Brand New Wares available on the Merc Tonight!

Fancy Peacocks by Stacy Nash

DMC on 32ct. antique white linen hand dyed by me

Check it out at the Merc!

Whats happening in studio beez?

Oh my goodness! I can't believe I haven't posted since Feb. 17th! 

Wow! I won't bore you with all that has been happening around here, but it had something to do with birthdays(not mine) and basketball! But alas, all that is behind me now and I have a new week to look forward to,  full of,  um... basketball.   My dd has like 4 games this week and a try-out for a travel team on Saturday. Whew!

But I HAVE been working! 

Very hard! 

To get something done for the TDIPT Mercantile which will be posted tonight. 

And I have taken more doll orders. 

And I have finally received my new fabric for Hestia Jones, so I will be able to get working on her.  

And I joined a new quilt guild

which has a WOOL QUILT BEE! (which is like a little sub-group of ladies who like to work with wool! Yay!)

So fun and exciting things have been happening here in the midst of all the chaos.

Here is a pic of my new little lady;

Mercy Caldwell

Check out her awesome florentine stitch stomacher! It is still just pinned on in this pic, but I am wokin on it! LOL! It is hand stitched bargello on canvas by little ole me. This lady is dressed in a colonial style costume- be sure to check her out tonight at 9PM standard, so see all of her awesome costume and my other offerings as well.

I will have another punch needle piece and hopefully a little cross stitch cupboard hanger as well. 

OK, its back to work for me if I am going to get all of that ready! 

See ya tonight at the Merc!

Still feeling romantic

 

I am not ready to put away my valentines decorations yet, are you?

The 2 crocheted hearts are vintage-the one in the front was made by my grandmother, who was quite the crochet-er. The one in back I bought at an antique mall. I truly love these old crochet hearts-I wish I could find more. They are so pretty and they make great pincushions! You will recognize my punch needle heart too-didn't it turn out pretty? I can only enjoy it for a time as I will have to sell it on the TDIPT Mercantile this month. I always tell myself I will make another one to keep but I never do! LOL!

And, you may have noticed that my pretty white basket has been "chewed" on the handle by a naughty little puppy named Carmel. 

We will say no more...

A project for my guild

Heart Bookmark

DMC on antique white belfast

LMSG group project

  This year I wanted to get back to some guilds. I have belonged to many different guilds over the years but family obligations and the many church ministries I belong to have always made it hard to attend. But this year I am determined to join and ATTEND some guilds! 

I really enjoy the camaraderie with other stitchers/ needleworkers. So the first one I joined was Lake Michigan Sampler Guild. I have belonged to this guild before and was pleased to see, when I went to the January meeting, that many of the same people are still involved and they are going strong. 

I quickly signed up for 2 classes being taught by Joanne Harvey, of The Examplerary in April. (and I mean, how glamorous is that second one, Elizabeth Taylor, I ask you!)

Betsy Davis

Elizabeth Taylor

The group project for January was this heart bookmark(above)-and the sweetest little kit was handed out to all. It included all of the materials to stitch this simple heart design, and the cutest thing was the little heart magnet that held the needle! 

This month, one of the members will teach us all how to do the hemstitch edging to finish it up. I already know how to do it, but I would like to see how others do it and I always have trouble mitering those corners-so maybe I'll get some pointers.

Next week I am going to go to a quilt guild meeting and see what that is all about. I could really use some motivation to finish the 3 big quilts I have started as well as learn some new techniques.

Not Feelin' It!

Hestia Jones test piece

I'm just not sure about Hestia on this fabric. Its not that it looks bad, it just doesn't feel right to me. I ordered a piece of "earthen" from PTP. I will stitch a little on that when it arrives and then decide which looks best. So not much progress made on this one. I am back working on the Quilty Neighborhood house instead. I will update when I receive the new fabric.

Happy St.Valentines Day free download!

 

Entanglement

Click on the word "entanglement" to download this design. The pattern is for punch needle, but you could embroider it, or what ever! Have fun!

Happy St.Valentines Day!

Fancy Peacocks finished and a new design

Fancy Peacocks

Stacy Nash

1 strand of DMC on 32 ct. hand dyed linen

This was a  lot of fun to stitch and really went very fast. This is my first finish from the Crazy 15 challenge.

This is the fabric and fibers for my new design called Hestia Jones. It is an historic schoolgirl sampler in primitive colors. I am super excited to get started on it. The fabric is 28 ct. cashel in the color Ale by Picture This Plus-isn't it yummy? I am using 28 ct.~a large count for me, because there is a row of over 1 motifs. I am also planning a doll to go along with this design-a little Hestia to pose with her sampler! The sampler will be dated 1808, so Hestia will be wearing appropriate costume to go with that time period. Picture Elizabeth Bennet; empire waists with capped long sleeves, and straw poke bonnet.

OK, off I go to get to work!!!

Tiny little progress and a sneak peek!

Here is the tiny bit of progress I made on my Stacy Nash piece that I started during the Crazy 15 challenge. It is only a very little progress, as the night I was working on it I was so tired I kept vegging out!

Fancy Peacocks Hanging Pinkeep by Stacy Nash

And here is a sneak peek on my original design, Quilty Neighborhood. The first 3 houses have been released as charts and I am working on the 4th. Each chart comes with the border design for all of the houses in case you want to do it all as one piece like I am doing here. It is starting to shape up nicely, the sunset background really is starting to look nice. What do you think?

Quilty Neighborhood by Annie Beez Folk Art

Punch Dance

Ha! Ha! Only some of you will get that title joke! I'm sure I would NOT know what punch dancing is if I did not live with teenagers. :^)
Anyhow, this is my punch needle happy dance! Whoopie! I LOVE the way this one turned out. This is another wonderful design by Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farm. Love it Lori!

 

 

Tulip Heart

DMC on Weavers Cloth

Notforgotten Farm

Hunkered down!

Well this has definitely been the biggest winter storm I have ever seen! It took my husband 2 hours to dig out this morning, but he did it and made it to work. He works security at a hospital, so he had to go. The kids are all home from school and we have been digging out all morning. Here are some pictures, I won't bore you with all that I took because I know most of the midwest and north east are dealing with the same thing. The last I heard we had 21 inches, and the drifts are up to 4 feet! We live next door to a park with a great sledding hill and I have seen a steady stream of kids heading over there all morning with their sleds.

 

Meanwhile I have been needle punching another heart. This one is called Tulip Heart and is another design by artist Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farm. I love her color choices!

This is another big one, and I am punching it on my rug hooking frame. The cover with the center opening is a little thing I made to keep my wrists from getting scratched up by the frames pins.

 

Isn't this going to be pretty! Here is a pic of the right side. All I have left is the background.

I have also been working on the block I am doing for "Love Quilts". A little more progress on this one:

Blizzard Warning

We are expecting a blizzard here in Chicagoland. They are saying it will begin at 3PM today, but it has been snowing since I got up this morning at 6:30! So there you go-the weather reporting in Chicago continues to be, well...ridiculous!
 I am so happy and honored to say that both of my offerings on TDIPT Mercantile this morning have been sold! Thank you so kindly to my lovely customers-you continue to astound me with your generosity and encouragement!

Here is another picture of the lovely Felicity Ann:

Felicity Ann 26" folk doll

So . it is a good day to stay in and stitch, don't you think? I have all the episodes of John Adams at my disposal, so I plan to put them in the DVD player and work on a little design from LHN that I am stitching for the LOVE QUILTS project-a very worthy cause! Here is the state of my desk, so I will be doing a little bit of cleaning first! LOL! Have a great day!

Good Deeds by Little House Needleworks