Forever Fred

 Here's the original ....waiting to move...doesn't look too happy here

And here is the finished canvas!   He looks like he's arrived at his new home in his box!  I used almost every brightly colored bead in my arsenal!  Thank you Susan Portra for your guidance!

Next up is the 4th ornament ....the Walneto stitch which I have stitched once wrong and once right....

This is the LAST program for Frances and me to teach at our ANG chapter meeting in July.  I will leave in the one on the right and try try try to figure out how I did the correct one on the left.  It's not just following the graph...it's the manipulation of the needle AND following the graph that makes it work. Maybe that's why there were 4 out of 5 needles (in difficulty) on the top of the stitch guide :)

Have a great weekend,

Linda

Christmas in June

King No.1 (3)

Christmas in June can mean many things.  In Miami believe me it is NOT the temperature outside.

Last night around 12:15 we got an early Christmas present when the Miami Heat won Game 6.  Now you might say...they haven't won the Championship....but  it was do or die last night and they came through.  This little bear is from the dark ages when there was only ONE king in Miami, Dwayne Wade.  When he won his first Championship they temporarily changed the name of Dade County to Wade County.  He even lived in our neighborhood then (he was a rookie) and now of course he lives like a king along with LeBron James and Chris Bosh somewhere probably close to South Beach.

The other meaning to Christmas in June is finishing up your 2013 Christmas projects so they can get to the finisher.  It's a pain, but also an indication of how popular our art form has become that there is a waiting line for finishing.

Here is another piece of my mother's Gingerbread Village - the gingerbread lady with purse.

And here are some closeups... the star tassel.  I am always looking for great star patterns

...and the hat.  Another learning experience here.  The white fringe is doubled fuzzy stuff satin stitched and then stitched AGAIN!  It really does fluff up much better than putting in twice as much thread in the needle and doing it once.

For those of you thinking that I am getting all this stitching done while watching basketball you have NOT watched the Heat.  I am either standing up or jumping up and down or I have a blanket over my head because I can't bear to watch.  On to game 7!!!!!

Keep cool,

Linda

Under The Sea

I don't know about you and your children, but I have a 30 year old daughter who LIVED for Ariel (aka The Little Mermaid).  We had movies, cassette tapes (yes, those), coloring books and dolls.  Oh, and Halloween costumes - how could I forget.  Caroline even practiced swimming like a mermaid!  This canvas dates from those long forgotten days when I sat in the car at preschool and stitched....tent stitched.....in WOOL.  Ok, it was Medici, but still it was wool. I have no earthly idea what possessed me to finish this, maybe it's my new baby Emily who makes me live outside :)  Or the Miami Heat who make me sit in front of the tv forever!

I am also making progress on Fred's fish.  For years I had a marine aquarium - until multiple hurricane power outages drove me over the edge.  So I have all these books with fish pictures...

Now the OCD in me has tried to make Fred's fish as close to real fish as possible, although I doubt that the real Fred would care...

Here he is watching them... the thread going around the border is my spacing for the fish...

Have a great weekend,

Linda

Guilt Trip

Have you ever taken a class only to put the project aside in the closet where it languishes sight unseen once the class is over?

Better yet, have you ever traveled to another city to take a class with a needlepoint goddess (aka Susan Portra) and abandoned THAT project?

Here I am to confess and feel guilty about both.  We traveled to Needlepoint in Paradise in February 2012 flush with excitement about meeting Susan and getting her input on our canvases.  I took my birds  and got some great ideas on how to start and then be able to FINISH the canvas.  Fortunately, I typed up my notes when I got home so I do have some direction today.

Why did it come out of the closet?  WE ARE GOING BACK!  That's where the guilt comes in....

We each have a new canvas for her to advise on and I thought .... what if I have a question about the birds?  How would I even know if I haven't worked on them?  So now the birds have come to the front of the pile so to speak.  It's actually not too bad when you break it up into it's component parts.  There are branches, leaves, vines, flowers and birds and I have a plan for each of those areas.  The branches are all tent stitched following the direction the branch is going in.  The big leaves are two different versions of reverse basketweave.  The flowers have their own stitches...french knots, tent, diagonal satin.  And the birds are all different.

I also have guilt staring me in the face at my desk...with Susan's handwriting on the wall so to speak :)

I've got all summer to work on them and plenty of company since all those who went with me to the class are in the same boat!

Happy weekend,

Linda

May Flowers

Happy Memorial Day!

Memorial Day, in addition to being a day to honor those who gave their lives in defense of our country, is the official start of summer.  If you live in Florida, summer started long long ago!  Here is a photo of my latest flower canvas - sweet!  Those bullions were a challenge towards the end.  You need a lot of patience and preferably a padded room when pulling the thread through the needle.  And I do recommend a bullion needle for the long ones.

June first is the start of hurricane season so we will be "watching the tropics" as they say from now until November first.  There is always a long list of items we have to have - why are there no needlepoint supplies on the Channel 7 list :)

Emily and I have been doing our gardening....

Look what we found

It's a harmless scarlet snake, not a coral snake as I first feared.  There is a poem we learned in elementary school...Red touches yellow, dangerous fellow.   Red touches black, friend to Jack.  Do you think I remembered that as I was screaming "DROP IT" in the backyard?  No, I came in the kitchen and immediately googled it!

Emily and I have lost one of our 9 lives over this baby.  And not to be outdone by Vickie's cat photos, here is Emily in her element...she went swimming right after this...

Yes, I have an active puppy :)

Have a great day with the BBQ!

Linda

Boston Strong

Hi everyone,

Sorry I have been away so long....

Here is our third ANG ornament demonstrating the "diaper pattern".  I have tried to do each one in a different color theme and I chose green and gold on white canvas for no other reason than I didn't have any St. Patrick's Day decorations.  Then came the Boston Marathon bombing and I thought how appropriate to name it Boston Strong.

With the deadlines for finishing coming ever earlier each year one needs to look far far ahead and stitch out of the season so to speak.  Sort of like buying bathing suits in January :)

I have two more St. Patrick's day decorations.  This one is from the Happy Heart series - there are 12 hearts, one for each month and some of my friends had them made into a calendar/bulletin board with all 12 hearts, but I'm opting for individual ornaments.

And the best for last, my March angel

with her pot of gold

check out the cool fringe - each one tied separately

I'm on to working on May flowers so off these go to the finisher!

See you soon,

Linda

Mind Games

Hi everyone,

It's been busy around here and time flies between posts.  I finished the second ornament from our ANG Chapter Book - I think it turned out great.

Then, while I was trying to decide what to do next I picked up the Seminar magazine with all those great classes in it.  I don't think I can actually go to seminar, but I did sign up for a Correspondence class...blackwork peonies.  This is also referred to as Elizabethan Blackwork because it was introduced to England by Catherine of Aragon and was popular during the time of Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth.  I love the fact that you can take a very simple pattern and manipulate it into an elegant design.

I just started the blackwork HOMEWORK which has to be done before you jump in to the real piece so here are my first photos of my practice blackwork.  You have to have a plan (and actually think) when you stitch so you drag as little thread as possible on the back as you work the design.   I am moving from dark on the left to light on the right just by adding or subtracting design elements.  It's all done with 2 ply of black floss.

And here is a photo of the "person" who thinks I am nuts and wants to go outside!

See you soon,

Linda