Hibiscus and the butterfly: Stumpwork

This morning is a cold and rainy day but I do have quite a bit of sunshine with this lovely stumpwork project that my very best friend Terry has made for me for my birthday. She sent it early enough so that my husband had time to bring it to the framer where they put their heads together and came up with this perfect frame for it. No mat at all this time around and no glass over it either. It looks stunning and warms my heart with good feelings :-)

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Previous post shows this project before framing. Going back on my blog to retrieve it made me realize that my photo was a bit on the dark side and perhaps my previous photo was a bit on the light side (grinning). Anyway, they all did a wonderful job for me and I am very happy.

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Will be working on adding more bricks today to Hollyhock House. My goal for the day is to finish this month's assignment. I still have approximately half of the right side to complete and then will put it aside until next assignment on April 1st.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Hibiscus and the butterfly: A gift from my friend Terry

What a lovely surprise I got yesterday from my very good friend Terry who stitched this lovely stumpwork project called Hibiscus and the butterfly. The colors are just so gorgeous that I could almost eat them but I won't. I could not wait at all to have it framed so the framer has already it in her hands. Can't wait to see it. I have received so many beautiful stitched projects from Terry through the years we have known each other and I cherish each one of them.

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I wanted to add this entry to my blog yesterday but after writing not one (bargello florentine all stitched), not two (projects that need finishing), not three (my knitting project) but four entries (Kitty, project stitched for Terry's birthday) yesterday I was totally exhausted (grinning). I have only been writing a blog entry here and there since the beginning of the new year so that was a big departure of what I normally do.

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Angelina is back from the framer so will be adding a new photo as soon as I manage to take a good photograph of it, which is always a bit of a struggle when there is glass over it, which most of them have except a few stumpwork projects.

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Have added a few lists on the right side of my blog, one about a list of projects that I am either working on or about to and another list of projects that are waiting to either be finished or framed. I have so many things to do that I thought it would help me to remember what I need to do next and help me get all my ducks in a row :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Gracie: Framed

My Gracie has just came back from the framer and here is a picture of her. We made the decision not to put a glass over this time around, so I will be able to play with her whenever I feel like it (big smile).

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I was happy to hear back from the framer, especially today as I am having one of those days where nothing seems to work just right. Bet you all know what I mean. Anyway, Gracie has put a bit of sunshine in my sorry day.

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Been working on my Elizabethan crewel project this morning, the one that will go into a pencil box when finished. Going well so far. I checked the box I purchased with the kit and to my surprise there was no finishing instruction at all, no cardboard included or anything, nothing to attach it in position, so just wrote to Barbara from Tristan Brooks hoping that she can give me a bit of information as to how to go about putting everything together. I have purchased boxes before, not from Olde Colonial Designs though, but there were always finishing instructions with them, so will see what happens with this one. Still have a little bit of stitching to do before getting to that finishing part, so I am hoping to hear back from Barbara soon as I love to finish my projects as soon as they have been stitched.

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Now, back to my stitching :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Gracie: Free to swim around

Feeling like doing a Happy Dance as I have just finished stitching my first stumpwork project with Gracie. This was a Ganet Burr design written for us at EGA.
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All these EGA GCC can either be taken directly from EGA National or like in my case from EGA CyberStitchers.

Have added a close-up of Gracie herself. I will now have to keep an eye on her if I don't want her to stray away too far. Have not done all this work to loose her now :-(

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Pierrette =^..^=

Gracie: Body attached

An updated photo showing Gracie's body attached. There are two layers of padding under (with felt). I tried to take a photo in such a way that we could see the padded body. Not an easy thing to do as I tried different ways and this photo seems to be the best so far.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Gracie: Fins and body

Have managed to take a photo of the last three sections that I had to stitch for Gracie before assembling her. I had been wondering how it would come out (photo that is) because today it is very dark as we are having again thunderstorms. I am not complaining, mind you, as we had a pretty awful drought last year so all the rain that we are getting is good :-)

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On this photo you are seeing the two fins, one big and one tiny one and the body of Gracie that needed to be stitched separately because I will be adding two layers of padding under before attaching her to the main fabric.

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I need to get my felt and cut two little pieces, one larger than the other, the larger one being on top of the smaller one, then I will make a long bullion to create her mouth and a few beads for her eyes as I want her to be able to see where she is going and perhaps also see her own reflection as she is quite pretty and gracious, which perhaps is where her name is coming from (big smile).

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After that part is complete, I will be attaching the two fins to her body, then will be adding the two leaves, one on each side of her and will finish it up with some bubbles, which will be graciously coming out of her lovely mouth :-)

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So, a lot of finishing work to be done today before I can let her loose in the water.

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Pierrette =^..^=

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 =^..^=

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 =^..^=