Northwest Red Head

I pulled this one mid last week to take along and work on during lunch. I just can't seem to get in to finishing the Bent Creek pieces I have going so instead of just not stitching I started this. I opted to not do the knots that are supposed to make up the bee, he is simply cross stitch. If you want to see it with knots look at Melanie's blog. She just completed the matching scissor fob for an exchange. I've made a few changes on the template. I don't use the blogroll anymore as it seems less than reliable on alerting me to new posts, I have come to love the Google Reader in its place. IF you check the right sidebar there is a snip from it, if you click the bottom you can view all the feeds I subscribe to :) I'll not likely be posting again until next week as I'm heading out of town for the weekend. Then on Tuesday we are all taking a bit of a road trip to Homestead Needlearts for some threads. Hopefully I'll have a nice haul to share :)

It all started with my aunt producing this item out of her bag. A scissor chatelaine to keep track of her scissors while we were at the ANG meeting. That was the same day we headed to the bead store after and I came upon a few of the discs that hold the 2 chains together and just couldn't resist. Now, mind you, I changed a few things as I couldn't find all the exact beads but I'm extremely happy with the finished product. I made mine a bit longer as I occasionally have my hair up and I didn't want to chance it getting caught on my hair and being a problem. Here is a close up of the center disc so you can see the colors of it, the previous shot is a bit drab.  It actually has a nice marbled color that compliments the beads perfectly. As long as I had all my beading tools out I did some re-assembly on these two scissor fobs. I made them both from kits but the kits came with nymo thread that just didn't hold up with regular use (and abuse) of my sciss...

My Deluxe Book Stand arrived yesterday. Here is my new and improved view when working on my stand. Project front and center and the book stand, as you can see, has a chart holder as well as a pin cushion and places to hold tools and hang thread. This makes having everything I need within reach to get stitching done MUCH easier. There are always things "in the way" to prevent that of course, like this... Really now, how does the pup really expect me to get anything done when he insists on laying directly under the canvas and getting himself tangled in my working thread? LOL Here is my progress on the newly started square so far, despite canine interruption ;) My bag, needless to mention as you obviously haven't seen a photo and me bouncing around about it, was NOT done. As we arrived in the shop I spotted it out on the counter with my finished stitching but they hadn't even started it. Then the one who does the finishing left minutes after we arrived so I won...

2 squares down, 2 to go on Twister! Well, that and the border but I'm half way there with the hard part! If you've never seen this one in a shop its a 87 page pattern. There are about 80 unique stitches and this piece tests your patience in compensating them as you are fitting them into these "wedges" Yes, that is masking tape you see on my canvas. I use it along the line of each wedge to help keep the shape as I am stitching otherwise I end up encroching on the next wedge too much in an attempt to avoid compensating as much as possible. The tape never spends enough time in any one place to actually cause any problems. My current plan is to leave this in the stand and work on it until its done or I can't stand to look at it anymore, which ever comes first ;) I'm hoping to alteast have another square done before I change big projects as I'd really enjoy not having to see this one in my WIP pile any more. Working on the stand should be increasingly easie...

I was hoping to be able to share the photo of Gloves and Kisses inserted into the Lee bag but alas it was not done this evening when I went to sit and stitch. Not sure why cutting congress cloth down and inserting into a glue backed opening was hard but then I didn't want to do it, I was more worried it would end up crooked, so I will have to wait at least another week. That is all I will say about that before I start on a rant about my dislike of said store lately. Instead I bring you my new projects I acquired on Saturday. These are all needlepoint projects, some fully kitted others not. They all were calling my name and since I did reduce my stash a bit I decided a few would be ok. This one is a pulled thread project out of Needlepoint Plus magazine from 1992. Its stitched on Congress Cloth with silks and metallics. Dandelions & Clover from Lynne Tomlinson. There are more than a few of her projects here around the house, I think my mom has 2 in her stash and 2...

Saturday after my ANG meeting we headed over to a newer bead store. I didn't really "NEED" anything but then since when has that stopped me?? This was a kit they were selling that started the whole thing. You got all the beads in a cute little test tube along with wire and directions. I should have just stayed outside or something :) So since I wanted this anyway I decided to wander around and I spotted a rather unusual disc that looked like the one in my aunt's scissor chatelaine. My mind was off at that point. I went and got hers from the car and proceeded to match up the beads to ones of simular style to make my own. That is a post for another day, it would be done now but someone (can't imagine who) forgot about wire! Where is the fun in actually having all the materials when trying to start a new project? Here is the finished necklace. Took a total of 1/2 hour and it only took that long because I couldn't decide what order to string the beads. The m...

Well, bored enough to have time to notice this... lets leave it at that. I mean really, how much time do you have to stare at nothing to look at your arm and notice a pattern in the moles on your skin? So there I was, nothing happening, comtemplating a nice nap. I took Indy in last week to have his nails trimmed and I ended up having to hold on to him so they could get his back nails which left me some nice scratches on my right arm. I lift my arm to see how they are healing and I notice this odd pattern. I mean, how many people do you know can say they have the big dipper on their arm? LOL

Isn't he fun!?!?! One of the members of my ANG Chapter is also a member in Arizona and her chapter, I think, was selling these roadrunners. Could be wrong on the details there but anyway, she had them and now this little guy is mine. Its a frame weight for working on needlepoint canvases mounted on stretcher bars. We also had a member pass away a few months back who had her own "store" of projects in her home. No one in her family stitched so all of her needlework was given to the ANG and EGA chapters here that she belonged to. The guilds took donations for the items and split the donations between the chapters and a charity of her choice. I got 5 new projects... like I needed those but, now I have them ;) I'll post photos of them as soon as I remember to take them. I also went on a bead binge Saturday after my ANG meeting so there should be a bit of beading to come as well.

Twinkle Pig! I finally finished her up last evening and now, unless I come up with a better idea, she's destined to be a pillow. :) This piece was a group effort for picking stitches and fibers. I took an embellishment class a while back from Kathy Fenchel who designed Gloves and Kisses and she came up with some of the elements. Unfortunately not all of them which is part of why she's been unfinished so long. I started at this canvas a good long while and finally came up with how I wanted to do the hat and wand and I'm quite happy with the finished piece. Here is a closeup of some of the stitching I took which also served to point out to me I had missed some background. You can also see a bit more that doesn't show on the larger picture like the beads that are the fairy dust. Thanks to everyone who's taken a minute to check out the stash I am parting with. I have a few things heading off in the mail this week :) What's left I am taking to my EGA meetin...

Decided perhaps it was time I quit stalling and finish these shaker boxes. I really need the ironing board for other things and half the pieces are scattered about on it from the last time I was working on it. This one is mom's, the lid it cut and pressed now but I need to get some ultra suede to line the scissor sheath's with so there's no accidents with the tips on the scissors damaging the stitching. Here again is mine, no those are not the scissors that are going in it :) they were the only pair I could find that fit and didn't have a 4 inch long tail of beads to get in the way in the shot. The little square you see is supposed to be an emery, I'm not sure how they thought I was going to get a pouch of emery in there but as I wouldn't use it as one (not wanting it to get dirty) we skipped that step. The scissor sheath is also different from the pattern, both myself and another lady from my EGA chapter tried to do the tapered sheath that was trimmed i...

Put the finishing stitches on it last night while watching a movie. This one will now be going into my LNS for the "finishing" which means they will cut this to the proper size and mount it in the black Lee bag I purchased for it. Here's a close up on a few of the raised elements on it. The ring, is a large square bead which I've had to resort to attaching with plastic coated wire. Mom put hers on with the thread as was called for, but the bead is apparently sharp and has cut right through the DMC so this was a better option. The cuff on that same glove is made of bugle beads that are all standing on end. On the right glove the furry cuff is turkey work with Kreinik. The Rose is, as I mentioned before, bullion knots. The leaves are done in the style of stumpwork. I say the style because as I read the directions and saw the supplies I wanted to scream in class. I was taught to do stumpwork by Jane Nicholas, an Australian teacher that knows the technique well an...

The background is now done, the grid is made up of kreinik ribbon couched down with DMC. Now onto the bullion knot rose on the center glove. Better than hemstitching but still not among my favorites. Doing it on the congress cloth is not as easy as doing them on linen. Ann ~ You asked about the designer, this was designed by Kathy Fenchel. As far as I know right now this is strictly a teaching piece. My ANG chapter had her come in and teach it to use in early spring. Jenna ~ We recently got my niece a needlepoint kit, she wanted to do something "other than X's" she said :) This one came with 2 small plush ducks and she is stitching the hats for them.

Another week comes to an end :) YAY! This is my progress for the week on Gloves and Kisses. The grid is almost done, just have to put a few more pieces of kreinik ribbon in and finish the couching. I will hopefully have that done today on my lunch hour and then I can move on to the bullions that make up the rose on the center glove. That also has 2 detached leaves that will be attached like stumpwork. I also have a bit of fixing to do yet on the lipstick, the pearl purl keeps shifting so I'm going to tack it down in a few more places; as I'm going to actually use this bag I don't want to have it shifting all over and possibly break on me. Thank you to everyone for your comments on Coronation. Yes it is part of a series, the Jim Wurth ornament series from Threadneedle Street in California. There will be a new one every OTHER month that comes with canvas, thread and instructions. You can call the shop at 1-800-484-2752 and enter code 6488 if you are interested. Darn, I s...

Got Coronation finshed yesterday when I got home from work. I'm extremely happy with the finished piece, as I've said before the photo just didn't do it justice. I hope I've done a bit better with my shot here, I zoomed it in more than usual so you can see some of the detail in the stitching. I am taking it Monday to show everyone as they were talking about ordering these but no one else got around to it. After that its off to the finisher. I don't mind finishing ornaments myself but I don't like working with canvas. The finisher my mom uses is pretty reasonable so off it will go.

Not alot left to go on Gloves and Kisses. The lip background is in now, I just have some grid lines to stitch there and then I have to add the raised embellishments. The left glove has a ring, the center one has a bullion rose and there are some finishing touches to put on the lipstick tube. As it is right now I'm not terribly happy with the lipstick tube, I may lift it and make the padding behind the leather smaller so I can "cup" it a bit and hide the edges. I have this and Coronation in my bag to work on at lunch today so we'll see how much I get done on them ;) I'd like Gloves and Kisses done by Monday so I can leave it at Peacock Alley for finishing when I'm there for sit and stitch, we'll see.