STUDIO WEEKEND WITH AUNT CHRISSY AND A COLOR STUDY...PART ONE

Aunt Chrissy and I spent all weekend in the studio doing various and sundry things stitchy related. I framed four pieces and am shocked to report that I thought I would be a pinner, but it turns out, I'm a lacer. Well, actually, I pinned AND laced so I'm not sure what the heck it all means in the end, but two are done and hung: (Holey Schmoley! That is one big white wall! Ironically, this will be the last wall to be painted here at Chez Spinster, since it is approximately the size of an airplane hangar and will require the use of a ladder. I'm not allowed to use a ladder without adult supervision, and Stewey has refused to cover for me. Methinks it's because he's throwing a pout over the lack of a little pink hard hat for use during his "I'm a building contractor and my mo-ther is an idiot" phase.)

The other two pieces aren't hung yet because I haven't quite decided where they will live. For now, they're living behind the cookie jar and are also keeping Zhu Zhu company:



All in all, I will say that it was an enjoyable experience, but it took me a full four and half hours of cussin' up a blue streak before I finally got the hang of this whole "home framing" thing. It's very satisfying, though, so I highly recommend that you give it a try. Just make sure to get yourselves a really good tutorial like the ones on Ms. Vonna and Ms. Laura J. Perin's blogs:http://thetwistedstitcher.blogspot.com/ and http://two-handedstitcher.blogspot.com/ .

Once the framing was complete, we settled in for a few hours of The West Wing. I futzed about at great lengths until Stewey finally pointed his little paw in the direction of my WIP basket and suggested that I get back to work on this(the top pic is Saturday's progress, the bottom, Sunday's):

This is a painted canvas from Amanda Lawford, and it was the very first stitchy Christmas present from my little sis. Isn't it lovely? It's painted on 13ct. canvas, so it's very kind to tired eyes, and the stitches seem to go very very fast. I don't have a stitch guide for this one, so I'm kind of making it up as I go along. I've tried a few things on the black and white border, but I'm not sure that it's the right stitch. Methinks I will keep on stitchin' on with this one.

I also completed Lesson One on the cyber class that I'm taking from Orna Willis:

I did a few stitches I've never done before (like crescents and jessicas), so it was fun and very very satisfying:

All of the poster boards are hung. I'll show you the one in my office first:

OK, so it's not exactly blowing my skirt up just yet. I did change out the print on the wall to see if it would make me like the color more, but I'm not really sold just yet. Believe it or not, I'm leaning towards making this room PUMPKIN!....a very deep and rich orange color. I think that would look pretty cool with the black furniture. I do like that print there, though, so maybe we'll just keep playing in the yellow-ish family for now and stop thinking that it looks too much like 1970's Harvest Gold (not that there's anything wrong with that).

That's the Monday report from Chez Spinster on this lovely Monday morning. I hope that you're off to a fabulous week ahead! Kisses from Stewey!