I got back from TNNA market on Wednesday night late after driving through some serious storms.

The show was great and I sold my fair share of new designs so look out for them soon.

I will finally have a few new stitch guides. Several of the students and clients at Gazebo Plus in New Hope PA did some amazing needlepoint and are offering me their notes to develop stitch guides.

I will have some photos up in the next few days.

As another designer/blogger noted, it takes a good week for our brains to arrive back home.

Today is a lazy Sunday. I am working between needlepointing three canvases, a little knitting and some computer work. Nothing like a nice Sunday nap. But not this week. Too much to do.

Tomorrow is another day and I will be back with more news.

CT35 is a newer canvas that now has a Sharon G Stitch guide. Love the bamboo borders.

D31 is Maria's Door. Maria is owner of Fireside Stitchery in PA. On a trip to Positano Italy, her husband took the photo of this wonderful old deteriorated gate and wall. I am mid way done stitching it now and should have the guide done within a month. The gate is done in Japan Threads from Kreinik. I have the gate half done but it is not shown as stitched in this slightly older photo.

This is 6x6 04, the left side of a triptych. Don't you love the Japan Thread in the Dragonfly.

6x6-04 DONE!

CT46, Toucan Tutu is an 8x10 fun canvas. I loved painting it and can't wait to stitch him, or is it her. Look for a mate, Toucan Can Can coming in a few months.

BH03 Ho! Ho! Ho! BH stands for behinds. I always loved those painted donkeys, horses, pig and whatever you see in all the towns. I will expand the series but for a start, I did 3. I might so Behinds of the month or whatever inspires me. I always said if you can't be different, don't bother. The BH series is 8x10. Good pillow size or a nice framed size

BH 02 Graphic Girls an 8x10 canvas on 18M.

BH01 Flower Girls is also 8x10 on 18M

10x10 01 is the cousin to the pastel flowers below. What an elegant pillow this will be. You can have it in pastels or black.

6x6-07 is a companion in pastels to a great canvas I did in metallic colors on black. It is a 6x6 but also comes in a 4x6, a 10x10 in pastels or in black. I do have a guide on the way for the 4x6 in black which can be adapted to any of the other colors and sizes. Love the background.

Here are some of my new items. Corners is a classic I did back in 1991 and thought it was time to show it again. It is 8x10.

Catching up

Yes, it has been a while. I have been neglecting my blog. Yes, I have been busy. Yes, I have been working hard and yes, life is happening. We are all fine and happy and working hard.

Recently we added a new puppy to our clan. Her name is still evolving. We began with Charity, her name given to her by the breeder. A friend later suggested Carita, which means gift in Italian. My husband Vince decided to call her Janis for reasons I will not mention. Then she began responding to Baby but we went back to Carita.

However, my DH is now calling her Carissa. Better than Janis since we do have a neighbor by that name, different spelling.

The new puppy is a beautiful blue fawn Italian Greyhound who will be around 8 lbs, maybe a little more fully grown. I fetched her from her breeder on the way back home from the Columbus OH TNNA trade show. We Red Roofed it for one night and resumed the 8 hour that turned into almost 10 hours with Road "D"estruction. Welcome to Pennsylvania!

Here she is giving me the High Four in her travel crate ready to leave the Red Roof in West Virginia.




We arrived late on Tuesday the 5th of June. Baby was welcomed by our other Italian Greyhound Phyllis who we will now call the "Boss" and our Lana, the sweet Springer mix.



All is well for now.

Here are some pictures of our first full day home.

In her bed. She likes to drag toys in her bed.


Sleeping with Phyllis and cleaning her ears. Amazing for day one at home.



And the last one of her trying to tell Lana it is time to wake up.


Nothing sweeter than a new puppy. She is now a little over 4 months old.

Sharon G Needlepoint

Sharon G Needlepoint

I am home from a three week teaching marathon. The next time I need to touch a suitcase will be the early part of January. Then it will remain unpacked till summer.

Classes were in Ridgewood Needlepoint in NJ, Fireside Stitchery in PA and at Needlenook of LaJolla.

It was a fun time and last night I slept for 9 hours which is double the time I normally sleep in two days. I feel good and am ready to play catch up here at the office and studio. Both are in the same room . But it sounds good.

I have some good pictures to post of the finished items and they will also be on my web site soon along with my teaching schedule for next year.

Maybe even a cyber class!

And they will come with stitch guides. I was told by students they are the best stitch guides they have seen. It was a lot of work and years of experience in teaching to come up with a good user friendly format.

Later...

SharonG

Finished

A while back I blogged about doing a billion French Knots on Tuscan Cove.

I am all done complaining. As many of you know, French Knots rank right up there with Turkey work as my least favorite stitches. But some times you have to do what you have to do, like it or knot!

I do like the result. When you embellish a canvas and also try to do a realistic interpretation, you limit yourself to a certain few stitches. French knots did the trick with the trees. I called them sloppy French knots since I did nothing consistent. I used anywhere from 2 to 4 strands of silk at one time, blended colors, did up to 6 wraps and came up with good looking trees and flowers.

Maybe a future cyber class? The threads were a pleasure to work with. Except for the roof tops and the border and one color of Splendor silk, the entire canvas was done with Gloriana silks.

I will be showing you a few more canvases I finished over the summer. Many of which I will be teaching in the coming months at several shops. My schedule will be posted on my web site.

www.sharong.com

Congratulations to Dale Miller

Dale Miller won a ribbon for her entry of Catwalk at the recent ANG Seminar in Tucson AZ.

I am so proud of Dale and also Brenda Hart, who had a hand in selecting the stitches for the winning entry.

Here it is naked. I will post a picture of the finished needlepoint as soon as my camera can meet up with Dale's Masterpiece.

Again, thank you to Dale for spending her time needlepointing one of my designs.

Stay tuned for a photo of the finished masterpiece.

End of Artist Block in the Nick of Time

Here is what I have been doing for the past few days. I happened to have a bad case of Artist Block. Never happened before. Must have been the gardening I had to endure and the sun on my head!

But I managed to create 6 new exciting designs.



I finally did a Dog Walk to complement the Cat Walk I did a few months ago. I had to include sight hounds. She is walking a greyhound. You can see the elegant Whippet looking back and to the right is my Phyllis, the Italian Greyhound.


Next one is Fish Out of Water. Haven't we all felt that way? This one was fun and the fish were a final thought. I painted some squiggels but did not like them. Then I needed to cover them up. Here comes the black paint. But you could see the metallic shine through the paint so I added some metallic over the black. Then it looked odd. Not that I mind odd. Odd is interesting to me.

Then I got the idea. Paint fish. So I did and now we have Fish out of Water.

I want to stitch this one myself. Bead the fish!


Then I moved over to abstracts. I love to paint them and love to needlepoint them. You really do not have to pay attention to realism, only have fun.

Expresso was fun to paint but I did have a hard time trying to figure out what it represented. I saw a highway, a fence, made the black spot into a building, the arch into a tunnel and the round circle into a light source. I went to make a coffee and tada! Expresso.



The next one is Energy. It almost looks a bit Asian to me only because of the ribbons of energy coming out of the knot at the center bottom.



And the last of the abstracts is called Moon Shine. Not because I drink the stuff, but because I see the moon shining, the wave of turquoise water, the flaming trees or maybe fire coming out of the green grassy earth and the abstract bird. Almost called it Elements.


When I paint, I quite often do not have a plan. My work simply happens. And the 3 abstracts happened.


Now it is back to where I would love to spend a month. In Italy relaxing in a villa overlooking the water. Well, I can dream. And needlepoint my dream.




Now I can concentrate on my packing and try to figure out which black skirts to pack. And which comfortable shoes to pack. Being on your feet on a concrete floor in 3 inch heels is a thing of the past. I have brains now and wear comfy shoes. But if the urge happens, I have nice 2 inch heels which tend to go into the tote by noon.

Later.

S

Dirt and French Knots, an Out of Character Sunday.

Today I did something completely out of character.

Yard Work.

I am not fond of putting my hands, gloved or not, into dirt which is decayed stuff laced with earth worms. Yes, I love flowers and garden veggies. But, I also love it more when I do not have to mingle with the soil and face earthworms and bugs up close and personal.

This is not a genetic thing. My whole family likes to toss around garden dirt. I have a sister, Geri, who as a child would take earthworms to bed with her, in a container of course. She is still an outdoorsy one and loves camping. Geri is taking her Girl Scouts to Wildwood New Jersey this month to camp on the beach with a few thousand other scouts, sleeping in tents while the saner adults occupy hotel rooms.

Vince's family is heavy duty into gardening. But me, the desire passed me by. More proof I was switched at birth. And now that my Vince is not able to do the heavy duty stuff, I am the delegated digger. I guess it is not all that bad though. I love to complain and whine and make a big deal out of things and today I had a great opportunity to feed my desire. I should have been nominated for an Oscar. Even the neighbors came to watch me fling a shovel trying to dig up the hydrangea. It took me and two men to lift it once the digging around the thing was done.

It had to be moved.

It is further complicated by where I live. Mountaintop is famous for its lack of soil. You dig down a half a foot and hit rock. No matter where, you hit rock. Or water.

I moved dirt, planted strawberries someone gave us before they dried up into unrecognizable mulch, cleared an area of compost and ashes, dug out and moved 2 huge hydrangea bushes, moved more dirt, got rid of countless dandelions, dealt with the sod that was dug up from the areas where things were moved, vowed to get a decent shovel and a wheel barrow that you can push without getting your feet banged up by the legs.

Then it was time to make dinner. Poor Vince was exhausted telling me what to do and not too thrilled he could not do it. Dinner was a simple grilled dinner. The best part was the potatoes. I partially bake a few spuds, run them under cold water, and peel them.

They I take a large piece of foil. Butter up the bottom, layer the potatoes with thin slices of Vidalia onions, sprinkle with Morton's Hot Salt and throw in some butter. Then I wrap it all up into a pretty little aluminum foil package and toss it on the grill. Good stuff. Not really diet food but good. I usually make enough for leftovers for a diner the next day with sunny side eggs. The best darn home fries you ever had. We like to eat breakfast food for dinner once in a while.

So I sat watching the grill with feet up, (Vince does not cook) enjoying a few minutes to read a fun book, George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops, and enjoy a great cup of tea. Jerry Garcia Magic Herb tea. I love tea and this is a great tea. And I enjoy some odd humor once in a while. Carlin is a favorite of mine. Picked up this book in an airport to read on the plane but fell asleep instead. I sleep like a baby on a plane. Or should I say how some people wished a baby slept on a plane. Back to the tea. It is really good tea. I collect tea like some people collect wine. This company has some wonderful tea. You must try the Ginger Peach.

http://www.republicoftea.com/templates/directory.asp?navID=144

In between the gardening, I was doing French knots on a white poodle. Not a real poodle as a friend assumed, but on one of my canvases, MB39. You can see him here.

http://www.sharong.com/catalog/mb/mb4.html

Over time, I am getting to like French Knots. However, a poodle in French knots will look a look a lot better than a poodle in Scotch stitch! So I grabbed some of my Gloriana overdyed silk stash and went ahead with the knots. I still have his butt to finish and one leg, then the beady eye and nose and his leash and collar then the background and border. I have no clue what I will do for the background yet. Need to get done with the knots so I can get back to some fun stuff. He is only a 2x3 canvas. I like the little 2x3's. You can finish one fast. I am having this one framed with a larger than normal mat.

I am getting into the mood to design my new line for the TNNA Summer trade show. I always love the pressure to come up with something different in a two week period rather than fretting about it for 5 months. I am thinking about 4x6 postcards of different landscapes. Maybe a few modern things. I enjoy doing those since I am not held into the bounds of realism. Who knows what else? My designs seem to simply happen.

I will post a photo of the poodle in a few days. I also want to post a photo of my Tuscan Cove which is almost done and say a few words about that canvas. I had to take a break on CT10, Tuscan Cove. Yes, the French knots caused me to set that one aside for a few weeks.

In the past few weeks of my cleaning campaign, I finally dug out a path in my Studio.

When they first hit the scene, I was into the Fly Lady routine. That was several years ago. I flunked Fly Lady 101.

http://www.flylady.net/index.asp

So I rejoined and am having decluttering my home. I have been doing the "27 Fling Boogie" at least once a day.

Back to the French Knots, after I water the strawberries.