The Morning After, an Anne Stradal design & the Brillante Weblog Award

Now that I have completed Gay Ann's Mystery in a Corner, which was so much fun to stitch, I will start working on a pair of Christmas designs from ABS Designs. Why Christmas designs, again in July? Simply because the temperature is close to 100°F outside and I need something to cool me down in addition to the air conditioning which on some days just can't keep up with the demand.
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I love the Christmas season, but I have found lately that I don't always have the time and/or energy to get all my Christmas decorations from the attic down two floors below and spend approximately two days, on and off, putting them all up and then of course taking another two days to take them off after the holidays and bringing them back up to the attic, but I still want to have Christmas decorations in my house, otherwise it just does not feel like Christmas, does it?
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My solution to this little problem is that I now want to stitch more and more Christmas projects that I can either frame myself like with the flat-fold method or a stand-up, or ...... and just get them out during the Christmas season whenever I don't feel like spending days decorating, spread them all around my house and voilà, the Christmas ambiance without having to spend all that time decorating. With these two designs in particular, I am thinking about framing them like if they were some family portraits that you display on any surface in your home. Well, Santa is a dear old friend, isn't he? He sure has spoiled me during all these past Christmasses :-)
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I selected these two designs, The Morning After and The Night Before, because I have always wondered what these two did on Christmas day and now I know, thanks to Anne (grinning). Santa is having a well deserved rest and his dear wife is knitting. Why is she not embroidering, I wonder..................... Might be a cold weather thing, Santa must need a good warm scarf, probably more than one, actually, but I disgress.
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This photo below has been stitched by Anne Stradal and was borrowed to put on my blog today with her permission as I have not yet started working on mine, but will slowly start today. I have got most of my threads, enough anyway to get started.


[The Morning After: Photo stitched by Anne Stradal]

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On another note, I had the honor of receiving the Brillante Award, twice actually in the last few days. The first time was from Rengin who lives in Turkey, for which I have already thanked her and this morning from Laura for which I am very grateful.

I will need a few days to get my ducks in a row and come up with my own list of blogs I enjoy visiting.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Mystery in a Corner: A Gay Ann Rogers' design

Happy dance as I have just finished Mystery in a Corner.
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This is a project that Gay Ann Rogers created to help us learn more about colors as I have explained in my 3 previous posts. I have found this project challenging, but not overwhelming. Actually, I was surprised to see that it was much easier than anticipated. Funny, how we fear the unknown at times. There were lots of little decisions to make along the way and I must say that I am rather happy with the results.
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I was trying to achieve a few goals while stiching this project. There was an awful amount of green, which I love, but I wanted to make blue the focus of the piece. Looking at the finished project right now, it seems that the blue stands out a little more, but my eyes are also drawn to the yellow-orange colors and then the green-topaz. I also wanted to emphasize certain sections of the design and make other sections not as dominant, as I wanted some resting place for the eyes.
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At first, I was a bit surprised to see that the design had no outside borders around it and was not sure if I liked it or not, but after the initial surprise, I started liking the idea and decided to leave the design as is. Some stitchers have decided to create some borders around, but I preferred to go with the "unusual" instead and I am glad I did.
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As I have done in my previous posts, I have taken photos along the way. This time around I did not follow exactly the order of stitching as I wanted to control better certain sections of the design. In this photo below we see the first two metallic threads in the middle sections.

In this second photo, I have stitched the half eyelet blue because I wanted it not to be a distraction to that section of the design, to make it disappear in a sense.

In this third photo, added some diagonal stitches in green.

In this photo, I have just added some blue and then topaz metallic threads under the green diagonal stitches.

Here, I have decided to use green or topaz for all those extra line of stitches, but have stitched the cross stitch variation in blue metallic.

At this point here, it was time to add the watercolor thread by selecting the colors I like the best in it and also making sure I had a repeat more or less accurate of what I had already done in the other sections.

I have added the last photo at the beginning of my blog entry and it consisted of the overstitching done in Impressions (blue).
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It will now be time to bring it to my framer and let her do her magic :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Mystery in a Corner: Part 2 (Corners)

This is part 2 of Mystery in a Corner, a Gay Ann Design that I have started working a while back and had to put aside while waiting for the "mystery sections" (parts 2 and 3).
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You may want to refresh your memory by having another look at the first part which has been posted in two separate blog entries, the first one here followed by the second one.
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I chose this particular watercolor thread because I love all 3 main colors: light blue, soft green and a bit of yellow-orange. Pam from Tomorrow's Heirlooms picked the other threads derived from my first selection. When I received the threads, even if I loved all the shades, I soon realized that I liked blue more, so my goal has been to make blue stand out a bit more, though it is difficult to do so because all the separating borders are green, but that has not stopped me from trying. I will only know if I have succeeded in my quest when the project has been completed, which hopefully should be in a couple of days from today.
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Again, I have taken the time to take a picture after each color added in order to be able to analyze my thread selection at each step.
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The first photo here shows the first line being added in each color which is a Kreinik blue braid. This is also starting to change the shape of the project.

On this second photo, I have just added a second Kreinik metallic thread, this one being topaz in color. It is a color that looks very close to the green I am using in this project, so we don't see a lot of difference between the greens and the topaz.

Now, for the 3rd photo, I have just added my Watercolor thread (Woodlands), trying to repeat more or less the same colors that I have used in the center by manipulating it, not always an easy thing to do.

In this 4th photo, I have just added my blue Kreinik thread.

5th photo shows my metallic topaz being added.

On this 6th photo, we can see some green being added, going the other directions. This is the same color thread that I have used to stitch all the different borders.

Photo 7th: I decided to use my blue Kreinik to do the other little vertical line.

Photo 8 shows additional rows using my Watercolor thread, using mostly yellow-orange colors this time around.

Photo 9 shows another line of blue metallic thread.

In photo 10, I have just added some Impression thread, blue in color covering previous rows of stitches. I made the decision from the start to use some blue metallic with that instead of using the topaz, a decision that I may or may not regret later. Will see!

In this last photo, we can see the corner all completed after adding some blue tails using my blue Kreinik.

We are having an overcast day this morning and this photo is a bit darker. I will make sure to take an especially good photo after completing the 4 sections inside the corners. Then, and only then, will I be able to find out if I made the right choices along the way. When I say "right choices", I really mean did I choose the right color threads at each step along the way in order to attain the most pleasing result for me with my initial choice of threads, as what is pleasing to one person is not necessarily so for another.

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I will now start working in that last part of mystery and will soon be back with more photos.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Windows into my Heart: All stitched finally!

I have not been stitching much during this past week as been feeling rather tired and after a bit of rest, this morning I took Windows into my Heart out and finished the last section of it. This is a scanned version, hoping that it will be more accurate than a digital photo. If you click on the photo, it will be really big and you will be able to see some of the details better.

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I had to make some adjustment to this last section as explained in my previous post, but it has turned out better than I expected it, so I am rather happy about it. I have done some random eyelets of different sizes but smaller than the ones on the left side since I had only 6 canvas threads to work with, which was really not much, but "à la guerre comme à la guerre" :-)

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I still have to do the finishing using a Home Arts box kit, which was provided to me with the kit by Ruthmarie Hofmann, but that will be later when I have a bit more time and feel like doing some finishing. This is now the 4th item that I need to finish :-(

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I am now thinking of doing the last section of Shalimar and that will be another one completed, but that also means that I will have one more thing to finish, a pillow. Oh well, won't worry about it for now.
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I wish the weather was not as HOT these days as I am not a happy camper with those kind of temperatures (between 90 something and 100°F) .
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Better go clean up my working space now that this project is completed :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=

Windows into my Heart: A bit more done

The last few days, I have been working exclusively on Windows into my Heart, a fiberart design by Ruthmarie Hofmann.
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This is an ANG Cyberworkshop 2004 project that I took at the time. After working on it for a bit I had put it aside because of so many reasons. I had received a 24- instead of a 26-count canvas and not having realized it at the time worked the project as if I had a 26-count with the result that I ended up with a much much narrower band (the one still unstitched) than I needed in order to be able to work the design as Ruthmarie had done on hers. The colors were not the original colors that I had fell in love with (some threads and beads having been discontinued). I also remember seeing at the time a photo from someone who had completed the project with the same color as the one above and I just did not like the overall look (now I am starting to think that this was probably a bad photo like I often end up taking myself). Anyway, for all those reasons, I just put the whole project aside, not really knowing at the time if I would ever complete it or not. One thing though is that this project had always stayed in my mind as the design is just so special, so recently I took it out of my UFO pile and started working on it again, first by doing the tent stitches on the far right and these past few days working on the left side of the heart by doing loads of free-form eyelets, some beading and lots and lots of french knots. The left side of the heart has been completed unless I decide to change a few things here and there, but not much, if I do.
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Threads used for this project are mainly DMC floss threads with Needle Necessities (the color used in the original had been discontinued before the company shut down), Japan gold. I don't think that I am forgetting anything here.
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Stitches used throughout the piece are Tent, French knots, Padded satin, Double cross, Square and free-form eyelets, Couched lines and some beading. There will be a gold lame fabric under the finished canvas and through all the little windows created by the big and small eyelets, you should be able to see into my heart or maybe not (grinning).
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Next step will be to finish that narrow band and when posting my next photo I will take a photo for you showing the heart box kit, the fabrics, padding and hook. For now though I need a break from it all, so I will put it aside and will come back to it a bit later.

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On another note, some of you asked me if it was still possible to get the instructions for the Shalimar project and the answer to this is YES. This project is included in a book called "Fancy Work & Fantasies" by Carol Costello. Inside the 32 page book, you will find two pillow projects, one being Shalimar (the one I have been working on) and the other one is called Saxony. If you make a Google search, you should be able to find it somewhere on the web.
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Not sure what I will be working on now, so will have a look around and decide which one I feel like stitching :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=

Gold & White ornament all done

Yesterday I started working on a little ornament designed by Gay Ann Rogers to celebrate her new website. Here are the details of my blog entry of yesterday.

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I had to undo the last gold metallic row that I had made all around the ornament as that row was to attach the front to the back. That is the kind of mistake I normally do when I get tired after stitching for a long period of time. Anyway, that was easy to fix and did so this morning and now it is all done and ready to hang somewhere. I will put it with my other Christmas ornaments as I think it will be cute in my Xmas tree.

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The design is really cute and I could see myself making some out of canvas instead of perforated paper and using other colors.

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Now I will go back to the project I had put aside in order to work on this for the stitch-in.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Gold & White ornament

Today we are having a stitch-in in the Shining Needle Society Yahoo group and I decided to work on a little gold and white ornament that Gay Ann Rogers has created especially to celebrate her new website. It is stitched on perforated paper, something that I had never tried before and was curious to see how well it worked.

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I must say that I had no difficulties at all working with the perforated paper and it seems to work well for small ornaments. This being said, I still prefer to work on canvas, but I can see that perforated paper could be useful at times like for greeting cards and things like that. I had no problem using metallic threads or silk pearl. The feeling was pretty much like when using regular canvas. Since it was small, I could hold in my hands, something I rarely do, which was nice.

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I still have to do the finishing. Gay Ann has included the instructions so will have a read after taking a little break and will try to finish it today, if not today, tomorrow at the latest.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Patches of Snow completed

Well, no more beading for this girl for a while :-)

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My mini Xmas stocking is all done and I am happy as could be. I did not dare count the number of beads in this project, but there are lots and lots of them, I can all tell you that. It will certainly draw all eyes when I put it on my Xmas tree with all this gold and off white.

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Now, I will be very good and start working on my latest cyberclass The Sky's the Limit and practice my various stitch samples (3 every two weeks), which can be easily done without taking major chunks of time away from my other projects.

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After that is done, not exactly sure what I will be working on. Will it be an already started project or a new one, big or small? I will have a look around and then decide what I feel like doing, so many choices, so little time, isn't that always the problem?

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Pierrette =^..^=

Patches of Snow: 10 out of 13 patches done

Moving along with my beading, at times with cross-eyes after adding one bead after another and another and another ............. I do love the design and will be very happy to have it as a Christmas ornament, but really not enjoying all this beading. I don't mind at all adding a few beads here and there on a project as it makes it more interesting, but this is a little more than I bargained for when I bidded on Ebay for it, but I am going to see it through, no matter what (big smile).

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The next Christmas project won't have any beading at all, if I can help it as I will need some time to recuperate from all this.

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It is an interesting design though and at some level do not regret having purchased it and will leave it at that :-)

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That is what I like about trying different things, best way to find out the techniques that you enjoy the most and do less of the ones that you don't enjoy as much. I am not saying that I will never do anything like that as I may see some design that I just have to have and will probably go for it.

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Next photo will be with the last 3 patches done and then will move on to another project.

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Today I will also be starting the cyberclass called "The Sky's the Limit" with Beth Robertson and Suzanne Howren, but will probably not be posting any photos unless I get permission as those are samples stitches and I don't want to give away their secrets. I am looking forward to getting started on these. Those classes are based on the numberous books that they have written about "Stitches for Effects". This series should come quite handy the next time I have a sky to stitch.

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Well, better go back to my stitching as I have a lot more stitching to do before the day is over.

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Pierrette =^..^=