Anna Pearson's Needlepoint Blog

Each family has its own traditions linked to the festive season and even more so the many countries around the World. Australian, New Zealand and South America are enjoying high summer; in the Northern hemisphere it is winter and often dark and icy nights. Some countries celebrate Christmas Eve with a festive dinner and the opening of presents at midnight; others go to their church at midnight and keep the presents and the big meal till Christmas Day itself.   In the UK the preferred meal for a big family is Turkey with roast potatoes and sprouts followed by Christmas pudding with brandy butter or cream. Other countries enjoy oysters (France) or Carp (Germany). Houses are decorated, children make garlands, a Tree is popul   Having been on the East Coast immediately before Christmas it is fun to take a ride around the areas to see the amazing displays erected. ar in many countries and in particular Americans decorate their garden and outside of their house lavishly. ...

I have had the most wonderful, exciting and action packed year with the 45 anniversary of my needlepoint design and teaching and just at the beginning of the month my 80 birthday! The anniversary was so special in many ways, first with an extensive exhibition of work, needlepoint done by some very talented students, an opportunity to be inspired by ingenious adaptions of standard designs into upholstered pieces as well as a preview of all the new designs with their gorgeous threads and exciting stitchery     The other result was many, many people whom I had not seen for a very long time contacted me and some managed to attend the exhibition and assure us that they were still enjoying their stitching.   This reconnection meant an enormous amount to me and I must thank every one of you who responded. Another pleasure was our 9 th visit to Calabria, way down in southern Italy and a first, a visit to a beautiful estate in Tuscany which was an equal success and bot...

I almost called this blog 'Christmas Presents' however I thought you would believe I had made a typo and won't bother to read it!  However with strong memories of the panic of finding suitable presents for friends and family I truly believe that getting organised early is both sensible and practical. Believe or not, tomorrow I have a small group who are starting on Christmas tree ornaments. So often, far too late in the day, the idea of making our own greetings card from one of my designs, presents itself; why oh why don't I do something about it in late summer? A popular New Year's resolution is to use up some of the ever growing stash of threads, couple this with stitching small projects, spec cases, needle cases, Kindle  and iPad covers, lavender bags - the list is endless.   These designs have two pluses, one each item can have the recipient's initial(s)  to make them extra special and second they are small enough to keep in your bag for the odd s...