Hollyhock House Window

On a trip to Chicago some time ago, we went to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's residential houses, furniture, etc. and we stopped at his little gift shop and saw a few cross stitch designs and bought a couple. This is one of them which is called "Hollyhock House Window", that I stitched for my husband's office.

Pierrette =^..^-

Hapsburg Lace Sampler: Completed

This is a photo of my completed Hapsburg Lace Sampler.

All that remains now is for me to stitch lots and lots of double cross stitches all around the sampler and then will bring to the framer as I have decided against making a bell pull with it as I want to protect it against dust for years and years to come :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

Hapsburg Lace Sampler: Patterns 22 - 25

I have just finished the last section of my Hapsburg Lace Sampler by stitching patterns/bands 22 through 25.

Pierrette =^..^=

Tropical Fantasy

Tropical Fantasy close-up below.

Tropical Fantasy is a Sue Lentz cross stitch design that was especially created for Rainbow Gallery (1994).I have to confess that I am not big on cross stitch, but I have enjoyed tremendously stitching this design.

Tropical Fantasy has a dimensional look to it because of the Rhodes stitches of all sizes that we can find in this piece. There is also some Smyrna crosses as well as the regular cross stitches.

This piece is outstanding when looking at it upclose and unfortunately so difficult to take a good photo, mainly because of the glass over it.

The design is a little over 8 inches square and has been stitched on a 20 count fabric. The material list is mainly Reflecta, Fiesta and Neon Rays threads and to top it all some 2mm pearls added in the border.

If you want to see a closer look at the details, please click on the photo itself :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

Easter Egg Ornament "In the Garden": Photo of finished ornament

Photo of my finished Easter Egg Ornament for a group exchange. I have used the same color thread to make the cording all around and tassel.

A funny thing happened without my noticing it at the time we took the photo. Instead of my little bird flying downward, it is now flying upward :-)

I guess he came to have a look at those lovely three houses and went back in a hurry to tell his mate to come have a look before somebody else takes ownership (lol)

Pierrette =^..^=

Hapsburg Lace Sampler: Patterns 15 - 21

I have just stitched another 7 patterns (15 through 21) and have added a new photo.

I now have only 4 more patterns/bands to stitch but pattern 22 is a "biggy" but the most beautiful one. It will really make a statement once it is completed.

After the 25 patterns have been all done, I still need to stitch double crosses all around it, which should be about a yard on each side & top and bottom, so as you can see, I am not out of the woods just yet :-)

Tomorrow, I will continue with pattern 22.

Tanja gives instructions to finish the sampler with bell pull hangers, which is tempting, but I am thinking long term and wondering how nice it will look in a few years so I think instead I will have it framed, preserving it from all the dirt. It will be a more expensive proposition, but my philosophy is if I think it is a nice enough project to stitch, then it deserves to be preserved properly.

Pierrette =^..^=

Hapsburg Lace Sampler: Patterns 8 - 14

Here is another photo of Hapsburg Lace Sampler showing patterns 8 through 14. I had not realized that I had not been stitching on this project for close to 4 months. My first posting with photo can be found in the postings dated 11/12/06 - 11/19/06.

I will be working exclusively on it until I get it done, so I imagine that if all goes well, it should take me more or less one week to complete.

The photo is a little darker than the first one, but that has all to do with lighting. When it is completed I will put a new photo showing all 25 patterns/bands.

There are two little ribbons in this section of the sampler, the first one is a baby pink and the second one a baby blue (which is not showing too well in this photo).

Better go back to my stitching now :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

Easter Egg Ornament "In the Garden"

This is a little Easter egg that I have just finished stitching for a group exchange. It is a painted canvas designed by Anne Stradal of ABS Designs: http://www.absdesignsonline.com/eggs_for_all_seasons.htm

I have not done many painted canvas for the simple reason that I never seem to know how to tackle them. This time around, I gave myself permission to mess with it, so I changed lots of details to make it different and fun, so I experimented with it. It turned out to be more fun than I anticipated once I got my creative juice flowing, which took a little while, I am sorry to say :-(

I have added a little bird to fill in the sky as those little bird houses were just too cute not to entice at least one bird and make it want to fly around for a closer inspection. It is free lodging after all.

I also added a little bee as they could not resist the perfume coming from all those flowers :-)

Now, I need to get my finishing books out as I have not done any finishing for some time now and finish that little bugger (lol)

Pierrette =^..^=

Mojave

Mojave is the second of the Dodecagon Ornament Series designed by Jim Wurth. Photo of the first one "Coronation" has been added in previous blogs.

Pierrette =^..^=

European Scene: The Shambles York

On one of my trip to Europe I saw this kit and purchased it on impulse. It has been sitting unfinished in my UFO pile for ages until to fulfill my 2007 year resolution to finish two UFOs before I can start a new project I took it out and worked on it until completion yesterday. It will be going to the finisher sometimes today for her to do her magic.

The kit is using Anchor Tapisserie Wool-Laine threads, which was a first for me. It is a simple long stitch tapestry so it went rather quickly except there was so many thread changes and lots of counting that at times slowed me down considerably. I am happy though to have finally completed this project as I love European scenes and this one will remind me of my many trips to Europe.

Pierrette =^..^=