enjoying summer....

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As I write this our lovely temperate Calgary is going through some very hot days. As you may not know, most Calgarians do not have air conditioning. It usually cools off at night and when you are in the shade it is nice.... but oh my, it has been warm. I am sure nothing like our southern friends, but nevermind we are talking Canada here and latitudinal quite far north. But suffice it to say, I am loving it. And I have to chuckle why do we always talk about the weather. I always say it's because everything we do is so affected by it, our mood, our activities etc.  Happily enough Stitching does not seem as affected by it, except I think in the choice of project to work on, and if you just totally lose your 'mojo'. For those of you wanting a refresher or an update on cross stitch basics and clever little hints please note that my Craftsy class will go live by the end of July. It is coming up soon and you can enter for a free chance to win free access, so you can learn all about beginning cross stitch or hone up your skills and work on a great project while you do this.

http://www.craftsy.com/ext/JeannetteDouglas_Giveaway

Cross Stitch Craftsy Class
Cross Stitch Craftsy Class

I hope some of you join me and or bring a friend to this, a great idea for a friend who is wanting learn from seeing you do it and your enjoyment, now you can easily share the knowledge. Please check it out on Craftsy.com. I was just looking at the video this morning and I am amazed!! I was so sure I fumbled so much more and all I remember is doing several takes especially the first few lessons until I settled into it. I thought it would be choppy and so I am actually blushing because it turned out!! yay! I was sure it would be fine as the staff seemed so comfortable and easy to work with but still......  I actually had a blast even though by the end I was super tired. They were very professional and it shows.

I am almost ready to release the next in the series of the seasonal set that started with The Spring Bird, continued with The Summer Flower and now we will have The Autumn Acorn! Look for it to come soon. I have shown you here  a snippet of the 2 to come yet, in a piece that all four are stitched on together. I loved them each separate but I thought it also very nice altogether here.

Coming up acorns
Coming up acorns

I am running away for a few days to the Whitefish, MT area as we do most summers and from there will fly out to Chicago for the Tomorrow's Heirlooms event in Glen Ellyn, IL along with Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers. Don't tell Paulette but I have some Maynard's Wine Gums for her in my bag!! She loves them. Looking forward to this event. Kind of fun and nice to do an event in the summer, rather than try to squish them all in in the spring and fall. Pam and Kim of Tomorrow's Heirlooms have a great group of ladies coming I'm sure and I am excited to share the project with you! They also have some fun surprises for retreat goers. See you there!

And who can forget the little sweetie who is destroying my nice house and prancing off with fabric and threads and thoroughly enjoying herself. She is the luckiest puppy, we are both home all day with our home businesses and Walter and Ellie from next door come over everyday! Yes, the next door neighbours have added to their household a new rescue dog named Ellie. She is as cute as Walter, if not cuter if that is possible! So we have a fine time around here. Chaos really. Ryder is growing everyday- here is a cute face picture and a picture of her hanging in her bed with all the toys.... we had just vacuumed for the nth time and put all the toys in the bed to do so and she jumped in so Dale called it the Animal house!

Animal House
Animal House
Ryder beginning of July 2015
Ryder beginning of July 2015

Hope you can get some stitching in with your summer holidays and your family visits and look forward to seeing some of you soon!

As ever,  jeannette

a Few things to share....

SAIT Campus
SAIT Campus

It's been a busy month of May! I don't know where to start! Maybe at the frenzied week of EAC Seminar. It was amazing, fun, and somewhat stressful all at the same time. I stayed most nights at SAIT - the college where the event was held, in residence. Oh my I do love my bed, that's all I can say. The beds were so high, I had to jump in and I am not a short person.....I did go home one night in the week though! I had 2 roomates from the States and one got sick unfortunately but before she got sick I got to give them a little tour of Calgary. So nice to teach in my own city I really enjoyed it and enjoyed the students at Seminar, they are always so motivated to learn and share, such a great 4 days of lessons and creating.  Thank you to Sheila, Irene and Isla for some lovely gifts and I am using them already! Then it was a quick turn around week where I desperately got ready to go to Denver to do the finishing of my classes for Craftsy. We had worked on the preliminary work for a few months previous but now it was production time! I had an amazing week at Craftsy Studios in Denver! They were all so lovely to work with and so kind and caring, it made for a super experience. You will have to check out the classes on line end of July beginning of August as that is the time frame we are looking at for releasing the classes. But I was exhausted upon return and had to have naps every day for a few days to recuperate. Phew! But no rest for the wicked apparently; as while I was away, our new addition came!! YES, we have a new puppy. Her name is Ryder, my Dale loves the Saskatchewan Rough Rider CFL Football team so Ryder it is. So very cute and we love her already!

 
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Now it is on to the next so they say and I am busily getting my ducks in a row for Tomorrow's Heirlooms event in Chicago area - Glen Ellyn, IL - for July!! I am having fun with the project and hope you love it too. Thrilled to be coming to the lakes in July, this landlocked Albertan who grew up by one of the Great Lakes misses that! Just the water feel or something.... Looking so forward to coming and meeting you for the first time or again, what a treat! Have your needles and scissors ready for some sharing and creating.

Then do look on the events page for more to come in the fall, I am working on all that plus our new releases for September. I have one error to report on the thread pack for The Summer Flower - it says 933 - purple but that colour is not used and is not the colour - you need 993 Black - as it states in the chart. If you can as it is only for a few stitches in the bees accept my apology and use a black in your inventory- any silk black will do, if you do not have one, please check with me and I can always send a length to you. Thank you for your understanding. I am hoping if all the threads come in - in a timely fashion to release the next seasonal piece in August - The Autumn Acorn but the rest of my new releases won't be till September. I hope you have had a chance to see theO Canada -True North Strong piece at the merchant night in Calgary or at Traditional Stitches. It will be going to Button and Needlework Boutique next in Victoria, BC and then Thread & Eye in London, ON so hopefully one of these places you can catch up with it!

Last evening and tonight I am meeting with the ladies of the Cathedral of the Redeemer downtown Calgary who are going to be stitching the church kneelers that I designed for them! Finally a years work is coming to fruition!! So looking forward to how the ladies get on with stitching these large canvases, we had to laugh as we were learning together last night on some of the techniques of needlepoint vs. cross stitch. I was thankful to see that my math had worked out and the size of them seems to be just right!!

If you are on Facebook check out the Candy Cane Stitchers group as I posted a freebie pattern for the month of June, enjoy!

A long note, alot can happen in a few weeks!! I hope to have a few more long days hanging out on my deck, playing with puppy and stitching. The nights are so long here, it is still light out in June at 10:30pm and I am always surprised at the time and go to bed way too late because the light is deceiving.

My Dressing Room
My Dressing Room
On Set
On Set
Awesome Production Team
Awesome Production Team
Our newest helper
Our newest helper
Candy Cane Stitchers Freebie
Candy Cane Stitchers Freebie

EAC Seminar -Stampeding Stitches in Calgary

This afternoon it is off to attend the teacher's meeting for the upcoming event at SAIT the EAC Seminar! My bags are packed, and yes I will be staying residence.... great time to see some of the other teachers and students across Canada and other places. I have had fun packaging up the classes and have found a fun package detail that I thought was cute so I bought more for this fall's classes!  (I'm chuckling, it's all about the packaging....). On Friday night will be the Merchant Mall from 7-9 - so docome by and see the new pattern with a more nature driven patriotic flair -"O Canada True North Strong". It is being shipped to the distributors this week. So should be available by the 25th or so. But we have it here at Seminar and then it will go to Traditional Stitches -Calgary, AB fora few weeks and then on to Button and Needlework Boutique on the Island (Victoria, BC) for the summer months and then to Thread and Eye in London, ON for Fall. Get out and see the model, it is always so much better in "real!".

I am also releasing the next in the seasonal series that began with "The Spring Bird". May you enjoy the "The Summer Flower" as much and I look forward to sharing the next one in August, and the last one in October.

I am working on a rather interesting project but will tell you about that when I can and on a different project I can say that I am pleased that we are finally moving forward. It is the 'church kneelers' for the Cathedral of the Redeemer downtown Calgary. I have completed designing them and now it is time for the ladies of the church to take over and stitch them up!!

I still have a few special projects that I am working on, along with all the teaching projects,  events and the general releases.... it is a busy time. Upcoming in July is an exciting event planned with Tomorrow's Heirlooms in Glen Ellyn, IL. Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers and I will be your event designers. Paulette and I have roomed together at a few events and we have collapsed on the bed laughing at some very silly things and enjoyed every moment of each others company; and so look forward to the summer event with Pam and Kim at Tomorrow's Heirlooms.

I am looking out my window right now at the Jack rabbits happily munching away at my front lawn. Dale saw a little baby on Sunday, I missed it. OH yes, I forgot, by the end of the month we will have a new puppy.... a dog in the lonely house again! Well of course don't let Walter hear that.... he still comes over every day so it will be interesting to see how he likes the new addition to what he considers is his space at the neighbours.

Till next time, j

O Canada True North Strong
O Canada True North Strong
The Summer Flower
The Summer Flower