Wedding Gift Finish

Our member Denise M. made this beautiful wedding gift. Denise found this Joan Elliot chart as a freebie in a package of Charles Craft "Stardust" fabric. But it's not simply a lovely framed piece:

It's a box! Denise went to a frame shop in Montclair, California called "The Artisans" and had a custom box made. We were all quite impressed by the box AND the extra item in the box.

That is a whitework bag for the wedding jewelry. Denise joined the whitework group that is affiliated with the Orange County EGA chapter and has been working on the bag for some time. The design is "Ukrainian Legacy" by June and Gail Adams. What a wonderful gift. Thank you, Denise, for sharing this with us.

 Since we're talking gifts, when Baldy View helped host the Pacific Southwest Region meeting in April we gave each attendee what we call an "Ort Port." A goo-glee-eyed frog in a pocket was put on the front of a felt "book." Inside is a section of flannel. Your little bits of leftover thread or "orts" stick to the flannel. The felt helps it stay on your sofa arm without slipping.

Here it is in action on a plane. It fits into a 4" x 6" photo box along with a pair of scissors and a small project and goes easily into your purse. When it's time to clean up it's easy to close your Ort Port with your loose threads stuck to the flannel and slip it back into your purse.

Thank you to Helen I. and Georgette B. for making up all those Ort Ports.

July Meeting

Our regular meeting was held on June 18 and of course we had a lot of fun. We also had a new member join and two visitors! This month we began working on our basket band for the Garden of Delights in a Basket.

 Here is our wonderful Vice President of Programs, Georgette B., introducing the project. Helen I. has several of these baskets in her stash and is making them available for our members. The basket idea was to let our members try various techniques on small inexpensive projects so our band will also include several techniques. This month is a Bargello or Florentine stitch project.

 Georgette stitched up the first part as a model. Check out the instructions! As she is designing or adapting these projects for us, Georgette usually has to do each one twice - once to figure out how to make it work and once more to figure out how to write the instructions.

 She showed us her "waste cloth" for the project that she used to get the correct size. She talked about Florentine stitch and how with a change in the "step" the design can be altered.

 Georgette also brought in some materials from the Florentine study box available from Pacific Southwest Region. These are truly awesome resources for several techniques made up over the years and available to our local chapters. Go to http://psrega.org/study_boxes.htm for more information.

 And here are a few more items that we've made for our Garden! This spool pincushion was the chapter's gift to our members at the December 2011 meeting. A wool felt pincushion sits on a spool that we decorated with a simple cross stitch design.The cross stitch was attached just by using a tiny strip of iron-on adhesive. Very clever, Georgette!  The tassel was our chapter gift for December 2010.

Here is another item in our basket. Georgette adapted a design for a needle roll. Every item in our basket was to be not only a different technique but able to be finished without using a sewing machine. The top roll was stitched by our member Darlene V. and the bottom one stitched by Georgette. The front of each looks similar to the other. How about the backs?






This piece was finished by whip-stitching two rows of backstitching together. Darlene embellished her seam by adding more stitching and buttons. Georgette personalized her roll before she finished it.

From adding buttons and beads to changing out colors, Darlene has personalized a number of projects. See her spool pincushion on the back right? There is her tassel with extra beads on top. She also added red to her blackwork mint tin both in the stitching and on the trim. We look forward to seeing what new ideas Darlene comes up with for each project.



If you'd like to join us, please come to our next meeting to be held at 7:00 Wednesday August 15 at the US Bank building, 333 N. Euclid Avenue, Ontario, CA  91762.

May Meeting

Something happened and the May meeting report disappeared, so I'm republishing it here.

For the last few months, we've been working on a series of projects our program chairman Georgette B. is calling a "Garden of Delights in a Basket." Georgette has been coming up with little needlework tool projects that we can put into a basket by our workspace. In May we began a Margaret Bendig-designed project called "Lacy Canvas Scissors Case." This is a Petite Project from EGA. We are stitching this on grey canvas with white threads. June's program will be about finishing this. The original design is finished into a closed scissor pocket but Georgette is giving us the option of lengthening the design and making a case that opens flat.

Come out and join us for our next meeting on June 20. We meet in the Community Room of the USBank building at Euclid and "D" Streets in Ontario, California. The doors open about 6:30 PM and the meeting starts at 7:00. Park behind the bank, walk to the back door, and you'll see our meeting room on the right. Everyone is welcome.

Also we'd love every stitcher around to join us at our monthly stitch-in on Wednesday, May 23 from 10 AM to 2 PM at Gingers Quilt Shop in Upland. The shop is located at 1120 Dewey Way # B, Upland, CA  91786, phone number 909-920-3099. To get there, get off the 10 freeway at Mountain Avenue in Upland, go north (toward the mountains), turn left at Foothill.  From the 210 freeway, get off at Mountain, turn south (away from the mountains)and turn right at Foothill. Once you're on Foothill, drive about 1 1/2 miles to the signal at Dewey. Turn right and there's the shop! Thank you, Ginger, for letting us meet there. We meet every 4th Wednesday through the year so mark your calendars. No, you don't have to be a member of our chapter or of any guild for this open stitch time, just bring your project and have some fun with other people who share your love of needlework.

The Second Item in our Garden

For our Garden of Delights in a Basket, Georgette B. designed a blackwork mint tin piece. Our kit included harganger fabric and black and gold floss. She showed us how to mount it to the lid and we finished it off with two kinds of black ribbon. It was a fast way to try out blackwork.

June Meeting

 We started the "Lacy Canvas Scissor Case" by Margaret Bendig in May. We have a canvas project for our Garden of Delights in a Basket! Georgette B. and Helen I., our program chairman and president respectively, supplied us with platinum canvas and white pearl cotton for the project. Here is Lydia's work all stitched up. We have one side,

 and we have the other. The stitching was fun and easy to do. We had the option of adding an extra set of slanted satin in the middle to make the piece a little deeper.

Here is the whole piece. Lydia opted to stitch it as charted.

And here are the finished pieces! The two on the left were stitched by Georgette and Helen. They added beads and stitched it on green canvas.

The blue piece is by Denise M. She stitched it on blue canvas.

Margaret originally designed the piece to be a closed sleeve to slip your scissors in and fasten them in place with a ribbon. By adding those extra rows, it was easier to adapt the piece into a needle book.

The First Item in our Garden

Here is the first item we made for our Garden of Delights in a Basket:

It's a needle book designed by Linda Driskell. Our program chairman Georgette B. was able to contact Linda and she kindly allowed us to copy and teach her design to our chapter members. Georgette's goal was to allow each Baldy View member to try a small sample of a new technique and to finish it into a usable item without a sewing machine. She taught the stitching over one meeting and the finishing over another. This project featured a harganger center and mock bullion flowers.

Look at all Georgette's pins and needles! Georgette demonstrated how to get an even cut on felt by using freezer paper.

We could make an optional pocket in the back for our gauge that had been a gift from our chapter to each member. Georgette had to make two needle books to work out the techniques and she put her monogram on the back of one. She pulled that design from the Dover book "Charted Monograms for Needlework and Cross Stitch." If I get a chance, I'll post a photo of that too.



Thank you, Linda, for allowing us the use of your design.

May's Stitch-In

Today several members came to Ginger's Quilt Shop to stitch together. We had a lot of fun! Here are a few of the projects our friends are working on:

 

 This is a Christmas Stocking cuff that Georgette B. is stitching up for her grandson. The body of the stocking also will be stitched. Georgette is really enjoying this project so far. This is using a lot of metallic threads. If she finds the name of the designer we will post it.

 Darlene V. is stitching this up from a project she found in the magazine "Handmade." It's called Birch Wood designed by Leutenegger. Darlene has changed out the threads to an overdye for a subtle change that really works well for bark.

This next is a bit of before and after of the same piece. Called "Bargello Arrows" by Terry Dryden, both Pamela R. and Denise M. have taken on this project. The designer encouraged each stitcher to use his or her own color pallet. At April's stitch-in, Denise helped Pam choose a pallet of mostly blue and gold. The little doll is a frameweight borrowed from Darlene V.

Here is Denise's finished Bargello Arrows. It's beautiful!

"Sampler Scissors Roll" designed by Margaret Bendig was stitched by Denise too. This will be finished into a scissor pocket with a flap. The colors are lovely.





  Here is another design from Margaret Bendig called "Long May it Wave" being stitched by Helen I. The picture doesn't really show the lovely threads used in the project. Neon Rays and Sparkle Rays along with matte threads make this glow.



Susie S., Ruth P., and Mary Lee M. were also there but I missed getting photos, so I'll have to make sure I catch them next time. Again, our stitch-in time is open to any one who'd like to join us. We will meet at Gingers Quilt Shop in Upland on June 27 from 10 AM to 2 PM. The time is really flexible so getting there later or staying later is fine. We hope to see you there.