Christmas markets and more....

WOW! is all I can say. It was an awesome, fabulous, over the top kind of trip for our stitching cruise "Down the Danube". I am still in the jetlag phase but starting to feel less like a slug around 4pm. and can sleep longer than 4:45am. So very nice! (this was written Dec. 16, now to finish the post it is already Dec 30!) We had some rain days - a couple, and some beautiful sunny days and it was cool, but somehow it didn't matter at all.... we had Gluhwein and Lebchuken. Wonderful stuff. We were dressed for it, with our layers of clothing, hats, mitts and scarves.  To try and take a picture you had to take off  gloves and attempt this without dropping said photo taking item, well I did that 3rd picture in at the Prague Castle! Dang! so from then on it was the iphone picture taking, which was fine, but even more afraid of dropping that, either in the River or down some stone stairs or the like. From Prague to Budapest, it was truly a marvel every day. My eyes were like saucers sometimes, barely taking it all in. Loved it all, the history, the decorated markets, the Vienna music evening, the ornament exchange, our comfortable stateroom.  My thanks again to Judy Bradford of Cruiseship Centers Cambridge for organizing it all, for Lindy of The Silver Needle for her marketing and pulling it all together, Mona of The Silver Needle for her finishing class and Ama Waterways for a simply delightful and fun filled trip. I hope you all liked your little 'Down the Danube' Sampler and when you look at it, remember our laughter in the lounge and our great meals and sights and sounds of Europe at Christmas. I know I will.

This brings me to the end of the year 2015 - what a year it has been, from place to place, it has been terrific. Your enthusiasm, your interest, your delight in the projects have made it one to remember. As I look back and look ahead I am reminded that stitching is the tie that binds and we are like family when we get together, it's pretty cool!  Look forward to seeing more of your stitching and look forward to sharing some new projects with you. Next up, I was going to say Nashville, for the wholesale market, but I forgot, the weekend before N'ville, I teach at the Northwest Sampler Guild in Washington. And then N'ville and then I stay on the west coast for Acorns and Threads 20th Anniversary!

May you have a blessed New Year!

November rains, winds and snows....Late Nov post

I think that the weather has a very large range in November, one can have lovely days and then some real dismal ones.... in your area too? Gosh, I feel that I missed October or something.... the last time I posted, I was getting ready for Thanksgiving and now it is getting ready for Thanksgiving for our American friends. Here is wishing you a lovely holiday and may your family and friends and you enjoy the time together and may your turkey be delicious, sorry Mr. Turkey but we do enjoy you at this time of year! Since beginning of October we had our wonderful retreat on the Cape! Oh by golly, it was a super time. I loved every minute of it, except for the finishing up of the kits that Pam and I did in our room till midnight one night.... okay I will admit that was not wonderful..... my back was aching and Pam was freezing as I had put the air co way down, and we were sitting in our pj's trying to finish up kits - I had to add all the fabrics ( 3 different colours) to my kit as I had Picture This Plus send the fabric to Pam of Olde Colonial so I wouldn't have to pay for across the border twice! and add the buttons and shells to the 100 shell biscornu kits! Good grief, I truly thought it would not take long, but one forgets as you work away on stuff at home, and can come back to it, how long each thing takes.... but I found out that night! But nevermind, we had a great time, there were some awesome 'get- ups' - the California gals had these terrific outfits every day, what fun to see them! and one stitcher had a witch hat with all Shepherd's Bush Hallowe'en smalls on it. So very cute! The venue was beyond special, I loved the Chatham Bars Inn, wow is all I can say, a view of the elbow of the cape like no other. I was able to get in to Providence, RI a day or 2 ahead and then we toodled up the cape up to Provincetown, and saw the Highland Light and a few other things like old gravestones along the way! Tina and Teri of Shepherd's Bush and I, had clam chowder and 'Lobstah' rolls everyday! I felt like a Lobster roll at the end, not pretty I know! But oh so delicious. We had a wonderful time at the Spooky Stitches retreat that Pam Reed of Celebration of Needlework along with her 2 daughters, Kelly and Tammy put on.

Then it was home and back to reality of getting my stuff done for the European markets cruise Down the Danube! and the next chart for Lindy of The Silver Needle's Circle of Friends group. What is that saying 'no rest for the wicked' - I must have been very wicked as there has been no rest! and you know on some level I do love it..... but really it has been so very busy. But I am starting to see the end, and look forward to the cruise for just not thinking about all the Nashville stuff I have to do.....! Yes, that is also lurking around the corner, I just got the email on the classes, and the sheets to fill out as to what you want for tables etc. I always think, okay just get through this and you can breathe.... and then the next thing is on the hot plate ready to be worked on before you can take a breath. When I first started in this designing thing.... in 1999.... I would take more than a half year to do a piece, hahahahaha.... I laugh now,  but of course, it was all new to me then and I was working .7 (3/4) time at the hospital. Now it truly has become a part of my life and it just happens..... I do like my brew time though, I like to know a year or 2 ahead if and when I hold an event somewhere so I can muddle it around in my brain, do research and have my soaking time.....

Well, I got sidetracked, as I was talking about the Christmas markets cruise in a WEEK! I hope that you all have your 'special' sweaters to wear for our ugly sweater evening, I even found a neat present for the winner! Do you have your ornament stitched for the exchange? I do, thankfully got it done in time for Mona to finish. Thanks Mona! And speaking of Mona if you are taking her class, do you have your ornaments ready to go for the finishing class? I love what I have seen in the facebook group - JDD Cruise- Finishing Class. I think Judy has sent you all a note on the stretcher bar size for the sampler for our classes. Won't it be fun, stitching in Europe! We have a sweet little sampler and the kit will have everything you need - just bring scissors, any of your favourite needles, and stitching tools and your hoop or stretcher bars, Qsnaps that you use, or in hand is always fine too. The fabric cut is 9 x16". See you all in a week and a day or so....... <grinning from ear to ear>

Not sure if you saw this last blog but 2 new JDD facebook groups were started and I hope that you check them out and join. They both are great groups of gals and I am always happy to visit there and answer any questions or help along the way. Jeannette Douglas is Our Common Thread and Jeannette Douglas Stitchers. Check them out and share your 'stitches'! I received a rather lovely note from a 'fan' this week, and it is wonderful to know people are stitching with pleasure! In the spring I had the opportunity to invite a stitcher to my office here and it was such a fun, laughter filled visit. I love how stitching just claims us to be friends instantly when we meet fellow stitchers. Here is her link on her take on our visit. Thanks Mel, I still have such warm memories from a great day in the spring. http://epicstitching.blogspot.ca/2015/03/an-afternoon-with-designer-jeannette.html

Once we get back home from the cruise, it will be full steam ahead on the all the new stuff for Nashville, it will come up quickly. I think I have posted next year's events on the events page..... I will check that I did and hope to see you soon, till next time.

PS - We had issues when I went to put up the pictures in November and hence why the post is so late.... we are on track again, enjoy.

December post soon to follow!

Family Thanksgiving 2015 Granum

Pumpkins In Hyannis, MA

Fun little pumpkin display in Chatham

Pumpkin display Up close

Great colours

Lobster Rolls

House on the Cape

Chatham Bars Inn view of the Cape

Highland Light

Cranberry Bog

The California grils

Tina and Teri with the Shepherd's Bush smalls hat

Receiving Ryder love

Canadian Thanksgiving

Hello all, hope you are having a nice fall. As seen below by my very belated post- that was drafted and not posted till now..... sorry about that...... you can assess that it has been rather over the top here at JDD. There is only so much that can happen in a day, a week, and a month, before one runs out of time. It has been one of those kind of times here since mid August. Kathy, Wilma, Flo and I worked flat out and still did not feel we caught up or were on track  till this past Wednesday. Finally we can all take a breath and for myself, hope that I can enjoy my week at the Cape. But first family time with our Canadian Thanksgiving. We will have a nice group of Douglas' to hang out with and the weather forecast is good, so turkey time here we come. I love Thanksgiving this weekend, the leaves are still on most of the trees and the colours all in their glory, the reds, oranges and yellows against the backdrop of those evergreen trees is amazing.  Here in Calgary we may get a big wind and that will be the end of that real quick, so we enjoy it before it blows away. My flowers are all still blooming - I couldn't get rid of them to put mums this year, they were just so nice. Even my begonias in my window baskets look awesome, in October in Calgary! Happy Thanksgiving to those of you celebrating this weekend. I don't know where to begin..... to tell what I have been up to so I will back up to a few things that I know you have been following:

The church kneelers for the Cathedral of the Redeemer downtown Calgary - the ladies are all madly stitching away, I know of one for sure that is done and she sent me a picture- and I had tears upon seeing it, you know I am not a needlepoint designer so this was definitely a challenge to do these kneelers at the high altar - they are not the ones in the rows of benches- I was afraid I had gotten the measurements wrong, but the one I saw was terrific and what a relief to see it. Maybe it was tears of relief, but nevermind it was great to see it work out to what I had envisioned.

The Craftsy class on line - oh that has been fun, meeting stitchers from Brazil, Sweden,  USA and such. They are learning and working on the project which is great. They offer so much over at Craftsy that I am humbled to be part of that team!

Being part of The Silver Needle's Circle - Little Help from my Friends group- I have finished designing it and Flo has finished stitching it and now to write instructions and some finishing and photographs and that will also be on it's way!!

Teaching in Buffalo and Cambridge in mid September. It was awesome!!! I loved both weekends, we had such a blast and even though leading up to both the weather was terrific, the days of the classes it poured but we were cozy stitching away in class and learning, sharing and enjoying meeting new stitchers. Thank you ladies for coming and making them both a special treat and memories to treasure. Out of that weekend in Cambridge one of the gals started a Facebook JDD fan page. Funnily enough when Erin Doremus stated to me in Cambridge she was setting up 'Jeannette Douglas is our Common Thread' I got tears in my eyes and I guess Judy Bradford had said I would! Well I guess I lived up to expectation! you are all getting to know me too well<grin>  But that same weekend another JDD fan page went up at the same time! - called 'Jeannette Douglas Stitchers' - they are both awesome ladies who started both these groups, hope you enjoy them and hope you contribute to them, because my webpage of stitchers finishes is broken, I am not sure why it is not working right but it is not! much to my disappointment, and when I get some time (haha) I will look into why and reconnect the pictures to links. I think it sometimes happens with updates to the website hosting. And to let you know ladies my little electronic issue (A-Fib for those of you who don't know) it was reset last Thursday in hospital and although it took a few days I am back to my usual self thank goodness. Six weeks of being compromised at my most busiest time was not ideal. Dale picked up alot of slack and has been training that little Ryder and doing a great job, she is not little anymore and is lots of fun.

We have completed the Memorial Sampler for Gina Reyes. When Gina passed last year, Tony, her husband asked if I would design  a sampler, I have, and it is stitched and ready to go to the framer. We will do a limited run of this sampler as it is too pretty not to share. I know some of her very good stitching friends are looking for it. It's coming! I am rather an emotional soul and here too I have cried as I designed this piece. It spoke so much of all our lived lives and how we take comfort from friends and family to help us through life's storms, and share joy in good times. Look for that to come.

Now we are working on our piece for the Christmas markets cruise, can you believe it is almost November and we will be departing for Europe and going down the Danube and sipping Gluhwein (mulled wine) and shopping the market squares! I have started a pile of things to take, and bought some boots! I look forward to sharing the fun little sampler of our river travels. Remember your ornaments for exchange and for finishing class with Mona! oh yes and a funky Christmas sweater! haha!

And in a few short days I leave for THE CAPE! I am so thrilled to be going, never been to the Cape so I am looking forward to seeing the ocean and just the whole New England feel. I am excited to show my piece for class...... can't wait. I am thankful that the storm has passed on- that hit the Carolinas so badly last week. I hope they have rocking chairs, I think after this long note I need a rocking chair and some ocean breezes.......

I think that brings you up to date, hope you got a chance to see some of the fall offerings. Along with all that - that went on above, I also did the market hop with fall releases! Thankfully Janice of Traditional Stitches did shipping for me, as I was away. I gave her my box of goodies and she and her team did a great job, Thanks Janice for offering!

Again here's to a lovely Thanksgiving weekend, I have so much to be thankful for.

Our American friends in their Canadian ponchos on the Canadian side looking at the American Falls!

The 4 Seasons_summer- framed in an OCD clock.

Happy little arrangement

Our growing Ryder