Stitcher's Showcase

In April, Needle Artist's by the Sea EGA group had their 4th biannual needlework show. I entered three pieces and won for each. Whoopee!

 I received a 3rd place for my "White Queen" designed by Carolyn Webb. It was an EGA group correspondence course for pulled and drawn thread. I believe it's done on 28 count linen.

Here's a larger picture of the lower section so you can see some of the detail.

I took a 2nd for my "Fascination" designed by Marc Saastrad of The Silver Lining. It's stitched using one strand of floss over one thread on 25 count Summer Khaki lugana. Marc combines both the DMC and Anchor floss lines to gain a 700+ palette, so you MUST use his colors to get good results. I think this used about 80 colors from both DMC and Anchor. And that's for yellow, white, and green!

I won a 1st for "Angel of Cross Stitch" designed by Joan Elliot. She published the design on 1999 in the Cross Stitcher magazine to commemorate the 100th anniversary of DMC. The charts uses (I think) 391 DMC colors. By the time I got around to stitching it, DMC had added several colors so I couldn't say that it had all of them anymore. Why couldn't they have waited until I'd stitched my angel?! But really, it was fun and taught me not to fear rethreading my needle...a lot.


All three pieces were framed by Bob at Needles & Niceties in Upland, California. He did a wonderful job and I would recommend him for any heirloom quality framing jobs. In fact, the show judges kept praising "my" wonderful framing!

I am currently working on a myriad of little projects. As you can see from the items above, I LOVE BAPs (Big A** Project) but it's draining to stitch and stitch and stitch and rarely complete anything. However, with my smaller projects I'm stitching and stitching and stitching and getting the stitching done, but then I'm not finishing the project into it's final form! Sheesh! There is no pleasing me at all!

Going in the Water

Last night, I put the last stitches into a stocking for my future son-in-law. It's called Bad Landing, the design is by Sherrie Stept-Aweau from artwork by Rebecca Wood, published in A Cross-Stitch Christmas/Season of Joy. I worked it on 14-count white aida (design measures 9 1/2 x 17 inches) and every stupid square is stitched. Every one! It took me, an amazingly slow stitcher, 4 months to stitch. But once I get it sewn up Jonathan will have his very own handmade stocking. I'm washing it today and should iron it on Thursday or Friday.

I'll be working on White Queen (from the EGA) next as I've got a due date on that. I also promised to make a unity candle wrap for my daughter's wedding and if I wait too late it will be a nightmare! But my heart is yearning for And They Sinned.

I have And They Sinned all kitted up. I'm going to put it on scroll rods since the design is about four feet long when it's completed. Here's the fabric I choose with the threads spread out over it. I chose a gorgeous fabric from R & R (purchased from Stitcher's Paradise in Las Vegas) that looks like it's been sitting in some one's attic for several years. Of course, it can't be washed (I REALLY like this fabric so chose it anyway) so I'll have to be extra careful. I've been checking on how to make scroll rod covers to protect my piece. I'll make them up and show you how they work.