Happy Holidays, a Canvas Update!

I stitched the canvas below as a gift for one of my favorite hotels, the Liberty in Cleburne, Texas.  My stitcher friends gather there 4-5 times a year to retreat and stitch and eat, and the hotel staff are always the perfect hosts.  I wanted a souvenir canvas not only for all my friends but something to gift the hotel as well.  My friend Kathy snapped a photo of it on the Liberty's tree this year:

I have recently updated this canvas, instead of having 2016 painted at the bottom (which marks the year I gifted it), it now has the "L" of the hotel logo.  This canvas will be available at Cleburne's local shop, Fancy Stitches.

Souvenir Canvases

I love canvases that commemorate an event, memory or place.  This is a canvas I painted as a souvenir for of a group of friends who I go to a stitching retreat with at The Liberty Hotel in Cleburne, TX a few times a year. I stitched the one on the top and gave it to the hotel staff for their Christmas tree. My friend Linda stitched the one below and she made a very nice job of it too!

I also painted a souvenir canvas for our favorite needlework shop, also located in Cleburne, Fancy Stitches.  This one was stitched by shop teacher Cynthia:

I also have a series of canvases painted for the annual Needlepoint Love Story at Thistle Hill in Fort Worth.  These are the first 3 in that series:

And this is the 2017 one:

Thanks so much to Sally, Sualice, Suzy, Naomi and French Knot for their great work on the Thistle Hill ornament series!

Camp Allen Stitching at Christmastime!

I was lucky to spend a couple of days at Camp Allen this week, stitching at their December Needlepoint camp along with a great bunch of friends.   I wanted to share a few pictures of the great holiday decor on display and some stitching too!

Here are a couple of new things I was working on, both will be available soon I hope! 

December's Camp features tons of fantastic gift baskets, all up for silent auction, with the proceeds being donated to charity.  This is part of one of the tables loaded with goodies!

The thing I like best about Camp Allen is the beautiful woodland setting-- look at that view! Our stitching room has a whole wall of windows (more than pictured here), treating us to the beautiful fall colors outside.

In the hallway outside our stitching room, the Camp Allen decorator elves have put together holiday table-scapes along with gorgeous quilt displays, these are just two of many!

Gorgeous Christmas trees everywhere, this is the big one in the lobby:

Wish I was a better photographer, these pictures don't do it justice, and I forgot to take pictures of the outdoor decorations which were also many and great!  I will be back next year to try again! 

Home Again (For a Little While Anyway!)

I had a fantastic time in Glen Rose, Texas at the annual Fancy Stitches Retreat (which has been going on since the late 1980's, making it one of the most long-running retreats of it's kind in the country!) I even finished two things, but I can't show them off here yet, sorry!  Great company, great food and great stitching, what could be better?  Thanks so much to both Fancy Stitches and my retreat buddies for all the gifts and goodies that they showered us with all weekend too!

Here is a photo of the 300+ year old Live Oak outside our stitching room:

I do have some stitching to show off though, since I haven't had time to stitch on Mod Ornaments lately, I have a couple of photos from Mary Ann who has done a great job stitching two of her ornaments:

I'm off to Charleston, SC this weekend for a little trip with my hubby, (who I have barely seen this month), but I'll have some new finishing pictures to share next week!

A Week of Retreats!

I went to two needlepoint retreats in one week and now I need a vacation! Needlepoint Nation Austin 2015 overlapped with a trip to Memphis to Rent Amy, so what was I to do?  I managed to do a bit of both.  Wednesday and Thursday was spent in Austin visiting with that great group of gals, who I did not get nearly enough time with.  Here is a couple of shots of the host shop, The Needle Works--  not great pictures but you sure can tell how big and well stocked it is!

Friday through Monday found me in Memphis with the gang from Needlepoint Now, taking a weekend of classes with Amy Bunger.  Amy's shop is fabulous too, both inside and out.

First of all, what could be better than a needlepoint shop with a Sonic next door?

The neon "Amy's" sign is pretty spiffy too, I think.  Amy's is actually a small compound of buildings consisting of the store, classroom and the wholesale business.  Amy's very sweet husband, Bob, has decorated the inner courtyard with his collection of farm antiques and signs:

I think Bob's courtyard may be the best classroom view of any shop, any where!

And yes, Amy's has tons of threads and models too:

As I said, now that I'm back, I'm pooped!  Even so, I've got one more retreat left, this weekend I take off towards north Texas to Glen Rose for the Fancy Stitches retreat.  Stay tuned for those photos next week!