Flower Diamonds: Additional photos

Above: Photo of how Terry Dryden had her Flower Diamonds neck roll finished.

Below: Additional photos taken while stitching that pilot project:

This completes my photo file on this project.

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 =^..^=

Flower Vase Pillow

This is a silk ribbon project that I have made some time ago and I have only just now finished it. I had plenty of help though.

I need to say first that my sewing machine is not working very well and also that I have not had any experience in making pillows, so I turned to my good friend Terry who lives in England and asked her if she would not mind finishing it for me. We both thought at the time that her own sewing machine was working relatively fine, but it turned out that she also had problems with it and she ended up making the pillow by hand, which was much more work than we both anticipated it would be.

She sent it back to me and all I had to do is go to the store and purchase a pillow frame, slide it inside and then sew by hand the bottom part of the pillow and voilà the end result :-)

It now sits proudly on my bed.

Thanks, Terry, for all your help. I owe you one for all your hard work :-)

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 =^..^=

Crazy Quilt Purple Sachet Pillow Received from Terry

This is a gorgeous little sachet/pillow that Terry has made for me. It has a beautiful bird on the right, my initial "P" in the middle and a lovely fan at the bottom left and lots of other little surprises that we always find on crazy quilt projects.

Pierrette =^..^=

Crazy Quilt Pillow: Gift from Terry

This is the first crazy quilt pillow that Terry made for me. She used the brown background so that it would work well with the colors in my living room and also because I love warm colors. What I love about crazy quilt (something that I am not very good at making myself, I am afraid) is the fact that you can look at this pillow for example and always see something that you had not quite seen before.

Terry seems to be a natural when it comes to stitching stuff like that and I just love this pillow.

If you would like to see more of Terry's work, she has her own blog at http://through-the-hoop.blogspot.com/

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 =^..^=

Memory Pillow Crazy Quilt Style given to me by my best friend Terry

Terry wanted to make something that would have special meaning for me so she thought of making a "Memory Pillow" crazy quilt style. She asked me for some black and white photos that had lots of meaning to both my husband and myself, so I sent her a bunch of them by email. She chose 7 amongst them, which we particularly love. She then proceeded to embellish the pillow crazy quilt style, stitched a beautiful lace all around it and sent to me.

I absolutely adore that pillow and what makes it so dear to me is the fact that most of the people we hold dear in our lives are now gone, but certainly not forgotten. With this very thoughtful gift that Terry has made for me, now I can look at these photos and remember how it used to be.

Many thanks to you, Terry, for thinking of this and creating something this special for us :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

Blue Bouquet: Hardanger

I believe that this was my very first hardanger project. I had purchased this kit from Nordic Needle called "Blue Bouquet" designed by Rosalyn K. Watnemo. I think that they are still selling it on the web site of Nordic Needle at http://www.nordicneedle.com/ as well as others.

I finished it as a little decorative pillow. The stitched design size is about 6 inches all around.

Pierrette =^..^=

Lace Ribbons: Pillow

I have already posted earlier (a post that was made during the week of 10/15/06 - 10/23/06) a photo of this blackwork project and am now adding this new one after I finished as a flat pillow.

This is a Dakota Rogers EGA GCC (group correspondence course).

Pierrette =^..^=

Portuguese Needlework Pillow

Someone at my LNS thought me how to stitch that lovely Portuguese pillow.

The design came directly from the book called "Portuguese Needlework Rugs: the Time-Honored Art of Arraiolos Rugs Adapted for Modern Handcrafters" written by Patricia Stone. If you have the book, the photo of the pillow I have stitched is on page 104.

Stitching this Portuguese pillow was a wonderful experience.

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Lace Ribbons

I have been wanting to do some blackwork for some time and I was lucky enough to win as a door price this wonderful EGA (Embroiderers' Guild of America) GCC (Group correspondence class) designed by Dakota Rogers. It is called "Lace Ribbons" and is stitched on a white 28-ct Jobelan and is worked with Needle Necessities overdyed floss.

It was just like having Dakota Rogers with me as the instructions are so well done.

I have made a pillow out of this project.

Here is the link for the EGA Guild: http://www.egausa.org/ and the link for the EGA CyberStitchers: http://www.cyberstitchers.org/

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus

Drawn Thread

This little project was my first attempt at drawn thread embroidery. It was designed by Sharon Cohen and was worked on 32-ct cream Belfast linen from Zweigart and has a lovely fleur-de-lis darn filling pattern.

It was finished as a little decorative pillow.

Pierrette =^..^=
http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus