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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The Nesting Place Class Progress (Part Two)

Yes! I'm done with Lesson #1!
By the time you read this, I probably will be getting ready
to start with Lesson #2.
 Here are a few pictures of the process...
outlining of 2nd bird finished and starting to fill in.
 Filling in the shape and shading.
 2nd bird plumage finished!
I switched to blue wool for the wing accents instead of red wool.
Didn't stitch the legs on this second bird for this 1st lesson.
I think I did a bit better with the smoothness of the belly 
area of this bird compared to the first one.
Still I feel I need more practice in shading and in not 
overcrowding stitches.
 I admit it is not perfect, there are a few mistakes.
However, I'm happy with it and my motto is to learn from 
my mistakes and in the case of embroidery it helps me 
to have those mistakes visible in order to be better
next time... plus I hate to rip stitches (unless it is truly necessary).
This is what works for me which I know it is not the case
for everyone.
Well, as I said... Lesson #1 is finished,
Lesson #2 and #3 should be a breeze compare to this one!
Hope y'all having fun on your crafty/stitchy projects!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Quilt Project Progress (Blocks 4 and 5)

Here is my progress on my Quilt Project.
Only one more block to go for this month!
 Below is a picture of what I accomplished while 
waiting at carpool.
For me, the best pastimes while waiting at carpool
are: listening/reading to spiritually enriching material,
stitching and napping ;-).
 A couple of close ups of cute girly puppy
(love her tiny bow) and...
of cute little duckling (he looks so happy and determine).
I hope to finish soon with my 3rd block for this month! 
I also completed Lesson #1 of 
Working on final stitches of my Lilipopo's pattern and I'm
about to start with the 1st princess of Lilipopo's 
free Stitch Along.
Will post about these wip's and/or finishes soon!

Friday, February 24, 2012

Thread Eye Candy (Picture Heavy)

I have some stitchy progress to show you but the lack of 
sunlight prevented me from taking pictures.
In the meantime enjoy some eye candy!













Below are some of the ways I use to keep all my
hand embroidery threads and floss stash organized:








(PS= still not feeling too good, but eye candy always 
cheers me up a bit. Hope you enjoyed it too!)

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Lilipopo Pattern and Quilt Project Progress

When it comes to my Lilipopo pattern,
below is my progress.
As soon as I finish this one I will be stitching the 
1st princess of Lilipopo's free SAL,
which I want to finish before the end of the month, yes, before
the next princess pattern is release.
Now onto my Stitchy Quilt Project progress.
The 3 blocks for this month are already pieced and ready 
to be stitched. These are good candidates to be stitched
while waiting here and there, in fact, one of them...
is almost done. These cuties stitch fast!

Monday, February 20, 2012

The Nesting Place Online Class Progress

This weekend flew by!
I wasn't able to accomplish all that I wanted to do,
but I'm happy that I was still able to make  some progress. 
Above is my progress on Lesson #1 of the online class The Nesting Place.
I'm halfway through the lesson hopefully I would be
able to work a bit more on it this afternoon.
Here are some wip pictures of it:
From top left: ironing linen fabric after rinsing and semi-drying in 
a towel / auditioning stretcher bars using pattern / pattern transferred 
and basted / all set up and ready to go.
Above is the outlined shape before filling it in with
long & short stitches and finally here is 
where I am now,
I better hurry since lesson #2 begins today!
I'm so glad I decided to take this class. Mary is a great
teacher/mentor.  She has provided us with written instructions, videos,
one to one feedback and a private online forum. 
The class participants are from all over the world.
I believe this particular class won't be offered again but
there are other online classes coming up soon.

On a different subject, I was also able to make progress on
my Quilt Project and on the Lilipopo pattern next time
I'll share with you progress on those.
These days my agility is a bit compromise, however considering
the circumstances, I'm very happy with what I was able 
to accomplish over the weekend. 

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Hand Embroidered Vintage Tablecloth


I found this hand embroidered tablecloth set (yes it came with the napkins!) at a 
community yard sale at one of the local library's parking lot in May 2009.
Since then I haven't gotten such a deal in vintage linens.
I posted about this great find on my "old" blog ... 
anyone remember how much I payed for it???
One of the pictures in this collage has the tag... are you able to read it?
Ok.. I will tell you ....
I found this treasure for the amazing prize of $4.00!!!!!!
Can you believe it!!!????!!!!
I still can't ... :-). I didn't even bargain for it, wouldn't dare to.
These pictures in the collage were the ones I took that very day
when I found it... couldn't wait to iron it to take pictures :-).
 These two pictures are from the back of some of the embroidered
motives... that's what I call tidy stitching!
The embroiderer put sooo much care on this piece... she/he 
even used different embroidery techniques.
For example the bow below is embroidered in shadow work.
 He/She also used simple pulled thread work as the
picture below shows.
I've used it once. I don't want it to get permanently soiled since
I found it in excellent condition.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Stitchy Distractions ;-)

Yes... I'm distracted! 
Perhaps I must say... very distracted ;-) from my Quilt project.
First with an embroidery pattern that was featured on
an e-magazine that I was subscribed to.
Cute pattern by designer
Lilipopo. 
I'm so glad I was reminded of this pattern when
today browsing a little bit (while dinner was cooking)
found Lilipopo's blog and saw that she is having
a Stitch Along! She also has a shop.
My second distraction is the Daisychain ABC's Sampler
by designer Alicia Paulson... another super cute project!
This particular sampler I plan to work on it slowly.
Would you care to join? It could be fun!
I won't be starting until March.
I resized it smaller, traced it and I still need to hoop it up.
For this project I may be using DMC floss instead of wool.

I'm also starting an online embroidery class with Mary Corbet from
Needle-n-Thread.
(picture below from Needle-n-Thread)
The Nesting Place online class.
I received my kit for the class over a week ago...
I'm very excited and looking forward to it!
I do have in my schedule to work on my Stitchy Quilt Along
next weekend... so all is good!
I wonder... when you work on your projects,
are you able to focus and work just on one project 
until you are done or are you more like me
having a few things going on at the same time?

Friday, February 10, 2012

Missing Snow

For some reason I thought that this year we were going to 
get snow... but it hasn't happen and it doesn't look like
it will happen anytime soon.
We had so much fun last year! I stitched Mrs. Snowgirl and
we did get a nice amount of snow.
I do not enjoy very cold weather so having a mild winter
is good for me... however being able to look out the window 
and see snow covering everything... oh how pretty!
Maybe some of you are having/or had a bit too much of
it and are probably tired of it.
(Let's sing along)... ❡Mrs. Snow, Snow ❡.... Mrs.. Snowy Snow ❡,
❡please fall down on me! ❡(LOL).
I will just enjoy last year memories!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Wherever You Are... Embroider!

My current handi-crafting is on stale mode :-/.
I'm looking at my previous projects to gain some motivation.
I started this project while on a vacation.
Even though I brought along a few embroidery necessities, 
obviously it seems like they were not enough.
So a trip to a local handicrafts shop took place.
When back with my bounty I didn't waste time to start.
Found the perfect Aunt Martha's pattern and a few skeins of DMC
...among other things ;-).
In I went to our hotel's room bathroom to use the iron and ironing board
and was able to take it with me...
in one of our daily outings to start working on it.
Didn't get much done while at the beach, however on our way 
back home it was a different story.
I find plane trips sooo boring and most of the time I don't 
care for watching the in-flight movie(s).
Once home I put in the last few stitches.
There! A happy little piggy having fun floating at the beach!
I really enjoy hand embroidering wherever I am!