THE TEN YEAR PROJECT

Some years ago the Edmonton Needlecraft Guild along with the Greek Kyklos dancers invited Joan Petrakis to Edmonton to teach an emboidery class.  A number of members of the ENG took this class...but not me.  Why was that?  Well I was likely up to my eyeballs in little kids and with husband working out of town most of the time there was little time for fitting in a weekend class and no one to babysit small people.

I have been enjoying the company of a group of friends from the ENG for many years.  The Greek gal had this lovely finished piece on her table at one visit and I complained that I didn't know why I hadn't taken that class.  I loved this piece.  One of the other gals in this group came the following week and flung a package at me saying ' here you are...enjoy'.  It was the kit from the Joan Petrakis class.  Grace had added it to her UFO box and never intended to finish the piece.

Well with that in hand I really had to hop to it.  Well I must have hopped around the world a few dozen times by now.  Grace gave me this kit at least 6 years ago and I have faithfully taken it to the Wednesday stitching group to work on it over all of those years.  And I am finally finished.

Joan Petrakis taught this class in about 1983 - at least that is what the copywrite on her notes say..  By the way these are notes typed on probably an IBM Selectric typewriter with hand drawn illustrations.  Anyone remember that.  This was done long before the iPad and iPod and Adobe Illustrator and Embroidery design software and likely long before any of you even owned a computer.  I have to tell you that my family did own a computer in 1983.  It was a 'portable' weighing in at about 20 pounds (remember those) with a screen about 5 X 5 inches (remember those).

We've come a long way baby!  Here are photos of the embroidery and of Joan's notes for this class.
Enjoy a wee bit of nostalgia...and No Grace I am not giving you this embroidery back.  You can come to my home any time to enjoy it here.  Thanks a mil for your generosity!

Design From Western Macedonia, Greece

Joan Petrakis

1983

Stitched by Jackie Van Fossen

Completed in 2013

Itty Bitty Knitting - Part 2

Well, it seems that this Itty Bitty Knitting is taking longer than I had planned...or is it just too many 'Itty Bitty' projects on the go. The neighbors have a new baby so with a gift unfinished, the best I could do is this 'Wee Sweater' card. The new parents (especially Mom) loved it so now I can breathe easier knowing that the gift will be made at least in the New Year.

Several other knitting projects have been completed and are ready to wrap to put under the Christmas tree. Can't put them onto the post yet since the recipients may subscribe to my blog postings. I have also had some teaching assignments last month - Fabulous Felted Scarves - for the Edmonton Weavers Guild www.edmontonweavers.org/. Next posting, I will put up photos of my fabulous student's work. I sold my felted scarfs at the annual Edmonton Weavers' Guild sale as well. I have a few available that I will show you here, so if you are still shopping for Christmas gifts, give me a call or email and I can send one or more along to you.

DO YOU KNOW that Interweave Press, the folks who bring you the magazines, Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors, have many ebooks and How To videos available from their website www.interweavepress.com. You can also subscribe to several enewsletters that they publish (nearly every day to my delight). They including Quilting Daily, Cloth Paper Scissors (almost daily)and Knitting Daily. These newsletters include FREE projects and lots of FREE advice for quilters, knitters and journal junkies like myself. This is such a furious time of year and today I am taking a breath following a family birthday, knitting madly and stitching madly to finish Christmas gifts, and just the general furor surrounding Christmas preparations. Now I will get down to writing the annual Christmas letter. I am planning to post one more blog before Christmas so watch for that. In the meantime have a glorious time preparing for your own Christmas celebrations.

Pow Wow in Kamloops

It was a pretty exciting August. I celebrated a birthday, Mark and I celebrated an anniversary, we moved to a new home, got rid of all sorts of stuff that is no longer needed with condo living and downsizing, went on holidays and met our son's new young lady. Wow, BC can really put on the heat! It was 35 to 40 degrees a couple of weeks ago in Kamloops. Probably still is. We saw lots of interesting places and did neat things during our short stay. Kamloops hosted a pow wow on the weekend that brought aboriginal peoples from all over North America. The entry dance was pretty amazing with it seemed hundreds of people dressed in their 'best' traditional garments...including kids of all ages. It was certainly a family show. Here are some photos from that event. I think there is lots of inspiration for textile and journal work here. Click on the photos to for a larger view. COMMENTS?

More of Kamloops area to come in my next post.