Knowledge & Needles Open House 2011

This past Saturday was Ann's annual open house at Knowledge and Needles.  According to Ann, its the 11th open house... I think I've been to the last 9-10 years of these open houses.  Originally this annual event started out as a group of us from the Teresa Wentzler Bulletin Board having a get together.  Over the years its changed and grown to the Knowledge & Needles open house.  Once upon a time we numbered less than ten... this year throughout the day Ann had over 40 stitchers in attendance!  There's no admission fee, no pressure to shop (be we all seem to leave with little green bags), all you have to bring is: yourself, a potluck dish, something to stitch on, and some stitching to show off.

It was a fantastic and HOT day!  I think we all ate and talked more than we actually stitched.  As per my usual comment... I'll let the pictures do the talking!

Lots of amazing needlework on display!

 Kathy's Amazing Lighthouse Round Robin (I stitched the 2nd one on the left on the top)

 

 

 One of the creative Marie-Paule's Quilts, 1940's style

Marie-Paule's Christmas Quilt

Wonderful Stitchers!

Mollie is begging Julie for treats

Stitchers were everywhere, in the garage...

... in the kitchen...

... in the sun room...

... even outside enjoying the beautiful day!

This is Harry the first male stitcher we've ever had in attendance

Plenty of good eats!

Yes, I bought some stash too!

Some of the sights around Brighton

 

 An interesting mish-mash of items I found near the ice cream shop

 Whew!  What a day!  We were all pooped at the end!!!

PhotoHunt: Drink

I'm a couple of days late at getting this posted, as I was out of town for the weekend and I didn't have the forethought to prepare the blog entry and schedule it.

The theme this past Saturday was "Drink"

I took this picture this past February in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  The popular local beer that Dominicans like to drink is Presidente.  I must admit... I quite like it myself!

Please Help Me Raise Money For Breast Cancer Research!

2010 Run For the Cure

Some of my long -time readers may remember the breast cancer scare I had back in April of 2007.

I am one of the lucky people the lump in my breast turned out not to be cancer. Since then I've wanted to be able to do something to give back.

For the fourth year in a row I'll be participating in CIBC's Run for the Cure (5K charity run) on Sunday October 2rd. I have set my initial goal this year for $1,000, however last year I raised over $1,400 and would love to surpass that.  I can only do that with your help.  If you wish to sponsor me and make an online donation click HERE to go to my personal fundraising page and make a donation (anyone from anywhere in the world can donate).  You can also click on the progress bar on the right at any time!

2009 Run For The cure

I'll also be out and about with sponsorship forms on me at almost all times.  So if you live in my area or at a stitching get together with me and wish to donate using cash or cheque, just let me know!

Please let me know if the link doesn't work.

Finally The Enchantment of Winter Update

I have been teasing you for weeks now about Enchantment of Winter and the progress I've been making on it during my summer vacation.  In the back of my mind I had a specific goal in mind, to finish stitching the over one section, this is a major part of this design as the Cathedral at the egg's center is ALL over one, with over one backstitching to boot.

Well last night around 9PM or so I was dancing!  I have finished all the over one stitching on the Cathedral... of course it has to now be back stitched but I'll leave that for another time.

I couldn't believe how nice it was to get back to stitching over two and not needing a magnifier anymore!  Not only was I stitching over one, but it was over one on 32ct linen.

I'll be putting Enchantment aside for a short while, hopefully tomorrow evening I'll have the time to start the wedding sampler for my longtime friend, Andrew.  The wedding is September 10th but I didn't pick anything too big or too complicated.

How about a PhotoHunt to round out this post?  As I'm now completely up to date for 2011, let's take look back at the themes I missed for 2010.  The theme on January 2nd was "lick".

This is my friend Ann's dog, Paddy.  She was being treated to an ice cream cone which she started with licking but once she got too the cone it was time to bite!!!

Sigh, its back to work for this girl tomorrow!

My GPS Made Me Do It...

I had a lovely couple of days visiting and stitching with Ann of Knowledge and Needles.  I also had a great Thursday afternoon with the Thursday Stitchers then the same again the next day with the Friday Stitchers.  I don't have any pictures from my visit, it just didn't seem to be one of those ones where you're taking pics.

Next Saturday there will be LOTS of pictures Ann is hosting her Annual Open House and any and all stitchers a welcome and non-stitchers too.  There's going to be food galore, as visitors are asked to bring something for the potluck lunch/snacks/dinner... really we eat all day!  There is also a huge and wonderful array of stitching on display as we all bring with us everything we've finished during the last year!  There's lots of visiting, laughing, hugs, and some stitching going on as well.  Oh yeah, and there's shopping too.  Buying stuff at Ann's shop Knowledge and Needles isn't a requirement but its a nice bonus, if you're a stash collector.  Ann mentioned to me that her kits (Michael Powell and more) and Victoria Sampler charts/charpacks will be going on sale.  She is also thinking about putting Jeannette Douglas items on sale too, but hasn't decided yet.  I can also tell you that she's got a huge variety of fabrics, colours, counts pre-cut and in stock!

Speaking of stash, it was a little hard to leave Ann's on Saturday without buying some myself.  I also know that next Saturday will be a busy day and I'll be helping Ann in the shop so I may not get a chance to shop and well I got a pick of the good stuff ahead of the crowd ;-)  I bought some charts, some threads and a piece of fabric I just couldn't let get nabbed up by someone else... what I'll do with it I don't have a clue (as usual)?

Zeus as usual must check out all recent acquisitions

Carrie's Threads, the blues are for a wedding sampler I will start next week

Rosewood Manor's Spring Quakers with Valdani Threads needed

 Its probably hard to see but this fabric has a gorgeous, subtle swirl to it.

32ct Vintage Belfast in Stormy Cloud.  This actually could work quite nicely for Spring Quakers

Two of the latest JBW's I just love having these in my stash!

After a productive couple of days stitching for both Ann and I, I packed up my stuff and started to make my way home.  Todd and I recently purchased a GPS to share (we'll see how long that lasts) and though I knew how to get home I let the "Bitch In The Box" (as we kindly call her) guide me.  I have to say she took me on a route I never expected, it was gorgeous, past many lakes and through hilly/curvy roads (which I just love... would of been a blast in Dan's Corvette or on a motorcycle!).  It took me through the very picturesque Merrickville (which I've never been to before), if the town hadn't been so busy with tourists/day trippers I might have stopped, and through Perth.  It was in Perth where I blame my GPS for this part of the day, it happened to take me right past the Naturalizer Shoe Factory Outlet Store.  I just couldn't drive past!  Once upon a time Naturalizer shoes where considered quited homely/dowdy old lady and nurse shoes.  Today they're sexy and oh so comfortable!  I came home with THREE new pairs of shoes, all for $90 normally these would of cost me over $200!

I had spotted these at another Naturalizer Store a few weeks ago but they didn't have my size!

These will be great for work and a change from my usual black shoes!

Must have red shoes!

I think I'm going to have to take this route again, but take the time to stop and take pictures along the way its very picturesque!

Sadly tomorrow is my LAST day of my summer vacation!  I'll have to face the hard reality on Tuesday morning that I can't sleep in to 8:30 am anymore and stitch all day!

Poor Hunter was feeling left out from the photo shoot so he showed up in time for some solo shots!

PhotoHunt : One

Its Saturday, and its PhotoHunt time!  Wow two weeks in a row and I'm on time, down to the day!  This week's theme is "one"

I took this shot back in July at the Hostien Rodeo one, lone, gorgeous horse running in the arena.  Really there were probably a million pictures I could of picked for this theme but I thought this horse was magnificent.

Second Stitchy Gift Received

My second giveaway item has finally swung its way to the other side of the world to Australia!  Joanne was the other winner of my March draw, who has also been a wonderful long time reader of mine.  It was so nice, being able to reward a couple of long time readers and commenters.


I put together this lovely biscornu for Joanne.

 

Grille Offerte Biscornu No. 3, freebie

cLiselotte

Stitched on: Mystery fabric

Stitched with: DMC

Yesterday I made awesome progress on Enchantment of Winter the whole over one section is coming together beautifully.  I bet you're dying to see it but I'll save that for another post (I am such a tease!).  I'm hoping Thursday/Friday to get a lot of stitching done I'm going to head down to Ann's the owner of Knowledge and Needles to join in on her Thursday and Friday stitching groups.  Something I don't get to do very often due to the distance and well the fact that I am still working for a living... and to support this habit of mine ;-)

How about the last PhotoHunt to get me all caught up for 2011?  The theme on July 23rd the theme was "Patch".

Back in April I was visiting my friend Clare, she and I took a class by Jeannette Douglas together, one of my favourite Canadian designers.  On the way back to Clare's we stopped by this fiberarts exhibit and there were all kinds of wonderful pieces on display.  I was very impressed by this quilt... its amazing how patching and re-using old fabrics together has slowly over time turned into this amazing art form!