The Gardens at Longwood

It's been about a month since we took our first trip to Longwood Gardens. It was a spectacular day, warm and muggy, but still beautiful. Nina loved the gardens, running from one section to the next. Later we had tickets to an outdoor concert and listened to the music and the crickets at the same time. Lastly we went to see the water show, huge fountains spurting water to classical music with displays of color bursting in the sky. Quite something!

Here are some photos I took that day...

and a glance at the flowers in my studio garden.













and the prettiest flower of them all...






I found this photo from back in the wedding prep days. I thought I'd share this with you as well.

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Flying Horses

Saturday morning and I'm home alone. I spent the past two hours working on this color interpretation. Can't make it happen. The horse was a gift from Shiri and Orin brought back from a trip to Mexico.

While I do think I'm pretty close in "real life", the colors in the photo aren't right. One of the hardest colors to find was the blue in the mane. I don't have a single fiber in that exact color. The color made me think of a chalk blue. I found the pastel crayon and the colored pencil, but still not right.

UGH!!

So, two hours later I decided to present you with one I couldn't do. Anyone want to give it a try?

UPDATE!

That's better, just needed to take the photo together, flying horse with fiber.

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What a deal!

I continue to look for ways to make the experience of receiving a package from us fun and inspiring. We have new packaging for our threads. "What does that have to do with needlepoint?", you ask. For me, everything. I want to present you with your kit, not just mail it to you. I want to put a smile on your face. I want you to feel that we've paid attention to all the details in honor of you and your needlepoint piece.

We are offering a few new items to enhance your experience without taking much away from your stitching budget. We call it our $3 bin.



Ultrasuede® packets of five delightful 4" x 3" pieces of color.

and beautiful scissor fobs, grosgrain ribbons attached with embroidered, sparkly buttons.

Visit our shop in the other things section.

I'm not a very religious person however tradition and continuity mean everything to me. Holidays always send me back to my childhood. On Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, Israel comes to a stand still. Nobody rides in cars, no public transportation, the street are full of families walking to synagogue or just meeting up with friends and family, all on foot (and bikes). It's such an amazing feeling, walking in the middle of a main street or highway along with other people dressed in their holiday best. While we don't have this experience anywhere else in the world, I still want to give my girls a sense of this day being different from other days. We will be together, walk to synagogue, explain the meaning of this day to little Nina, (I started talking about it this morning but when she heard that it was a day of fasting, she did NOT like that one bit!). We will build memories which will surface every time a holiday comes around. These memories will give my girls a sense of continuity and meaning.

May we all be written in the Book of Life.

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Inspired

For those of you who don't already know me, my name is Alexandra and I'm Orna's assistant here in her studio. Painting has always been a great love of mine and I earned my degree in it. One of my favorite painters is Matisse. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is is having a show right now titled "Henri Matisse and Modern Art on the French Riviera" and if you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it. His body of work was so large and covered so many styles, all of which were fantastic, but he always kept it very colorful. Color!, which we all know Orna loves.

Two important pieces for me are The Blue Window and Memory of Oceania. As a fun experiment I decided to pull colors from both paintings. The first is a loose interpretation where I play with the large but varying shades of blue, and the contrast in quantity against the red and orange.

The Blue Window

In the second I decided to keep it much more direct, recreating his Memory of Oceania piece with threads I pulled.

Memory of Oceania

Taking inspiration from beautiful works of art, I bet Matisse would be flattered!

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Happy New Year - Shana Tova

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I'm back!

Seminar is over and I'm home. We are all home.

This is what our bedroom looks like. Anyone want to come over and help unpack? Didn't think so.


Classes were wonderful, great students and very talented stitchers. I was impressed!
The ladies of the faculty committee were fabulous. They kept everything moving smoothly, kept everyone happy and made it look effortless. Joanne, Charly and Elizabeth, you rock!

Here are some of my wonderful students...






and then there is Syl (read all about him and his talented son).

The night before we returned home I woke up with an awful cold. The next morning we packed and all the while I was making these horrible cold sounds. Flying in this condition was not what the doctor prescribed, but we made it home, me with a 100.7 °.
It's Monday and I'm feeling better so no excuses. Today is unpack, laundry, cook, get school uniforms out, etc. etc. day.

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Milwaukee

These past few weeks have been a blur. I've been preparing for the ANG Seminar in Milwaukee. I'll be teaching three classes: Needlepoint on canvas which we will be painting, needlepoint on paper which we will be cutting, cropping, manipulating, and needlepoint in tiny frames which can be worn on chains or hung on walls.

I have also been working on lovely new items such as these very pretty scissor fobs. I'll put them up on the Orna shop when I get back from Milwaukee, (the price is irresistible).

I've completed all the models for the classes I'll be teaching in 2010.

Here are a few examples of Pinwheels, a class about color and tessellations.

and the Safari Sampler. I'm really happy with the final version, lots of wild color combinations and fun textures and stitches.

If you are planning to be at the seminar this year, please come by to say hello. Wednesday night is Expo night, a highlight of the seminar. I'll have a few tables with all my new "stuff", however if you don't find me at the table it's because I sneaked off (snuck off?) to see what I may want to buy from some of the other vendors. I always make a point of coming back with at least as many items as I had when I came.

I will have some new jewelry pieces with me at Expo night. When I get back home I'll put all these new items online.

It's 2:40 am. I've had four cups of coffee today and sleep doesn't seem to be on the way. I think I'll sneak into Nina's room and steal a few of those warm soft hugs that only sleeping children can provide.



night night...

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Color, Colore, Couleur, I'll take it in any language!

You know by now that I am a color addict. I see it, I feel it, I taste it.

I came across work by an Italian artist, Luisa De Santi, and I just spent an hour looking at her creations and smiling. What a wonderful mind, what a great imagination!

Take a look and then see some more here.

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Sunday's best!

Today we drove down to Atlantic City for Nina's figure skating competition. Along with many other people driving in their convertibles, we made our way down to the shore to the Flyers Ice Rink. Remember how nervous I was last time? I stayed very calm this time. And Nina, she won a gold medal!

I've been working late every night, getting ready for the ANG Seminar in less than two weeks. Very exciting! Classes for the following year's seminar are displayed there. I've been stitching models for the classes I will be teaching. Here are some models for my classes:





There is more work to be done and I'll try to post a few photos before I leave.


It's past 1 AM and I'm almost asleep on th i s k ey b oa r d zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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