Rapunzel: More greeneries

Here is my latest photograph showing what has been stitched on Rapunzel. This is a project that has so much greeneries in it using different shades of green, most of them DMC threads but also some Floche ones, that it will go on forever. I know it won't, it just feels like it so I may decide to start working on the witch and the tower before moving on to any more greeneries.

.

A side note here. My Windows into my Heart has been back to my framer for close to two weeks now in order to have two mats instead of the one and also both mats will be covered with fabric. I expect to soon receive a call from her telling us that it is ready for pick up. Looking forward to see how different it will look after this new treatment. Will post a new photo as soon as I get it back :-)

.

Pierrette =^..^=

Rapunzel: Some greeneries on top of tree

Continuing on Rapunzel, a Marion Scoular project, I have now stitched three different patterns (all selected by Marion herself) for the tree foliage, also using different shades of green.
.
Just like The Princess and the Pea, which is another Marion project, I am truly enjoying myself with this one.
.
Been watching Le Tour de France for a couple of weeks now and that has kept me busy than usual as I don't watch that much TV, usually only a couple of hours per day. Sunday we will be in Paris with the man who will have won the Tour. I bet it will be Alberto Contador from Astana. This man is just flying, a bit like Lance Armstrong when he was much younger. Talking about Armstrong, I think he is doing pretty good for a man his age having been out of it for over three years and recovering from a recent injury.
.
Still time to do a bit more stitching today, so better get on with it :-)
.
Pierrette =^..^=

Rapunzel: Tree on the right side of the tower

Looking at the Rapunzel design yesterday, I made the decision to start with the tree on the right side of the tower as it seems to me like a good place to start as I intend to keep the tower and Rapunzel for last. I used exactly the same stitch pattern as Marion Scoular used on hers as it looks just right for a tree. I have been using one strand of DMC 611 for both the filling and the outline.

.

The next logical section to work on now is the tree foliage, followed by the bushes. After that I will move on the other side of the tower and work on the second tree, tree foliage and bushes. Not sure at what point I will be working on the sky as that section can be done any time after the tree foliage has been added.

.

I will put it aside now and continue with my rotation, but will be back to it soon :-)

.

Pierrette =^..^=

Blackwork: New Project

Yesterday, I ended up spending lots of time working on my blog adding additional LABELS so that you and I can find things a bit more easily. The most important label category has been to add a label for each designer, so now when you and I want to see something about Marion Scoular for example, then all we have to do is scroll down to the right side column until we arrive to the label section and then just click on Marion Scoular and all the projects I have stitched from her whether it is hardanger or blackwork will be there. Same thing for all the other designers that I have had the pleasure to stitch their projects.

.

Talking about Marion Scoular, I do love her designs immensely and my next Blackwork project is one that she designs and is called "Rapunzel", which I have added the photo that came with the instructions, which are quite limited by the way since that is a teaching project and not one like The Princess and the Pea for which she had her instructions printed for sale, so this project will be a bit more challenging than the previous one I have stitched of hers.

.

Here is the little story that Marion writes about Rapunzel at the beginning of her instructions:

.

Rapunzel

.

There was once a couple who longed in vain for a child. A window of their modest home overlooked the garden next door which was owned by a Witch, who filled it with beautiful flowers and tempting vegetables. So envious was the wife that she persuaded her loving husband to sneak through the fence to steal some rampion for her salad. On the second foray, the Witch caught him, and in response to his plea that he was only trying to please his dear wife, she agreed to let him go, but demanded that in return, she should be given their child.

.

Indeed, when the child was born and given the name Rapunzel, which means rampion, the Witch took her to a high tower, deep in the woods. There she grew to be incredibly beautiful, with long golden hair. The Witch would stand at the foot of the tower and call, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel all golden and flair, Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair". Whereupon, Rapunzel would unbraid her glorious locks so the Witch could use them as ladder.

.

Rapunzel sang with the voice of an angel, and one day, this was heard by a Prince as he rode through the forest. Mesmerized, he witnessed the Witch's ritual, memorized it, and when the Witch had gone, used it himself to see at closer hand the lovely Rapunzel. Love blossomed, but sadly, Rapunzel made the naive mistake of asking the Witch why she was so slow and the Prince so nimble. Furious, the Witch slashed off Rapunzel's locks and carried her off to the wilderness.

.

Using Rapunzel's hair, the Witch lured the Prince back to the tower, where in trying to escape, he fell into thorn bushes which scratched his eyes, blinding him. Doomed to wander for many a day throughout the land, the Prince eventually heard a plaintive familiar song.

.

Seeing the Prince's blindness, Rapunzel's tears fell on his eyes, restoring his sight. Joyfully they returned to his Palace and have lived happily ever since.

.

End of story :-) K nowing the story that goes with the piece will make it so much more interesting to work on it.

.

Since this is a rather big piece I have now mounted the canvas on my System 4 scroll frame. This way it will make it much easier to work on it.

.

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: Framed

This is my "Princess and the Pea" all framed for me to hang on my wall ........... now, which one will it be?

If you want to see the close up, just click on the photo.

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: Completed

Here is a photo of my completed project.

Marion tells the stitcher at the end of her book the story that goes with the Princess and the Pea. I will be quoting Marion word for word in the following little story as I don't want to miss one single little detail.

Here it goes.

"The Princess and the Pea"

"Once upon a time there was a Prince who longed to marry a real princess. He searched all over the world to find her. There seemed to be plenty of Princesses but for one reason or another, the Prince could never be sure that they were, in truth, what he sought. Disconsolate, he returned to his castle. Slowly he grew paler and thinner, pining for a real Princess.

One evening there was a terrible storm. The wind blew, lightning slashed the sky, thunder crashed and rain lashed the countryside. Suddenly a knock was heard at the castle gate. The guards hurried to the gate, holding their lanterns high above their heads.

There at the gate stood a Princess. Rain had soaked her hair and streamed in rivers from her gown to her toes. But she was a Princess ... a real Princess ... she told the guards, and had become lost in the storm.

"A real Princess?" asked the Prince, in disbelief. "We must make sure," said his mother the Queen. She prepared a bed for the Princess, made with ten mattresses filled with the solftest eiderdown. Beneath the first mattress on the boards of the bed, the Queen placed one small dried pea. The Princess, unaware of this, climbed up to sleep on top of the feather mattresses. In the morning, everyone in the court gathered to hear the Queen ask her how she slept.

"I barely slept a wink," moaned the Princess. "I am bruised all over. My bones ache as if they were broken. There must have been some frightful object in my bed."

"She is indeed a real Princess," proclaimed the Queen. "No one but a real Princess could have such tender skin!"

The delight of the Prince knew no bounds. The Kind and Queen were well pleased. The Prince married her the very next day because now he knew she was a real Princess.

And the pea can be seen on a pedestal in the Royal museum to this very day."

Isn't it a sweet story?

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: Top section

Well, I sure am happy right now as I have just finished stitching Princess and the Pea. This is the top section. Will soon post a photo of the entire completed project.

Pierrette =^..^=

The princess and the Pea: 10th mattress completed

All the mattresses for our Princess are finally stitched. This will be quite a climb for her to get to the top one. Better her than me :-(

Moving on to the top part now, which is a bit different but as interesting.

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: 9th mattress stitched

Well, here I am with mattress number 9 completed. One more to go, then it will be the top of the canopy which will be in hardanger (all white), so that should be fun also.

Still thinking about stitching a little Halloween project after this project is completed. That would make a nice break between the other big project that I have started "Kaleidoscope", which requires my full attention.

I have also put my unfinished hardanger project near me so that I can also finish that. It is an EGA GCC called "Options in Hardanger" Will bring back the photo a bit later when I am close to working on it.

Better go back to my last mattress now :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: 8th mattress stitched

Well, another mattress completed, meaning 2 more to go before this part of the design has been completed except the little pea under mattress one, which according to Marion's instructions is stitched at the very end.

You will see two white lines (thread) over the top three mattresses. Those are there to help me with the shading of those three mattresses. Each section from left to right goes from lighter to darker.

It has been pretty hot around here lately and no rain. Yesterday it went up to 108°F making it very difficult to spend any time outside. I feel like a prisoner of my own house. Trees and shrubs are suffering from the lack of rain and heat. I am quite concerned that by the end of the summer we will have lost quite a few as we have had a double whammy this year, a very hard freeze in Spring followed by a very severe drought and nobody knows when this will all end.

All I can do is keep stitching. At least I have that :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: 7th mattress stitched

Another photo this morning, this time mattress #7 all stitched. So far the two mattress designs that I have enjoyed the most are mattress #4 (blue one) and mattress #7 (Fuschia one).

I realize that the photos that I have been adding are not always exactly the same. It is due to the fact that my husband takes them either inside or outside the house and also whether he takes the photos in the sun or shade. For the finish photo, I will ask him to take some photos under many different conditions and will select the final photograph according to how representative it is to the actual project and will post that one.

Since a couple of days, I have been thinking about Halloween projects. It is not as if my hands are not full at this time, but I have always had tremendous pleasure stitching something about Halloween. I need to find myself something absolutely adorable and at the same time, not a big project as I just don't have the time for it right now. Will see what I can come up with that would be a delight to stitch.

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: 6th mattress done

Well, here we are with one more mattress completed and four more to go.

I was thinking the other day that one thing that I love so much about stitching with a blank canvas is see it evolved from "nothing" to something beautiful. I love to do the same thing with cooking. Both my husband and I love to cook from "scratch" as we call it. It takes more time but the rewards are wonderful. I am lucky as my husband does most of the cooking as he loves to cook, so it gives me more time for my stitching, but when need be, I can do my fair share also.

Going back to stitching some more on "Princess" :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: 5th mattress

This is a photo with the 5th mattress completed, so five more to go :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

The princess and the Pea: 4th mattress completed

I have now completed the 4th mattress. I have really enjoyed this pattern. I must say that I feel that I am having more fun with this project that I deserve <>. I am so happy that I decided to start stitching it now instead of later. It will give me some experience in Blackwork and will make it easier to tackle some other wonderful Blackwork project that I have been keeping for later.

This photo may look a bit different as it was taken outside in the shade instead of under big lighting inside my stitching room.

At first I thought that I might change some of the colors that Marion has chosen for herself, but I like her choice of color so much that I have been sticking to them so far.

Six more mattresses to go. Tomorrow, I will start on mattress #5. Another thing that I am finding out is that Blackwork, at least this project, goes rather quickly even for me as I see myself as a SLOW stitcher. I truly enjoy the journey, not just the destination, so I don't mind taking the time it needs for completion.

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: First 3 mattresses stitched

Just finished stitching the third mattress of the Princess and the Pea. Updated photo added.

Only 7 more to go :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea

Not long ago, I have decided to finally start working on "The Princess and the Pea", designed by Marion Scoular. You can see the whole design here:

http://www.needleartworks.com/dsgnr/mss/mss8.htm

I have purchased that design many many years ago and was waiting to get more experience before tackling it, but decided to go ahead even if I had not :-D

I must say like most of Marion's projects, they are so well explained that they are quite manageable even with not much experience. I have done a beginner's hardanger piece designed by her and I was able to understand how to do certain things that had left me confused everywhere else, so in my book, she is very good :-)

I have added a photo of the bed with the first two mattresses completed. There are 10 of them, so there is still a way to go before I get to the TOP of the bed.

I have always loved that design so much and was concerned not to be able to do it justice with my lack of experience in Blackwork, but I am quite pleased with how it has turned out so far.

I will keep adding photos as I progress with the mattresses until it is all completed.

Almost forgot to mention that the little circle that is not yet stitched under the first mattress is the little "pea" that will be stitched at the very end.

Will go work on mattress number 3 now ................ see you all later :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

Beginner's Hardanger EGA GCC designed by Marion Scoular

This is an EGA GCC (group correspondence course) that I have recently taken with the EGA CyberStitchers group. It is a beginner's hardanger course designed and written by Marion Scoular. The design size is approximately 8 ¾" square and stitched on a 22 count hardanger fabric.

Marion Scoular's instructions to me were the best. There were things that I had not been able to understand with the help of hardanger books like the ones written by Janice Love which are very good, but for some reason there were things that I just could not get, but after reading Marion Scoular's instructions I got right away. One example are the picots. I hated them before because I was not able to do them properly and now it is a real pleasure to do them. I always find it so interesting to see the different styles of teaching and what works for each person. I would certainly recommend that course to anyone who would like to learn how to do hardanger properly.

I have finished my project as a pillow using a 14" square pillow form.

Pierrette =^..^=