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 =^..^=

Pincushion & Count Keepers

For Christmas, I made these two items for my friend Terry.

She needed a pincushion. She wanted it big enough to put lots of needles on it and did not want a piece of "Art" where she would not dare stick a needle through it, so I came up with this one. I had this lovely piece of fabric that I found in my stash as well as those beautiful buttons that matched exactly the red color of the fabric. There is a tutorial listed in my tutorial section that shows exactly how to make these pincushions with a step-by-step photos. They are quite easy to make.

While I was at it, I decided to make her a "Count Keepers" as she has recently started doing some needlepoint. I had seen some Count Keepers on the Nordic Needle web site and used that photo to guide me.

In my stash I had this lovely bead that was a nice red with a mix of other transparent colors that was light in weight and just the right size for the project. I tried different color threads and ended up with the red one as it completed the color of the bead better. I took two needles the same size from my stash and attached them to the threads and made a little tassel at the end.

Here are how they are used for those of you who may not be familiar with these Count Keepers. You place one of the needles at a starting point on your fabric. Count 10 or 20 threads and insert needle number two. You pick up the first needle, count the next group of 10 or 20 threads and insert needle number one again and you go on until you are done. It really saves counting and recounting.

Pierrette =^..^=
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Coronation

This is the first ornament of the Dodecagon Series. It is called Coronation and is a 12-sided ornament. There are 12 ornaments in this series, all very different. I have received the first three so far, but only managed to stitch the first one because I have been spreading myself rather thin lately with different online classes and projects.

There is a group that has been created in order to provide help whenever questions arise while stitching those various ornaments. We are lucky enough to have the designer himself, Jim Wurth, in our group to answer questions that we may have while stitching these ornaments. Here is the link for the group for those interested: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DodecagonSeriesOrnaments/

Next ornament to stitch is called "Mojave" followed by "Poirot".

Pierrette =^..^=

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Assisi Style Rabbits

"Assisi Embroidery also known as Voided Work. Voided work is any embroidery where the design is left open and unworked and the surrounding area is worked to create a "void". Assisi embroidery is one such style of this work." See Tanja Berlin's site for more details at http://www.berlinembroidery.com/assisirabbits.htm

There is also another example of this Assasi style embroidery on Robin Berry's site at http://www.bayrose.org/needlework/Voided_Work_Rabbits.html

Pierrette =^..^=

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Options in Hardanger

This is a hardanger EGA GCC that I am actually taking. It is a design by Dale Sokolow.

I have stitched all but the fillings inside each square box, which I still need to do in order to complete this project.

I am using some Ash Rose Lugana 25-ct with some Gobi Sand Watercolors & Wildflowers threads.

Pierrette =^..^=

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Hapsburg Lace Sampler: Patterns 1 - 7

This Hapsburg Lace Sampler gives a beautiful lacy affect. It has a total of 25 different bands/patterns to stitch. It is done on 18-count mono canvas, natural color and the threads used are white perle cotton and some ribbons.

I have completed bands/patterns 1 through 7 (picture above), so only 18 more bands to go :-)

I have had many requests asking me where I purchased my sampler, so here is that information. I purchased it at Berlin Embroidery. Link: http://www.berlinembroidery.com/hapsburglace.htm

Pierrette =^..^=

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My adventures with Crazy Quilting (3)

Today I have stitched a little reindeer face on my block, reminding us that Santa will soon be coming with all his wonderful gifts :-)

A Closer look at the little reindeer face.

I have first seen it in my "A ~ Z of Bullions" book and I remember thinking at the time that it was pretty cute. It is made with regular DMC threads. The antlers are bullions knots, eyes and nose are French knots.

Pierrette =^..^=

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My adventures with Crazy Quilting (2)

After digging in my Christmas decorations, I found this cute little police boy with a big sign saying "No Snooping before Dec. 25th" and I knew right then and there that I had found my special piece for my block. This little sweetheart must be over 50 years old, at least. I inherited it from my parents.

I made another seam, the one on the upper left of my block. This stitch is called "Threaded Running Stitch" and can be seen here on Sharon's web site: http://inaminuteago.com/stitchdict/stitch/running-threaded.html .

I thought that writing the word "Noël" with yellow silk thread would look good at this particular place so I opened up my MSWords and tried different fonts until I found one that I liked and used it on my block.

A closer view of this cute little police boy. What a find I made. I still can't believe my luck :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunshineplus