Sundaze....

There are those days when a basketweave piece is

 ah mazing to have in hand. 

I've been drawing, drawing, drawing, cutting up yards of canvas to work up new designs upon.

And then, I bought a new desk ... 

and then of course, 

I had to paint it a bright fun color. 

That part was easy, the terminology 'hand buffed' finish ... holy camoly ... basketweave was about all I could handle after a few hours of that. 

Desk is gorgeous, when it has finished 'curing' and I can load it up, you'll see pictures. 

'Mariposa'
camera strap
I'll be disappointed when I finish this,
it's been fun to work on.
Many fond memories of stitching on
it around the world, so to speak.
This traveled to Germany, Pisa, Florence,
and back to the states over to Houston
and back home again, Whew!

small bits...

... a new adventure ... this is one kind of happy for me. 

Just drawing. 

Of course, these bits will turn into larger bits 

with huge amounts of color and then ... 

but of course, they'll be enhanced with threaded needle! 

Another kind of happy is new mechanical pencils. Yeah!

These bits are only 5"square ... for now.

Details ... can bog me down. Like what I've finally worked out.
My Castle, My Dragon©

He has a name ... Harumph!
said grumpily with some air behind the 'rumph' part.
This may change as he becomes happier
with his adornments, for now he's not
doing well with my slowness in getting him stitched.

my adventure to Houston ...

Chandail, a must if you're ever in the Houston area!

Saira has a secret ... she is a thread collector! 

Since I was remiss in taking a picture of her thread stash, 

you'll have to visit this lovely colorful shop to see 

'the secret garden'.

Not really a secret but, upon entering the shop, 

you do not see any threads, 

they are all tucked safely away around the corner 

from the hot sunshine of Houston in their own private space. 

It's like finding a magnificent forest of color.

Precious students ... 

Rebecca, happily stitching away on her ribbon flowers.

At this point I'd only taught them one version of the 
several versions of Bullions I have in this piece. 
Ilene was a trooper, as hearing the word Bullion 
sent her close to the edge by the end of the first day. 
Alison in the background was the class 'turbo' stitcher, beautiful work!
I had a wonderful time getting to know all these ladies.
 I was also able to see long time friends that traveled down from Austin. 
How awesome is that! 
The farthest traveler was Renee from Dallas! 
All of us were very surprised to learn that Jenn, 
who is pictured above in the group is very new to needlepoint ... 
like MONTHS! 
She was not afraid of anything and her work is beautiful!

Stay tuned, we had such an amazing time, 
I'm already booked for next April!