Gracie: Wired seaweed leaves completed

I have not been feeling very energetic these past few days so only managed to stitch the two seaweed leaves, the ones with wires. They took forever to complete, seems to me, having to tack the wire first, then do a blanket stitch all around them, and with the larger one on the left had to do some chain stitch for padding and then satin stitch over and for the other one on the right a series of stem stitch.

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Have now to do the two fins, large one and smaller one, with wires too and then will be closer to completion. Will still have to do the body of the fish and then the putting every parts together and out for a Happy Dance :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Gracie: Sand close-up

Decided to take another photo hoping that this time around we could see the ecru French knots better. We can see the darker ones allright, but the lighter ones are a bit more difficult to see. This photo is not quite what I was hoping for, but I suppose that I will have to be happy with it (big sigh).

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Pierrette =^..^=

Gracie with sand added

Wow, that was something, adding all those French knots to represent the sand. I have been using two different colors of DMC, one being ecru and the other one a very light tan, both DMC. Looking at this photo we can't see very well the ecru French knots, but they are there.
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Next will be working the wired elements: two seaweed leaves and two fins for Gracie. After that will be Gracie's body, which won't be a wired element, but a padded one.
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Then, putting everything together and Gracie will be able to swim forever :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=

Bargello Scissor Case & You Made my Day Award

This is a little scissor case that I made a long time ago and for some reason forgot to include on my blog. I love bargello and this was my first one. The threads used were Watercolours by Caron.

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Whenever I do bargello the time flies as it has that hypnoptic feeling, going up and down, up and down and that feeling is increased when you use threads that have multiple colors in them.

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I have been chatting a lot about stumpwork recently and that made me think of Celeste who is also an EGA CyberStitchers. She has done quite a bit of stumpwork (actually she says that this is one of the thing that she loves the best doing) as well as wonderful embroidery projects. Many of her projects come from the Australian magazine called Inspirations, one of my very favorite magazine.

I have all the issues and have done a few of their projects (I wish there were more hours in the day), but Celeste has really done many as you will be able to see when you go visit her photo album.


I would like today to give Celeste the "You Made my Day Award" because she is such a wonderful stitcher and I enjoy visiting her photo album so much. She is a real source of inspiration to so many of us. Enjoy!

Pierrette =^..^=

Gracie: Fish section

I am so tired right now, I can't even think straight. I was taking a break earlier on and at the same time was reading the rest of the instructions for this project and was telling my husband that I was not out of the woods yet. You know what he replied to me? He said "You are always in the woods" and I had to laugh at that one because it is so true because as soon as I get out of the woods by finishing a project I immediately get into another one. That man of mine is not a fool (grinning).

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So, on this photo you can see part of Gracie's little body. All the rest is done separately and then attached to the fabric. I have two fins to do and two leaves that will be attached later on. For Gracie's body I need to stitch it and then pad before tacking to the fabric.

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Before that, I have some sand to do using French knots, so I am not out of the woods yet. It takes forever to stitch because the main stitch used is stem stitch and I can tell you that it takes a lot of them to cover a little surface.

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I will be taking the rest of the day off and blieve me it won't be a luxury because I really really need it at this point. Listening to Mozart has helped some to get me going when I was feeling like stopping because my back was hurting.

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Next photo will be with the sand.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Gracie: Seaweeds done

Another photo showing most of the seaweeds done except of course the two seaweed leaves that will be attached at the end. I just added the ferns done in Edmar Boucle threads. I may decide to add a little more of them after I have completed my little gold fish depending if it needs more or not. Better be conservative at this point as I don't want to overdo it.

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Finally now, I can start working on Gracie herself. Been looking forward to that ever since I started the project.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Gracie: Seaweeds to her right

I have done a little more on Gracie, this time some elongated seaweed leaves using a Needle Necessities very light variegated green. I still have to do some seaweed ferns using the featherstitch before I can start working on Gracie herself. There will also be another elongated seaweed that will be added at the end of the stitching as I am keeping all the wired elements for the very end. Never done any stumpwork before so I feel quite excited by what is still to come on this project.

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The day is still young so will go back to my stitching and see how much I can manage to do today :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Gracie: Stumpwork (left seaweed leaves)

Gracie is a Ganet Burr's intermediate level stumpwork design and is a course that has been written exclusively for the Group Correspondence School of the Embroiderers' Guild of America.

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I have managed to stitch the three seaweed leaves on the left side of Gracie. It took me quite a bit of time just to do those three leaves. First, I needed to stitch the leaves outlines, then I filled the inside with some chain stitches and finally covered them with satin stitches. There will be a fourth leave that will be stitched later and added at the very end as that one will be stumpwork. I will now be working on the seaweed leaves that are on the right of Gracie.

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I have looked around to find a photo of Gracie and found these on Rissa's web site and you have to see how she did the finishing . Isn't it just beautiful? What a wonderful idea!

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Rissa is also our current president here at EGA CyberStitchers

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I have also found this other photo of Gracie

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Well, better go back to my stitching as there are still plenty of work to do before Gracie finds her way to the framer.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Shades of Autumn: Where is the Itsy-Bitsy Spider?

Where is the itsy-bitsy spider?????

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Some of you have been telling me that you can't see my little itsy-bitsy spider, so I have encircled her in red for you all. She was made with a little tiny black bead and have used some black threads for her 6 little legs.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Shades of Autumn: Brazilian Embroidery

I have always loved Brazilian embroidery and I have done some small BE projects (4 little ones) before, but a little over a week ago, I decided I was just going to plunge in and try something bigger to see how it would go. The worst that could happen is that I would fall flat on my face and nobody would have been the wiser as it would have remained my own little secret.
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I went online and checked the different designs available and purchased a few. When I received them, I had a good look at them and decided that I would try this one first. It is considered an intermediary level, but I did not like the beginner's. It is a design by Delma Moore from Blackberry Lane (no. 152). I thought the design was interesting and loved the colors.
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I would not say that Brazilian embroidery is as difficult as it appears to be, but at the same time it is not that easy either to do it properly. I do all my embroidery learning with the help of books and when I am lucky enough to find a good video I purchase it as that helps immensely.
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One thing I noticed while working on this project is that the time just flew by without me noticing it, which does not happen all that often, so when it does, I notice it :-) I had done bullions before and there were many on this project. Had the pleasure to do some casting for some flowers and enjoyed that very much. Just loved doing the leaves with an alternating satin stitch. There were some Geron Daisy that seems very easy to do, but I had to hold on to the thread tension while making them as if my life depended on it. Once I got the hang of it, that went well. Doing the spider web and the little spider was so much fun. The spider is done with a little black bead and then you add the little legs.
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Included a close-up photo. For some reason, the shine of the Edmar threads does not show all that well. It would be nice to be a professional photographer and take great pictures as I am never happy with my photos. Perhaps in my next life (big grin).
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I now need to clean up my working space and decide on my next project. Not sure exactly what it will be.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Here's My Heart Scissors Sheath

I had purchased that kit a while back from Vintage Vogue and decided it was time for me to tackle this project.

I must say that the instruction pages that come with this kit are extremely well done with plenty of photos. I was really impressed. Janet Stauffacher really makes it easy for us to make this project and I enjoyed myself.

This kit came with a little pair of French scissors which will be great to have around. You can never have too many pairs of scissors.

I have included a photo (above) that shows the little scissors attached to its sheath through a beaded loop and here below when the scissors are tucked in the sheath.

The three-bead edge that goes around the sheath can also be seen here though Janet explains it very nicely in her instructions.

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It is now time for me to think of another project as I don't feel quite ready to go back to my needlepoint. One morning I will get up and feel like doing only needlepoint and will then continue on my already started needlepoint projects, plenty to choose from :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Spring Bouquet Tissue Holder

I had a bit of a strange week and have not done all that much stitching. After Tara, I looked through some of my magazines and books for one day and then another day and another day for my next small project and found quite a few that I would like to work on but specially one that I really liked, so got myself all ready (fabric, tracing, etc.) only to realize that I did not have the threads that I needed, so had to put that project aside until I receive the threads, which have now been ordered.

While going through the magazines and books I saw this tissue holder and thought that it would be quite practical to keep my tissues clean in my purse, so decided to give it a go. The last few days have been really dark (overcast) and when I selected the threads for this project, they looked fine but when I started stitching with them, I did not like them, so did a bit of frogging and redone part of it with new shades of the same colors.

I have finally managed to finish my tissue holder on a wonderful sunny day with temperatures outside around 70, so rushed to take a couple of photos. The first photo above is without the tissues and the second photo below with a little pack of tissues inside.

Almost forgot to mention that this design is from Angela Watson of Queensland that I found in an Inspirations magazine. They have so many wonderful projects in those magazines that I am sure that I could be perfectly happy if I were to take all my projects from them. Well, maybe not, as they are mostly embroidery and I like to do a bit of this and a bit of that as you must all know by now if you had a look at my blog in its entirety (big smile)


I am now hoping that I will soon receive my threads so that I can get started on the project that I initially wanted to work on which is not a big project so that should not take too long to complete. In the meantime, will need to decide what project I feel like working on. While I am thinking about that, will go outside take a bit of sun before it goes away, AGAIN.

Pierrette =^..^=