Monday, December 25, 2006

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 =^..^=
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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

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 =^..^=