A Maybe Finish, A Start, and What is This?

Here is "Frosted Berries" designed by Nancy Williams. I think you can see why I might not be totally pleased with my berry placement. I was hurrying to get to the end so I could start dinner. My plan is not to move the berries, but to add to the piece. I think it mostly needs balancing on the upper left side. We'll see.

Ah. The beginnings of "Echoes of Elizabeth." I even bought the scissors that go with this piece. Colors look a little bit darker than what they are.

What it is? 






If you have the September issue of Needlepointers you might know.

I took some foamcore and made a canvas protector for Stars. Now it's all snug and I don't have to worry about accidentally pulling a thread or pushing in the canvas. The piece still fits in my bag along with book of instructions and all the threads. I don't see the need to do this for every piece I stitch, but for something that I know will be on stretcher bars for an extended period of time, this is a terrific idea. All it takes is foamcore, duct tape, a bit of glue, andmeasuring and cutting implements.

Opened up, you can see the well created with spacers to protect the side of the canvas with the stitching.

It took quite a bit of tape to do this. And less than an hour with interruptions. 

 

Frosted Berries

Maybe it's the weather that prompted me to pull "Frosted Berries" back into my casual rotation. Though it did cool down some this weekend and we got a break from the constantly over 90 degree days. 

And while watching the Red Sox play yesterday afternoon, I finished this piece. I had stopped when I had finally mastered the needleweaving of the raspberry leaves. Then I had to remember how to stitch them all over again. But I did. And then continued on making terrific progress until I came to the option of bullions or lazy daisies. 

I have plenty of bullion experience in my past. When I went upstairs to find the proper needles, I also brought down Embroidery from A - Z as a refresher. And for the next hour, I proceeded to prove I know nothing about bullions. My stitches were either too tight to pull the needle through or too loose and looked like crap. Of course, the true waste of time was happening while attempting to thread the darn needle. And I was too lazy to see if I could locate a wire needle threader. 

I finally got one perfect bullion and it was in exactly the right spot. And then proceeded to be unable to duplicate it. 

And then you know what? I finally called it quits and took that bullion out and did lazy daisies. LOL

I finished everything about a 1/2 hour later. 

But I'm looking at my currants and I don't like where I put them. And one or two of the blueberries could use tweeking, too. 

And thus, there is no photo. Because it isn't really finished until I'm happy.