Nice Crystal Center

I am finished with my Heart of Gold! Instead of an initial in the middle, I used a swarovski crystal. I think it came out pretty good!

Finally Put Together

I had completed stitching this design just after EGA seminar a few years ago.  The class was great, but there really weren't any finishing instructions, so it just ... languished in my armoire.  A couple of weeks ago, since I've set myself the goal of the year of finishing, I decided it was time to tackle this.  It's now officially a needlebook!

Blue as the Stars

I finished my very first temari ball last night. It's also my first seminar finish for this year. I like it. There's certainly room for improvement, but for a first attempt, I think it came out pretty well.

Barb Suess's directions and instruction helped a LOT. I'd recommend, if you're looking to make temari, that you look at her site.

And lastly, this makes my sixth finish on my twenty-five project challenge.

More Temari

This was the other temari I started at seminar. We had to make the balls from scratch before stitching. I really like the colors on this one and will be finishing it soon. The design is called maritime stars. It's a combination of kikus

and swirl stitches. I did three panels of swirl stitches at my face to face meeting on Monday, so you can tell they go fast.

I Get a Kiku Out of You

So my first class was temari, and here is proof of what I did on the second day. The star shapes are called kikus, or chrysanthemums, in Japanese. With the experience of the day before, it was pretty easy to do. Each of the star faces of this ball will be different.

This is the beginning of the second face. As you can see, it has a different color from the other one. That's not the only difference - you'll have to see it as it progresses.

And here is the book my teacher Barbara Suess wrote about temari. I bought it at the merchandise day and she was kind enough to autograph it. Her instructions are really clear and easily followed - and she has a new group correspondence course for temari from EGA.

Flowing Heart

This was the second of my two day classes at EGA seminar. It's Heart of Gold by Meredith Willett. It's basic English goldwork with some other metallic threads, and I loved the design outside of it being pink from the time I first saw it. Two students in the class were prescient enough to ask for color changes before the seminar; I was not one of them and ended up with the original. I still like it! So I got some of it done and I really like the look so far. I'll be making some changes as I go - like putting a dragonfly in the middle. This too will go into my rotation soon - as soon as I finish a couple of things.

On the Way Home

Still no picture today, but that will change tomorrow evening. I finished with the Seminar this afternoon and drove five hours to get halfway home. My class, Heart of Gold by Meredith Willett, was wonderful. I learned some and got quite a bit of the project done. I'm going home knowing that I'll finish all three projects from this seminar. Not a bad feeling. After Tuesday, the city returned to normal. Louisville is pretty obviously depressed as a downtown, but there are a few bright spots. It was a safe city to walk in, even if it rained on both my walks today. Overall, the seminar itself was very good. The town - well ... could be better. Next year is Pittsburgh. My husband wants me to go, and I know some about Pittsburgh already - my in-laws live close to there. I'm still deciding. So, pictures tomorrow after I get home.

Almost Three of Four

I'm almost done with the third corner now - it's going slowly at the moment because of all the other stuff (like seminar and sending my youngest to college) I've been doing this past couple of weeks. Things sink back down to normal after Saturday, so I'll have things progressing more then. Today at Seminar I did a crewel piece with Barbara Jackson. It felt good being told my stitches were so good, since I'm pretty much self taught. This will definitely be something I'll finish, and actually finish pretty quickly. Like the temari, it's about half done.

Apology for Yesterday

I'm sorry there was no post yesterday. It's the first day I've missed in a long time! I can only beg off lack of time from spending a long time with a phone problem at seminar. I had a wonderful time yesterday in my temari class and am going to have two very presentable balls by the time I finish them! What more can be asked than learning a new skill and doing well at it?

Glacial Progress

Still on the top border of the eighth band, but almost done with it. Not this week, but next, I hope to finish the border. Lots of deadlines before seminar have come up, and I've been working and working on them. Got some stuff done, at least.

Landed in Louisville this evening, and the last thing I needed after a twelve hour car trip was to spend another hour in Louisville trying to get to my hotel. Half of downtown was blocked off and the whole thing was bisected for an Ironman competition. So far, because of that and that there were NO restaurants open for dinner bcause of said competition, my impression of Louisville is less than stellar. Perhaps it will improve when the Ironman competition moves out of town, but you know ... we're to be adhering to a regular schedule on Labor Day tomorrow. Lots and lots of restaurants and shops with notices that they're closed tomorrow in the window. I feel so welcomed. Not.