But I choose to savor the parts of the relationships that were good and whole. Plus, it is heartening to see how my stitching continued to progress over time.
A Friend!
With this piece, I used variegated floss for the first time. That is what gives the flowers and leaves that striped appearance. I used muted, neutral colors for the fence which helps the flowers pop. I finished this as a banner, with a sleeve on top in back for a rod to go in for hanging purposes. Then I fringed the bottom.
November Birthday Fairy
Back at the turn of the century, stitching fairies was all the rage. Flower fairies. Monthly fairies. Birthday fairies. So I got on the bandwagon. This is the second of three birthday fairies that I made for my daughters. This was for Jeanne.
Blending filament is used in the fairy's wings to add some sparkle. The buds in the border are beads.
Design Lesson
The purpose of the EGA (Embroiderer's Guild of America) is to teach/learn/share embroidery techniques. One week, we were challenged to design something -- to help all of us realize that design isn't a big mystery. Each of us is capable of creating something original, to a greater or lesser degree. We were given a bit of fabric, a handful of beads, and a variety of fibers.
Just when we had carefully selected our materials, our teacher had us exchange one of our fibers with the person on our left. Now we had to figure out how to incorporate the new fiber in with the other supplies we'd carefully selected.
Next we were to pick two "specialty stitches" ... and then just start stitching without a plan. Our designs were to grow organically as we stitched. Well, for a gal who loves a plan and likes to know where I'm supposed to end up before I start, this was quite a challenge.
I ended up choosing the diamond-shaped Queen Stitch and the leaf-shaped Lazy Daisy. After I arranged them, I tucked blue beads in between, and made fringe from the long bugle beads.
Doing this exercise was fun and challenging. It was quite interesting to see how different each of our group's designs came out.
A couple years after this experiment, I decided to do some finishing work on my little design. After several failed attempts, I was able to center my design on a covered button form and add the backing. I finished it off with a ring of seed beads in two sizes. I added a pin back so that this crazy little design can be worn on a lapel.
Rose Vertical Pincushion
I fell in love with this pretty tapestry-like design when I first saw it in a needlework catalog. I held off buying it for a while, but broke down when I saw that my local shop had the dark brown wooden Sudberry House base.
I kept this lovely piece for myself and it stands guard over my sewing machines in my Studio. The spool is pretty big! It's six-and-a-half inches tall, with a three-and-a-half inch diameter. I stitched it on a light pink ground cloth. The spool was a bit of a challenge to finish because there are layers of batting beneath the stitchery that needed to be smoothed so that the cushion didn't end up lumpy and bumpy. Plus I had to make sure there was plenty of batting that the pins could cling to. (I should take a new photo of this pincushion. It's so much prettier than it looks in this image).
Welcome
This little 4 inch square piece is one of my favorites. It came out so pretty when framed in gold.
EGA does community outreach by stitching Welcome samplers for each new recipient of a home from Habitat for Humanity. This is stitched with Japan Gold fibers and pearl beads, offset by the Hardanger motifs and filigree.
I was even able to present this stitchery to the owner of the new home. It was a very touching ceremony to see her accept the keys to her new home, this sampler, and other signs of welcoming.
More #throwbackthursday from the Year 2000 next week!
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