Yet another finish!

Late last week, I finished another SJ Designs project. It wasn't officially a UFO, since I hadn't begun stitching it. This is a variation of Sweet Hearts. The colored noppee silk used in the original (below) was no longer available. I had some white which I used for the border--I love the texture and sheen. For the hearts I used SJ Designs Confetti fiber (Golden Ice and, I think, #118).  It was great to work with and I love the way it looks. I stitched most of it while watching the moving "The Grand Marigold Hotel."  I think the two are now linked for me.

I even have a frame for it. I may add a bit of gold leaf to the silver frame, to help connect the two a bit more, but I like the way it looks now, so I may not.

And this is the original Sweet Hearts, done a while back. It's a box top and sits on my dresser.

We had another wintry blast this week. This winter will never end--more snow is predicted tomorrow! But today felt very spring like when I stepped outside--sunny, the birds were singing, it was breezy and perhaps 40F. Everything was still covered with a deep blanket of snow, but it was melting fast.

The collage below was made by winter in our front-porch flower pot.  It really caught my eye.

Last weekend we stopped in at a local antique and collectible toy show. (Santa's Toy Show, held twice a year in Highland, IN). They had some clowns there, enchanting the children, doing face painting and balloon figures, and collecting money for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.  

One of them gave me this cute balloon Leprechaun. He's been brightening my week this week and is still holding up well.  He's actually a bracelet corsage--I wore him all Saturday.

Between work and physical therapy, I haven't been doing much stitching, so no more finishes for a while, I fear.  I have been knitting a bit.  It's so wonderful to have something to hand to pick up. I find it very meditative and relaxing. Do you?

Completion--and new UFOs

My turquoise Amethyst is done. Boy, was it fun!

If you look closely at my wip photo, you'll see I'd stitched an outer row of Smyrna Crosses in the wrong spot--in the end I needed to remove two complete rows. And I still had a blast stitching it. I'd forgotten how much fun Susan Johnson's designs are.

 I began another UFO I had from SJ Designs, Sweet Hearts. This one I'm selecting the fibers myself and I need to do some stash diving before I can get very far.

This weekend I had the sad task of helping the husband of my friend Renee go through her stash. Renee passed away just after the new year. I missed her service because of my surgery and her husband had saved me a program and obituary. Most of the items she had (kits, ufos and materials) went to our EGA chapter to use for fundraising and charity projects. I kept a couple of mementos and also took a few pieces to finish for her family.

Both are UFOs.

The other sock of this pair is done. I realized that this was a ufo because there's a dropped stitch and the sock needs to be unknitted for a few rows to correct it (it doesn't look like it could successfully be laddered up to the current row).  I can do that--I'm very experienced with unknitting!

Back to work tomorrow.

What's Next

What's next is going back to work on Tuesday. I suspect that's going to take all of my energy for a while.  For now, however, I'm working on a stash project, an old Homewood Guild workshop (I suspect at least ten years old!). I had only stitched the center waffle stitch...the rest is coming along quickly yesterday and today.

It's a lovely design by Susan Johnson of SJ Designs called Amethyst.  I'm not doing this in the original purple color way but in an alternate she offered to our guild, Turquoise.  So far I've used up a spool of Kreinik gold braid!  The piece also uses floss, overdyed Rachel, and Kreinik flat braid. Lots of texture in the stitches, too.

I think the center square of this design would make a lovely Christmas ornament...I'll have to remember that. It worked up pretty quickly.

I found this and another SJ Designs kit (Sweet Hearts) and a couple of other projects when I was sorthing through things before surgery.  I set them aside to do while I was home, but then I got caught up in the crewel piece. It was nice to have something handy to turn to after that was done. 

Blue Crewel Is Done!

I finished it yesterday and damp stretched it Monday night. I got most of the wrinkles out.

 Taa-daa!

I always look at my designs/color choices in black and white, to check value. I made this one B&W in Photoshop, but a black and white photocopy works just as well for working.

In this design the blue wool background is pretty much the darkest color.  The blue on the lower left "reads" darker because it's redder (a dark purple).  I generally like to have a full value range in a design. It's really easy to stick in the middle range, which makes a dull design.

By the way, the blue background is hand dyed and not a solid, even color, but is mottled and has lighter and darker patches.  It's hard to tell in a photo.

Thanks!

This is a long overdue Thanks! to World Embroideries, who made me these amazing mittens.

I put them to immediate use and kept forgetting to pull them out of my coat pockets to share with you. They're not only lovely but very warm.

The palms are the aurora borealis. Cool, huh?

Thanks!

Blue Crewel Progress

Blogger finally, reluctantly, uploaded a few photos. One at a time, but it did it, so I'm happy.

I've been working on this pretty steadily. I'm feeling my way and picking colors as I go, so it's slow sometimes as I dither.

Here are a couple of closer views. It took me a while to figure out how to do the embroidery over the stitched ground. For the leaves, I cut little leaf shapes from drier sheets and used them as a base. It helped me define the shapes. For the white flowers, I took one stitch across the width of the petal to act as a base and then stitched the petals vertically to the center over it.

Olympic Stitching

It seems Blogger isn't uploading photos today. On a day when I have a bunch!  I've been a big fan of the Olympics since I was a kid.  And beginning in 1968, I've generally had an "Olympic Project" in hand to do.  The projects aren't related to the sport, just to me keeping busy during the endless hours of TV.

In '68 my project was an embroidery design in turquoise, orange and brown on muslin, for the pockets of a dress I was making.  The design was from a Better Homes & Gardens embroidery book that was $2 (I still have it).  It was actually featured on the red cover, but in different colors.  I wore the minidress until I came to my senses and it became a blouse.

I stitched while watching Peggy Flemming skate endless figure eights, all on the exact same lines. And I had to be carefull not to drool on the embroidery when Jean Claude Killy came up to ski.

I don't remember all of the Olympic projects or events, but that first one is etched in my mind.

This year I had a bag full of mini-kits, collected from British magazines, mostly Molly Makes.  They're cute and easy to do, perhaps a bit fiddly because they're small. They'd been nagging at me so they became this year's Olympics project.  I had a bunch collected.

Since they're not loading here, I put them on flickr, where you may go see them if you're interested:  Marjorie from Illinios finished in 2014.

Knee-wise, I'm going quite well.  I've been up and down stairs to do a load of laundry and am more able to get around and about.  Today it's pouring rain, which is better than snow, but because it's close to freezing and I don't like ice, I'm staying indoors.  Hubby is making soup.