A little progress

made today on Red Kitty. Actually since this photo was taken, a few more rows have been stitched. Red Kitty, the invention of Gay Ann Rogers, is stitched with floss and perle coton. It's a very different project for me as I usually gravitate toward painted canvas. I am thoroughly enjoying the relaxation and rhythm of the counted work. I have a few Laura J. Perin (and other's) charts waiting in the wings and believe it is the perfect balance shifting between counted and painted project.

Well I didn't make it out of my drive yesterday in time to participate in the 2-day pilot class. My neighbor took pity and plowed the drive mid-afternoon. It took about an hour and a half, twice as long as usual, because of the depth and heaviness of the snow. I was beginning to get cabin fever.

For some unknown and illogical reason, I didn't want to get started on a new project, even if they were all shouting at me. Actually, I had my mind set on the pilot and wasn't accepting the fact that the class had come and gone...without me! At that point, if I had a tail it would be between my legs and if I had any stress tabs (M&M's) I'd have a bowl full of those too. But instead I ended up pulling out an older UFO (although if it's still on the stretcher, it's officially a WIP, at least in my mind), GAR's Red Kitty.

I love this sampler and don't know why I put it down some months ago. But I was able to make some progress and soon my self talk turned from poor me to OMG, I'll have this completed in no time and another finished project for 2009. What's that they say about life giving you lemons? Oh, now I remember, "When life gives you lemons, put them in your bra." :) Or something like that.

Thanks for visiting on this sunny morning in Colorado.

April Showers bring....

SNOW! A minimum of 20" and still falling. This does not count the drifting which is preventing me from getting up my driveway even with the 4wheel drive. Normally I would be clam happy, but I was to go to Denver this weekend for a 2-day pilot class. Unable to manhandle our snow thrower, here I sit. Thankfully stitching really soothes my wounds. I did not shoot this photo in black and white, there is absolutely no color our there today except various shades of gray. End of next week predictions: high 70's! If you don't like the weather in Colorado, wait an hour. So they say.

AS IF!!!!!!!!

I needed to be making mischief in my stash closet. I have enough trouble keeping my wips in line as it is; never mind milling about in there. Some things just can't be helped. One half of my 2oo9 stitching projects are either finished or kitted and in project bags, waiting in place at my various stitching stations. Yet I browse around my stash, circling like a shark, until I whine, "Oh, I wanna stitch thaaat." "Well, you can't." blurts that little voice in the back of my head. "Well if I can't stitch it, can I touch it?" Again, the voice, "Now Madonna, you know all too well what touching leads too." And it did. Go away little voice, I'm just going to kit up these kute kanvases.

After all I resisted for several months, and I'm talkin' several as in at least 7 from date-o-purchase. Little voice, "But these are in your 2010 queue, not '09." "What are you doing?"

I was a Bluebird, Brownie and Girl Scout, can I help it if I'm bent on being prepared?

Talk to the hand!

Now then, I think I've chosen some fun threads, Whisper, Petite Very Velvet, Alpaca, to name a few. Yes fuzzy and furry are musts, especially for the tails. The tails are calling out to be somewhat bushy whereas the bodies should be more pettable. The canvases didn't come with stitch guides but I will refer to one of my many stitch books for choosing stitches. And of course I always welcome suggestions from you.

Boy am I pooped. That was quite an event. I circled, I chose, I kitted and now I've written about it. One step closer to starting a new project. Woo Hoo! My heart is racing. Oh no, not because of that, I won't start those for a while. My heart is racing because I have roasted turkey wings in the oven and a raging snow storm looming nearby. The eau de fowl wafting has made it back to my nostrils making it impossible to carry on here. Thank you for reading all the way through. You are my friends. :)

Rio I and II

The last of the three companion pieces to Rio Rincon are finally complete. I had to do a lot of experimenting on this one trying to cover all of those heavy black lines. Since scanning into the computer there are still a couple places that may need attention, but for the most part I am satisfied with it and ready to move on. Having said that I think I will outline the tee pee in black to be consistent with the the other canvas. Thank so much to those of you that commented and advised, I followed what you suggested and it saved me a lot of time. Notice the desert "UFO" in the center of the canvas is now a basket of flowers?

There are a few changes to this canvas too. I didn't want the heart shaped cloud to have the black outline so covered it with ribbon floss to match the sky. The photo actually picks up some of the black outline in the mesa that is more camouflaged in the actual piece. Camera's are funny that way, showing lots of lines and shadows and, in my case, adding pounds. :( I am glad to have finished these and will next show them framed.

It's Monday

Just dropping in to say hi and wish you all a happy week. It's sunny here today in Colorado, unlike yesterday's drizzly Easter Sunday. It was my husband's birthday and we planned a day at home having celebrated on Saturday with a day spent antiquing and dinner at a local Italian eatery. I was on the lookout for someones unappreciated and cast off needlepoint; always shocking to me when I find something in good shape and desirable. I only saw one thing worth considering, it was a rug approximately 3'x4' in size. Well executed in tent but framed! I felt it would have been better displayed as a rug as IMHO it was intended to be.

It was a depiction of a pair of King Charles Spaniels lying down cuddled. The background was pink, it had a nice border and the asking price was $500. No, I didn't consider it, for one thing besides it's price tag, the faces on the dogs were not executed very well. That is the kiss of death for me when considering buying anything that includes an animal face; it must have a realistic look or at least look endearing. Whereas these poor pooches had deer in headlamps expressions. But I embarked upon an Internet search to find this rug elsewhere to learn more about it. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't manufactured somewhere overseas because it looked like it was the work of a needlepointer. Anyway in my search I found this little website and thought you might enjoy bowsing around. No I meant to type bowsing. I am typing it in here because blogger doesn't seem to be accepting links today, so just in case here is the website: www.aileenannecollections.com/Decorative-Pillows_c_42.html



This week will be a busy one. I worked on my Rio Rincon companion piece exclusively but am no further along than I was in my previous post. I did a lot of frogging. And am now having a difficult time determining what this is supposed to be just above and centered over the words "what's this". I am perplexed by the somewhat rectangular/trapezoidal shape in the center there. I have the notion to just cover it up, but if you recognize what it's supposed to be I'll keep it in. Thanks in advance for your response.

In closing I wanted to let you know that I added a new section to my blog, located on the left entitled, "Enter at your own risk". It's a selection of tempting foodie blogs that I have found to be awesome, instructional and surf-worthy.

Take care and have a great week.

Herringbone Eyeglasses Case

So here is what the eyeglasses case looks like when all the stitching is done. For this case I used two skeins #5 DMC Perle in a bright gold and one skein in a medium turquoise. I also used one spool of #16 Kreinik Braid and the dark turquoise band was done with a small amount of Vineyard Silk. I think I may have devoted approximately 12 hours to the stitching but count on at least a half hour on the marking of the canvas and 2 hours for the hand finishing. The golden felt is what I will use as the lining. I would have preferred to have used a faux suede but since I'm snowed in today I'll use what I have on hand.

The next step is to cut even the sides and ends of the unstitched canvas and then either by machine or hand, stitch across the ends so that the stitches stay in place. I chose to use machine stitch here right up to the edges of the stitching. Once done the stitches will be secure.

At this point, I will cut the long strands hanging from the right hand side of the picture.
The reason that the strands are so long is because I used one full strand of Perle Coton for each row. In other words, once you removed the label from the Perle and untwist the thread into it's circle, cut the circle and one of those strands constitutes a full strand. Yes you could save on thread by cutting shorter strands, but you will waste time doing so.

Next I cut my lining to 12 1/4 length and laid it on top of the "right" side of the stitching. Stitching the ends together and then turning the piece in side out leave a nice turned under look.

Now comes the fun part. You have to fold the case in half, folding in all the selvages and start whip stitching the sides together catching the lining and covering any exposed canvas threads. It made sense to me to leave the top sides open a bit for easy access for my larger sunglasses.
I would like to mention that I enjoyed stitching this piece far more than I liked finishing it. I used #3 Perle Coton to whip the sides together and began with using a size 20 tapestry needle and finished everything off using a large eyed darning needle to go through all the layers.
Taa Daaaaaaaaaaa!

Finished or Nearly

These two little ornies are tippy-toeing off to the finishers. I surprised myself as to how quickly both of these fun projects worked up. Choosing, for the most part, non-strandable threads makes life a lot easier. I used things like Kreinik braids and Petite Very Velvet, perle coton.

The Chapter name tag is also done and so is the cuff bracelet. I won't show a photo of it since it's a gift for a close friend. Shhhhh, it's a surprise.

Making their way out of my queue closet are the three companions to Rio Rincon. One is completely stitched and the other two will soon be off the stretchers. My plan is to use the same framing choice used for Rio.

These will be matted and framed together. I've enjoyed stitching the Terry Medaris canvases but I am always at a quandary as to what to do with the heavy black outlining. Outlining doesn't seem right, nor does ignoring it. I would appreciate some advice on how to handle outlining as it is something that comes up from time to time and I always have trouble with it. These were no exception. In varying stages of completion I hope to have these to the framer by week's end or early next.

So, in part, this is what I've been up to lately. What's new at your zoo?