The Canadian Patriotic Snippets all complete!

Mid August – end of summer stitching…

Halloween Sampler sneak peek

Do you stitch different things in fall/winter versus spring/summer? I used to be one of those that stitched in season but of course that has all changed now and I would like to design in season but that doesn’t happen either. <grin> One has to be ahead! And so, to that we worked on Fall releases in May before I left for the trip. We will be part of Harvest Market Hop in early September – Sept. 7th to be exact. Check out the website and they will be posting our ‘sell sheets’ when the time arrives. http://fallmarketharvesthop.com/

Just a few new things on the website. My webgal and I have been hard at work trying to not be under construction any more. As you know my year was full up but we also have managed to get all the patterns loaded from the very beginning to the present. We have found a lot of the free patterns but not all of them. I have had 2 major computer crashes and one website crash in the 15 years and some things I just don’t seem to have. Did want to bring your attention to the Canadian Journey series – those being the first 8 patterns I designed. The first 4 are in rough shape as the printer I was using went out of business and took those first 4 files with them. I have been photocopying them up until now, but I seriously do want to put them all in a book as one. I have started all that and I hope that by the time my 20th year -2019 rolls around I will have the charts altogether. We still have all the thread packs for these patterns and also for the city samplers across Canada also. I see I am missing the Ottawa Sampler and I will go search for the picture of that sampler. Now of course I have to sit and write the words that go with each chart…… the design size etc. it never feels like I quite get things done before the next teaching gigs or needlework shows come up and throw a wrench into working on that…. And PS. It is not the funest job is it! Do check out some of the free charts that are listed and also the pdf that has the listings of all patterns by number/ which is by date release, but I will maybe put them in alphabetical listing too….. just thought of that.

On the Vimy Ridge piece; Beth Allan of Dartmouth, NS sent a nice note on FB " I met a wonderful young lady today who is truly an inspiration in keeping Vimy Ridge alive. I had stitched a Vimy Ridge piece by Jeannette Douglas & knew I wanted to donate it to someone & when I read her story I knew exactly who I wanted to have this lovely piece.What a wonderful example of youth wanting to do for the veterans, etc.She is actually going back to Vimy next week & is taking it with her & having her picture taken at the monument .My heart feels good!!
http://thechronicleherald.ca/…/1487503-lure-of-vimy-love-of… Beth sent another note today "thought you might like to see the young gal at Vimy with her lovely crossstitch. It's very emotional as she is so thrilled with it& is so involved with Vimy." the photos show Claire in France at the Vimy Ridge Memorial. There are 4 photos in total, scroll through to see them all.

Canadian Patriotic Snippets # 11 & 12

And so we are at the end of the Canadian snippet series, we are shipping Monday August 14th to the shops the last set of Snippets -# 11 &12. I want to thank all of you for joining me on the Patriotic journey and hope that as you set to complete it that you have enjoyed the Canadian themed pieces. With the # 11 & 12 will come a free pattern to you as a great big thank you for your support. It’s been so awesome to connect with you all. Thank you Charlene Petrowsky for stitching the free pattern and here is the photo of Charlene’s stitching and finishing, love them both. You may stitch it as a double sided pincushion or a single or take motifs and make a 13th snippet! Thank you to Charlene also for the Happy 150th Birthday Canada! X Stitch SAL. It was great to see the variety of Canadian themed charts by many different designers in this group  

Canada 150 Pincushion, flat fold, wall hanging etc.

Always do check out the Jeannette Douglas Designs Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jeannettedouglasdesigns/

There are also 2 fan pages on Facebook devoted JDD and they are as follows:

Jeannette Douglas is Our Common Thread-https://www.facebook.com/groups/900348370052788/

Jeannette Douglas Stitchers-https://www.facebook.com/groups/673290132773000/

It has been great fun to your stitching and finishing and what you are choosing to stitch! Thank you for sharing and participating.

Wow, what a trip!

Eiffel Tower

How to begin to tell you you about the wonderful time we had on the Rhone River Cruise! It was an amazing time. Dale and I flew to Toronto and met up with Randy and Judy and flew together to Paris, already a fun start. We went a few days early so that we could be a bit more acclimatized - I felt so stunned last cruise when I was the last to arrive in Prague, that I did not want that this time again! <grin> Then starting on Monday we hopefully greeted everyone who was arriving in the next few days and did some great tours around Paris. We got to visit 2 stitching shops, I think they were a little overwhelmed with our numbers!

Monet's Garden, Giverny

We took the TGV train to Lyon as that was where the ship was docked. Everything is so well laid out and not stressful, Dejean the cruise director for the AMA Cello our ship for the week is amazing and so along with Judy - they keep us all organized. It is hard to say what was best, but for me the best is just the company, the whole ship was our stitching group, not all stitchers, some husbands or sisters and such that are not stitchers but still a good portion of stitchers! So one could visit anybody in the lounge many people would sit and stitch but when it was tour time we all went on the many different little tours that had been set up previously. Monet's Garden, an olive farm, a chocolate and wine tasting in an old castle.... just to name a few..... and then just hanging out with the freedom of going off ship easily to go to town as one is docked right in the middle of the town or city.

Rolling on the Rhone Sampler

We had a couple of finishing classes with Mona Bost and we had The Silver Needle shopping times and of course the "Rolling on the Rhone" sampler. I wanted an alliteration - you all know how I love those...the Christmas Markets sampler had been called "Down the Danube" you see, so I needed a match! Some stitchers got quite far on the cruise and I expect there is quite a few who have completed the sampler, which is awesome! I have both mine hanging in my office and it truly is such a nice way to recall the trip.

Lavender field in front of the pond d'Avignon

Sagrada Familia

After ending the cruising part of the trip in Arles, we were on a bus to Nimes and then with the TGV train to Barcelona, what a great few days there. We saw the Sagrada Familia , amazing as it is still being constructed after 100 years. I walked Park Guell in the blazing heat and saw Gaudi's mosaic wall. We walked Les Rambles and all in all my fitbit had quite a workout everyday!

It was very sad as everyday more and more people left and Sunday afternoon, Judy, Dejean and I looked at each other and smiled in thankfulness. Grateful to you for making the journey with us so very fun and memorable. We did announce our next trip - Tulip Time at the end of April beginning of May 2019...... seems far away but it will come quick enough. Check with Judy Bradford at Cambridge Cruise Ship Centers for info and come and join in on a wonderful trip.

Holyrood Farmhouse

Then our family fun was just beginning, Dale, my daughter Sylvia who had met us in Barcelona and I all flew to Edinburgh on the Sunday evening. We arrived to rain no less! But that was mostly it, we had some beautiful sunny days in Edinburgh and for our older daughters wedding Arielle the day was hot and sunny. Arielle had organized an air bnb for the 2 families and we totally enjoyed staying the Holyrood Farmhouse. Yes, just around the corner from Holyrood Palace. I got to check out the Mary Queen of Scots stitching at Holyrood Palace and at Stirling Castle there was a Tapestry shop with pictures and wools showing how some of these old tapestries are fixed or maintained. It was a wonderful week in Edinburgh, and tasted some good Scotch! On the Saturday Arielle and Jesse had a handfasting ceremony where their 2 hands were tied together with the 2 tartans of their respective families. Jesse wore his kilt and Arielle a beautiful Louden tartan shawl once the handfasting was complete. Sylvia and I had Douglas Tartan shawls and Dale wore a Douglas Tartan tie. The bagpiper and drummer made it complete.

Arielle and Jesse Louden

This past weekend we had the Calgary Wedding Garden party in our back yard and now I can get back to my usual.......so yesterday we shipped our Canadian Patriotic Snippets #9 & 10. Check out the front page on the website for a photo.  I will admit I am a bit sad that this too is ending..... it's been a wonderful time seeing all your different stitching on this project, keep the pictures coming. We hope to get the next shipment out either the 9th or 16th of August. We will have a little present for you at the end! My daughter Sylvia took 4 of the snippets-#1, 5, 6, & 11-and Screen printed and hand letter pressed some postcards for us. If you are interested please send me a note and we can get them out for you. they come in a package of 4 - mostly on the off white colour but there are a few on a natural coloured paper. The size is 6 x 6 - the photo of the set is here. Haha, still hiding #11!

Patriotic Postcards

One other thing of note and that is many of you have loved both Vintage Flowers and Vintage Birds, we have restitched Vintage Stars with cotton floss and put it on that lovely Picture this Plus Legacy fabric. It turned out great and I will give you the colour change below. It will make a nice match to the other 2 this way..... now to find a 4th! :) Thanks to Don Henrickson for the restitching.

Vintage Stars from Needlepoint Inc. Silk to Cotton floss chart conversion

NPI 124-Used Brick-CC

NPI 154 -Crystal Lake -GA

NPI 204-Root Beer Float -CC

Screen Printing

NPI 292-Endive- GA

NPI 694-Wheatfields -GA

NPI 951-Toasted Barley -GA

Hand Letter Press

NPI 954-Wood Trail-GA

NPI 971-Pebbles -GA

NPI 974-Hickory Sticks -CC

NPI 986-Burlap -GA

Vintage Stars with cotton floss not originally on pattern

It is full on summer, I have big plans...... hahaha! I am working on about 4-5 projects- one is a rather large one to come...... and of course some teaching pieces!  Check the events page we will be adding more dates to 2018.....

As ever.... jeannette

Bonjour!

Bonjour!

Hard to believe how fast this spring has gone, I can hardly believe we are at the tail end and summer will be here in another few weeks. It is always the lovely months that go so quickly and some of those winter months just seem longer. Whether it is because the dark hours are longer and the light of day is shorter, I don't know, but I love the long evenings. We walk the dog later now and sure am enjoying that, as to walk her in some light of day in winter we sometimes have to get out there by 4:30 in the afternoon as it gets dark out so early. We hadbeautiful long weekend weather here in Calgary for the Victoria Day weekend and I made sure I got some stitching time outside! That is such a treat..... that it is not smoking hot, that the rain doesn't fall and that a gale force wind isn't blowing. These kinds of things can interrupt some good stitching time.

We have shipped Snippets # 7 & 8, right after the July long weekend, we will ship # 9 & 10, shooting for mid August for the last ones. Hope you are enjoying the stitching. It has been fun to share them with you.

In September Needle in a Haystack will be my host in Alameda, CA- the piece is stitched. this is the 6th time we are using The Common Thread 2 - just as much fun as the first one. Again with the center block a little show piece of the place I am teaching at. Last year it was fun to do a little section for England and this year for San Francisco. We have done, Buffalo, Southern Ontario, Saskatoon, Seattle. These places were almost all repeats to the The Common Thread 1 - very enjoyable. check with NIAH - the dates are Sept 22-24, hope to see you there.

In October we are off to "Stitching at the Beach" Pals event in Myrtle Beach. Check out the link for all the classes offered.                                                                                                                 https://www.downsunshinelane.com/pages/stitching-at-the-beach-2017-classes                   Look forward to seeing you there! We will also have a table of goodies.

Now it is time to get out the luggage and get all my little piles of this's and thats and hope I remembered everything for the up coming trip to Europe. we leave Friday for Paris. I am picking up the printing and bagging today and tomorrow. So I think we are all set, now to fit them into our suitcases! If you think of something to ask about the stitching of the prework on the 2 little designs for the finishing class, please don't hesitate to ask, Mona or I can answer you on the Facebook JDD Cruise--Finishing class group. To those who I will see next week, please travel safe and may we all have a trip to remember. PS If the Christmas Markets-Danube trip was anything to go by...... we will thoroughly enjoy this one!

Bon Voyage!