Rooster back in the Roost

I am so glad this rooster is completely finished and ready for hanging. It's been a long road. Five to seven years ago I was overwhelmed by the size and detail of this CanvasWorks painted canvas. DH purchased it at a LNS and asked me to stitch it. He asked the LNS to pick out threads too. He brought home a huge bag of Silk and Ivory mostly, Krenik braid, some beautiful silks - the threads were as costly as the canvas.

So now that we have hundreds invested, I contemplated the canvas for about a year. I didn't think I could do it, it's waaay to involved and I'll never finish it. I didn't really think I needed a stitch guide because there would be so much tent used. Without a doubt I should have had a stitch guide.

It has taken me a very long time but it's the only project DH ever chose for me and I wasn't about to give up on it. It's a beautifully painted design and was not much trouble to stitch at all, other than it's size (15x15") and the heavily painted design. I have learned that unless I'm totally in love with the subject matter, I'll drag my feet. He's learned to let me do the choosing when it comes to painted canvaswork.  SHHH! I recently spied its companion piece.

I am very pleased with how unique the framing is. It's sort of country French, at least the color is right, and it's distressed. I'm very satisfied.

Le Coq est fini!

Merci le Dieu. I mentioned in an earlier posting that the Rooster was finally stitched. I waited to post a photo until it had been displayed at a recent local stitchy meeting. Thank the Lord and pass the band-aids. Honestly, this was one heavily painted canvas and all the basketweave made it very difficult and painful to stitch having to force the needle through. But it's done and I am happy with it.

The borders were all fun albeit time comsuming but I kept ticking off one side then the other and little by little the final stitched was laid. Using a combination of braid, beads, silk, wool, perle, ribbon, linen and fabulous fiber feathers it was a challenge. The debate at my house now is whether to frame or pillow it. I'm leaning toward pillow. I'm thinking down filled and heavily laden with tassels, cord and ball fringe. Something fairly substantial because of it's size. I want to send this one off for finishing instead of doing it myself. While at the finisher I think I should protect the tail feathers in some way as they are 3-dimensional, delicate and easily disturbed. The canvas by CanvasWorks was excellently painted, it's just that I had chosen to do so much of it in basketweave to show off the intricity of the pattern and I kept losing interest in stitching this; therefore maintaining UFO status for approximately 5 years! Have I no shame? No.  I even took it to Studio Time with Caela Tyler who made some of the stitch suggestions on the rooster. And David McCaskill also showed me how to do the coppery outside border.

Well thank you for staying with me through this one, now on to my year's end final WIP's. See you soon!

Here I Am!

Hello out there in stitcher's blog land! It's been a while and even now I only have progress to report today, no photos. I have been feverishly working to complete the stitching on my Rooster project, Marnie Ritter's beautiful Renaissance piece, and a second cuff bracelet. My goal is to have the stitching done on these pieces completed before Thanksgiving. I have a commitment to do so to myself of course, but formally to one of the Chapter's I belong to that has their finished projects challenge coming up.

I began writing this post a few weeks ago and have since finished the bracelet and the rooster. WOOO HOOO! Happy dance now in progress. Both of these projects were stitched primarily in basketweave with specialty threads and, because of the size and heavy painting on the rooster canvas, my fingers feel totally abused.  Progress on Renaissance continues to be my main focus, I have all the full diamonds completed leaving only the half diamonds. I have not obtained permission from Marnie to post a progress photo at this time, but hope in the future it will be okay. You can view her photo here; keep in mind that if you're interested she will be teaching this piece at ANG's 2010 Seminar in Columbus, OH next Fall. Once Renaissance is finished I will return to stitching Caela Tyler's Red Kerchief piece, which is also in line for completion by the end of the year. I wish you could find an opportunity to stitch Caela's most unique design at Calloway in January.

That will conclude my WIP's for 2009 therefore freeing up some space on the queue for 2010. But what about my 2009 list of projects?  Ahh yes, that telltale list looming over there on the right side of this blog. I can only say that I did not begin most of the projects slated for 2009 but I did manage to finish several things that were not in queue. I will soon have my 2010 goals set which may or may not include things from '09. This is always a fun ritual for me; deciding upon which fabulous projects I plan to stitch in the coming year.

It's good to visit with you a little today.....and also give my stitching fingers a rest.  Oh by the way, where did they hide the spellcheck feature on blogspot?  See you soon.

Rooster WIP

 I've been working on the grass with a combination of Silk & Ivory and Burmilana in two colors for the tent stitch background and then over stitching long and short with a Burmilana in a tweed and yellow. I like the way it turned out. I'll do more combo colored tent along the bottom of the grass to finish up that space.

The rooster's tail was understitched in tent with purple and green metallic and also a light and medium lavender/purple Burmilana, planning they will peek through the overestitched feathers. Black and navy blue Peluche from Fabulous Fibers were used for the over hanging feathers, and then tacked down here and there into place. This thread seems to curl naturally and I think it is a good look for feathers. The photo doesn't show the individual feathers very clearly.

I've got the head and parts of three sides of the border to do next. Tent, phew, takes a long time. But the closer I get the more inspired I am to finish with thoughts of moving on to new things. YAY! The next picture shows the outside border using one strand of Silk & Ivory in a shade of rust then using staggered stitches of #16 Krenik braid in a rust blend to couch it down. There will be 2 more rows in this color and then one row of blue. This is a fun way to quickly make an outstanding border.

I'm closing in on the Rooster

MY MY I've been plugging away on this rooster canvas from CanvasWorks for many a moon now. The canvas is handsomely stitched painted, so I can't blame the years of slow progress on a poorly painted canvas. It's just darned big. And primarily stitched in basketweave. Not to mention I've had a few other stitching interruptions along the way. But I am determined to get this done THIS YEAR. I'd like to say this month, but we're already 3/4 the way through September.

The canvas is 16x16" on 14 count canvas. I've used a lot of Silk 'n Ivory (the cream background, the dark navy border, the light navy border) and the copper border is a done by laying long lengths of Silk'n Ivory all across the canvas border, taking care to mitre the corners and then couching with #16 copper Kreinik Braid. The chicken wire is also done in the Braid. The tail feathers have really been calling my name, stitch me stitch me next, and I've been trying to maintain control whilst stitching the tedious borders. Maybe I'll indulge in the tail once I've completed 2 of the 4 borders. I have a 3-D technique in mind for the tail. I love this beautiful canvas, but I will be glad when I've finished it so I can move on to something new.

For some reason, Blogger, isn't allowing readers to enlarge the photo. I am not sure why, I wanted you to see things a little more clearly (not too close, just a little closer). I'll figure out what I've done wrong uploading the photo and try to get a few close-up shots too. Thanks for visiting today, wish me luck that I don't run out of steam on this labor intensive project. See you soon.

My week in review or what I did instead of housework.

I usually don't write much about my life outside of stitchville, but I like to hear about yours and thought I'd take a chance you might be interested here. It's been a busy week and I didn't get much stitching in, regrettably. The third week of every month is always the most hectic. Monday began with my volunteer duties with Hospice. Then that evening I enjoyed attending Colorado Columbine Chapter, ANG. It's a great group and they held a great program entitled Colorado Collage. As beautiful as it is, I couldn't participate as I have enough on my needlework plate as it is. But I enjoyed seeing my friends and catching up a bit. I will be taking over the responsibility of newsletter editor. This should be fun once I get the hang of it.

Tuesday, I went to Little London Stitcher Chapter, ANG meeting in Colorado Springs. We had open stitching so I worked on last year's major WIP, the rooster. Wednesday, Hospice again and I attended the Board meeting for Colorado Chapter, EGA where I'm Outreach Chair; a role with fewer responsibilities than most, but still a worthwhile undertaking as we have monthly collections of needed items and distribute them to local shelters.

Thursday I attended Mile High Chapter, ANG and wore my new name tag. I also took Geisha Kitty's and Red Kitty for Show and Share. I received many nice compliments which I am totally grateful for. Thank you! Our program was fabulous, a lecture by Caela Conn Tyler on Canvas Embellishment. I was able to visit with many of my stitchy friends which is always a treat. Also, I gained much inspiration from seeing the finished and in-progress works by everyone.

Today, was busy, but fun. Went to the movies, stopped by Starbucks, then strolled around Tuesday Mornings (never know what treasure you might find, this time I was skunked!) and finished off the day at Cheesecake Factory for a yummy chicken dish. No cheesecake. :( I also goofed around online catching up with email and surfing around all my favorite blogs! Blogs are so much fun to read and write! Thanks for letting me recap my week; it was a good week, but I'm glad it's behind me now. BTW, I'm still waiting for my BBB project. I called to check on it to see if it had come back from the finishers, the conversation went like this. Me: "Hello, I'm calling to check on a piece I left for finishing several weeks ago." Response: "Did we call you to tell you it's ready? Because if we didn't call you it's not ready". Okay, snotty, can you at least check on it? I wanted to say, but didn't get a chance. I'm laughing at this now, but when it happened.....not so much. I'm sure it will be back soon, maybe next week I'm hoping. Can't wait to share it with you then.

Well take care all, have a safe and fun 3-day weekend. I'll be stitching up a storm. What's new with you? And if you're a Veteran, thank you!

THE MAGIC SHOW

is coming in November at my local EGA Chapter meeting. I've been working on the finishing of two of my MAGIC (My All Good Intentions Contract) commitments this past week. The stitching has been done for quite some time now and after much thought, a bit of consternation and bravery, I began the finishing of the kimono and the Halloween Fairy project myself in an effort to save time and money. I will only discuss the fairy today.

The Halloween Fairy was meant to be framed, but to me Halloween is a day, not a season and I was not likely to display a framed Halloween piece. Not to mention that a background would have to be stitched if it were to be framed. Soooo I am using it to decorate the top of a round box from Hobby Lobby. Covering the exterior of the box and box top with a Halloween print fabric, I am now ready to cut my finished fairy canvas down to size and mount it on the top. I put the canvas on a piece of foam board and then attached it to the lid. A cover up trim seeking odyssey ensued and I finally decided on black velvet ribbon and large orange rick rack. I love rick rack, reminds me of elementary school and my Brownie Troop. This finishing project took time but wasn't difficult. The one set of fairy wings extend out over the edge of the box top and are vulnerable to crushing even though I stitched around their edges with braid and left the canvas underneath attached. I really didn't enjoy finishing this project myself. I think I'd rather be stitching; something I didn't realize about myself, but now I do. I do not plan on taking this type of thing on again. Well except for the kimono and third Magic project, a CanvasWorks Rooster pillow. With the finishing of these 3 items I am getting closer to reaching my stitching goals for 2008. Hallelujah! Happy Dance!

MAGIC: Producing results...

through mysterious sleight of hand influences or unexplained powers and the charms, spells and rituals so used. Hey, that sounds like what I need to help dwindle my 2008 UFO pile. Where do I sign up? In reality you and I know it will take more than a little abracadabra or even a miracle would be more likely to help plow through my stash of undone's. Or so I thought.

Last Fall our local EGA group was challenged to sign up for Barb Loftus' very inventive MAGIC program. MAGIC (My All Good Intentions Contract) was created as an incentive to help members reduce their ever expanding accumulation of UFO's.

Here's how it works. Members were asked to identify 3 projects they would like to finish and present them at our Chapter meeting. Yes, you had to stand up and pledge your intention (s). A paper contract was filled out for each project stating a self imposed dollar amount to be donated to the Chapter, if the UFO wasn't completed in one year's time. In our case, it was Fall 2007 to November 2008. The monies raised, if any (yeah, right, anyway), will be added to our Chapter's Outreach program funds. Members generously pledged several hundred dollars and it's now nearly August. Wonder how everyone is progressing?

As for me, well, I've completed the stitching on a kimono, after 7 years of picking up, putting down and ripping out, I'm glad it's done. Next up is the Rooster seen here in the blog Archives (July 3, Studio Time). Then I have a set of 4 canvases in varying stages of completion. These were from a class I had taken at an ANG seminar in NM, Four Season Fairies with Dorothy Lesher. I learned a lot in this class which is justifcation enough for being gentle with myself if I don't finish them. The main objective for taking classes is to learn, not to finish. Right? Right. I think I'll need to get my checkbook out for these. Well, that's okay, it's going to a very good cause.

Okay Chapter members, you know who you are; how are you doing?

STUDIO TIME

with Caela! Okay, I am really excited. Next week at this time I will have the good fortune to be in the company of many fabulous needleartists. I'm attending the EGA Rocky Mountain Regional Seminar held in Denver. The class choices this year are fabulous and it is such a treat to have the Seminar held in my own back yard, so to speak.

As a member of the hosting Chapter I will have certain volunteer duties but the rest of my day will be spent with national needlestar Caela Tyler. I've opted to sign up for her Studio Time and plan on taking full advantage of her expertise and wisdom. Studio time is where you bring any stitching issues you may be having or canvas problems, etc. to an expert to help you work out solutions. I will be seeking her help in how to go about making either of these major canvas/thread investments the best they can be. The rooster is 14"x14" by CanvasWorks. It is a handsome canvas that my husband bought for me several years ago. I have been perplexed as to how to stitch it and have tried a few things here and there, just to give DH the impression that I am actively working on it. He is thrilled that I will soon have help and is imagining a light at the end of the tunnel.

This is the other canvas and I've been saving it for over 20 years! It's by Elsa Williams and originally came with her tapestry wool. Well I am so glad I held off doing this, can you imagine all the different thread and stitches that can be used now? It's fairly large but so light and airy I think it will work up fairly quickly. Don't you? I want an open back ground but will defer to Caela before making a final decision.

For those of you that know Caela's work you understand why I jumped at the chance to sign up for her Studio. Having viewed many of her finished works in person, all superlative adjectives worthy of a fine artist come to mind, but there is one thing that stands out to me. I am talking about what I refer to as her light handed touch.

When I first began stitching I believed that heavier thread and stitch usage would be more dramatic and, quite honestly, I was never really happy with the end results but didn't know why. After seeing Caela's exquisite work, so intricate, light, showing fine detail, I learned right away that this is a far more effective way to enhance the design. Unfortunately this style does not come naturally to me, but I'm learning and hoping for a little osmosis action to take place at Seminar. I'll keep you posted.