In Stitches

Friday, April 28, 2006

Almost...

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Famous? Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

The other day, inspired by one of the comments left about my Alice project I decided to email the designer Lynne Nicoletti. I sent her a short note telling her about how much I enjoyed the project, how the frame came about and included pictures. I thought "Right I did it and I'll never hear from her." But, much to my shock and awe, she wrote me back straight away the next day.

She told me how much she liked the frame and how much she enjoys getting comments from stitchers and lots of other nice compliments that left me feeling pretty good. :D But then towards the end of the email she said that she is currently working on a new newsletter and would I mind if she used my pictures in it. MIND...MIND? I nearly fell out of my chair in shock! Of course I told her I would love it! So now I am "almost famous". LOL, LOL

Hey, everybody deserves their 15 minutes. (bahh ha ha)

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Free Wheelin'

I AM DONE! Woo Hoo!

Yes the big wheel is finito! And am I ever glad! It took way longer than I intended for this project, mainly because I hardly worked on it all month. It should've taken maybe a week and a half and it took a MONTH. But it's done and Greg LOVES it, he better it's his birthday present. LOL We already have a frame picked out for it and just need to get it into it. :D

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As I suspected those long stitches for the spokes were a bear! The small wheel went fine but the big one was tricky. I'm sure it will look great once framed but when you pick it up right now the spokes sag, it's actually kind of funny. I mean, it's hard to ride a bike w/ saggy spokes. LOL

I am starting on La D Da's Forever Friends next. Such an adorable pattern that I can't wait to start it. :D (You can see a pic of it to the left.) And it shouldn't take long either. Of course I'm going to change the colors just a bit, but that's on par for me. ;) After that I'm going to do either Sam's Socks and Such from Raise the Roof or this Bird Watcher pattern I found on sale at Hobby Lobby for my dad. We will see what hits me.

Thanks for all the great comments on Alice! It was such a great project. I'd highly recommend it to anyone. I have to give big kudos to Greg and his dad for making that frame. Greg designed it and his dad did the cutting and pasting. ;) In this case the frame definately adds life to the project. :)

Monday, April 24, 2006

If You Don't Know Where You Are Going,

Any Road Will Take You There. - Alice in Wonderland

This quote is the last one for the Alice project and it is so true. When I first bought the Alice pattern all I knew was that I *loved* it and wanted to stitch it...some day. Then as I discussed it with Greg I knew that I would like to have a certain type of frame for it, make it really special. So he designed the "A" frame for me and I loved it. But I still wasn't sure how I would finish it or if I would "ever" stitch Alice. I finally get around to stitching Alice and I think I know just what I want for the frame, but after much contemplation I realize that I don't want people to pay more attention to the frame than the picture so I re-think my plan. And after a little bit of fiddling and some searching for the right bits and pieces it's all done and Alice is framed. It's not exactly what I thought I would end up with but I think it is perfect just the same.

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I decided to mimic the swirl of Mock Turtle tears in the stitching on the frame to give it a splash of color. Below is a close up of the embellishments.















I found these tiny little keys and decided that they would be the perfect thing to add to the frame along with the "Mock Turtle tears" (aka jewels). I tried to mimic the swirl that is in the pattern and I think it came out very well. The frame is actually a dark blue purple.

All in all it turned out fantastic and already has a place of honor on the wall.

In other news I am nearly done with the backstitching of the High Wheeler and will show a new picture of it when I'm finished. We even found a great frame for it as well. So this weekend was quite productive, as well as warm and beautiful!

Hope everyone's week is starting out great!

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Picture Perfect World

The weather here has finally improved significantly! Trees are blooming and leafing out all over, it's quite amazing. The picture below is from just outside my office. I work at a university and like many universities it is quite park like in it's setting. I really enjoy just getting out and walking as it is always beautiful here any time of the year. Spring though is particularly breathtaking!

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I don't know about most of you, but I LOVE the smell of fresh cut grass. Nothing says warm weather is here more than that smell! They cut the grass just before I took this picture and I can still hear the lawnmower now. It's a sound I always associate with warm days and lemonade or ice tea. ;)

I have been plugging away at the highwheeler and am nearly done with the stitching. I have to say that this one took much longer than I had intended, mainly because it just hasn't inspired me. I will be glad when it's done, although I don't look forward to all the backstitching or longstitching the spokes of the bike. That said it is a pretty picture and I know that Greg really loves it. :D

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I also finally got the frame for Alice painted and fixed up the way I want it, now to get her in it. I can't wait to share it with you. :D

Hope everyone is having a great week and enjoying spring! :D

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

High Wheelin'

Well I finally made filled in the banner and made it around the wheel. Yea me! LOL This project has definately been slow going, just not so interested in it I guess. But not that the wheel is done there's not tons left, it's mostly back stitching.

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I really love that red in the banner, it just pops out so much more than the black.

Not much going on around here, the weather is wild. It's going to be in the 80'sF this week, which is 20F more than normal for this time of year. I hope it doesn't me we are in for a hot summer.

Greg finally finished his red bike project, take a look if you haven't, it turned out fabu! He wanted to celebrate with this Red Bicyclette wine that he got, mainly cuz of the label (giggle), but unfortunately I'm not a big wine drinker and this one didn't agree w/ my taste buds at all. So poor guy had to celebrate alone. I don't think he minded, as the whole bottle is now gone. ;)

This weather makes me want to take off for a holiday! But money wise it's not really a good idea for us. So what about all of you what are your vacation plans this year? :D

Hope everyone is having a great week! Happy stitching!

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Turkish Red

That's the color of the red I'm using in Greg's bicycle picture. It's very pretty, I just wish I could get more done. ;) I am being quite slow lately and not getting much stitching done at all. I guess it's the warm weather. It's all nice and spring like out there and very pleasant.

Here's a current pic:

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The letters would be a bit faster going, but there is a lot of backstitching along with each one. The nice thing is that I love how it's looking. When you step back it is very pretty. I want to finish the letters and then I think I will finish up the bike itself. In actuality it's not a huge pattern but definately tricky.

Not much else going on here, another storm has blown in along with a tornado watch. In lay terms that means we watch to see if any tornados develop and then run for cover. LOL Hopefully we will just get some rain and that's it, we can use the rain. :D

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Happy stitching!