Corinithian Column and Beaded baskets

I love starting projects and working on them. The process of stitching is so much fun and gives me hours of pleasure, but there is something really satisfying about finishing them. I have been working on Corinthian Columns by Cynthia Jackson for a long time. When life is running smoothly, I like to work on it an hour a day. Any longer and the back tends to hurt because I need to work on it on a slate frame that rests on a flat floor stand like the one for Japanese embroidery. I have now finished stitching all of the parts of  Corinthian Column and need to cut out and attach the tops of the leaves that are dimensional.
I will post those later but here are some photos of the gold work.

I am still in the planning stages of the Cabinet of Curiosities, but am going to work on more of the smalls that are part of the learning process. One of the fun things that was a project for a very few of the girls that did the original boxes was a beaded basket. The real beaded baskets are just amazing and the colors are still so bright because the beads don't sun fade like the embroidery threads. Tricia Nguyen has created some kits to replicate the original tiny sample baskets and had a contest for those who wished to try their hand at embellishing a beaded  basket. You can see the winners on her blog.- http://thistle-threads.blogspot.com/

I won a first prize for the 17th Century Multimedia basket. It was a challenge but fun to do. I usually am not a beader but stringing beads on thread and wire is not like doing any of the regular beading stitches. I have a small collection of tiny antique beads  but didn't end up using them for my basket.
Here are some of the flowers that I did for the basket.

The winner is Rachael Kinnison. Her basket  is to "die for". She is going to post her work on her blog at http://ladysrepositorymuseum.blogspot.com     It will be fun  not only to see the finished basket but how it grew. Just look for the 17th century beaded basket link along the side of her blog.

web sites and embroidery

After all the fuss with my web site disappearing it came back so now I have 4 web addresses. Of course it could be argued that all of my addresses are webb addresses, but since I was not a Webb growing up, I missed all of the humor that goes with a name that lends its self to that. You know... web feet, spider, web hands and of the other stuff.  I did get all of the funny and not too original humor that went with Standing so it was not that I was left out.
Anyway I now have:
carolynstandingwebb.com
carolynstandingwebb.net
carolinahousedesigns.com
carolinahousedesigns.net

One day I will have to find out how to combine them with the same provider but that is a frustration for another day.

On to things that are much more fun.

I dug out an embroidery that I had not worked on for years. Probably at least 15 'cause I found a slip from 1996 in the bag. I loved it when I first saw it and still like it after all of these years. The only part that I had finished was the head of the bear. Now there is a bear and a wolf plus a bit more. Sometimes it helps to rest the brain and stitch on something that doesn't require lots of special stitches.

Of course none of us can have just one project going so I have also been stitching on the gold work and making some real progress. It is fun to get this far on an embroidery. You can see how much you have finished and want to work faster so that you can enjoy the beautiful design and stitches.

NEW WEB SITE !!!! and pearl shells

It's done.... I switched my web information to carolynstandingwebb.net or carolinahousedesigns.net. I had been using the old names for more than 10 years.
Building the site took longer than I wanted but not as long as I thought it might, but it is now working. The new hosting company was very nice and got things going in just a few minutes. The company who took over my old names wanted more than $536 to give them back to me. The old web name is on so many patterns but onward and forward.
It took me most of the day to set up the new site but now I can at least work on it and make changes as I need to. The language of the last site was so hard to use that I needed help to even add a class to it.
I won't be updating it very often but will add things from time to time.

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Now on to fun things. One of my darling students, Linda Smith,  not only sent a photo of her finished piece but also sent me some pearl shells. In class we were talking about pearls and pearl buttons and discussed how American shells were used for both of them. The button blanks were cut from the shells and then polished and drilled. Japanese cultured pearls start with beads cut from the shells. I had known about them but had never seen the shells and now I have three of them to add to my collection of antique sewing tools.

 
 

Here are the shells with some of the buttons that would have been made from them.

See how the inside of the shell glows.

Here is some lace that I crocheted using the pearl buttons. It really makes an interesting edging.

 I used the edging on this pin cushion and added a fun initial from an antique French alphabet in the center.

web site woes and teaching dates and scissors....

My web site has decided to take a holiday. Not that I wanted it to but it is gone until I can figure out what went wrong. I paid my fees for the carolynstanding.com and carolinahousedesigns.com addresses but now I am informed that they are up for sale. NOT NICE !!!!   Why does it always do this on a week that I am out of town and/or on the weekend. Or in this case it just combined both of them. I am not quite sure why non-functioning machines (and that also includes computers and related programs) remind me of cranky two year olds but they do. Every time they decide to act up it is like working with a tired and very uncooperative little person. There is not much you can do about it but find a way to work around it. Oh well, until I get this fixed, know that I am still here and will be back on the web as soon as I can.

On to better topics. I have just returned from teaching at a seminar in Louisville Kentucky. It was the national seminar for the Embroiderers' Guild of America. Partly by accident and partly on purpose I am slowing down the traveling and teaching for a while. The students have been wonderful and I have loved meeting all of them but after about 20 years of being on the road, it is time for a bit of a break. I am not quitting, the teacher for hire sign is still out.  I still have several classes scheduled but right now I need to recharge the batteries and stop the feeling that I am running in an endless circle.

It is time to do a few of the things that I want to do with out a deadline attached.
I have been working on Faith, Hope and Charity again. This is certainly a project with out a deadline. During the house construction I have worked on it a lot. Somehow it seems soothing to stitch tiny even crosses when I was living in chaos. Here is a photo of how it is growing.

The house I nearing completion... here is a corner of the expanded family room. There are still boxes to unpack and plies of "stuff" to decide where it should go but the walls are painted and the carpet is in place.

I have been collecting sewing tools for years and one of the things that I have always wanted was a special pair of scissors. Now those of you who have seen my collection, are in chorus saying "another pair of scissors". These are Mother of Pearl handled scissors from the Palais Royal in France. They were made in the mid 1800 and are usually part of a special sewing box. I have not been willing to part with enough money to get the whole box but have several pieces of a 'set'. Well, I found a pair of scissors for sale and now they are mine. One day the plan is to have a box made and create my own set of these wonderful tools.

Corinithian Column

I have been working on this piece of English gold-work for a while and am pleased with how it is looking. It is hard to work more than an hour at a time because of the fine detail.  I will love the finished piece but am enjoying the process of stitching.

I also have a new pattern  that is ready to send out. It was fun to do and I hope that others will enjoy it too. It is called Spot On! because it is a group of spot motifs. I love the crisp look that double running gives to a design. The colors are shades of green on an antique ivory linen. It is so hard to get a really good photo. The colors are always a bit off, especially the background.

The house is being worked on every day. The progress seems slow but there is so much to do. The man who is doing the kitchen cabinets brought a sample door for us to look at and it is beautiful. First will come the floor and then the cabinets. Most of the old floor is torn out and some of the cabinets all of them will need to be gone by Monday so they can start on the floor.

Part two of many to come

I thought that I would give you an update of both the house and my stitching. The house is torn up and I have put many things in boxes. This is the time when you realize just how much "stuff' you really have - and I am not talking about the important "stuff" like my stash from embroidery. These are the fun things that you pick up one by one and bring home from traveling or just the pretty things that you like. Of course they are things that mostly you don't want to get rid of but they sure do take up the room in boxes for storage right now.

I have been working on Faith, Hope and Charity again. It is my project between the other pieces that I work on. When I finish another design, I work on it for a bit and then go back to one of my new designs.  Here is a new section. I have added about 5000 stitches in this section to fill out the page on the chart. It was background so not too exciting but necessary. There are 1024 cross stitches per inch and the quarter shows the scale of the work.


Here are more pictures of the house.

The backyard has a hole for the footings of the new addition.

The kitchen has the plumbing re-routed so now the ceiling can be put back up.

The floor is rather interesting.... we found a layer of particle board under the layer on the kitchen floor that we had put there when we put down vinyl tile years ago.   So there are 4 layers on the floor right now. Tile, particle board, particle board and plywood. All of it except for the plywood has to come up so that we can have hardwood put down.

As so it begins...........

We have been wanting to remodel our kitchen for years plus after 30+ years the bathrooms needed some updating, plus a larger family room would be wonderful when everyone gets together.
So how did we get from a "simple"  kitchen update to tearing up the whole main floor of the house. Well... there is this little thing called Pintrest that got me thinking about some changes and then a friend of ours told us what her addition cost and we thought - "we can do that".
So we met with the contractor and got a loan to add a 16 by 12 foot addition to the family room on the main floor and in the basement. Because our lot slopes, our basement is ground level on the sides and back so it has big windows and a door to walk out into the yard.
But like the domino effect, first we (meaning long suffering husband) had to tear off the back deck, since that was in the way of the addition.
He was supposed to start construction on May 13th but the city fathers had other ideas about the drawings, engineering and permits so here it is June 8th and nothing yet except demolition.
The deck was the first thing to go.

The twins are checking out the progress

Here is the back of the house minus the deck.


Then our friend suggested, "as long as you are tearing up the family room, why don't you do the kitchen?" So, after thinking about it - not sure if we thought long enough. We decided to redo the floor, cabinets, counter top and sink. And while we were at it, we thought that it would see if we could raise the ceiling. We had one of those ceilings from the 70's that had recessed lighting in the center. If we could take out the walls above the cabinets then we would be able to get taller cabinets. More storage - I liked the thought so we cut holes in the walls, took a look and the plumber said that he could relocate the pipes that hang down below the beams in the ceiling.  So more demolition and now we have an industrial ceiling look with exposed pipes.

 

 

 

 

Next domino to fall was the fireplace. I have never liked the color of the brick and we have been discussing a gas fireplace for years. The metal box for the fireplace made it look good but more heat went up the flue than the fire could produce. Plus as long as the basement family room ceiling was going to be taken out so that it would match the new addition, it would be the perfect time to run the gas pipe to the fireplace. Smash, cut and tear-out begins again and now there is a hole where the fireplace was.

We have bought new dishwasher in place of the old one that likes to leave a pool of water in the bottom. A microwave that goes over the stove will free up more cabinet space and will be a welcome addition.

I still am getting some stitching done. Here is a bit of the newest design.
Just waiting for the frame and it is finished.