Bargello chair set-up complete

I've completed the set-up for Dottie's bargello desk chair canvas.  Whew!  Incidentally, the photo editing section of my new desktop computer includes a "picture straightening" feature.  Really a good asset for those of us who can't manage to hold a camera level.

The following are some of the new canvases that recently arrived.  This doorstop is from Danae Designs.

 Raymond Crawford designed this Christmas march.

 This fresh-looking floral is one of Susan Roberts' designs.

 And this shell pillow canvas is an Alice Peterson design.

Melissa Shirley's stable, finished

I finished stitching this stable canvas in plenty of time to have a local framer put it on a board, edge it with ribbon, and stand it on a semicircle of mat board.  I did follow Anne Stradal's suggestion of encroaching gobelin for the timbers.  I used the same watercolors as I had used for the roof.  The donkey I did in alpaca 18 with the mane in DMC perle 5.  The stars were stitched in Balger #8 silver and gold.

I am now in the process of putting the finishing stitches into the individual creche figures on congress  cloth. That includes checking the figures for missed stitches.  I'll take photographs before I send them to my finisher, which I should do by Friday.  Time is slipping away and I need these for the Festival of Trees the weekend before Thanksgiving.

My beautiful mermaid is even more gorgeous now that she has been made into a framed pillow with pearls and cording.  My pillow finisher wasn't sure about the pearls because if you look very closely you can see the white thread tacking the pearls down.  I think the finished product is wonderful.  I don't know about other people, but I just love to sit and look at my newly finished pieces.  I still take delight looking at Gustav, my 30" nutcracker, among other finished projects.

Little mermaid, 4

I just love the way her tail looks in person.  All those smyrna crosses add such texture.  Of course, they also take longer to execute than many other stitches (says Miss Instant Gratification).  I have started stitching the sand in diagonal mosaic.

My reading in the summer is usually nonfiction, heavy on biography and memoirs (such as a biography of Iphigene Sulzburger whose family owns the New York Times).  However, Monday I picked up my paperback copy of Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH by Robert O'Brien.  It won the Newbery Award in children's literature and is just delightful.  I reread it every couple of years because it gives me such warm fuzzy feelings.  It has subtle messages (and some not so subtle) about cooperation among different groups,  joining forces against a common adversary, stereotyping, and so much more.  Who would have thought I'd be proud of a rat or a mouse?  If you've never read it, I highly recommend it to you. 

Little mermaid, 2

 People often ask my about my stitching strategy.  I don't like coming up in a hole that has yarn, so I try to move from the upper right hand corner down and across the canvas.  On the mermaid's tail "fluke", I first did the green outline.  It was then easy to fit the slanted gobelin stitches in.  I know some people do the dark colors first, or the light colors first.  I just do them as I come to them.  You can also see that I have started doing the Smyrna cross  since the tail seems to be painted for them. 

And in an update to my mother dove.  I checked and the incubation period for doves is about 14 days.  Sure enough, Monday morning I looked out the window to discover the chick on the ground underneath the pygmy palm.  I assume it fell out of the nest.  You can see that the mother is sitting on it--perhaps to protect it from predators?  For a while, the chick was uncovered.  The chick is the whitish fluff under the front of the dove's breast.  Tuesday there was no sign of the chick, so I'm hoping it is safe.  It was nice to see that papa also took a turn sitting (he's larger and darker). 

Poinciana tree, phase 3

Before I show you the updates on my poinciana tree canvas, I want to show photographs of some late arriving Christmas stocking canvases.  The first two photographs are designs by Ziggy of Walker St Designs.

There are so many stitch possibilities for this combination of geometric shapes.  Add some metallics and it could turn from simple to quite sophisticated, and fun to stitch.

This stocking comes with stitch and fiber suggestions.

I'm trying to figure out the new blogger.  It certainly makes it difficult to arrange photographs and descriptions

in a reasonably artistic way.  I think that last jog to the left doesn't add anything.  Hmm.  I feel like I'm playing a game of keep the blog writer guessing!

This is a canvas from Alice Peterson.  It's hard to find something for an a more mature recipient (I originally said older, but a friend was just told by her doctor that some things just happen when "you're older".  She was not amused.)  And I hit the computer's internal mouse and managed to scramble my description and eliminate my photograph.  So I'll insert it again.

Another canvas from Alice Peterson is this beauty:

And for those golfing aficianados, this colorful entry from, I think, Associated Talents.  I need to check on that because the designer code said Melissa Shirley.  Since I'm the date entry operator, how could I have made a mistake?  And may those who are thinking of opening a shop, please note that among my many duties are:  data entry operator, mail clerk, complaint department (both in and out), and more I'll list in another post.

And now to show the photograph that will answer Anne's question of several blog entries ago concerning the poinciana tree trunk. I stitched it in the chain stitch using watercolors from Caron.  I like to do the chain stitch after all of the surrounding stitches so it can lay over the other stitches.  That way no canvas peeks through.

You can see by looking at this photograph that I haven't done the branches up in the tree canopy.  I'm waiting to fit them in around the completed French knots.  In the next photograph, you can see where I am inserting some red-orange French knots.  I had originally selected red-orange as one of the original colors for the blossoms and then I didn't notice it when I started stitching.  So I have started squeezing it in between already completed French knots.

And I wanted to show a closeup of the satin stitch used in the green plant on the right side.  I need to remember to ask Trubey what its name is--it reminds me of a larger version of a succulent plant that is a houseplant, but I can't remember the name. 

Everyday I try to stitch 15 or 20 minutes--French knots often seem unending.  I goofed with this canvas since I'm usually much better about stitching a slow feature a little along while I'm doing other features, but before I finish everything else.  Sigh!  I will show the finished product, someday soon, I hope.