Works in Progress Wednesday

Yesterday, I wrote out what I'm going to say for Monday's presentation at the afternoon guild meeting.  (yay!).  Now to put a slide show together and gather some show and tell items.  p.s. Thanks everyone who offered moral support around public speaking.  ; )

Secondly, I learned my lesson.  See that pic?  There's Pretty Penny (the Janome)... skipping stitches.  There's Fiona (my Kenmore) trying to prove she can do it better.  Either way, I'm not happy.  And there's the phone book.  I called Andrea to ask advice.  "Why can I threadpaint / free motion stitch on canvas without any problems at all, and yet without resetting anything, I cannot free motion a quilt without skipping stitches!?"  She went through the checklist with me and suggest I use that built in convertible needle plate.  I never do, and never have.  So I tried.  B I N G O !  I can't even make it skip now!  Sheesh.  I guess that canvas is low and stable enough that there are no issues and the special needle plate isn't needed.  Dang high-end machines.  lol

It's all good.  I worked a while on this sky.  It's painted cloth with more layers on top.  The clouds are free motion stitched with white thread, and the sky is filled with horizontal waves of blue.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  This is for "K" who is having the Telephone Poles on Highway 7 redone as a larger wall hanging.  (I didn't ask if I could use their names, but they did give me permission to blog my progress.

I've also been reworking the Canola Fields for a woman named "J".  She called a little late after the show and the piece had been sold.  She sounded so disappointed.  So I offered to to this for her.  I have to say, I love hand stitching!  Right now I'm at approximately 600 french knots.  This piece is a little bigger, and I am guessing there will be nearly a thousand when I'm done.  (Yeah!!!!)  My hopes are that if it's actually done by the weekend, I can bring it to guild.  After the last exhibit, I have nothing left to show!

I spent all of Sunday reorganizing my stash and cleaning my room.

But wait, there's more!  I was on my way out the door to go biking with the kids when the phone rang.  It was "the lady from the newspaper".  She's interviewing me on Wednesday.  I'll tell you all about it after it happens.  Can I just say that I'm no longer too nervous about presenting to guild?  (gasp!).  She's coming to my house and is looking forward to seeing my work which she labeled, "exquisite"!!  : )  Wow.  Do I feel blessed.  Of course, I don't have much to show to her after it's all sold, so I got to work on this one which was ready to thread paint.  Oooh I love it!  I spent a couple hours on it so far.

It's a deep, deep field with light and shadows that I had done the background for last week.  It's done now with the exception of the edging, some hand stitched fence posts in the distance & embroidered flowers in the foreground.  !! 

~Monika