Day 2 of Spring Lollipop Garden by Tamara Abdee started with the Loop Stitch Flower.
The French Knot Ribbon Rose is Lynn’s variation of the one Tamara teaches. One of the most beautiful, delicate roses I’ve ever seen!
Next to it, I added a flower with rouched Soie Tissee by Silk Road Fibers. It is my own crunchy version of whatever flower you want to call it!
Ali, Lynn’s daughter, was very supportive during class on both days. She even volunteered to iron our ribbons! Such service!! Lunch both days were supplied by Fireside Stitchery. Nothing fancy but plentiful, healthy, and delicious. There’s an extra large table that we were all able to fit around and enjoy lunch away from our work areas.
Right after lunch, we worked on our Daffodils. We used a Tilli Tomas ribbon which creates a lovely effect because the edges are a slightly darker color.
The last of the afternoon was spent finishing whatever we wanted to do. I elected to finish my Blue Hydrangea (with a couple of French Knots and Colonial Knots to fill in the little spaces). Some class members shopped but I will be back on the 25th and 30th for Stitch-ins with ANG Main Line Stitchers and EGA Brandywine.
So, what does the canvas look like by the end of our 2 days? It looks like I’ll be doing 5 more big flowers, several small sequin ones, leaves, stems, a Birch tree, a nest, Robin’s eggs, and some background motifs. This will be fun.
It sounds like Tamara will be returning to Fireside Stitchery at some future date. In the meantime, while we don’t have stitch guides for specific painted canvases, we have been given enough instruction to tackle one.
What a lovely display by Tamara Abdee as we walked into the classroom area at Fireside Stitchery. There were 2 tables all ready for us. I signed up for Spring Lollipop Garden. But, Tamara is teaching 3 different designs for 12 people. She filled two 2-day classes. Four other members from our ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter are there including Lynn (and store owner), Kathy P, Pat K, and Karen P. I think we’ll be getting a new chapter member too!
There are 9 different ribbons, 13 threads, and 10 bags of beads in the kit! The canvas is partially pre-painted by Tamara.
I love my Twisted Spider Web Rose. It is a 9-spoke rose (but was supposed to be 7) because I had 8 when I started weaving the ribbon (but it must be an odd number). So, I squeezed the 9th in on the right which you can tell now that I have told you but had I not, you probably wouldn’t have known. Can’t see it? The right is slightly tighter than the left. I also practiced adding extra on the left side only.
The Crocus used the widest 13 mm ribbon. And, Lynn placed 2 more next to the one which I may do as well.
Varying the length of the stitches in the Anemone was the hardest part.
The Velvet Loop Flower done with Very Velvet was an extra flower I squeezed onto my canvas. Some stitches repeat in each of the 3 designs but in differ in color. This flower is not in mine but she taught it to all of us. I may add beads or a sequin.
The blue Hydrangea is going to be fantastic once it’s done.
I will wait to share my progress on the full canvas until after tomorrow’s class.
Tamara is an excellent teacher and is imparting wonderful tips in addition to sharing her ribbonwork techniques!
Next up were The Wheels in Florentine Fancywork by Toni McKelley. They were fun and easy as Toni said they would be.
In my opinion, the Starburst in Florentine Fancywork by Toni McKelley is the focal point. It’s interesting that the solid purple is adjoining only on two sides.
I had hoped to finish this project in March. So, I am glad that the New York City Skyline in Florentine Fancywork by Toni McKelley worked up quickly.
There was a little blue gray portion of Watercolours next to a light purple already color matched (although I have no idea what piece I used it in and a search in my blog didn’t identify it). I had plenty for this small area.
In between areas, I will work on the Smyrnas in Razzle Dazzle.
Florentine Fancywork by Toni McKelley is progressing nicely despite some discrepancies. They are allowing me to make my individual interpretations here and there which Toni encourages anyway.
Other than making it a little longer, there are no overly evident differences in the Bargello Ribbon. Once you establish the first line, the rest is easy and fun.
I did select the thread portions of the Watercolours. The yellows are on the top and bottom smaller areas while the peach/orange areas are for the center three areas.
The dark areas are a brownish portion of Rainbow Tweed selected for contrast. Toni recommended 1 strand which is a little thin but 2 strands looked too heavy. Since it is on a brown canvas, I stayed with 1 strand.
The horizontal band if Hungarian Diamond or Pavillion stitch is larger than the way it’s diagrammed in The Needlepoint Book by Jo Ippolito Christiansen and so I am calling it a variation.
Since my space is slightly wider (not sure why), I got full units which makes me very happy. Having one side differ from the other was not thrilling me.
Since Toni used a different overdyed thread from mine, I didn’t have enough of a blue portion in either skein of Watercolours 239 Wheat Fields I had and so I used more of the pink/orange portions than the yellow/orange portions used around the border. I’ll use the blue portion elsewhere.
Filed under: Florentine Fancywork by Toni McKelley, Other People's Designs
Once I determined my side border strategy for Florentine Fancywork by Toni McKelley, it worked up nicely. It is different from both of hers (stitched and diagrammed as they differ from each other).
By extending the band, I can fit 9 flower motifs but space them into 3 groups: 2, 3, and 4. Her stitched grouping of 8 was 3, 1, and 4 but more space in between each group. And the diagram was for 9 flower motifs with no spacing.
This is fun!
Filed under: Florentine Fancywork by Toni McKelley, Other People's Designs
There are opportunities in this piece to use color-matched portions of Watercolours 088 Mountain Meadow in the border. I enjoy doing that.
The flowers are the yellow/peach portions while the bottoms are the green portions. I worked from the sides to the center.
And, I have another full skein of Watercolours (different lot but very similar) for the rest of the design to use as it comes off the skein.
I started in the middle of the top border with the Periwinkle in case I had basted incorrectly. But, it was fine. I did make a counting error by not looking closely enough at the Master Diagram which I did correct (after some hesitation).
Normally, I would complete the whole border and Toni recommends the top and left side be done first. However, after looking at the Master Diagram and the stitched piece on the cover, I found definite differences. It took some studying to figure out what was happening because the overall size is the same or similar. Finnally, I saw the biggest difference is the 8 flower motifs spaced 3, 1, 4 on her original stitched piece versus the 9 evenly spaced flower motifs on the Master Chart. She probably thought it would be easier for stitchers to do the 9 but I really prefer the 8. So, I will stitch the side borders later just to be sure no more variations occur.
Also, the flower motifs were not diagrammed with the green stem extending into the flower. So, I am adding an oblong cross stitch over part of the flower in the center. Here’s half done, half not done yet. Which do you prefer?
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.
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