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!

Atlantis Rising, Framed

Atlantis Rising by Ro Pace is finally framed.  I am very pleased with this piece!  I had forgotten how gorgeous it is till I pulled it out of the closet to go to the framer.  The mats & frame really set it off nicely I think.

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!!!

Finished Ornaments

Well, I got four of these finished.  The 5th proved to be too difficult for me and will have to be sent out to be finished and saved for next year!

The top 2 and the lower left are Laura Perin designs from her Mystery Monday Series.  The lower right is Ro Pace's Starry Night.

The top two are prefinished banners, very easy to finish.  Just stick in the needlework and then I use little strips of fuseable web to insure the edges of the fabric stay down.  The bottom two are the same deal except they are little pillows.  Bless the people who make these prefinished items!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, OR WHATEVER, TO ALL OF YOU!!

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.

What have I been doing?

So far this has been a crazy busy summer!  We spent 2 weeks in Reno where we went for Jason & Monica's wedding.  The wedding was at Lake Tahoe and was very nice.

I signed up for way too many "monthly" projects.  Although I have worked on all of them, I haven't posted about all of them & I need to get that caught up so you can see what I've been working on.

Plus I am piloting Ro Pace's "Illusions", which she will be teching at Seminar this year.  I have completed one quarter and will show you that soon.  It's a very pretty piece!

Then there is all the stuff I can't show you!  I will be teaching a Correspondence Course called Bargello Techniques for ANG.  The model will be shown at Seminar in Philadelphia, but I can't show you here until after Seminar, I think.  I think registration opens in November.

I have shipped two pieces, the Diamond in a Square Mad Miters and Twisted Metal to the Seminar Exhibit.  Let me know if any of you see them there!

I will be doing a Trunk Show for Rittenhouse Needlepoint during Seminar!  I am very excited about that.  This week I will get everything printed up & packed to mail next week.

Next week I leave for Portland for this year's Mystery Retreat.  My prework is finished, but I can't show you any of that till after the Retreat.  I am looking forward to this little mini vacation.

Next I will start posting about projects with pictures!  Stay tuned!

Atlantis Rising, FINISHED

Here you go:  Atlantis Rising all finished!  I know a lot of you are drooling over the photos in the Seminar Brochure, and you will notice that my AR is slightly different than Ro's.  Ro kindly allows her pilot stitchers to personalize their projects.  I opted for adding a 3rd diamond at the top of the Bargello and used large diamond shaped turquoise beads I found at Michaels.  I think they work well.  My colors are very close to Ro's, but slightly different, and I think we used metallics in different places.  I also added bugle beads to fill the Jessicas in the outer border.

This is a spectacular piece and a class you will enjoy!

Atlantis Rising Progress #3

I know, It's been more than 2 weeks.  But here we are now with the next Progress report on Atlantis Rising.  At this point, the Bargello is complete and I had nearly completed the 2 upper corners.  There is still a lot to be done!  I had not yet decided what I was going to do with the big diamonds within the Bargello and, as I recall, I ran out of the thread I used for the Criss Cross Hungarian at the top right and had to order more.

The Seminar Brochure for Philadelphia is out with the class descriptions & photos, so you have seen Ro's model for this class.  I will post my finished piece next week.



Atlantis Rising, Progress #2

OK, here is a later version of Atlantis Rising.  I had made quite a bit of progress by this time.  The Bargello is complete, and the upper corners are done except for the background.  I had started to fill in the area beneath the point.

I don't have a lot of progress photos.  So, I will wait two weeks before showing you the next one!

Atlantis Rising by Ro Pace

For some time now I have been working on a pilot for Ro Pace, Atlantis Rising.  Ro will be teaching this piece at Seminar this year.  She has given me permission now to post about it.  I will go back in time & show you the progress photos, one at a time!  Hopefully to keep you interested & enthusiastic about taking this class!  It is a large and very challenging piece!

This is progress photo #1.  The prework is completed and the first section (mostly Bargello) is begun.  Ro allowed her pilot stitchers to change colors and I changed them slightly, but not significantly.  The main changes I made was to use 18-count aquamarine canvas, rather than white or off-white congress cloth and from a kind of rosy color that Ro used for contrast, to a copper.

This piece has a lot of Bargello, you can see from the photo I think the large section of Bargello I have begun.  Then there are many other stitches used in all the other sections, which are fun to explore and will result in an exciting piece!

Stay tuned, I'll post another photo next week.

SOTM 2011, Finished

SOTM 2011 is finished and just in the nick of time too since SOTM 2012 has begun!  This is my first finish for 2012, the last stitch went in Monday night.

Since my SOTM is worked on 18-count, I didn't care for the Angel Wings border - it just seemed too delicate for the rest of the design.  Soooooo, I made some changes!

I rescaled the background by adding about two more rows of the little open diamonds (Kreinik #4 Braid, discontinued color #4005) all the way around.  Then I used Diamond Rhodes (over 12) in Waterlilies #180 for the border.

I don't think I'll be doing any finishing of this (framing or whatever) for awhile.  These colors go better in our Reno house, so it'll just get tacked to my wall here in LV for now.

SOTM 2011, November

This month's stitch, Reverse Sprats Head, gave me a little trouble.  I did one quarter, then attempted to do the other section of the same color.  Well, I counted wrong and it was off by one row & looked awful!  So I ripped the whole thing out and basted in the vertical & horizontal center lines.  I highly recommend doing that!  My next attempt just flew and it was accurate too!

SOTM 2011, October

Here is my October SOTM, the Walnetto.  I used Needle Necessities 125 and Threadworx 10311 for this stitch.  the Walnetto can be very tricky, but once you get it started it flows very quickly.

SOTM 2011, September

Here is my SOTM for September - the Double Fan Doubled.  This is a stitch that I have done before & always grit my teeth to do it!  I agree with many other posts about it that it is easier if you put a pin in the center to "wrap around", at least till you get a good start on it.  My threads for this are Needle Necessities 125 and ThreadWorx 10311.

Mediterranean Tile, Framed

Mediterranean Tile is finally framed.  I decided to just go with a very simple mat & frame so that the "tile" would really stand out.  The mat is a tan suede and the frame is a simple goldish-coppery metal.
This is a Ro Pace design & I hope she will like it (she hasn't seen it yet).

Ro's Blog

Just in case you don't know yet, Ro Pace has a Blog now!  You can get there by clicking on her name here.  She is talking about lots of different things (needlepoint related of course) and putting up pictures.  I think it is a blog to follow!