Maureen's stitching is so perfect and so detailed. I always drool over everything she does. It's almost to beautiful to use...but I promised myself I would. I'm like so many people I want to save my nice things instead of using and enjoying them. I must break myself of this habit...
I'm sure there are other weird things about me that I just don't know about. I was tagged by several people and I know most of my blog friends have been tagged several times too....so if you are reading this and haven't been tagged yet consider yourself tagged by me.
Thanks to all of my readers that have been leaving me comments. I love to read them and I try to respond if I get an email address otherwise I visit your blog (if you have one).
I started a new job a month ago and it is seriously getting in the way of my stitching time. Several of the ladies in one of my online groups suggest stitching at least 15 minutes each day...I really need to start this and make it a habit. My biggest problem with that is I lose all track of time when I'm stitching...lol!!!
I hope everyone is having a great day!
This little heart has been patiently waiting in my flickr folder to be posted to this blog. The print in the center is one of my favorites. It has all of my favorite things....birds, bird houses and flowers.
The flowers on the top left are Fargo roses...they are very full and look the way roses should. Three of the seam treatments are done with a single thread of DMC floss.
I hope everyone has a great week!
Sometimes it's fun to do some thing totally different. This county heart is made from all cotton fabrics...I love working with cottons they are far more forgiving then fancy fabrics.
I've been working on more hearts. The spider web roses got a little flattened in the scanner but that's ok they puffed up again. I really am trying to get away from purple but I think there are a few more in my pile to do.
I hope everyone had a nice weekend!
I love doing these spider web rose motifs!!! Others must like them to I have several comments on my flickr site about them.
This one the silk ribbon is just one color but I like to use two ribbons together in my needle while doing them. I'll use a 7mm ribbon along with a 4mm ribbon of a different color so the rose has a two tone look to it. Belinda from www.bearembroideryden.blogspot.com shared this tip and I have been using it on most of my roses.
The roses at the top of the bottom seam treatment are Fargo roses...now that I can make them right I use them often too.
Life has been so busy lately that I haven't had time to work on big projects. It's nice to have a pile of hearts made up so that I can work slowly and not forget what I'm doing on them. I enjoyed working on this heart; the curve was interesting to play with. The seam treatment makes such a pretty arch.
I seem to be stuck on purple lately most of the hearts are shades of pink and purple. The center fabric is a beautiful bold cotton print; this is only a small corner piece.
I want to thank all of those that have been leaving comments I love hearing from all of you. I do try to respond to anyone that has a return email address. It is so nice to know people are reading my blog. Hopefully life will settle down for me and I will be able to post more often this fall and winter.
I'm posting this from my flicker site and it will only allow me to post one pic at a time. I have another heart pic to share so it well be the post above this one.
Happy Weekend Everyone!!
This beautiful heart came all the way from Italy to my little home here in Ohio. Lorenza does beautiful work....aren't those violets great!
A scanned picture of these hearts just doesn't do them justice. This heart is so sweet and Susan's stitching is wonderful.
This beautiful heart is from Norma Harris who lives in Virginia. I love the paisley!
This heart is from Michelle Share who lives in Maine. She does lovely tatting and I've been looking forward to seeing it up close and personal.
This heart is truly an experiment with color contrast. I used the main colors of the print (shades of pink to dark maroon and shades of yellow) to make a very bold heart. The threads are all perl cottons which adds to the boldness. The Fargo roses at the top have seed beads in between them.
I like doing this kind of heart every now and then. It's like singing really loud and maybe off-key but you don't care because it makes you feel soooo good. I'm afraid the scanned photos just doesn't do it justice I think it much prettier in person.
I really like this sail boat image and wanted to try it on a heart. I guess I didn't have a plan for the stitching so it has a little of this and a little of that. The interlocking circles motif and the motif on the right are from Carole Samples "Treasure of Crazy Quilt Stitches".
Now that I can actually do Fargo roses I added them at the bottom along with ribbon stitch and lazy daisy stitch leaves. The spiderweb rose at the top is very eclectic...I like changing things up a bit. It's done with olive green and orange 7mm ribbon that I dyed myself. The two-ribbon technique I learned from Bear...she's planning on doing a tutorial soon so please watch for it.
The bead trails on either side of the spiderweb rose are my very first attempt at them. It was fun to pick the beads then decide which should lay against each other. I can see myself doing a lot more bead trails now.
The little anchor at the bottom is done in satin stitch. It wasn't easy to get the details to show, I would have liked to make it bigger but I didn't want it to over power.
Here is a larger view if anyone cares to see the details.
This is my first attempt at a Seascape Heart. It was fun but I just don't have any sea theme charms or buttons so I stitched the beaded star fish. The pattern for the sea horse came from Needlecrafter.com. All of the fancy threads are couched down with beads and on the left I used a feather stitch with beads for more sea grass.
I have had such a difficult time finishing this heart...I've been working on it for 4 weeks. I love the way it turned out and I tried out some new stitches...cast-on, Fargo roses and the scrunched ribbon. It looks like I need more practice on the cast-on stitches...lol...they don't lay flat like others I've seen. I'm really pleased with the Fargo roses...they never turned out right before when I've tried them. The spider web roses are done with two ribbons a 7mm and 4mm threaded together. I really like the effect! Larger photo here.
This sunflower came up in a very small flower box on the back porch. It must have come from the bird feeder...not sure how it got there but it's done very well. I set the box next to the porch post for support...the flower is very tall and rather top heavy for the box it's in.
I love hydrangeas....I have two and this one is blooming like crazy. The flower heads are huge!
My dear friend Sandie loved the first heart that I did with this pattern so I did this one just for her. I believe the embroidery pattern is from one of Judith Baker Montano's books.
I couldn't help myself this pic was too good to pass up. I had to take it through the glass in the back door. The kittens aren't tame and take off as soon as they hear the door knob turn. There are three of them and they are all cute but ornery...they love to play in the flowers and nap in them too!!!
This flower just went crazy blooming this year. The kittens have played in it quite a bit. I have yelled at them several times to run them out. Ornery kittens!!!
I really should have staked these daisies they have fallen over and now they are covering up my hydrangeas.
This block was fun to do...it was part of a baggie swap and block contest on the CQNewbies yahoo group. I had a wonderful time stitching seam treatments that I hadn't tryed before. It's my first completed block.
To get lighter green colors I mixed lemonade and lime. Adding a little orange to the lemonade gave me a darker yellow. To get an olive shade I mixed a little orange with lime. I'm very pleased with the colors.
For the most part I followed Sandie's dyeing instructions..I microwaved them, then heat set them with the iron..after that I rinsed them in fabric softener. It was easy and not too messy...I didn't use gloves but the Kool-Aid has worn off my fingers already.
This rose was a gift from my neighbor last spring. I usually don't have any luck growing roses but this one made it through the winter and I didn't have to do much pruning. It was full of buds and I couldn't wait for it to bloom. The blooms smell good with out being overly fragrant. What I like best is that the blooms are very showy and can be seen from the road.....so my neighbor can see them when she drives by.
This heart is from Candji who lives in Ohio
