Patches of Snow: Top section completed

I have been thinking as to the reason(s) why I decided to do a Christmas project and I think I know why. It is a very simple reason, actually. We are having a heat wave and it has been rather uncomfortable for me to stitch in my stitching/computer room, which as luck would have it seems to be the warmest room in the whole house and unfortunately I can't move it :-(

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Stitching some Christmas project brings me back to a place with much cooler temperatures, even if it is only in my mind.

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This new photo shows how much I have been able to accomplish under these warmer/hotter conditions. It has been around 93-95 degrees outside and the air conditioning in the afternoon just can't keep up with it and this is only the beginning of June. What will happen in July and August, and even September? I don't even want to think about it. Last year our air conditioning decided to quit us when the temperatures were over 100 degrees. We have an air conditioning unit for upstairs and a different one for downstairs. Now, my stitching room is upstairs as well as the bedrooms and of course that is the one that broke. Since we were not the only ones that had such bad luck as it puts quite a strain on air conditioning units when temperatures go that high, I think that it took approximately 4 to 5 days before they installed a new unit. Not happy memories, I can tell you that :-(

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A few days ago, I have received a book that I had been wanting for quite some time. The title is Embroidered Knot Gardens (using three-dimensional stumpwork, canvas work & ribbonwork) and the author is Owen Davies from Britain. I really did not know what to expect from the book as I had heard good and not so good comments about it, so it was with a bit of apprehension that I opened it, wondering if I was going to be disappointed or not (again). To my immense relief, I can report that it is a wonderful book and it has already given me some great ideas as to where I will apply some of the information found in the book. I need to say here, that if someone is looking for a very specific project that would be described from start to finish, this is not the right book, but that being said, all necessary information is right there in the book to make it possible to create something wonderful. All stitches are very well explained with charts, lots and lots of beautiful photos with close-ups of some of the stitches. One that has stood out for me is on page 63 where he explains how to make needlelace leaves that are extremely pretty. He even has a photo that shows a small matchbox container that had been adapted to create a courtyard garden inside it, which gave me the idea of finding a box the size I would like to have my little garden and use that instead of having to build some container from scratch. And you should see the brick walls that he has made with threads. I could go on and on as I really love the book. I purchased mine at Amazon as I always want to take advantage of the free shipping, so I added another book to it to cover the minimum $25.00 purchase required to get free shipping.

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I have received my threads and canvas yesterday from Pam for Mystery in a Corner by Gay Ann Rogers, so will be starting to work on that as I have a little bit of catching up to do. Will put some photos a bit later.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Patches of Snow Mini Stocking

Yesterday, I started working on a cute little Christmas stocking that has lots of beading in it. It is a Kaitlyn Marie Designs (1994) which I found on Ebay and it came with everything necessary to stitch it, thank goodness for that. No hunting for this one :-)
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Above is a photo of what it will look like when finished and below is a photo of what I have done so far. Will probably be able to add a progress photo later today as this should go pretty quickly, if all goes according to plan, but we all know that plans do change quickly sometimes :-(

Pierrette =^..^=

Virtual Book Tour: Janet M. Perry, Guest blogger (An Article about Janet's life in Bargello

VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR - JANET M. PERRY AS MY GUEST telling us about her latest book called BARGELLO REVISITED

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For some of you who may be wondering what exactly is a Virtual Book Tour, it is simply the equivalent of an author visiting book stores to promote her or his latest book, but instead of visiting book stores the author is visiting websites or blogs. No planes to catch, no driving, we all stay in the comfort of our own home :-)
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Janet has just recently published her latest book entitled Bargello Revisited and she is making her first stop of her Virtual Book Tour today on this blog and for this occasion Janet will be sharing with us her love of Bargello. During the coming month(s) she will be visiting other blogs and doing some fun activities there. You can read more about all this by visiting her blog and her website, links well indicated at the end of Janet's article.
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Without any further delays, here is the article written by Janet M. Perry about her life in Bargello.
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Enjoy :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=

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MY LIFE IN BARGELLO (written by Janet M. Perry)
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Janet says:
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My love affair with Bargello probably started in about 1971 with a book. The book was Elsa Williams' Bargello. I found it at my local needlepoint store. I was entranced by the lovely shading and the wonderful patterns. I bought it and immediately started to study.
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Back in those days, I hadn't really done much needlepoint, so this was completely new. The book had pictures of the finished needlepoint, but no charts, and the yarn colors didn't match the Paternayan my shop carried. But I loved it, so I bought several shades in the same color family, some canvas and I started to decipher the patterns.
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It only took one and I became hooked. Almost immediately I decided to make covers for our dining room chairs (I was 14). My dad made a frame, my mom and I picked out thread colors (rust, dark green, and ivory) and I picked patterns from the book. I didn't get very far as chair covers are big, really big. It's a dream project to this day.
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The next Bargello pieces I remember were a pair of evening purses in shades of turquoise I made while I was in college. Doing needlepoint kept me sane in the intense environment of St John's College. I was about the only student who needlepointed, endearing me to the older women there.
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This pillow, a not very well counted version of an Elsa Williams pattern, was made around that time. If you look closely, you will see the count is off and not all the diamonds are even, but 30 years later, I still love the colors.

I also became fascinated by the idea of a solid color Bargello as a background. Being self-taught is not always a good thing as you don't know when something is hard. So my first attempt at this was a Hungarianpoint pattern and I didn't know how to count it properly. I still have the piece and it pains me to look at it.

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Shortly after I got married, I started to branch out in my Bargello, making the pillow you see here. I became fascinated to use different threads, which was revolutionary in needlepoint in the early 80's. This one is of another classic pattern.

I explored the idea of making what I call Op Art Bargello (there's a pattern like this in the book) where there are only a few lines of color against a solid background. I still love the graphic impact of these designs. This project from Bargello Revisited is my latest Op Art Bargello.

I kept exploring ideas like single color Bargello using different threads, making a lovely Bargello scallop shell (my Mom and DD have my versions of this one) and an all-white pillow. I also kept reading every book on Bargello I could find, getting them from the library over and over again.

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In the 90's my life got extremely busy with kids, big house, nanny and a high-pressure job, so my needlepoint changed too. I started to look for small projects, which were easily portable and fast to make. That's when I started doing the Bargello mini-socks. By my estimate I've made close to 40, every one different. I would find a pattern I liked in a book or magazine and I would buy some threads or raid the stash and make a mini-sock. The first ones I finished myself. Now I have them finished or they languish in my stash. Some of my favorites are in the book. Others I've given to friends.

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Here are pictures of some I've done recently. The first one, still unfinished, is a Hungarianpoint medallion design. I haven't done this before and I made sort of a random outline and started to fill in. I'm not happy with it becauce the center doesn't look good. I think I'm going to try it again working from the center out.

This one, which has the charted line below it, is a scallop pattern I call swag because it looks like swags in drapes. With this I'm also trying to break out of my color rut. Orchids are not my favorite colors, but I do like this. That's a good thing about mini-socks, you can try colors here with no risk. You might not make an orchid pillow, but an orchid ornament is OK.

As a gift to you, here's the line for this pattern.

So what's next? I like the idea of trying out color schemes in mini-socks, so I think I'm going to do a series based on the colors paint companies come up with for painting a room. I'm kind of intrigued by the idea of proportions in Bargello design, so I'm going to explore changing the proportions of the colors and see what happens. I'm going off to the paint store tomorrow to get some inspiration (I also need to find paint for several rooms in my house).

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Keep Stitching

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Janet M. Perry

napaneedlepoint@gmail.com

http://www.napaneedlepoint.com/

http://www.nuts-about-needlepoint.com/ - blog

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Like Janet, I have always loved Bargello too as it has always had an hypnotic effect on me with all these ups and downs, making me stitch for far longer periods of time that I would normally have done.

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I am presently working on Desire which is a Susan Portra Design, have completed Bargello Symphony designed by Loretta Spears, design that I absolutely love, Gem Storm, a Marianne Frost design (had so much fun with this one) and my very first Bargello project which was a little scissor case.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Desire - stitching part done and hunting for cabochons with rim sets starts in earnest

I have now completed the stitching part of Desire, #13 of Susan Portra's Cabochon Series by adding the couching stitches to the long long tramé stitches and need to concentrate on finding the five 10mm cabochons with golden rim sets to attach to the canvas. I will also have to dig and see if I can find what appears to be 37 golden bugle beads. I know that I have some, but not sure that I have that many, but those can be found easily enough. What I am really surprised about is how difficult, if not impossible, to find the golden 10mm rim sets to attach to the canvas for the cabochons. I have been looking on different web sites and some seem to have the cabochons, but no rim sets in sight. Some designers use them so they have to be available somewhere, the question is where exactly. If I ever find some I will have to purchase a big quantity of them as I don't want to have to go hunting for them again and they really look lovely on a project and make a statement.

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I must be one of the worst person to try to find something on the web as I never seem to find anything and my friend Terry finds everything she is looking for and then some, so Terry took pity on me and offered to have a look for me. Sure hope she is more successful than I have been so far.

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It has been a long time since I have worked a needlepoint project that is mostly beads, but I have just the one next to me right now. It is a mini stocking called Patches of Snow, all white and gold, a Kaitlyn Marie Designs. I am thinking about this coming Christmas and this sure would look nice for my tree. I really need to work on some smaller projects as I have been involved with bigger ones lately and sure need a break. Instant gratification or almost :-)

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Time to have a look at those bugle beads and keep dreaming about cabochons with rim sets :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Desire: Moving along

Now, it is starting to look like Susan Portra's finished ornament. Still a bit more work to do like some couching to add on the long tramé stitches and the bugle beads and of course the hard to find 5 cabochons with rimsets.

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Am still wondering about the finishing that has been done on it as to what it is exactly. I know that I can probably do it if I can only get a clear picture in my mind as to what it is. I will probably have to sleep on it but there is no rush before the ornament is all completed and for that I need to find those cabochons with rimsets or substitute them with some other stitches. If someone who is reading this entry have some ideas as to where I can find them, please let me know. I can be easily contacted at LovetoStitch99@comcast.net

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Pierrette =^..^=

I stitched two additional rows last evening, took a photo and then got distracted and never added to my blog.

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So far on this project, I have used Fyre Werks on the first row (gold), Crystal Rays (the larger one with reddish colors), Fyre Werks in black for the second and fourth rows and Neon Rays for the last and fifth row (wine color).

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This morning have added a sixth row using some DMC Perle #5 in red (not in the photo).

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Should be able to finish it today, except for the cabochons with rimsets which I don't have and will see if I can find some gold bugle beads all the same size. I think I may have some but have not yet looked for them.

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I have been looking at the finishing on the photo and been wondering how exactly it was done. There seems to be some gold thread laced somehow. It looks very good, just not sure how it has been done as I can't see enough of it :-(

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Pierrette =^..^=

Desire: A Susan Portra Cabochon Series design

I felt that I needed a bit of a change and remembered this lovely and much smaller project that I had purchased on Ebay some time ago.
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I have always loved Bargello as whenever I work on such pieces it is so easy for me to just loose myself, as I just want to do one more row, oh, just one more. I think it has that effect on so many of us.
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This is a photo of the bit I had the time to stitch this morning. It is a Susan Portra design, which she made for Rainbow Gallery in 1993 (publication date). The design is called "Desire" and is #13 of her Cabochon Series. When I saw it on Ebay, I fell in love with it and was lucky enough to win it, which is far from always beeing the case as I have often been outbid by others. I have no idea what the others of the series look like as have never seen them.
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It is always a bit difficult to gather the supply for projects that have been created a long time ago and that is the case for this one too. I was fortunate enough for someone to send me the Crystal Rays thread as it is not produced anymore.
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I do not have the cabochon required for this project. No indication as to the size either could be found on the chart, so will have to stitch enough of it to get some idea of the dimension needed. It seems that a color like Ruby might look very nice with probably a gold rimset, if I can put my hands on both.

This is the photo that is on the cover of the pamphlet. Just so pretty :-)

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Need to go now to stitch just one more row (big grin).

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Pierrette =^..^=

Tara on one of my wall

Just for the fun of it, I thought of taking another photo of Tara now that I have found the wall where I wanted to display her. It is actually in the upstairs hallway. The lighting is a bit different so we are now seeing her a bit differently too colorwise.

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I wanted to let the self-adhesive cloth hanger dry completely before attempting to put her on a wall as I did not want to see her crashing down and damage her lovely dress or even worst, hurt herself :-(

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Pierrette =^..^=

Tara with a fabric frame

I needed a break from Shalimar so I decided to finish Tara with a round fabric frame that I made following the instructions I had read in the Embroidery Canada, Spring 2007 magazine from an article called "It's time to display" written by Susan Donn.

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This was really not very difficult to do and looks pretty good. You need to mount both fabrics on foam core or in my case I used some mat similar to what the framers use and cut each piece the size that I needed. Then, I added some padding to each one (next time around I will add more padding under the stitched piece so that I can add a thicker cord around it) and added my stitched Tara on the smaller circle and my chosen fabric on the larger one, and laced both individually. After that I added a brown craft paper on the back of the bigger circle. I glued Tara on the bigger circle and made some cording and added to both. All that remains for me to do now is to glue a picture hanger (cloth with self adhesive), let it dry and then hang on my wall.

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It is really a nice way to finish a project and it is much less expensive than having it framed at the framer, mostly for a little project like this one. This can be done for any shape project whether it is rectangular, triangular, square, etc.

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I could also have chosen some fabric with prints on it, but I wanted to keep it simple and elegant. It really depends on the effect that we want to achieve.

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I was hoping to receive my threads and canvas for Mystery in a Corner by Gay Ann Rodgers, but the postman came and they were not there :-(

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Pierrette =^..^=

Shalimar: Second corner completed

Slowly moving along with this project. So far, the 4 middle sections and 2 corners done, remains 2 more corners and the lovely middle section, which I keep for last to motivate me to keep going whenever I ran out of steam :-)
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Pat is now working on Gail Hendrix' blue jay on her blog and perhaps after that she will start working on the cardinal, which is the one I have. -
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Yesterday, I was having a slow day, feeling a bit tired, and went to sit comfortably on my lazy chair with a book called French Knot Pictures by Christine Harris. I have always loved doing French Knots and Christine has some lovely miniature scenes in her book. Most of them are about 2" by 3" in size or 5 cm by 7 cm and I was thinking of stitching one, working on that particular project only during the evenings. She says it takes approximately 15 hours to complete a project of that size, so not that bad compared to some of the big projects I am currently working on.
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There was some discussion about some fun painted canvas made by Maggie & Company on the Needlepoint group. I was tempted by some of them myself but not sure that I want to tackle another big project right this minute.
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Going back for more stitching now :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=