Ken Burn's Quilts (What??)

Ken Burns with a quilt from his collection

Really, I am pretty surprised myself to find out that Ken Burns is a Quilt collector!  And I hang out in that community sometimes and I hadn't heard about that.

There is an article in the New York Times today about his collection and the exhibition that has just started of his pieces.

Don't you thing that Ken should do a documentary about Threads!! :-)

One Year of Stitch Along - Progress!

One year of doing a panel a month for the stitch along - I have a total of 15 casket panels done for two caskets.  What an
accomplishment and it really wasn't 'that hard' if you think about it in these units

Last year at this time I launched the Tent Stitch Casket Stitch Along and then in June the Harmony Casket Stitch Along course.  By starting 12-months ago and by dividing the work up in units that had to be completed in a month's time (mostly handleable) I was able to get 11 panels done for the double casket and 4 done for the short flat casket.  Amazing to see it all in one place and you can really 'see' the caskets developing.

Hopefully this is inspiring for all of you wanting to do a New Year's resolution and get started on your casket I only have seven panels left for the double casket and five for the Harmony casket, so I will easily finish these two caskets in the 2-year window that I gave myself.  I am aiming on having the Harmony one done earlier (hopefully!) so we can start the full on project class for a new group of people.  Tomorrow I start a new panel of it.

The only challenge I have had is the panels that were listed as being done over two months for you - like the large sides of the tent stitch piece.  In those cases instead of doing them over two months, I had to do them in one month so the entire piece could be graphed.  That's a bit more challenging.

One of the things I have learned during this, in some ways the tent stitch pieces which are 'easier' technique wise are time-wise harder to do.  Satin stitch or couching purls is certainly faster and you make more progress.  Even though I only have a week left of January, I know I could complete a stump work frieze in that time if I was working on it part of every day.  That was counter-intuative and nice to learn doing both side by side.

A Better View of the Yummy Desert

I got many questions from the readers about the Yummy sampler that just arrived.  I have been pretty busy getting out the Gold Master Class kits and finishing some embroidery among the chaos around here.  So here is a quick photo - sorry about the shadow and bright lights - I didn't get to do it in the daytime.

Answering the questions on the whitework sampler class - this was an important acquisition to make the course more of a notebook-design your own type thing (otherwise known as bite off as much as you want).  Still working out the course but I think it is going to be fun, it will be kinda like the Gold Master Class with a project or two and then tons of patterns and how to so you can apply it to other things.

The house is full of robot kids right now and I am ignoring them as they are super busy - next weekend is another competition.  Many stories to tell from the first five months of their work - maybe some updates coming soon on that.  I was saying to someone just yesterday that this month has been totally a wash.  I have only had both my kids in school for ONE DAY since Dec 19th between holidays, snow days, random days off school and a concussion my oldest suffered.  That has been pretty difficult to deal with - a kid who is used to being super active and making him rest his brain...it is a full time job on my part, two weeks and counting now.  He is just begging to be cleared so he can attend the next competition.

Something Yummy Arrived Today!

I am getting ready for the new Whitework Course I am working on and was able to get ahold of a real yummy a few weeks ago at auction.  It arrived today and will provide a wealth of photos and patterns for the course.  You should have seen the amount of bubble wrap and packaging - it took my son and me 20 minutes to get it out of its shroud!  

The 12-Days of After Christmas Giveaway - Day 12

And the last giveaway item - hey there have been an amazing number of giveaways!! - is a 2005 issue of the Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue with a Trinkets card to do one of the projects that is shown in the issue.

If you want one last chance - email me at tricia@alum.mit.edu with JCS 2005 in the subject line.  Put your mailing address in the subject line and send it to me by January 7th at midnight.

And keep checking in on the blog, I am hoping to announce a new Frostings Box in the very near future!

Tricia

The 12-Days of After Christmas Giveaway - Day 11

Today's giveaway is the 2006 issue of Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments and a Trinkets sewing card to do the project in the magazine on the cover.

If you want to enter for one of them, email me tricia@alum.mit.edu with 2006 CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT in the subject line.  Put your mailing address in the body of the message and get it to me by January 6th at midnight EST.

The 12-Days of After Christmas Giveaway - Day 10

Today we have another set of Just Cross Stitch magazines from December 2017.  If you are interested, send an email to me at tricia@alum.mit.edu with JCS DEC 2017 in the subject line and your mailing address in the body of the message.  Send it by Jan 5th midnight EST.

Tricia

The 12-Days of After Christmas Giveaway - Day 9

Today we have another really interesting postcard of a little sweet bag made in the shape of a frog using metal threads from the Ashmolean Museum.  I have 5 of them.

If you are interested, send me an email at tricia@alum.mit.edu with FROG in the subject line, your address in the body of the message and get it to me by midnight Jan 4th.

The 12-Days of After Christmas Giveaway - Day 8

Today's give away is one of two issues of Just Cross Stitch from April 2017.  If you are interested, send me an email at tricia@alum.mit.edu with JCS APRIL 2017 in the subject line.  Put your mailing address in the body of the message and send it by midnight Jan 3rd.

Tricia

The 12-Days of After Christmas Giveaway - Day 7

This issue of Just Cross Stitch which features my project Pandora's Sewing Box is the give away for this month.  This project is a favorite of mine and it comes with one Trinkets sewing card for a pattern of your choice in the magazine.

If you want to be entered, email me at tricia@alum.mit.edu.  Put PANDORA in the subject line, your mailing address in the body of the message and email it to me by midnight EST Jan 2nd.

Tricia