Finally Finished

I finally finished the two scissors fobs I blogged about HERE. However, on second thought, they are a bit big for fobs so I think they will be much better as ornaments. Fobs need to be a tad smaller in my opinion. There are clear glass seed beads on the surfaces but are very hard to see. Guess I need to redo the photos to show them. The stitch used is Smyrna Cross and beads were added with cross stitch. This was a very easy piece to embroider. A You Tube video of the Smyrna Stitch is HERE.  Other names for this stitch is double cross stitch or snowflake stitch.

Back view

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!!

Getting There . . .

Today was a busy one. We got 16 plastic boxes packed with books from my studio. The books reached to the ceiling. Now the shelves seem soooo empty! As you can see, I kept out a few until the last minute as I'm still in work mode.

Last evening I stitched some more of my scissor fob. The clear glass beads are stitched on both of them (difficult to see in the photo).

My Sweet Prairie

I've been corresponding with Monika Kinner-Whalen, a fibre artist from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She does the most wonderful freestyle embroidery by machine as well as by hand. If you have ever travelled across the Canadian prairies by car, you will see that she has captured the beauty of the landscape in marvelous stitch.  Materials used in her art include silk and cottons, sheer ribbon, glass beads, rayon and cotton threads. Please stop by her site, My Sweet Prairie for a visit. I don't think you will be disappointed! Permission was given to use any of her photos from her web site. Check here as well as The Needle and Thread Network.

Monika is also the feature artist in A Needle Pulling Thread / Spring 2012.

Take Time to Smell the Flowers

WOW! We have sunshine today for the first time in weeks and I spent part of the morning cleaning up the front garden. Three garbage bags of stuff and the front is still not done. Talking about gardens, here's one for you from the hand embroidery network or HEN.

The first piece I ever entered into a show was my Field of Daisies. It was purchased and belongs in a private collection. There are over 100 hand embroidered daisies in the piece. My inspiration came from Valerie Hearder's miniature landscapes course I took as well as the art of Sue Newhouse.

A more recent piece, Calm, an abstract garden, is in California, USA. The background is my own 'fantasy fabric' that I made using free motion machine stitching. A vine is hand stitched across the background and glass leaf beads are stitched in place.