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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Flowers and berries and bees, oh my!

Catherine Theron's How Great the Blessing sampler continues to be the focus of my stitchy attention.  As you can see, I've added the bees (cross stitch and double-running), a few berries (satin stitch), the outer area of several flowers (queen stitch), and the grout of a brick walk for a house (tent stitch over one).  Only in stitching can you add grout before the bricks!

All of the flowers are "supposed" to be filled in like the one on the left, but I really like them just with the outside areas done.  I can't really pull out the central areas of the bottom left flower due to the fabric distortion caused by the queen stitches, though.  Right now I'm going to proceed with filling in the flowers off of the vines on each side, but leave the center plant as it is. 

There's also supposed to be some small vines in freehand surface embroidery in the empty areas next to the squirrel and the bunny, but I think I like the space there for now.  We'll see how this looks as I get more of the sampler done.  I can always add them later.

I really do want to finish this sampler this year (after all, I've already added the year), but I've got an itch to do some canvas work.  I'm going to pull out Carolyn Mitchell's My Way, which I started last year before my pregnancy eliminated my ability to work on large canvases mounted on stretcher bars!

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Erin update:  CAST-OFF COUNTDOWN:  6 days to go!

6 comments:

Deb said...

Catherine Theron has such beautiful pieces. Yours looks wonderful. I'm anxious to see more of your progress!

Edy said...

Love the flowers as they are...well, maybe fill in the other side flower to match the one you already stitched.
Looking forward to pictures of a castless Erin when I get to Pittsburg.

Sweet Sue said...

Hi Jeanne, beautiful as always:)

Karoline said...

It's looking gorgeous, great progress

Cyn said...

Hi Jeanne,

The sampler looks very nice and I like your enhancements. :-)

Looking forward to seeing "My Way".

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Kathy A. said...

I agree Jeanne. I like the way the center flowers look without the fill in.
Look forward to hearing the good news as Erin's casts come off.