Northwest Red Head

I have several fun things to go on about today so SBQ got its own separate post below as I'm sure this one will be long and rambling on its own :)Presenting the improved hair for my Lady in a Red Hat, or whatever she really is supposed to be called :p I went with a variation of what I was intending on this once again. Once I got into the directions for the Angel I posted a photo of yesterday I realized it was really outline stitch and not long and short so I did a bit of that and liked it so off we go. I'm doing her hair with Sarsparilla and Nutmeg from GAST to make the hair color a bit more natural looking and they were about as close to my color as I could get without it clashing with the hat too much. On a good note not only am I happier with the look, this stitch goes a lot FASTER than all those bullions. Oh well, sorry bullion knots but it just wasn't meant to be LOL I also got my copy of JCS ornament issue last night. As you've already seen the cover most li

Ok 3 bullions in and I hate them :( I wanted very much to have some nice curls that looked like hair but I'm just not happy with how this is looking so I think the frog may have to visit this piece today so I can try something new. The hair is drawing too much attention in contrast to the hat and it comes off the canvas just a bit too much. I am pretty bummed, I was so excited about having this nice flowing hair in ringlets and it just doesn't work for me now that I see it on the canvas so here is plan "B" Using long and short stitch and a bit of chain stitch to create the movement I wanted with a little more flat of a stitch so it doesn't stand out so strongly against the rest of the stitching. I may change the movement of the hair a bit as well as I stitch to make a few more waves, we'll see how that works as I put the stitches in. I had considered doing something like Joan Thomasson does with her many designs but after some careful consideration I real

Well, I did my first bullion with the new bullion needles and hated it. The needles are quite thick so they won't snap easily but for what I'm doing here they were a bit too thick. After looking a bit more closely at them I realized they looked strikingly like my tatting needles so I dug those out and did a bullion with the smallest tatting needle and this is the result... Not sure how excited I am about it. I'm going to have to put a few more in to get an idea of how the finished look will be. I also didn't get around to couching this one down so I have a handy needle there to hold it close to where its supposed to go :) Anyone else have thoughts? Next we have the second journey on Mojave, minus the frogs :) No More Frogs! I double checked the color and size of the perle cotton so this time I'm sure its correct. I would have had more done but I decided to go to the mall last night so I didn't get much time in for stitching at all, this is all work done

*Sigh* and here I was doing so well, I had a miserable headache which had lessened a bit so I sat down to work a bit on Mojave, THAT was a bad idea. I finished the first journey on the center row and kept looking at it thinking I had used the wrong thread. I almost started to rip when I decided even if it was wrong I didn't want to redo it. It turned out to be the right thread after all. So I pull the thread for the second journey and proceed to use the wrong thread, UGH! So out that all came and I put it away for the night. It was just more thinking than my poor tired brain could handle I guess. Today I'm going to attempt a bullion knot for the Red Hat Lady and see how that goes. I'm to the point on the underside of the hat brim that I need to know if the bullions will work so I know how to stitch in around the hair. Since I have no progress photos to share here are my bullion needles, I put a sharpie in the shot for scale so you can see they are quite long needles. Hopef

Here is my start on Mojave. I had hoped to get a bit more done but I was helping a friend of mom's move this weekend so I didn't get any stitching time in Saturday until late and by then I was too tired to do much. The smyrna border also seemed to take forever as its done in 2 journeys, the first with perle cotton and the second with kreinik braid. The start I have on the center row is the first of 8 journeys to make the finished look it will have, yikes! I'm used to layered stitches in needlepoint but on MY! It also makes it more entertaining that its done in multiple colors. The alternating color you see carries to most of the other layers as well so I have 2 needles going to do this one. The 2 rows of vandyke stitch were the same as well. The main stitch is done in perle again with a small horizontal stitch in kreink to "tie down" the intersecting points. Apparently this is going to be a trend in this design. Now that I think about it there was quite a bit

Now let me start off by saying, I live in the "city". Mind you its not New York city but its not small either. The average home lot in this area is 80x40 if I remember correctly. We are lucky enough to have 3 1/2 lots so we can't reach out or windows and shake hands with the neighbors. The closest to wooded we have is a small area about the size of a city block that has miraculously avoided the developers, for whatever reason. Not the sort of place you expect to see much more than squirrels and rabbits. Once, about 10 years ago we saw a deer... of course when we told people no one believed us. A few months later a turkey came wandering into the yard. That time I ran for the camera and even though it was dark you could see it. We still see the turkey on the occasion but nothing else too unusual. So you can imagine my surprise this morning when as I am sitting here at my computer, reading mail I hear the word "deer" clearly among a bunch of garble from upstairs. I

First the finish, a scissor chatelaine I made for mom. Mostly a black and white design with the only other color being added on the circular beads on the scissor tail on the bottom. This one was a bit of trial and error as I couldn't find the same beads I had used on mine for the whole thing so I've had to substitute a few different things in to make it work. Second we have the progress on the Red Hat Lady. This, sadly, is the best of 6 photos I took of her, I can't seem to get the fabulous effect of the dark over dyed thread to show no matter what I do. Next time I will have to try a scan and see if it will show up that way, the effect is quite cool. The thread is one of Soy Lusters "Shadows" colors so its got variation of the color within the strand to give the effect of shading, add to that the fact that I can't get 2 strands that are the same and I'm stitching with 2 strands and its making a rather unusual effect. And I just couldn't resi

I just love when the mail man brings me gifts!  I'm actually amazed at the speed they arrived as well. First was the Mirabilia Halloween Fairy. I wasn't sure what to expect with this one, I loved the design but I don't like buying kits. I'm at the designers mercy when it comes to threads and fabric and if I don't like them I have to buy all new stuff to stitch after buying the kitted supplies. These threads are fabulous! All over dyed colors, and none of my LNS sell Crescent Colors so I'm quite excited to try them out! The colors also look fabulous with the fabric so I'm not likely to change that either. I really should finishing a few things before I start her though, we'll see. Next, the mailman was knocking on my door just after I got home with a box containing the latest Jim Wurth dodecagon, Mojave. I guess the fact that Thread Needle Street calls this an "ornament" club isn't really accurate. When I hear ornament I think Christm

One of my favorite Bead stores was having a sale this past weekend so I headed out to get some beads I found enough that went well together for 3 scissor chatelaines. Some of these beads pictured were from the stash and a few were from the 1st chatelaine I finished that can be used with the other color sets. I probably don't need 4 chatelaines but I fully expect my mom to steal one and perhaps I will sell a few of the others, when I get them finished, eventually.  No, really!

FINALLY!! YAY :) Before I start rattling on about the finishing I want to thank everyonen who's come by and left comments, particularly on my Red Hat Lady, I was a bit unsure when starting with that stitch but I'm extremely happy with how it came out. Can't wait to have her done! :) They actually arrived on Friday but since the finisher sent them insured they needed to be signed for so I picked them up Monday morning at the Post Office. Twinkle pig is done with things I found at Hobby Lobby... isn't the trim fun?? I found the fabric first and loved it because it had the same diagonal pattern I had in the background and at the same time brought out the yellow in her shirt. Now comes the dilemma of where to put her that Indiana won't think its something to burrow in. I had it on the couch last night and he was up there trying to make a hole to nap in, EEKK!! Coronation was done very simple. Its much bigger than I expected it to be for an ornament so I had it

I continue to be happy with the trellis stitch as my choice for the hat, it was a fun stitch to work and it was fast to do. It is also great that it gives such a nice look. The lighter value of red is now complete so I will have to repeat the stitch on the darker, underside of the hat. I'm also commiting myself to trying to do bullion knots on the hair, I am now reading up on them to see how I can couch them down to allow me to make some waves in her hair. I'm being a bit of a snot I guess in that I want her to be a reflection of me. Ok maybe thats not being a snot, as I'm the one who has to do the work to make that happen. The rotten part will be, if I can make the bullions as long as I want them to be it will have to start a new thread for each one, ouch. On the finishing front... Twinkle pig and my Jim Wurth ornament are back from the finisher *whispers* notice how actual sewing was faster that "unnamed" needlepoint store inserting a canvas into a premade

I'm pretty happy with the over all look of this for the hat. I was hoping for something that would make it look like a woven hat, now I just have to decide what I'm going to do on the hat band. This is a nice closeup without a flash which unfortunately makes it a bit fuzzy but it shows the texture of the stitch.

All the beading is done on the reticule. I contacted the EGA member who is teaching us the assembly to let her know I want to assemble mine and she'll have the lining and the drawstring for me at the October meeting. I was thinking it was September so for a change I'm ahead of schedule *gasp* I also put a few stitches in on my crewel piece. I got Band of Brothers on DVD so we've been watching it this week so I didn't get as much done last night as I would have liked but any new stitches are good. The Appleton Crewel Wool isn't as bad to work with as I'd expected. The biggest dilema was how much to use, I'm used to linen and canvas where you have to use multiple threads for coverage, this is done with one strand. I also got a start on the insert for my red Lee purse yesterday. The background is a scotch stitch done with Needle Necessities overdyed thread and the hat is done in a trellis stitch with Soy Luster. Sue posted a comment asking about that

Well I got the pattern transferred, that counts as a start right? Not sure how well I like this fabric now that its in the hoop but we'll give it a try with a flower and see how it goes. Yes this is done with a pencil not one of those washable blue pens, I tried that once and was not happy with it. This is how the transfers are done with my stumpwork so I figured it would work here as well. Its a 4H pencil which doesn't rub off so easily and supposedly won't run through the stitching. I don't know how true that really is but I've never had any problems and its much easier to cover than the less precise line I get with the blue pens. I again found myself at Hobby Lobby this weekend, can you imagine? Actually this time it was mom's fault, they had a 40% off coupon in the ad last week and she wanted a small tree to put all of her stitched ornaments on. I spotting beading wire on sale so we wandered back there and found these... These are very similar to

This came in the mail yesterday... Now I remember promising myself I wouldn't buy anymore stash as I'm trying to reduce my stash but I couldn't resist this one. I have a friend who is newly expecting and I want to make something for her. I wandered over to Country Bumpkin's site and found a sale! Buy the baby book get the bridal book free! Free is good...  Actually by the time I got done paying for shipping I could have purchased each of them here, but then no one around here seems to carry them.

Each year at my EGA Christmas Party we get a favor that's been made by the committee following a strawberry theme. They got the idea from Sampler & Antique Needlework Vol 2 that featured a strawberry reticule sewing set. This is this what we received this past Christmas, the small berry is a thimble holder and the large one is meant to be made into a reticule to hold all my strawberry things.  We have to do a bit of the work this year, my project before the October meeting is to sew gold beads on for the strawberry seeds and one of the members is going to teach us how to assemble it. I'm not terribly excited about sewing in all honesty but its a strawberry, and I might just like them a little. This is most of my berry things. These official theme of my accessories, because themes make it more fun, is Strawberries and Fairies.   The basket is my adaptation of the Hillside Samplings Sewing basket and it just went downhill from there :) Then I found the strawberry FA

Stash Enhancement.... Oh what fun we had with our trip to Homestead Needlearts yesterday. Amazingly I managed to resist the urge to buy any painted canvases and stick to mostly fibers like I had planned. First we have my red Lee purse canvas. They had a new fiber called Soy Luster that I'm going to use on the hat and I got some overdye from Sampler Threads to do her hair, I'm not making her a blonde, I'm not a blonde so I figured I'd make her hair a bit more like mine.  Also, some Needle Necessities for the background which should look fabulous. These are 2 other Lee inserts. The rectangle goes into a small clutch and the round one is for a jewelry case. With the exception of the background is going to be done in all Soy Luster with a wrapped backstitch in Kreinik gold for the outlining, the Mandarin floss is amazing to stitch with if you've never tried it. It is made from bamboo and has a nice sheen, similar to Splendor from Rainbow Gallery but it is much

This was the only picture I managed, Jay was moving too fast when I had a thought to grab the camera so I got a lot of shots of empty space. Ahh well, he would have just countered with a really unflattering shot of me I'm sure so I won't complain ;) He should be back online shortly, as his computer is still in a box somewhere. :)

I finished up the stitching portion of Strawberries so Faire this weekend, now for the fun part, assembly. At some point here I'll get myself out to the fabric store and get the fabrics so I can get going on it. It doesn't look to challenging actually, the worst will be that its lined with silk, I am not a fan of sewing with silk. This is another thing I'm debating on sending off to the finisher LOL Hope everyone is having a nice weekend... my extended weekend will continue tomorrow with a trip to Homestead Needlearts where hopefully I will find the ultimate threads for a few projects that I can share :)