Tuesday, February 26, 2013

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.


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Bargello Crackers 1 & 2

Crackers are not just for Christmas!
I have completed two Bargellos which are destined to become Crackers.

#1 is a Spring Cracker and #2 is a Christmas Cracker.
I used Silk & Ivory, Watercolours and FyreWerks.

These stitch up so fast!  Now, off they go to the finisher!



Sunday, February 17, 2013

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.

Monday, February 11, 2013

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!!!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

2012 SOTM Finished!

FINALLY!!!!  The 2012 SOTM is finished.
I am very pleased with the background, which I designed myself, but I still don't care much for the heart.

Why did I bother?  I don't know...  I guess there is a flaw in my makeup that requires me to finish what I start.  Eventually.

What will I do with it?  No idea.  It'll go in the closet with the rest of my finished projects that I don't know what to do with! 

We are truly & thoroughly addicted!

Monday, February 4, 2013

2012 SOTM Background

This weekend I worked a lot on the background for SOTM 2012 during our Lord of the Rings marathon.  We watched all 3 of the "extended" DVDs and they are each really long.  So I got in lots of stitching time!
I darkened the detail photo so you could better see the pattern.

The Background is coming along nicely and I expect to finish it this week. 

Here's what the whole piece looks like now.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Bloomin' Bargello is Finished

Bloomin' Bargello is finished!  Yay, my first finish of 2013.
I like this one much better than the "New Bargello" which was the first one I stitched of this design.  Next I will do one that is an analagous color scheme.  But it may be awhile before I get started on that.