The Princess and the Pea

Not long ago, I have decided to finally start working on "The Princess and the Pea", designed by Marion Scoular. You can see the whole design here:

http://www.needleartworks.com/dsgnr/mss/mss8.htm

I have purchased that design many many years ago and was waiting to get more experience before tackling it, but decided to go ahead even if I had not :-D

I must say like most of Marion's projects, they are so well explained that they are quite manageable even with not much experience. I have done a beginner's hardanger piece designed by her and I was able to understand how to do certain things that had left me confused everywhere else, so in my book, she is very good :-)

I have added a photo of the bed with the first two mattresses completed. There are 10 of them, so there is still a way to go before I get to the TOP of the bed.

I have always loved that design so much and was concerned not to be able to do it justice with my lack of experience in Blackwork, but I am quite pleased with how it has turned out so far.

I will keep adding photos as I progress with the mattresses until it is all completed.

Almost forgot to mention that the little circle that is not yet stitched under the first mattress is the little "pea" that will be stitched at the very end.

Will go work on mattress number 3 now ................ see you all later :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

Little Miniature knickers for Terry as a joke

Well, I have just managed to find all those lovely little knickers that we had made for our British friend, Terry, as a big joke as I was saying in my last blog entry :-)

Those miniature knickers were made by the following members of our little group. From top to bottom and left to right: First row: Pierrette & Kerry; Second row: Elaine, Linda F. and Denise; Third row: Jackie Y., Jill and Catharine.

I think that we all got carried away a bit with how we saw "knickers" for Terry but we sure had a ball making them :-)

Terry was supposed to somehow frame them all together, so not sure if it has been done or not, but I am sure that she had lots of fun receiving them and perhaps has used a pair or two since then as I keep teasing her mercilessly :-D

Pierrette =^..^=

ATCs: Secret Knicker Gang - 2005

I was looking at some of my photos the other day and found this little series of ATCs that were made sometimes during the year of 2005.

It had all started with a joke concerning my good friend Terry. I am a big teaser and she often said to me that she almost peed in her knickers (being from dear old England), so the idea came from that. A little group of friends decided to make her little miniature knickers as a joke and we had the best of time making them and joking amongst ourselves.

Anyway, we kept talking about dropping the knickers at the post office and I guess you see me coming with this and this little series of ATCs were made for me from this little group of friends going all the way from dropping knickers to going to prison.

The names of those who made the ATCs from top left to right going down are: Elaine, Jackie Y., Linda F. Jill, Catharine, Denise and Kerry.

I will have to dig up the little knickers that we all made for Terry and post them on my blog next. I am sure they are in some of my files somewhere :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

Stitching Accessories

This photo shows all the stitching accessories that were part of a Cyberclass that I took with Carole Lake.

First row from top to bottom on your left are three views of a "needlecase". The center row from top to bottom are a "weight", next going down is a "name tag" followed by a "scissor fob". Finally on the row completely to your right, going again from top to bottom are two views of a "laying tool case" followed by a "scissor case"

I have done both the stitching and finishing of all those accessories.

Pierrette =^..^=

Pincushions

I thought that I might as well unite all the pincushions that I have either made or received under one big photo as well :-)

The first top row are pincushions that came from kits. There is a Victorian Triangle which I have made for my friend Terry, then the Victorian Heart that I have kept for myself and the third one of the first top row is called Victorian Antique Ivory which I have given to Rengin as a thank you.

In the middle row, the white one on the left with silk flowers I have also made for Anne as a thank you, the middle red one I have given to Terry and the little Assisi one I kept for myself.

On the bottom row, the white and blue biscornu was a gift from Terry as well as the doggy and also the pink one with the Brazilian embroidery.

It is fun to be able to see all of them together since many have found good homes and I can't see them anymore :-(

Pierrette =^..^=

Needlecases

This is the first needlecase I have made of the whole series and it was part of some stitching accessories, a cyberclass taken with Carole Lake. You can see the front view, the complete view seen when opened and the back view when needlecase is closed.

I thought it would be fun to put all my needlecases on the same blog entry. Some of those needlecases were made by myself, others by friends and exchanges and one I bought at a time when I had none.

The little horse looking over the fence is one that I made for my friend Terry and so is the one with the lady with the hat holding a bouquet of flowers. The horse's head is one that I made for Pauline for an exchange.

These are the only two needlecases that are as pretty on the back as on the front. The under the sea theme was made for me by Elsie during an exchange and the cottage garden is the latest I have made and it is for myself :-)

Here are the two that we have seen completely opened on the top of this photo, then the little white one is the first one I ever had and I had purchased it at the needlestore at the time. The bigger one in the middle is made crazy quilt style and was made during a group project and finally the pink one with the "P" initial was made by my friend Terry. She had made me a trio at the time (needlecase, pincushion and little scissor fob).

I have been busy this morning reorganizing my needles as my goal is to have a different needlecase for different needles. Example: the under the sea scene needlecase contains all my milliners/darners needles as the person who made it was doing a lot of brazilian embroidery stitching, so that makes it easier for me to remember what kind of needles are inside, plus of course I have written the names and sizes inside too :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

A Cottage Garden

I am doing a happy dance this morning as I have just finished the stitching part of "A Cottage Garden".

This is a Kris Richards of South Australia design taken from the fantastic Australian magazine called Inspirations, issue 53.

I must say that I have learned a lot doing this project and it will greatly help me when I tackle other similar projects from them.

This Cottage Garden will be turned into a needlecase. I believe that I can never have too many. What I want to do is keep different sorts of needles in different needlecases, so when I want to find some straw/milliners or embroidery/crewel or tapestry, etc. I will get one of my needlecases and start stitching.

In this design, here is the list of stitches that have been used: blanket stitch pinwheel, bullion knot, bullion loop, couching, detached chain, fly stitch, French knots, granitos, rosette stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, stem stitch and straight stitch.

One book that I have that has been real helpful for helping me along with those stitches is the book called "The Embroidery Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Thread Embroidery. This is again an Inspirations book published by Country Bumpkin Publications.

Now, I will need to get busy doing the finishing. Will have a look at my fabric and see what will go well with it. When it is all done, will add another photo.

Pierrette =^..^=

Bruges, Belgium "Doorways to the Past" Series: Painted canvas by Anne Stradal

I am quite happy today as I just got back my Bruges door all beautifully framed. I just love what "Romancing the Frame" have done for me :-)

If you want to have a better view of how the frame with my stitching really looks like, just click on the photo itself and it will make it much bigger for you to see details.

Pierrette =^..^=

Bruges, Belgium "Doorways to the Past" Series: Painted canvas by Anne Stradal

I must start this entry by saying that my husband was born in Belgium, not far from Bruges and I wanted to stitch this door called "Bruges, Belgium" which is part of Anne Stradal's "Doorways to the Past" Series. If someone wants to pay a little visit to Anne's website, it is http://www.absdesignsonline.com/ .

Like all good new owner, the first thing I did is repaint and change the greenery as I wanted flowers. I love flowers even more when I don't have to care for them. I am saying that mostly because we are having a severe drought here where I live and everything in our garden seems to be quickly fading away, so this is fantasy time for me. I will never have to water and feed these flowers. Isn't marvelous? I don't have that magic green thumb either so that is not helping any :-(

I stitched the two little shrubs in silk ribbons (leaves and roses) and then I wanted some wisterias like I have in my garden. They are so pretty and smell so wonderful. Watch out for the bees though when the flowers are in season as they become very proprietory and will go in pursuit of anyone coming too close. Ask me why I know this?

At the front, there is a sidewalk and my husband wanted some cobblestones. He is European, remember? I started looking in those wonderful books called Stitches for Effects, More Stitches for Effects and Even More Stitches for Effects by Suzanne Howren and Beth Robertson and found what I was looking for. The stitch I chose can be seen on page 39 of volume 3 of the series. It is called "Continuous 2-4 Woven Scotch". It is not the kind of stitch that you can just breeze through it, but when you got the rhythm of it, it was rather fun to do. A good laying tool is a must with this stitch as I was using regular DMC cotton floss threads (two different colors).

I got another idea from their books. They suggested beads to use for door knob. It was a great idea and I was able to find in my stash a bugle bead just the right size and color, so that was quick to attach and before I knew it, I had completed the project.

Not sure how I will finish this now. Need to have a serious think about it :-)

Moving on to the next project. What will it be??????????????????

Thursday August 2/2007: Just heard from Anne telling me that she added my door to her guest galery:-) Here is link: http://www.absdesignsonline.com/guest_gallery.htm

Pierrette =^..^=

Halloween's Friendly Ghost : Flat-Fold Finishing

As I was saying in my last post, I have been keeping myself busy finishing some already stitched projects and I have just completed the Flat-Fold finishing on my little ghost (little Halloween project). I have done quite a few Halloween projects, but they have all been giving away, so this is the very first that I get to keep for myself :-)

Some time ago I had purchased a little finishing book called "The Flat-Fold" written by Judy Odell. This booklet is part of her "Just A Thought" series explaining different ways of finishing projects. For those of you who might be interested, her web site is http://www.justathought.net/prod/booksandbooklets.shtml

I must say that the way she explains things together with lots of photos made it quite easy for me to do my first flat-fold finishing.

I have added a little spider on my finished project. Looking at her, I have been wondering what she could possibly be thinking about our friendly or perhaps not so friendly ghost in her case. Those spider webs are quite fragile and watching our smiling ghost washing them and then hanging them to dry like that could be enough to give our little spider a heart attack or at the very least a nervous breakdown <>

I will now be moving on to a project that I have just started before I started working on all those finishing, which is called "A Cottage Garden". This is an "Inspirations" magazine project and it will become another needlecase. This one though will be for me since the last one was given to my good friend Terry.

Pierrette =^..^=