Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Hollyhock House: A Gay Ann Rogers' design

I love Gay Ann Rogers' designs and I have purchased quite a few from her and when it was decided that we could do Hollyhock House as a SAL (stitch along) I thought this was a wonderful idea and decided to participate as well. Ann, who is our leader/moderator for this SAL has given us 3 monthly assignments so far: November, December & January. Since I was heavily involved with other stuff in November & December, I had a bit of catching up this past week, but have managed to do all the stitching assigned and I am now ready for our February assignment.
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Here is what we have done so far.

  • November: We worked pages 2 & 3 (we have 145 pages total + 5 oversized graphs)
  • December: We worked dividing bands and grass (page 4)
  • January: The pot of flowers on the left side of the house (pages 3 - 27)
This is a photo of the top 2 flowers:


This photo shows the bottom flower with the vase


Finally, this photo shows the whole vase with flowers and a few rows of grass underneath.


This is a really big piece. I am using some 11" by 17" stretcher bars as we were told that it was not recommended to use scroll bars for this project. I can say that working with such a big frame is not the easiest thing to do, but it is manageable. I may need some arm extension before the completion of this project (grinning).
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Next assignment will probably be about stitching some bricks, which will make a nice change after working the left vase and flowers before we have to work on another vase for the right side of the house.
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What is interesting with this SAL is that after the assignment is completed for the month, we have time to work on other projects as well, so will go back to them now. I am working on another project at this time but can't blog it right now as it is a gift and I don't want that person to see it before the proper time :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=


16 comments:

Terry said...

Its looking good, its so nice to have a SAL long that is not a mystery and that you can see what you are aiming for on completion.

Will watch for the next installment

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

I find mystery pieces hard myself since it is amazingly difficult to pick colors for a piece when you don't know how it'll look at the end. It's hard enough picking colors for pieces when you know the end result!

But I digress. Besides agreeing with Terry, I wanted to know how to get on your recipient list. Your stitching is lovely and I'd love to be on the receiving end!

Jane, greedy in CH

Front Range Stitcher said...

Just lovely Pierrette. The color choice is very pretty. Looking forward to seeing further progress.

NCPat said...

This is lovely and your stitching is beautiful!

Lisa said...

Thank you for taking the opportunity to post your progress. I have been reading about in on the Shining Needle board (yahoo group) - but to see one of the completed steps...well, it is beautiful. I will continue to check in :)
Lisa
www.cadurst.blogspot.com

Sharon said...

It looks gorgeous!

Cyn said...

Hi Pierrette,

This is looking beautiful and thank you for taking such great pictures!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Solstitches said...

Hello Pierrette,
Thank you for visiting my blog and for your nice comments.
Your projects are stunningly beautiful. I love the Victorian Heart pincushion very much and your Angelina is fabulous as is the Hollyhock House WIP.
Margaret

Love to Stitch 99 said...

Terry,

This is a lovely project, but so big :-)

From now on, any project I will be working on will be relatively small in comparison (grinning).

Pierrette =^..^=

Love to Stitch 99 said...

Jane,

I agree with you and Terry that mystery projects are in a class by themselves.

I have never liked mystery projects (good thing this one is not one of them) for a few reasons.

I feel that if I am going to invest money and time in a project I want to know if I am going to love that project or not. With a mystery project, even one from a designer you like, you just can't be sure as we do not like all the same things.

Second reason is the fact that I like to analyze the whole project and have a good grip of what it entails. That is impossible to do with a mystery project. You can't change anything as you have not a clue as to what will follow.

Your last comment made me smiled. I wish I had more hours in a day and could stitch much more than I can actually do, but unfortunately I find myself relatively limited as usually I find my back screaming for a break, OFTEN :-(

I would not mind either being on the receiving end of your projects :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

Love to Stitch 99 said...

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

Ruth said...

Wow. That's beautiful. Simply beautiful. I can't wait to see it progress.

Julia said...

Hi Pierrette,
Thank you for the lovely comment on my blog..
Your work is beautiful! I love it all.
I shall come back often to visit..
Julia ♥

Elizabeth Braun said...

145 pages? That is one COMPLEX design!!=) Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

You're quiet, like me, of late. Are you OK? Hope your health has been holding up well.

Elizabeth Braun said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Very nice.
Bravo !