Halloween Memories: Time for some fun

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Halloween is around the corner and I thought it would be fun to bring back some of the projects I have made for past Halloweens.
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This little friendly ghost washing the cobwebs is the only one that I have kept for myself and just love it. It is very hard not to smile when looking at it.
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This needlepoint one with the witch flying while the two black cats are looking up at the moon was made especially for Terry last year. She had two black cats at the time.
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This one has been made this year, again for Terry, as an ID card. She tells me that she has been having lots of fun showing it around. I have been asking her whether people see a resemblance with herself and the response I thought was the funniest was when someone told her that I must have been using a very bad photo to make it and all that time I thought I had done such an incredible job (big grin).
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- This is a postcard I had made for an exchange a couple of years back. This is a Dracula Spider, if such things exists (grinning again).
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Hope everyone has lots of fun on Halloween day.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Seeds of Love: A Brenda Ryan design

Here is the little coin purse all finished. I must say that this was really a lot of fun to make.

Not that long ago, seems to me, I was mostly doing needlepoint while my good friend Terry was mostly doing embroidery. She wanted to do needlepoint and I helped her with some of her projects and I wanted to learn embroidery as I loved so much what she was stitching. The end result is that Terry is now also doing needlepoint and loving it and I am doing embroidery and absolutely loving every single minute of it and now can't understand why I had not started doing it earlier.

I have included a photo with the coin purse opened showing the embroidery.

There is such a sweet detail that the designer, Brenda Ryan added that I did not want you to miss it and turned the photo 180° degrees so that you can have a look at the little flower face looking at you when you are either putting something in or taking something out of the little coin purse.

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Brenda suggested it as a little coin purse, but there are lots of other uses for it. The size of the little coin purse is a little over 4½" by 4½".

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There are two other designs from Brenda that I will also be making. One is the same size but with a different embroidery and the third one is a bigger size with another embroidery. Different fabrics will also be used to make them.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Seeds of Love: A Brenda Ryan design

One of the projects I am currently working on is "Seeds of Love", a Brenda Ryan design that can be found in the Australian magazine called 'Inspirations", issue 51, starting on page 66.

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The project consists of 3 different fabric coin purses or anything else that you may want to put inside. This is one of the design. I think it is just darling. Those could also make lovely gifts using different kinds of fabrics and also creating your own design for the front part of it.

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Now that the embroidery has been completed, I need to construct the little coin purse, which will probably be the next photo I add to my blog.

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By the way if you want to have a look to some of the cover page of the Inspirations magazines, you may go to http://www.countrybumpkin.com.au/ . I have my subscription with them. They also have kits, wonderful books and so much more. I am a big fan of them. It seems to me that everything they do is just wonderful.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Options ... in hardanger: Dale Sokolow, designer

I have decided to completely finish this hardanger this morning before starting anything else so have taken my best little scissors (German brand) and started the task of cutting very carefully all around the border twice, the first time as close as possible but not too much and then a second time, being very careful as I was getting very close to the border.
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This is not a very big piece, only approx. 7.5 large by a little over 5 inches high, but is so cute. Just love it.
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Now, on to my next project.
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Pierrette =^..^=

Halloween ID Card for my friend Terry

Click on photo to have a better look.
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With Halloween around the corner, I wanted to make something special for my friend Terry and what could be more personal than her own Halloween ID Card.
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This has been an ongoing joke between the two of us, with her jumping on her broomstick to come visit in order to save on petrol (she lives in the UK) and I live in the USA.
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I was concerned that with all the Halloween sky traffic, some overzealous policeman might stop her and ask her for some identification. She can't very well show him her driver's permit since she would be flying, so now she is ready for all eventualities :-)
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The photo was scanned as the digital camera was not giving good pictures, but I am afraid that her hair was a bit squeezed in the process. Oh well, we can't win them all :-(
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It was actually a long process to make that little ID card as first I had to decide on some drawings for the witch, then I had to find photos for the ID itself, put the two together, then added a bit of color with Prismacolor crayons, then scanned it and printed it on fabric. After that started stitching, then added a bit more color this time with some watercolor crayons and a little bit of water, then found some purple fabric for the back, put a little padding in between and stitched the back with the front.
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Of course, I had to write Terry's name with profession and I just had to stitch a little spider. No Halloween respectable photo would find itself without either spiderwebs or spiders, so added that last detail. She is not a real witch as she has that plastic nose that is being held with an elastic. Gave her some reddish hair as those are Terry's natural hair color. I did not want to make her clothing too chic as she is a witch after all and they are not supposed to be well dressed.
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Well I had my fun now and hope that Terry has fun with it too. Now I will be moving to something more serious and start working on a beginner's metal thread project. That will be something new to learn for me and looking forward to it. Next one after that will probably be a beginner's stumpwork project.
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I will also probably work on some special gifts in between so I will have my hands full like always.
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Pierrette =^..^=

Options ... in hardanger: Dale Sokolow, designer

Options ... in hardanger is an EGA GCC (Group correspondence class) and has been designed by Dale Sokolow.

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This is my second hardanger course, the first one having been "Beginner's hardanger" with Marion Scoular. It really helped a lot for me to have taken Marion's beginner's course first as it gave me a good basic knowledge of hardanger before tackling something like this.

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I was also exposed to two different ways of doing hardanger. With Marion, the project was done without any hoop or frame and with Dale it was suggested that we used a frame.

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My preference seems to go with using a frame as I was much better able to control the regularity of my stitches. I had to remove the frame and do 2 fillings because they both had picots in them and those can't be done using the frame and I had problems with regularity of my stitches. That could have been made worst as I had done the whole piece with the frame and bang had to switch just like that and do the last two fillings holding the fabric in my hand.

I must say that I have learned a lot with these two projects.

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I still have to cut the fabric around the border before it is considered all completed.

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Pierrette =^..^=