Spooky Halloween Mantle

I am enjoying a few days of stitching bliss. 

Day 1 start. This kit from Bent Creek actually came in three parts. It's done on 18-count linen over 2 threads with pearl cotton so it goes pretty fast. That a photo of the finished design at the bottom.

Here is the end of day 1. My owl now can fly and see and the cat must contend with a spider. I'm stitching in hand (without a hoop or frame). I may switch over to a charity project because I have time constraints on that and, since I won't get this done in time for Halloween this year anyway, I should save it for doing on an upcoming plane trip.



I'm really proud that I've finally figured out how to update my blog from my iPad. Now I can update when I'm out of town!

Just a quick post

I wanted to let you all know about the blog I write for the Baldy View EGA chapter I joined a few years ago.

I've spent a lot of time today trying to figure out some stuff on my smartphone and feeling a little dumb about it so not a lot of needlework is happening right now. In the meantime, here's a non-needlework picture of my daughter's dog Thor just because he's cute. I'm going to bed now.

Halloween Stitching

With the weather cooling down at my house (which here means falling below 100° F.) I feel like Halloween is on the way. Here are some of my current and past Halloween projects.

Kerry Ince from We, Of The Needle in Brea framed "Ghoul School" by Glendon Place for me. I added glow-in-the-dark blending filament to my ghosts. The characters were easy because all their heads are buttons.

  Next is a project I'm planning to start called "Corn-elia" by Ann Strite-Kurz. This is designed to be an ornament but someone in Inland Empire EGA has already finished it as a needle book. It's just the right size for a scissor case, too.




Some past Halloween Projects:

I don't remember the designer but I did this a few years ago. I added the red letters over the cat. Isn't he fierce! He's framed in a shadowbox with Halloween accents.

 "Remember Me" by Birds of a Feather. This was my first time stitching with over-dyed thread. The motto is one of my favorites. It's usually in some flowery Victorian-style sampler but it really rocks with a witch and skeleton. This was framed by Bob at Needles and Niceties in Upland.

 This little Mill Hill kit is stitched on paper. Again, I added glow-in-the-dark to the ghost. It was the first time I'd done that and I felt so clever.

This Mill Hill kit is stitched on fabric. I liked the look of it on the stretcher bars so much that I just left it on.

"Scared Silly" by Bird's of a Feather.  I like her designs. I bought a frame to put this in before I started stitching it. Yeah, I stitched it in 2010 and yeah, it's still not framed. Now THAT'S scary.

The Wedding Sampler is Done

My daughter's wedding sampler is done!

 This is the 1Corinthians Wedding Sampler by Stoney Creek. As with most needlework, the photo can't capture what the piece actually looks like. For instance, both the doves and the bells look like they are the same white but they're not; the doves are the natural soft whites and grays you'd expect but the bells are stitched with a white metallic blending filament to look more like painted metal. The gold upper part of each bell is stitched with gold thread and iridescent pearl blending filament while the same gold thread is stitched with a gold blending filament to create the gold bands and clappers. Iridescent stitches are randomly placed in the greenery to look like dew drops. The two hearts on the top are stitched with the iridescent gold colors on the edges and then filled with gold metallic back stitched lines. The effect is a soft shimmer balanced with the matte of the roses and doves and is quite pleasing.

I recently went to see a Lichtenstein exhibit and realized how easily his work translated into photographs because it was, like the graphic art that inspired him, flat and uniformly finished. Really, when you've seen a good quality photo of his work you've pretty much seen the piece (though you should go to an exhibit if you can because his art really is fun). However, so many other artists make texture and finish so much a part of their work that even the best photo can't truly capture it. I remember the first time I saw Van Gogh's Starry Night. I'd seen that image all my life but the real piece was so alive in comparison. Needlework is like that too. While my piece is done in a uniform cross stitch, the gloss of the floss laid in uniformity contrasting with the gleam of the metallics against the matte of the fabric make a contrast that can't be well translated into a photograph.