"Superstition", Loretta Spears' Mystery #13, Lesson 1, Patterns 1 & 2

This is only my second Loretta Spears' project that I ever had the pleasure so far of working on. Pleasure in this case is a big understatement as her designs sparks excitement, at least for me.
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Loretta has designed a total of 14 projects in what she called her "Mystery" series. The first one that I stitched, which was a few years ago was probably her most beautiful one, her Mystery #8 called Bargello Symphony for which she won some award for it, can't recall which one. That was stitched before I started blogging unfortunately, so there are no progress photos of that piece.
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I remember way back then hearing about Loretta Spears from other stitchers and I had no idea who that lady was until I went to check Bargello Symphony on the ANG website, which I tried to do again this morning to give you the link, but could not find the section in question. Not sure if it is me or them doing web maintenance or having problems.
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I had been talking lately of working on Mystery #13 but I have so much to do that I was not sure that I could make it, but decided that life is too short to postpone doing projects that brings a lot of pleasure.
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Yesterday, I worked on Lesson 1 and stitched pattern 1 (which is the section that uses Waterlilies Flamingo thread) and pattern 2 (the section using Waterlilies Opal thread) with one ply of Opalescent mixed with either the Flamingo or the Opal threads, making it all sparkly. Quite beautiful actually. You can see all that sparkle in my photo.
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I will continue working on this project and also add more bricks on Gay Ann Rogers' Hollyhock House.
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Pierrette =^..^=
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P.S. My friend Terry found the link on the ANG website for Loretta Spears beautiful Bargello Symphony. This is the link Thanks, Terry :-)

"SUPERSTITION": Mystery 13 by Loretta Spears

My second post of the day, stretching myself again (silly grin).

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I just love Loretta Spears' designs and at the end of April 2004 I had the opportunity of purchasing Mystery #13 called "SUPERSTITION" with the whole kit from a fellow stitcher and it has been sitting in my stash ever since.

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I have decided that TODAY is the day to start working on it. Don't you love that name "Superstition"? Colors used in that piece are beautiful too.

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In a couple of minutes I will be putting the canvas on stretcher bars and will take a few moments to read the instructions.

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This is not an especially big project as the white congress cloth used for this is only 8" x 8", so a nice size for someone who has been working on Hollyhock House. My back will thank me for this one (grinning).

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Will post again when I have actually started stitching on it.

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See you all soon!

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Pierrette =^..^=

Hollyhock House: Facia board & more bricks

Took another photo to show progress made since last post. No sun today and that changes a bit my colors. Yesterday we had almost 80 degrees temperatures, nice enough to have lunch outside on the patio and tomorrow they are telling us to expect some wintery weather. Talk about big weather changes. No wonder trees and plants can't keep up with all this foolishness. I have still not adjusted to our latest daylight saving time as I keep waking up one hour later than my "normal" time. In reality that only means that I keep waking up at the same exact time as before, but the end result is that I am an hour late with the start of my day :-(
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It will take a little bit longer before I do the little Christmas stocking finishing as I have ordered some ultrasuede for the backing, something I just did not have at home. Hopefully it won't take too long to do the finishing once I receive the fabric. At first I entertained the idea of finishing it with some fabric I had, but that would only have made my job more difficult and probably not as nice, so better wait for the fabric than do something that I won't be as happy with.
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The photo above shows the facia board. I still need to complete the bricks on the right side and I believe that will be it for this month's assignment. Need to check about that. Will post another photo when that bit is done. Next month's assignment will be to finish the roof, add two chimneys, work on the two angels, etc. so lots of fun coming up :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=

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 =^..^=

Hollyhock House: Bricks all stitched on left side of house

Daylight saving time began this morning and I am still not completely awake and have been dragging my body along all morning. Did not sleep all that well either, so don't think that today will be a very active stitching day. Oh well, I can always read. Have some great detective books waiting for me next to a very comfortable chair. Seems very inviting right this minute :-)

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Anyway, I have managed to snap a quick photo of the left side of Hollyhock house showing all the bricks completed. Done a few additional bricks on the right side too, so slowly moving along with the bricklaying.

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Talk to you all when I am a bit more awaked.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Hollyhock House: More bricks

I am now getting close to finishing the left side of the house, but have been having lots of distractions lately so not stitching as much, but have managed to add a few more bricks.

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We are now having our annual meeting at ANG CyberPointers. It is hard to imagine that this new cyber group has only been in existence since October of 2008 and we are already over 300 members. There are tons of projects for us to work on and there is not a dull moment. They sure keep me on my toes with everything that is going on there. One of the project is a stitch along doing the Tony Minieri kimono that everybody is talking about and we have so many more.

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Next week, we will have our meeting at EGA CyberStitchers. We have lots of interesting National projects that we are taking as a group and also some smaller free projects given to members. We are now deciding on the different classes that we will be taking as groups.

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I am also heavily involved with projects from the Shining Needle Society. One of them is this stitching along doing the Hollyhock House.

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.......... and just in case I did not have any with these three wonderful groups, I will soon be taking another cyberclass, making a little Nugget Box.

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Pierrette =^..^=

Hollyhock House: Bricks

Just took a quick picture to show you the brick laying. We are using 3 different colors for the bricks. Each brick has two layers, the first one going this way \ and the top layer going that way /.

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Upon Ann's suggestion, our stitch-along leader, I have been using either the same colors for the two layers or using one color for the bottom layer, a different one for the top layer and alternating between the bottom and top layers, giving me lots of possible combinations and shading, which looks natural looking.

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I decide on the colors of each individual brick as I go along depending on the colors chosen for previous bricks as I try to get a nice overall look. I am quite happy so far with the results. I love Gay Ann Rogers' designs and this one will also look great once completed, but I am not there yet, far from it, but making slow progress..

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Pierrette =^..^=

Hollyhock House: Slowly building the house

I have been so involved with my stitching that I almost forgot to stop and take photo showing what I have done since the last post.

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As you can see, I have stitched the mortar between the bricks on each side of the house, but before I actually started stitching the bricks themselves, I wanted to put some foundation to my house, which are the grey lines. I still have some more to do and then I want to put the roof and finish it off with the bricks. I have so many classes and stitch-alongs in which I am involved in that I need to focus on one assignment at a time and try to slide the finishing in-between these.

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For those of you who have been wondering if I have started working on the finishing of my little bargello pillow, the answer is yes, but not much as Hollyhock House was screaming at me to work on her :-) I have only one side out of 4 stitched on the little pillow, so nothing to show you as all we can see are both backsides of the fabric, not very interesting I am afraid :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Hollyhock House: Both vases and flowers stitched

I have finally stitched both sides of Hollyhock House and just in time too for my March assignment, which will be what I wanted to stitch all along, the bricks. We would think that I have been a bricklayer in a previous life for my wanting to do this part so badly (grinning).

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I find myself with a big conflict this morning as I said that I would do the finishing of my little bargello pillow and I really want to do just that, but and a big but, at the same time I want to do some bricklaying so badly too. Life is just so hard, isn't it? Tough choices all the time :-(

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Next post will tell you which one I have decided to work on first ..................

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Pierrette =^..^=

Hollyhock House: Right side

We can't see much the details on this photo but that gives you a general idea where the second vase is located in relation to the first one I have previously stitched. You can see closer details on previous photos here The right side is just a repeat of the left side, so you are not missing anything really :-)

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All that remains to do to complete this section are the three flowers. On March 1st we will be getting our next assignment, so better get cracking on this. It will be brick laying time, starting the foundation of Hollyhock House. The fun will really begin then, at least for me.

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I have already gathered everything that I need to do the finishing of my little bargello pillow and will work on it as soon as the flowers on HHH are done.

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Pierrette =^..^=