Filed under: Other People's Designs
My mother’s mother, Mae – Grandma to me was very crafty – into everything (rug hooking, crochet, knitting, ceramics, leather tooling)! Here she is at 62 and it would be about 10 years later when she’d be teaching me needlework.
I’ve posted some of her pieces but realized that I have missed a few.
These appear to be crewel embroidery. And, she probably did the finishing too. The oval ones are dated 1981 (2 years prior to her death at 85 years of age). The square ones are not dated but I think they would be from the 70s.
Great memories of our time together!
I had to cut out portions of Rhapsody to get enough of the purple color to span the top wide area. I used the lighter white portions on both smaller side areas below.
Again, I swapped out French Knots for cross stitches. The 1×2 alternating cross stitches fit nicely in the area with the top cross pointing towards the center as has been done throughout this design.
This is my progress after stitching during my EGA Brandywine’s Quarterly meeting, ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter Stitch-in, and football.
I’ll save the background for another Stitch-in.
A snowy long weekend allowed me time to do some finishing work.
I’d had no luck finding fabric at any Michael’s recently. Initially, when JoAnn’s closed, it looked like Michael’s were stepping it up on the fabrics. But, they didn’t restock. So, when I found fat quarters (18″ x 21″) at Walmart awhile ago, I grabbed a few solid colors including the purple (solid pansy) on the back of this one. It’s a pink canvas but the one long light thread that was couched in the piece is a light purple.
My preferred finishing process is a stabilizer (tacked into place on the canvas with invisible thread) and one layer of felt glued onto magazine board. Then, I attach a loop to the stabilizer side. And, both sides are.attached to each other with cording sewed in place.
It’s taking awhile to get through the 4 pieces I’d piled up because we’ve watched a great show on BritBox called Riot Women and lots of football games. Since there are 4 pieces, I progressed in stages across each one until I got to attaching the cording. My fingers need to rest between each one.
I finished Peace, 3rd in The Cabochon Series by Susan Portra first.
Here’s my four finished cabochons on the banister.
In the background, currently, two Dawn Donnelly pieces flank my owl which Bill loves! And, the owl has a buddy (gifted to Bill many years ago from the ladies in his Binks office)! I rotate among different pieces on the staircase.
The two small ornaments are my grandmother’s which I realize I have not blogged about – yet.
It’s rather appropriate that the first of the Cabochons by Susan Portra to start in 2026 is Hope since I am hopeful that I will complete the series this year. It’s actually the 4th in the series (still missing 11 and 12 if anyone has a lead on how to get them).
Hope is supposed to be on a gray canvas using Rhapsody R04. My canvas is called pewter, a type of gray that looks great with this Rhapsody. Although my card of Rhapsody is not numbered, it goes great with Neon Rays N08 which is in Susan’s original colorway. I am switching out Anchor Floss and Pearl #5 for DMC threads.
The basting of the outline was done last night. I did get the top row of 26 cross stitches in at our ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter Stitch-in today but I was convinced to rip them out because I had not done that many and they had not been done according to the instructions. The top stitches of the cross stitches are supposed to point to the center. I had spent too much time shopping and talking to restitch them there. And, I had forgotten to get my unstitched starting photo.
So, this was my progress during the Saturday night football games.
This church ornament by Cross My Heart, Inc was a destashed item from Sally that I took out to have a small piece to work on periodically. The company is still online at EverythingCrossStitch(.com) but this kit is from 1992 and no longer available.
Having not done a cross stitch kit in years, I had forgotten that the threads come all together. It took some time because the greens are quite close but I separated them onto a couple of floss organizers.
I made a copy before marking it up further and enlarged it. Only the outlining in backstitch remains.
You can see how the outline helps define the shapes. While the overall design was evident, now it pops. Very easy finishing. After attaching the ribbon, some E6000 around the back edge adhered it to the metal tart tin. Cute idea!
Filed under: Florentine Fancywork by Toni McKelley, Other People's Designs
Florentine Fancywork by Toni McKelley was an ANG Correspondence Course years ago but I didn’t get it and regretted it. So, I put a saved search on Ebay quite some time ago and forgot about. Back in June, I got notified that the instructions had been posted and I bought it. When it arrived, I asked my husband to put it away for Christmas. Again, I forgot about it! What a wonderful surprise to open it today. That’s definitely going to be on my must stitch list for counted pieces in 2026!
Toni used Rainbow Gallery Overture which she calls a space-dyed thread! Haven’t seen that term before. It’s what I call overdyed. And, it calls for V114 Victoriana that has been discontinued! Of course. Toni uses segments of it in the border but not everywhere. Apparently, it has greens, yellows, and peaches according to the text and photos. I have one card of Overture that isn’t V114. But, the separated strands are slightly thinner than strands of Watercolours. Since I have lots of skeins of Watercolours and coverage will be better, I will switch to one or two skeins of Watercolours.
There is also Rainbow Tweed RT66 Leaf Green which is still available but I think I’ll stay with Watercolours.
First, I will pull the solids. Flair, Mandarin Floss, Neon Rays, and 3 Splendors are all available at Fireside Stitchery which I can pick up on Saturday January 3rd at our rescheduled December Stitch-in. That leaves Gold Rush 14, WG53C, Violet Blush that is not available at Fireside Stitchery but is still available elsewhere. I do have Gold Rush 14, WG86C, Lilac that is a bit darker but might work just fine. Once I obtain the solids and decide on the Watercolours, I will decide on the Gold Rush.
Very pretty design combining the various bargello patterns together.
Filed under: Susan Portra, The Cabochons, Peace
Tiara by Rainbow Gallery is next on my list of threads that I don’t like!
Good news is that laying the long lengths of pearl in advance of couching was not difficult except for the thread. Tiara separated at the ends and was catching. I’m not getting a break with nasty threads.
I worked on the background during a Zoom call, during football games, and a movie. It’s interesting to see Susan’s choice to do the denser tent stitches on the sides and skipping every other for the more open pattern on the top and bottom.
The cabochons went on easy enough.
It’s now added to my finishing pile. And, I won’t allow myself to start the next cabochon until this one is finished. So, I’ve got to find time!!
Peace from the Cabochon series by Susan Portra is coming along nicely. I counted the tent stitch blue border in advance of our Saturday Stitch-in because it requires concentration.
I added the pink Fyre Werks outline during the Stitch-in yesterday.
As in a previous cabochon, I substituted French Knots with cross stitches of various lengths (over 4, 3, 2, and/or 1) depending on the number of available intersections. I got the idea from Painted Canvas Embellishment: An Idea Book by Carole Lake and Michael Boren (Bands and Borders Over One).
Not wanting to start anything more difficult later that night, I added the bugle beads and all the long laid diagonal stitches. There were no instructions to stitch one row and then couch. So, I laid all the threads. Hopefully, I won’t regret that! I do have enough in case I need the remove it but I should be ok.
I am contemplating a T-stitch for the cabochon squares. The instructions leave them unstitched. Thoughts?
Peace is the third in The Cabochons series by Susan Portra. It’s on a light pink canvas but the blue and purple save it from being too pink.
I forgot to get a photo of the threads first. So, you see the Rhapsody boxes.
Our ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter Stitch-in was Saturday at Fireside Stitchery. There were 3 men stitching and not either of the 2 guys from our chapter!
Linda and I searched for red threads for Bring the Joy Santa that is a painted canvas the chapter is working on. Then, I started looking for threads for a counted project we’ll be starting in March but couldn’t decide on anything. Then, I got to stitch the Fyre Werks into Peace which was easy enough.
Shortly after I got to the blue tent stitches, I realized that the basted border wasn’t going to hold the entire design as charted. I had to move the motif down by restitching the basted border. Luckily, I had enough canvas to move the border up 6 canvas threads. By then, it was about time to head home anyway. Four hours flew by!
Here’s the rebasted border and my progress.
Counting the tent stitch blue border requires more concentration than a Stitch-In allows with our conversation and distractions of lovely painted canvases and walls of threads!
I finally decided what to do with Floral Fantasy, a small (4″ square) painted canvas by an unknown designer. After placing a buttonhole border around the design DMC Pearl 5 in green DMC 700, I whip stitched a piece of ultrasuede backing to it.
I held the ultrasuede in place with 4 Instant Tacky dots from Aleene’s as recommended by Ellen Johnson of Serendipity during her recent finishing class. Since they are acid and lignin free, I placed them on the back of the needlepoint (one near each corner).
The scary part is always cutting the canvas close to the stitching without cutting the threads. But, I did it. The trick is to squish the edge of the buttonhole towards the design before snipping slowly. Then, after all sides are cut, push it back towards the outside.
After placing 4 more pieces of Aleene’s tacky dots on the back of the ultrasuede in the corners, I attached it to the tissue box for our guest bedroom. I’m not worried about the tacky dots leaving a mark on the ultrasuede since I could easily remove the ultrasuede from the piece and reattach a new backing. Even with all those beads it’s not heavy.
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