A Regal Bee Finish!!!

Hello all,

I just have to share a link to Stasi's blog where she has posted pictures of her completed "Regal Bee".  http://beemusedandbeestitching.blogspot.com/2012/05/regal-bee-is-done.html

I love the little personal additions Stasi has made to her set.  Congrats for a wonderful job stitching and assembling my design (and in record time too)!!

Yours in stitches,

Theresa

A Banner Year!!!

I hope you won't mind, but I just have to share this with everyone.  This morning I found out that my designs "A Maryland Inspiration" and "Mary Sophia's Pennsylvania German Needlework Set" won ribbons at the Woodlawn Plantation Needlework Exhibit.  "A Maryland Inspiration" won the Frank Lloyd Wright Award for Outstanding Original Design, and "Mary Sophia ..." won a First Place Ribbon in the Counted Thread category.  Needless to say, I am both humbled and honored to have received the awards, especially since this is the first time I've ever entered anything at Woodlawn.  Here are pictures of the two designs:

Oh, my goodness, I am so excited!

Yours in stitches,

Theresa

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to everyone.  I hope it was a good one for all. 

I thought I would write a short note to show you my latest design.  I am busily stitching away on it and am very pleased so far.  My mother was of Pennsylvania/German decent and this design was inspired by the Brandywine Valley and the flora and fauna of the area.  The corner blocks on the edges of the flower bands are in homage to the quilt, the colorful quaker adaptations are in homage to their influence in the Brandywine area.  The many fruit motifs signify the richness of the soil and the verdant pastures.  Of course, the stone house speaks for itself.  It is inspired by the many stone houses that dot the Pennsylvania countryside.  I composed the poem to go along with the design.  It reads:

Oh, what stories it could tell, this old house of mine
a long standing sentinel on the Brandywine
Built strong of granite and of wood,
on verdant acres my stone house stood
with window sills so deep and wide and
walls made thick on every side
While o'er the hill, not far away,
the Brandywine River did flow and play
Afar to behold the strength of the two,
the house and the river and the stories they knew.

I hope you like it.

Theresa

Okay, here I am again, lagging waaaaaaay behind in posting, but I do have some news.  For the first time, I entered a needlework exhibit/competition -- it was (is) at the Rehoboth Beach Historical Society.  I submitted my design "Cottage by the Sea" and the accompanying sewing set.  To my amazement, I received "Best in Show" and "First Place" ribbons for the sewing set and a "Second Place" ribbon for the sampler.  Here I am posing along side of my winning designs.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I don't know where the time goes -- but as I get older it seems to be picking up speed at a frantic pace!

I'm almost ashamed to admit that it has been May since I last posted -- OMG, you must have thought I fell off the face of the earth!  Actually I have been very busy stitching my designs so that I could assemble a decent portfolio before contacting a distributor to market my designs.  I finished stitching "Cottage by the Sea" and it is presently at the framer's.  She did send me a picture of the mats and frames so that I could pick out what I liked best.  I just wanted a plain black frame with a double mat of green and dark pink -- it picks up the colors of the sampler just perfectly.  Here is the picture of what the framer sent me.  I will post a picture of the completed piece once I get it back. 

Also, I have finished stitching the Thistle House sampler, the Dianthus Sampler and, believe it or not, have also finished and assembled the needlework set that goes with the Cottage by the Sea sampler. It turned out better than even I expected! I will post pictures of everything shortly.

Hope you like the sampler.

Yours in stitches,

Theresa

New Design -- Cottage By The Sea

It has been a while since I posted anything. Believe me, I've been busy stitching and designing. My latest design is a break from my usual style -- a little more contemporary, but I like it. I am in the process of stitching this one as well. It is called "Cottage By The Sea". I wrote the little verse to go with it and am also designing a set of stitching smalls based on this design as well. I hope you like it.

My sampler "A Maryland Inspiration" is back from the framer and I am in the process of taking a picture for the chart cover. I've gotten some wonderful information from several designers about marketing and am going to be contacting distributors in the near future. It is a lot more involved than I ever anticipated. I want things to be as perfect as possible before I release the design. I've purchased the bags that the charts will go in -- they are called "Clear Bags" and were recommended very highly by a fellow designer. I'm putting the finishing touches on the chart and instructions and am just about ready.

Besides stitching and designing, I am the Vice President of my local needlework guild -- The Delaware Valley Historic Sampler Guild (DVHSG). One of my duties is to schedule programs for each month's meeting. I was the teacher at our last meeting, and I use the term "teacher" very loosely. I am a consumate cut-up and am not always very structured, but everyone enjoyed the project and had something to take home with them at the end of the meeting. My teaching piece was a strawberry shaped pincushion with a wrapped spider web top. I will take a picture and post it later. It turned out very well -- was a shabby chic style and fun to put together.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. I went to dinner with my daughter, sister and my sister's Mother-in-law and a friend. We had a lovely time and the food was great. As soon as I got home I took out my stitching and got busy. I have about 2 day's worth of work to finish "Thistle House" and then I will devote all my time to finishing "Cottage By The Sea".

Next weekend I will be attending a by-yearly DVHSG stitching retreat in Ocean City, Maryland. I look forward to it every six months -- always a lot of fun and great to get together with the members of the guild and get to know them better. I don't get a lot of stitching accomplished but wouldn't miss it for the world!

Well, let me get back to my stitching. Hope you like the new design.

Yours in stitches,

Theresa

Thistle House progress pictures ...

Hello everyone. Several day's ago I said I would post pictures of my progress on Thistle House and, as usual, I am a day late and a dollar short! Believe it or not, I tried to post pictures yesterday but was unable to upload anything in the post -- I'd click on the insert image icon and -- duh! -- nothing. I was so exasperated but kept trying and today I figured out that if I changed back to the old blogger posting program, I could upload the pictures! Go figure ... At any rate, here are the progress pictures, plus the updated digital rendering of the design. The first digital rendering pictured is the one I had posted back in December when I first created this blog. It has changed a lot since then. As I said before, I'm probably going to be my own model stitcher for quite a while, as I always change things along the way. Hope you like the design ... it's moving along quite well ...

Yours in stitches,

Theresa