Late June News from Kristin Nicholas Designs
Hello Colorful Friends!
Autumn has arrived. Here at our Leyden Glen Farm, the leaves on the trees on the hill behind our farmhouse are beginning to turn shades of gold, olive, and red. This is my favorite time of year - crisp cool evenings and sunny warm days. The bees are busy collecting all the remaining pollen and I am starting to think about potting up some geraniums to bring inside for some winter color. Once again, the sunflowers did not disappoint. See more photos here.
Since my last newsletter, much has happened. Julia started her 2nd year at the local community college. I cancelled my last retreat of the year because of lack of interest and boy am I glad I did. My husband Mark The Farmer had to have a second surgery the day before the last retreat was scheduled to begin. The surgery was to repair a torn muscle due to a fall following his hip replacement surgery. He is in a hip brace until the beginning of November. He is trying hard to sit still but is finding it very frustrating. He has discovered there are lots of farming videos on YouTube though.
I turned 60 the beginning of this week. I'm looking back on my life and also looking forward. I think that this birthday has made me to think forward as to what I want to do and accomplish in this next decade. I remember when I was a teenager thinking that if someone was 60, their life was mostly over. Now, i think about the future, what time I have left and what are the important things that I want to do with it. It's a lot to think about and maybe I will figure it out someday.
I have been doing a lot of Crewel Embroidery over the past couple years. The photo on the top of this newsletter shows a Printed and Embroidered Paisley Pillow that I made for my sister Laurie's new porch. It was such fun to work on and she loves it. I am hard at work on another crewel embroidery project which you can see below. I printed the ogee shapes with foam stamps. Then I filled in the open sections with many different kinds of stitches. It is almost done.
I've added 6 new colors of Linen Fabric to my webstore. For all of you who crave neutrals, I now have off-white, flax and a pretty light brown called Fawn. For the color lovers, there is a pretty new sunflower color, a gorgeous green and an autumn hued coral. Check them out here.
If you are new to Crewel Embroidery, it is a very reasonable hobby to get into. I sell assorted sets of Crewel Wool on my website along with the linen fabric, needles and a gorgeous high quality wooden hoop.
You can use my book Colorful Stitchery to learn lots of stitches. There are 65 projects from simple to more complex. Signed copies are available on my website here.
Do you need to make a new little one in your life a Christmas Stocking? Check out these two favorite Collections that are both colorful and easy to make. Available on my website here and here or on Ravelry here and here.
So that is it here from the farm. Here are some of the links I have found interesting recently:
• I love this story about a British company that has been making fair isle sweaters since 1929.
• These patterns from the 1700's look so current.
• Salley Mavor's needlework was pulled from an art show because it was too controversial. Salley has always been known for her sweet little flower fairy dolls but her work has taken a different turn now. It's good to keep evolving, even if your fans don't want you to.
• Are you watching The Durrell's in Corfu?
• I did a post over on the blog on how to design your own labels and have them printed on Spoonflower. Check it out here.
• I love this! Do you hang things on your refrigerator?
• How hippie TieDye went mainstream.
• A Good Listen - How a Potter took on Tesla.
Thank you for reading. Enjoy these fleeting days of autumn. I love to hear from you all. If you want to send me a note, just hit reply and I will try to get back to you.
Yours in color and creativity,
Kristin Nicholas
www.kristinnicholas.com
getting-stitched-on-the-farm.blogspot.com/
Here is a video of my Talk at Google. I went to Cambridge, Massachusetts and spoke at their offices there in late June.
A fun video of our farm, our farmhouse, and my family. Our farm is located 2 hours from Boston and 3 1/2 hours from NYC. We are at the northern most part of western Massachusetts bordering Vermont. Our farm is 15 minutes off of Route 91, the north/south highway connecting Montreal to NYC.