Rooster 2

I have completed the first quarter of the rooster including all the detailing. I wasn’t sure if I should finish all the cross stitching first and then go back to do the backstitching or just do it all at one time. I choose the one time method I figured it wouldn’t hurt and it made more sense to me to do it all at once. So now I have three quarters to go, I will post a picture when I get the cross stitching done.

Rooster

Back in August Ed and I where in Hobby Lobby (if I've been good sometimes Ed takes me there). While we where walking around we got to the needle art section (next to the yarn, knitting, tatting section). He got a phone call and while he was talking I found a cross stitch rooster. The really cool thing was instead of grapes, this rooster is surrounded by olive branches with olives amongst them. I thought that was the coolest looking rooster. Ed finally got off the phone and I showed it to him and he liked it as well. So I got it.

I started it about a month ago, after I got the Christmas pieces done. This is the upper right hand corner. When its done it will be 12” – 12”, once  I finish the cross stitching in this section, I will put the detailing in this section. Then I will work on the upper left corner. When I get the detailing done I’ll post about it.

Antique Pattern Library

I was searching the web for some cross stitch patterns and came across the Antique Pattern Library. This Library as some very old pattern and pattern books that are free to download. The site remains a free site by taking in donations (which can be made on the site). If you have a chance check it out I just started checking it out my self and what I found thus far is really cool.

Christmas

Ok not really Christmas the holiday, just a couple of items that I was working on for Christmas. Back in July when we where selling at Saylorsburg the couple set up next to us had a lot of craft items. I was looking through them to get something to work on in between customers. I did, it was a watermelon with a crow. A nice little country piece (which is currently MIA, so sorry no picture of that piece).

Latter in the day I looked through the boxes of craft stuff again and picked up a dozen different cross stitch and needle work pieces. From those I picked up two Christmas Pieces. One is a free standing Santa, with his bag of toys.  A very bright and colorful piece. The second is a pillow done on linen not aida, which was a first for me. I have never worked on plain fabric before, other then stamped cross stitch. This piece could have been framed or turned into a pillow, I chose the pillow. This piece is more country and a lot of fun to work on.

So I had vowed to have these two pieces completed for this years Christmas. I did just that and in plenty of time for the holiday season too.

Lehigh Valley Style

Lehigh Valley Style is a local magazine, the cool think is that Ed and I are in it. Sustainable Country Gentlemen llc is featured in the life in the valley section of the magazine. The article is very well written and I would like to give them a big thanks for having us in there magazine. The picture is a scan of the article .

Zoo

Yesterday I had the privilege to attend Party with the Planet at the Lehigh Valley Zoo. I attended this event as a demonstrator,  for the first time I got to demonstrate only the fiber arts. Normally when I do a demonstration I do it along side us selling produce. This time it was all about The House of Bickert (bik – AIR) with the fiber side of things.
As a child growing up I had visited the zoo, but then it was called The Trexler Game Preserve. They had monkeys, some wild cats, farm animals and birds of prey. It was a neat place to visit for a child of 4 or 5. I had gone back as an adult when I was married. The area where they had the monkeys was there but no monkeys. Every thing else was pretty much the same as I remembered. This time not only was the name changed so was the zoo itself.
They had me setup right has you walked in the front gate. So as you entered the zoo you where greeted by one of the zoos residence and me on the other side. The day was filled with allot of inquisitive minds not just asking questions but also knowing what I was doing and asking questions to confirm  what they have learned in school. I had taken with me my big loom (aka table loom), lace pillow, inkle loom, drop spindle, Chakra, braiding looms and some pieces I had done, some of them where ribbon winners from the Allentown Fair. Every one that had stopped by was very interested in what I was doing and as I said above they asked intelligent  questions.
I was also impressed in the zoo itself, that for a small zoo they have a diverse amount of animals. The list includes penguins, wolfs, owls, eagles, falcons, hawks, palomino horses, camels, wild cats, kangaroos, otters and much more. Ed and I are planning on going back to the zoo when we are able to spend more time there. All in all in was a wonderful day and both Ed and I had a lot of fun. Please look at the photo album below for more pics from the day.

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What’s New?

I apologize for not getting to blog sooner. I have being trying to blog for a while got sick and then got real busy. So I’m able to blog today. the last couple of months have been busy I was able to get to a lace days, gathering of the guilds, the New York restaurant show and I’m working on a new project.

The first weekend in February was lace days at Lost Art Lacers, while I was there I picked up a few things. A new lace making book, more bobbins of course (you can never have to many bobbins), a spool holder, a lace holder (this is used for long pieces of lace so it doesn't get dirty) and a bolster pillow. For any one that knows about bobbin lace, those people know how pricy a lace pillow can be.  While I was walking around I saw a round bolster pillow at a good price. I continued to walk around and get my other goodies.

Before I go any further let me explain what type of pillow this is. The pillow is 18” round in the center there is a rectangle cut out, what is placed in that rectangle is a tube pillow. It is this tube that you make the lace on. This type of pillow lets you make very long pieces of lace, since you can just turn the tube and continue make the lace until you have the length you want.

This pillow was used so right there the price should be reasonable. The pillow was also created with a patriotic theme (flag, red, white and blue fabric was used to make the pillow). It was a whole set It came with a pin cushion, bobbins, pricking cover and dust cover. I picked this pillow up for $40.00, to those of you un-familiar with bobbin lace equipment price, I’m sure your saying that not a bad price. You would be correct and that is why I bought it. What we have yet to discover was, what is was the original price.

When I got home I of course was examining my treasures I found at lace days. When I got to the pillow I took out the bolster and in side was the original price. I will give you a moment to come up with a guess.

the original price was

$350.00 

So all in all that made for a wonderful day.

 

The next trip we took was to the Gathering of the Guilds in Harrisburg. As the name implies about two dozen different guilds came together in one place. There where weavers, spinners, beaders, basket makers, wheat weavers, lace maker, embroiders, polymer clay crafters and quilters. This was a really cool show, you got to see some amazing pieces of work and they had seminars throughout the day. I was able to pick up something for myself. About ten years ago a friend taught me some basic wheat weaving. While I was at this show I was able to pick up a book and since the author was there she signed it for me. One of the embroidery guilds was handing out little counted cross stitch kits for free. They where complimentary from DMC so I picked up one of them as well. Again another good day.

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The New York Restaurant Show which of course is in New York City. I personally have been to a couple of theses shows back when I was in school. They are a lot of fun and you literally eat your way through them. this was actually a couple of weeks ago and we got so much info that we haven’t had time to go thru it all. we did pick up a lot of information for products to sell at the markets so we shall see what comes from that.

The last thing I have to talk about is a new project Ed and I are working on. We have been given the opportunity to rent some space in Coopersburg, PA. This space is going to be used for a year round farmers market, we are currently in the incubation period and are working on having the market open in the middle of May. So keep checking back for more info on that.

So I have been busy just not able to blog. I will try to work on that.