master whose work is three-dimensional rather than two.

Lisa Lichtenfels is a soft-sculpture artist whose ability to capture the human form using needle and thread is beyond compare.



Her work is so good that her images are often mistaken for photographs of real people.  She uses nylon and batting to sculpt her faces, having first built an armature of wire for bones covered by "muscles" made from batting.

Have a look through the photo galleries of her work...here, here and here.  Amazing.

Though her work is life-size, I am still inspired by her to re-create some realism in my little 1" face and think that layered nylons is likely to allow for more detail in such a small space rather than fabric.

In translating to a smaller scale, I have already learned that fewer stitches are better.  Our minds recognize facial features so well that we will often fill in feature details when they are suggested rather than stitched.

Lastly, I turned to this book hoping to find a few ideas:  Embroidered Portraits: Ideas, Inspiration and Techniques.  I had seen on it Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread blog, you can read her review of the book here.



Though Mary had expected more strictly embroidered portraits like the title and cover suggests, I was actually delighted that there were so many ideas for softly sculpted and appliqued faces.



And a whole two pages on heads in profile!  Just what I needed.

Now I'm off to buy some Mrs. Rose-colored nylons and start stitching, keeping in mind the advice given to me by Allie Aller when I feared the stitching of the queen's face on Your Majesty...

She recommended that I plan to make many faces.  So I did.  I prepped for four or five faces and chose the best of the lot...What a brilliant idea.  It completely takes the pressure off of making just one and then you get a number of different "expressions" to choose from.  It is kind of funny though, when I open up a drawer and see the rejected faces of the wanna-be queens...I mean, I can't just throw them away...that seems kind of cruel.  And so they remain, ladies in waiting.

Bottom line...plan on making multiples...this has been some of the best advice I've ever had.  Thank you Allie.

I'm off to put my best face forward sans botox.  Happy day to you.

The Artist is a Collector

If I could have written a book about creativity, I wish I would have written this one:

Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

It takes only an hour or so to read.

Unless, like me, you have to stop to really think about the messages that he delivers so simplistically.

The book is full of insight, historical reference, brief vignettes, and starts with this quote from Pablo Picasso:

 "All art is theft."

Nothing is original.  All creative work builds on what came before.

As artists we are collectors...and we are shaped and fashioned by what we love and what we surround ourselves with.

Kleon says:

“Some people find this idea depressing, but it fills me with hope…If we’re free from the burden of trying to be completely original, we can stop trying to make something out of nothing, and we can embrace influence instead of running away from it.”

And by stealing, he's not implying plagiarism where you try to pass someone else's work as your own...no, not that. But instead, borrowing ideas that speak to our souls and transforming them into our own personal creative expression.  It's about Transformation not Imitation.

“Copy your heroes. Examine where you fall short. What’s in there that makes you different? That’s what you should amplify and transform into your own work.”

And yet we do imitate when we're learning.  We take classes, we reproduce and follow patterns created by other designers, we copy their work processes...all to learn.  And, as Kleon says:

"It's in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are".  

Yes.  That's it, exactly.

In fact, after reading each of Kleon's 10 things, I felt like jumping up and shouting "Yes!!" to each one. I saw myself in and on every page.

Some more faves:

Side projects and hobbies are important.  Mess around. Wander. Get lost.  Don't throw any of yourself away.  Keep all your passions in your life. 

Don't worry about unity.  What unifies your work is the fact that you made it. 

Establishing and keeping a routine can be even more important than having a lot of time.  Work gets done in the time available. 

Write the book you want to read.  Draw the art you want to see.  Start the business you want to run.  Play the music you want to hear  Build the products you want to use.

And the list goes on and on.  It's better if you just read it yourself.  And if you do, I'd love to know what you think of it.

If you're interested, here's a TED talk by the author on Steal Like an Artist here.  And he has a blog here.  Have a great day!

Traveling in Place

Lately I've been suffering from a severe case of wanderlust.

I just. want. to travel.

And I'm not picky.  It's everything I can do to not jump in the car and drive an hour or so and see where it takes me.  I'm ripe for adventure but can't go anywhere so I've been trying to accomplish it in small ways:  going to a grocery store I've never been to, taking a new way home...I don't really care what.

I'm not sure why it's such a strong feeling right now.  But here's the reality.  Jack has exams this week, he starts his first full-time job as a lifeguard for the Summer...and he needs me to drive him there.  Not to mention that there's not money in our budget for travel right now.

So...I've been looking for other creative ways of "getting away" without going anywhere.  That's when I discovered this post by Conde Nast Traveler...

The 69 Greatest Fiction Travel Books of All Time...hmm....

What's a Fiction Travel Book?  Here's how it's defined in the post:

It's a book in which a place is as important a character as the protagonist; it's a book so informed by the writer's culture that it's impossible to read it without uncovering the life of the author behind it; it's a book that has shaped the way we see a certain place; it's a book whose events and characters could be set nowhere else.

OK.  I think I could use this as a way of traveling without going anywhere.

Plus, I love to read and I read a lot.  Well actually, I don't "read" a lot, I listen a lot....to audiobooks... while I'm working and stitching and folding laundry, etc.

And, since I'm making so many decisions in my daily life, I don't really want to have to work too hard in selecting books.  That's why I love loooong, complex series.  I read one, love it...and immediately begin reading the next book.  Then when it's all over, I'm sad for a while until I find the next "series" to sink my teeth into...Over a month ago, I finished the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and I've been floundering to find a new book path to follow.

Until today!

I can cure my wanderlust and my need for a book selection in one fell swoop!

I'm going to work my way through this list of traveling fiction starting with Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac.  I've never read any of Balzac's work so I'm looking forward to immersing myself into early 19th century France.  Evidently, he is considered the founder of realism and European literature and influenced the works of  authors like Dickens, Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, and Henry James.

A few years back, I participated in an online reading challenge, the 1% Well-Read Challenge where you read one book every month off the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die list.  I read some great books that year (you can check out the reviews I wrote here.)....one of them was Breakfast at Tiffany's and we all know what happened as a result of my reading that book.  Plus, I read books by foreign authors and period literature that I'm not sure I would have found on my own.

I think this new reading plan coupled with this book I re-discovered on my own book shelf...Weekends Away Without Leaving Home...

Just might get me somewhere.

Anyone want to join me?  I'd love to have traveling companions...

Safeguarding our Stories along with our Stuff

I've been reading this very interesting book...

It's the subject of a panel discussion I've been asked to participate in as part of the American Craft Council show that is coming to Baltimore, February 24-26.

I LOVE the ACC craft show and have attended every opening Friday for the last 15 years. In fact, it's the one place that I not only arrive on time, but I get there 20 minutes early. I don't mind standing in line in order to be one of the first people to travel down aisle after aisle of amazing artworks: textiles, glass, jewelry, beading, furniture, rugs, baskets...you name it. And the quality of the workmanship is amazing.

Sometimes I find a treasure, but mostly I attend with notebook and pencil...taking notes and writing in a fury of inspiration. When I was working, I used to play hooky just to go.

So I was delighted when I was asked by Celeste Sollod to read The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal and to participate in her discussion panel. Celeste is a blogger and writer on Baltimore books, authors and literary life and has shown past interest in my pieces inspired by books like The Giving Purse (The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein), The Right Alice(Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carol), and Traveling (Breakfast at Tiffany's).

Celeste gives a great synopsis on this post of the book...but ultimately, it's a memoir that traces a collection of Japanese netsuke (small hand-carved sculptures that are used to hold money purses to Japanese kimonos) back through five generations.

The family was a huge Jewish European banking family on the level of the Rothschilds as far as their wealth and influence. But during the Nazi occupation, all of their fortune was lost and all that remained was the collection of netsuke.

It's a very thought provoking book and it leads me to think about our "stuff". Which of our things end up being family treasures, worthy of safeguarding and passing down through the generations...and which things are tossed or given away for lack of a caretaker. The stories of who bought them or made them and what inspired them to do so tends to be lost too often along with the person's death.

It reinforces the need for us to include the stories of our works along with the pieces that we create. Should my needlework pass from the hands of my family for lack of interest, perhaps there will be someone else out there who desires to be its guardian for a while.

And they will be much more likely to care for the piece if they know a little more about it.

We can only hope, right?

I wrote a guest post for the ACC blog that touches on this subject in a different way, Stitched by Hand, which you can read here.

The American Craft Council has recently launched a whole new website with lots of special interest stories about artists, craft and all things made by hand. It's worth checking out. And if you live near Baltimore, Atlanta, St. Paul or San Francisco...consider attending one of the shows.

And I highly recommend The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance. It's a great read.

Happy weekend everyone and thanks for all the interest in my Needlebook E-course. If you signed up, you'll be receiving an email from me today.

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An excerpt from Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal:

"How objects are handed on is all about story-telling. I am giving you this because I love you. Or because it was given to me. Because I bought it somewhere special. Because you will care for it. Because it will complicate your life. Because it will make someone else envious. There is no easy story in legacy. What is remembered and what is forgotten? There can be a chain of forgetting, the rubbing away of previous ownership as much as the slow accretion of stories. What is being passed on to me with all these small Japanese objects?"

Embroidered Book Covers

When I saw this post on Jillian Tamaki's blog, I didn't hesitate to pre-order copies of these two books...Emma and The Secret Garden. (I showed some restraint and didn't get Black Beauty!)

Aren't the covers wonderful? The backs too!

I've always loved embroidered book covers and these modern versions are a delightful twist on the historical art form.

And the special surprise?

They spared no expense and printed the back sides of the embroideries on the inside cover!

You can read more about the launch of these books on this post on Jillian's blog.

Penguin has engaged Rachell Sumpter to embroider three new book covers in the Threads series: Check out A Wind in the Willows, Little Women and The Wizard of Oz on Rachell's Flickr photostream.

And should you be inspired to create your own, don't forget that Feeling Stitchy is having a Covered in Stitches contest, all entries due on November 7, 2011. I wish I had the time to make one myself, but since I don't, I am enjoying following all the entries posted here on Flickr.

I've always loved the idea of embroidering a book cover in the silk and goldwork styles from the 17th and 18th centuries in England. And Abe books has linked to some beautiful examples that are for sale.

And last week at Winterthur, the library shared this dear little, tent-stitched prayer book of Ann Flower that is in their collection...

One day I hope to embroider a cover. I'm just waiting for the right book...

P.S. I'm working on my Breakfast at Tiffany's piece...and hit a bit of a road block with the abdomen of the butterfly. More on that another day.

Allie Aller's Crazy Quilting

This is what Allie looked like when I first met her. It was 2006.

I'll never forget it. Those curves!! What color! How she sparkled!

I had just just learned to crazy quilt and was busy absorbing everything I could find. I found this picture on Flickr and saved it to my favorites...and proceeded to track Allie down and was delighted to find she had a blog...Allie's in Stitches.

"How did you do that curved piecing?", I wrote. And she told me how she did it, God love her.

We became closer online friends as I watched her work through this quilt, Crazy for Flowers, which I also love and admire:

I have learned so much from Allie and her generous spirit throughout the years so I couldn't have been more thrilled when she told me she would be writing her first book!

Woohoo! All of her wisdom in one place...I couldn't wait.

So, yesterday, when the book arrived in the mail, I made a big cup of hot tea, sat down in my reading chair and opened Allie's book. And I was mesmerized for the next few hours.

I love love love all her ideas for piecing...curved piecing, freezer paper piecing, chunk piecing...it all gives flexibility to building CQ blocks. I often have small bits of beloved fabrics and Allie's ideas for piecing makes best use of those precious fabrics with minimal waste. Yay!

I loved the discussion of using different weights and types of threads and fabrics. And loved that the focus wasn't really on seam treatments (though the seam treatment eye candy on page 38 is pretty great)...

Allie was targeting the book to sane quilters who might want to try CQ. So, she gives many ideas for making quilts of your crazy work...But, for a non-quilter like me, I found the book even more useful.

I came to CQ as an embroiderer and not a quilter, so this book is a treasury of ideas for how to quilt, finish and bind my blocks into large projects. Something I am not so good at. Without a doubt, this book was written to be used and referred to again and again. There isn't another CQ book quite like it out there.

I think this book will now give me the confidence to try a full quilt.

My favorite tricks of all...are on pages 25, 30 and 99...I'll share them over the next few weeks as I try them in my own work.

There are 14 original crazy quilts in the gallery section many from folks that I have admired over the years. Honestly, these ladies are talented. They're each more lovely than the next.

The last part of Allie's book has six projects with step by step instructions to complete each one.

But it's this project...

This soft doll...The Dreaming Maiden...

That is nearest and dearest to my heart.

Over two years ago, Allie asked if I would be willing to make this doll and create my own version to be included in her book?

*Gulp* "Are you serious?" Wow. What an honor. To be honest, half of me was thrilled and howling at the moon; and the other was scared half to death.

Long story short. I decided to make Allie a Queen. It couldn't have been anything else.

A Queen for my friend Allie, the Queen of Flowers.

Thank you Allie for your book. And thank you for including so many of us in its pages.

Better clean yourselves up for tomorrow...the Queen is coming to Plays with Needles...

(Note: I wrote another post about Allie here...after she came to teach to our Guild...)

Picture Books Where Creativity Saves the Day

A while back, I posted about my secret habit of reading Martha Stewart Weddings even though I won't be hosting or attending a wedding any time in the near future.

Well, here's secret habit #2...

I spend a lot of time in the Children's section of the bookstore reading picture books...even though Jack, at age 14, is no longer reading at the 4-6 yr old level. *sigh

I look for books with great stories, great illustrations...and, if a needle and thread appear in the story, then I am absolutely giddy.

Well, check out this book I just found this past Saturday when Jack and I went to the store...

It's wonderful. The story is about a mouse named Noodle who finds a ball of yarn...

And she teaches herself to knit. The illustrations are captivating...

But the greatest thing is that the yarn is flocked on every page so little hands (or big ones) can rub the yarn as you read the story...

You might want to check it out for the little one in your life. Or for you...*wink

I have lots of favorite children's books but today I'll focus on a few where Creativity Saves the Day.

The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau is my absolute fave of all time but I've talked about that one before and I know many of you love that one too.

The Orange Shoes by Trinka Hakes Noble is another fave.

Delly needs new shoes but her family can't afford them. When she finally gets a pair, it's just in time for a fundraiser at school...the Shoebox Social. Before the big day, her shoes are ruined by her nasty classmates but Delly uses her talent to overcome her sadness...

Cinderella's Dress by Nancy Willard is a new take on the old fairy tale told from the perspective of two magpies who nest in the tree outside Cinderella's window. It's not the fairy godmother that gives Cinderella her dress for the ball...it's the two magpies who use all of the treasures they've stashed in their nest to sew her a beautifully be-ribboned gown with feathers, and beads, and all sorts of shiny things...The rhyming could be a lot better but it's still a sweet story...check it out before you buy this one...

The Lost Ears by Phillida Gili is about a beloved teddy bear who loses his ears when he mistakenly gets thrown in the washing machine. A clever girl who can sew saves the day and, not only fixes the bears ears...but makes him a scarf, coat and hat to boot...

Phew! That's enough to wet your whistle for today.

I'd love to hear about your children's favorites where creativity saves the day...

Happy Reading.

Summer Improv

Let's face it. Life is something we all make up as we go along.

No matter how much we try to control it or script it, our life has a way of throwing us curve balls and challenges...and often people...that we don't plan for or expect. So why not be realistic and, instead of thinking of bigger and better ways of planning, WE get better at improvising.


I love this book...Improv Wisdom. It's a quick read, chock full of wisdom on how to master the art of improvisation in our own lives...how to loosen up, think on our feet, and say yes to the unexpected...all of the skills needed for living an unscripted life.

I think it was serendipitous that I re-read this book while thinking about my stitching plan for the Summer.

What about no plan? Nothing is better than when we have the opportunity to let Summer take its own course.


Why not drive to the Ocean at the last minute to swim in the waves? Or drop everything to go hear a concert in the park...make a picnic...have a water gun fight...blow bubbles?


Sounds great but how about my stitching routine? I still need to wake up every day to a needle and a stitching ritual...

Last year I came up with Summer Charm School and I enjoyed it very much. And I was glad at the end of the Summer that I had taken time to read some of my books and learn new techniques...many of which I used over and over again in my work throughout the year.

The downside of Summer Charm School was that I "studied" a different technique every week...which required different supplies each week...and then I put the constraint on myself of making them into charms. I spent more time finding supplies and constructing the charm than I did on the actual stitching.

This Summer I needed to create a structure...a ritual...a habit for my stitching that meets the following criteria:

• Projects must be portable
• Projects must require finite, simple supplies that I already have on hand
  
• Projects must be flexible to time, place and lighting conditions

Funny, Mary Corbet of Needle n' Thread just posted about this the other day...Needlework on the Road?...and it wasn't just Mary's post that I found interesting, but the 92!! comments that she received. I LOVED reading about how stitchers handle Summer and traveling with their embroidery...it was fascinating.


OK. So for me this Summer, I've decided to go improvisational with my embroidery...

I plan to spend each day with my needle...what type of needle and what I will stitch, I'm going to leave up to chance.

I've gotten an old shirt of Jim's out of the closet to stitch on...and a big bag of embroidery floss...so that's one of my canvases.

I imagine it will be similar to the stitch doodling I did on this skirt. I like the idea of stitch doodling.


I also would like to learn a few new beading techniques. So a few beads and some beading thread will come with me to the beach to try out new techniques. I need to figure out how to interpret the pleats in that beautiful dress I'm doing for the Haute Couture beading challenge...

I have taken my Rainbow Shawl back out of the closet for the Summer to stitch on the long drives and at night after the sun goes down and the light gets too low for fine work.

And as for my tambour beading, I've decided to frame up a sampler where I can just sit and play...doodle, if you will...with my tambour hook to get practice. No plan, just stitch and try out new techniques.

And that's it. I hope this blog will keep me honest and on track so that I have accomplished something by the end of the Summer. It just may not be what I plan for...and that's OK.

So, I think I'll try something like...

Monday Mishaps...

Wednesday Wonders...and...

Friday Follies.

So there you have it. I'm relinquishing control and letting Summer set the course for my stitches. And I'll use some Improv Wisdom as a guidebook.


The only requirement is that stitching must happen every day.

And to celebrate the kickoff of Summer, I'd love to send a copy of this book to out to one of you who leaves a comment. I'll pick a winner on Friday, June 25 at midnight.

Who knows, maybe you would like to join me...

Improv anyone?

Tomorrow I'll share my Summer reading list...

Then I'll see you on Friday for some FUN...!!!!