Puzzle Piece, FINISHED

It's finished!  My Puzzle Piece (not a purse) is finished!  Happy, happy dance!!!

 

I concentrated on this piece in an effort to finish it before the end of the year and I've just made it.

 

This was an incredibly intense project.  Every section required multiple decisions.  Even though I sort of planned out a lot of it, deciding where to use the different area designs from the Puzzle Purse book, I still had lots of decisions to make all the way.  And towards the end, I couldn't fit any of the area designs into my remaining shapes, so I pulled out all my Jean Hilton books and chose stitches from those.

 

I think the biggest mistake I made on this piece, was not to see it as a whole.  I tended to focus on each area individually and that was a mistake.  It is going to be a very busy piece no matter what, but if I had been looking at it more as a whole, I would have arranged the colors differently and used fewer colors so that the center Bargello diamond would be set off more. 

 

That being said though, I do like this piece.

 

Puzzle Piece, Progress #4

I have been working on my Puzzle Piece, hoping to get it finished before the end of the year.  I don't think I'm going to make it, but I'm still trying.
I didn't work on it for several months and just got it out again a few weeks ago.  It is a fun project, but it does require me to make constant decisions about stitch placement, color & thread.  Sometimes I just don't have the energy for all that!
I have two bags of threads for this project - one has the threads I've used so far and the other has possibles.  More & more threads are migrating to the "used" bag!  I can't believe how many different threads I've used so far.

Puzzle Piece, Progress #3

 

While we were in Reno, I worked on my Puzzle Piece.  I have completed 4 sections in

addition to the large Bargello section.  After the first two sections, I decided not to follow the order of the sections as written in Jean Hilton's instructions.  Instead, I spent a couple of hours with the book choosing stitches for my piece according to the size of the various sections to be stitched.  So now I have sort of a roadmap to follow.  It isn't set in concrete and I still have to decide which threads to use in which sections.  But at least I have a starting point!

 

 

Puzzle Piece Progress #2

Last night I finished the Bargello section of my Puzzle Piece (not a purse).  This is an ongoing project through CyberPointers.
The beads were my inspiration. I bought them about a year ago in San Diego when I was looking for beads for a different project. I didn't use them and they have been waiting in the wings! I like that they kind of look like cabachons, but they're beads.
I used a Watercolours overdye for my color base and several different threads, picking up the colors in the beads.. 
I'm really pleased with the way this turned out.

Puzzle Piece

I am doing Jean Hilton's Puzzle Purse with the ANG Cyberpointers group.  I did not want to do a purse, so redesigned the outlines and I finally got them all stitched.  The pattern calls for #8 Pearl for the outside square and #5 Pearl for all the rest.  I found the #5 to be much too heavy and did all of it in the #8.
I think the Bargello comes next.  That will go in the large diamond and I'm thinking about setting some stones in there first.  I have a bunch of turquoise/aqua stones I have been collecting, so will see if any of them will work here.

Baroque framed

Baroque is back from the framer.  I had it framed to go with 2 other needlepoints that hang in the guest room.  I am very pleased with it. 




Here is how it looks on the wall:

Baroque Progress #5

Baroque is moving right along.  I finished the 4 corner squares last week.  The pattern calls for beads around the center Rhodes in each square, but I don't think I'd like that.  I think it would be too crowded.  Next up is borders around the whole thing.  Looks like that will take awhile!

Baroque Progress #4

Oopsl!  Not quite ready for the corner squares.  First I had to complete the diamond, adding the border around the last section.  First a row of Jessicas, then more stripes & aren't they pretty?!
Got a better photo this time, I remembered to put black behind it!

Baroque Progress #3

Another section of Baroque completed.  This one went fairly quickly.  The Rhodes stitches in Flair were a little heavy & I had to resort to a larger needle.  It looks nice though & the stripes are lovely.

Next up are the 4 corners.

Baroque Progress #2

Here is the center diamond of Baroque finished.  This is not a difficult piece, but it does require paying attention!  The picture is too light, but clear.  I need to remember to put something dark behind this for pictures, instead of the white wall. 

I even got the beads on.  After dumping the entire box!  Some went in my lap & those were pretty easy to capture.  But even with the help of DH, I think there are still a lot of beads rattling around in my recliner!

And yeserday DH discovered our cat, KC, playing with a needle!  No matter how hard I try, those vagabond needles do get away sometimes.

Baroque by Jean Hilton

Another new project that I've started is Baroque by Jean Hilton.  I have changed the colors somewhat.  Jean's was on dark green canvas & I am using dark blue (I didn't have enough of the green!).  I am using rusts & blues with copper accents.  I have completed all of the outlining and the center star.

This is a fun project and, so far, pretty mindless!  Just what I need sometimes :-)