Photoshop and Needlework

In the spring of 2008 I started the transition from computer-illiteracy to learning a bit about the e-world via my trusty little MacBook which I named MacSoph. I began this journey by signing up for the One-to-One program at Apple and I went to classes in my local Apple Store from March 2008 until last year when Apple discontinued the program.

Along the way the Creatives at Apple (what Apple calls their tutors) introduced me to a whole new experience including the world of Adobe's software. I started learning Photoshop about 6 or 7 months after my first computer lesson and by the summer of 2009 I was up and rolling although on wobbly legs.

In August of 2009 I concocted a private jet with a needlepoint shop inside and took my followers on a month-long trip flying to destinations where we sight-saw and stitched. Each day new material for the trip forced me to use my very wobbly Photoshop skills and by the end of the month of travel on Queendom Website, I had grown better at it.

This month on Queendom Website I am reminiscing about the journey: I've been looking for and posting my early Photoshop images on my home page.

If you would like to follow along: www.GayAnnRogers.com.

Tomorrow I am taking 2 days off from reminiscing about my fantasy trip and posting two images from my past. The two images show the before and after versions of a favorite photo of mine. From time to time people have asked me if Photoshop has helped me with needlework. I decided these two images give the answer better than anything I could write.

The images arrive tomorrow. Meanwhile today, if you visit Queendom Website, you will see a number of photos of Photoshopped Carole Lake over the years.

Gay Ann

Nearing the End of Selling My Needlepoint Portrait of Eleanor of Aquitaine

Hard to believe that almost a month has gone by since I first posted a photograph of my Eleanor of Aquitaine on my website. The time is dwindling, the kits are dwindling.

I am supposed to keep the sale open through May 31, but I think I will have to end it early. How many days from now? I should know in the next day or two.

I am looking forward to class at Shining Needle Society; class begins bright and early on June 1.

To see my needlepoint portrait of Eleanor of Aquitaine and read about her, visit my website:
www.GayAnnRogers.com

Gay Ann

My Needlepoint Portrait of Eleanor of Aquitaine

Seven years ago I stitched a portrait of Elizabeth 1, and three years ago Catherine the Great; tomorrow morning my third portrait in my series of powerful women arrives on my website. This one is of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the medieval world's most well known queen.

All week long on my website and also on Facebook, I have been posting photos of the details of my portrait of Eleanor, but so far the portrait of Eleanor has been a secret.

All that changes tomorrow morning: Eleanor will arrive on my website on May 1 at 8:00 a.m. California time.

Spring is here and with it the increasingly long hours of daylight. Perfect for stitching!

www.GayAnnRogers.com

Needlepoint Hearts etc. Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017

Tomorrow morning a sale on my website starts at 8:00 a.m. California time.

It is my traditional Hearts Sale (there are five hearts: four new ones and one returning) but with a new twist: the sale also offers a small cache of accouterments preparing for the arrival of my portrait of Eleanor of Aquitaine on May 1. These are small preparations for stitching Eleanor.

In addition Carolyn Meacham is selling a handful of antique needlework tools in my sale, including a small number of antique stilettos which we modern stitchers use as laying tools. There are a couple of gorgeous ones!

My sale is a small one; E-Week last October dragged on and on over a series of months and it actually finished finally (FINALLY!) at the end of January this year. So I am very happy my Hearts Sale is a small one. My goal is to finish the sale, Mail Jail and all,  by March 1.

If I can finish by March 1 and pack everything away, I will have two months of stitching time before Eleanor arrives. I am happy to say that the kits for Eleanor are finished and ready to go, so the time between my Hearts Sale and Eleanor will indeed belong to me. Two months stitching time! Makes me very happy to think about it.

So what do I plan to stitch? Two large samplers and also a secret project. It is secret because it is very ambitious and I have to see if I can actually do it. Both samplers are ambitious too, adaptations from an antique sampler I bought last year, but I have been working on the sampler patterns and I can see my way to doing them.

Meanwhile, back to work. I have a busy day today checking everything and making sure it is ready to go for tomorrow morning.

Gay Ann
www.GayAnnRogers.com

The End of the Stitching Year, The Beginning of the New

It doesn't seem possible to me that 2016 ends tonight. Where did the time go?
Wherever, it is gone, and it is a reminder that 2017, so full of promise now as I look ahead, will vanish almost as quickly.

I ended this year working on a couple of holiday hearts; I will begin next year finishing a set of instructions and working on some small kits for my February Sale. But these tasks won't take too long and when I finish them, my time will belong to me.

My big event in 2017 will be the arrival of my portrait of Eleanor of Aquitaine on May 2, 2017.
The good news is that Eleanor is finished and proofed and the kits are almost finished. All I have to do is print the instructions and check the kits.

In addition I have a great start on E-Week 2017 which is still 10 months away.

All this means I will have time to stitch. I should have at least 3 months stitching time this spring.
So what do I plan to do?
Stitch two samplers, maybe even a third one.
And I plan to keep at my followers to stitch along with me.

To begin the New Year, I've written TWO sets of New Years Resolutions for Stitchers.
I will post them on my website near midnight tonight and we will start the year right, with our needles in our hands. Bright and early tomorrow morning.

Happy New Year! Here's hoping the New Year is indeed filled with time in the company of our needles.

Gay Ann
www.GayAnnRogers.com

Jolly Holiday: Making Time for Stitching!

I can't believe where the last months have gone.
I keep turning around to see if they are really behind me. Truth: they are!

For me this holiday season so far has been all about food! Sweet food, which I find impossible to resist. I have my English grandmother's terrible sweet tooth, and this year I have Marcia and Ferris to thank for a huge box of my favorite candy, Judy A to thank for a delicious tin of home-made Christmas cookies, Dave and Clyde to thank for wonderful Baklava, and too many other goodies that I have all too happily devoured. And it isn't even over yet.

I am still (yes STILL) waiting for the last of the things I owe people to arrive, namely scissors and needles. I keep calling the distributor and asking and they keep telling me it will only be a couple of days more. A couple of days has morphed into 2 months. Hopefully it will all end early in the New Year.

If they had come now, I would have had to abandon the season and pack packages, so I guess there is always a bit of silver lining, in that I can enjoy the season and also have some time for stitching.
I am stitching early in the mornings, and again in the late afternoons, nice way to begin what will be a busy day, and nice way to end it too, and yesterday I am happy to write that I just finished a jeweled sewing case, a pretty one if I do say so. It was so satisfying to take the last stitch. In this case the last stitch was sewing on a pretty little pearl.

The holidays are such a fun time to stitch and this afternoon I started a Christmas design. Even though I won't finish it in time for Christmas, it is such fun to work on something season-appropriate. So what am I working on? A heart that is a Christmas Dress, all in red and green. I wanted to make it plaid, but even the smallest plaid is too bold for the small scale. Then happily I came across a stitch that looks a bit like a plaid but is more delicate. I am anxious to see if it works.

I always write on my website at this time of year: I know everybody is so busy, but it is both helpful and healthy to take a few deep breaths and take a few stitches. Kick back and pick up your needle and relax and lose yourself in a handful pretty threads and colors. I am absolutely convinced that stitching is a form of meditation. Relaxation is necessary even in the busiest of times.

Gay Ann

In Two Days: my biggest needlepoint sale of the year. October 20, 2016

The last post I wrote was almost 2 weeks ago, when I was working overtime to prepare for my biggest needlepoint sale of the year.

This year is special because it marks the return of perhaps my most popular design: my portrait of Elizabeth 1. It is the first time I have sold the kit in 5 or 6 years (I can't remember exactly.

Along with Elizabeth, I have designed some new Elizabeth-inspired designs and I will be selling them also, along with an elaborate sewing case and two new heart designs.

I hope you will stop by my website on Thursday morning, October 20. The sale opens at 8:00 a.m. California time and remains open until Wednesday evening, October 26, hence the sale's name:
E-Week (E-Merchandise Week coined because of Merchandise Night at EGA Seminars and eventually shortened to E-Week.

This is my 9th year of having a big fall sale. Where did the time go?

Gay Ann

Preparing for My Biggest Sale of the Year: E-Week 2016

Last August in Mid-Summer Sale I sold designs I have offered before. Featured in that sale were my miniatures of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Bess of Hardwick. My portraits are by far my most frequently requested designs, and my kits for Mary and Bess were gone in a short number of hours.

Now I am preparing for my largest sale of the year, marked this time by the return of my portrait of Elizabeth. I have a good number of the kits but the number is held in check by the availability of the tiny pearls it takes to work the design.

So Elizabeth is set to go. She will be available at on Thursday, October 20 at 8:00 a.m. California time and I will leave her for sale for a week or as long as my supply of kits lasts.

Fine, said my friend Natalie, but what are you going to offer for your followers who already have Elizabeth?

So I began last year stitching a series of new designs related to Elizabeth.

Fine, said my friend Natalie, but what are you going to offer for your followers who have Catherine?
She was referring to my portrait of Catherine the Great.

So I have a new offering for Catherine's fans, quite a significant one, if I do say so. It is the most elaborate and jeweled one of its type that I have undertaken. It is splashy, that's for sure, and I hope people will think it is pretty as well.

Although much of my sale revolves around the return of Elizabeth, there are several other designs also and the return of my Surprise Windows on Saturday, October 22 at 8:00 a.m. California time.
More about Surprise Windows in my next post.

Gay Ann

If you wish to sign up for my Newsletters about E-Week and my other sales, email me:
GayAnnRogers@me.com

Needlepoint Hearts

I've long forgotten when I stitched my first heart, although I remember which one it was. It was a 'Merry Christmas' Heart. How many have I stitched? I have no idea, but I know the answer is a lot.

In these, the Dog Days of Summer, I decided to while away the time on my website by posting a retrospective of my hearts. If you would like to see them, go to www.GayAnnRogers.com.
I've posted them on Facebook as well.

I confess, I'd forgotten about some of them and I've enjoyed revisiting them. I can't sell many of them any longer -- often I am out of the beads, or the threads have gone extinct and I can't find a replacement. I've been thinking of making some new ones: a new Tuxedo Heart and Wedding Dress Heart, some of my earlier beaded ones, it would be fun to revive them.

And I always have a portfolio of drawings for new hearts, so new ones come almost every sale.
In the last year I've made six Imperial Romanov Jewels Hearts to go along with Catherine the Great. I've sold four of them; two to go, one in E-Week in October and the last one in my Hearts Sale in February.

Why hearts?
I like the shape; they're small and usually quick and easy to stitch and when I finish one, it seems like I've stitched a fun pattern that happily didn't take forever. It usually takes me 3 evenings to stitch a heart and double the time to write the instructions. Instructions always take longer than stitching a piece.

So yes, I will continue to stitch hearts and more hearts and likely still more.

Gay Ann

Needlepoint Sale on Thursday Morning, July 28

I haven't had a sale of anything since February and a good number of my followers have been writing with requests for patterns from my past.

So MacSoph (my trusty little MacBook Pro) and I have been constructing a sale and we are set to go on Thursday morning, at 8:00 a.m. California time. It is Mid-Summer Sale. I intended it to be a very small sale but it had a way of growing and growing and now I am selling 25 designs from my past.

The main feature is the return of my Miniature Portraits of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Bess of Hardwick, my uppity ladies from the 16th century. Nothing like the Stuarts and the Cavendishes all returning at once.

The kits for the miniature portraits are limited, but many of the other designs which are instructions only are unlimited. I say unlimited in a qualified sense -- it depends on my energy for packing and shipping, ie Mail Jail.

To find the sale on Thursday morning:
www.GayAnnRogers.com

To sign up for my Newsletter, email me:
GayAnnRogers@me.com

I promise not to flood your inbox with Newsletters: I send them only to alert people to a sale and during the sale. I just sent a new Newsletter this morning bright and early, at 6:20 a.m.

Mary and Bess return on Thursday; can my portrait of Elizabeth 1 be far behind?
Elizabeth will arrive at my October sale, my biggest of the year, called E-Week.
Remember mid-October.

Meanwhile I hope you will come and visit Queendom Website.

Gay Ann

Sales of My Needlepoint Patterns and Kits: FAQs

Lately I have had quite a few inquiries about patterns and kits for sale. Newbies to my website say they see designs of mine that they wish to buy but they can't find where to pay for them. Lately a note of frustration has crept into their emails. I thought it best if I wrote a post to answer questions about my admittedly idiosyncratic business practices.

Why don't I sell designs all the time? 
Because I'd be in Mail Jail forever and have no time to stitch. I like to stitch as much as you do, maybe even more!

So when do I sell designs?
I sell designs three times a year: in February, in May and in mid-October.
(Apologies that I missed May this year -- I'll have a sale sometime between mid-July and early August to make up for it).

How can someone find out about my upcoming sales?
Sign up for my Newsletter.
To sign up, email me: GayAnnRogers@me.com.

Will I flood your email inbox with Newsletters?
No, that I promise.  Essentially I send a Newsletter right before a sale starts and again right after the sale starts. That's it.

What about old patterns, how can you get the one you want?
I receive requests  almost daily for designs I've sold in the past.
I try to bring back a couple of patterns from the past at each sale. Usually I ask followers for suggestions and I bring back the most frequently requested.
If there is one you have your heart set on, email me: GayAnnRogers@me.com
I won't promise it, but if I receive other requests for it, I will try and bring it back.

Which old patterns am I considering bringing back in the next sales?
Right now my most-often requested designs are these:
Elizabeth 1 portrait. Since the day I first sold her, this has been my most frequently requested design.
Mary, Queen of Scots and Bess of Hardwick miniatures
Downton Abbey designs
Flowers, Hearts and a Peacock Sampler
Hollyhock House Sampler.

Will I sell the above designs soon?
I plan to sell my Elizabeth 1 portrait kit in October.
I plan to sell Mary, Queen of Scots and Bess of Hardwick sometime this summer.
I'll sell Downton Abbey designs again this summer and I'll try to bring back Flowers, Hearts and a Peacock Sampler and Hollyhock House Sampler either in October or next February.

Where can you see photos of the above designs?
My website: www.GayAnnRogers.com
Click on 'Portraits' and on 'Samplers' on the yellow navigation bar.
Sometime soon I'll start a gallery of sewing cases too.

What is the status of Echoes of Elizabeth Sampler?
I sold Echoes of Elizabeth Sampler last February and immediately afterward received a bunch of emails asking for it again.

Right now, because I am out of several beads for it, I have retired Echoes of Elizabeth Sampler.
If I can find appropriate beads, I will try and bring it back sometime in the future, but I'm not holding my breath.
Read on and you may be happy.

What about new designs? What am I planning for the future?
Up till my eye surgery, I had been stitching up a storm. Now I have new glasses and lots of new plans.

This may make Echoes of Elizabeth Sampler fans happy:
Echoes of Elizabeth Sampler #2, the pair for Echoes.

Here's what else I've been working on:
More Russian designs to go with Catherine the Great.
More Tudor designs to go with Elizabeth 1.
Three new geometrics, two ornaments, two sewing sets and...
A big surprise for 2017.


There are two more questions I am asked all the time:
What is my most popular design?
What is my favorite piece of my own work?

I'll save the answers to those questions in a future post.
For now I hope I've answered your questions about my sales.

Thanks for your interest.
Gay Ann

New: Needlework Lessons on Threads

It has been a long time since I've posted on my Blog. I hadn't realized so much time had passed.

I was on hiatus from webstuff and needlework for a month and a half this spring and during that time, I wrote a new series of lessons on Threads. Really, they are little essays on my favorite threads and how I use them.

There are eight lessons and this morning, I just posted the third one.

If you would like to read them, travel to www.GayAnnRogers.com and click on any of the photos on Queendom Website's Home Page.

Writing lessons was a good way to pass my time this spring. I couldn't stitch so I wrote lessons and instructions for projects and made kits. Oodles of kits which is super because I am ahead. I don't think I have been ahead for years and it is a nice feeling!

Speaking of kits, I had intended to have a sale in May but my hiatus blitzed those plans. I'm thinking now of having a small sale sometime in mid July or early August. I need to fulfill my promise to sell my miniatures of Mary, Queen of Scots and Bess of Hardwick. I promised in 2016 that I would bring back my Elizabethan designs. Elizabeth herself will arrive again at my October 'E-Week' sale and I thought it too much to bring back all three at once.

So look for a small sale sometime in the summer.

Meanwhile, nine days until I have my new glasses and can pick up my needle again.
Can't wait!

Happy Memorial Day.
Gay Ann

In the New Year: Finding Stitching Time

Here it is, a New year and I am busy trying to keep resolutions and one of my resolutions is to find more stitching time. This morning I wrote this post for my Catherine the Great Stitchalong Room at Shining Needle Society. I started out to write a different post and it just evolved into this one. I like it so much I ended up posting it in all my Shining Needle Society classrooms and I decided to post it here too. I'd be interested in hearing if it works for any of you.

Happy New Year!

Finding Stitching Time

Needlepoint is my full time job and as such it follows that I should be stitching all day every day, doesn’t it.

But that doesn’t happen that way, too much else to do to keep my little business running and I have to do what you do, find the time.. 

Stitching isn’t a task, it’s a joy and as such I save stitching time so I can savor each stitch. Then I run out of time and another day passes without my needle in my hand.

Sound familiar?

So what can we do about it: find the time. I see finding time in two ways:  the first is Carving Out Stitching Time, that is, setting aside definite stitching times. 

Watching Downton is a good example of Carving Out Stitching Time. I know every Sunday night for the next few weeks I will be stitching while I watch Downton Abbey.

The second suggestion is Snatching Stitching Time Little snippets of time that I don’t plan on but try to take advantage of when they present themselves. 

I have a perfect example.

I’m one of those very prompt people. I’m married to DH who has never been on time to anything.

So I’m always ready and DH is rarely ready (although over the years he’s gotten much much better).

What does this mean? Perfect Snatched Stitching Time.  Even for 5 minutes; even for 2 minutes. Hey, three stitches stitched in Snatched Stitching Time is three stitches stitched.

So this week try both: plan Carving Out Stitching Time. Think of it as a date with your needle, and how it is terrible to stand up a date (am I dating myself? I suspect….)

And Snatch Stitching Time as the opportunity presents itself.

Keep track of both by drawing a line down a page and noting Carved Out Stitching Time on one side and Snatched Stitching Time on the other side.

Do this for a week and see which adds up to the most stitching time. The results might surprise you.

Now I am going to violate a concept I just hatched: I’m going to put this in all four of my stitching rooms because I think it pertains to all of them.

And if some of you have to read it four times, maybe it will result in some good productive impulses.

Think so?

Gay Ann

Christmas Stories

I have not written a post for my blog in the longest time. My work life has been in a bit of a whirlwind: I've been stitching madly and last October I ran a small sale that turned into a larger sale than I had expected. My stitching plus Mail Jail kept me too busy through the autumn.

Now here it is, time to decorate my website for Christmas.

In the past I wrote two Christmas stories about the power of friendship through our needlework. The first was the story of a woman I knew back in the 1980's, the second a story of two friends and Twelve Santas.

This morning I posted the story of the two friends on my website. I can't believe that it has been five years since I told the story, and now I've brought it back.

To read the story of The Twelve Santas, visit Queendom Website:
www.GayAnnRogers.com.
The story is on my home page.

Later on in the week I will post the first story called 'Marian's Christmas Box'.
I think it is 7 years since I wrote it.

Now I am writing another Christmas Story and I will post it when we are closer to Christmas.
This story will double as my Christmas card this year.

Happy Holidays to everybody. Remember to take a bit of time to sit, relax and hold your needle in your hand.

Gay Ann

The Summer Has Passed Me By; What Does This Title Have To Do with Needlepoint?

Here we are, still in the heat of summer, but Labor Day has come and gone and soon there will be autumn's nip in the air.

Summer is my least favorite season. I could say it is the summer weather, too hot and too humid, but that's not the worst of it. The worst of summer is the traffic in and around where I live. The roads are crowded and parking in the places I like to park (as in near the post office) is impossible. And worst of all this summer, I got sick.

Yep, this year I spent my summer, or at least most of it, with a wretched disease called shingles. At first I was quiet about it, just suffered all the itching and pain (it was awful).

Then I decided I should make myself a public example in my world of needlepoint and here's why:

I had had the shingles shot. About 50% of people who have the shingles shot get shingles anyway, and I was one of those. But, said my doctor to me, the vaccine would likely help me: my case of shingles would be lighter and most important, the vaccine would likely protect me from the post-shingles nerve damage. My doctor proved right: my case (although thoroughly miserable) was lighter and I did escape post-shingles nerve damage.

So I set about telling my needlepoint friends of a certain age to ask their health providers if a shingles shot would be appropriate and if the answer was yes, march themselves right in for the shot.

And guess what: they did! Many reported to me that they even took their husbands along.
This was great news as it might help people escape a lot of misery.

As I was recovering and people were writing me their shingles tales, I stitched 'Shingles Ornament'.
No, it isn't all full of red rashes and scabs, although I admit for a short while I was tempted to see if I could make Bargello Rashes and round Rhodes-Stitch scabs. Happily that temptation only lasted a minute or two.

Shingles Ornament as I stitched it looks a bit like a ribbon (rosette) you might win in an needlepoint show. It is intended as a 'Badge of Courage' for stitchers who survived shingles or as a 'Badge of Intelligence' for stitchers who got the shingles shot, or a 'Badge of Love and Friendship' for stitchers who helped a friend or loved one through the dreadful experience.

It is small and takes only a couple of hours to make. I made three in three evenings: one for me because I survived, one for my doctor because she helped me and one for DH because he went to CostCo and got the shingles shot.

Where are Shingles Ornaments now? They are being made into ornaments and I will have them at my Autumn Sale. No, Shingles Ornament isn't sale, it's a gift to anybody who writes me her personal shingles story, be it personal survival or helping a friend or marching yourself in to see your health provider.

If you write to me after October 15, I will send you a link to a downloadable file for the pattern.
Worried about forgetting the date? I'll remind you in another post.


So the summer is past, and I survived, slowly my stamina is returning and I've returned gently to work. Yes, I've returned to preparations for a smaller sale in October and I'm stitching again and life is a whole lot better! I'm happy it's unofficially and almost officially Autumn now.

Gay Ann

A Tribute to Diane Clements, a Wonderful Needlewoman

Today is my favorite day of the year, the Summer Solstice. Why? It is the longest day of the year and I love all the daylight hours, a great time for stitching.

Today was also Diane Clements' birthday and today I would like to celebrate Diane's needlework.
I have posted a tribute to Diane on my website and if you travel there you will see so many photos of her wonderful needlework. Diane specialized in whitework and Reticella, and she was a master of the difficult technique.

To see Diane's work: www.GayAnnRogers.com.

The needlework world lost Diane in May this year and we will greatly miss her and her wonderful way with a needle.

So today I hope you and your needle will join me and my needle as we pay tribute to a wonderful stitcher.

Happy first day of summer.

Gay Ann

My Needlepoint Portrait of Catherine the Great: last two days of my sale

How did the time go so fast! It seems like my sale just started and here we are, today and tomorrow and the sale is over. It finishes tomorrow evening, May 17.

I will leave it open until Monday afternoon so that people have time to mail checks to me,

Catherine is part of a Stitchalong Class at Shining Needle Society and entrance to the class is included with the kit. You just have to write to Kate Gaunt (KateGaunt@aol.com).

Before she vanishes, I hope you will make a trip to Queendom Website to visit Catherine.

www.GayAnnRogers.com

Enjoy!
Gay Ann

Diane Clements, Needlewoman Extraordinaire

Yesterday marked such a sad day in the needlework world, for we lost the enormously talented and charming Diane Clements.

Diane had to be one of the most exacting and wonderful stitchers I've known and how much our needlework world will miss her. It simply won't be the same without her.

Diane's birthday was on my favorite day of the year, the Summer Solstice and I would like to use that day this year to celebrate her life and the wonderful contributions she made to our world.

I will be back as the magic of the Summer Solstice grows closer, but for now I wanted to mark her loss. It is so sad, but as her friend Merle wrote today, she is in a better place now.

Gay Ann

The Witching Hour: My Needlepoint Portrait of Catherine the Great arrives tonight

Yes, as close to midnight as MacSoph and I can stay up, my portrait of Catherine the Great arrives on Queendom Website:

www.GayAnnRogers.com

While we wait for Catherine's arrival, we are having a party in my classrooms at Shining Needle Society. If you would like to come and eat e-blini and caviar and have an e-glass of champagne,  bring your stitching and come!

If you don't belong to Shining Needle Society, contact Kate. Membership and entry to my classroom is free.

See you tonight, I hope.
Gay Ann

Writing about My Needlepoint Portrait of Catherine the Great

For some time now on my website, I have been writing lessons for beginners, intermediates and advancing students of needlepoint. The beginners' lessons and the intermediates have been more or less predictable sorts of lessons, particularly for beginners.

Then I arrived at the lessons for advancing students. There's so much I could write but I chose to write about the decisions I've made for stitching my needlepoint portraits. In some ways these lessons are so basic in that they refer to very basic stitches. That's too true, but what I do with those basic stitches has taken a bit more thought and the lessons aren't quite so basic. It's been an interesting exercise.

Now I am almost to the end of the series for the time being. I have the penultimate lesson called, of all things, 'Advanced Continental Stitch. I posted it this morning, it will stay up for tomorrow and then I will post my last lesson for now, called 'Painterly Needlepoint'. It is for me my most interesting lesson because it explains how I arrived at the way I decided to do portraits.

If you would like to read the lessons, here's a quick reference:
www.GayAnnRogers.com

After 'Painterly Needlepoint' it will be time to close down lessons and start preparing Queendom Website for the arrival of my portrait of Catherine the Great. In doing so I've enlisted the help of my husband and he's been writing short articles on Catherine the Great. If you follow along you will find a new one every other morning once my lessons end.

In addition, I've been writing my own snippets called 'Factoids about My Catherine'. Essentially they tell some tales about my stitching Catherine, how large she is, how many pearls she has, and in a few days I will start posting photos and descriptions of the kit contents.

Catherine will arrive on Saturday morning, May 2. Actually she will arrive as close to midnight on May 1 as MacSoph and I can stay awake.

I hope you will join us for the festivities celebrating the arrival of this piece which has been my most industrious undertaking in the last 5 to 6 years.

Gay Ann