Suzy Q Progress

The first border/band is completed on Suzy Q. It was not difficult, just took awhile! I like the way the brown border brings out the greens. The next border/band has several different large stitches, so may take longer.

Merry Christmas Suzy Q !!

Merry Christmas every one! I hope you are all having a wonderful day full of love & stitchy stuff!

I have been working on another Ro Pace design - Suzy Q. Ro will be teaching this piece at the ANG Seminar in Columbus next year. It is a little smaller and easier than the other Ro Pace projects I have done, but very pretty and fun nonetheless! The canvas is ecru glitter. As usual, I have changed all the colors. Ro's are purples & blues. Mine is a soft green (yes, green! not aqua!) and brown. I just finished the center sections last night. There are still 2 bands around it and some filling work to be done. I think it is coming along nicely.

10,000 Hits

Wow, my Hit Counter just turned 10,000 yesterday! It is hard to believe. Thank you all so much for following my Blog posts!

We are in Reno now and although there was heavy snow a week or so ago, it is nice now. Pretty view out the window with all the snow, but the roads and driveway are clear now! Just right for enjoying the scenery.

I recently got an iPhone and it is so cool. But this morning I got the new app, Suzy's Portable Stitches. Now that is waaaaaaaay cool! So now I will have stitch reference wherever I go! If you want it, search on needlework in the app store.

I'll be working on things for my website, plus I have 2 new projects to start. Maybe I'll get far enough along to have pictures for you in a few days.

Travelling without Sweet Pea

The Holidays are beginning. Tomorrow DH and I are heading to Reno for 2 weeks, and then several days in Phoenix before we return to Las Vegas. We will be gone almost 3 weeks. Sweet Pea will be visiting friends during that time. My friend has 5 cats of her own, so Sweet Pea is in for a big adventure! I am going to miss her.








I'm packing up a bunch of projects to work on, including new patterns to get ready for sale. My new website has a tentative opening date of Feb 1 and I want to have several new patterns available by then. So this will be a "working" vacation for me. Of course "working" is kind of a misnomer since I love what I do!

M is for Mom

This mini-pillow is a Christmas gift for my Mom. She doesn't use a computer, so she won't see it here! I actually did the cross stitch a couple of years ago and never did anything with it. I found this little prefinished pillow at my LNS and just blind stitched the cross stitch onto it. Easy finish! I hope Mom likes it.

Stitch-of-the-Month Finished

Finished at last! Tony Minieri's Stitch-of-the-Month 2009 for ANG is complete. I changed the background pattern as I didn't care for Tony's. Mine is a smaller pattern thougn and took quite awhile to stitch using just 1 strand of Needle Necessities overdyed floss #120. This was a fun project. Even though it stretched over a year, it was usually only a few hours each month. I would definitely do another Stitch of the Month project.

Exploding Diamonds, Framed

I just picked Exploding Diamonds up at the frame shop. I am really pleased with the way this turned out. The inside mat doesn't photograph well as it is a metallic copper and reflects too much. But I love the piece & I was so excited when we found this frame molding that is just perfect!

12 Days of Christmas FINISHED

It's finished! The 12 Days of Christmas bargello is done. I finished it Friday night after spending several days trying to decide how to do the center. I did lot's of doodle stitching before I settled on this waffle variation. Since it is in FyreWerks Soft Sheen, it didn't photograph too well - too much reflection. I will get a better picture for the title page when it is offered for sale. That won't be till after I get my website up, but it is too late now for another xmas design anyway!

Here is a detail of the center. I put this on the scanner, but it is too big too get it all. The metallic shows up better here.

Double Up Progress Report #7

OK, back to Double Up. I have been slowly but surely trudging away at the background of the 4 triangles. Yesterday I finished them! They look great but were sure slow to stitch. Hopefully, now I can whiz (LOL) through the remaining sections.

12 Days of Christmas Progress #2

Finally, an update on 12 Days of Christmas! I have been working on it as you can see. If you remember, I started with the longest red row, then I worked out to the edge, finishing up there with the dark green in long stitches. Then I did the gold row and got a start on the next red row. It is coming along nicely. The photo is a tad blurry, but the colors look good.
Answer: Yes, I do plan to sell this pattern eventually.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. We all have something to be thankful for, some of us have a lot to be thankful for. So enjoy this day, don't eat too much and try to get some stitching done!

I had hoped to have something to show you today, but didn't quite make it. I've been working on my 12 Days of Christmas bargello as well as on Double Up. Maybe I'll get enough stitching done today to post a picture tomorrow or Saturday.

BARGELLO CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

Here is the third design I am offering for sale, and still in time for Christmas!

The Bargello Christmas Ornaments are Beginner level Bargello designs.
The pattern includes complete instructions and full-color charts.
The finished sizes for these ornaments on 18-count canvas are: Bell 3-7/8" x 3-7/8", Drum 3-1/8" x 3-3/8", Stocking 4-1/8" x 3-5/8".

This pattern is available as a .pdf download or printed & mailed.
Please email me for pricing and ordering information at lizboatay@hotmail.com

12 Days of Christmas Progress #1

Time goes by so quickly, I can't believe it has been a week since my last post. I have been working on a new bargello design, "12 Days of Christmas". The first row is complete all the way around, in bright red Neon Rays. It required very careful counting & double checking, as well as careful handling of that slippery thread!
I started the next 3 rows just to see how it would look. It's good, so I'll go back now & finish them. The greens are Silk & Ivory. The canvas is very dark green. The colors didn't come out very accurate & the Neon Rays is so shiny that it just looks blurry. I'll see if I can get a better picture next time.

Double Up Progress Report #6

I've been working on Double Up, slowly but surely. I have finished all the Shrimpies (otherwise known as Crescents)and the Spratts Head & Waffle variations in the Triangles. So the Triangles are done except for the background T-Stitches. I'll work on that next. I find this piece difficult to work on at night because it is on Congress Cloth, and I don't always get a chance to stitch in the daytime! Once I get the Triangles done, it should go pretty fast.

White Orchid Progress #3

I've been working on the bargello background for the White Orchid. It is half finished. It goes fairly quickly once the pattern row is established. It is all Silk & Ivory. (The "spot" on the lower right isn't a spot, it is a little piece of sticky-backed suede that I use like a thimble.)

SOTM Section 10

It is Stitch of the Month time again. I completed Section 10 relatively quickly, in just a couple of afternoons. The first layer was a bit tricky to compensate and required careful counting, but the other 3 layers were quick & easy. So now all we have left for December is the background. I may go in and add some outlining, I haven't decided yet.



Sorry I haven't been posting regularly! It has been very busy around here and that won't change till after the holidays. November is the month of company and then we will be going to Reno for Christmas.

I have been to several stitching events. On Halloween a small group of local stitchers went to the Springs Preserve and stitched in the restaurant most of the day. It was a pleasant day and we had a great lunch there. It is a Wolfgang Puck restaurant! Springs Preserve is a museum type place on the site of the original springs around which grew Las Vegas. If you come here for a visit, I recommend it. There are guided walks, displays, gardens, etc. And the gift shop is pretty good too!

CHRISTMAS REINDEER

Here is the second design I am offering for sale.
Christmas Reindeer is a Beginner level counted design suitable for needlepoint or cross stitch. The pattern includes complete instructions and full-color charts as well as a chart with symbols.
The finished project on 18-count canvas, with an inch of background added all around, is 7" x 8-3/4". The stitch count for the design area is 91w x 123h.
This pattern is available as a .pdf download or printed & mailed. Please email me for pricing and ordering information at lizboatay@hotmail.com

White Orchid Progress #2

I finished the White Orchid last night. So far this piece is coming along nicely. I didn't have to rip anymore! Now on to the bargello background. I hope to get that started tonight. I have not yet settled on the background colors. I have two families of Silk & Ivory that I have to choose from. One is pinker than the other.

I think it is interesting that every time I do a scan of this piece, the colors are different. Next time I'll have to go to the camera as it will become too large for the scanner. I wonder if it will be yet another color! The canvas is actually Eggshell, not blue or pink. The sort of center of the flower is a medium purple shade, not pink.

Happy Halloween

She's gonna get you!
I couldn't resist sharing this Halloween Kitty pic with you!
For once, I don't want the Red Eye out!

White Orchid Progress

I have made progress on the White Orchid. I did have to rip out the Kreinik & orchid colored floss as I had them backwards! But I got that fixed and got quite a bit more done.

The White Orchid is the 2nd in a series of three. The first, Vanilla Orchid, you can see by searching this blog on "Vanilla Orchid". The next one will be a "black" orchid. All 3 have a Bargello background. They are all the same, except for the colors. Once all 3 color ways are finished, I will be offering this design for sale. I had hoped to have it ready by the end of the year, but it may be a few months longer!

White Orchid

This past Sunday was the annual Stitcher's Retreat here in Las Vegas. I went last year for the first time, so was an "old hand" this year. It is just a fun day. About 30-40 stitchers having a lovely day stitching, chatting, lunching, show & tell, door prizes. All in all, a terrific time.

I started on my next Orchid, the white one, to work on at Retreat. The shading is quite subtle and won't show up too well till the background goes in so there will be some contrast. The canvas is Eggshell. I had planned to use a light pink canvas, but I didn't have a big enough piece. It is coming along well and goes fairly quickly considering it is all Basketweave.

Double Up Progress Report #5

I've started working on Double Up again, inspired by the progress of Stitchlady. She is waaaaaay ahead of me! Anyway, I have completed the center square and did several of the Jessicas in the outer triangle. I did 4 and there are 14 to go. Yikes!

Spring, Four Way 4-way, Finished

Yea! The Four Way 4-way, Spring, is finished. The very center of the piece is worked in the overdye and the stitch is "Not a Walneto" stitch. The Walneto stitch count fit the area, but I did it without the overs & unders, so it looks nothing like a Walneto! then I decided that I didn't want anything fancy in the centers of the quarters so just filled in with the bright turquoise. One more Four Way 4-way to do.

New Stuff

Yesterday I went to my LNS. Although I was not looking for patterns, I found this darling Charley Harper pattern. It just jumped right into my arms! I love Charley Harper's designs and had not seen this one before. It would be really fun to stitch with a variety of threads & stitches.

What I really went shopping for was materials for my next Bargello - Twelve Days of Christmas. The canvas is a really dark green, which didn't photograph well laying on a white table! I won't use all of these threads, but I couldn't decide on the darkest green so I got several different things to try.

Exploding Diamonds Finished

Hurray! It's finished! I just put the last stitch in about 10 minutes ago. Now I'll have to figure out how I want it framed. I'm thinking of multiple mats with little cut outs to mimic the pattern. In the meantime, back to Bargello....

Exploding Diamonds, Progress #4

I got tired of working on the bargello piece all the time, so dug out Exploding Diamonds for a day or two. Made good progress, just need to finish the rest of the border!

Jan asked "How did you come up with it? What inspired it?"
I'll try to answer. It all started with a picture of a 1920s evening bag that I found. First I made a design of concentric diamonds, but while it was nice, it didn't make me want to stitch it. Then I took the center small diamond and tried putting a bunch of them together, elongating some and separating them. A nice design, but still not quite "it". Finally I repeated the small diamond nine times, added border stitches, then thought it would be fun if some of the elements of each diamond were separated & "getting away", so I moved a square here & there into the spaces between the diamonds. Eventually it turned into Exploding Diamonds, which is almost finished!

I don't know if that answers your questions, Jan, but it is the best I can do!

Sweet Pea in her Las Vegas Home

I don't have any stitching to show you today, although I have done some it just isn't enough progress to mention. So I'm showing you Sweet Pea in her new Las Vegas home. She is settling in really well. Today she discovered a "decorative pot" that proabably has a dead bug in it. Must investigate! Cats are such fun!

Four Way 4-way Bargello "Spring" Progress #3

Thanks to all of you for your anniversary wishes. It was a busy day!

Back to work on the Spring Bargello. I decided to do one row all around in the bright turquoise, and then started filling in the "diamonds" between the 4 sections. I only completed one, but I think you get the idea! I think I will fill in the outer edges all in the turquoise. Then will be the fun of figuring out what to do for the centers.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog. What a fast year! I can't believe it has been that long already. I do so enjoy being a Blogger and I am very thankful for the wonderful Blog Buddies I now have.

To celebrate this auspicious occasion, today begins the start of e-commerce for me. I am selling my designs! Just one to start, but more will follow, at least one per month, sometimes more often.

This first design is Bargello Sampler. It is a beginning Bargello piece, no miters, basic patterns, but there is compensation. The pattern includes complete instructions and full-color charts. The finished project on 18-count canvas is 10-7.8" x 8-1/8". It is available as a .pdf download or printed & mailed. Please email me for pricing and ordering information.
lizboatay@hotmail.com

I don't know if it'll be up by the time you read this, but I will be adding a slide show and text about the patterns that are for sale.

Thanks to all of you for making my blog a success!

Barbara's Ravine

Barbara's Ravine was inspired by a photo my sister-in-law took of wildflowers in a ravine near her home. This was so much fun to stitch! I drew out the main areas from the photo and then filled in with a variety of bargello stitches. I don't remember what thread I used for this, but it is all wool. The pattern was in Needlepoint Now, March/April 2008.

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of this Blog! Be sure to check back tomorrow to see what I have for you!

Four Way 4-way Bargello, "Spring" Progress #2

Last night I finished up the overdyes and the Silk & Ivory. Now for the fun part! I will start filling in between the 4 motifs. I haven't decided yet on the color arrangement for that part. Stay tuned!

DeGrazia's Merry Little Rider

This is such a cute piece, I thought you'd enjoy seeing it. I stitched this a year or two ago for my sister-in-law. It was from a cross stitch chart, but I did it in needlepoint (natch!). The canvas is an 18-count overdye, kind of marbled. I used a variety of stitches and threads. The most fun was the mane & tail which are in a Watercolors overdye and I stitched them in sort of a cross between Long & Short and an Encroaching Gobelin. I love the way it turned out. I added some real feathers and tassels to finish it off.

SOTM Section 9

October's Stitch of the Month is finished. Not too much more and this piece will be complete. This month's stitch is quite pretty and easy enough to do. Four layers, but goes quickly.

Four Way 4-way Bargello "Spring"

Back to work! I have been working on another Four Way 4-way. I'm calling this one "Spring". It doesn't show very well in the photo, but the "outline" of each section is a Fyre Werks Soft Sheen, kind of a pale lime green. I almost finished the overdye rows last night.
This month's SOTM is out, so I'll work on that tonight.

Vacation Goodies

These are the 2 patterns I bought in Victoria, BC, at the Button & Needlework Boutique. You can visit this shop at www.buttonedup.com to see how nice it is and even order online.
The first pattern is by Sue Coleman of the Stitching Studio and is a darling pattern of a seal and her pup with a NW Indian design in the background. This piece was worked up and displayed as a model in the shop. It is so cute & couldn't resist it!
The other is a booklet containing 3 charted NW Indian designs. These would stitch up beautifully. Maybe I'll try to put them all in one long piece? If I live long enough!

Tomorrow we drive to Las Vegas. I hope I have remembered all the stitching things I will need there this winter! If not, the LNS is a good one!

Vacation & BMW

We are back in Reno, vacation is over. It was very beautiful everywhere we went, but I am glad to be home. Lots to do in the next couple of days and then we will be driving to Las Vegas where I will stay all winter.

I have a lot of things coming up to tell you about, but for now let's finish up the "needlepoint for DH". This piece I adapted from a coffee mug we bought. We have a BMW K1200 motorcycle so DH likes me to do motorcycle things. This one I liked too because it is so very stylized. It is stitched all in floss on 18-count and is all Basketweave except for the backstitching in the background.

Vacation & Waterskier

Here we are in Hope, British Columbia. We left Victoria around noon. Victoria was lovely and I even found a charming little needlework shop. Mostly knitting & cross stitch, I bought a couple of patterns. I can't show them to you till I get home because I don't have a scanner. We took ferries to and from Victoria which was really cool! Tomorrow we head to Banff, but I think we will take 2 days to get there. Internet connections have been unreliable, so I may not be able to post again till we get home.

My husband says I should show you the pieces I have made for him. So here is the Waterskier. I started with an ad in Waterski magazine for the waterskier himself, and also referred to some photos of DH. I used some rayon ribbon for the water which worked well but was hard to handle. I don't remember what thread I used for the spray!

Vacation & Blackwork Dancer

Just a quick note to let you know I won't be posting for another week or so. We are on vacation, driving up the Coast. We are in Oregon now, heading to Washington tomorrow. Then to Vancouver and East through the Canadian Rockies to Lake Louise & Banff. Then back to Reno for a couple of days and then to Las Vegas for the winter.

In the meantime, here is my Blackwork Dancer. She is adapted from a circus poster of an acrobat. Turned her upside down and she became a dancer. I did this about 20 years ago. At that time there were no circular blackwork patterns so I had to invent them. I had a good time with it and she won a ribbon in a needlework exhibit in San Diego.

Exploded Diamonds, Progress #3

Here is a progress report on Exploded Diamonds. I have been working on it this week and it is now 2/3 done! I'm thinking of changing the name to Exploding Diamonds, any comments or suggestions? I probably won't get back to it for awhile as we are going on vacation, leaving Fri. I will try to post a few times while we are gone. We are driving up the coast to Vancouver and then across Canada to Banff.

Mindy Music

First, I want to thank all of you who commented on my previous post. Your kind words and encouragement is sooooo appreciated!

Now, back to the Music Room! I stitched this Mindy design a couple of years ago for my husband for Christmas. I am not usually a painted canvas person, but I couldn't resist this one with a musical theme. My husband plays guitar, saxophone and is learning piano and I play piano. I used only floss, pearl cotton & Krenik braid for threads, but used a huge variety of stitches which is not always easy on a Mindy canvas! Stitches used: Basketweave, Brick, Criss Cross Hungarian, Diagonal Mosaic, Mosaic, Nobuko, Oblong Cross variations, Rhodes, Rice, Scotch, Slanted Gobelin, Triangle variation, and a couple of others I don't remember what they are!

Needlepoint Now Sep/Oct Issue

The new issue of Needlepoint Now has been mailed. I have received mine, if you haven't received yours it should arrive soon.

In case there are any of you out there who were waiting for the last installment of my Bargello series, it isn't there and it won't be. The editor of Needlepoint Now decided that it is "too hard of a concept to print only" and did not run it. She feels it needs to be a class, not just written instruction. I do not agree, but it is her magazine.

I hope that sometime in the next year or two I will be able to put together even more Bargello techniques, including the missing chapter, into an online class. I will keep you posted here.

Art Deco Dancers

Art Deco Dancers is a design I adapted from a decal. I think the decals are put out by a company that makes shoes for ballroom dancers and we have one on each of our cars. I got the decals at a store in San Diego. I added the Art Deco border design which I adapted from a design in an Art Deco coloring book. The dancers are stitched completely in a black metallic (I think I used a thread called Moonlight which is no longer made). There is some silver metallic in the border. All the rest is DMC floss. This piece and the previous one, Goeckel's Dancers, hang in our Music Room in Reno, along with a couple of other music & dance related pieces that I will be showing you in the next few days.

Goeckel's Dancers

Since my husband and I are ballroom dancers, I am always on the lookout for dancers to stitch. There are very few interesting commercial designs so I have done a couple of my own. I stitched this piece several years ago. It is adapted from a Goeckel print. It was fun to figure out! I did not want to use a lot of decorative stitches as I thought it would take away from the design, so it is all Basketweave except for the brightly colored rectangles and the Backstitched lines of the background. It is mostly floss but I did use 3 different metallics (Kreinik).

Evening Bag

I stitched this evening bag a year or two ago and just love it. It is one of those where you zip off the flap, stitch the painted needlepoint design, sew the lining flap on, zip it back on and go! It came with the tassel. I stitched it entirely in metallics and added the turquoise colored beads. For the life of me I can't remember what company makes these. I got it at my LNS in Reno and there are a lot of really pretty designs. There is another one in the store now that I'm kinda lusting after!

Added Tues: Yes, it is from Sophia Designs. Thank you, Front Range Stitches!

SOTM Section 8

I just realized "Section 8", boy is that appropriate! I finished this section of the Stitch of the Month around noon today. I had a lot of problems with it, all of my own making! I think it looks nice now, but whew! Shortly after beginning the right side (the left side was easy), I discovered I had made a bad counting error when I did Section 6, which then resulted in Section 7 being wrong. After some deliberation, I decided the only sensible thing to do was to re-design this part. So, I redrew and recharted the curves so they fit the "wrong" sections. Boy of boy! When I stitched Section 6, I thought about not doing the two pieces to the right of the center band until I had something else in to count from. That would have been a really good idea! Oh well, it is finished now and looks OK. Deep breath, back to my Masters project.

Dolphin Daze

I'm back to work on my MNA piece and getting more & more frustrated by it! I am also working on this month's SOTM so will have a pic of that later this week. In the meantime, this is a piece I stitched 20 years ago, or so, and I still love it. I drew the dolphin one night as I was watching a TV show about dolphins and somewhere along the way I thought it would be fun to put him on a background of changing patterns. Most of the patterns came from books, but I put them together in such a way that they sort of blend together, plus I messed with the shading. The dolphin is stitched in wool and all the rest is floss.

Four Way 4-way 2

The second model for my Four Way 4-way class is done. It sure is nothing like the first one! I think this class will be great because there are so many variations possible with this technique. I will be doing some additional models over the next few months. Keep your fingers crossed that I can find an on-line outlet for this class!