Stitching Hands Studio

Autumn in New York

My latest slow cloth is finished with a couple of weeks to spare.  Autumn in New York is inspired by Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, as part of the QuiltWorks Novel Idea book club.  This cloth is completely hand stitched with silk applique on a hand dyed indigo vintage linen napkin.  There's a lot of hand stitched embellishment that you can see better in the detail photos below.  I backed the whole thing with a single piece of medium weight grey shot cotton and turned the edges under the edge of the napkin to hand sew down.  The edges peek out and allowed me to square up the napkin.  It's about 22" x 22".  This quilt will be hanging in the QuiltWorks gallery for the month of April along with 35-40 others.  I can't wait to see the whole exhibit.  The few that I've seen so far are really wonderful.

The only building I wanted to be recognizable is the Empire State Building.  To make things easier I decided to stitch the topmost part as you see above.  Lots of little split backstitches make that up.  All of these techniques were learned from Jude Hill.  Please check out her website for all sorts of wonderful online video classes.

Meanwhile I've already started on a couple of other projects, my Undercover Quilter book club project has a great start and my Small Wonder Challenge project is looking really good.  More on those later.  I'm still trying to figure out what book to use as inspiration for my guild Children's Literature challenge.  There are so many wonderful books to choose from!  We are heading out for a little spring break in a few days, I can't wait!

Thankful

Copied from Sylvia White's blog:

10 Things Artists Should Be Thankful For

1. I am thankful that I am not one of the majority of people in this world that wakes up every morning, goes to a job they hate, just to come home and do it all over again.

2.  I am thankful that when I am away from my studio, my ideas come with me, they keep me company everywhere I go.

3.  I am thankful for this passion that gives me so much joy (and angst) but mostly joy.

4.  I am thankful that when I have left this earth, I will leave something meaningful behind.

5.  I am thankful that I have a mind that can not sleep, I will never be bored.

6.  I am thankful that there is a part of my life that nobody can control, except me.

7.  I am thankful that no one in the world can ever take this gift from me.

8.  I am thankful that I am brave, it takes courage to pursue my gift.

9.  I am thankful that I am never satisfied, it forces me to move forward and grow.

10.  I am thankful I discovered this list!  Pass it on.

Happy Thanksgiving!

11.11.11

I love a parade!  Now that we live within the parade loop I think I'll be going to every single one!  Today the Bend All High School Marching Band was in top form.  I couldn't help myself, I marched right along with them.

Halloween Favorites

My Saturday

My big projects for today are this design wall and pinboard.  I used the tutorial here.  It's pretty easy to make, except that the staple gun is so hard on my hands.  I covered the design wall with Quilter's Dream batting and the pinboard with batting and then a cotton canvas I picked up the other day.  They'll get put on the wall when hubby gets home from his golf trip.  I also realized I have space behind my studio door for another design wall.  It may not get used as much, but there's not much else that I would put there, so I thought I might as well have a design wall there.

And here's my little water view. 

Walking in late October

It's been glorious this week despite some really cold nights.  I've been walking around the neighborhood and can't seem to leave the house without a camera.  Today, Ryan and I went with some friends on a Bend Haunts walking tour of downtown.  Come along with me!  Above, our house decked out for Halloween (pun intended).  Actually, it's pretty light on Halloween, but I thought it would be nice to show where we started.

Around the corner is this lovely house, just dripping with fall leaves.

Shortly you come to the Newport Bridge, our gateway to downtown.

The tour started at the old Reid School, the first school in Bend.  This historical building is now home to the Deschutes County Historical Society and museum.

Our tour guide told us many stories about local sites that have had murders, suicides and ghost tales.  It would have been spookier at the later (night-time) tours, but then I wouldn't have these great photos, so just pretend it's dark and spooky.

McMenamin's Old St. Francis School has been remodeled and now sports a pub, hotel, theater and fabulous soaking pool.  On a side note, I was watching old episodes of Oregon Art Beat online yesterday and found this great story about the artwork at the McMenamin's locations.

There are stories about ghosts and hauntings here.  A couple staying at The Nunnery house (above) found the morning after they arrived, a photo of themselves sleeping, on their cell phone- creepy!   They didn't stay another night.  I wouldn't have either!

I just love the style here!

The old Bend Firehall has held restaurants for many years, but there are ghost tales here too.

Across the street is Hospital Hill (now hotel hill).  

Yesterday's walk took me past some leaf piles

and the footbridge

to Baked, an afternoon bakery that had a lovely pumpkin display to keep Scrabble company while I was picking out my delicious fresh baked bread.

Hope you have a wonderful Halloween weekend!  I'll be back with more spooky stuff soon.

Indeed

Tea is no minor beverage continues.  In the book, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, tea is what brings people together and is important to the development of the characters.  Indeed, in her comment on my post at SEW, stickyfingers pointed out the institution that tea is in the UK (one of my favorite things about the UK!).  There are many who think that there's nothing that a cup of tea can't fix.  

I am nearly ready to add a backing to this and I think it will just be a backing behind the harem cloth foundation.  This thing will be light as a feather.

My studio is really coming along.  I got much of the furniture sorted out last week, put away some things still in boxes, and organized the closet.  Now I need to finish the design walls, put up a pinboard and hang some artwork on the walls.  In the meantime, my view from the studio:

Tea continues and a bit of early Autumn

Tea is No Minor Beverage continues, with lots of added stitching.  

I didn't notice until I took these photos, that my stitching has echoes of the pattern in the saucer.  It's funny how the mind works.

Meanwhile, early autumn in Bend has been glorious this week! It's been just lovely during the day and I can hardly wait to get out for a walk. Yesterday Ryan and I took Scrabble for a walk to the library and stopped for a few photos along the way.

Apple Day

Yesterday was Apple Day at Chez Shields.  I didn't keep track of how many pounds of apples, but it sure felt like a lot!  This is only a small portion.

I made 5 pies worth of filling, in the freezer now.  I used this recipe and will see how I like it.  I've never made a pie from a canned filling before.  I've always used fresh apples, so we'll see.

12 quarts of applesauce too.

And the first fire in our new home.  It was lovely.  This wood stove works so much better than our old fireplace.  I think we will be very cozy this winter!  I even got some stitching done by the fire last night.  Will have to post more on that later.  I'm off to the farmer's market for some dinner fixings.

Picking time

We took our annual trip to the Hood River Fruit Loop this weekend to pick apples.  We came away with a few more goodies besides.  Lots of apples for sauce and pies, strawberries for jam, and pumpkins for the porch.  Saturday was cloudy early, but brightened up in the afternoon.  

If I were to pick another area of Oregon that I really love, this would be it.  So many farm fresh goodies abound in the Hood River valley.  It's always a lovely trip!

This week will be another busy one for me.  I have a week long workshop with Rosalie Dace.  I have heard many good things about her classes, so I hope I have lots of good things to report.  See you back here before too long.