Santa has his sweater and socks on

Well, the suspense is over, for better or for worse, Anne Stradal's design called "The Morning After" is all stitched.
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After struggling with my decision as to what to stitch for Santa's sweater/shirt/underwear, I decided to use some Kreinik Tapestry #12 braid #032 (pearl color) doing a simple basketweave stitch. It solved my problem with the "white thread" issue to some extent. I also wanted a lighter sweater under his coat. Sure hope Santa did not catch a bad cold because of it :-(
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After that came the suspenders in braided knitting using a dark green thread, followed closely by his socks using green for the toes and heels and white for the soles. I decided to keep his socks rather simple since I had given him a more sophisticated sweater by using that metallic thread.
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I had forgotten to add some gold metallic thread around the number 25, so corrected that little oversight.
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I also stitched the rug in horizontal diagonal cashmere and then completed the floor in front of the carpet.




In future projects, I will need to give a lot more consideration to the fact that if I want to change some color(s) like I did with the pure white for winter white, it will have some impact along the way, mostly as in this case, I wanted to make sure that Santa did not look like he had a dirty beard by using some pure white next to it, so I need to take this into consideration from the get go, which I did not really do and boxed myself in because of it. My initial goal was to put some color in his sweater which would have taken care of that little detail, but could not see very well how I could do that taking into consideration Santa's surrounding. The metallic thread I used was the best compromise I could think of. It is hard to tell by looking at the photo but when you look at the finished project in person, you can see more what I mean.
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I now feel like taking a little break from all the needlepoint I have been doing recently and do a little embroidery and then will return to it with Santa's wife. Hopefully I will have learned something with Santa and not box myself in again, but sometimes the learning curve is slow, so will see :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=

Mystery in a Corner: Framed

I have received back from the framer a couple days ago my Mystery in a Corner, a Gay Ann Rogers' design and I could not take any photos because it was too dark and now today it was too sunny and ended up taking the photo inside anyway. I can't seem to be able to win no matter what I do when taking photos. If there are some kind of Awards out there for the person who has the most problems taking good photo of her projects, I should receive it.
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When taking the first photo (below) I felt that if someone had not seen the project before, they would have no idea what I had stitched, so took another one, a close-up this time around (above).
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When I picked my colors, I chose colors which normally would not have been my first choice. I like fall colors the best, though I have done plenty of projects along the years with other colors. I can't help but wonder what would have happened if I had chosen the colors I like best. Would it have been better or worst? I guess I will never know as I never stitch the same project twice as there are just too many projects I want to do and not enough time to do them all.



I have enjoyed this project tremendously and have learned a lot in the process. There is an end-of-term examination ornament which I will do a little bit later, a good way of testing myself and see if I have learned anything out of this whole experience (grinning).
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These last couple days I have been working hard at finishing my stitch notebook called "The Sky is the Limit" by Beth Robertson & Suzanne Howren, which are also the authors of a series of books called Stitches for Effects and so on.
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I will be continuing my stitching on Anne Stradal's Santa tomorrow as in the meantime I have received the threads I had been waiting for. I imagine that it will take me a couple days to finish that project, if all goes according to plans :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=

The Morning After: Wallpapering all done

Since my last post, I have completed all the different sections of the wallpaper behind Santa's big chair. A big calendar has been stitched with the background in gold using Kreinik with DEC stitched in red using DMC floss the same colour as used in the wallpaper. The number 25 has been stitched using some black DMC floss.

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Now all that remains to do is the carpet under Santa's chair and then completing the flooring in front of the carpet, which will not take long. After that Santa's socks, his shirts or top underwear or sweater as I am still debating this and then his suspenders and it will be all done. I got some really good advice from Jane, Pat, Terry and Cyn for Santa's shirt (see comments on previous post) so will see what looks the best once the carpet has been stitched. I should hopefully receive this afternoon some new threads that may make my decisions easier.

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I am hoping to be able to post the next and final photo of this project in a couple days and then I will be moving to Mrs Santa :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

The Morning After & another Brillante Award

I have managed to do a little more stitching on "The Morning After" since my first post . I have to say that I have not been stitching all that much recently. I guess we all have times like that when things are just not quite right, just not feeling all that hot, but that always goes away, eventually.
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Since my last post, I have done a few sections of the wallpaper, enough I think to make it possible for you to see the two different motifs. The red and green vertical lines are slanted gobelin stitches using simply DMC floss threads. Between those vertical lines, you have a red design on a white background, using DMC threads again and stitched with continental and/or basketweave. In the section of the wallpaper that is all white, a Nobuko stitch has been used. In that section, I still have to stitch the calendar and of course the rest of the wallpaper. Oh, almost forgot, done the baseboard in slanted gobelin, using again the same winter white floss. Anne had used a DMC Perle #5 instead on hers. You can see it on Anne's website. I had two reasons for doing so. Since I changed my white for a winter white, then I would have needed some winter white DMC perle #5, which I did not have and did not want to bother ordering some as I order everything online and I also just prefer the look that the floss gives me over the Perle #5 for something like a baseboard, so why bother ordering any? Stitching is really all about our own preferences, isn't it?
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I stitched the legs of the chair using slanted gobelin with a brown DMC Perle #5. I then proceeded to work on the footstool, using 3 different colors, winter white, red and green, using the continental for the stripes and a mosaic stitch for the white areas.
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I then worked the boots, using a black Petite Very Velvet doing a simple continental stitch and to separate the two boots there is a line of continental stitches using a dark grey DMC floss.
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Some of you might be wondering why I have not done Santa's socks nor his sweater so far and also let's not forget his suspenders. Two reasons for that. I am waiting for the threads for the socks. For Santa's sweater I just did not know if I wanted to use a different color or not, but I am finding it very difficult to do so as I have that green chair on which he is sitting, so a green sweater is kind of out of the question and then I have his red pants, which would make it difficult to distinguish between the top and the bottom if I were to use red. I also do not want to use white white as it would make his beard appear kind of dirty (and that is the last thing I want, a dirty looking Santa) because I used some winter white instead of the white that Anne used on hers. I more or less trapped myself into that one, haven't I? Any ideas, anyone?
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Oh yes, I have done the flooring, most of it anyway using a light tan DMC Perle #5 with a slanted Gobelin stripe. I am waiting for some threads to stitch the carpet. Have a few options here that I am now contemplating so when the threads come in, will see which one looks the best and will proceed. I will then finish the flooring that still remains to be stitched in front of the carpet.
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Sometimes when you make just a minor change in color or design, you find that you have to make lots of little adjustments along the way.


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I had the honor to receive a third Brillante Weblog award from Pat at the end of July, the two previous ones from Rengin and Laura and to my great shame I have not yet given it back to anyone, but will remedy this situation right away :-)
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As everyone who has ever received some Awards, it is extremely difficult to choose a few out of many wonderful blogs that are out there and we all know that we tend to gravitate around blocks that means the most to us, whether it is because the bloggers are talking about similar projects to our own, or techniques that we are really interested in or are simply giving us lots of wonderful information. Having said that here goes my list of seven. Before I do so, please refer to Pat's wonderful blog for the rules of this Award .
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My first two selections out of seven have to go to two blogs that I follow very closely because they give me such wonderful information about our needlepoint world:
Janet's blog called Nuts about Needlepoint and Jane's blog called Chilly Holly Needlepoint Adventure. I checked them both out on a regular basis in order to find out what is happening and also what they are both up to.
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Then it really gets difficult and I am sorry for those that I can't add to my list here as I visit many many blogs as many times each week as I possibly can. Here it goes without any consideration to order they are listed:
Pat's blog called Needleartnut, Laura's blog called Two-Handed Stitcher, Carol's blog called Threads across the web, Judy's blog called Possibilities, etc. and the final one Cyn's blog called Cyn Stitches. I could easily have gone on as I also enjoy reading so many other blogs.
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Again, a big thank you to everyone who has given me an Award as it makes anyone's day a little more special, doesn't it?
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Better go back to my stitching now. See you all soon :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=

The Morning After: Let's meet Santa

I wanted to stitch a little more before adding my first photo, but decided to post now because so many of you wanted to get a progress report, so here it is (grinning).

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Ok, what have I done so far?

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The first thing was to work on Santa's face as it is always important to have a feel for what he looks like. On this section, I have pretty much done as Anne did on hers, meaning stitching a bunch of French knots for the bear using in my case Trio T02 which is white in color, but not the white white, but rather more a winter white. It is a bit less traditional than what we always see, but I find that I rather enjoy that winter white, just feels warmer to me. I did some slanted gobelin for the sideburns and changed the eyebrows, which Anne did in French knots, for an outline look, always using the same thread.

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I am afraid I got ahead of myself here as I worked Santa's face before doing the hair and beard, using different shades of flesh colors in simple DMC floss using the continental stitch. I gave Santa a pinker nose and cheeks using a scotch stitch, just like Anne did with hers. It has been an especially cold night delivering all the wonderful gifts to children around the world, so his cheeks and nose are quite rosy by the time he settles down in his chair for a well deserved rest.

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After that, I rushed to stitch Santa's pants as I could not let you see him without them as Mrs Santa Claus would have been quite upset with me if I had done so. Remember, she is sitting knitting in the other room (will stitch her after I finish with Santa). I stitched the pants in staggered cross, a stitch I had never used before, and I really love the effect. Again, I used Trio of two different shades of red. I had never used Trio either before and I just love that thread. It has a velour kind of feel to it. Absolutely lovely.

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Next, I did his hat, using one of the shade of red from Trio, using a diagonal mosaic. I changed the trim by doing only straight vertical stitches and made only one French knot instead of the four that Anne made, but used the complete 6 threads of Trio to make a big French knots.

I also stitched his hands with a simple DMC floss thread.

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After that, I got busy working on the chair, using two different shades of Petite Very Velvet Green and doing the basketweave. So many stitchers have said that doing basketweave is quite relaxing and I truly agree with this. Using that thread also makes the chair looks so comfy.

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I have also started working on the wallpaper, using regular DMC floss, one in green and one in red. Still have more to do there.

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Still lots more to stitch, so will be back with another post when I have a bit more done.

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Pierrette =^..^=

The Morning After, an Anne Stradal design & the Brillante Weblog Award

Now that I have completed Gay Ann's Mystery in a Corner, which was so much fun to stitch, I will start working on a pair of Christmas designs from ABS Designs. Why Christmas designs, again in July? Simply because the temperature is close to 100°F outside and I need something to cool me down in addition to the air conditioning which on some days just can't keep up with the demand.
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I love the Christmas season, but I have found lately that I don't always have the time and/or energy to get all my Christmas decorations from the attic down two floors below and spend approximately two days, on and off, putting them all up and then of course taking another two days to take them off after the holidays and bringing them back up to the attic, but I still want to have Christmas decorations in my house, otherwise it just does not feel like Christmas, does it?
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My solution to this little problem is that I now want to stitch more and more Christmas projects that I can either frame myself like with the flat-fold method or a stand-up, or ...... and just get them out during the Christmas season whenever I don't feel like spending days decorating, spread them all around my house and voilà, the Christmas ambiance without having to spend all that time decorating. With these two designs in particular, I am thinking about framing them like if they were some family portraits that you display on any surface in your home. Well, Santa is a dear old friend, isn't he? He sure has spoiled me during all these past Christmasses :-)
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I selected these two designs, The Morning After and The Night Before, because I have always wondered what these two did on Christmas day and now I know, thanks to Anne (grinning). Santa is having a well deserved rest and his dear wife is knitting. Why is she not embroidering, I wonder..................... Might be a cold weather thing, Santa must need a good warm scarf, probably more than one, actually, but I disgress.
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This photo below has been stitched by Anne Stradal and was borrowed to put on my blog today with her permission as I have not yet started working on mine, but will slowly start today. I have got most of my threads, enough anyway to get started.


[The Morning After: Photo stitched by Anne Stradal]

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On another note, I had the honor of receiving the Brillante Award, twice actually in the last few days. The first time was from Rengin who lives in Turkey, for which I have already thanked her and this morning from Laura for which I am very grateful.

I will need a few days to get my ducks in a row and come up with my own list of blogs I enjoy visiting.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Mystery in a Corner: A Gay Ann Rogers' design

Happy dance as I have just finished Mystery in a Corner.
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This is a project that Gay Ann Rogers created to help us learn more about colors as I have explained in my 3 previous posts. I have found this project challenging, but not overwhelming. Actually, I was surprised to see that it was much easier than anticipated. Funny, how we fear the unknown at times. There were lots of little decisions to make along the way and I must say that I am rather happy with the results.
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I was trying to achieve a few goals while stiching this project. There was an awful amount of green, which I love, but I wanted to make blue the focus of the piece. Looking at the finished project right now, it seems that the blue stands out a little more, but my eyes are also drawn to the yellow-orange colors and then the green-topaz. I also wanted to emphasize certain sections of the design and make other sections not as dominant, as I wanted some resting place for the eyes.
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At first, I was a bit surprised to see that the design had no outside borders around it and was not sure if I liked it or not, but after the initial surprise, I started liking the idea and decided to leave the design as is. Some stitchers have decided to create some borders around, but I preferred to go with the "unusual" instead and I am glad I did.
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As I have done in my previous posts, I have taken photos along the way. This time around I did not follow exactly the order of stitching as I wanted to control better certain sections of the design. In this photo below we see the first two metallic threads in the middle sections.

In this second photo, I have stitched the half eyelet blue because I wanted it not to be a distraction to that section of the design, to make it disappear in a sense.

In this third photo, added some diagonal stitches in green.

In this photo, I have just added some blue and then topaz metallic threads under the green diagonal stitches.

Here, I have decided to use green or topaz for all those extra line of stitches, but have stitched the cross stitch variation in blue metallic.

At this point here, it was time to add the watercolor thread by selecting the colors I like the best in it and also making sure I had a repeat more or less accurate of what I had already done in the other sections.

I have added the last photo at the beginning of my blog entry and it consisted of the overstitching done in Impressions (blue).
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It will now be time to bring it to my framer and let her do her magic :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Mystery in a Corner: Part 2 (Corners)

This is part 2 of Mystery in a Corner, a Gay Ann Design that I have started working a while back and had to put aside while waiting for the "mystery sections" (parts 2 and 3).
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You may want to refresh your memory by having another look at the first part which has been posted in two separate blog entries, the first one here followed by the second one.
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I chose this particular watercolor thread because I love all 3 main colors: light blue, soft green and a bit of yellow-orange. Pam from Tomorrow's Heirlooms picked the other threads derived from my first selection. When I received the threads, even if I loved all the shades, I soon realized that I liked blue more, so my goal has been to make blue stand out a bit more, though it is difficult to do so because all the separating borders are green, but that has not stopped me from trying. I will only know if I have succeeded in my quest when the project has been completed, which hopefully should be in a couple of days from today.
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Again, I have taken the time to take a picture after each color added in order to be able to analyze my thread selection at each step.
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The first photo here shows the first line being added in each color which is a Kreinik blue braid. This is also starting to change the shape of the project.

On this second photo, I have just added a second Kreinik metallic thread, this one being topaz in color. It is a color that looks very close to the green I am using in this project, so we don't see a lot of difference between the greens and the topaz.

Now, for the 3rd photo, I have just added my Watercolor thread (Woodlands), trying to repeat more or less the same colors that I have used in the center by manipulating it, not always an easy thing to do.

In this 4th photo, I have just added my blue Kreinik thread.

5th photo shows my metallic topaz being added.

On this 6th photo, we can see some green being added, going the other directions. This is the same color thread that I have used to stitch all the different borders.

Photo 7th: I decided to use my blue Kreinik to do the other little vertical line.

Photo 8 shows additional rows using my Watercolor thread, using mostly yellow-orange colors this time around.

Photo 9 shows another line of blue metallic thread.

In photo 10, I have just added some Impression thread, blue in color covering previous rows of stitches. I made the decision from the start to use some blue metallic with that instead of using the topaz, a decision that I may or may not regret later. Will see!

In this last photo, we can see the corner all completed after adding some blue tails using my blue Kreinik.

We are having an overcast day this morning and this photo is a bit darker. I will make sure to take an especially good photo after completing the 4 sections inside the corners. Then, and only then, will I be able to find out if I made the right choices along the way. When I say "right choices", I really mean did I choose the right color threads at each step along the way in order to attain the most pleasing result for me with my initial choice of threads, as what is pleasing to one person is not necessarily so for another.

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I will now start working in that last part of mystery and will soon be back with more photos.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Windows into my Heart: All stitched finally!

I have not been stitching much during this past week as been feeling rather tired and after a bit of rest, this morning I took Windows into my Heart out and finished the last section of it. This is a scanned version, hoping that it will be more accurate than a digital photo. If you click on the photo, it will be really big and you will be able to see some of the details better.

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I had to make some adjustment to this last section as explained in my previous post, but it has turned out better than I expected it, so I am rather happy about it. I have done some random eyelets of different sizes but smaller than the ones on the left side since I had only 6 canvas threads to work with, which was really not much, but "à la guerre comme à la guerre" :-)

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I still have to do the finishing using a Home Arts box kit, which was provided to me with the kit by Ruthmarie Hofmann, but that will be later when I have a bit more time and feel like doing some finishing. This is now the 4th item that I need to finish :-(

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I am now thinking of doing the last section of Shalimar and that will be another one completed, but that also means that I will have one more thing to finish, a pillow. Oh well, won't worry about it for now.
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I wish the weather was not as HOT these days as I am not a happy camper with those kind of temperatures (between 90 something and 100°F) .
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Better go clean up my working space now that this project is completed :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=

Windows into my Heart: A bit more done

The last few days, I have been working exclusively on Windows into my Heart, a fiberart design by Ruthmarie Hofmann.
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This is an ANG Cyberworkshop 2004 project that I took at the time. After working on it for a bit I had put it aside because of so many reasons. I had received a 24- instead of a 26-count canvas and not having realized it at the time worked the project as if I had a 26-count with the result that I ended up with a much much narrower band (the one still unstitched) than I needed in order to be able to work the design as Ruthmarie had done on hers. The colors were not the original colors that I had fell in love with (some threads and beads having been discontinued). I also remember seeing at the time a photo from someone who had completed the project with the same color as the one above and I just did not like the overall look (now I am starting to think that this was probably a bad photo like I often end up taking myself). Anyway, for all those reasons, I just put the whole project aside, not really knowing at the time if I would ever complete it or not. One thing though is that this project had always stayed in my mind as the design is just so special, so recently I took it out of my UFO pile and started working on it again, first by doing the tent stitches on the far right and these past few days working on the left side of the heart by doing loads of free-form eyelets, some beading and lots and lots of french knots. The left side of the heart has been completed unless I decide to change a few things here and there, but not much, if I do.
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Threads used for this project are mainly DMC floss threads with Needle Necessities (the color used in the original had been discontinued before the company shut down), Japan gold. I don't think that I am forgetting anything here.
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Stitches used throughout the piece are Tent, French knots, Padded satin, Double cross, Square and free-form eyelets, Couched lines and some beading. There will be a gold lame fabric under the finished canvas and through all the little windows created by the big and small eyelets, you should be able to see into my heart or maybe not (grinning).
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Next step will be to finish that narrow band and when posting my next photo I will take a photo for you showing the heart box kit, the fabrics, padding and hook. For now though I need a break from it all, so I will put it aside and will come back to it a bit later.

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On another note, some of you asked me if it was still possible to get the instructions for the Shalimar project and the answer to this is YES. This project is included in a book called "Fancy Work & Fantasies" by Carol Costello. Inside the 32 page book, you will find two pillow projects, one being Shalimar (the one I have been working on) and the other one is called Saxony. If you make a Google search, you should be able to find it somewhere on the web.
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Not sure what I will be working on now, so will have a look around and decide which one I feel like stitching :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=