Falling Stars

Gracie is completed and framed. Here she is in a simple brown wood frame.

I decided just to put trim around Betty and call her done.

My next big project is JEC special dye piece - Falling Stars, or variously been referred to as Fireflies or Lightning Bugs. I have it framed up, and the 3 bright circles are the fire flies, and not reflections from light. The fabric is advance as it is somewhat transparent. I'll wait for class next month before starting on it.

In the meantime, I plan to do another Trish Burr piece, now that I feel I can handle her birds. It's the Sacred Kingfisher from the Color Confidence book. This is not going to be a practice piece so I will use church linen and be much more careful with the transfer, and finish it properly.

New Year's resolution - getting back into "serious" stitching. For the past several months I've been doing some easier needlework endeavors, mostly Christmas ornaments. A couple of examples

Bullion roses

Stumpwork

 

The purple rose is a practice piece - not very Christmas-y.

 

I also worked on the Polar Shadows piece (not finished), and it's not easy, which is what's driving me back to Japanese embroidery.

 

Before starting back on Gracie, I took a deep breath, organized the equipment, tightened the frame, took a picture, and wait till tomorrow.

 

Eternal Grace

This piece came on a pretty, patterned fabric. Unfortunately the weft lines are hard to see because of the fabric pattern. Grrrr! So I put in some guide lines in the weft direction.

According to the instructions, I should start with the face, neck and hands. My initial thought was I should wait for Mary Alice's class for the face, and start on the kimono first. I used Mary Alice's recommended colors for the kimono, as I never liked the JEC's suggested pink color (on left). The kimono is going to be blue.

Finished the first section of the kimono, with flat silk satin stitching. Next is the temporary tie down and then short stitch holding.

On further reflection, I will work on the face next. If I messed up on the face and she turned out to be really ugly, I don't want to have had spent a lot of time on the rest of the piece, as this piece will most likely become a permanent UFO. ;-)

Wedding Shellbox Done

Finally decided to stop obsessing about it, and call it done. There are several places that I would like to redo, but refrained because of the unforgiving Nishijin fabric.
My next project is the Phase 6 Eternal Grace. I also have an extra piece, the "Lightning Bug" that I am contemplating starting as well, but since I don't functional too well with multiple projects (I tend to focus on the easier one) I probably shouldn't.