Hearts & Flowers: Dodecagon Ornament Series by Jim Wurth

I had the best of time stitching this ornament called Hearts & Flowers designed by Jim Wurth. It is the 5th one of his Dodecagon Ornament Series. I just could not put it down and finished it last evening, but by then it was too dark to be able to take a proper photo so had to wait until this morning.

I love his designs so much as they are complexed and stitches are multi-layered bulding up to very nice designs, which also makes them absolutely exquisite; Also the extensive use of metallic threads makes the ornaments sparkles as you work on them. They are quite addictive , so much so that I have immediately started working on another one called "The Baroness Edie, which has a dark green canvas and comes with mauve, yellow and green threads, very relaxing colors to work with.

I have received 7 ornament kits so far and have completed 5 of them, working on number 6 and will try to get to number 7 after so that I can finally catch up with this series and then all I will have to do is stitch each additional ones as they arrive.

Better go back to the Baroness now :-D

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: Completed

Here is a photo of my completed project.

Marion tells the stitcher at the end of her book the story that goes with the Princess and the Pea. I will be quoting Marion word for word in the following little story as I don't want to miss one single little detail.

Here it goes.

"The Princess and the Pea"

"Once upon a time there was a Prince who longed to marry a real princess. He searched all over the world to find her. There seemed to be plenty of Princesses but for one reason or another, the Prince could never be sure that they were, in truth, what he sought. Disconsolate, he returned to his castle. Slowly he grew paler and thinner, pining for a real Princess.

One evening there was a terrible storm. The wind blew, lightning slashed the sky, thunder crashed and rain lashed the countryside. Suddenly a knock was heard at the castle gate. The guards hurried to the gate, holding their lanterns high above their heads.

There at the gate stood a Princess. Rain had soaked her hair and streamed in rivers from her gown to her toes. But she was a Princess ... a real Princess ... she told the guards, and had become lost in the storm.

"A real Princess?" asked the Prince, in disbelief. "We must make sure," said his mother the Queen. She prepared a bed for the Princess, made with ten mattresses filled with the solftest eiderdown. Beneath the first mattress on the boards of the bed, the Queen placed one small dried pea. The Princess, unaware of this, climbed up to sleep on top of the feather mattresses. In the morning, everyone in the court gathered to hear the Queen ask her how she slept.

"I barely slept a wink," moaned the Princess. "I am bruised all over. My bones ache as if they were broken. There must have been some frightful object in my bed."

"She is indeed a real Princess," proclaimed the Queen. "No one but a real Princess could have such tender skin!"

The delight of the Prince knew no bounds. The Kind and Queen were well pleased. The Prince married her the very next day because now he knew she was a real Princess.

And the pea can be seen on a pedestal in the Royal museum to this very day."

Isn't it a sweet story?

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: Top section

Well, I sure am happy right now as I have just finished stitching Princess and the Pea. This is the top section. Will soon post a photo of the entire completed project.

Pierrette =^..^=

The princess and the Pea: 10th mattress completed

All the mattresses for our Princess are finally stitched. This will be quite a climb for her to get to the top one. Better her than me :-(

Moving on to the top part now, which is a bit different but as interesting.

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: 9th mattress stitched

Well, here I am with mattress number 9 completed. One more to go, then it will be the top of the canopy which will be in hardanger (all white), so that should be fun also.

Still thinking about stitching a little Halloween project after this project is completed. That would make a nice break between the other big project that I have started "Kaleidoscope", which requires my full attention.

I have also put my unfinished hardanger project near me so that I can also finish that. It is an EGA GCC called "Options in Hardanger" Will bring back the photo a bit later when I am close to working on it.

Better go back to my last mattress now :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: 8th mattress stitched

Well, another mattress completed, meaning 2 more to go before this part of the design has been completed except the little pea under mattress one, which according to Marion's instructions is stitched at the very end.

You will see two white lines (thread) over the top three mattresses. Those are there to help me with the shading of those three mattresses. Each section from left to right goes from lighter to darker.

It has been pretty hot around here lately and no rain. Yesterday it went up to 108°F making it very difficult to spend any time outside. I feel like a prisoner of my own house. Trees and shrubs are suffering from the lack of rain and heat. I am quite concerned that by the end of the summer we will have lost quite a few as we have had a double whammy this year, a very hard freeze in Spring followed by a very severe drought and nobody knows when this will all end.

All I can do is keep stitching. At least I have that :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

Kaleidoscope: Central section

This is the central section of Kaleidoscope. This is a very slow project, at least for me, as it requires lots of counting, so no distractions permitted, and also the use of your laying tool as each thread needs to be carefully positioned.

It is a beautiful design. I remember about 15 years or so, having seen it at my local needlepoint shop and finding it quite pretty, but I was only starting at the time and felt that this was not the project for me and I was right. I needed easier and less involved projects at the time.

Another thing about this project is the fact that it is very repetitive. You have to do the same pattern over and over again as you can see looking at the photo. I generally prefer to stitch different things as I go along, so this one will require much more discipline from me. I am a person who hates routine, so ...........................

Anyway, I do not regret my decision to have purchased it. I will just have to do it while also working on several other pieces so that it breaks the monotony a bit of repeating the same pattern over and over.

It may be a little while before I am in a position to post another photo as I want to finish my "Princess and the Pea" and have it framed as soon as I possibly can.

I also have a hardanger project that I have started quite some time ago, which I need to put the few necessary hours to finish and of course, let's not forget that Halloween project, not yet decided, that I would like to start :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: 7th mattress stitched

Another photo this morning, this time mattress #7 all stitched. So far the two mattress designs that I have enjoyed the most are mattress #4 (blue one) and mattress #7 (Fuschia one).

I realize that the photos that I have been adding are not always exactly the same. It is due to the fact that my husband takes them either inside or outside the house and also whether he takes the photos in the sun or shade. For the finish photo, I will ask him to take some photos under many different conditions and will select the final photograph according to how representative it is to the actual project and will post that one.

Since a couple of days, I have been thinking about Halloween projects. It is not as if my hands are not full at this time, but I have always had tremendous pleasure stitching something about Halloween. I need to find myself something absolutely adorable and at the same time, not a big project as I just don't have the time for it right now. Will see what I can come up with that would be a delight to stitch.

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: 6th mattress done

Well, here we are with one more mattress completed and four more to go.

I was thinking the other day that one thing that I love so much about stitching with a blank canvas is see it evolved from "nothing" to something beautiful. I love to do the same thing with cooking. Both my husband and I love to cook from "scratch" as we call it. It takes more time but the rewards are wonderful. I am lucky as my husband does most of the cooking as he loves to cook, so it gives me more time for my stitching, but when need be, I can do my fair share also.

Going back to stitching some more on "Princess" :-)

Pierrette =^..^=

The Princess and the Pea: 5th mattress

This is a photo with the 5th mattress completed, so five more to go :-)

Pierrette =^..^=