Needlepoint is DONE - Pretty Much

There she is!  All stitched up!  Now you may ask, "Hmmm, looks like there's a large blue expanse that is currently unstitched" and you would be correct.  I originally decided to wait until all 8 canvases were done to do the ocean, but I'm rethinking that idea, so we'll see what expert advice I get when I swing by the needlepoint store on Saturday.

To recap, this will be a tuffet (in less pretentious terms, a footstool).  Here's a pic of a completed one in the window the needlepoint store.

  For the record, this needlepoint store is Needlepoint Inc. in Union Square and they are pretty much the best of best.  And I say this having actually tried other needlepoint stores and found them to be not as professional or awesome.

After I finished this guy I pulled out the other seven canvases to choose which to do next...they are all amazing!  I am just as excited to start the next one as I was to start the first one.  I'll be honest, there's one canvas that looks a little drab, so that one will probably be last, but all of the others are OUT OF THIS WORLD AWESOME!

Okay, back to talking about quilting.  My quilt is ready to be sandwiched as soon as I can comandeer my friends' kitchen table.  If I were more motivated I probably could have done it tonight, but let's say sometime in the next week or so.

Maybe this should be it's own post, but I have to say that my eyes have really been opened to the possibilities of the quilting world since I've entered the blog-o-sphere.  In little-ol'-Alaska, my quilts were first place winners, and even once, to my pride and joy, I won Best in Show for my category (admittedly it was a small category since it was quilters under 18).

In October I dragged a friend along to the Pacific International Quilt Festival...and my mind was blown!  What a different class of quilting!  So many ideas I had never even thought of before (crystals on a quilt! Mixed media! Thread painting!)  I was reminded of this today while trying to clean out my iphoto when I scrolled a bit through some of the quilts from that show...truly amazing stuff.  So inspirational!  I would post some pics here but it turns out there's photo etiquette at quilt shows that I didn't know about and on almost none of my pics did I record who made the quilt itself, so I don't want to toss up a bunch of unattributed pics.  But seriously, WOW.

I've had a lot of similar "WOW" moments reading all the blogs out there. Like, people dye their own fabric for quilting? I know, sounds dumb, but I was really surprised.  Similarly, people use all kinds of crazy embellishments like special fabric paints and beads, and bobbin play! I had never heard of using the bobbin for the top of a quilt until I took my Bernina class and was told not to adjust the bobbin tension.  A lot of bloggers are people coming up with their own incredibly creative designs and it's an amazing process to watch.

A few people have begun to ask me when I'm going to try to create something on my own.  Honestly I really really really want to try a landscape quilt, or one based on a photo! But at the same time, I'm not sure when I'll find the time because there are just SO MANY AMAZING PATTERNS OUT THERE!  I just get so excited thinking about it.  I am not someone with UFOs (at least I try not to be), I try to stick with one project at a time from start to finish, but boy do I have a ton of projects and patterns on my to-do list.  This year I joined thequiltshow.com and I just *have* to find time to do the Sedona Star block of the month.  It's amazing!  So one day I think I'll try a design of my own, but who knows when because I am so excited by the plethora of patterns already filling my bookshelf.

Here are a few patterns I own but haven't done yet:

-Quiltmaker's Paper-pieced Rainforest quilt.  I saw this at our local show in Alaska and found it adorable.

-This Stunning Angleplay Quilts book, containing a lot of really awesome projects

-Let Sleeping Cats Lie by Helene Knott  Also have you see her Garden Patch Cats?  Adorable!

Also lots of smaller wallet, purse, tote, pillow, etc patterns.  Someday, eh?

Okay anyways, enough time on blogging for one day I suppose.  Onto the next project!