Creativ Festival Fall 2015 – Day 2

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Heather

Today was the first full day of the Creativ Festival. Classes began at 9am and went all the way until 8pm. It takes a lot more energy than you would think to stitch, bead, sew, and craft all day. But this early into the festival we all mostly still have a lot of energy. 😉 Add to that game 5 in the Blue Jays/Rangers series, and it was an exciting day. (The baseball stadium is literally next door to the convention centre, and I can see it out my hotel room window. Also: yay!!!!!! Let’s go, Blue Jays!)

Geisha Clutch, designed by Edith Kauffeldt

Geisha Clutch, designed by Edith Kauffeldt

My first class of the day was Geisha Clutch with Edith Kauffeldt of Sew Have Fun. The project was a lovely little clutch/wallet that worked up much more quickly than I expected. I left out the id pocket because I didn’t want to stitch on vinyl with the terrible sewing machines we had, and I also don’t really like id pockets. I’m still super pleased with the final result, and I can see myself making more of these, perhaps with a few minor variations.

Geisha Clutch, designed by Edith Kauffeldt (interior)

Geisha Clutch, designed by Edith Kauffeldt (interior)

Edith taught us a little tip for adding zippers to items where the zipper could be visible on the side. She wraps the end of the zipper, like you do when the ends are left loose, and then sews it into the side seam as per usual. It makes for a much nicer look on the side of bag. That tip was worth the price of the class. 😉

Icy Ornament, designed by Carol Storie of Heartfelt Designs

Icy Ornament, designed by Carol Storie of Heartfelt Designs

My evening class was Icy Ornament with Carol Storie of Heartfelt Designs. It has a centre snowflake worked in #8 braid, surrounded by a bargello border worked in DMC Color Variations #8 perle cotton. The fabric is a super sparkly congress cloth. The whole piece is just lovely, and it will shine so nicely on my Christmas tree. It might even end up there is year since I managed to finish my piece in class.

Speaking of finishing things, I’m 3 for 3. I had a bit free time this afternoon, so I finished up yesterday’s Precious Jewel piece. Check out my Twitter feed for pictures.

Tomorrow is yet another full day: broomstick crochet in the morning, a needlecase in the afternoon, and a biscornu in the evening.

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Creativ Festival Fall 2015 – Precious Jewel

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Heather

The Creativ Festival is off to a wonderful start! Everything from getting to check into our room early all the way to totally understanding all techniques in my class. Yay! (Be prepared for mediocre cell phone pictures taken in bad hotel room light. Sorry.)

Swarovski stars

Swarovski stars

This year’s registration gifts are… interesting. Swarovski has provided some pretty good gifts over the years, but this year is not one of the highlights. We received two medium-sized purplish stars and one larger yellow star, and they are (sadly) from the most plastic-y line. Still, they are pretty.

Creativ Festival Gift

Creativ Festival Gift

The other gift was two shawl kits, both containing two balls of Universal Yarns Classic Colours Big Time. Since my mom isn’t a knitter, I now have four kits. 😉 Unfortunately, the yarn is 30% wool, so I may not be able to use it.

Precious Jewel, designed by Kathryn Drummond (WIP)

Precious Jewel, designed by Kathryn Drummond (WIP)

My only class of the day was Precious Jewel with Kathryn Drummond of Gingerbread Girl Designs. It uses a technique called punto antico embroidery, which is functionally similar to hardanger, but originates in Italy.

Kathryn was a great instructor. She walked us through all the techniques very clearly, provided great printed instructions, and a well organized kit. She also took time throughout the class to walk through the ornament finishing technique by finishing a similar ornament from start to finish through the six-hour class. (This is something I wish other instructors would do.)

Tomorrow is another long day. I have another six hour class, this time I will be sewing a clutch. And I finish out the day with Carol Storie and another ornament. I can’t wait! If you want to see pictures of my classes throughout the day be sure to check out my Twitter feed.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Heather

Gobble, gobble, Canadian friends! May your turkey be moist, your stuffing fluffy, and your life full of all manner of things to be thankful for.

Treasury of Greeting Card Designs - 5

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Hardanger Decision

Posted on October 11, 2015 by Heather

Thank you to everyone who commented and emailed me about the proper way to do kloster blocks. I’m sure no one is surprised that there wasn’t universal agreement. That is why I love the internet. 😉 So, I decided to look up Meg Shinall’s hardanger course in some old issues of The Gift of Stitching. In the April 2010 issue (pg. 28), she shows her klosters being done by coming up at the far side and down where you cut. So, that’s what I did.

Trick or Treat, designed by Victoria Sampler -- close-up of basic hemstitching band

Trick or Treat, designed by Victoria Sampler — close-up of basic hemstitching band

I think the little basic hemstitching band turned out quite nice. I’ve done a little bit of hardanger in the past, but I am always pleasantly surprised by how easy it really is, and by how much of an impact a few cut threads can make.

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Fall Creativ Festival 2015

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Heather

It is that time of year again: Creativ Festival time! October is such a great month because the weather final cools down; there is Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing to eat; the Creativ Festival happens; and then Halloween rounds it all out. Scatter in a few family birthdays, and that makes October pretty wonderful.

CreativFestival_2014Logo

I’ll be heading downtown for the Creativ Festival next week, where I will be taking sewing, crochet and needlework classes. Sadly, Jennifer Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams  won’t be there again this year (she is always a highlight of the festival for me), but I’ve still managed to book myself five very full days of classes. I’ll be sharing pictures and progress both here and through Twitter. Unfortunately, you will have to put up with some bad pictures taken with my phone. I hope you will forgive me. 😉

Please join me next week for owls, biscornus, broomstick lace and more. And if you’d like to follow along on Twitter, you can find my feed right here.

2 Comments | Posted in Crafts, The Outside World | Tagged

Working on a Treat

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Heather

Hello again, stitchy friends! Unfortunately, I’ve had a few blog issues behind the scenes, which prevented me from posting properly for the past few days. Things are fixed again, and hopefully moving towards a small site renovation sometime this winter. Yay!

Of course I’ve been filling up my time with lots of stitching. The other day I dug out a project I kitted up last year: Victoria Sampler’s Trick or Treat. It is working up very quickly.

Trick or Treat, designed by Victoria Sampler (WIP)

Trick or Treat, designed by Victoria Sampler (WIP)

I’m stitching it on some sort of 24ct stitch band. (Why don’t I take better notes?!), and using the tread pack which is full of all kinds of lovely silks.

Oh noes! Which way do I do these satin stitches?!

Oh noes! Which way do I do these satin stitches?!

I have run into a small snag, though. Which way do you do satin stitches when you are going to cut for hardanger? Do you come up on the far side and down where you cut, or up where you cut and down on the far side? I can’t remember, and my (admittedly very cursory) Googling hasn’t provided me with an answer. Can someone let me know so I can move on? 😉

Is anyone else stitching for Halloween? Let me know (and leave a link to a blog post about it, if you have one).

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Autumn Colouring Giveaway – Winner!

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Heather

Thank you very much to all of you who entered into my Autumn Colouring Giveaway.

colourinbookgiveaway2I really enjoyed reading about all the things enjoy you colouring and about what you used to colour when you were little. Both Lynda and Catherine mentioned colouring in paper dolls, which brought back all kinds of great memories! I used to do the same with my grandmother and had forgotten all about it.

And now it is time to announce the winner. Thanks to the help of the Random Number Generator, the winner is:

Linda of Stitchin with My Furbabies

Again, thank you so much for entering my giveaway. If you didn’t win, don’t worry. I promise there will be more giveaways in the future!

 

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