Merry Christmas!

a profusion...

...of blooms!  Just in time for Christmas!  I read about it being dismally gray up North...so I'm sharing some color from the South!

  

Enjoy!

Finally! The secret is out!!

As most of you have heard...Ruth Schmuff and I have rejoined forces!  Our friendship and love of design has kept us connected over the years.  

Today it was announced that Ruth is the official distributor of my painted canvas designs.  I could not be happier, I've had a super big smile plastered across my face all day.  

Below are three of the smaller pieces from this first collection of designs, stitched for your perusal.  The guides are in progress and will soon be uploaded at the 'speed of cyberspace' to Ruth.   The world has changed in big ways over the past 'few' years!

 

'Austintatious Peacock'
a Kimberly design©

'Camel Flowers'
a Kimberly design©

You've seen close up 'glimpses' of both of these top two designs presented here on this blog in the past few months.  Both of these pieces happened because of friends requests and both for another named Kim!  The peacock was for a secret Santa ornament for her, she loves Peacocks.  The Camel Flowers...well, long story short, can you see these flowers as saddles on two very plain camels that needed some dressing up.  As I painted the saddles on the 'plain camels' backs...I saw flowers.  Then I remembered a flower doodle....and so it goes in my head some times.  

'Mondays'
a Kimberly design©

So I needed a car project, this was some original card art I did a few years ago.  I happen to love basket weave and I love working it with beautiful fine wools or silk single strand, no fuss...no muss. Very zen.

The bag is a weekender from Lee...and this one has traveled beautifully.

Please visit Ruth's website here to see my other designs in this first release collection.  There are more designs already coming together to add very soon.  For now, I need to write stitch guides!  

living in fantasy land...

.....with a mansion in reality!

A few weeks ago, I mentioned running away to the circus.  Well, I did.  I and two accomplices escaped for a full day of adventure making our way to Sarasota to visit John Ringling's home [mansion] and museum.  Wow... not much else to say but WOW!  

Several years ago [like forever ago] I visited before.  The mansion is as I remembered it but the 'Big Top' has changed dramatically. Now there is an entire building housing a miniature circus.  We were told that the display is three ring in size....massive.  If you're ever close by, it's definitely something to see in person.  

On the grounds there is also a museum housing John Ringling's collection of old masters.  This took us three hours to walk through, we were exhausted but so enthralled by it all. To think that one person collected all of this art.  Mind boggling. 

aka. House of John

.......

Front view of the mansion.

The terrace in back...just a small patio really with the Gulf of Mexico to launch a boat or two in.

View of the back.

Heading into the 'miniature' Circus.  

.......

Of course, there were elephants!

...and horses!

The entire display is glassed.  Wish you could see the copper telephone wires here. 

The Midway?  I need to brush up on circus terms.

Did you say clowns? ...but of course.

Another building where they were busy refurbishing.  Not surprising that this beautiful piece caught my eye.

Folding chair in John & Mable's private train car.  Art Deco always catches my eye.

Grounds in the center of the museum.  The furthest point is the front entrance.  Art is housed down both side sections.  We're on a connecting bridge between the two.

My accomplices!  Bruce and cousin Jeffrey, thank you!  Bruce took several [just over 400] pictures.  I quickly wore out my battery, so happy his kept going!  

.......

From the entrance...looking back towards the connecting bridge and the Gulf.

Amazing Banyon Trees!  What kind of trees would you expect a circus man to have!?

Farewell for now.

Big reveal this Friday....watch for it !

...my dad

I know this is an odd picture, but this was my Dad, always doing, going, fixing .... if he'd not been on a ladder cleaning the outside of the house on a fine summer day, he might have missed his first heart attack.  That was Dad.  

So this is harder than I thought it would be, seems you are never as 'prepared' as you think you are.  Never quite ready, even when your heart knows it is the best path taken.  

Turkey...

not the gobble gobble kind.  

There was a question on FB today, 'What is your favorite thread to use for Turkey Work?'  Love it when questions get me thinking on the lines of threads and stitches I really enjoy.  

So here is my favorite...Impressions from The Caron Collection, 2 strands on 18ct canvas.  I've never worked it on 13ct, so no opinion there.  It looks like velvet when finished and it holds up beautifully over time.  

I designed this piece back in 2004!  It's called 'Glitzey'!  I taught it during a market on the west coast.  You should have seen the class room after everyone trimmed their Turkey Work!  I swear there were tufts of turquoise floating down the hall even the next day, but we sure had fun.  The point here is that I pulled this out of a drawer of stitched canvases...the puffs of Turkey Work are still perfect, showing no wear.  How great is that?!

Have fun, don't skimp on thread...i.e. keep loops long.  Easier to trim excess than re stitch!  My loops are usually about a half inch long.  Use a nap/bunka brush to blow the ends of the thread.  To trim, use super sharp tiny pointed scissors, cut little by little trimming outside edges shorter with center area longer to sculpt. Brush more, trim, repeat :-)  Another tip...work areas of this last and trim after you've removed your piece from the stretcher bars/working frame.

I'm here...

...focused on several projects with posting falling through the cracks.  

I'm stitching like mad, writing guides and of course, there are real life chores to complete always. Holidays are just around the corner and the house is under cleaning quarantine...if there is such a thing. Sure feels like it.  

So, I'm running away to the circus with my cousin!  No worries...I will come back with lots of pictures and more details of my adventure.  

Probably a post in between as I'm not running away just yet.  Life is the adventure you make it!

'Circus Elephant'
a Kimberly design©2013

Textural design...

More glimpses of what is keeping me busy ... besides travel, teaching, life ..

Beads, gold picots, couched wire, eyelets...

Circular Jessica's, beads & crystals, beautiful braid...

Beautiful gold & silk String Art...

hmmmm.....

Class time...

I think everyone had a super time.  I was amazed at how much they accomplished the very first day.  Around 3:30/4:00 I looked at the next few steps...looked at all the ladies...looked back down at the page and decided...definitely tomorrow.  There was no way they were going to continue with all the counting to occur on the next page.  All were quite happy to keep stitching bits of the border until the end of class.

The next day refreshed, we were 'needles up' and stitching!  The finishing of the Biscornu was demonstrated during class time and the 'tada' was quite fun.  

Fini !
Still attached by a thread to be woven into the cushion.

Organized chaos, just having too much fun
...if that's possible :-)

Say
'Cheese'!

no fun at all...

Dear friend Peggy picked me up at the airport on Thursday...the laughter and good times rolled from that point forward.  Note...not wise to give an IPhone to someone who is extremely good with a 'real camera' but has no idea how to use a point and press.  She pressed and pressed and pressed and 30 or so shots later we had a movie!

Notice how Peggy tried to hold a pose while I totally lost it!

More fun pictures to come from this wonderful workshop in Huntsville, Alabama with the Big Spring ANG chapter.