Celebration of Needlework in the New England states is such a wonderful event, everyone is excited and the designers have made so many special things…. it is just great to see some of the class projects in ‘real’ – it does truly make a difference seeing things for real rather than on the net. The vendor marketplace is always so nice too, vendors set up lovely booths and it is a stitcher’s shopping adventure. I was thrilled to see so many old friends and spend some time with some of you in class, what  a treat, it was great to see you!

Even though Manchester, NH is really quite close to Montreal — when you think how far west I am in Calgary -but there is no direct flight and so it was a trip over Philly to get to Montreal but it was awesome once I got there. I had some lesson time myself in Schwalm- whitework embroidery, and taught at the Lakeshore Stitchery Guild and a group called Les Brodeuses Québécoises . It was exciting to meet with old friends, having taught at the LSG in 2006- and it was a treat and to meet new stitchers to me at the other guild. It was an adventurous few days in the community where we had the second set of classes as the cadets were practicing for ‘Jean Baptiste Day’ and it was a fanfare of either “Oh Canada” or other songs that I didn’t recognize but they could softly hum to, and I was enchanted, at one point they sang a beautiful song in French to me, it brought tears to my eyes. So you can imagine,  music and handwork  crosses all language barriers and despite the translating we had a wonderful, memorable time.

Thank so very much to everyone on each part of the journey that made it fun and memorable, to each one of you that participated in a class that I taught, and to new and old friends, I am blessed indeed!

Au revoir…. ’til next time….

Here is a lovely picture from being in the Toronto area  earlier in April, how I love the first flowers of spring!

After returning to Calgary post the NWMP on the 16th  I will madly be getting ready for Celebration of Needlework  in Nashau, NH. There too I will have a ‘booth’ so please come and stop by and see what is new. I am teaching 2 pieces there – one is the Isle of Hope Sampler (Ellis Island)- a charming sampler starting with getting on the steamship in the old world and ending with landing by the Statue of Liberty in the new world! The other class is called Memory Box accessories – I have hand painted a little box “suitcase” and decorated it and made some “Ellis Island” smalls to go in it. I even have a picture of my mom and dad on their boat when they immigrated in the 50′s on the inside.

From there I will fly to Montreal and teach a piece called “La Petite Trousse” to 2 guilds there. This piece is a lovely roll up needle/scissors book that has your initials on the front and some great specialty stitches throughout. On the second day we will go through all the finishing techniques with wool felt. It makes for a great finish.

By then spring should be well underway and I will return to Calgary and start working on the projects for the fall! I am working on a piece for fall at the moment for the Just Cross Stitch Magazine. I always find it a bit of a challenge to work on items out of season. Sue at the retreat in Mystic, CT  of Stitcher’s Hideaway calls it Seasonal Stitching Disorder, she can only stitch what the season is! I laughed when she said that! I always have to design what is ‘not’ the season! Sometimes difficult like now, when the JCS ornament is also due and so you feel like designing spring but you have to do Christmas! I should do the ornament over Christmas…… ha! mmm……..

Well I do hope to see you at one of these events and look forward to attending and sharing my work.

as ever,  jeannette

It was loads of fun in Nashville for the Needlework Market, I always feel it’s like whirlwind of activity and excitment and then it’s the long trip home and what a let down to find when we got home that there was no heat! Ack! It was  minus temps outside, not good. I piled on the blankets and plugged in a heater we had and then Dale figured out that the the thermostat needed batteries, yay! Easy fix thankfully.

I have redireted you here from the Jeannette Douglas Designs facebook page and hopefully this works. I hesitate posting the actual design on the facebook site, I feel a bit better about posting the designs here.

There are 7 new designs – I also had 2 Nashville exclusives so look for them at your local shop! They are Celtic Friends and Sweet Tulip! Wonderful little samplers that celebrate spring in Sweet Tulip and Friends in the other.

I will list what is new for you here.

Three Pines Sampler – a piney woods sampler that has a Northwoods flavour, it uses all handdyed silk, and handdyed fabric and some beads and a JABC button. This has all inclusive thread pack available.

Three Pines Accessories -  a lovely set of smalls as a great addition to the Sampler. It includes a pinecone scissors fob, with beads and charm, a tiny logcabin needlebook, a waxer pocket – The Thread Gatherer kindly made me a lovely little pinecone waxer for the pocket – order spearately, and a ruler/thread palette holder.

Bee Stitches – the new addition to the “Stitches” series. It can be either put in the 6 x 8 Olde Colonial Box built for this series or framed if you like, I found a very fun Honeycomb looking frame that is terrific.

Mini Pineapple Stitches – the mini to the Pineapple Stitches box – a wonderful way to get into specialty stitches as it uses DMC floss with just a few handdyed silks, if you make a mistake, no worries! Great to learn the beyond cross stitch stitches.

Mini Quaker Stitches – I had fun with the Quaker Stitches pattern and expanded the motifs from that pattern last year  and used DMC floss and did the large pincushion one with Simply Wool from The Gentle Art, the wool gives a great feel.

Quaker Pincushions – when designing the above I went a bit overboard and designed this and Vintage Stars, as I had so much fun playing with the motifs. The pincushions were also stitched with Simply Wool from GA and uses WDW Wool Fabric – felt for the bottom half, then I cinched it up with perle cotton and added the impression buttons from JABC which I loved when I first saw them last year and wanted to do something with them.

Vintage Stars – my fun piece playing with the Quaker motifs, I may have to do more, as it was certainly fun.

Enjoy the endevours and with all but Quaker Pincushions there is an embellishment kit to stitch all the pieces!

jeannette

Bee Stitches