Overwhelmed and Inspired at STITCHES West

 

My head is still spinning and my hands are twitching with excitement and indecision after five inspiring days at STITCHES West in Santa Clara, CA. Though it was a rainy few days, I enjoyed seeing green vegetation from my 12th floor room at the Hyatt.

This graceful blimp gently floating along gave me a sense of being in Wonderland. Quite amazing!

I brushed up on embroidery stitches with Barbara Kerr . As my sampler shows, I have much more brushing up to do! Maybe an intensive brush up!

 The marvelous Sarah Peasley demonstrated joining stitches in the "Cut and Paste"  class which focused on the variety  of applications of the kitchener stitch.

Sarah displayed lovely examples to discuss as I  slowly-slowly stitched in and out and slip and Oops! of the venerable kitchener. I salute Lord Kitchener for making me crazy! Sarah patiently sorted it all out, thank goodness!

 WOW! All I can say is WOW after my first class ever with the awesome Myra Wood. She is an amazing artist who encourages and empowers her students to express themselves artistically in her Embellishments class. She simplified each stitch as we tried a hand at embellishing, then built on each stitch to make it even more glorious.

Her crazy quilt style sweater is eye candy. Imagine the hours spent on this treasure!

Here are a few more of her creations and a laugh at the end:

 Really? Is this how Myra started? When I grow up, I want to stitch like Myra!




Have you ever seen the "Huggable Hedgehog" and the other winsome critters available through Fiber Trends ? The designer, Debbie Radtke, taught a fun-fun-fun class on needle felting. The work shop atmosphere buzzed with her enthusiasm and positive spirit. Having never needle felted, I learned so much and look forward to playing, playing, playing with this when I can settle down and focus after this stimulating long weekend of fiber and fun!

Let the needle felting begin with those killer needles and bits of fiber! My official STITCHES pin, the little sheep, sets next to my baby steps felting work. All of these classes jig-sawed together in perfect fashion to help me add a personal touch to my knitted and crocheted pieces.

Thanks to Cindy Craig and an enlightening hour-long Market Session, I finally mastered the wily entrelac. She is a warm and gifted teacher from whom I hope to take more classes.

Dazzling! STITCHES West could not have been a better experience. My classes were excellent; the Market was loaded. I learned to pace myself and definately treasure the experience more than the other STITCHES events that I've attended.

Would you mind if add a swirl and a few beads to the back of your shirt? Just wondering.