This and That

Last week I was visiting two groups in Oregon and had a wonderful time.   I returned home on Monday but it always surprises me how long it takes me to re-group.  All the "little things" are done but there are several projects now happening all at the same time.  Know the feeling?  I have begun a partial re-organization of my teaching designs and thread storage boxes. I got inspired by the new Cloth-Paper-Scissors Studios  which came out on April 1st.  It has lots of great ideas for organizing all sorts of mixed media, fabric and threads.  I decided to do this job at the same time as I am taking inventory of all my thread supplies for the recently retired design kits.  As you probably know from your own organizing experiences , it means things get a little messier before they get neater. 

• Anyway, when the inventory for each design is completed, I will be adding some partial thread kits to the website.  These partial kits will be particularly helpful for stitching Seasons as it calls for several Vikki Clayton perles which are not available except in very large dye hanks.  I will have those colors packaged in small 15 yard skeins. 
• Also to be added to the website (hopefully in a week or so) are a few hard-to-locate stitching/organizing supplies such as Tacky Bobs and Twitchetts.  I use these myself and can't seem to find them on a regular basis.  
• Some more new Soy Luster Shadow colors were added last week and some will be added in about two weeks. 
• The Dahlia Instruction Book and canvas is in the works but it looks like it will not be available until May 15th at the earliest.
• Something else coming this fall is a small assortment of Stef Francis threads.  I have begun using several in my new designs and will be teaching two of them at the ANG Seminar in Indian Wells in September.  At this point only a very few are available in this country so we need to change that. 

Now I just need to find time to begin working on the flower pins I have in mind for the website.  Some combination of felt, needlefelting, stitching and beading.  The supplies have been building up for 6 or more months.....another organizing project??  

Also yet to be created.....but again.....lots of supplies have been collected.....are some large stitch magnets which will be able to hold a metal laying tool. 

Both of the above projects involve some new media and/or techniques for me. So I feel like I need to set aside a reasonable block of time to experiment.  Maybe that's the problem.  When is a "reasonable block of time" every really available? What is a reasonable block of time?  Two hours or two days?    

And last week, while I was gone, my husband cleaned out and reorganized the canvas supplies.  I think he decided if he was going to start helping cut and tape canvases for kits he needed the area to be much neater than previously.  He cut off the tops of boxes to varying lengths (these are the ones rolls of canvas come in) and then taped groups of six of together.  They sit up nicely and hold lots of different size rolls in a very small footprint.

I haven't been very good at documenting changes or progress but I have been continuing to stitch Flower Diamonds and will post an update photo with my next blog entry. 

I almost forgot!  The website has been updated with three new teaching designs.  All of them are available for workshops after the ANG Seminar 2009.  They are Safari, Flower Diamonds and Wild Roses Oval Box.