The "A" monogram

This is a tidy little number that I decided to do over the Resurrection Remembrance holiday. (I should post on that later too)! I'll warn you now that this is a long post because I'm almost finished and there is a lot I want to share with you. As for this project... Husband tells me that I'm always doing projects for others and that I don't do any for our house. It's true, he's right, again! So I decided that since there are a lot of techniques I'm just learning about, I'd experiment on us. I got a free monogram pattern from Mary Corbet's Needle and Thread (link) and began to work it up. Please visit her site if embroidery interests you (just make sure to still visit me some times too)!   I had certain elements I wanted to include, gold work (I'm using DMC metallic gold thread), and needle painting are the two biggest. I started out using a royal blue but without the camera flash and only under my incandescent lights  it looked black and dreary.

I changed to a wine red color and it looks much better. Again, the camera's flash changes the color to a raspberry hue but is really a rich deep color.
 
   I'm getting way ahead of myself though. Let me start at the beginning.
I printed a copy of the pattern onto a piece of regular paper. I then taped the paper down onto my hard surface ( a wooden TV tray table).  I doubt you can do this with most fabrics but I was using an off white quilter's fat quarter. (a square of cotton fabric, of a certain size, from which I clipped a smaller square) As I mentioned it's off white so I could see the printed paper through my fabric.  When I had it centered I taped the fabric over the paper then I traced the pattern with a #2 pencil. You can see the faint pencil lines in the above snapshots. To give you a sense of the size, the hoop that I'm using is a 4" metal spring hoop. There is probably a good reason why they don't make metal hoops anymore but I love them. My Mother and my Grandmother, Erma both used metal hoops so to me they are homey and nostalgic. (Hi, Mom)!

   This picture shows the color a little more realistically. As you can see I don't have much to go. At this point I had satin stitched all the little circles and most of the ovals. I used Long and Short stitch to needle paint the flower and the leaves. Everything is outlined in couched gold thread (a gold looking metal is flattened and wrapped around a thread). The 'A' itself is chain stitched, I might have satin stitched it but I felt that it was too large. It is instead chain stitched, I'm filling it with chain stitches.
Have a great day everyone!

Pillow cases

I started these pillow cases as a gift for a certain young lady who will be turning 10 the day before the royal wedding. But (there's always a 'but' isn't there?) they didn't work up as quickly as I expected so I gave her something else this time and will pass these on to another gift-needer when I finish them.

 this is a chain store kit. the colors were sort of subdued and drab to me, so I changed them to seem more like the colors a 10 year old girl dreams about.

 I also added a bit of beading on the butterflies. But, alas this project will have to wait as it has become sidelined by another. Not to worry, I'll get back to it, besides she has another birthday next year1

time for a change

I changed the layout and look of this blog today, I'm hoping that you find the colors tranquil and the text easier to navigate. Let me know if it's not! I've also added a "home" button that I believe will take you to the most recent post if you get lost. You don't even have to click your heels!

red work is finished, well the embroidery part!

Last night I completed the embroidery on the red work crib quilt. My Mom wants to put it together and I'm happy to turn it over to her capable hands! There are 22 different stitches in it. It was almost like a sampler for me, only I'm not going to keep it...

It is said that the Amish, when making a quilt will purposely mess up if the quilt has no mistakes in it because only God is perfect. I've not had that problem... there are many mistakes in this embroidery!   I'm not perfect and I enjoyed making it. 

...yep probably shouldn't have used a blanket stitch for the bunny's ears...

...loved satin stitching the ball...

...it's funny how I remember what was gong on as I stitched, Husband and I were watching a PBS program about the history of whaling in America as I stitched this one. I gave the cat on the right curly hair!...

...so here is where the biggest "oops" is most evident - unless you see these up close. Half way through this project I ran out of the red I was using. It was from an economy bag of 6 stranded cotton floss. I forgot to take some of the floss to A.C.Moore (the craft store that I use) so of course I chose a red that was much darker than the red I started with. I'm planning to tea dye the entire quilt when it's finished to help mellow them both out. The first red is bright with yellow/orange undertones. The second is darker with blue undertones. Such is life...

I don't yet know who will end up with the quilt. But I prayed for the receiver a lot while I stitched. Here are the rest of the panels they are pretty self explanatory. I hope you enjoy looking at them.

My next project is a pre-printed set of pillowcases with a matching dresser scarf. I thought the colors were bland. After all the red I'm ready for some pastels. I'm going out on a limb with this one, it will be fantasy colored. After all they are pillow cases, they should be dreamy! Have a great safe weekend. Walk with God.

books, books, books

Our county (public) library had a book sale last weekend. 450,000 books for sale. Some were withdrawn library books others were donated from private citizens others yet were donated by used book stores. We came out with a total of 8 boxes (I think!). We are just now cataloging them on Library Thing. So far we have found many first editions and even 2 signed first editions, and 2 birthday card tucked inside. It may take us till the rapture to catalog them all and some we will give away to friends and loved ones but no matter what we will enjoy them!