Who Ordered The SNOW???

Snow on April 6th? Who ordered this stuff? It sure was not me!!! I enjoyed the snow all winter long and now I'm done with it....but I guess it is not done with us here in OH. I did not let the snow get in the way of my plans to visit with Starr Burgess and work on improving my punchneedle embroidery.

I had a great afternoon....did I say GREAT.....ok.....you got it then. I had been looking forward to visiting and seeing more of her work so I was so grateful that my husband was able and willing to take the boys for the afternoon. I have posted only a few of the pictures I took because of the upload time on blogger. I will upload more again soon. These are some samples of her work:



This sits on Starr's sewing table. How fun is this? Everything in her room was organized and kept in drawers and rolling carts. I just wanted to sit for hours and look through the books, magazines and threads. It is so much fun to look through other people's things....mine don't seem nearly as exciting. I've named her "Gadget Girl" because Starr has all the gadgets. I saw things today that I did not even know existed. My "to buy" list just got longer!!! Yikes



The thread used in the back ground-tan and white-is variegated thread. I really like the dimension it adds to the work. None of these works were finished/framed. We just folded back the fabric and snapped a picture.

Starr uses different gauges to achieve the 3-d effect in the flowers and border. This is much more visible on the following photos.

The sheep in this photo was punched in fuzzy thread. The sheep really stands out and is fuzzy and warm looking. The flowers just pop off the fabric. Again, we just folded over the fabric and the photos don't really do the work justice.


The fine detail in this piece really caught my attention. I have been having the most difficult time getting my work to look like a fine detailed picture. After a few demonstrations and some instruction I was able to understand how this effect is achieved.

So are you wondering if my piece is completed? Well it is not. I was planning on working on it this evening and I spent the better part of my night working on getting these photos to upload. I have made a beautiful slide show of her work but I could not get it to load on blogger. So I will figure another way to share all these lovely works.

Now lets hope there is no more snow here until December......Kelly

Part 2 of Who Ordered This Snow?

So here is Gadget Girl looking at her little laptop. It is so small and cute....I guess if you like fine details this is the computer for you!!! See the smile on Starr's face? You would have no idea that just a few short months ago her basement flooded and all of her work was ruined. The water came up the walls and the insurance company sent in a crew to tear out the walls and get rid of everything that was wet....yes everything!!! Can you imagine? She lost many pieces of punchneedle that she had done over the years. Those pieces could have been cleaned but the crew took "everything" that was wet and got rid of it. This is not to even mention all her supplies and thousands of dollars of damage to her sewing machines. And Starr is smiling. I asked her how she keeps from getting sick over what she has lost and she said she looks forward to the pieces she is punching and the new business she is starting. She and her sister are starting their own company and selling their own Punchneedle Designs and supplies!!! I know they will be very successful.


With all the snow I thought I would post some fitting pictures!!! Here is a beautiful piece with the variegated thread again. I think it really gives the background some pizazz. I wonder if Santa leaves Easter eggs?



The next two pictures are of a evening bag Starr punched. Then entire bag is punchneedle. I'm not sure if the sparkle threads come through on this photograph as well as they did when I was holding the bag. The fuzzy yard makes the cuffs and hat really stand out. The glitter thread used in the snow makes it glisten.

I really enjoyed listening to Starr talk about making things that are useful with punchneedle and not just pictures. She has made a checkbook cover and an eye glass case. She told me to think outside the frame more than once today. I thought perhaps I could do a small design and put it on one of my magnets. Then she mentioned I could punch the entire bag tags that I like so much. So many ideas. The last thing I will say before I close is .... "if it goes through the needle....you can punch with it." There are no hard and fast rules....just create and enjoy.

In typical stitcher style I came home with gifts...thread....magazines and books to look at...a punchneedle box with magnet...a razor....and a ton of websites I can look at. I have yet to get together with stitchers that they are not giving something to another stitcher. Maybe that is why I really enjoy the company of quilters and stitchers in general.....they are typically kind, generous, thoughtful and willing to teach another person interested in learning. What a great crowd to hang with ay?

Smiles,

Kelly