Playing Catch-up

Has it really been almost a week since I last posted? Apparently so.

I've been concentrating on two projects. The first was an exchange piece that made it out the door today on time (though I was up until 2AM last night finishing it, and still had to make cording this morning). I'll post photos of this next week after it is received. I can't wait to see what shows up in my mailbox for my first-ever exchange!

The second piece that has seen some attention lately is Winds of Color by Elsa Parrish. This line-drawn needlepoint project is stitched mostly in cotton floss on congress cloth. It was originally a teaching piece, published in 1991. I purchased it directly from Elsa about two years ago. At the time, she was selling kits on NeedleArtworks.com, and I must have ogled this piece for at least two years before I finally broke down and purchased it.Now that I've pulled it out again, I remember why I wanted it so much. It's going to be gorgeous when done. The right side of the picture will be bright colors, and the left all neutrals. The woman's dress will be stitched in shades of red. I would love to post a link to a stitched picture of this, but I cannot find anything on the web.

The class was obviously intended to be a study in various types of shading. In the green trees on the right, you can see hard lines of shading, but the gray trees were a more gradual shading. Some of the canvas areas are colored because this is supposed to show through the stitching to help shade it. Since I always want to learn something from each project to help me grow in my stitching, this is a great piece - beautiful and challenging!