Brite Eyes

This is a design by Margaret Bendig called Brite Eyes. I plan a trip to Hobby Lobby for some pins, beads, ribbon and items for feet for the finish finishing.

I used glow in the dark DMC floss, but it was not super vibrant, so I added some glow in the dark Kreinik blending filament to it. It called for glow in the dark Kreinik braid for the yellow eyes and green collars on the cats, so lots of glow in the dark!!

Recently, I started a stitching journal of sorts.  So far, I am enjoying it. I can get a rough guide on how long I stitched on a project. So, this one took me about 13 hours and 35 minutes. Now that I know this, no one will ask me how long it took to make!

 HAPPY STITCHING!!

Ribbon Embroidery

 For the June Festival Stitchers program, I designed and taught this 5"x 7" greeting card. 

I designed it a bit on the fly, and I was not sure what I was going to turn it into. When I finished it, I thought about putting it in premade card blanks. But my design was a bit too wide. Since I also dabble in paper crafts, I had an oval die cut and cardstock I could use to make my sample above, but I needed something for class. So, I went back to the drawing board and made a few adjustments, so I could teach it to fit into premade card blanks with the oval already cut out. 

I gave everyone an option of Ivory or white cards and aida cloth. We use ribbon from the club's stash. We sometimes get donations from people who no longer stitch or have passed away, and one of these included a bunch of silk ribbon.

I used my book An Encyclopedia of Ribbon Embroidery Flowers 121 designs by Deanna Hall West, American School of Needlework (1995), to decide on the flowers.

Have a great day!!

Kreinik Braid & Storage

 When I took the Purple Hearts class, it used quite a bit of #8 Kreinik braid, so the instructor gave us a 50M cone! Now that Rainbow Gallery owns and manufactures the braid, it is on a card. Below is a photo of these three styles, which need to be stored somewhere!

I store my Rainbow Gallery thread in 12"x 12" drawers in a setup for paper crafts. I converted the top two drawers from paper to Rainbow Gallery Threads. I made dividers and so far, it is working out great!

I store my metallics in a floss bobbin case, which is inside a 12" x12" scrapbook paper box with a lid. I labeled this box metallics, and luckily, there is room for the cone. But I don't want the same thread in two places, so for now I am just going to lay the one card I have so far on top of the spools and call it good. I will revisit it if (who am I kidding, when) I get more cards. 

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The fun fact about the new cards from Rainbow Gallery is that they hold 11M, while the spools only hold 10M. 

HAPPY STITCHING!

Purple Hearts Continued from 2010

I last talked to you about this project on July 11, 2010.

I picked it back up on June 27 and have been working on it almost every night since. 

It is on 24 count black congress cloth and has been a challenge in places, but I have tons of light working and magnification. I have only ripped out stitches a few times! I am now going back to section 8, which is black on black. UGH!

Here are some photos of my progress.

How it looked when I picked it up on June 27. If you compare it to the July 11, 2010 post, you will see it is exactly the same!

Here I finished the center and cleaned up all the "spaghetti" left over from class.

June 28 working on area 5.

July 8, 2025, Areas 1 - 7 completed. 

The close-up below shows a little bit of the black on black I did back in 2010 (lower left of the center square). It is the next area to complete. UGH. 

After this area, I go back to area 4 & 10 to add beads. 

I am working on reducing my WIIPs and this one was the one I pulled out of my WIP cupboard. I have 31 projects in the cupboard (including Purple Hearts). It does make me wonder when a WIP (Work in Progress) becomes a UFO (UnFinished Object) or visa versa. 

HAPPY STITCHING!!

Happy Fourth of July

In the United States, we are celebrating 249 years of Independence on July 4. So, while I wish everyone everywhere a happy fourth, it means a bit more here. 

I have a display of Red, White, and Blue I put out in May (for Memorial Day), June (for Flag Day) and July (for Independence Day). It is a mix of stitching and papercrafts, plus a table runner I received as a Christmas gift one year. 

Happy Day, Wherever You Are!!

States Completed

I finished the last three states from the Statehood Splendor series from Thead Milk Designs. I posted about the other states here.  Fairly self-explanatory what they are!

For Arizona, I used Weeks Dye Works Lancaster Red instead of the Gloriana silk it called for. This was a stash reduction project.

Here is the final grouping and I guess now you know all the places I have lived! Next in this project is either the Victoria Sampler set or the Janlynn Designs set (mentioned in previous blog post linked to above), time will tell.

HAPPY STITCHING!

Some Framing

I decided to go with the frame I found on Amazon that said it had a 5"x5" opening. That sounded fine since the finished size was 4.5" x 4.5". I was surprised when it came with a double mat (glued to the first mat) that made the actual opening 4.5" x 4.5". Luck was on my side this time.

I also had a frame with a funny dog saying that I was not crazy about the ceramic dog that was inside, so I found a dog design on page 43 in 365 Tiny Cross Stitch Designs by Kooler Design Studio published in 2000 by American School of Needlework. I added the hearts to fill in the space above.

On a side note, I really like the book I mentioned above, it has a lot of nice designs. I am not sure if it is still available, but worth a hunt, at least in my opinion.

Happy Stitching!