Ocean Waves: The Finale

Don’t you hate it when you don’t know the ending? Somebody leads you along, telling you a story, and then just stops, and you’re left saying, “And then what?”?

Sorry. I kinda did that. In the early months of this year, I wrote up a number of posts describing my progress on Judy Souliotis’s Ocean Waves. And, like a tease, I stopped writing when I was almost done with the project.

There are two bits of good news. I did eventually finish the project. And I remembered that I left everyone with a cliffhanger.

So, without further ado, here it is:

Once again, this is Ocean Waves by Judy Souliotis. It is a former teaching piece which I purchased from Judy’s website a few years ago. It is stitched on congress cloth with Japan metals, Kreinik metallics, and a bit of couching silk. The ocean spray consists of just a small handful of tiny seed pearls.

The glare in the photo above makes it a little hard to see the details of the center medallion. Is this better?

I think this was one of only two pieces that I finished so far this year. By the time it was done, I certainly felt more confident in using couching as a filling stitch!

Friday Finish: My Way

Yes, it’s finally done!

Design: My Way

Designer: Carolyn Mitchell

Technique: counted canvas

Ground fabric: 18ct mono canvas

Threads: LOTS!

Stitches used: LOTS!

Stitching timeframe: Started borders October 16, 2008; class November 8-9, 2008; finished September 14, 2010

For more detail around the threads and stitches used in this project, see my previous posts about it. And no, I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. It won't really "go" with anything in my house, but I had fun stitching it and though the decisions frustrated me from time to time, I think I learned a lot from this challenging piece!

I finished just in time. My next class with Carolyn Mitchell (her gorgeous Mystique) starts next Thursday!

Friday Finish: Omega

Thanks for all of the great comments on my colors for Omega. Over two cards of Neon Rays and a whole bunch of crescents (and one Rhodes stitch) later, it’s done!

Design: Omega

Designer: Jean Hilton, for Rainbow Gallery

Technique: counted canvas

Ground fabric: 18ct mono canvas

Threads: Trio (a silk and wool mix) from brown paper packages, FyreWerks and Neon Rays from Rainbow Gallery, and just a touch of Kreinik braid

Stitches used: cross stitch, long stitches, plaited rays, backstitch, Rhodes stitch, and crescents

Stitching timeframe: August 2-8, 2010

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Thanks for all of the best wishes for E. We had a bit of a setback requiring recasting this week, but she seems to have adjusted quickly to the new cast.

Friday Finish: How Great the Blessing

I can hear some of you thinking, “Didn’t she post about finishing that sampler a couple of months ago?”

Well, yes. I did.

But it wasn’t framed then.

Here you go.

Again, this is:

Design: How Great the Blessing (with a few minor changes)

Designer: Catherine Theron

Ground fabric: 36ct linen

Threads: silks, primarily from Hand-Dyed Fibers/Vikki Clayton

Stitches used: cross, smyrna, queen, oblong cross, chain, satin, slanted gobelin, tent, four-sided, leaf, lazy daisy, upright cross, long-arm cross, and cross over one. There may be one or two others, but that’s what I see right now.  :-)

Stitching timeframe: Started in a class April 2009, finished in February 2010.

The simple frame sets off the design. Nothing more was needed. Thanks to my LNS owner for great framing consultation, as usual!

The return of in-hand work!

Hooray! I can now think about finishing some of the hardanger projects or the beading project in my WIP pile.

Look what I managed to finish in only about 3-4 hours:

This is the primary Morning Glories temari from an online class with Barb Suess. There are two more from the class, and I hope to get to them soon.

I started this over the summer, but couldn't manage to work on it for any length of time. Now I can say that I've actually stitched a temari! It's not perfect, but I'm not totally embarrassed about it either.

I can honestly say that I have no regrets about going in for the carpal tunnel surgery -- except that I put it off for WAY too long. Aside from a bit of lingering tenderness at the incision site and the need to avoid heavy lifting or pulling, I'm almost completely back to using my right hand normally - including taking care of a certain little person.

Happy Dance: How Great the Blessing

Ok, now it's done. Here is my version of Catherine Theron's How Great the Blessing.

This is stitched on the 36ct linen supplied by Catherine as part of the kit, using Vikki Clayton's Hand-Dyed Fibers regular silk floss and a tiny bit of Rainbow Gallery's Splendor.

I made minimal changes to the design, primarily in the areas designated for personalization, but I also

• placed the birds and squirrels as I liked
• skipped the crown originally over the house (it just seemed odd!)
• left the queen stitch flowers in the large vase open, with just the outlines

All in all, I really like this piece. I think this one will actually get framed rather than finding a home in my closet. (Does anybody else do this?)

She's done!

Yes. Cinders is done. While done with fairly basic blackwork and darning, stem, and satin stitches, this piece was quite challenging due to the format. As described in my first post about this piece, Marion encouraged us to change filling patterns and colors as we stitched.

I'm pleased with how my version came out. Here's Marion's original, for comparison. (Sorry about the flash. This is a photo of a photo.)

It's really interesting to compare and contrast these two versions. I've seen many instances where several people do the same counted canvas piece in a multitude of colors and threads (most recently on the website of Gay Ann Rogers), but I haven't seen it often in other techniques.

Have you seen other examples? Please tell us about them!

Happy Dance (and stitch guide): Green Ornament

Cross one off of the WIP list. This Kathy Schenkel ornament is done! Here's a stitch guide, if anybody's interested.

Green Areas:
Start with the rows of Bargello stitches. (If you're not familiar with Bargello, Wikipedia surprisingly has a decent overview.) For this ornament, the Bargello is completed with vertical stitches over 4 threads. Begin the bottom Bargello pattern where the lower green area meets the white central band, and just follow the pattern established by the painting. Use of a laying tool is recommended!

• The first (inner-most) row is Kreinik 1/16" ribbon in color 009.
• Below this is a row of Felicity's Garden #016, Evergreen, using two strands.
• The third row is Vineyard Silk Classic #C-146, Cactus, using two strands.
• Repeat this pattern for the subsequent rows.
• When it's time to use the Kreinik ribbon for the third time, lengthen the stitches to cover the bottom of the ornament.

When the lower green section is done, turn the ornament 180 degrees and stitch the top the same way. End with the second row of Felicity's Garden. There's a tiny row of green unstitched, but that actually helps with working the gold top of the ornament.

Gold Ornament Top:
Using Kreinik #8 braid in color 002, fill this area with woven stitch. Work the stitch right over that first row of green intersections. This makes it look a bit like there are holes in the bottom of the ornament top, and the color of the ornament is showing through.

Note: This area is really hard to photograph, due to the gold metallic on top of gold metallic paint, but refer to the enhanced photograph at right to see the detail a bit better.

Central White band:
Using Rainbow Gallery's Patina #PA10 (one strand, right as it comes off the card), work this area in basketweave. Change the direction of the tent stitches in the diagonal areas between the petals of the poinsettias, so the stitches are angled away from the center.

Green lozenges:
Satin stitch the green lozenge-shaped areas with Kreinik 1/16" ribbon #009.

Poinsettias:
Each petal of the poinsettias is stitched in four parallel diagonal stitches over four intersections, using Rainbow Gallery's Petite Frosty Rays #PY072. A black seed bead is used over each of the four black intersections at the center of each flower.

Enjoy!

(Oh, and thanks to all who commented on the previous post. I'll be responding to some of the comments in tomorrow's post.)

Happy Dance: Examplar IV

After the trellis motif took so long, I never imagined I'd be completely done with Catherine Theron's Examplar IV by this time!

The strawberry motif worked up fairly quickly. The leaves are all done in detached buttonhole with return. The stem uses long arm cross, diagonal cross, and colonial knots, and the strawberry itself is in tent stitch over 1 with occasional cross stitches for the seeds.

The caterpillar (who seems to be heading for that strawberry!) is also done in tent stitch, and the crown in the lower right corner is in rice stitch.

After these, all that remained were the corner motifs in double-running and diagonal queen stitches, and the personalization.

Catherine had the great idea of personalizing her sampler with both start and end dates. I wanted to do the same, but also wanted to add a bit more detail. After a bit of thought, I ended up with "2007 Mid-Eastern Region EGA" to commemorate the seminar at which I took the class. The "SMH" in "SMH 2009" stands for Strong Memorial Hospital, not that I'll readily forget where and when this piece was finished!

As of tomorrow, I'll once again be working on Joan Thomasson's Celebration Santa, which DH brought in today!

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Pregnancy ticker: 34 weeks, 1 day.
Less than 1 week to go!

Happy Dance: Tudor Purse

Two finishes within a week! Never mind that I actually finished a seminar piece within 6 months of the class.

The spangles went on fairly quickly. I'm a little disappointed that they look more silver than gold, but they're cheap plastic spangles. I'll save the expense of metal spangles for a piece that will be displayed or used more frequently than this will.

Mary mentioned something about the openwork look of my plaited braid. The gold thread I used is referred to as "No. 7 gold passing thread" in the kit instructions. The thread might be a bit thinner than what might authentically be used for plaited braid in this situation, but it's not completely baseless. In the collection of photos of historical pieces studied in the class, Chris Berry included a close-up of this panel. The peapods in the center are similar to mine. The plaited braid used on those leaves was somewhat open too, though not quite as much.

The assembly of the Tudor Purse was a bit more complicated than that of the Blueberry Pocket. There is a layer of thin quilt batting between the outside and the liner. Both the outside layer (inside out) and the liner (with batting attached) were sewn up the sides. The outer layer was turned inside out, then the liner was inserted. The top seam allowances for both layers were folded in and stitched together. Handmade braid was used to trim all of the seams, with handmade tassels attached at appropriate points along the bottom. More braid was used for the strap. Yes - that braid took a long time. It's made of 5 strands of purple and gold thread.

The time it took to put this together was worth it in the end. I hope you agree!

On a related note, I need to reply to Annie's question about the Jane Zimmerman Elizabethan piece. Sorry, Annie, but those instructions were only available during Jane's Christmas sale that ended on December 28. It was a bit cruel of me to post a picture after it was no longer available. :-( UPDATE: Jane Zimmerman is offering this again through March 31! See her site for details. (And thanks to Megan of Elmsley Rose for letting me know!)

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Pregnancy ticker: 32 weeks, 4 days.
Yes, DH brought another project in to me. Hopefully BJ can hang in there until I finish Catherine Theron's Examplar IV, which really won't take too long!

Happy Dance: Blueberry Pocket

Yesterday I was finally able to assemble the Blueberry Pocket from Periwinkle Promises. I tried to finish it earlier in the week, but found that the lining fabric included in the kit was cut too small. MIL was able to find an appropriate fat quarter in a local fabric shop, and we were back in business! (Thanks, Mom!)

This was a very simple assembly. The sampler had a backstitch border on the left and right, with slightly more decorative Palestrina knots along the top and bottom. The fabric was trimmed 1/2" outside of this border, and the lining fabric was cut the same size. After folding the 1/2" seam allowance back on both pieces, they were stitched together, using small, nearly invisible stitches. The pocket was made simply by folding up the bottom 1/3 and whip-stitching the backstitch borders together on the left and right.

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Pregnancy ticker: 32 weeks, 2 days.
To answer a question from Kathy: No, we still don't know whether BJ ("bundle of joy") is a boy or a girl. A couple of times, I've thought a nurse slipped up (because the answer is in my chart due to an amniocentisis from a few months ago), but then the next will come in and use the opposite pronoun!

Happy Dance: stitching on Blueberry Pocket

Hooray! The stitching is done on Blueberry Pocket by Periwinkle Promises. (Thank you, Katrina, for keeping me honest on the designer! I keep mistakenly attributing the wrong one!)

I mentioned in the last post that I was changing the sentiment on the pocket to "My Stitching Gadgets", but I charted out both this and "My Stitching Tools". Somehow I planned to stitch the former, but only left enough room for the latter. Of course, I started at the end, and had "Stitching Gadgets" all stitched before I realized I didn't have room for "My". As a result, I ended up taking it all out and restitching it. (They say that your brain actually does get temporarily smaller with pregnancy, and I keep proving it!) :-)

I think I like "Tools" better than "Gadgets", anyway!

Today I stitched the border that will be used for finishing it into a pocket. MIL is taking it home to iron it and the backing fabric, and I should be able to finish the assembly in the next few days.

Next up: Tudor Purse, from my EGA seminar class with Chris Berry. DH brought it (and my lap stand in yesterday.

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Pregnancy ticker: 31 weeks, 2 days.
Yesterday, we had a bit of a setback, with some of my complications from last month returning. The good news is that BJ seemed ok through it all (based on heartrate monitoring), and things are getting back to normal (a.k.a. boring :-) ) today.

Happy Dance: Challenge Ornament

Last week, I finally pulled out the instructions for the Challenge Ornament from Gay Ann Rogers.

Step 1: This was a great opportunity to use up some of the threads in my stash. I started with a skein of Watercolours in shades of violet, periwinkle, and olive green, and then pulled other threads to match it. I found some pale gray canvas that worked well with the colors.

I couldn't really figure out how to start with step 2, but knew I wanted to use the variegated Watercolours on the partial scotch stitch in step 3.

After that, it was a little easier to pick colors for the long couched borders for step 2. I used the Watercolours on the outside border, a bright olive green (though it shows up too bright in the picture) Shepherd's Wool for two other borders, and some purples left over from my Mystery in a Corner for the remainder.

The waffle stitch in the center was step 4. I started with silver metallic ribbon, picked up a heavy purple thread from a grab bag purchase, and finished it with some laid Splendor silk in periwinkle. I really like the effect of the multiple colors, and the use of a thicker thread for two rounds gives it a bit of dimension.

Step 5 brought me to some diagonal borders. I continued to use the periwinkle silk, then just a touch more of the brighter green.

For the rest of step 5, I repeated one of the overstitching combinations I used in Mystery in a Corner, with metallic stitches nested inside longer stitches with Impressions. This brought the violet from the inside borders out toward the corners.

I used a bit more of the metallic violet in the smyrna crosses at the center of each side. These anchored the rest of the overstitching on the sides. I added some pale stitches in Impressions from these to just inside the green border, embellishing a bit on Gay Ann's original directions. I finished off steps 6 and 7 with a lightweight olive green thread in a slightly darker tone than used previously.

That finished off the stitching according to the ornament directions, but I thought the corners seemed a bit bare. I added just a bit more overstitching, again with the violet metallic.

Now, the stitching is finished. I'm going to (eventually) finish it into an ornament on point. I think it looks a little more "right" this way.

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On a more personal note: Thank you to all who left such encouraging comments on yesterday's post. All is still well as of today. The pregancy ticker is officially at 28 weeks today (out of a normal term of 40 weeks). We'd like to reach at least 34 weeks to minimize future complications. I'll continue with an update at the end of each blog post. It helps to know so many of you are pulling for me. Thank you.

Happy Dance: Fabulous Finale

This post not only celebrates the completion of Jim Wurth's Fabulous Finale ornament, but the completion of all 12 ornaments in the dodecagon series!This ornament was a lot of fun to stitch, and it was my first opportunity to stitch with the Finca cotton floss and pearl cottons from the Spanish company Presencia. I did find that the pearl cottons had a few slubs, which were far enough apart that a stitcher could just use the length of thread between the slubs without a problem. The floss was just a tiny bit fuzzier than the DMC I often use. A color card for these threads might be useful, for when I'm trying to find colors that just don't come in Anchor or DMC (like the turquoise family I'm using in My Way).

Happy Dance: Peace Tree

So much for switching to Summer Dream. On Wednesday, I received the kit for the last ornament in Jim Wurth's dodecagon series. I was reminded that I had not finished the previous ornament, Peace Tree, though I did work on it a bit a few weeks ago.

Because I'm switching some of the colors on Summer Dream, I decided it required too much thinking for the Thursday evening stitch night at the LNS. Instead, I brought Peace Tree, and finished the remaining beading.

I had hoped that this ornament would grow on me as I stitched it, but that really didn't happen. It's probably enough to say that it's my least favorite of the series, despite the beautiful, challenging crescent stitches done in Flair.

After I finished Peace Tree, I took it off the stretcher bars and reused them for Jim's Fabulous Finale. This ornament is not in my usual colors, but I'm really enjoying it. The proof is in the amazing amount I've stitched since Thursday evening, when I only had part of the border done.

The highlights of this piece are the five large flower-like motifs stitched in the Chilly Hollow stitch. This stitch was invented by the one-and-only Jean Hilton and named by fellow blogger Jane from Chilly Hollow.

A mini happy dance and a new project

Hooray! Less than a week after it was started, I put the last stitches into the heart I stitched for the ANG cancer center outreach. (Doesn't that sound better than the name I almost gave it - Cancer Heart?) This was a fun little project.

I made quite a bit of progress on my Bargello needlecase during class yesterday. This piece doesn't have a set pattern. Instead, the teacher suggested we take each of the Bargello motifs and arrange them as we like. The original pattern used one color of variegated thread and 5 values of a single color family. I found a variegated, but then pulled two color families from it, so I'm having fun with color and motif placement. For those who wanted less of a challenge, a full size picture was provided, with a grid basted through the design so folks could place their motifs in the same place as in the original. I'm going to continue working on this tonight.

Thanks to all of you for the lovely comments in response to my last post. The internet stitching community is such a wonderful group!

Happy Dance: Strawberry Girl

Yes, she's done! Actually, I couldn't put her down Saturday night, and ended up finishing the pulled work on the petticoat at 2AM Sunday morning!

This piece was a lot of fun, but I'm going to wait before starting any of the other girls. I need to finish too many things, plus I've got some pre-work to start for a class with Carolyn Mitchell in November.

On my lap stand now: my project from seminar, Chris Berry's Tudor-Style Purse.

Happy Dance: ScottLee

Yes! It's done! I made one minor adjustment after finishing the waves. I changed the four little triangles (two on each side) that pointed into the middle from navy blue to the medium red. The blue just seemed a little distracting to me.

Here is ScottLee, designed by the amazing Jean Hilton, with some minor tweaks by me. Please click on the picture for a larger view.For any that were wondering, yes, I have offered the pattern to another stitcher. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did.

Anyway, now I get to start Strawberry Girl from Gay Ann Rogers!

Mystery in a Corner - the final picture!

At long last, I've been given the go-ahead to post my completed Mystery in a Corner, designed by Gay Ann Rogers. I actually finished it much earlier this month, but since not everyone had received theirs yet, Gay Ann asked me not to post the picture. Now that some other stitchers have finished and are starting to post their finished pieces online, I'm proud to show off mine!
I chose both corner 1 and side 1. I had already posted about why I chose corner 1. I chose side 1 because I thought the overall design shape more pleasing when I combined this side choice with my chosen corner (as opposed to side 2).

I'm sorry if the picture is a bit dark. I just got a new computer and I haven't tweaked all of the monitor settings yet. I may have darkened the picture too much to compensate for the brightness of the monitor!

With the new computer, hopefully I won't have to deal with the sudden "blue screens" that made dealing with my old laptop such a pain. I hope to start posting more again!

Happy Dance: Old Country

Here is Old Country, the latest in Jim Wurth's Dodecagon series. It's one of my favorites so far! The color palette really reminds me of Eastern European needlework, so the name is perfect. Also, I love the "string art" stitches, invented by Jean Hilton, but used wonderfully in this design. It's impressive that Jim has managed to use multiple large stitches while making them part of a whole instead of "fighting" each other.

This evening I'm working on my piece for a Quaker exchange. Unfortunately, I won't be able to show my work on this until it is received by my exchange partner.