Illusions & Menagerie FRAMED

I finally had a couple of things framed.

 

Here is Illusions by Ro Pace.  This turned out better than I expected.  We had the mats & frame all picked out and then they told me the cost.  Whew!  Back to the drawing board & picked a simple ordinary mat, but with the same frame.  Done.  I picked it up yesterday and I think it looks great!  This piece will go in our guest room with all the other "blue" things.

And here is Menagerie.

This was CyberPointers' year long project for 2012.

I'm only a little behind (ahem!).

This technique sampler was fun to figure out & stitch, but I'm not sure I really like it.  I think my colors are too much the same value and the background overwhelms.

Oh well, we learn by doing, they say!

Illusions FINISHED

Illusions by Ro Pace is finished at last.  Because my colors are dark & there's a lot of contrast between threads & canvas, I decided to fill in lots of the open canvas with 4-way Continental using one strand of floss. 

I also added some tiny Crescents around the Double Fans which really helped to eliminate the large blank areas. That section was also "off" on my piece, due to a counting error, and so I added an extra row of the braid, which hardly shows cause the outlining long stitch nearly covers it.

Finally, I added a row of Outline Stitch, with one strand of floss, all the way around to square off the inner edge of the border. 

Ta Da!  Finished!

THIS & THAT

I have nothing to show you, but wanted to check in anyway.

I've been working on Illusions, but haven't made enough visible progress for a post; perhaps by next week!  I plan to stop at Michael's tomorrow and look at beads & jewels.

I've also started the prework for Walk the Wild River by Linda Reinmiller.  This is the next Cyberpointer's workshop which starts in a couple of weeks.  The prework is extensive, so I wanted to get a good start on it.  I'm glad I did, it is kinda slow going.  I know that I'll be glad to have it done though!

I'm also working on two "secret" projects that I won't be able to show you till next month.

I'll post again as soon as I have something to show.

Illusions, Progress #4

Illusions is complete except for the extras that I am doing.  You can see on the left side that I have started filling in the open spaces with 4-way Continental.  It looks nice, but it is very slow going (1 strand of floss).  I have left 2 rows of blank canvas between the border & the inside, for now.  I can add it later if needed.  I have about half of the outlining done and ran out of thread.  I'll probably pick some up on Saturday. I don't think it shows up very well in the photo though.  I may add some jewels or beads.


Illusions, Progress #3

As you can see, I have made a lot of progress on Illusions since last week.  I really want to get this finished! 

You can see that I completed the "cubes" that almost appear to be shooting out. There are 3 more cubes to do, but they use different stitches.  I'm hoping to at least get those done this week.  Then there are the Crescents in the corners and the 2 blank triangular areas that show top & bottom.  I also need to outline most of the areas.  That was supposed to be done first, but I just basted instead.  Then I will have to decide if I want to fill in the largest open areas and with what!

In case you didn't know, this piece is designed to be worked entirely in Pearl Cotton, but I added some metallics.

Illusions, Progress #2

Next up to get finished is Illusions by Ro Pace.  You last saw this piece in July of last year!  I was piloting this piece along with several other stitchers here in Las Vegas.  We managed to get one quarter finished before Ro was to teach it at Seminar2012.  Since then I have only worked on it a time or two.
This past week I completed the border, which goes pretty fast once you get in the rhythm.  Next I will be working the various sections.  I will work a particular section in each quarter before moving on to the next section.  I had already completed the center "cross" and the squares in its corners.
Yesterday I did the diamond shapes that are kind of the points of the center cross.  Now I see that the diamond I had done in the first quarter is located one thread off from the other 3.  Although that one is the correct one, I will change that one to match the others.  Rather take out one than 3!!!

Illusions by Ro Pace

Ro Pace will be teaching "Illusions" at the ANG Seminar this year in Philadelphia.  I am one of her pilot stitchers. 
The picture to the right is Ro's version.  All of the pilot group have chosen other color schemes, but this is the one she will be using at Seminar.

I am using a blue & green.  Below is my progress to date.  I have just about completed one quarter.  I want to finish this section of border, I have another couple of rows to do, and then I can calculate my thread useage for Ro.
This is a pretty, delicate project.