Florentine bargello little decorative pillow

I have decided earlier today to give my poor back a little break from the big big Hollyhock project and worked on finishing the little florentine bargello pincushion turned miniature pillow in my case. I think this design is way too beautiful to stick needles in it.
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You can read a bit more about this project on Previous posts
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All finishing instructions are included in Brenda Day's book's Bargello; A Fresh Approach to Florentine Embroidery. I really like the bead tassels and it is also so easy to do. That is something that I will probably use in some form or other for other finishing projects. It is wonderful whenever you learn something new, isn't it?
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I have been thinking about my next finishing and I am leaning towards the little Christmas stocking. This project also came with finishing instructions so will use those as I like the way they finished theirs.
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Pierrette =^..^=

Hollyhock House: Bricks all stitched on left side of house

Daylight saving time began this morning and I am still not completely awake and have been dragging my body along all morning. Did not sleep all that well either, so don't think that today will be a very active stitching day. Oh well, I can always read. Have some great detective books waiting for me next to a very comfortable chair. Seems very inviting right this minute :-)

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Anyway, I have managed to snap a quick photo of the left side of Hollyhock house showing all the bricks completed. Done a few additional bricks on the right side too, so slowly moving along with the bricklaying.

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Talk to you all when I am a bit more awaked.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Hollyhock House: More bricks

I am now getting close to finishing the left side of the house, but have been having lots of distractions lately so not stitching as much, but have managed to add a few more bricks.

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We are now having our annual meeting at ANG CyberPointers. It is hard to imagine that this new cyber group has only been in existence since October of 2008 and we are already over 300 members. There are tons of projects for us to work on and there is not a dull moment. They sure keep me on my toes with everything that is going on there. One of the project is a stitch along doing the Tony Minieri kimono that everybody is talking about and we have so many more.

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Next week, we will have our meeting at EGA CyberStitchers. We have lots of interesting National projects that we are taking as a group and also some smaller free projects given to members. We are now deciding on the different classes that we will be taking as groups.

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I am also heavily involved with projects from the Shining Needle Society. One of them is this stitching along doing the Hollyhock House.

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.......... and just in case I did not have any with these three wonderful groups, I will soon be taking another cyberclass, making a little Nugget Box.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Hollyhock House: Bricks

Just took a quick picture to show you the brick laying. We are using 3 different colors for the bricks. Each brick has two layers, the first one going this way \ and the top layer going that way /.

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Upon Ann's suggestion, our stitch-along leader, I have been using either the same colors for the two layers or using one color for the bottom layer, a different one for the top layer and alternating between the bottom and top layers, giving me lots of possible combinations and shading, which looks natural looking.

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I decide on the colors of each individual brick as I go along depending on the colors chosen for previous bricks as I try to get a nice overall look. I am quite happy so far with the results. I love Gay Ann Rogers' designs and this one will also look great once completed, but I am not there yet, far from it, but making slow progress..

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Pierrette =^..^=

Hollyhock House: Slowly building the house

I have been so involved with my stitching that I almost forgot to stop and take photo showing what I have done since the last post.

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As you can see, I have stitched the mortar between the bricks on each side of the house, but before I actually started stitching the bricks themselves, I wanted to put some foundation to my house, which are the grey lines. I still have some more to do and then I want to put the roof and finish it off with the bricks. I have so many classes and stitch-alongs in which I am involved in that I need to focus on one assignment at a time and try to slide the finishing in-between these.

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For those of you who have been wondering if I have started working on the finishing of my little bargello pillow, the answer is yes, but not much as Hollyhock House was screaming at me to work on her :-) I have only one side out of 4 stitched on the little pillow, so nothing to show you as all we can see are both backsides of the fabric, not very interesting I am afraid :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Hollyhock House: Both vases and flowers stitched

I have finally stitched both sides of Hollyhock House and just in time too for my March assignment, which will be what I wanted to stitch all along, the bricks. We would think that I have been a bricklayer in a previous life for my wanting to do this part so badly (grinning).

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I find myself with a big conflict this morning as I said that I would do the finishing of my little bargello pillow and I really want to do just that, but and a big but, at the same time I want to do some bricklaying so badly too. Life is just so hard, isn't it? Tough choices all the time :-(

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Next post will tell you which one I have decided to work on first ..................

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Pierrette =^..^=

Hollyhock House: Right side

We can't see much the details on this photo but that gives you a general idea where the second vase is located in relation to the first one I have previously stitched. You can see closer details on previous photos here The right side is just a repeat of the left side, so you are not missing anything really :-)

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All that remains to do to complete this section are the three flowers. On March 1st we will be getting our next assignment, so better get cracking on this. It will be brick laying time, starting the foundation of Hollyhock House. The fun will really begin then, at least for me.

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I have already gathered everything that I need to do the finishing of my little bargello pillow and will work on it as soon as the flowers on HHH are done.

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Pierrette =^..^=

One finishing done, how many more to go?

Yesterday, I decided that it was high time for me to start working on doing some finishing so started with an end-of-term examination ornament that I made using the same threads that I had used for Gay Ann Rogers' Mystery in a corner.

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For this one I decided to use the book called Sandy's Finishing Touches by Sandy Higgins and went for a hard ornament finish but with a single mat board method instead of double mat board method. You can find out all the information in her book on page 34. Then I made two different cordings, a small one to hang the ornament at the top and a bigger one for all around the ornament and finally made a knot at the bottom and that created the tassel, method I had learned on a cyberclass taken with Carole Lake.
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I should probably now be good and continue to do a bit of stitching on Hollyhock House before tackling another finishing as I will soon be getting another monthly assignment.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Miniature Georgian house: Gay Ann Rogers, designer

I see that my photo is a bit lopsided this morning. Oh well! :-(

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I had purchased two miniature projects from Gay Ann Rogers during her last online weeklong sale, the miniature garden gate and the miniature Georgian house, so now because of having two not so good day, I ended up stitching them both, which is great in a sense as they were quick and fun to stitch. On the downside, I now have two more projects to do the finishing.

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What a difference in size that will be when I go back to Hollyhock House with my 18" by 24" frame compared to the little 6" by 6" I have been using for those two projects. Not sure what I will do with myself for the rest of the day as I am not feeling that great. Will I do some finishing or will I work on HHH (Hollyhock House) or something else. No idea. Will put my leftover threads away and will give it some thought. If it was not so cold outside I would go out for a breath of fresh air. I am really getting tired of this cold weather and I am more than ready for spring. No sun outside and overcast, not a fun day.

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Will be back soon with something, not sure what, but definitely something (grinning)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Miniature garden gate: Gay Ann Rogers, designer

I woke up very early this morning, around 3 and could not fall back asleep, so got up a little before 4 and got busy with all kind of things and of course ended up rather tired so I decided to work on a little project, something that I could hold in my hands and that would work rather quickly, so thought of this little kit I had purchased from Gay Ann Rogers and "voilà un autre projet de complété" another project completed, quite easy, quick and fun to do.

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I have another little miniature kit from Gay Ann, a little Georgian house. Will keep it for another day when I don't have enough energy to tackle a BIG project :-)

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It is always a good feeling to have been able to complete a project and this one only took a few hours.

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Pierrette =^..^=