Shalimar: 8 out of 9 sections completed

I think that this is an awful photograph, but unfortunately it will have to do until I complete the middle section and then scan properly instead of using my digital camera. At least it gives some idea of what has been done up to now.

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It is funny because my husband is supervising this one very closely as he thinks this will become his own little pillow (lol).

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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 =^..^=

Shalimar: One corner completed

Wow, there was really lots of work to do in that corner, more than in the middle pannels. The other three corners are similar and also different, similar because they all have those four hearts in the middle of each losange, but the stitches involved in making them are a bit different and also the stitches surrounding the four sides of that losange are all a bit different. The 4-way continental, which I am not that crazy about, is the same though in each corner.

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As I said in a previous post, I will scan each section when Shalimar is all completed so that we can see the stitches used in that entire design more clearly. With the camera, it is just not as clear as a good scan, but for that I will have to remove the canvas from the stretcher bars and I really don't want to do that each time I finish a section, so will do it at the very end and explain a bit more at that time.

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I have been thinking about a discussion on blogging while stitching and I hope that everyone who feels that this is something that they would like to do won't be deterred by some of these messages.

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I remember that I did things very progressively. First, I used to post photos in Yahoo photo albums of different groups that I belonged to, then I progressed to a Webshot photo album, which I still have and always keep up to date, then one day I was talking with my good friend Terry and we both decided that we were going to start blogging about our stitching and that was a couple years ago and we never looked back.

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Like most people I did not have a clue how a blog worked and I am still learning stuff as I go along and that is OK with me. It would have made my life easier if I had known some of the things from the get go as whenever I learn new things I feel the need to go back through my whole blog and change things, which takes quite a bit of time, but that's me.

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I remember looking at blogs at the time and writing down what I liked and disliked about the stitching blogs that I was looking at and then made a few decisions for myself. One of those decisions was to keep my blog entirely about stitching, a decision that I have stuck to till this day. Another decision I took at the time was to make sure I would have at least one photo each time I made an entry on my blog, as I am very visual and hate to read lots of entries with no photos included, but then again that is just me. I created my blog according to who I am and my likes and dislikes.

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I have tried to post as much as I could since the very beginning, but do not want to put pressure on myself to do so if I can't. Blogging for me is for pleasure and it also encourages me to keep up with my stitching.

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I also try to give links of where any of the projects I have stitched during those years can be located or if I can't do that, at least give the name of the designer and whatever information I have at the time so that anyone interested in stitching the same project have some basic information helping them to find it. It avoids the frustration of seeing some lovely project that I would like to stitch on a blog and having no clue as to how to find it without having to contact the blogger, which is no big deal in itself, but it makes life easier if the information is just there.

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My message to anyone who is reading this post and feel like this is something that you would like to try, go ahead, give it a shot and have fun with it. If you are like me, you will learn as you go and we bloggers who have a little bit of experience are always here to give you a helping hand.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Shalimar: 4 panels completed and one corner started

I have done a little progress since my last post. Completed the middle pannel on the left side and started one corner. I need to finish the 3 other sides of the losange and still have a few stitches to complete inside the losange like a few running stitches between the hearts and some French knots around each heart.
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This is taking much longer than I thought it would, but I always miscalculate the time needed for any project, so I may have to double the time that I thought it would take me and perhaps I will be surprised by finishing a little earlier than my anticipated deadline.
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Ever since I restarted working on Shalimar, I have been thinking of Hapsburg Lace Sampler which I completed some time back. Some similarities between the two projects, like the color and size of the canvas, threads used DMC Perle and the lacing effect of both.
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Been reading that some have framed Shalimar instead of making a pillow, so thinking about it and not completely sure what I will do with it once all stitched. Still plenty of time to think about it at the dizzying speed I am going :-(
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I finally have the supplies I need to finish Tara as I have just received the little Stanley cloth self adhesive picture hangers all the way from Canada thanks to my good friend Nicole who lives in Quebec. She went hunting for them for me. I will be finishing Tara the same way as Susan Donn explained in her Embroidery Canada Spring 2007 article. I thought it was such a neat idea, so will be trying it. Will post photos as soon as done and will explain a little bit more then.
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Slowly plugging along in my reading of Framed in Lace whenever I have time, but have not had all that much free time lately.
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Not done anything more on my brazilian embroidery rose, nor Terra Rosa, nor More Options for Hardanger and have only been looking at Windows into my Heart as been concentrating on Shalimar these past days.
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I am glad that I have decided to take the bull by the horns and finished my Elizabethan pencil box as Barbara Jackson from Tristan Brooks Designs never answered my email for help. At this point I can only speculate as to the reason(s) why ......
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My friend Elisabeth from England has shown me how to do proper links in my posts yesterday and have since started going back through all my posts to change all of them, so a big thank you Elisabeth :-) You may want to spend some time on her blog, which is marvelous.
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Better go now and keep plugging along on Shalimar.
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Pierrette =^..^=

Shalimar: 3 out of 9 panels completed

Since yesterday morning, I have managed to stitch a third square/panel. If only I could keep this tempo, I would be all done in, let's see now,, got 9 panels, if I take 1½ day per panel, that would make 6 times 1½ = 9 days. Hey, that would not be too bad, but knowing me, something will happen and I won't make it, so let's say I give myself 2 weeks and my oldest UFO would have been completed. Hard to believe right now :-(

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When it is all done, I will scan the new finished panels/squares so that each design can be seen better. That is what I have done for the previous photos, just before I put it back on my stretcher bars. Digital photos do not show stitches as well, sorry to say, at least when I am taking the photos.

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Going back to my stitching now. Not a minute to spare if I want to make it (big grin).

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Pierrette =^..^=

Shalimar

A good friend of mine when she saw this project called Shalimar, which end result will be a lovely pillow, strongly encouraged me to finish it.
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The photo above shows one little section that has been stitched.


A second photo shows another section with a different design.

Here with the third photo we can see the two stitched sections with some unfinished ones.

Here we have a view of the entire project. There are still quite a bit of stitching to do, but it is the kind of stitching that gives a lace effect and is quite lovely.

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Shalimar is a Carol Costello design. Some of you may be familiar with her designs. You can find it in a book called Fancy Work & Fantasies. There are two different pillow designs in the book. The other one is quite lovely too, but I prefer this one. Shalimar has a beautiful vase with flowers in the center section, little hearts in the four squares and lots of beautiful stitches.

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The threads used for this project are Medici and DMC Perle.

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It has been such a long time since I have stitched on that project that I won't even try to guess when it was. Yes, it was that long ago. That makes it quite a UFO, doesn't it? I think that this is my oldest one, when I think of it, which means that I will probably have to have some kind of celebration when it is all completed :-)

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I am having some bad Spring allergies these days and it is making stitching much more difficult, but not impossible.

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Have started working on my brazilian embroidery rose the other day, so it is progressing slowly.

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Still reading my Monica Ferris book called Framed in Lace. Hey, that is probably why I have just picked up Shalimar as it looks like Lace. I had not realized that until just now. I think that I may be pushing that thing a bit far by doing some crewel work when reading Crewel World and now wanting to work on Shalimar because I am reading Framed in Lace. The next one on the list is called Murderous Yarn, does that mean that I need to start knitting something? I have not knitted since I was 12 years old probably :-(

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Oh, well, enough chatting and better get myself moving on my stitching.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Shalimar: Work in Progress

Shalimar is a gorgeous pillow project that can be found in a book called "Fancy Work & Fantasies" that was designed by Carole Costello (1984).

I have started this project a while back and it has been patiently waiting for me to return to it. What I love about it is that it has that lacy appearance and the middle square contains a lovely vase full of flowers. I still have quite a bit of work to do on this project but it will be all well worth it when it has been completed.

Pierrette =^..^=