Friday, June 26, 2015

Purrfect Spring, May & June

Purrfect Spring got lots of stitching for May & June.  
For May I stitched all of the sky - acres of basketweave in wool..  
For June I did the flowers & grass outside the window.  The flowers are little French knots in pearl cotton and the grass is my version of a slanted, encroaching gobelin with just 2 strands of floss in 2 colors of green. 
Now I have to hope for clues that I can make work for the window frame, the other 2 cats and the ledge & wall they are sitting on.
What are these cats looking at anyway?!.  If they're anything like my cats, they once saw a bird or squirrel out there and are hopeful forevermore.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

My Studio

Finally, my studio is more or less finished.  There's still some organizing to do, such as arranging books properly and organizing the credenza, but at least there's now a place for everything!  The canvas rolls on top of the chest under the big window will be sold.  The canvas rolls I will be using are IN the chest!
This room was intended to be the living room when the house was built, but we use the family room and so this room became my Studio/office.  It is very large, but no closet, so I had to come up with lots of storage solutions.  I think it's working now!
I have 4 DMC cabinets & they hold all of my DMC floss.
I have 3 white cabinets that hold most of the rest of my threads.  These cabinets are by Chandler Creations and are intended for the scrapbooking market.  The 1" drawers are perfect for Kreinik spools and the 3.5" drawers are just right for Rainbow Gallery cards.  There are also 2" drawers.  I have all 3 sizes.  They can be mixed & matched between the cabinets, so it is pretty easy to get the configuration you need.

Friday, June 19, 2015

Bees for Denise

We have a friend who is a beekeeper.  She helped us sooooo much during our several moves, packing & unpacking, so I made her a tray.  I was finally able to give it to her last weekend, so now I can post about it.
18-count canvas, mostly Silk & Ivory & 2 Watercolours.  The bees are Kreinik, Very Velvet & FyreWerks.  The initial is Kreinik.  Mostly basketweave.
I am very pleased with how it turned out, and she liked it too!!

Here it is in the tray:

Friday, June 12, 2015

Pink Bargello

I needed something small and easy to work on when company was here, so I started a 5" square Bargello.  
The center will have a silver & pink pin on it, so I first basketweaved a pad for it.
The Bargello pattern is a new one (to me) that I found on line and adapted.  The original was over 6 and I wanted it over 4.  Surprise, that changed the whole thing and it doesn't look much like the original.  
You can't tell very well, but there are 2 shades of the dark pinks.  The centers that I have started are 2 shades of pink plus silver.
I was going to use those same colors, but reversed, to fill the "in between" centers as well, but it made them too prominent.  So, back to the computer to try some other ideas!

Friday, June 5, 2015

2012 Mystery Retreat Progress #5

You have surely forgotten all about this piece!  This year I am trying to finish some WIPs and I decided to pull this one out.  I haven't worked on it much since right after the retreat!

There's still a little "spaghetti" from the parts I worked on at retreat, but most of that is gone.  I have completed the center section except for the very center which I will do later.  The right side section is complete.

Now I'm working on the bottom.  I won't do much more there until the end.  This section has some parts that I don't like and may change; those will have to be done later when I can see the piece as a whole.

It is much prettier in person!  The darkest turquoise is quite intense, but it doesn't photograph well and the metallics don't really show up.