I’ve managed to both fall behind and to be right on schedule with Christmas this year. With less than three days to go, all I have left to do is some grocery shopping, a bit of baking, a little bit of wrapping, and some light cleaning. Fingers crossed that things continue to go well!

Despite a sore back, the tree went up last Thursday.

ChristmasTree (2011)

There she is! Really, it isn’t about ready to tip over. Clearly, I took the picture at some sort of weird angle. And it was pretty dark and deary here yesterday, with rain off and on the whole time.

And, I do remember saying I had a couple of ornaments to share. But, after putting everything on the tree, I forgot which ones I hadn’t taken pictures of yet. The only one I could remember was Christmas Cookie Theif by Jennifer Aikman-Smith. I took this as a class at the Creativ Festival in October, but it is now available for sale on PatternsOnline.

Christmas Cookie Thief by Jennifer Aikman-Smith (Dragon Dreams)

So, Christmas, bring it on! My gifts are finished, my tree is up, and by bedtime tonight, I’ll be ready! I hope they rest of you out there are ready for the holidays too.

Dragons on the Tree is a post from Reflections in the Pond

Last week I finished up the first of my many, many Creativ Festival projects: Santa’s Little Helper by Jennifer Aikman-Smith.

Santa's Little Helper by Jennifer Aikman-Smith

He is stitched on Antique Brown perforated paper from Mill Hill, using DMC floss and white Fuzzy Stuff.

I believe Jennifer said that this pattern would be bundled together with last year’s design, Jingle (the last ornament in that post), and be offered for sale on PatternsOnline.

Santa’s Little Helper is a post from Reflections in the Pond

Whew! Sunday! After four long days, the fifth and final day had arrived. The end was in sight. I was sad, since I love all the creative inspiration and friendship at the Creativ Festival, but I have to admit that I was a little relieved because it was really starting to take a physical toll.

Anyway! Sunday began at 9am again, with another class from Jennifer Aikman-Smith: Treasure Them Now or Eat Them. It features a dragon mommy dealing with her six little baby dragons. Super cute!

Treasure Them Now... by Jennifer Aikman-Smith (WIP)

Jennifer had been having draws all weekend for some of her old models, and I kept joking with her that she needed to pick me. Well, my name was the very last name drawn, and I was lucky enough to get the model that I had been eyeing all weekend. Thank you so much for your generosity, Jennifer. I know that each of us who won are very excited to own something stitched by you.

Castle in the Clouds (needlepoint version) stitched by Jennifer Aikman-Smith

After class, my mom and I poked around on the show floor for a little while. I priced out mid-line sewing machines while she looked at beads. In the end, I picked up a beginner quilting kit and a couple of beads, while she bought a few beads and got a fabulous little free package of beads and whatnots from a booth.

Sunday's Creativ Festival Shopping

My final class of the weekend was Christmas Biscornu by Kim Beamish (who has been published in A Needle Pulling Thread). It is a lovely design that has a little flap of lacy stitches that overhang the biscornu edge. I really like it, but I think I’ve come up with a few extra embellishments for it. What can I say, the Creativ Festival is very inspiring.

Christmas Biscornu by Kim Beamish (WIP)

After class: more shopping! First, some Christmas red Swarovski beads for the Christmas biscornu, and then a little canvaswork kit from Carolyn Mitchell. It is a lovely little holly ornament that is a compliment to a design that will be featured in the Festive 2011 issue of A Needle Pulling Thread.

Holly Berry ornament by Carolyn Mitchell

And my last purchase: a new sewing machine. After shopping around, I settled on the Brother Innov-is 80. It has 80 different stitches (including a block alphabet and 10 different one-step button holes), an LCD screen, and about a million features my basic Kenmore doesn’t have. And the price? Well, it really was fabulous. (Singer had a machine I was looking at. They said the $300 show price was great. Amazon sells it for $180. o_O )

Brother Innov-is 80 relaxing in its new home (the dinning room table)

So, my final haul from the festival was pretty good. Below is the picture of Friday’s purchases, which I haven’t posted yet. I’m not sure about all the projects in my future, but I know that I am very well prepared!

Friday's Creativ Festival Shopping

As a bit of an aside, I thought I would let you know what was going on in the hall right next door to the Creativ Festival show floor.

Strange Bedfellows Indeed

It was a very interesting mix of people coming down the escalator, as you can well imagine. And, I wasn’t always right when I guessed who would be going into which show. The juxtaposition even made the front page of our local rag newspaper, and the more, uhh, respectable paper even had a piece about it too (warning: the article is not for the prudish once you get past the paragraph about strange bedfellows).

I’m glad the weekend is over, but I’m also missing it all already. I’ve already got next year’s festival written in on the calendar.

Creativ Festival – Day 5 is a post from Reflections in the Pond

This Saturday just past was my fourth day in a row at the Creativ Festival, here in downtown Toronto. And, really, by then I was starting to feel pretty exhausted. Even still, I was having a great time. It is wonderful to catch up with people I only see once a year, like Dale from Bermuda or Andrea from Ohio (who actually missed last year because she got married; not a bad excuse).

In terms of classes, Saturday was pretty quiet for me. At 9am I had an intarsia class with Charles Voth (StitchStud on both Ravelry and Twitter). He taught us two different methods of working intarsia in the round. And, while it was a bit confusing at first, I eventually caught on and I think I’ll be using at least one of the techniques in the very near future to knit a wee robot design from Danger Crafts.

Intarsia In the Round - Method 1 (Large Areas of Colour)

There are some pretty obvious mistakes in the above picture (like a couple of stitches in completely the wrong colour and terrible tension), but the join itself is actually very sound, and looked much better after some practice.

Intarsia In the Round - Method 2 (Small Motif)

My second class of the day was a lecture by Jennifer Aikman-Smith on how to involve kids in crafting. I found it very interesting because Baby Man is now at the age where we can start to work on simple craft projects together. He is also part of a generation that is totally digital. He doesn’t watch TV, he watches YouTube. We read books on the iPad, and use it to learn how to write letters and do math through various apps. The way he relates to the world is very different, but, thankfully, he has already shown some interest in the crafts I do. Jennifer gave me a lot of ideas, but I also learned that the most important things are art supplies and time.

And speaking of supplies, after the lecture, it was time for me to do some shopping. I bought a copy of Nicky Epstein’s Knitting on Top of the World for a very good price at the clearance book stall (I’m following Mary’s blog, where she is knitting every pattern in the book). I also picked up a couple of more bag kits from Quilt a Bag, some fabric from Len’s Mill, got a free back issue of A Needle Pulling Thread and bought another issue, and bought an inexpensive pair of dressmaker’s sheers.

Saturday's Creativ Festival Shopping

After shopping, it was time for the gala dinner. As usually, it was stuffed chicken (this time with wild rice) and a little custard dessert. Nice, but not fabulous. The speeches were mercifully short this year, which was wonderful. Next stop was a fashion show featuring designs from final year students at the Toronto International Academy of Design. Unlike previous years, the show was fairly short and featured a lot of really lovely (and reasonable) designs. I can honestly say I really enjoyed it.

At the end of the show we received a small gift from Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements. The collection of beads was much more useful and pretty than the items from the last few years, unfortunately though, many of my pieces were  broken.

Gift from Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements

Saturday was a long day, but it turned out to be much more enjoyable than I was expecting. Onwards, to Sunday!

Creativ Festival – Day 4 is a post from Reflections in the Pond

Yesterday was a very, very full day at the CreativFestival. My first class, at 9am, was with Larry Shackleton of Approved Sewing Machine Services. He taught us some basic sewing machine maintenance, and was extremely knowledgeable. I really enjoyed that class, and I feel like I can take good care of my simple Kenmore machine now (…or maybe I’ll look for a fancier machine on the show floor today). He also talked a little bit about the pros and cons of different types of bobbin setups, about why using a 1/4″ foot is important when you want 1/4″ seam, keeping your oil fresh, and a bunch of other little tips like that. I really wish I had been able to take his second class on basic troubleshooting, since it would have been an excellent complement to the first class. But, instead I took a class with Jennifer Aikman-Smith.

I know that several of you have taken classes with Jennifer, so you know is how fabulous she is. For those who haven’t, all I can say is imagine a 6’4″ woman, perky, who is funny, incredibly creative, and unendingly kind. She is truly a lovely lady, and classes with her are one of the highlights of my year.

Yesterday I took three classes with her, all of which ended up being on perforated paper. Unfortunately, because I was feeling a bit run down and off kilter yesterday (things are taking a greater toll on me than I expected, unfortunately), I wasn’t able to get too much stitching done. But, here is a picture with some bits with a little bit of stitching on them.

Dragons WIPs from Dragon Dreams

The first class (upper left) was Santa’s Little Helper, a cute Christmas dragon pin with a jingle bell around his neck. You can see a picture of him here, on Jennifer’s latest newsletter. Of course, he is much cuter in person. I also understand that he will be available from PatternsOnline before Christmas. If you want to make sure you have the supplies on hand, you will need some white Fuzzy Stuff from Rainbow Gallery, a small jingle bell, and some beads for his necklace. (The kit has black bugle beads, gold star sequences, and gold beads.)

The second class was Christmas Cookie Thief (upper right), which is a cute little ornament with a dragon, some cookies and a gingerbread man. Adorable!

The final class of the day was Perforated Paper Castle and Dragon (bottom), which, as you can imagine, is a perforated paper castle. However, the dragon isn’t stitched. He is a little Fimo dragon made by Jennifer! Everyone got a little guy who was different from everyone else’s, and they are all cute beyond words. You can see mine in the picture above. But, again, as I am taking pictures early in the morning, with very poor light, everything looks terrible. I will take better pictures of the dragon minion (and Jennifer’s autograph on his butt) early next week. And, of course, I will share pictures of the finished pieces as they are finished.

I did manage to get in some shopping yesterday as well. Yarn was purchased, which you may have seen if you follow me on Twitter. I also bought a couple of books, some magazines, two purse sewing kits from Quilt a Bag (love!!), and some sewing notions. I’ll share pictures of all of this next week, when I can spread out and take some good pictures.

Today is another long day. My first class is at 9 again, this time with Charles Voth to learn about intarsia in the round (a knitting technique). Afterwards, I will be going to a creativity lecture by Jennifer. After that: more shopping and maybe some make-and-takes. And, finally, I will be attending the “gala” dinner and fashion show. My only hope is that the fashion show isn’t as long as in the past.

CreativFestival – Day 3 is a post from Reflections in the Pond

Yesterday was a pretty eclectic day for me at the CreativFestival…

(I appologzie for the poor quality of the photos. I took them early in the morning, without using good lighting.)

First, I took Fractured Fair Isles, a knitting course taught by the lovely and funny Fiona Ellis. We talked about how you can play with Fair Isle patterns (those patterns around the tops of Norwegian or ski sweaters),  maybe making them asymmetrical, or using non-traditional motifs, or making unexpected colour changes. We all then made up our own little pattern and knitted it up. Here’s what I came up with:

Little Cars Fair Isles

The bottom is a row of cars and trucks (which Fiona said she loved), and the top is a row of airplanes and a helicopter (which I’m not as proud of, but, hey, they are still cute).

My second class was I am a Creative Soul with Jennifer Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams. The piece is sort of like a sampler, with lots of specialty stitches scattered around. But the wonderful thing about this design is that it is meant for the stitcher to customize. We brought our own fabric, two or three colours of over-dyed threads, and some beads. Jennifer than let us pick a neutral over-dyed, more special beads, a metallic, and a lovely little charm she and her daughters made. I am totally in love with this design and I can’t wait to finish it. I will definitely show more of it as I get a chance to work on it.

I Am a Creative Soul WIP with threads, etc.

My last class of the day was another serger sewing class, with the same teacher as I had on Wednesday. This class was about what you can do with different serger feet, and it was so much better than the class on Wednesday. I now have a book full or directions and little swatches showing the finished piece. (The piping one didn’t turn out quite right because of a problem with the machine, but I’ve got the idea.) And now I know what kind of feet I’d like for my serger.

Sample of Wired Edge and Zipper from Serger

Today’s classes  include one on basic sewing machine maintenance, and three more stitching classes with Jennifer. And, since the show floor opens today, I may even find some time to shop.

CreativFestival – Day 2 is a post from Reflections in the Pond

I fished another old CreativFestival design out of the old workbasket. This one is First Dragon Encounter by Jennifer Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams.

First Dragon Encounter by Dragon Dreams (WIP)

I haven’t made a whole huge amount of progress on it, but considering all I had stitched in the class was a wee bit of her bodice, I’d say I’m doing pretty well. (I think I remember this being one of my last classes for that weekend, so I decided to work on another design in class that was closer to being finished.)

The design is from the 2008 CreativFestival (and is now available on Patterns Online). It is stitched with DMC floss and one colour of Waterlilies Silk (Sky Blue Pink) on 28 count Mushroom Jazlyn.

I plan to stitch more or less as charted, although I think I will probably leave off the blackwork elements around the outside. I suppose I will see how I feel when the princess and her wee dragon are stitched.

Princess and Dragon is a post from Reflections in the Pond

2012 is supposed to be the year of WIPs for me since I will be taking part in Measi’s WIPocalypse. This means that I’ve been thinking about all the projects I’ve got hanging around that need to be finished. And, believe me, there is a lot. At last count, I was somewhere around 44 projects that have been started, and at least another 68 that are kitted and ready to go. Truthfully, I’m completely embarrassed by these numbers. Who needs that much stuff just sitting around unused?! And with the CreativFestival on the horizon, and an order I have to pick up at my LNS this week (which I now realize I totally don’t need, but feel an obligation to buy since part of it is a special order), those numbers will get even higher. So, rather than wait for 2012, I decided to poke around in my workbasket to see what I could find.

Live Fully by Dragon Dreams

This is Live Fully by Jennifer Aikman-Smith (Dragon Dreams). It is stitched with DMC floss and three colours of Crescent Colours floss on 28 count Toasted Almond Jazlyn. The pattern is from the 2010 CreativFestival, and, unlike some CreativFestival patterns, Jennifer has not made this one avaialble through Patterns Online.

I made only a minor change to the design. The blue circles should have a blue square stitched inside them, but I liked the look better with the circle empty.

I hate to admit that I don’t completely remember the story behind this design. I believe that Jennifer was inspired to create it when one of the ladies with whom she attends a yearly stitching retreat passed away from cancer at a relatively young age. Whatever the impetus, the design itself is lovely, especially with the over-one hands in various shades to represent sharing. I look forward to getting it framed and hanging it on my wall.

Live Fully is a post from Reflections in the Pond

I love it when I finish a design, and I love it three times as much when I finish three!

First is Perforated Paper Dragon Ornament from Dragon Dreams (Creativ Festival class). Jennifer designed it so that one colour was our choice (the belly and wings). She brought a large bag of silks to the class for us to go through, and I picked Caron Waterlilies Iris. He is a lovely 3-dimensional little guy, with separate wings and treasure. The arms fold forward, so the hands are actually stitched on the back of the perforated paper (which is why they are not blue; be warned, the new painted perforated paper from Mill Hill is only painted on the front).

Perforated Paper Dragon Ornament by Dragon Dreams

If you’ve been over to Erica’s blog in the past day or so, you may have noticed that our dragons look a lot alike. Well, we tend to like a lot of the same colours and when I picked my purple she just said “I’ll  have what she’s having”. We still managed to make our dragons look different though, since she went with Waterlilies Passion for her dragon’s treasure (as it is charted), but I decided to use Iris for mine. (There are two other treasures, a present and a candy cane, but we picked the same thing again, this time without realizing.)

Finish number two is Peace Ornament, also from Dragon Dreams and another Creativ Festival class. It is a quick and easy stitch, but cutting it out was fiddly. If you look really closely, you can see I made a small mistake and cut down the centre of one of the unstitched arms.

Peace Ornament by Dragon Dreams

The third finish is another Dragon Dreams design from the Creativ Festival (see a theme here?). Jingle was Jennifer’s beginner class, and it is super cute. Take note, it is on perforated paper and uses Fuzzy Stuff. So, if any of you experienced stitchers are avoiding either of these, be brave! Jennifer thinks beginners can handle them, and so do I.

First, here he is without his Fuzzy Stuff fuzzed up:

Jingle by Dragon Dreams (not fluffy)

And then after few pokes with the hook end of Velcro, and the attachment of a bell, we have:

Jingle by Dragon Dreams

And see those two perfect knots for eyes? I finally, after, what, three years now, got Jennifer to show me how to do a Colonial knot properly. She shows us all ever year, but the classes are usually too big for me to be able to see it properly. The beginner class only had four people (and only one real beginner), so she was able to spend the time and show me. Turns out that I had it right, I was just picking it all up to soon, and losing the knot in the process. So, no more cheating by tying knots on top of the work or adding beads, I can do a proper knot now!

Don’t forgot: Missy Ann and Annette’s 31 Days of Halloween is almost over. (And I still haven’t won. ) Head over to Annette’s to enter today’s draw.

A Trio of Ornaments is a post from Reflections in the Pond

The Creativ Festival is over for another year, and while I feel creatively re-energized, I am absolutely exhausted.

(I’m sorry for the dull pictures. It isn’t very sunny here today.)

Saturday was a very long day. My first class was at 9am, and was a needlework designer round robin. Alma Laidlaw of Sew Fancy taught goldwork. We did a little flower piece using several types of sadi (coiled wire). It was very simple to do, and the results are stunning. I am already thinking of ways I can incorporate this into my regular needlework. (I didn’t do a very good job of couching the wire of the stem, but it still looks okay, I think.)

Goldwork Flower (class from Alma Laidlaw)

The second instructor was Christine Allan of Fun and Fast Patterns, and she taught us Swedish (or Huck) Weaving. It is another simple technique that gives fabulous results, and I can see myself doing more of it the future. The picture is a close-up of the small area of a towel border that I was able to finish during the class.

Mountain Mist Towel (class by Christine Allan)

The third teacher was Jennifer Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams. She taught a lovely snowflake ornament on perforated paper. If you go to this page, you can see a picture of the centre of the ornament, which says “Peace”.

Peace Ornament (WIP; class by Jennifer Aikman-Smith)

My second class of the day was yet another class with Jennifer. (She is a fabulous teacher!) I’m not going to share that one yet, since it is very nearly done.

My final class on Saturday was about a provisional cast-on method of knitting. I wasn’t impressed with the teacher or the method. This YouTube video explains it better, and it only takes about three minutes, rather than an hour and a half class.

Saturday night I attended the “gala” dinner and fashion show. The dinner was nice, but the fashion show was far too long. It was a showcase of designs from the local fashion school (Ryerson, for those who know Toronto colleges), and some of the designs were fabulous. Some, however, actually made the audience laugh. Really, an audience of crafty ladies are probably not too interested in “high fashion’ designs from college kids.

Sunday was a short day, thankfully. I took a very short class on needle tatting, where we learned how to do the double stitch and picots. I tried shuttle tatting years ago by taking a class at my then LNS Golden Threads (I miss your shop terribly, Michelle!), but I promptly forgot how to do it. Needle tatting seems much easier to me, and hopefully I’ll be able to figure out some more advanced techniques with the books I’ve bought.

My very last class was an ornament taught by Laura Dickson of Enchanting Lair.  Unfortunately, there was a problem with the class kit. The design is stitched on three Tokens & Trifles triangle cards, but the distributor has had none since the spring and the company itself seems to have disappeared. Laura was terribly upset about it all, but she was not allowed to cancel the class. She did give us each one card, as well as all the treads required in full skeins (!), and she is continuing her hunt for more of the cards to send to us if she can find them. If your shop has some of the triangle cards, please let her (or me) know!

And that is about it. I did more shopping then I meant to, but the things I bought were few and exactly what I wanted: some Interweave Knit back issues, yarn for shawls and a sweater for Baby Man, a couple of Dinky Dyes oops packs (which are fabulous!), a design pre-order from Laura, a small piece of fabric from DoveStitch (which I’m not overly happy with, truthfully, as it feels very rough), a couple of beads, and a couple of cross stitch leaflets. There were so few needlework vendors there this year, so it was more difficult to find things to spend money on.

I am already looking forward to next year. I love taking classes with favourite instructors and seeing all the ladies I only see there. It is also great to get away are re-charge creatively.

Saturday and Sunday at the Creativ Festival is a post from Reflections in the Pond