Pumpkin 3D Designed by Ruth Chow

July, 2012--I purchased this Ruth Chow painted canvas from Waste Knot (Arlington, VA) in 2009. Lori Maza had the model available to view and I just had to have it.  Unfortunately, I was too new at doing needlepoint and found some of the stitches difficult to do, so I put it aside.  After 3 years of gathering needlepointing experience, I picked up the pumpkin again and was easily able to complete it.  It was a lot of fun.  This is what it looked like while on the scroll bars.

October, 2012--This is what it looked like when I got it back from the finisher.  It's so cute sitting next to the candy dish at Halloween.

Victorian Ornament

October, 2012--Stitched this little ornament for Delaware's Seashore Chapter's December 2012 holiday ornament exchange.  The instructions, written by Teresa Kinberger, were found in the September, 2012 Needlepointers magazine.  I changed it from an oval to a diamond shape and filled in the background.  Also did the finishing myself.  Not yet perfect, but getting better at this.

Original ornament as designed.

Kreinik Pen

September, 2012--I bought two of these cool pens at ANG Seminar in Philadelphia...one for myself and one as a gift for my conference roommate, Vicki.   She really had a time of it at the hotel check in.  Our original plans were that she would arrive first,  check in and get the room.   Well, it was I who arrived first and was assigned "our room".  When Vicki checked in, she was not told I was already in the room, so was very concerned that our room had been assigned to someone else, not recognizing my luggage.  She had to get a last minute change of rooms, all to my surprise when I tried to return to the room I had been assigned and found myself locked out.   Too funny.  It ended well with a nicer room than originally assigned.   I have to find out if she ever stitched the pen.

(Kreinik Stock Photo)

Brenda's Needlepoint Studio Updated 3/20/14

March 20, 2014--Won 3rd Place Ribbon for Canvaswork at the Rehoboth Beach Museum 4th Annual Needlework Exhibit.

February, 2012--I named my blog after this piece.  The Delaware's Seashore Chapter took this on as a group project in March, 2011.  It's designed by Louise S. Meier.  We personalized our studios by changing the name, colors, etc.  For some this was a great stash buster, but for me, not having much in the way of stash, had to purchase many of the wools, silks and cotton floss required in the instructions.  This project taught us a lot about color schemes--monochromatic, complementary, analogous, split complementary and triadic.  They are all in this design.  It was fun to stitch this as a group and learning from each other.  One of the stitchers located "shisha" mirrors to use in the magnifying glass.  My mother's housemate, who makes up beaded jewelry, gave me just the right copper beads to use as drawer pulls.  I'm thinking of making the bag smaller, or, at a minimum, shorten the corded strap.  What do you think?

BTW, the lettering was very easy to do.  I was able to "write" it up and center it on graph paper, all on my PC, by using Stitchpoint.com's alphabet generator at the site below:

March, 2012--Removed the stone from the bag and had it framed.

To The Beach

February, 2012--This was a 4 day class taught by Sandy Arthur at the 2011 ANG Seminar in San Antonio, TX.  Much of the classroom time was taken up with getting the hair just right.  Those yellow banana curls were a lot of fun to make but definitely fell under the title "crafts".  I was glad to get that done while in the class--it never would have happened left to my own devices at home.   This project was chosen by the Rehoboth Beach Museum as a marketing piece for their Annual Needlework Exhibit, published in their brochures and in local newspapers (such as the Cape Gazette).  Sandy Arthur was credited as the designer and my name shown as the stitcher.

March, 2012--Framed

Heart Sampler for ANG Seminar Auction

October, 2012--When I attended my first ANG seminar in San Antonio, TX in 2011, I was given a piece of blue canvas and a stitch guide written by Janet Perry to needlepoint a heart sampler, then to return the completed heart to ANG.  The heart would then be made into an ornament and offered as an auction item at the Philadelphia seminar in 2012.   So I did that, thoroughly enjoying the process of choosing my own threads, colors and some stitches (the stitch guide was very helpful).

When I went to seminar, I had every intent of bidding on my own heart so I could take it home, thinking it would go for $25 or so.  Ha!  What I saw was not only my heart up for auction, but the hearts of others who also worked on this "first timer" project.  There were a total of 6 beautiful heart ornaments up for auction as a GROUP.  I could see this was going to cost me a bit more than $25.  Well it did.... $300 later, I not only got my heart, but the other 5 as well.  Oh well, it does go for a good cause and the other hearts are pretty.  Here's mine:

Hardanger Doily

January, 2012--Our local ANG chapter brought in an instructor to teach us some basic hardanger stitches on linen which would result in a small square doily.  The first step was to run basting stitches from corner to corner on our fabric.  Here was our first problem--we as a group of needlepointers didn't have a clue of what was required of the basting stitches in the center of the fabric.  We spent hours just getting this right.  Too funny.  But once we settled down, the stitches were easy with beautiful results.  I also loved the fact that I could do this type of stitching "in hand" without stretcher bars or hoops.   This proves that once again you can teach an old dog new tricks.  I now look longingly at some beautiful hardanger projects out there.

Casalguidi Tin Box Cover

February, 2012--The Shining Needle Society (SNS) offered this project as an online class taught by Jane Ellen Balzuweit to cover Casalguidi techniques of needlework.  This was new to me and I thought it was beautiful and something I'd like to try.  In fact, I had enrolled to take a Casalguidi class at the ANG 2011 Seminar in San Antonio, but due to lack of interest, the class was cancelled.  Then SNS offered this course--yay! As pretty as it is, I won't be doing any more like this--it's very tedious.

Bargello Egg

February, 2012--This was my first Laura J. Perin Design project and I'm hooked.  Taught at a Seashore Chapter meeting.  Love working with perle threads and the Easter Egg colors are scrumptuous.  Had this framed with a stand-up easel in the back so it could either be hung on a wall or stand up on a table.  Then I gave it to my DGDs (Ashley and Casey) as an Easter "card".  It's so much fun to give needlepoint as gifts.

March, 2012-- Framed

Anasazi Spirit

April, 2012--This is the third in the Anasazi series taken as an online class from Carole Lake and Michael Boren through the Shining Needle Society.  I worked this one together with Anasazi Song since both have similar stitches.  Love the results.

Anasazi Song

April, 2012--This is the second in the Anasazi series by Carole Lake.  I purchased the kit immediately after complete Anasazi Dream and was finally able to complete it at the same time I worked on Anasazi Spirit.  Love it.

City Walk Updated 3/18/15

March 18, 2015--Won 3rd Place Ribbon in the Canvaswork-Multi category at Woodlawn's 52 Annual Needlework Exhibition in Alexandria, VA.

March 20, 2014--Won 2nd Place Ribbon for Canvaswork at the Rehoboth Beach Museum 4th Annual Needlework Exhibit.

August 13, 2013--Framed

October, 2012--This was an ANG CyberPointers Correspondence Course taught by Linda Reinmiller.  For me this was an extremely ambitious project, but once I received Linda's instruction manual, I was immediately put at ease.  I learned a lot of new stitches and techniques, all of which were detailed in her instructions.   This being a CC, I was able to mail my completed project to Linda for review.  I was very impressed with how she was able to catch the smallest thing that should have been done differently.  Another wonderful learning experience.  I so much enjoyed this project that I signed up to do her Garden Walk.

SOTM 2011

January, 2012--My second ANG Stitch of the Month mystery project taught by Ro Pace.  This one was a real challenge, consisting of Jean Hilton stitches.  They always seemed to be highly engineered stitches which take some concentration to follow, but so worth the effort.

March, 2012--Framed

May, 2012--Won Third Place Ribbon for Mixed Techniques and Peoples Choice Award at the Rehoboth Beach Museum's Annual Needlework Exhibit.  This second ribbon so surprised me that I asked the museum's director, Nancy Alexander, about this and she explained that most of the visitors to the exhibit were fellow needleworkers and could see the work involved.  Gotta love our fellow stitchers!

Box of Chocolates

June, 2012--A friend placed this project into a square tray and it looks beautiful.  This pretty project from Laura J. Perin Designs was given as a chapter project.  Lots of fun to complete.

March, 2013--Framed