Kaleidoscope Coasters: Brenda Day, designer

A while back, I had started a series of 4 different bargello coasters, all designed by Brenda Day. These projects and more can be found in her book called "Bargello: A fresh approach to florentine embroidery". I was thinking today that with all the different projects that I am currently working on these days that it may very well take a while before I get to the other two coasters and I really do not want to wait that long before having the pleasure to use them on a daily basis, so I looked at Brenda's finishing instructions and finished them both this afternoon.

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The plastic coasters used are called "Fabric Flair Craft Coasters" and they are very well constructed so I am not concerned at all about using them daily. I will just need to wipe them clean after usage and the way that they are made I can't see how any spills over the top of those coasters could possibly be able to affect the stitching inside and stain it.

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Just went downstairs a minute ago with both of them in hand and asked my husband which one of the two he wanted for himself and as I thought he picked the one on the right :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Coaster B: Brenda Day, designer

Coaster B

Coaster C

I should really have been stitching on something else, but I just had to stitch a second coaster out of my 4 coaster series. Post about coaster C is here.

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I am stitching those four coasters using exactly the same colors as Brenda Day did in her book called Bargello: A fresh approach to florentine embroidery. This forces me to go outside my color comfort zone at times and see if I can discover new combinations of colors that I will want to use in the future.

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Looking at those first two coasters, I have a favorite. Now is it because of the design or the colors used or a combination of both? I would love to know which one you like best and what plays into your decision? If the colors would have been switched around between those two coasters, would you have picked the same one as your favorite? Would you have liked to see darker colors or other color combinations in those two coasters? I would love to know your thoughts in the comment section.

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Once I stitch the 3rd and 4th one, it will be interesting to see if we all keep our first selection or if we pick a different one.

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Looking forward to hear your comments :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Bargello Coaster C: Brenda Day, designer

I am back after not feeling well, but I am doing just fine now, so I have restarted stitching yesterday.

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This is the first one of a series of 4 different coasters: 4 different designs with different colors. I am using Brenda Day's colors for the first series, forcing myself in using colors that perhaps I would not initially chose. I will be making a few extras for Christmas gifts. Some of you might be thinking that maybe I am starting a bit early, but I can tell you that I can never start too early as I always end up racing against the clock the closer Christmas gets.

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I am stitching the four of them on the same piece of canvas, so that means that unfortunately I won't be able to do the finishing as each one is done stitching. On the other hand, it may entice me to work on this project quicker than I would otherwise have done.

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This series of coasters are all four-way bargello, which coincidentally is the second installment of The Bold and The Beautiful Bargello articles in Needlepoint Now, March/April 2009 issue. Usually projects in books are not all that detailed, so reading the article gave me extra information which made my task easier. Always nice to have many resources when working on something that you have not done before.

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I can't believe how much behind I can get in all my projects whenever I am sick and that does not have to be for a very long time either. Anyway, I will get there, eventually (grinning).

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Yesterday it was a very distracting day as we were having very bad weather with tornado warnings, sirenes going on and off during the day and me watching weather reports direct online. In a sense I like the fact that I can follow things online instead of having to go downstairs watch the TV in order to know how things are going weatherwise, but this is not the relaxing, peaceful stitching day I had in mind when I started my day. There was one tornado touch down but it was not near where I live, thank goodness for that.

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Anyway, all is good and well and I will move on to my next stitching and might be back tomorrow with another posting if all goes according to plans :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

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 =^..^=

Florentine bargello: Brenda Day, designer

I finished stitching the last remaining few stitches this morning of this lovely florentine bargello design by Brenda Day. Just in case that some of you "might" be interested in stitching it (grinning) you can find it in her book called "Bargello: A Fresh Approach to Florentine Embroidery", which can be found at Amazon, eBay and needlepoint shops. This is not a difficult book to find at all and there are lovely projects inside. I will be doing more of Brenda's projets in the near future.
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I have always enjoyed myself tremendously each time that I have been working on bargello projects. You can see all of them here under my "bargello" listing.
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This weekend, I will take time to get out all my stitched projects that are ready for finishing and will take inventory of all the supplies I need to finish them all and go to JoAnn and see if I can find the fabric, etc. that I need and will get cracking. I am normally never that behind with my finishing and I hate it. If I stitch something, I want to be able to enjoy it and sitting in a drawer is not my idea of enjoying a finished project.
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I will post group photos of all the projects that I need to finish a bit later. Hope I won't get a fainting spell when I see them all in the open :-(
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Better get cracking as I have lots of work to do to get all this ready and much much more stitching to do. No dull moment for this girl :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=

Florentine bargello

I should have been working on something else, but bargello has always been just too difficult for me to resist.
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I feel that I need to blame someone for all this and it is Needlepoint Now magazine, more precisely the January/February 2009 issue. The magazine has just started a series of articles with Liz Morrow about bargello which will last most of the year.
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On Judy Harper's blog Possibilities she shows us some beautiful bargello pieces done by different designers and you can also see some gorgeous bargello pieces on Liz's site and I do mean gorgeous. When I look at them, I just can't decide which one I like the best as they are just all so beautiful in their own right. I wish Liz would sell some of her designs as I would love to buy some, but from what I have heard she does not, at least not now, maybe later :-) If someone hears of the contrary, please let me know :-)
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Anyway, that got me thinking about bargello and looking around for some beautiful designs and I saw this design which is called Florentine Pincushion though since it is a bit on the larger size, I want to make a little decorative pillow with it instead.
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This is a Brenda Day design and I fell in love with it from the moment I saw it. I just love the design itself and the colors chosen for it.
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This design is all done in either DMC floss threads or DMC #5 Perle, but uses lots of different colors and color shades. It could also be done with other threads, metallic, etc. in different colors. It could be made bigger too if one desires.
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I have just completed one side of my little pillow and will now do the other side, but in reverse, meaning the top of the left side will become the bottom on the right side and the bottom on the left side will in turn become the top on the right side making it real interesting. The finishing is also real cute.
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Pierrette =^..^=