I took a little detour last night from working on my Fairy Garden. I finished up the first block on my Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow! The colors are so vibrant on this...the chartpack picture definitely needs to be retaken!
After looking at several of the blocks, there are only a few that do not have a peacock somewhere in it.
All good intentions aside, I did not get as much done on my Fairy Flower Garden in the past few days as I would have liked. But, I did try the little Jessica bellflowers. Cute! . . . and pretty easy to stitch, too! I did start to fill in the yellow border. The chart calls for pink centers for the bead flowers, but I liked the purple centers better.
And a little closer look:
Fairy Flower Garden
Thanks, again, to everyone for your encouraging comments! Reading all of them certainly does help to keep me motivated!
Scrolls! Only one more to finish filling in with DMC 519 and then only one remains! Woohoo!
Maybe I will finally get to move onto the next border. I am waiting for the border to be in place before I backstitch any of those dark green leaves.
Well, duh!!
I keep completely forgetting that I am missing DMC 807 to fill in the heart shape on the four central motifs. Once I get that thread, the motifs will be done!
A little more work on my Fairy Garden.
Now that the scrolls are outlined, I need to go back and fill each one in.
After seeing Ineke's gorgeous dragonfly, I am sooo tempted to just stitch what I need to make it to the outer portion where the dragonflies are. But...I am trying to be good on this one. Three scrolls are filled in now, with five more to go. The corners are much easier than the center portions, but I know how I am.
If I don't complete the middle portions along with the corners, they might just get skipped over for quite a while. ;)
A little more on my Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow (Block #1). I'm alternating between this one and my Fairies Flower Garden.
The colors are much richer than the picture on the chart shows.
I worked on all the Deep Blue Sea scrolls on my Fairies Garden. I thought I had them all done, but, of course, after looking at my picture....I see there is one that is missing a little bit of its scrolls.
I'll finish those little bits and move onto another color within the scrolls...probably the Cormorant Gaze. OK - Cormorant?? Now that's a word I have never heard. So, curiosity got the better of me and I went and looked it up. Believe it or not, it is a species of bird. Now I feel better. :) It makes you wonder where the thread designers go looking for new color names, doesn't it?
The next two borders on my Fairies Mandala are done! Woohoo! I can't believe I have actually completed each section on this one. I usually tend to work on several different areas at once. The border with all the little Rhodes stitches is finished, as well as the border with the little pink flowers.
Well, not really. But I guess you might think so, as the stores here already have all the Christmas decorations up. But I digress....after doing all those Jessicas...I decided to take a little break with something a little "simpler"....not necessarily smaller...just less complex.
My start on Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow, stitched with one strand of silk on 36 count Examplar Lakeside Linen.
Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow
Not quite as bright as shown on the cover photo of the design, which does make me happy. I still need to buy a few of the NPI's for this one. Not surprisingly, I did have quite a few of the necessary colors. Plus, I decided to try something a little different. A few specialty stitches, here and there. The border is stitched in a tied-down cross stitch and there is one satin stitch center for a flower.
Thank you to everyone who has stopped by and left such great comments. I truly appreciate each and every one!
the stitch, that is!
Lots and lots of little Jessica stitches. Now Algerian eyelets are my least favorite stitch. But in second place for that distinction, is the Jessica stitch. I guess because it takes a while to stitch each one, and I want to move onto something different a little more quickly.
Now I have decided that I will not stitch Algerian eyelets over one (if I can help it). So, I thought why not the same thing with Jessicas?
When I use one thread and go into each hole, my Jessica stitches just look like bumps. But when I stitch them with two threads over two threads, they actually seem to have a little more definition. A new resolution for me - no more Jessicas over one....;)
A little more on my Fairies Flower Mandala. Some of the borders, and a few of the specialty stitches.(Of course, after taking the picture is when I noticed the stray thread....)
Vintage Christmas quilt by Bunny Hill Designs...Block #2 finished.
(the ric-rac on the cake does lay flat...I must have messed it up when I was moving the block around.)
Oh, my! I received my package with my market purchases the other day. I knew I would not be able to wait to start something new.:) This new kit from Shepherds Bush, Holly and Ivy, has been keeping me a little busy.
Then the quilting bug bit me again. I spent all day yesterday working on the tracing, cutting and fusing of some of the blocks of my A Tisket, A Tasket quilt by Bunny Hill Designs. No picture just yet as things are just fused, but each block still needs all the little pieces to be attached permanently. There is also quite a bit of embellishment to add - usually a bit of hand embroidery, buttons and ribbons.
It's about time! That's right....I can hear you say it....
The bottom portion of the house is together. Not perfect, but I'm happy with it. Check out the fabric I used for the inside....see all the little gingerbread men who came to live in their new house?
And another view:.jpg)
Not a lot of stitching has been happening around here this weekend. Family stuff...then I woke up Sunday and decided it was time to clean out and reorganize my bedroom! Started at the top and worked my way down! From ceiling fan, to walls, to windows and then just all the accumulated "stuff". Everything got sorted, taken out, thrown out or cleaned!
Now everything is nice and neat and tidy! :) Since my stitching chair is in this room, I tend to "collect" a lot of my stitching stuff around me. So, it was time.
I did, however, work on the finishing of my little Gingerbread House, just a little on Friday. But once I started attaching the sides together, I was not happy. I took it all apart and restarted it. I do not really like the whip stitch joining. So instead, I did a variation on the C. A. Wells method (I should say I started). The house bottom is almost done (again!) Maybe a few pictures later, if it gets done. ;)
A different "zone" today....sorry for those waiting...I picked up my Fairies Flower Garden and was going to work on it for a little while...well, I got into one of those "zones" where I just kept going and going on it. I never did pick up the finishing for my little house yesterday.
A little "zone" stitching:
"Beware!" Construction Zone!
I finished the assembly of all the sides and bottom for my Gingerbread House. . The roof may get worked on a bit today. It is the needlebook portion of the etui. I still have the final actual assembly of making all my "sides" into the little house. It is looking cute! So far, so good! I thought I would wait to take pictures until I actually have something that looks like a house.
In the meantime, I did work on my newest project, the Fairy Garden Mandala, from Chatelaine. This is a one-time download file for this one, so you don't have to wait for each month to get the entire design. Take a peek:
