Patches of Snow Mini Stocking: Ready for next Christmas

It has been what seems to me a long time since this charming little stocking been waiting for his turn to my finish table. Well I have just done it this morning on a very hot and humid summer day.

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Yesterday I went through my stuff to try to find cordings and ribbons and found these that seems rather perfect for the job at hand, so put everything aside for this morning as I am really not an evening stitching person as I am usually too tired by then and just want to relax with other stuff. I felt that at times I was all tombs as this is rather small, but managed to do it, finally :-)

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This was a little kit I had purchased a long time ago and it is a Kaitlyn Marie Designs (1994). It was mostly beading with a little bit of needlepoint. Now I need to go to my list of finishing on my blog and remove this one.

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Dodecagon ornament series by Jim Wurth: Framing

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After discussions with our framer and my husband, we have finally made the decision to have them framed by groups of three, meaning 4 frames. Because of the different colors involved, we could separate them in two families, so we will have two frames the same and two frames that will be different but will suit that color family better. They will be on the vertical, not horizontal. I will not be putting all four of them together on my walls, so having two different sets of frame will not matter.

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Tomorrow my husband will go back to the framer and bring the first six ornaments of what I call my first color family and will decide on mat and frame. After that he will go back with the other six and do the same thing. We think that this way we will be more happy with mats and frames than having to pick only one mat and one frame and try to please all these diverse colors, so hope it works out nicely.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Patches of Snow completed

Well, no more beading for this girl for a while :-)

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My mini Xmas stocking is all done and I am happy as could be. I did not dare count the number of beads in this project, but there are lots and lots of them, I can all tell you that. It will certainly draw all eyes when I put it on my Xmas tree with all this gold and off white.

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Now, I will be very good and start working on my latest cyberclass The Sky's the Limit and practice my various stitch samples (3 every two weeks), which can be easily done without taking major chunks of time away from my other projects.

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After that is done, not exactly sure what I will be working on. Will it be an already started project or a new one, big or small? I will have a look around and then decide what I feel like doing, so many choices, so little time, isn't that always the problem?

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Pierrette =^..^=

Patches of Snow: 10 out of 13 patches done

Moving along with my beading, at times with cross-eyes after adding one bead after another and another and another ............. I do love the design and will be very happy to have it as a Christmas ornament, but really not enjoying all this beading. I don't mind at all adding a few beads here and there on a project as it makes it more interesting, but this is a little more than I bargained for when I bidded on Ebay for it, but I am going to see it through, no matter what (big smile).

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The next Christmas project won't have any beading at all, if I can help it as I will need some time to recuperate from all this.

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It is an interesting design though and at some level do not regret having purchased it and will leave it at that :-)

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That is what I like about trying different things, best way to find out the techniques that you enjoy the most and do less of the ones that you don't enjoy as much. I am not saying that I will never do anything like that as I may see some design that I just have to have and will probably go for it.

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Next photo will be with the last 3 patches done and then will move on to another project.

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Today I will also be starting the cyberclass called "The Sky's the Limit" with Beth Robertson and Suzanne Howren, but will probably not be posting any photos unless I get permission as those are samples stitches and I don't want to give away their secrets. I am looking forward to getting started on these. Those classes are based on the numberous books that they have written about "Stitches for Effects". This series should come quite handy the next time I have a sky to stitch.

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Well, better go back to my stitching as I have a lot more stitching to do before the day is over.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Patches of Snow: Middle section completed

Done a little more beading on Patches of Snow. I like beading, but I wish there would be a little more stitching and a little less beading on this one, a bit like the little Emerald one I made some time ago.

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On another note, I have found a new series of adventure books recently, quite by chance as I was investigating something else. They are called the Amelia Peabody Mystery series written by Elizabeth Peters. The first one of the series and the only one I have read so far is called Crocodile on the Sandbank and it did not take too long before I found myself hooked by that new series.

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I was lucky enough to be able to visit Egypt a few times in the past and I have always been fascinated with archeology, so this newly discovered adventure/mystery series is absolutely perfect for me. I thought I would share in the event that some of you might like to investigate this series a bit further.

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Whenever I need to relax a bit, there is nothing better for me than a good book to do the trick. I read a bit and then I can go back to my stitching a bit refreshed.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Patches of Snow: Top section completed

I have been thinking as to the reason(s) why I decided to do a Christmas project and I think I know why. It is a very simple reason, actually. We are having a heat wave and it has been rather uncomfortable for me to stitch in my stitching/computer room, which as luck would have it seems to be the warmest room in the whole house and unfortunately I can't move it :-(

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Stitching some Christmas project brings me back to a place with much cooler temperatures, even if it is only in my mind.

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This new photo shows how much I have been able to accomplish under these warmer/hotter conditions. It has been around 93-95 degrees outside and the air conditioning in the afternoon just can't keep up with it and this is only the beginning of June. What will happen in July and August, and even September? I don't even want to think about it. Last year our air conditioning decided to quit us when the temperatures were over 100 degrees. We have an air conditioning unit for upstairs and a different one for downstairs. Now, my stitching room is upstairs as well as the bedrooms and of course that is the one that broke. Since we were not the only ones that had such bad luck as it puts quite a strain on air conditioning units when temperatures go that high, I think that it took approximately 4 to 5 days before they installed a new unit. Not happy memories, I can tell you that :-(

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A few days ago, I have received a book that I had been wanting for quite some time. The title is Embroidered Knot Gardens (using three-dimensional stumpwork, canvas work & ribbonwork) and the author is Owen Davies from Britain. I really did not know what to expect from the book as I had heard good and not so good comments about it, so it was with a bit of apprehension that I opened it, wondering if I was going to be disappointed or not (again). To my immense relief, I can report that it is a wonderful book and it has already given me some great ideas as to where I will apply some of the information found in the book. I need to say here, that if someone is looking for a very specific project that would be described from start to finish, this is not the right book, but that being said, all necessary information is right there in the book to make it possible to create something wonderful. All stitches are very well explained with charts, lots and lots of beautiful photos with close-ups of some of the stitches. One that has stood out for me is on page 63 where he explains how to make needlelace leaves that are extremely pretty. He even has a photo that shows a small matchbox container that had been adapted to create a courtyard garden inside it, which gave me the idea of finding a box the size I would like to have my little garden and use that instead of having to build some container from scratch. And you should see the brick walls that he has made with threads. I could go on and on as I really love the book. I purchased mine at Amazon as I always want to take advantage of the free shipping, so I added another book to it to cover the minimum $25.00 purchase required to get free shipping.

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I have received my threads and canvas yesterday from Pam for Mystery in a Corner by Gay Ann Rogers, so will be starting to work on that as I have a little bit of catching up to do. Will put some photos a bit later.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Patches of Snow Mini Stocking

Yesterday, I started working on a cute little Christmas stocking that has lots of beading in it. It is a Kaitlyn Marie Designs (1994) which I found on Ebay and it came with everything necessary to stitch it, thank goodness for that. No hunting for this one :-)
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Above is a photo of what it will look like when finished and below is a photo of what I have done so far. Will probably be able to add a progress photo later today as this should go pretty quickly, if all goes according to plan, but we all know that plans do change quickly sometimes :-(

Pierrette =^..^=

Emerald & Gold Mini Stocking

This "Emerald & Gold Mini Stocking" was a real delight to stitch and really put me in the Christmas spirit.

This is a Kaitlyn Marie design (1994). It was made with a 18-ct white mono canvas and the whole project was all green and gold with lots and lots of beads to stitch and gold threads. That was my first experience with beads so it was quite an experience :-)

The finisher also did a fantastic job. I was also lucky enough to be able to find the same gold ribbon that was on the designer's photo. I could not believe my luck.

I love to see it on my Christmas tree during the holidays.

Pierrette =^..^=
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