February WIPocalypse

Wow - Two WIPocalypses in a row, let's see if I can keep on my roll!

I have actually had a fair amount of progress, which makes me super happy.

First I finished Thansgiving Fairy by Mirabilia

Then I finished (Celtic) Ferret Knot

And now I'm working on WWKCD

Previously, I just had the letters done (chopped off above because of a fold in the fabric holding it in the Qsnaps).  

I'm working on one color at a time, I have done 2 and I have 3 left.  Huzzah!

I am working on the "easy" ones.  I have a lot of TWs and larger pieces, but I've learned that I can stitch on my downtime at work, and so I've been keeping that limited to "easier" pieces so I can put things down quickly.

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The Topic for this month is:
If you have any of your pieces on display in your home, which attracts the most plaudits.

Probably Luna Moth or my Letters from Nora - S, because they're both in the front hallway.   

If people are spending any significant time at our place (meaning that they're spending the night and will therefore be upstairs), then they see Story Teller, who would *probably* get the most love if he were on main-hallway-display ;)

This weekend we will be hosting a game day on Saturday, and on Sunday I'm hosting a tiny get together for some Craftivism - we'll be working on the 5.4 Million and Counting project, so that should be interesting.

I'm hoping to finish WWKCD this week, but of course, it will all depend on work.

#TBT - Shroomhilde

Shroomhilde is a design by Terrence "Terry" Nolan of Dimples Designs fame.   While I adore his WeeBeasties (which I should probably get around to posting), he also had a few other small series.    This one was part of the Shrooms, of which I think there were four (Magic of Mother's Love, Mushroom Tabernacle Choir and The Bride and the Shroom).   I thought they were all adorable, but Shroomhilde was the only one that spoke to me enough to stitch.

And if I recall correctly, I really did enjoy stitching her.    There are a lot of silks involved, and more than a few beads, and it was just fun.

A lot of the time I was stitching her, I had Kill the Wabbit running through my head, keeping myself pretty entertained.

The border was stitched in Waterlilies, if I recall correctly, with kreinik back stitching, and was very pleasant to stitch on that 32ct Platinum Linen (not the kreiniks... never the kreiniks!).

The Valkyrie horns on her shoom cap kept cracking me up.  I loved the spear and the shield.  I love the gill ruffles around her neck.  Seriously, the detail on this is just too fun.

A close up of some of the silks and backstitched kreinik.  I do remember not being very enthused about all of that backstitching with metallics.   But it was too pretty to not incorporate.

Confession:  I did not realize that she was wearing armor/a breastplate at first.   To be honest, at first glance I thought her bosom was actually paws.   I had a few people laugh at me pretty well over that, but I still don't feel all that embarrassed about it.

The beads!  So cute. I liked how the beads accented this piece, but did not overwhelm it.  Sometimes they can do that, but this was just right - from the ridges in her stalk to the swirl in the background.   It does go very well with the piece overall.

Hrm.  I think I know what piece I'd like to have framed next now.

She was finished on June 21, 2002.  I know I picked her up at a stitching show, though I can't remember which one. I know I didn't stitch on her there, but in my favorite apartment where I lived in Houston.  She was pretty quick, lots of fun, and I still adore her.

Throwback Thursday - Blackwork dragon

This week's Throwback Thursday is brought to you courtesy of Jennifer Aikman-Smith and DragonDreams designs.   I've had the privilege to meet Jennifer a couple of times and I can confirm that she's pretty freakin' awesome.

If I recall correctly (and I probably don't), this was the first of the blackwork pieces that she designed.  There were three four in all - a dragon, a unicorn, a princess, and apparently a knight I missed ;).   I had never stitched a large blackwork piece, and I really wanted to try it out.    I also decided to use a darker, more jeweltoned variegated thread for it - a Caron Wildflowers called plum.   It was stitched on a 28 antique white linen (I'm starting to think a majority of my pieces were stitched on an antique white linen) and it took me one month.   I started on December 1, 2002, and finished on December 31, 2002.  Woot!

I really would like to get this one framed, but it's a bit lower in the priority from some of my other pieces.  It was great to learn to work blackwork and I really enjoyed this piece quite a bit.

DragonDreams is still in existence and available wholesale (or at least a good number of the designs are), so getting some of the designs is still possible, though no new big designs have been released in some while.      JAS does offer freebies on FB, so it's still possible to get my hands on cute little ones that she's still designing.

Framed Storyteller By Teresa Wentzler

I completely forgot to post this picture!   When I got the rest of my pieces framed at Nick's, I also got Storyteller framed.  Unfortunately, I was not clear on my desire for spacers, so I think there was a bit of a mix up.  I took ST to a local framer I really like (who I just don't use because while he's very good, he's also expensive!) and had him add in spacers.

I got ST back a bit ago, and now I just need to find a place to hang it.  I'm running out of wall space!  (or I need more walls?  Haha!)

Here is the whole thing framed, I just adore that frame.
I stitched Storyteller from 6/29/2001 through 3/17/2002

Framing - Part 2 - For Amelia!

This is my second framed piece, and I don't have as many detail shots... I am hoping to add them in later.   Due to what was probably a minor miscommunication, I didn't get the spacers I had hoped (see, hoped, not asked!) for, so I will take care of that with a local framer..

For Amelia was a class that Terry offered years ago at CATS (2001?  I can't remember!).   A friend of mine signed up for the class but didn't want to stitch the piece, so she was kind enough to sell me her kit!

The piece was stitched on Lt Pansy linen by Glenshee Linens, and I learned an important lesson in hand dyed linens (this was my first).   It is all silks and delicas, definitely worth the premium price that I paid.

These are probably so similar I don't need to upload both images, but I am rather proud of her.
There is glass on the piece, I was trying to reduce the glare (it's regular glass). 
I'm not super thrilled with the piece ONLY because there is a lot of purple going on, and I'm not sure how I feel about that, though I love the actual frame.   I'm sure once I find her proper place in the house, I'll calm down... I think my penchant for "conservative" fabrics is playing into my less than utter love ;)

Unfortunately, the designer is no longer designing (heck, no one seems to know where he is), and luckily I have pretty much all of the charts of his that I want (rather, I have all of the charts for pieces I have not done - all of my completed charts I have given away).

I did find an interesting blog post that lists everything he's done, which is really helpful/awesome.  And as far as I can tell, For Amelia is still available as a chart pack at a few online shops.