Windows into my Heart with doubled fabric covered mats

First photo above showing a side view and second photo below showing a front view.

I just got Windows into my Heart from our framer with two fabric covered mats instead of the uncovered one I had before. I think it makes a big difference.
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Don't look at the wallpaper behind as Windows into my Heart is not going to stay there but I found out that it is one of the best place for me to photograph my frames as I almost always have glass over my finished pieces.
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Still working on Terra Rosa but making slow progress, so I won't be able to post anything about it today, but hopefully tomorrow. To make things worst, just cut myself on the right tumb and had to put a small Band-Aid, which is not very conducive to good stitching :-(

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Pierrette =^..^=

Windows into my Heart: Framed

A few days ago I got back Windows into my Heart from the framer. This is a Ruthmarie Hofmann cyberclass that I took a few years back which I have finally finished some months ago. I finally had it framed and it is now on one of ourwalls for us to enjoy :-)
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Since it has been a long time since my last post about this project, I have also added a photo of the stitched project before framing as a refresher.

Previous posts about Windows into my Heart here.

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My finishing pile is slowly diminishing, but there are a bit more finishing to be done before I am completely caught up with my stitched projects.
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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 =^..^=

Windows into My Heart: A little more done after a 4-year hiatus

A little progress has been made on Windows into my Heart, a design by Ruthmarie Hofmann. The first thing I had to do, as you can easily imagine after a 4-year hiatus, was to reread the entire project instructions and also all the notes that Ruthmarie gave us during that cyberclass and she was quite generous about them too. So, somewhere between reading most of it, but not quite all of them, my little fingers started itching for stitching, so stopped reading and started working on the right side of the heart. The last little section is filled with basketweave stitches. I do love stitching basketweave so much more than tent stitch. I had to refresh my memory about it as I do not work that stitch all that often. One thing that I always need to remember is that when I am going UP, I need to cover the HORIZONTAL mesh of canvas and when I am going DOWN, I am covering the VERTICAL mesh. The rest is a piece of cake, as they say.

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Next to that basketweave section, I did a vertical row of French Knots, which is another stitch that I love to do. I have a book called French Knot Pictures by Christine Harris and each time I look at it, I say to myself, I need to make one of these projects made entirely in French Knots. At first I was thinking of making those French knots using my red thread, but after I finished stitching the basketweave, I decided against it. I thought that the overdyed thread would do a better job. I used 4 strands of the overdyed and only one wrap. That makes a much better looking knot then when making two wraps. To make things more interesting, I also put together the threads in opposite direction in my needle, two on one side and the two other on the other side, which mixed the colors even more in my needle. My thinking for doing that was that it really does not take much thread to make one wrap and I was concerned that I would not get enough color change in my row. I like the end result.

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What now remains to do on this piece is the large section on the left which will be covered with free-form eyelets using the same overdyed thread that I have used for the other square eyelets and French knots. I will be adding lots of beads and French knots in that section.

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After that is completed, the only other section left to stitch will be the narrower vertical section close to the middle of the heart. There I will need to make some serious decisions. I will still be using the same overdyed thread, but not sure what stitch I will use. I will leave that decision until I get there. By then it will be much easier to see what will look nice and what will be a no-no.

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There is a little bit of news about all of you who loves Tanja Berlin of the Berlin Embroidery website in Canada. Tanja has decided to start a Gallery to showcase her customer's completed designs of hers. She contacted me not long ago to ask if I wanted to participate. She knew about my completed work because I had taken advantage of her Free on-going critique. I sent her photos of the two projects that I had completed and they are now there with many from other stitchers around the world. I thought that was such a neat idea in more ways than one. Anne Stradal does the same thing on her website where she has a special Guest Gallery. No doubt that there are others out there. I just don't know about them.

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Better go back to my stitching as my list of projects to do is not getting smaller, but bigger all the time.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Windows into My Heart

This is a lovely design by Ruthmarie Hofmann that was offered by ANG as a Cyberworkshop a few years ago.
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When I first saw this design I thought it was just so sophisticated that I just had to have it.
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A few things happened though with this project that was out of the control of the teacher, but which nevertheless had a negative impact for me and thus I ended never finishing it. The first one was that Ruthmarie had to change the thread colors and the canvas, followed by a change of fabric to cover the box going from an ivory color which I loved to a dark pink/fuchsia color which I was not all that found of and to top it all after stitching what you see above in the photo I discovered that the space I had left over where you see the pink canvas not stitched yet, a little to the right of the middle center of the heart, was not large enough to be able to stitch the design (rounded shapes like the ones that will go in the left section) because the canvas that came with the kit was not the same size as the one that was used and I had not realized that. In all fairness there was a mention of that possibility in the notes, but I discarded it as I was sure that since I had the kit this did not apply to me. Wrong! Anyway to make a long story short, I just put the whole project aside. Now, years later I have decided that I will finish it using those same threads and will find something else to fill in that space and I will find a different fabric, something lighter, a bit like the original photo - will figure this out when it is all completed. Funny sometimes the things that can stop you cold in your tracks with projects.
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This is a photo of what I loved and wanted to do. The fabric is a moire. It is a gorgeous box, no doubt about it and will see what I can do to make mine look as close to this one as possible, just because I love THIS design.

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********* On another note, I was checking a new blog earlier called Stitching in Atlanta and saw the same needlecase that is shown on top of my home page blog, but stitched with ribbons mainly. Quite interesting, I thought.
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Pierrette =^..^=