Stitch Weasels' Retreat at Olivia Beach

Granddaughter and her mum on left stitching

                           Actually it is the Oregon/Washington stitchers
                            but my husband calls us the "Weasels" and says we
                            bite off our threads with our tiny teeth!
                            The house rented for us was a real "Mansion",
                            It sleeps up to 30 and has 7 bathrooms.
                            It was beautifully decorated in Ocean themes.
                            People came from all over Wa, Or, and the coast. 23!

My Tracy with her new release for next week an addition to "Love Letters"

Happily stitching at dinning table

A  Maple leaf from our little Canadian

Some fine finishes!

A lovely piece of counted stitches from Sue

3 more stitchers in a cozy nook

More finishes!

Stairs that take you over the hill to the ocean showing the cottages and park

the beach at Olivia

                                      

132 steps down to the beach!

                          I walked down then went to a flat spot to come
                          back. Even then I had shin splints the next day.
                          We went on long walks every day in the SUN!!!

Past and Present, my new start I worked on with threads gathered mostly from silk LE's.

                         I have collected this silk in my stash for years for just such a
                         project.

My version of our Martina Dey stitch along

                          It is called "Coat of Arms Sampler" on our yahoo group.
                          I have been saving up old patterns to add to something
                          like this and used Carries LE crimson and new solid crimson.
                          I did nearly all this stitching in our 4 day retreat and
                          finished the first lamb last night. I plan on continuing with
                          Martina's chart from here. I am having an addictive

                          spell of stitching! That is what these retreats do to energize

                          you. It is already booked for a repeat next year!!!

Toledo/ Oregon not Ohio! Wooden Boat Show and Yaquina Fiber Arts

The Gal   This boat is featured on the "T" shirt

                Saturday the 20th was maybe one of the sunniest, beautiful days
                we could have had in Toledo for the annual Wooden Boat Show.
                There were many beautiful boats and I just loved the rock 'n roll
                of my friends, husbands band. It was great 70/80's stuff!
                They will be playing at "BurntWoodsStock" Aug 26.
                 It was about 75 with a cool breeze off the lovely Yaquina River.


                                   

Yaquina river with boats the day of the Wooden Boat Show

My friend Bonnie

A sailor with the
"Gal" T on, cute shirt, I bought 2!

Oregon sailor with his dog

The Eddie St Claire band with my friend Bonnie's husband center

Yaquina Fiber Arts Guild Aug 20, 2011

                   We meet every 3rd Sat at the Toledo library and spin,
                    knit or anything you want to do with needles and fiber.
                    I took home a nice bag of lovely chocolate fiber off my
                    friends alpaca. Makes nice yarn, especially mixed with a
                    little wool for stretch.

Only 6 of us this day but we had fun knitting and spinning.

                                                      Much quieter group than normal!

Margaret's really pretty single ply

Jan's very pretty first ply

Jan spinning, me knitting my newest pattern(this is a sneak peak!)

Lovely colors of Alpaca

Connie's Shawl

                                 As usual I put up too many pictures, but couldn't resist.

Whole Family here for Vacation!

                                     My 3 kids, spouses and 6 grandkids here at once!
                                     ( Missing 1 grandson,sil and husband not in pic)

                                     E at Oregon Coast Aquarium watching seals

                                     Tidepool At OCA with 3 grandkids

                                    Marine gardens below our house with youngest
                                    grandson.

                                 Huge gumboot chitin all curled up; we put him back!

                                    My favorite Great Blue Heron. I always take
                                     his picture!

                                    Smallest granddaughter with snail. Can you believe
                                    it was this warm and sunny here? The whole week!!!

                                   One of our 100 seals and gull

                                     Searching out all the nooks and crannies full of
                                     anemones and starfish.

                                        
                                   We have never had such great weather during our
                                    vacations and my grandchildren (all from dry areas
                                    had more fun than ever at the ocean.

                                   I got to keep Hannah (17) for an extra week as
                                   we do every summer. She is part fish and loves our
                                   beaches as do my dogs.        

New Norsk Needlework Embroidery pattern

                                          Norsk Fairytale was adapted from 17th century
                                          Norwegian  woven coverlets. It has a Queen and
                                          King riding their horses in a field of flowers, under
                                          the shadow of the castle... and of course they lived,
                                          as you can guess,"Hapily Ever After".
                                          Stitched on 36 ct Picture This Plus, Relic, linen
                                          with gorgeous Gentle Arts Sampler threads.There
                                          are hardanger style stars, but no cutting and very
                                          large clear diagrams that make it easy to stitch.
                                          The model is on its way to Baltimore for the TNNA
                                          needlework show and will be in the "Ink Circles"
                                          booth. Both this pattern and the following
                                          "Project 99" will  be for sale at the show and then
                                          on the Ink Circle site  as well as many fine
                                          needlework shops all over the world.

                                                         Early 17th Century woven coverlet

                                                       
                                                  "Project 99"
                                               
                                                  This fun project was stitched by Tracy (my
                                                  daughghter, the designer of "Ink Circles")
                                                  after she solicited favorite local brews
                                                  from stitchers.
                                                  Tracy wrote:
                                                  Last summer I asked my friends and followers
                                                  to tell me which brands of beers they liked.
                                                  I had enthusiasts from around the globe tell
                                                  me about their local breweries, spots they hit
                                                  on vacation, and tastiest drinks.
                                                  This design was stitched on appropriately
                                                  "Ale" linen by Picture This Plus. 32 ct. with
                                                  DMC threads. I find it amazing that with a
                                                  few well placed stitches the brews are
                                                  recognizable!

    

Waldport/ Yachats Secret Garden Tour

                                                                                                                                                                                                          This was the "Secret

                                        Garden" tour of Waldport

                                         and Yachats, to up in the

                                         hills to the east. It included

                                         8 gardens. Most by the

                                        Alsea and Yachats rivers.

                                        The proceeds of the tour went to the

                                       "Samaritan House" providing shelter for

                                        the homeless along  the  Oregon coast.

                                   This Alium Gigantus was the most
                                              spectacular flower.
                                   Further down is a variety of the regular size.


  This old tree was struck
 by lightning and landed
 with the pieces like this.
 It is HUGE. The whole
 top half is out of the
 picture. It makes a lovely
 cover for this nice
 garden.

                                           Two of the gardens were
                                          on neighboring properties
                                          separated by a wonderful
                                           path strewn with 
                                          evergreen huckleberries
                                           It was my favorite,
                                            magical place.

 An apple blossom viburnum.
Strikingly beautiful.

                                            Escalonia pruned into gorgeous trees!

                                          Many, many glass chickens in this garden.                      

Colorful Watsonia. Some
turn red,  purple, or pink
if grown near the white.

                                         So, this white one is kept by itself!

                                          A very unique octopus.

                                                  Along the Yachats river.

                                            An oriental garden

This is quite
a few pictures,
but I narrowed it
from over 100.
My friends and I
 enjoyed our day.






                                        

"Christiania/Oslo" Finished!!!

I have been stitching since last July on the 2nd biggest cross stitch kit from
Eva Rosenstand of Denmark. It was a pure joy to do and wonderful to work
on. Now it is finished and hung. Yeah!!! 10 months is a real record for me.

Many years ago I stitched the largest of ER, "Stockholmia". It was started
in 1982. I remember, because as I was setting up the colors, marking
the middles ect. I was watching TV and saw that President Reagan had been
shot. It is one of those clear moments when you remember exactly where
you were. I finished it in 1993. So... it took 11 years. This is because I was
working full time as a critical care nurse and raising 3 children. I also knit a
whole lot of sweaters during that time. It was entered into a large EGA
jurried show when I lived in California and won best of counted work
over approximately 350 entries. Needless to say I couldn't have been prouder.
I think the judges were wowed by the sheer endurance and tenacity.
Also the colors are stunning. On both these pieces I just loved
doing the ships.

These large pieces are so fun to work and I actually feel a loss when they are
finished because I want to haul them out and get back to work! I learned
to cross stitch when I was about 23 and living in Europe. A Norwegian
girlfriend  introduced me to Eva Rosenstand kits. I did quite a few of them and
then carried them in my old Norsk Needlework shop in Wyoming. These
kits can still be  ordered from several places on the internet for those of
you that want to get stitching.