My Vintage Heart - Updated 3/27/21

March 27, 2021--Finished this beautiful heart into an ornament and love how it came out.  Lots of sparkly bling.  Project information can be found below copied from prior blogs.

My Vintage Heart Finished Front

My Vintage Heart Finished Back

My Vintage Heart Kumihimo Cord

My Vintage Heart Kumihimo Cord Setup

December 6, 2020--The bling has been added and wow--it's beautiful.    Purchasing Nancy Cucci's designs and kits with beads is always a lot of fun.  There's a nice surprise at the end when all the beads are attached--shine, texture, dimension, etc.   This project did not disappoint.  

My Vintage Heart Completed

My Vintage Heart Completed Side View 1

My Vintage Heart Completed Side View 2

November 30, 2020--The stitching is done and all sections ready for embellishment with the beautiful (and many vintage) beads Nancy included in the kit.  I love how beads add so much "wow" factor and can't wait to see what this will look like all dressed up.  Stay tuned.

My Vintage Heart Before Beading

November 17, 2020--When ANG's CyberPointers Chapter offered up this heart by Nancy Cucci last June with lessons to begin in November, I signed up immediately.  Her hearts are so beautiful with wonderful bead embellishments, and this heart doesn't disappoint (click on Collections to the right to see other projects designed by Nancy Cucci that I've stitched to date).   I love how she added antique beads to the kit that were accumulated by her over the years.

Here's a photo of the completed outline done in Tent Stitch.  Now the fun begins.

My Vintage Heart Outlined

Blue Diamond Ornament - Updated 3/20/21

March 20, 2021--Finished this tiny diamond into an ornament.  I must admit I almost didn't bother posting on the blog--this is one of the worst finishing jobs I've ever done.  Well, maybe the second worst.  I'm discovering that the smaller the ornament, the more difficult it is to properly finish.   The proof is in the pictures.  I also believe that one of the reasons professional finishers top off their work with lots of bows and fru-fru may be to cover up errors in forming a loop at the top.  It isn't easy stuffing all of that cording into the top of an ornament--something has to give.

Ornament Diamond Blue Completed Front

Ornament Diamond Blue Completed Back

January 27, 2021--Last night I took a Zoom class on how to stitch the below ornament.  

Blue Diamond Ornament

Melita Glavin of  Melitastitches4fun's Blog and a co-attendee of the class, perfectly describes the event as follows:

My EGA Brandywine Chapter hosted a class earlier tonight with Vicky Witterschein so she can gain experience towards her teaching certification with the National Academy of Needlearts (NAN).

Many thanks to her local needlepoint shop, The Edwardian Needle and Pam, for donating 20 kits to each of EGA’s 5 regions. It consists of 5″ x 5″ piece of 18 count canvas, Santa Fe Sage, 2 mm ribbon, Kreinik, pearls, needles, and beading thread.

Vicky led us through the stitches, had video demonstrations, and several of us finished the project during the 2-hour Zoom class. She is well on her to being an excellent teacher.

It could be done as a diamond like I did (2″ x 3″) or a Christmas Tree. Any ribbon thread will work, if I want to make up another. It’s great that the stitches work up easily into 2 different designs.

I chose to stitch the diamond shaped ornament rather than the tree.   It was a fast stitch and one worth repeating.

2 comments:

1. 
   Frances W.February 3, 2021 at 9:17 PM

   Lovely, I’m also signed up. My zoom class is in March. Can’t wait.

   ReplyDelete
2. 
   MelitaFebruary 20, 2021 at 10:12 AM

   Definitely would do another. I love seeing you in Zoom classes and meetings!!

   ReplyDelete

Graph Gripper - 3/13/21

 March 13, 2021--A new favorite tool of mine is the Yarn Tree Graph Gripper.  The "gripper" is large enough to attach to 3/4" wide stretcher bars (but not Evertites).  Often enough I copy a stitch diagram from my instructions and cut off everything but the graph and hold it in place using the Graph Gripper's clip (see photos below).   The Gripper is very flexible and can be maneuvered into any number of positions while not slipping out of place (hope this makes sense).

Yarn Tree Graph Gripper Bent Sideways

Yarn Tree Graph Gripper Kept Upright

North Wind Santa - 3/12/2021

March 12, 2021--I'm continuing to stitch these cute santas designed by Janet Zickler Casey.  This one is called North Wind Santa from 2003.   You can see others I've done by clicking on Collections under the Pages tab on the right.  So far this is number thirteen that's completed.   I've planned to stitch one old and one new each year until I've caught up with all that's available.  There are twelve older ones to work on and Janet designs a new one each year, so I'll be busy for--twelve more years.  Yikes.   

North Wind Santa Completed

North Wind Santa Side View

There's lots of sparkle in the beard.

Delicate Flowers Stocking by Pat Mazu - Updated 3/8/21

March 8, 2021--This is the third stocking finished using a technique I've recently written about.  It's a process that has many steps and takes time, but is worth the effort to proudly say I've finished it myself and saved quite a bit of money to boot.  Of course, it's not perfect, but it's for my personal use only, so enjoy it I will.

Stocking Delicate Flowers Finished Front

Stocking Delicate Flowers Finished Back (Note year of 2015)

Stocking Delicate Flowers Cording Name

Stocking Delicate Flowers Cording Details

July 13, 2015--Have completed the stitching on this piece and am ready to finish it into a stocking.   The side view picture shows the depth and nap of the threads.

Think I'll make the cording out of the two greens and add white.  Love working on projects that take no time to complete.  It's just what I needed.

Completed Stitching

Side View

July 11, 2015--Finished the cuff on this beautiful stocking.  Changed the color of the Kreinik cross stitches from gold to a pale green.  Hope it'll work.  Here's a photo of my progress so far.

Stocking Delicate Flowers Through Cuff

Stocking Delicate Flowers Through Cuff Closeup

July 6, 2015--My local ANG chapter, Delaware's Seashore Chapter, is stitching Pat Mazu's Delicate Flower Stocking from the 2003-2004 Chapter Project Book.  I've got everything together and ready for the class today.  The threads chosen are from my stash and even though not the traditional holiday colors, I think they'll be lovely (I love all greens with a touch of blue in them).

Delicate Flowers Stocking Project Photo

Thread Selections

This is the first post in over a month--was fishing with DH in Canada and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I love being on the water and DH makes fishing so easy for me--he baits my hook and takes the fish off the hook.  All I have to do is reel it in, and that's where all the fun is.  The lakes were so beautiful.

Fishing at Lost Lake Wilderness Lodge, Ontario, Canada

A Star in the Meadow Stocking - Updated 3/5/21

March 5, 2021--Finally finished this project into a stocking ornament.  This is the second stocking made using a technique I wrote about here.   It's definitely a learning process and some of what I learned can be transferred to flat ornaments.  For example, finger pressing the canvas seam allowance into place, then ironing it flat so it can be used as a mounting board template is a great technique for odd shaped ornaments.  I'm still on the fence about hand sewing together the canvas front to the fabric back, but I'll give it a try with flat backed ornaments rather than gluing them together as I would normally do (hand sewing is a necessity for working up stockings though).  

Stocking Star in the Meadow Finished Front

Stocking Star in the Meadow Finished Back

Below is a photo of the cording I used which was purchased from Michaels Arts & Crafts.

Stocking Star in the Meadow Cording

February 9, 2017--My ANG chapter, Delaware's Seashore Chapter, had a class led by our incomparable Geri W. on stitching Pat Mazu's stocking called A Star in the Meadow.   This was a free download (click here) made available by ANG Needle Pointers Magazine.  Due to the bargello or florentine stitches over multiple threads, this was a very quick finish.  Too bad the shiny Swarovski Bicones don't show well in the photo.  This is the third Pat Mazu project I have ready to finish into a stocking.  They make darling ornaments.

A Star in the Meadow Stocking

Stocking Brocaded Elegance - Updated 2/26/21

February 26, 2021--Finished this ornament into an opened top, lined stocking with the help of two YouTube videos done by "starkeart" and can be found by clicking on Part 1 and Part 2.  Her technique is different from other stocking finishers and I personally like it a lot.   There is more hand sewing than I'm used to, but it's necessary in putting the stocking back and front together.  However, I chose to glue the Kumihimo cording around the stocking rather than hand sew it because my arthritic fingers couldn't take any more hand sewing.  The embroidered initials and year on the stocking back were done on my Bernina 1530 which is a garment sewing machine, not an embroidery machine, so I'm lucky it does this much.

Stocking Brocaded Elegance Completed Front

Stocking Brocaded Elegance Completed Back

Stocking Brocaded Elegance Completed Showing Lining

Kumihimo Cording for Stocking Brocaded Elegance

February 19, 2021--The Northern Virginia Chapter of ANG worked this beautiful stocking designed by Pat Mazu as a chapter project at their February meeting.  Even though I was unable to attend the Zoom meeting that night, I decided to stitch it up using colors from my thread stash.  The instructions can be found in the January, 2019 issue of ANG's NeedlePointers Magazine, and is a very quick stitch.  Now off to my craft room to finish this into a stocking ornament.

Stocking Brocaded Elegance Completed

Stocking Brocaded Elegance Completed Side View

The instructions called for a Swarovski teardrop pendant crystal, but I used a very dark blue pendant leftover from another of Pat Mazu's projects that I stitched called Sapphires and Sparkles
Perfect.

Below is a copy of the stocking as shown in the magazine.  Mine looks very different stitched in monochromatic colors.

Stocking Brocaded Elegance Designed by Pat Mazu Project Photo

Candles Bright - Updated 1/4/2021

January 4, 2021--It took me forever to stitch the pine boughs and cones unto the bottom of this beautiful project.   Anything that requires randomness in the stitching causes me to fuss and get nothing done.  Well I made a resolution to finish this thing before allowing myself to work on anything else, so finish I did.  Now that it's done, don't know why I dallied--it wasn't so bad after all.   Now I have to decide how to finish it into something that can be displayed at Christmastime.

Candles Bright Completed

June 10, 2020--Finished stitching Lesson 2.  This covered all 3 candles as well as the wicks, flames and  haloes.  The haloes were to be stitched "freeform".  Ha, ha--that's nearly impossible for me--I had to graph out the curves, and even then, I'm not totally satisfied.

The lesson did not mention anything about stitching the slanted portion of the smallest candle, but I went ahead and finished it, assuming what thread to use.

The next lesson will probably cover the pine bough and cones.  Definitely a quick stitch project.

Candles Bright through Lesson 2

May 8, 2020--I registered for this ANG CyberWorkshop designed by Mary Knapp in January of this year and the first lesson arrived on May 1.  There are 3 candles and a pine bough with cones in the project (see In Process Projects Page on the right), and the first lesson covered the center candle and its wick, flame and halo.  Since all three candles have the same type of flame, I'll save that stitching until all the candles are worked up.

So far this project is easy enough.  However, I'm having a problem keeping the pearle 8 thread straight in the vertical stitches--it sometimes sits to the right or left of the hole.  I suspect it has something to do with how tight the thread twist is and if something on the backside is affecting how it lays on the front.  But this isn't enough of a problem for me to rip everything out and start over.  So here we are until next month.

Note:  the indentation on the right side is for another candle to be stitched.

Candles Bright through Lesson 1

Janet Zickler Casey Santas Stitched to Date - Updated 1/3/2021

Click on the photo caption to view more information about each santa.

May 18, 2020--Here's the 12th santa ornament stitched so far--North Wind Santa

North Wind Santa Completed

May 12, 2020--the 11th Janet Zickler Casey santa stitched to date called Santa in the Moon.

Santa in the Moon Completed

January 5, 2020--The 10th JZC santa, Heart Santa, is stitched.

Santa Heart

February 11, 2019--The 9th JZC santa is stitched.

Star Spangled Santa

January 9, 2019--Here's the eighth stitched so far to add to the list below.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Santa

November 16, 2018—Recently I counted up the number of santa ornaments designed by Janet Zickler Casey that I’ve stitched over the years.  Below are 7 out of 23 total to date.  As new ones are completed, I’ll add them to the list.  My goal is to stitch two a year (one new, one old) until all are done.  Click on the caption for more information about each santa pictured.

Candy Swirl Santa

Pine Cone Santa

Nutcracker Santa

Christmas Tree Santa

Silver Bell Santa

Christmas Light Santa

Candy Cane Santa

To see the santas yet to be stitched, please click on the 2 Pages on the right side of this blog called Planned Projects and In Process Projects.