Finished - Faith, Hope and Charity

 It is finished and framed. After  12 to 13 years of on and off stitching I finished this design from Heaven and Earth Designs. It is 525 by 393 stitches, that makes 206,325 stitches on 32 count linen over one linen thread. I added gold thread to the halos so it sparkles when it catches the light. I had to re-chart the faces and  pull out and re-stitch some of the hands. The colors were just too dark and looked like mud. I really like the way that Faith's hands turned out.

The back of the piece looks like an impressionistic  version of the design. 

Background of Faith, Hope and Charity

 This has been the never ending project. I started it in about 2008 and worked on it sporadically for  the next bunch of years. I would work on it and then put it away for a year or two and get it out again. About 3 years ago I decided it was time to finish it. I have stitched on it usually 2 weeks a month and the progress has been slow but steady. I have posted some of my progress on the blog. Finally the background is finished. Who knew that there were so many light spring greens.. I have saved the halos, hair and faces for last. I want to put metallic gold in the halos so I figured that if I did them all at the same time it would save time. I will also need to change some of the colors used in the faces. The original charted colors in the flesh tones was too bright and garish. The detail in the stitched version is amazing and no photo will ever show just how it really looks.

More Copper and Angels

 I have finally finished with working the copper critters. The last two are finished but I had to wait until I ordered some more copper pearl purl. You would think that I had enough thread for many more and I do but sometimes you want just that certain thread and nothing else will do. The final two are a bee and a snail.  I already have the frames so now I just need to get them framed to hang on the wall. 

Here is the bee in progress with a mock up of the wings while I waited for the copper screen to come, and finally the finished bee.

The last critter was the snail. I decided what I wanted to do and then started stitching and found that it was a bit more work than I assumed it would be because the shell is solidly stitched with either copper threads or a base of cotton for the gears. I just did the clockwork sections of the shell in a random pattern that turned out to be lots of fun to do. I arranged them in the section and then started stitching them down and had to rearrange as they shifted or went flying if they got bumped.

Now the copper is finished I have plans and ideas for some butterflies in silver.

I have seen pieces worked with a combination of gold and silver metal thread so I will keep the copper stash in mind and think about a gold, silver and copper piece. 

I also have been making good progress on Faith, Hope and Charity. I am on the top row and decided to fill in  the wings and the background around the head and halo for all three of the angels. I decided that it would be easier if I did all of those at one time so have incentive to finish the many shades of green background. Who knew that there are so many shades of spring green?

Copper Butterfly and the angels

I am steadily working on my angels. Faith, Hope and Charity are getting much closer to being finished. I now have just 8 full pages and they are done. I ordered the mat and frame, so they are here and waiting. This is the row with the faces and will make the whole piece come alive.

A while ago I bought some fun fabric. It is a thin layer of cork on a fabric backing. I was not quite sure what I was going to do with it but it was too fun to pass up.  In addition to the copper bugs and butterflies, I wanted to do some copper critters that were a bit bigger and more in a steampunk style. Kind of funky with watch gears and fun to look at.  The cork fabric ended up being the perfect background. It is nice to have stash to draw from.
The Clockwork Butterfly is the first to be finished, although I have other shapes designed. They start with an outline and kind of grow as I stitch them.

Faith, Hope and Charity and a goldwork Bee

This has been a rather eventful January. After putting it off for about 5 years,
I finally had a knee replaced. I am at the still not sure it was a good idea place in my recovery, but it is getting better every day and I am told  that the recovery is normal. Time will tell but it was getting worse so...

I have done some more work on Faith Hope and Charity. I am stitching on it for a few weeks a month and it should be done in about a  year if all goes well.


When Alison Cole came to town to teach, I bought a kit for a goldwork bee. It worked up quite quickly and looks good.

Butterfly, Queen Bee, Angels and a dress

Since I last wrote, I have been doing some stitching along with all of the other things that make up life. Our EGA chapter is doing a UFO challenge this year. We were to take an unfinished piece that was at least two years old - mine was more like 15 years -  and work at least 15 minutes a day on it until it is finished.
I had a couple of designs from Betty Chen Louis that I have wanted to finish ever since I took the classes many years ago. So I decided that I would work on both of them, although not at the same time. My problem with starting was that all I wanted to do was stitch on the piece and finish it.
The first one was Butterfly and Grasses. Betty had a way of blending threads that were related but not close in color. She called it optical blending and it is unique and gives a great effect. I really like the way that it turned out. I am glad that I did not finish it years ago since I have learned so much in the years since and I think that it turned out better than it would have.

The second finish is a new design that came into the shop and I just had to stitch it.  Not too hard but lots of fun. I like the mix of design with the bee shape and the quilt blocks as part of it. It is called Queen Bee.

Here is the latest snap of my progress on Faith, Hope and Charity. Charity now has her hands and the very multi colored vest is almost done. Going a bit slow but still making progress.

I bought this dress which was made in about 1910 and is sometime called a lingerie dress. I found it in about 1970 in an antique shop and at the time I was able to wear it in fashion shows. I love the style and way that they have used lace on the dress. The afternoon dresses were made of fine cotton with tucks and inset lace.
I had an antique dress form so I padded the form and covered it in fabric so that it fit the dress. I used some vintage fabric and lace to make the chemise and petticoat so the dress would look like it should.
Finally I put the dress in it and added a ribbon sash. It sets in my workroom so I can enjoy looking at it.

Home remodeling and Faith Hope and Charity

We have lived in our home for 40 years this month. I don't like to move because we once figured out that I had moved 21 times by the time I was 16 years old. So I am now making the most of  putting down roots and living in one place. Over the years we have slowly redone almost everything in the house and finally it was time to do the bathrooms. Ugh... lots of work but I am pleased with the results so far. We still have bit left to do but the major parts are already done.
I have managed to get a bit of embroidery done but now there will be more time. That is if all of the stars align.....
Over the years I have collected bits and pieces like sinks, light fixtures, and ideas.

We did the upstairs hall first. We found an antique cabinet with mirror and used it with a hammered pewter sink and crystal light fixtures. I rather like the way that the room turned out.




























Second we worked on the master bath. The room started with a glass sink that I bought about 15 years ago, it has gold fish in the bowl.We placed it into a vintage cabinet with a granite top and added oriental touches.










Finally we got to the half bath in the hall. I had some special plans for that room. I bought a dish while on holiday and wanted to use the pale teal and cream colors for the room. Then I found a fabulous idea on Pintrest for a penny floor. We used it on the floor, up the wall  and decided to work in other copper accents and an antique round mirror.

Here is the latest progress on Faith, Hope and Charity. Another full row is finished - only two more to go.

Gawthorpe Needlecase

Jenny Adin-Christie designs and creates the most fabulous needlework eye candy. One of her latest designs is the Gawthorpe Needlecase. As of this post, it is still available on her web site at: http://www.jennyadin-christieembroidery.com/Gawthorpe_Needlecase.html


To quote Jenny:
 " Gawthorpe Hall is a beautiful Elizabethan house, sitting beside the tranquil River Calder on the outskirts of the Lancashire town of Padiham. 
Gawthorpe is also the home for the The Gawthorpe Textile Collection. This is a 30,000+ collection of textiles and embroidery of every type, and from around the world, which was amassed by the late Rachel Kay Shuttleworth (1886 – 1967)
It was on reading Miss Rachel’s biography that I became I was inspired to produce a design which would bring together inspiration from the embroidery treasures, combined with a celebration of Miss Rachel’s life and achievements."  

The needlecase is in the form of a pocket once a necessary part of every woman's dress. It is decorated with a "silver fish" from an award that Miss Rachel received and many other bits that remind us of her life.

The needlecase is full of many fun types of embroidery that work so well together. The kit was full of wonderful threads of wool, silk and metal with beads and spangles.
Inside of the needlecase are two compartments. In one is book of pages to hold needles and pins. Jenny sent us a small wax flower to use to wax our threads as we stitch but it was so cute that I could not bear to use it. I put it on some gathered silk ribbon and fastened it down with a pearl so that it could stay in the other compartment of the case.
I had a fun time stitching this with all the wonderful threads and unusual techniques. It worked up quite quickly because I couldn't wait to see what was coming next.

The angel of Faith finally has her hands. I had to alter the colors a bit because the originals were a bit bright and too pink but I think that they turned out really well.

Student award and Faith, Hope and Charity

One of the magazines that I love is Inspirations. It is published out of Australia and is full of fabulous projects. I rarely stitch any of the projects but they are so much fun to look at and be inspired. They put out a newsletter that has featured several of my finished pieces. In fact, one is coming out the next issue. It has been fun to see them published and share with the needlework community.  In issue #160, I was looking at the award winning pieces from the "seminar" that they hold called Beating Around the Bush. I found much to my surprise and delight that one my my students, Elma Haley won a first place for the Jewel Box Bag. I taught it at the Embroiderers' Guild National Seminar in Asheville, North Carolina in 2017.  It is great to see finished pieces from my students. She did a fabulous job with the stitching and the finishing.  Great big congratulations to her.

Some progress has been made on Faith, Hope and Charity. It is fun to see the slow but steady progress that I am making. Emphasis on slow... as far as I can tell I am about half way finished. Yea!!!

While Rosy Cheeks Sampler update

Here are a couple of updates on a couple of things that I have been working on. First is Faith, Hope and Charity. If feel like my forever project but I am making some progress. I wanted to work out the dimensions of the whole sampler so I stitched the partial pages on the right of the sampler all the way to the top of the design so I could see the finished size. Now I only have whole pages left, all 27 of them.

 I am working on the While Rosy Cheeks sampler also. Here is a fun tree that is finished. I thought about doing spiral trellis for the fruit but decided that Rhodes stitches would work better.

 Here is the verse that the sampler if named for finished. Since it is over one thread I ended up using 100/3 silk for the letters. The linen is from Lakeside and the way it is finished shrinks it a bit. So now it is 42 threads per square inch instead of 40.

I have added a new pattern to my line of retail patterns. It is set of Quaker inspired pin cushions that includes instructions for finishing them. It has been stitched for a while but I finally got the the rest of the instructions written. I find it very frustrating when I purchase a pattern and they don't include the directions of how they finished it so I include them in my patterns. The pin cushions are big but have fun shapes.

Just keeping moving along

When I am asked what I want, I tell those who ask that I need an extra couple of hours in the day that no one else knows about. That way I can go to my extra-dimensional workroom and have those few extra hours for my projects. Of course, like Alice in Wonderland, once in I might never want to come out. Since no one has let me know just how to access that space, I need to just keep working and moving along the best I can.
I finally decided that I just needed to take some time and finish the Peter Rabbit basket that I designed and stitched in 2012. It has been setting in a box just waiting until I had the time to assemble the pieces and now it is time. I will post it when it is all put together.

Here are a couple of things that I have been working on lately.

 This is the progress on Faith, Hope and Charity. I am able to get almost a page of pattern finished in the two weeks a month that I have been working on it.

 Here are the last side pieces of the trinket box from the Cabinet of Curiosities. The color is still not very good but at least you can see the design. The background silk is a rich gold not the pale creamy color that shows up in the photos. I am now working on the top of the box and changing my mind on color as I work on it.  Sometimes you just have to start and then stop and make some changes before you start again.

 This is a new sampler that I designed. It is called While Rosy Cheeks because of a sampler verse that I found on an antique sampler many years ago and liked so much that I wrote the verse down. It was finally calling to me so loudly that I put it in a design that I am working on now. I can be done in just cross stitch but I am going to add lots of other stitches for those more adventurous embroiderers out there.

Catching up on several fronts

I have been needing to update a few things and so am going to put several unrelated pictures here with a bit about them.
I have been collecting a type of glass that is Early American Pressed Glass. I only collect the pattern called Utah or Twinkle Star. It is fairly simple, just clear with a few stars but I like it. It is hard to find but I do have quite a number of different pieces. Unless I have several of the same piece, I try to buy it whenever I find it.This is a wine glass that I just purchased.

I like to make dolls occasionally  and bought the pattern for this one several years ago and just finished it in time for the holidays. It is truly a Jolly Old Elf.

I have been trying to work on Faith, Hope and Charity for a couple of weeks every month and here is the progress to date. I am excited to see it grow. One of the customers at the shop brought in an "over one" embroidery that took her 12 years to finish but I am hopeful that I can finish before that many years but it you count from the date I started it might be that long.

I have started on the trinket box that is part of the Cabinet of Curiosities class that I am working on. Two side done and two more plus the top to go. Then comes the assembly.....going to have to study up on that before I glue anything together.

Summer travels, Flowers and Stitching

This has been a very busy summer. In the space of six weeks I have been to Asheville North Carolina in the east, and have driven  up to Kalispell, Montana and down to Mesa, Arizona. We got caught in a six hour traffic jam around Las Vegas, Nevada. By the time all of it was over I was ready for a rest and some stitching time. We figured that we have driven enough distance that would have taken us from Los Angeles to New York
I took some pictures that I was going to post of flowers around the yard during the year. So now fall is upon us, I am going to post them so I can look forward to seeing them again next year.

Spring started with the Japanese Iris

  Then came the hibiscus in the summer

Finally the colors of fall

During the summer my ground cover strawberries bloomed. The blossoms are a deep pink but the fruit is tiny and mostly seeds. Just seeing them makes me smile

Although this is not a flower from my garden - oh, how I wish we could grow them here. Janie, the daughter of my niece picked them for me, the fragrance of the plumeria was fabulous.

More about stitching later of current pieces but I thought that I would post my most recent progress on the forever project - Faith Hope and Charity.

Finishing - of several sorts

Since I last posted we have been busy finishing a few things. We have painted rooms and chairs, made valances, and worked on finishing some of the pieces from embroidery classes that I have taken.
I had fun painting a chair. It is an antique that I picked up somewhere. It has always been in rather bad shape and so it was perfect for painting in fun colors to match the room it is in.



Here is the unfinished chair








And here is the finished chair. I love the way that it turned out.

This is TEN from Amy Mitten. She does mystery stories that are explained in her embroidered sampler.

Nan Tyson Euler has always been one of my favorite friends and embroidery teachers.This is the last piece that I took from her. It is named Katherine for Katherine Swynford.  Nan always tells the story about the life of the woman that the sampler is named for. Katherine (born in 1350, died 1403) was a larger than life historical character who was first the mistress and finally the wife of John of Gaunt. Her descendants were  players on both sides of the War of the Roses and all modern British Royalty is related to her.
I did change the bird near the top but it was adapted from an illuminated letter from the same historical period.

This is a small snippet of the next one of the American Coverlet series of cross stitch patterns that are retail patterns released through Kelmscott Designs. It is called Flowers and Trees. I have one more designed that should be out in the fall.

Also here is a long overdue update on Faith, Hope and Charity. I picked it up and am nearly finished with the bottom row of pages. I have a plan for consistently working on it.   I hope to work a page a month. Here's hoping that I can hold that that plan.