Sierra, Progress

Since I can't work on my Bargello till my yarn order arrives, I have been working on Sierra. It is a pretty little piece and fun to stitch. I am nearly half finished. I'd be a little further, but discovered an error in the pattern and have to rip some out. Nuts! I hate when that happens!

Interactive Ribbons Bargello, Progress report #3

Background is half finished! I love this piece! But I've run out of Silk & Ivory and have to wait for my order to arrive or go to my LNS. Or both! Top picture shows vertical stitches, bottom one is horizontal. I am stitching it vertical, but I think it will be framed horizontal as that seems to have the most movement. What do you think?

Interactive Ribbons Bargello, Progress report #2

The background is all the dark teal Silk & Ivory called "Mallard" with a few rows of an overdyed Watercolour. I love how this is turning out. I made an interesting discovery. When the piece is turned 90 degrees, it looks way different, with more movement. Can you see the difference? I think it is because one way the stitches are vertical and the other way they are horizontal. Cool, huh?

Interactive Ribbons Bargello, Progress report

The main design area of the Interactive Ribbons is finished. I forgot to take a photo before starting the background, so I put it into Photoshop and blocked it out. Tomorrow I'll show you what it looks like with some of the background worked! I love this piece! I am having such a blast stitching it! The new Kreinik Holographic Ribbon looks fantastic.

Double Up Framed

I thought you would like to see my Double Up all framed & gorgeous. The frame that we originally picked out didn't work out: When the ordered molding arrived, it was a different color! The sample had a pinkish cast, but when it came in the actually molding was real yellow. So we had to pick out something else. It was a little easier because the piece was already matted. Now I'm glad the original frame didn't work out. I think this one is just perfect!

4-Way Butterflies Bargello, Final & Finished

And here it is in all it's final glory! The Bargello background uses a Watercolor plus 2 Silk & Ivory colors from the overdye. I had originally planned to use a Hilton stitch, maybe layered Crescents or something, for the center, but I decided that would be too prominent and I didn't want that. So I settled for sort of Bargello diamond with a cross stitch at the very center. I really like the way it turned out.
Here is the framed piece:

4-Way Butterflies Bargello, Step 3

It took months and months, but finally the butterflies are finished. They are stitched with 2 colors of Waterlilies plus Kreinik Blending Filament in coordinating colors. As I'm sure you are aware, using Blending Filament with several strands of silk is not the most fun you've ever had, but I like the randomness of the result. I did not want a metallic showing on every stitch and did not want to "work" at achieving that effect by going over it later with the Blending Filament. So, I struggled with it all in the needle at once. I manipulated the overdyes just slightly to get lighter & darker areas and used mostly Tent and Slanted Gobelin stitches. The butterflies could also be done all the same color, or in several colors, lots of possibilities. I chose these 2 colors to coordinate with my friend's home.

4-Way Butterflies Bargello, Step 2

Stitching the outlines of all 4 butterflies, in Tent stitch, was quite a challenge and I messed up several times & had to rip out an entire butterfly, twice! The Kreinik #12 Braid worked really well and I'm glad I chose it for the bodies & outlining. Next up will be to fill in the wings.

4-Way Butterflies Bargello

I have been working on a design I call 4-Way Butterflies for nearly 6 months. It was to be a Christmas gift for LAST Christmas! I told the receipient I was stitching something for her for Christmas, but not to hold her breath till she got it! Well, it was handed over to her last weekend, so now I can tell you about it. I will post it over several days, as though I were just starting it.


This design has 4 butterflies in the center, symmetrically placed, and will have a Bargello background. I have the butterflies all charted out, but have no idea what the Bargello will be! I will turn my canvas 1/4 turn for each butterfly so that the stitches of each butterfly will "point" to a corner. This is what it looks like with just the little bodies stitched. Doesn't look like much does it?
The bodies and outlining will all be in Kreinik #12 Braid, black #005. Tomorrow I'll show you what it looks like with all the outlining completed.

Queen Anne's Lace Progress #6

I have been working on Queen Anne's Lace quite a bit this week. I am determined to finish it! As you can see, I've made some serious progress. I replaced the rust colored Neon Rays that couched the center cross Jessicas and the outside corner Jessicas with an aqua Fyre Werks and I like that much better. I just have to finish the rust Leviathan variations on all 4 sides; this is not the stitch that was intended for this area. There are supposed to be some more Jessicas outside of that, but I have decided to omit them. Next I will add beads, probably, in the rectangular Jessicas in the center diamond. There is still some background to do inside the big square, but I haven't decided what I want to do, or what thread to use! But I'm pleased that I'm so close! Oh yeah, I still have 2 Crescents to do. I'll get the thread for that on Saturday.

Just a reminder of what Ro's original looks like:

Interactive Ribbons Bargello

This weekend I started on a new project. It is a Bargello using Kreinik's new Holographic Ribbon for the turquoise strip down the centers of the ribbons. The ribbon is really pretty, especially when under a strong light. I am trying the 1/8" ribbon, but it is a bit heavy for 18-count. I will try the 1/16" ribbon next. The 2 greens are Silk & Ivory.
This design starts with the interlaced wavy ribbons, but will change when I get the center finished. I have run out of the ribbon, so won't be doing anymore for a few days!

Queen Anne's Lace Progress #5

Queen Anne's Lace is coming along. I completed the corners this week. It's finally coming together. Next I will take out the rust colored ribbon down & across the center and change it to an aqua FyreWerks. I will also use the FyreWerks to "tie down" the aqua Jessica's in the corners. Next will be to work the side sections between the corners. I'd like to finish this by May 15.

Boink & Ringing in the New Year FRAMED

This week I picked up two pieces from the framer: BOINK and Ringing in the New Year.


Ringing in the New Year was Karen Anthony's design for the ANG Cyberchapter January meeting. I am really glad we decided to go with a simple dark red frame and no mat. I will be giving this to my Mom for Xmas this year.






Boink is the Book of Ink Circles mystery piece that I completed last year. I am really pleased with the framing, I was not sure they could get the mat to fit as perfectly as they did.

New Patterns

Finally! I have added 3 new patterns to my website. These designs are now available for sale: Touch of Cat, A Unicorn Was Here, and Petite Bargello. The Cat and the Unicorn work for both needlepoint and cross stitch. Petite Bargello gives two colorways. Please take a look!

Sedona Weekend

A friend & I drove to Sedona AZ, this past weekend. It was a great trip! The weather was perfect, sunny but cool. My pics aren't the greatest, but you'll get the idea! These first ones I took from the patio in front of our hotel room! The view was just awesome. It was in West Sedona, just a short drive from all the shopping & galleries in Sedona. We spent as much time as possible in the Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village which is a kind of shopping center of galleries, restaurants, and lovely little shops. We also shopped a bit on the main road through Sedona.



These next 3 pics I took from the Verde Canyon Railroad. We took the 4-hour train ride and it was really fun. The train travels through the beautiful No. AZ back country along the Verde River. It is an awesome journey with stunning scenery, some of the wildflowers and cactus were blooming. Eagles nest in the canyon and we saw one of their abandoned nests but I couldn't spot this year's nesting place. We did see 2 of the eagles soaring above the cliffs, and a Great Blue Heron in the river.

We want to go back!