In The Garden FINISHED

In The Garden is finished.  Kitty now has a Bargello garden to play in and even a couple of flowers.  All of the background except the flowers is stitched in Watercolours.  The flowers are in Neon Rays.  Kitty even has whiskers!  I will be adding this pattern to my website later this year.

SEASONS Finished Pillow

Seasons is completely finished now.  I sent it to Leigh Shafer for finishing into a pillow.  I think the rust fabric & dark brown welting works perfectly!  Leigh did a great job on the finishing and it goes well in my living room!

Calico Cat FINISHED

Calico Cat by Dede Ogden is finished!  I finally took out the "floor" I had done before and redid it.  I think it looks more like a floor now, instead of a wall. 

I worried over the background for weeks and finally came up with this one.  I wanted little Christmas Trees, but anything that really looked like a tree was too big.  I think the green in the background should have been more muted, but it's OK and we're sticking with it!  Actually, it is the same thread I used for the wreath, but in the wreath it appears more faded.  That's what I get for scanning instead of using the camera.  But it'll do for now.

Eventually this will be made into an easel back stand up. I have one more of these little cats to do first, then both will be finished together, with the same backing & trims.

Stars For A New Millenium, Progress #3

I worked on Stars all day yesterday and finished Vivien Leigh!  I think she is as pretty as her namesake!  The center turned out so pretty with a base of Flair topped with a wool twisted cross thingy.  Every square, I think something isn't going to work and it always does!  I guess that is why this project has had such a long run!  Tony must be very proud of this design.


I also got started on the Sashing, choosing a darker shade than I thought I would.  I tried a couple of things & settled on this one.  Here is the whole thing to date:

Be sure to check out Jan's version as we are working this together, well as together as you can be over 500 miles apart!  I think Jan is actually way ahead of me but we take pictures as we go so we can post at the same time.

Beginning the Garden

In the Garden is beginning to have a garden now.  So far I have used 3 different Watercolours and have 3 more waiting in the wings.  The Bargello part goes very quickly, although I do have to be careful to compensate correctly around the kitty.  I don't want the background to overpower the cat.

Malachite Maze, Progress #3

I have worked on Malachite Maze the last week or so and mostly completed the top corner.  I like the way Laura Perin uses thread weight to create opaque & transparent areas. For the light areas, we use 2 strands of floss and Waterlilies or Wildflowers.  For the heavy areas, we use 4 strands of floss and Watercolours.  The dark "line" is Pearl Cotton and will eventually make a square which separates the light & heavy areas.  I like the look of this piece! 

There's a CAT in the Garden!

Yup!  There's a cat In the Garden, isn't she pretty?  I just finished her last night.  This kitty is stitched all in Petite Very Velvet, except for the Black in the eyes (Neon Rays), and the blue eyes which are all in Kreinik.  I finally found the off white PVV that I wanted & replaced the Rainbow Tweed I had started with.  The PVV is much better.  You can't tell in the photo, but there are actually 3 shades of blue in the eyes.  I love them all sparkly!  The color in the photo isn't quite right; in order to get the brown dark enough, the off white is too dark & the whole thing is too orangey.  The Canvas is Sage.  (Yes, I noticed the cat hair on the cat's face & it has now been removed!)
Now I can start on the Garden part!

SOTM 2011, July

I love Sprat's Heads, don't you?  Quick & easy to stitch and always look cool!  My July SOTM is stitched with Rust Wildflowers 173 and Green Pebbly Pearl P65.

In the Garden

In the Garden?  Yes!  Who or what do you think will be "In the Garden"?

I have just begun this new design which I hope to be able to offer on my website later this year. 

So far all except the off-white is Petite Very Velvet.  The off-white is Rainbow Tweed because I couldn't get the color I wanted in PVV.  It is coming along nicely and goes very quickly considering this part is all Basketweave!

I hope to have another report on this soon.