Going on vacation

Hi all!

I will be taking the trip of a lifetime to Rome, Florence and Venice from June 10 until the 23rd!

See you when I get back!

Yipeeee!!!!

Exciting news!

First of all, look at my new little baby grand child!! 

This is our first and we already know its a girl and her name will be Amy Ren.

We are SO excited! She is due June 26!

Her middle name, Ren is the same as my daughters middle name. All of our children have Japanese middle names, because my husband is half Japanese. Its cool that they are continuing that tradition.

And the other exciting news is that I have a doll and article published in 

Prims Magazine!!!

How exciting is that!!!

I have been so busy I haven't been completing a lot of art, so hence not much to blog about.  But I am taking an acrylics painting class at my local art league, which is keeping me sane during all of the chaos.

Isabel is recovering very nicely from her torn ACL, doing all of her exercises and going to PT(physical therapy)  twice a week.

She doesn't even have the crutch or leg brace anymore! Woot!

She is also graduating from 8th grade this month. Anyone who has had an 8th grader in a catholic school knows, the spring is loaded with "last time" activities. Last home games, last May Crowning, last school play, etc etc. In the next 2 weeks she has an all day school trip to Chicago(a little worried about her being on her  leg all day), 7-8th grade banquet, Confirmation, and graduation. 

Isabel and her best friend Brittany at May Crowning. Brittany got to crown Our Blessed Mother!

THEN...

on June 10th my husband and I leave for an 11 day trip to...

ITALY!!!!

Whoo-hoo!!!

Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Rahpael, here I come!!!

So excited!!! And 4 days after we get back our little Amy is due!!

Happy days at the Belcher homestead!!!

xx

~Annie

 

Missing in action

I'm still here! I promise!

My 14 yr old daughter Isabel has just had knee surgery after she tore her ACL playing basketball.

Isabel having her dressing removed-we'll spare you the gory details!

Life has been a mess, and I have only had time to keep up with orders and check in once in a while.  She is a brave girl and I cannot believe what she has had to go through so far. And the therapy is just starting.
Meanwhile...

I have been playing with raised embroidery on wool felt whenever I can catch a moment.

I had the idea to create a wool embroidery piece for my soon-to-be-born grand daughter. My daughter is trying to put together a nursery with bright colors and a woodsy theme, so my mind  turned to the Waldorf inspired toys and rainbow palette. I have been having some fun with this!

Wool picture using a Salley Mavor pattern as a jumping off point

I will be framing this in a shadowbox type frame when completed

So that's where I've been.
 I am enjoying using the bright colors-makes me feel like spring will actually come!
 We have been having a really late winter with January type temperatures in March!
Hopefully that will end soon, I mean its almost Easter!
xx
~Annie 

Blackbird Design Exchange

I just got word that my partner Conny received my little Blackbird piece, so now I can post pics. This was a fun little stitch and a fun finish!

Buttons and Pins by Blackbird Designs

So cute! Don't you think?

xx

~Annie

Quilty Neighborhood Framed!

Quilty Neighborhood by Annie Beez Folk Art

I have to say I am really happy with the way the black frame pulls all of the black in the piece forward and tones down the yellow orange sky. The frame really added balance to this piece.

 Interesting!

xx

~Annie

A little more stumpwork

Working on this little by little in between printing and filling pattern orders.

Rose and Pomegranite design by Jane Nicholas

This is really fun and challenging!

xx

~Annie

Sneek peek on new chart!

 

 

Folk Art Flowers by Annie Beez Folk Art

 

 

This is my newest design release! It is stitched on 40 ct. Light Examplar by Lakeside Linens, using DMC. I just love this linen, the slight color variations are so pretty. This will be in my Etsy shoppe and shipping to distributors next week!

Thanks for looking!

XX

~Annie

If it ain't cross stitch...

The chances of a finish are much higher!!

This is called Her Majesty's Glove and it is from Fine Lines magazine, Vol.3,Number 2, from Fall of 1998.

Her Majesty's Glove by Nostalgic Needle, 32 ct cream linen using DMC.

It is supposed to be finished as a scissors case, but I chose to applique it to a piece of linen, and then I am going to frame it into a shadow box, just as soon as I find the right one! The hand part of the glove is ultra suede. The big flower and leaves are needle lace, also called detached buttonhole. A fun technique once you figure it out! The top middle flower is made up of queen stitches.

Next we have the stumpwork piece. This was really fun, and I am definitely going to do more of this technique! Imagine, something with the beauty and fine quality of cross stitch, but FAST! Yay! I'm im love!

Beetle and Berry by The Floss Box

I really enjoyed all of the different types of stitches. the berries are french knots and beads. The leaves are leaf stitch-which is a type of herringbone stitch. The lavendar sprays along the sides are bouillon knots using a blended needle with purple and green-so pretty! It also has stem, chain, satin  and feather stitches. I loved it!

I'm afraid my snail there looks a little bit like a blob. My hubby asked me what it was...?

 But practice makes perfect and I plan to make many more of these type of pieces! 

In fact I ordered Jane Nicholas' book on stumpwork, 

Stumpwork Embroidery: A Collection of Fruits & Insects for Contemporary Raised Embroidery

which I think will come tomorrow Gotta love that Amazon prime!

 And finally, I came across this freebie on Laura J. Perin's blog. I had a piece of canvas sitting around so I worked this up in literally a day. It was really fun and something different.(for me)

Bluebells by Laura J. Perin

So thats what I've been up to, in between stitching a new cross stitch pattern model.

Thanks for stopping by!

xx

~Annie 

Faith and the fickle heart!

If this blog has any purpose, it is to remind me of where I am supposed to be focusing my energies. Ha!

Her Majesty's Glove designed by Nostalgic Needle

 

One of my goals for 2013 was to focus my energies on embroidery.

I fell into an apathetic hole from the end of 2011 until October of 2012 and barely picked up a needle, unless forced to for commissions and such.

Granted 2012 was the "Year of the Wedding" which was all-consuming and incredibly stressful. 

ABC123 by Annie Beez Folk Art new design

 

But who am I kidding. 

When it comes to the arts, my heart is FICKLE!

I have lamented this fact many times over the years on this very blog!

ANY type of art can turn my head and then I am running after it with the reckless abandon of a co-ed in the springtime!

Bluebells free design by Laura J. Perin

 In my defense(and I cling to this pathetically) I have just published 2 cross stitch designs, one of which is the last chart in a series which has only taken me 2 years to release!(my extreme apologies to those who have been stitching this series!)

And I am writing an article for Prims magazine that will accompany an oil painted doll they will be featuring. So not a complete slacker!

3 dimensional bird design in surface embroidery by Annie Beez Folk Art

But, even though my focus is embroidery, I now have no less than 7 embroidery projects in the works. These are projects out on my work desk or set up in various frames in my studio.

Beetle and Berry Stumpwork Embroidery by The Floss Box

 

 This does not include WIPs or UFOs, obviously!

Only 1 is cross stitch. 

At least the rest are embroidery,

(even though I can hear my watercolors calling me and I am pretending not to hear!)

So I am boldly calling this Focused Fickleness!

 And I am keeping the faith that, as Mrs. Haynes(my daughter) said, God made you this way for a reason. So the reason must be that all of this exploring adds to my development as an artist, right? 

That sounds good, I'm going with it!

I'm not a 1 book at a time reader either!

Do any of you have trouble seeing a project through to the end?

 Or are you one of those 1 project at a time stitchers? 

(I envy you!)

XX

~Annie

Give Away Winner!!!

Such Friendship by Annie Beez Folk Art

Here are the results from the Random Number Generator:

1. TerriBoog
2. Gayle
3. Mary
4. Cindy
5. Katrina
6. Vickie
7. Margaret
8. Barbaral
9. Kate
10. barbara
11. Ellen
12. Lynda Ruth
13. Deb
14. April
15. Petit Cadeau

The names were put in by the order they were recieved in the comments, then randomized.

Congratulations Terri!!!

I will be contacting you shortly!

The patterns are now available in my Etsy Shoppe.

Click here to go see.

Thanks for playing everyone!

xx

~Annie

Sneak Peek and a give away!

Such Friendship by Annie Beez Folk Art

This new chart will also be winging its way to my distributor today, and up in my Etsy shop by the end of the week.

The model is stitched on 32ct. flax linen using a combination of sampler threads from Crescent Colours, Gentle Art and Weekes Dye Works. I used a piece of antique lace along the side when I finished it!Isn't it ooo-la-la pretty?? 

I just love antique laces and trims and will scour antique shops endlessly looking for them!

The little flower centers are stitched with a leviathan variation stitch and there is a wee Rhodes heart in the bottom right hand corner.

Leave me a comment on this post and I will enter your name for a free chart of this design on Friday!!

xx

~Annie

Quilty Neighborhood

Finally finished this one! 

Yay! Happy dance!

 I stitched and ripped this last chart many times before I was satisfied! 

I have finished the charting and this will be off to the distributor on Monday!

 Here is the entire piece before framing:

The final chart, Covered Bridge will be in my Etsy shop next week as an e-pattern. It will be in shops within the next couple of weeks!

xx

~Annie

For Sale or Trade

Time for a January Clearance! LOL!I have added a Sale or Trade tab to the top of this and my cross stitch blog. Everything is priced to go...!

Thanks for looking!

XX

~Annie

Mad Samplar

Mad Samplar

I have long been a fan of this site, and I am just as addicted to reading and research as I am to stitching. But somehow I had missed the needlework shop portion of this site and just looked at it for the first time yesterday. 

Be still my heart!

The selection of samplers is wonderful and is filling that empty space that my beloved Whyndham Needleworks used to occupy. You know, a shop where the selections are truly sampler oriented.  

And there are  plenty of the best of charts featuring specialty stitches and other techniques from all over the world. 

Just what I love!

So huzzah to Paige at Mad Samplar, I will be lurking there often!

Some clearance items on TDIPT

 

These handmade items are reduced 50%!

Have a look here.

Thanks for looking!

XX
~Annie

Happy New Year!

Blue Worke~Annie Beez Folk Art

From my house to yours!

I'm wishing you all a very happy, healthy and productive New Year, abundant with blessing for you and those you love!

Good morning! 

I am up early this New Years day to pick up the little one from a sleepover and go to church. It is a holy day of obligation for we catholics, which I guess could keep some of us from too much revelry on New Years eve! 

 I haven't been much of an early riser these days, with the boys home from college I find myself up late watching movies with them and such.(we have watched all 10 hours of LOTR on blue ray for example) .

I had a very quiet New Years eve which I thoroughly enjoyed, stitching and watching Jane Austen movies. 

I have been thinking about the new year, what plans I have for Annie Beez Folk Art in 2013 and so forth. I have been putting in the last stitches on the final chart in the Quilty Neighborhood series and am now working on the charting

 and planning the release date.

xx

~Annie

Finished stocking

Happy Christmastide!

Such a busy time, I'm sure you are all just as busy too!

I did manage to do the finishing on the stocking on time.

My new son-in-law was simply thrilled, which of course made it all worth it!

His reaction was very sweet and gratifying!

 I love this stocking so much, and plan to make 2 more of Mary Beale's sampler stockings this year, one for my husband and one for myself!

Here it is with my other favorite stocking-my daughter's.

I made this for her when she was little, and I have always loved it so much. I don't know where the pattern came from-possibly one of those Vanessa Ann books, remember those anyone?

So the two stockings went to their new home this year, and I must say I will miss my daughter's. It is one of the things I have  treasured every year when I unwrap it for Christmas.

Sigh!

xx
~Annie

Merry Christmas to All!

On this very Christmas night...

Peace to you and your loved ones.

xx

~Annie

What I get for trying to be organized

A lot of guff from my family! 

That's what I get!

I bought a new dry-erase month at a glance calendar with magnets on the back that I can tack on my refrigerator. It has a space for my schedule and for "their" schedules. 

You should have heard the laughter!

 OK, I am not known around these parts for being organized, but when I do try I think I should be at least encouraged! 

Right? 

Yes I should!

 

I carefully filled in all of the activities for this week and hung it up. And so far, I like it! OK, I didn't fill in the dinner menu-I mean you can't expect me to commit a week in advance, can you?

So this morning I went in the kitchen to get my coffee and "glance" at my new calendar, and this is what some Wise-enheimer added,

Ha Ha Ha! Everyone is a comedian!

xx

~Annie

Sampler Stocking finished!!

 

Sampler Stocking VIII

Mary Beale Designs

25 ct. Dublin linen

 

I hope I will be able to find good fabrics to finish it with. 

Our fabric choices have really been limited in the last couple of years.

 In the past I used a decorator weight moire'  taffeta to line my stockings, it was wonderful. And a velveteen for the back. 

Well, we'll see what I can find!

xx

~Annie