The Stitch Up

Travel and Inspiration

I've been doing a little traveling over the last month or two and it felt GREAT!!!!  It was so nice to get out of my usual routine, see some new places and get inspired.  

I've been wanting to explore West Texas for a while so we planned a trip to hit Alpine, Marfa and Marathon. We also managed to fit in a side trip to Fort Davis and basically saw a ton of beautiful scenery while road tripping around the area.

We started out our trip in Alpine, TX which is so cute and has beautiful street art.  There are murals all over the down town area and you can just walk around and enjoy art between the cute shops.  

After Alpine we headed into Marfa.  There are a lot of posts from social media influencers about what to see and do in Marfa.  They're pretty good at hitting the highlights of Marfa, but as someone who is a little (a lot) older than the average influencer, my focus is on activities that are not particularly trendy.  With that said, I did feel pretty hip in Marfa.  There are lots of cool bars and restaurants and every place you stop to take a photo looks like a magazine layout.

Marfa is weird and artsy and forces you to slow down a bit.  Most shops and restaurants we went to were on their own schedule.  Some just open for a few hours each day, some only open a couple days a week.  You couldn't stick to a strict itinerary so you had to just go with the flow.  That is not my usual m.o., but it really made for a relaxing vacation.  No plans, just walking around and seeing what's around the corner.

Despite enjoying the laid back vibe of Marfa I DID need a little bit of exercise to balance out the day drinking and Mexican food we'd been indulging in, so we headed over to Fort Davis to do a little hiking.  There are a lot of spots to hike in the state park but we just did some short hikes from the botanical garden - which was spectacular!

The town of Fort Davis is also really cute with some great shops and a lovely downtown.

The last stop on our West Texas adventure was a stay at the Gage Hotel in Marathon.  Marathon is a very small and quiet town but there are several really pretty spots to relax, including the Gage Gardens: a super quirky garden area just a block from the hotel itself.  If you have the chance to check out this hotel you should!  It's historic and beautiful and full of personality.

During the entire trip the landscape threw us beautiful sunrises and sunsets.  My favorite sunset was in Marathon on the last night there:

It really is a beautiful area of the country - check out my Flickr feed if you'd like to see more pics of the trip.  Especially all of the sunsets!

I brought an embroidery "travel project" with me on the trip and actually got a little bit done - I'll post about that next time.  I designed the project with Texas in mind, but after this trip I had so many more ideas!  This trip did exactly what I think travel should do: relaxed and inspired me!

I hope everyone is getting out and enjoying the weather and some travel too!

 

Summer So Far

I know that technically we are not even really in the middle of Summer but it feels like it's flying by pretty quick.  I've done a little traveling and also managed to work in some stitching here and there. Mainly by packing a few small projects so I can get some things done on the plane.

First big trip of the summer was to Washington to spend a long weekend with my girlfriends.  These are ladies I've known since elementary school and getting back together always feels like coming home.  We rented a house on the Sound and utilized the location well by taking long walks by the water and sipping wine while soaking up the sunsets.

It's both relaxing and rejuvenating to be around people who've known you your whole life.  Any professional or social barriers I put up in my current adult life fall away around these ladies.  I left feeling more like myself than I have in a while.

My other trip was back to Ohio.  We spent the 4th of July reconnecting with family which is always nice.  Plus Ohio in the Summer is beautiful.

Sparklers were lit, hot dogs were eaten, and flags were waved.  We had a great visit.

Next update is going to be progress on the frighteningly large number of items I have halfway, partway or any kind of way complete.  The plan is to buckle down, prioritize and actually get a few of these things finished this Summer.

Hoping everyone's Summer is fun and productive!  

 

Spring Trippin'

We've had the chance to do a little vacationing this Spring on both coasts: in LA and NY.  First up was a trip to LA when it was still a little chilly on the east coast and it was SO nice.  It was still only in the 60s - which had all the locals bundled up - but for us it was beautiful.  We did some hiking, some shopping, a lot of eating, and most importantly - caught the Dolly Parton costume exhibit at the Grammy Museum.

NY was more of a glam weekend - we actually went for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.   It was a Generation X extravaganza - The Cure, Roxy Music, and Def Leppard were all inducted.  It as an awesome concert and around that we enjoyed the usual in NY - great food, great cocktails and a little shopping.

No matter how many times we visit either of these cities, we always find something new and interesting.  We love to see new cities or new countries, but it's wonderful that places that you feel comfortable can still surprise you.

Christmas Doings

We kicked off Christmas this year right after Thanksgiving with a trip to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for the Christkindlemarkt.  It's a pretty impressive Christmas Market with a bunch of great vendors, local wineries and distilleries, and really good food.

The coolest thing about the market though is that it's located in the old steel works factory which was pretty amazing to see.

When we got back home we got to work on decorating.  The husband took over decorating the mantle this year.  In past years I have broken out my deer collection and gone deer crazy on the mantle.  For reference, my mantle from a couple years ago:

Peaceful and enchanting right?  This year the husband designed what he called "Christmas in Deadwood":

It's a little more violent than the deer display but it's pretty awesome.  There is, in addition to the culturally inappropriate shootout, an impending bear attack.  I'm choosing to believe that all participants stop fighting and sing Christmas carols before anything really dark happens. 

I also designed an ornament pattern this year!  It's a little rough and hand drawn, but it gets the job done.  I'm still working on my adobe skills so maybe next years version will be a bit more polished.  In the mean time, the pdf for this year is here Download Cactus Ornament.

It's a pretty simple ornament - just two parts.  You can really just decorate it however you want.  I took a few pictures as I put it together:

Feel free to get someone to help you with this project -

In addition to my own creation I made ornaments for my nieces using the first of the 12 days of Christmas pattern from mmmcrafts.  This is the partridge and pear tree pattern set:

These were fun to make and the pattern was easy to follow.  I'm not sure I'll make it through all twelve of the  patterns but they are so cute I"m going to try!

I've packed in a bunch of crafts so far but I'm still hoping to knock out a table cloth this weekend.  I do tend to overload my craft schedule around Christmas but there are so many fun things to make I just want to do it all.  

Of course my Christmas preparations were not complete until I broke out all my Christmas salt and pepper shakers.  I did get a little crazy and decorate my little display case to give it some extra holiday pizazz.

Now I'm just down to sending out cards and doing some holiday baking.  Putting this all down in one spot makes me feel kind of productive - but I'm ready for a little relaxing by the tree.  

I hope everyone's holiday is wonderful and peaceful.  Merry Christmas!

 

 

Texas Girls Trip

I went to Amarillo Texas a little bit ago to visit a friend of mine who has recently moved there from California.  I have missed her and wanted to make a little something for her new home.  I have been inspired by the negative space embroidery I've seen around Pinterest and some other sites so I designed a pattern for my friend to use the negative space idea and celebrate her new home.

It was awesome to catch up with my friend and Amarillo was super fun!  We hit the Cadillac Ranch, The Big Texan (for giant steaks!), Palo Duro Canyon, some boot shopping at Cavenders, and did some more shopping in the very adorable Canyon, Texas.

It is a really pretty part of the country and there were so many great places to see - but the best part of the weekend was just having some time with my friend to catch up and spend time together.  

Trip to Florida

We took a trip to Floria at the beginning of the Summer to do a little relaxing and hit a concert.  I also managed to fit in some craft shopping (of course) and a lot of laying on the beach.

Pretty much my first stop was to A Stitch In Time needlework shop in Jacksonville.  This place had the best selection of cross stitch textiles I've ever seen in one place.  I didn't have a particular project in mind but I bought a length of superfine fabric and a cool sparkly fabric they were featuring that weekend.  I also picked up a cute pattern.

The sparkly fabric has a little tie dye effect as well - I think it will be fun with the right pattern.  If you're near Jacksonville I would really recommend this shop - the selection was awesome.

We also went to see Midland, Kacey Musgreaves and Little Big Town at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre.  It's a great outdoor venue - really laid back and the weather was perfect.

 

The rest of our time was split between the beach, some bars and some great restaurants.

 

The spots we really liked were Maple Street Biscuit Company, Mini Bar for donuts, Whiteys Fish Camp, Flask and Cannon (for adorable and delicious tiki drinks), and The Blind Rabbit for great whiskey cocktails and good food.

I have an ongoing craft project from this trip as well - I bought a concert t-shirt that was a little boxy.  I'm in the process of resizing it and then maybe adding some bling.

I actually ended up cutting the holes a little too deep so I now need to add some fabric if I don't want to flash my bra whenever I wear this, but I think it will be really cute when I'm done.  Hopefully I'll have it finished and some pics soon!

 

 

A Visit to Music City and the King

We did a trip to Nashville with a quick side trip to Memphis last month.  It was truly great - really fun towns with great food.  I posted a bunch of pics on Flickr of all the things we did while we were there but just wanted to highlight some of the awesome crafty stuff we saw while there.

I was delighted by the stitchy fan art I saw at the Country Music Hall of Fame and at Graceland.  At the Country Music Hall of Fame, an ode to Loretta Lynn in cross stitch:

At Graceland, cross stitch depictions of Elvis' home lovingly stitched by his fans:

We saw so many great costumes at the Country Music Hall of Fame and at Graceland, but those jump suits of Elvis really inspired me.  They were covered in studs and beading and were just gorgeous.  I really loved the feather beading on one of the jumpsuits that I'm going to try to recreate on a pair of jeans:

I have no idea where I'll wear them, but I kind of need to make them.

I also made a trip to Craft South in Nashville and honestly - one of the best stitch shops I've ever been to!  It was founded by Anna Maria Horner, so of course it has great stuff.

I might have filled up have my suitcase with some Craft South shopping:

The project I'm most excited about is that awesome shoulder bag kit.  It's a needlepoint kit which I haven't tried before so I'm jumping in with something big, but I could not resist - the colors, the pattern - it's all so cool!

I feel like we barely scratched the surface with both Nashville and Memphis - hopefully we will get back soon.  They are great towns!

Stitch Trip - Tambour Beading

Last month I finally had the chance to take a Tambour embroidery class.  I've been wanting to do this for awhile but just couldn't figure out how to fit it into my schedule.  Luckily Hand and Lock came to Virginia and I was able to escape work for a couple of days to learn a new technique.

I've blogged about The Williamsburg School of Needlework before.  Its a wonderful place to take a class.  They schedule classes on all types of techniques and host Hand and Lock and the Royal School of Needlework.

Sadly I did not have time to take the whole week off, so I just did the first level of training, but our teacher was great and I learned all the basics I need to practice and get a little better before I get the chance to take the second level and learn a bit more.

I thought the hardest part was just getting the fabric set up on the frame.  Our teacher was really great and taught us exactly how they would prep for stitching at Hand and Lock.  It's a bit time consuming to do it right, but I can see for big projects how important it is to start correctly. 

We started with learning the foundation stitch we would need for beading.  It took a while for everything to look smooth and evenly spaced.  Its a bit strange to be working on the back side of the project, but there was plenty of time built in to the class to allow us get the hang of it before we moved on to the actual beading.

We learned to bead seeds, bugles and sequins.  They each took a little different technique with stitch length.

I have been busy since getting back but I am hoping to finish up the practice patterns the instructor gave us and post it.  I love how creative you can be with different types and colors of beads.  It was hard not to get a little crazy with all the options the instructor brought.

I really recommend the Hand and Lock Tambour beading class and any course at the Williamsburg School of Needlework.  The instructors are great, but also the other women in the class were so interesting.  One of my favorite parts of the two days was, once everyone got comfortable with the technique, we shared our backgrounds and experience with stitching.  These women were so creative and accomplished.  It was an extra bonus to an already great class.

Thanksgiving in Paris

Once again, my timing is impeccable!  I'm chatting about Thanksgiving at Christmas time but - as always - life get hectic and I'm playing a little catch up.

We went to Paris for Thanksgiving and it was awesome!  Obviously the timing was not perfect as the city had just suffered a terrible attack, there were a number of travel advisories and the COP21 Conference was about to start.  However we were so impressed with the grace and kindness of the people of Paris despite what was obviously a very difficult time for the city.

Our main goal was to eat and drink and occasionally meander around and see some beautiful sights.  We easily met all these goals although we accidentally ended up walking more than we intended.  I suppose it was good to walk off all of the croissants and wine so I wasn't too upset about it.

A few of the gorgeous things we saw:

I think we arrived at the perfect time as they were just decorating for Christmas and the Christmas markets were just getting started.  There were gorgeous lights everywhere:

There was a huge Christmas market along the Champs Elysee there was stall after stall with vin chaud (hot wine!), waffles with nutella, sausage and potatoes, cheeses from the south of France and all kinds of candies.

There were also lights just celebrating the resiliency of Paris.  They were beautiful and moving and a reminder that nothing can destroy this wonderful city:

 

 

Adventures in Stitching

October was a pretty fun month for craft outings.  Somehow, I had completely missed the fact that there is a textile museum just around the corner from my office.  The Textile Museum at George Washington University is a small museum but it has rotating exhibitions that are very interesting.  When I visited this week the two main exhibits were China: Through the Lens of John Thomson and Old Patterns, New Order: Socialist Realism in Central Asia.  The China exhibit was mostly really interesting photos of people in traditional clothes, but they had a few actual items of clothing as well and the embroidery was spectacular:

  


The Central Asia exhibit had a variety of really colorful fabrics.  The exhibit described these fabrics as a mix of modern and traditional design which you could really see:

It doesn't take too long to walk through the exhibits, but it's nice to have something so near by to take a little break during the day and look at pretty fabrics.  I think they update their exhibitions fairly often so it will be nice to check in once in a while and see what's new.

My big October crafting event was a needle lace class at The Williamsburg School of Needlework.  It was two days of learning needle lace technique and it was wonderful.  The teacher was really skilled and had us tatting almost immediately.  You can (hopefully) see my progress as we tried out different patterns and techniques.

 

I am already looking forward to going back for another class.  There is also some good bar-b-que, microbrews and of course Colonial Williamsburg nearby so it makes for a pretty nice craft weekend.

Now, it's time to start getting ready for some Christmas crafts.  I have a few things planned but always seem to add some last minute projects just to stress myself out.  I'm trying to wrap up crocheting a cowl before going full blown Christmas.  Hopefully I'll have that to show off here before highlighting my Christmas  projects.

Happy Fall everybody!