Tumbling Stripes - Updated 4/27/28

April 27, 2024--Just had this framed by Michael's Arts & Crafts in Rehoboth Beach, DE.  Love the flat matt dark blue narrow frame.   It fits this piece beautifully.  

Tumbling Stripes Finished

March 29, 2024--The borders are now stitched, and this project is ready for framing.  I made one color change in the outermost border from dark red to dark blue.  I like the contrast much better.   The medium red in the border looks different from top to bottom due to the way the light shone on it.

Tumbling Stripes Completed

 March 25, 2024--All the stripes are stitched, and I will next work on the border.    I chose the same colors as the designer, Marily Owen, using the red, white and blue colorway, but my colors appear to be lighter than hers.  I also used 4 strands of the darkest RG Splendor color to fill in the "blank spaces".  Three strands, as instructed to use in the manual, proved to be too light in coverage and the canvas showed through.   I'm liking the results so far.

Tumbling Stripes with All Stripes Completed

February 1, 2024--I just finished the first seven or right-angle stripes of this adorable project.  The next 5 stripes will move diagonally to the left.  Those will be more of a challenge to work up since the edges of each stripe are stitched on the diagonal which will require me to pay more attention to stitch placement.  Here's what it looks like so far.

Tumbling Stripes Through Stripe 7

January 25, 2024--This interesting project, called Tumbling Stripes, is designed by Marilyn Owen and was offered by ANG's CyberPointers Chapter in April of 2021.  However, I never did anything with it and filed the .pdf instructions under "Projects on Hold" on my PC, thinking it would never see the light of day.  Well, it has now come out to play with the NJNA Chapter of ANG whose members have started working on it this month, and I've decided to join them (I'm also a member of the chapter).  

I like this type of project because of the wide variety of stitches and interesting pattern.  It has 12 rows or "stripes" repeated in 4 areas or quadrants.  The first 7 stripes angle to the right while the bottom 5 stripes (A through E) angle to the left, giving the appearance of a rolling or tumbling ball.  

I'm working up my project in the blue and red colorway and below is a photo of the first two stripes stitched so far.  

Tumbling Stripes through Stripe 2

Here's a photo of the completed project as stitched by the designer.

Tumbling Stripes designed by Marilyn Owen Project Photo

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Bracelet and Earrings December 2012 Design

April 26, 2024--Just finished beading up this adorable bracelet and earrings set designed by Deb Moffett-Hall entitled December 2012.   It's made with gold and copper beads along with bronze fire polish gems.  The earrings are the first I've ever done and had no trouble with Deb's wonderful instructions.

The set will be fun to wear.

Bracelet and Earrings December 2012 Pattern Finished

Santa Sugarplum - Updated 4/25/24

April 25, 2024--Done!  This was a delightful project to stitch and I especially love the "candy" stitched onto the crown's brim.   There's a plastic sugarplum to attach to the crown when this is finished into an ornament.  This santa is definitely a cutie and is the 17th of Janet Zickler Casey's Santas stitched to date.

Santa Sugarplum Completed

January 9, 2024--Wanted to start something new, so what better way to begin the year than with one of Janet Zickler Casey's santas--this time Sugarplum Santa from 2022.  Since I didn't stitch any of her santas in 2023, I hope to get two or three done this year (as of today, I've stitched 16 santas and have 11 more to do).

Here's what's done so far with Sugarplum.  Per instructions, the face is always stitched first (I'll do the moustache, eyebrows, and outline of the eyes last).   Next, I'll work from the top down, stitching the hat, band, and beard.  These sections are the most fun to work up and will get done quickly.  Stay tuned for its completion.

Santa Sugarplum Face Stitched

 

This was a class given by Janet Zickler Casey at the 2022 ANG Seminar in Tucson, AZ.  Even though I had signed up to take the class, I was unable to take it since I was quarantined for half of the seminar with COVID.  Dang.  But I've done enough of her santas that I feel confident I can stitch this with written instructions only.

Heart of Hearts - 3/31/24

March 31, 2024--For its 2024 community project, my needlepoint chapter, Delaware's Seashore Chapter of ANG, is participating in the Hearts for Hospice program and donating the stitched hearts to Delaware Hospice.  I chose to stitch a heart designed by Barbara Richardson called Heart of Hearts with instructions published in the 2008, Vol X, 1 issue of Needlepoint Now Magazine.  

It proved to be an interesting challenge, especially the "darning" pattern in the center column.  It was so complex that I had to draft the stitches on my iPad using the photo editing tool.   

I self-finished the heart, and as with other projects, learned a lot, especially the need to make the cording much thicker.  However, I didn't have enough floss to make the cord as thick as I wanted, so it's flimsier than desired.  But I finally figured out how to "wrap" the cord at the base of the heart to hide where the cord ends are plunged inside the ornament which results in a much neater finish.  

Here's the result....

Heart of Hearts Finished

Parcheesi Anyone - 3/27/24

March 27, 2024--This is a piloted project I stitched for Susan Hoekstra who will be teaching this adorable game board class at the 2024 ANG Seminar in Kansas City, MO.  Susan tells me the unusual colors and design were copied from an antique Parcheesi board.  The kit includes a line drawn canvas, instructions, threads, frame pieces and parcheesi game "men".  

I probably won't use the unfinished frame pieces supplied with the kit, but instead will have my framer set this in a black lacquered frame and add "footies" so it can sit on a table.  The parcheesi men supplied are also unfinished and the thought of painting these myself is untenable, especially after I had hand painted all the checkers in a previous pilot stitched project for Susan called "Game Is On".  Too fiddly.   I'm actually thinking of hitting some second-hand shops for an older parcheesi game just for the game pieces.  If I find one with all the playing pieces in colors that I like--that'll be that.

Parcheesi Anyone Completed

Below is a photo of the project taken from the seminar brochure.  If you sign up for this project, you're going to love the interesting stitches and scrumptious threads used.

2023 Year in Review - 1/2/24

 2023 Year in Review - 1/2/24

March 15, 2024--This is a duplicate posting of the Year in Review.  I accidentally deleted the original and am unable to recover it.  If you missed it the first time--enjoy.

January 2, 2024 - Happy New Year!!  

In 2023, I worked up more beaded items than needlepointed ones and loved doing them all.

I managed to complete the stitching of 9 needlepointed projects and 15 beaded ones. In September, I attended a stitching retreat hosted by Sandy Arthur of Duo Designs (designer and instructor extraordinaire) at Butler State Park in Carrollton, KY.  

Below are pictures from most recently stitched (December) to oldest (January).

Many have not yet been finished into ornaments, framed, etc.--I'm waiting to stitch all the projects in the collections before working them up into ornaments (e.g., Janet Zickler Casey's santa collection and Susan Portra's holiday ornament collection).

Also included in this list are the projects stitched in prior years that have been finished into pillows, ornaments, etc. in 2023.

Hope you enjoy looking at these pictures and walking down memory lane with me.  Click on the photo's caption to see more information about each project.

SOTM 2023 Crescent Journey

Ornament Holiday Light Green

Name Tag for EGA Brandywine Chapter

 

Rozashi Three Hana

                                             

Scissors Case Lacy Back Finished

Scissors Case Lacy Front Finished

 

Coin Case Stitch and Zip

 

Master Needlepointer Program of ANG - Stage 2

 

Holiday Ornament Gift Pink

Rozashi Daiya Variations Kit

 

Stars Beaded Mini 3D Warped 5 Pointed

 

Bracelet Flat Herringbone with Two Hole Duo Beads

 

Bracelet Peyote Marrakesh

 

Bracelet Beaded Berry Band

 

Bracelet Beaded Treasure

 

Beaded Starfish Pendants

 

Bracelet Beaded Tiffany

 

Russian Spiral Bracelet

Russian Spiral Necklace

 

Beaded Bracelet Peyote Silk Flowers

 

Beaded Bracelet Pearl Bliss

 

Beaded Bracelet Peyote Dogwood

 

Beaded Bracelet Holiday Russian Spiral

 

Bracelet Beaded Taught by Dinna V

 

Bracelet Russian Spiral Beaded

Projects that were stitched in prior years, but "finished" in 2023:

 

Game is On Checkerboard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bracelet Beaded Filled Right Angle Weave - 3/9/24

March 9, 2024--Yesterday I took a class from Donna Baratta at the Rehoboth Beach Art League on how to work up a filled right angle weave bracelet.  She supplied everything we needed--beads, button for closure, thread, needles, lighting, scissors, bead mat, written instructions, etc.  Love this technique and we managed to get everything done in the time allotted (4 hours).  I now want to make this again, but two additional rows wider.  Here it is with silvery white seed beads and very shiny dark blue 4mm Czech fire polished crystals.  

Bracelet Beaded Filled Right Angle Weave Finished