Pincushion & Count Keepers

For Christmas, I made these two items for my friend Terry.

She needed a pincushion. She wanted it big enough to put lots of needles on it and did not want a piece of "Art" where she would not dare stick a needle through it, so I came up with this one. I had this lovely piece of fabric that I found in my stash as well as those beautiful buttons that matched exactly the red color of the fabric. There is a tutorial listed in my tutorial section that shows exactly how to make these pincushions with a step-by-step photos. They are quite easy to make.

While I was at it, I decided to make her a "Count Keepers" as she has recently started doing some needlepoint. I had seen some Count Keepers on the Nordic Needle web site and used that photo to guide me.

In my stash I had this lovely bead that was a nice red with a mix of other transparent colors that was light in weight and just the right size for the project. I tried different color threads and ended up with the red one as it completed the color of the bead better. I took two needles the same size from my stash and attached them to the threads and made a little tassel at the end.

Here are how they are used for those of you who may not be familiar with these Count Keepers. You place one of the needles at a starting point on your fabric. Count 10 or 20 threads and insert needle number two. You pick up the first needle, count the next group of 10 or 20 threads and insert needle number one again and you go on until you are done. It really saves counting and recounting.

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Coronation

This is the first ornament of the Dodecagon Series. It is called Coronation and is a 12-sided ornament. There are 12 ornaments in this series, all very different. I have received the first three so far, but only managed to stitch the first one because I have been spreading myself rather thin lately with different online classes and projects.

There is a group that has been created in order to provide help whenever questions arise while stitching those various ornaments. We are lucky enough to have the designer himself, Jim Wurth, in our group to answer questions that we may have while stitching these ornaments. Here is the link for the group for those interested: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DodecagonSeriesOrnaments/

Next ornament to stitch is called "Mojave" followed by "Poirot".

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Assisi Style Rabbits

"Assisi Embroidery also known as Voided Work. Voided work is any embroidery where the design is left open and unworked and the surrounding area is worked to create a "void". Assisi embroidery is one such style of this work." See Tanja Berlin's site for more details at http://www.berlinembroidery.com/assisirabbits.htm

There is also another example of this Assasi style embroidery on Robin Berry's site at http://www.bayrose.org/needlework/Voided_Work_Rabbits.html

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Options in Hardanger

This is a hardanger EGA GCC that I am actually taking. It is a design by Dale Sokolow.

I have stitched all but the fillings inside each square box, which I still need to do in order to complete this project.

I am using some Ash Rose Lugana 25-ct with some Gobi Sand Watercolors & Wildflowers threads.

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Hapsburg Lace Sampler: Patterns 1 - 7

This Hapsburg Lace Sampler gives a beautiful lacy affect. It has a total of 25 different bands/patterns to stitch. It is done on 18-count mono canvas, natural color and the threads used are white perle cotton and some ribbons.

I have completed bands/patterns 1 through 7 (picture above), so only 18 more bands to go :-)

I have had many requests asking me where I purchased my sampler, so here is that information. I purchased it at Berlin Embroidery. Link: http://www.berlinembroidery.com/hapsburglace.htm

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

My adventures with Crazy Quilting (3)

Today I have stitched a little reindeer face on my block, reminding us that Santa will soon be coming with all his wonderful gifts :-)

A Closer look at the little reindeer face.

I have first seen it in my "A ~ Z of Bullions" book and I remember thinking at the time that it was pretty cute. It is made with regular DMC threads. The antlers are bullions knots, eyes and nose are French knots.

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

My adventures with Crazy Quilting (2)

After digging in my Christmas decorations, I found this cute little police boy with a big sign saying "No Snooping before Dec. 25th" and I knew right then and there that I had found my special piece for my block. This little sweetheart must be over 50 years old, at least. I inherited it from my parents.

I made another seam, the one on the upper left of my block. This stitch is called "Threaded Running Stitch" and can be seen here on Sharon's web site: http://inaminuteago.com/stitchdict/stitch/running-threaded.html .

I thought that writing the word "Noël" with yellow silk thread would look good at this particular place so I opened up my MSWords and tried different fonts until I found one that I liked and used it on my block.

A closer view of this cute little police boy. What a find I made. I still can't believe my luck :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

My adventures with Crazy Quilting (1)

One of the thing that I personally find the most difficult to do is Crazy Quilting. It seems easy enough when I look at it, but for me creating a block well put together that just seems to flow is actually quite a challenge, to say the least.

In the past, I have tried to do a little crazy quiltinig (see photos in my Webshots photo album of my valiant efforts :-) http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/371378901JSZjCv so when I saw an online class about crazy quilting on the Joggles site http://www.joggles.com/store/catalog/index.php?cPath=75_450&osCsid=62ebc8edc8a505d9b46f49d17f7f288d I decided to take the plunge. This class is called "Encrusted Crazy Quilting with Sharon B". Sharon's site is http://www.inaminuteago.com/

The first challenge was to find the fabric, so here I was going through boxes of fabric and scraps in order to find some fabric that talked to me. I wanted to do a Christmas theme since I always like to do projects according to the period of the year I am in.

Then came my second challenge when I tried to piece my block together using the flip and sew method, starting with a five sided piece in the middle, but that did not worked out too well for me, so scrapped that block and decided to use one of those blocks already drawn for you that I found in the book called "101 Crazy Quilt Blocks" by Linda Causee. I flipped pages until I found one that appealed to me and used it to piece my block.

Something I forgot to mention when I was trying to put that first block together. I had put my five sided piece a little off center on my foundation, just like Sharon said, followed with other pieces around that central piece, going clockwise. My block was about 1/3 pieced when I turned around to look at something on my computer. By then I could see lots of white foundation fabric and some Christmas fabric and when I turned back towards my block, you can't imagine what I saw. There was one black spider, exactly like the ones we like to stitch on crazy blocks and "she" (imagining she was female) was sitting on the white foundation part of my block, so she was quite visible.

I hate real spiders, so shouted to my husband who was in the other room to come real quick and get rid of "it", so here comes my husband and I explained to him "not too calmly" that there was a spider on my block and to please remove it for me. He looked at it, bended closer over it and was not doing anything but looking at it. I said to him "Would you remove this spider" and he looked at me and said "Is that something that you have embroidered?" I said "NO" "It is a REAL one!" By the time he had finally reached the conclusion that this was a REAL spider, she was gone and he had to hunt her down under lots of fabric. At one point, not sure how but she felt on the floor and he put his foot over and that was the end of that. After he had left my room, I had mixed feelings about his behavior. On one hand, I was not too happy with him that it took him that long to react and on the other hand thinking to myself "My embroidery must be very good that when this man sees a real spider, he wonders if I have stitched it or not".

The third challenge was to put some lace and braid on my block. I went through all that I had that could possibly work and found a few pieces that I liked. I then tried each piece on each seam until that it seems to me that each selected piece could only go to that particular seam.

The fourth challenge was to start finding interesting seam treatments, which for me is much easier said then done. So far, I have made two.

The first seam is over a piece of red shiny rick-rack. I stitched some zig zag chain stitch over it in green and then added some detached chain stitches in red on each side.

The second seam consists of first stitching a curve line and then adding some red roses inside each curve made with bullions and adding some detached chain stitches to make the leaves.

After all this work, I took one day off to clear my brain as I have been spending so much time online looking at blocks and in books researching what might be interesting to add on my Christmas block that I found myself on information overload and needed time to process all this.

I am still at the information gathering stage and will soon be restarting stitching again on my block, hopefully with a clearer vision of what I would like to further add.

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Madeleine & Fleurs: Two best friends

My friend Terry and I decided to also exchange one between the two of us for that same Christmas. Terry made the beautiful one on the right and I made the one on the left.

For a brief amount of time, the two girls had time to get acquainted at Terry's place and then one had to fly overseas to me.

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Art dolls

On a Christmas past, it was suggested that we exchanged all exchanged a doll and here is the one I made for the exchange.

The naked doll itself was found at http://www.joggles.com/

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Glitzy Accessories

Name Tag

Scissor Case

Needle case


Needle case - back

Needle case - back opened


Laying Tool Case - Front



Laying Tool Case - Back


Scissor Fob

Frame Weight

When I saw this cyberclass from Carole Lake, I was very tempted to take it as it gave me the opportunity to stitch something that I could actually use and it had something else that was of great interest to me: the finishing instructions showing us how to finish each one.

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The colors I used for them are:

- Dark green 18ct canvas

- Caron Watercolors #10 Fiesta

- Neon Rays ribbon N82 Cinnamon

- Kreinik braid #16 Copper #152 V

- DMC Perle cotton #5 Dark Gold #436

- DMC Perle cotton #5 Cinnamon/copper #918

- Antique glass beads Copper #03038

.

It is a series of six stitching accessories: a nametag, a scissors case, a needle case, a laying tool case, a scissors fob and a frame weight (photos above in order of this listing).

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Here is the link to the website where I saw the class initially: http://www.needleartworks.com/CYBERCLASSES2/cyber2.htm#Lake6

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Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Happy Halloween!

Well, I have been having fun these past couple days stitching something for Halloween.

I found this cute little drawing and thought that was exactly what I needed at this time of the year. What is Halloween without some ghosts and spiders to spook us a little? Here the spiders are gone because our friendly ghost has been hard at work washing all those nasty cobwebs :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Triangle Pincushion

This is another pincushion kit designed by Karen Kraus for Moonspun Designs.

If someone is interested in this one and/or others, you can see them on this site: http://www.flightsoffancyboutique.com/cgi-bin/Store/store.cgi?cart_id=5734991.4974.s0&lastmenu=submenu-3400.html&product=Kits_N_Stuff


Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Hardanger floral sachet

Another little kit I had purchased, a hardanger floral sachet. I intend to put some Lavender in it.

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Hardanger Christmas ornaments

Here are a couple of little Hardanger Christmas ornaments I have made. Those were kits I had purchased. They were fun to make and very quick.

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Thread Painting

This is a little project called "Bingo Clear Purple Pansy", a thread painting technique and designed by Tanya Berlin.

This is a technique that requires lots of practice in order to do a good job and I am only beginning so there are plenty of room for improvement here:-)

I have a few other thread painting technique projects from her waiting for me to stitch.

Her designs can be seen on her website http://www.berlinembroidery.com/needlepainting.htm

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Christmas ornament

This was my first Brazilian project that I made and it was for an exchange. It was designed by Elsie and was stitched with Edmar threads purchased from JDR, the biggest online store for Brazilian embroidery. Link: http://www.jdr-be.com/

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Minuet & Rhapsody (Brazilian embroidery flowers)

An attempt at making some Brazilian embroidery flowers. The first one is called "Minuet" and the second one "Rhapsody".

They were both freebies from the Brazilian Embroidery Guild site: http://www.brazilian-dimensional-embroidery.org/

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Little Clown ATC

This little clown was made for an ATC (Artistic Trading Card). I saw this cute little clown drawing and wanted to use it to make an ATC. This is how it turned out.

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Dracula Spider Postcard

When I participated in a postcard exchange a couple years back, I wanted to have some fun and found this drawing and decided to make a postcard out of it. I had lots of fun making it - just too bad I could not keep it :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Keepsakes: Bookmark

The Australian magazine called "Inspirations" is the one I actually love the best. I have managed to purchase every copy from the very beginning. I have since subscribed to the magazine to make sure I don't miss any upcoming issues.

I was thinking recently that it is one thing to have all this "inspiration" and quite another to start making some of those wonderful projects, so since I love to read, I decided to make this lovely bookmark. The project was in the issue #50 on pages 58 through 63. Here is a link to the magazine:
http://www.countrybumpkin.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=433667 and if you click on the magazine itself to make it bigger, you can actually see the little bookmark.

I used silk dupion in one of my favorite colors and found some lovely silk ribbons that matched nicely with the fabric. It was quite easy to make and did not take all that much time.

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

The Dodecagon Series Ornaments

I have recently started stitching a series of ornaments designed by Jim Wurth and called the Dodecagon Series Ornaments. This is actually my first experience in participating in an ornament club. I first saw a bit of advertisement in the ANG Needle Pointers, July 2006 issue on page 17, showed it to my husband and asked him what he thought of them. He liked them very much and I made the decision to register for the series. There will be 12 of them and I will be receiving one every two months. They are all 12-sided designs, measure 5 inches in diameter and are all uniformly shaped according to the information I have received so far.

I have started stitching the first one which is called Coronation (ornament in the middle of the photo on the group site). I will put a photo of each ornament as I complete them. There is a photo of 3 of the ornaments on the group site.

There is a group that has been formed especially to discuss these ornaments and help each others. For those interested here is the group link:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DodecagonSeriesOrnaments/

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Victorian Heart Pincushion

This Victorian heart pincushion was designed by Karen Kraus for Moonspun Designs. They were designed after some Victorian pincushions and use some vintage techniques according to the description on their website. They can either be used as a pincushion or even as ornaments for the holiday season, which would look smashing in a Christmas tree.

If someone is interested in this one and/or others, you can see them on this site: http://www.flightsoffancyboutique.com/cgi-bin/Store/store.cgi?cart_id=5734991.4974.s0&lastmenu=submenu-3400.html&product=Kits_N_Stuff

They were much fun to make and did not take too much time either.

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Cats

Cats is an ABS Designs and was hand painted by Anne Stradal. You can see the actual design on her web site http://absdesigns.tripod.com/

The first time I saw this design I immediately thought of my very good friend Terry because we have been joking around a lot about her using her broom and flying all the way to the USA from UK as the price of petrol as they call it overthere is very expensive. She also has two black cats, making the design perfect for us.

I wanted to surprise her and bring a smile on her face at a time when she was not feeling all that well and I stitched it for her. This was my first painted canvas that I actually stitched from start to finish. I have a few more that have been started but are still sitting in my pile of UFOs.

I finished it as a door hanger for her and she has actually suspended it on her stitching lamp so that she can see it all the time.

When Anne saw it completed she asked me if I wanted her to add it to her Guest Gallery and here it is: http://absdesigns.tripod.com/guest_gallery.htm

This is one project that I think I had a grin on my face from start to finish while trying to imagine Terry's face when she would actually receive it :-)

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Portuguese Needlework Pillow

Someone at my LNS thought me how to stitch that lovely Portuguese pillow.

The design came directly from the book called "Portuguese Needlework Rugs: the Time-Honored Art of Arraiolos Rugs Adapted for Modern Handcrafters" written by Patricia Stone. If you have the book, the photo of the pillow I have stitched is on page 104.

Stitching this Portuguese pillow was a wonderful experience.

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Daydreams

Daydreams is a Sular Design for Rainbow Gallery (1991) and the finished size is 6" by 10".

It was stitched on 18 mesh mono canvas (I believe the color was Eggshell) and I used some Overture, Neon Rays, Pebbly Perle and Cresta d'Oro threads to stitch it.

There were several color suggestions offered like Fall/Earth Tone, Pink/Blue Pastel and Peach/Green Pastel and I went with the first one as I love the Earth tone colors.

When I brought the project to my finisher, she suggested that I had it put in a Sudberry Tea Tray, which I did. Here is the link where you can see the different trays: http://www.sudberry.com/catalog/teadresser.htm

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Christmas Remembered

First photo shows A Christmas Remembered framed and the second one shows a close-up view.

Christmas Remembered is a lovely design by Susan Johnson. On a visit to my LNS I saw this project all stitched on the counter of the shop and I immediately loved it and wanted to stitch it.

According to Susan Johnson, Christmas Remembered was inspired by the hand-made miniature packages grouped around the base of the tree.

The finished size of this project is approximately 8.5" by 11" and has been stitched on white deluxe mono canvas Zweigart #18. They were selling various little package kits to put under the tree and I chose this particular assortment of packages.

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Crewel Embroidery

This was my first attempt at crewel embroidery.

This project was taken from a magazine called "Victoria", September 1993 issue and the designer's name is Joanna Reed.

There is a little anecdote that goes with this project. I had completed the stitching and was at my LNS (local needlepoint store) to have it framed and the owner was trying to find something suitable for it when all of a sudden, a client who was in the store decided that she was going to help me with this. She started going through the different mats and frames and came up with the frame and mat in the picture.

She seemed to me like a person who had excellent taste, certainly seemed to know what she was doing, wasn't shy of her opinion and all that was required of me was to nod my approval here and there. This has turned out to be the frame I love the most of all. I always think of that stranger in the store each time I stop and look at that framed project on my wall.

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Needle Case: Horse

This is the first needle case I made for an exchange.

The person for whom I was making it (Pauline) loved horses and she had a horse that she loved best which was grey and her name was "Suzie" so I tried to stitch one just for her and this is how "Suzie" turned out to look like. Not sure how close the resemblance ended up to be, but she liked it.

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Needle case: Lady with flowers

This is the second needle case I made.

I used a cigarette silk print, attached it to some fabric, put some lace that I dyed green and stitched some stems and flowers with silk ribbons and I also emphasized the outline of the lady's dress. I then finished it as a little needle case for my friend Terry.

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Fabric vase with silk ribbon flowers

This is the project that really got me started doing silk ribbon embroidery.

It started out with a simple group project that I decided to modify to my liking and it ended up with this big vase full of flowers. One could say that I really got carried away with my little roses.

I had a bit of a problem at one point as my flowers seemed to be just sitting on my vase. I discussed this issue with a few of my friends and one of them (Elsie) came out with the solution of that long stem coming down on the left side of the vase and I also added some little ones in front here and there and this is the end result.

My friend Terry has been working at finishing it as a pillow for me after it has been sitting in my drawer for months and months. It should arrive home next week if all goes well and I will be able to enjoy it :-)

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Teddy Bear

After making the Blackwork "Lace Ribbons" project designed by Dakota Rogers, I decided to try a little project to see how much I had learned and I saw this charming little Teddy Bear in The New Anchor Book of Blackwork: Techniques and Designs (ISBN 0-7153-1929-9) on page 49 and who was I to resist such sweet little bear, so I gathered my material and started stitching.

The finished size is 4 1/4" by 3 3/8". I have made a little ornament with it. I thought it would look sweet in my Christmas tree :-)

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Under the Sea theme postcard

Here is my first attempt at making a postcard for an exchange. The theme was UNDER THE SEA and I use some coloring book drawings and created a little under the sea scene.

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Lace Ribbons

I have been wanting to do some blackwork for some time and I was lucky enough to win as a door price this wonderful EGA (Embroiderers' Guild of America) GCC (Group correspondence class) designed by Dakota Rogers. It is called "Lace Ribbons" and is stitched on a white 28-ct Jobelan and is worked with Needle Necessities overdyed floss.

It was just like having Dakota Rogers with me as the instructions are so well done.

I have made a pillow out of this project.

Here is the link for the EGA Guild: http://www.egausa.org/ and the link for the EGA CyberStitchers: http://www.cyberstitchers.org/

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Emerald & Gold Mini Stocking

This "Emerald & Gold Mini Stocking" was a real delight to stitch and really put me in the Christmas spirit.

This is a Kaitlyn Marie design (1994). It was made with a 18-ct white mono canvas and the whole project was all green and gold with lots and lots of beads to stitch and gold threads. That was my first experience with beads so it was quite an experience :-)

The finisher also did a fantastic job. I was also lucky enough to be able to find the same gold ribbon that was on the designer's photo. I could not believe my luck.

I love to see it on my Christmas tree during the holidays.

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus