The Peacock's Feather

Time for a Bourse

Guess what I pulled out of the UFO bin? --Au Fil des Reves "Bourse Roses et Toile de Jouy".  I am still working on my birthday stitching, but as I finished so much over the weekend I thought I deserved to work on my own project today.  This is a design I should have finished long ago and I am not sure why I haven't!  I have seen several bourses finished on other stitcher's blogs, and this prompted me to pull out mine!!  I have never finished one of these, but first things first--I need to complete the stitching.  I actually have more stitched than shown here, but this will give you an idea of what I am working on!  I am in the mood for this, so maybe I will stick with it until I get it all finished (I am notorious for picking up and setting down in case you haven't already noticed).

By the way...I used my Elegant Stitch gift card (thanks again Leigh).  Tomorrow a little package will be winging its way to me...I'll show you what I decided to order.  I can't wait to get it!  I also ordered a few goodies to send along with my birthday package (these are coming from Needlecraft Corner as I was able to use my birthday discount Drema so kindly gives) and well, I included a couple of things for myself as well...I have good mail to look forward to!!  Yay.

Brodeuses

Thanks to Lelia for the heads up on this film, Sequins (Brodeuses), a French film that I watched today.  I had never heard of it and decided to give it a try and put it in my Netflix queue.  I liked it so much that I am considering ordering a copy of it now.  The movie is about a young woman, Claire, who is pregnant and planning to give up the baby for adoption.  It is set in Angouleme, which is gorgeous by the way.  She is a cashier in a supermarket, and the only thing that seems to keep her going is working on her embroideries, which are her passion.  As her pregnancy progresses, which she is trying to hide, she must quit her job.  She begins working for a woman, Mrs. Melikian, who is an embroiderer for haute couture designers.   Their embroideries are utterly exquisite!  I definitely recommend this one if you can get your hands on it!

I also managed to finish stitching on the birthday gift I mentioned.  I had hoped to get the actual finishing on it done today, but as I was watching a movie with subtitles, that has not happened so far.  I hope to at least get started on it tonight.  Hopefully I can get back to work on my Toccata then.  I may not have much to share with you until I am done with this gift!  I like how it turned out and I hope she will like it as well.

From Me to You!

Yesterday brought another lovely gift from someone in one of my stitching groups.  Leigh made this for me, and I absolutely love it!!  I have wanted one of these "mattress pinkeeps" (is there actually a proper name for them?), since I first spotted one that Vero made.  I love Prairie Schooler designs, and this is one I have not even seen before.  It is gorgeous!  I have received the most lovely things from this exchange and I only hope I can send things equally as nice to the ladies when their birthdays come around!  As a matter of fact I have been slowly working on one that I hope to mail out next Monday.  I hope to finish the stitching on it today and do the finishing tomorrow.  I also am waiting for some other goodies to come in the mail to send along as well.  By the way, Leigh also sent along a gift certificate to Elegant Stitch. I know already what I am going to order--this Indigo Rose kit!  She was going to order it for me but was afraid I might already have it.  I have been pretty good--not bought hardly any stitching stash at all this year, so I am really looking forward to this!  Many thanks Leigh!!

Petits rouges: d'ici et d'ailleurs

I love redwork.  I wish I stitched more redwork projects and I envy other stitchers who have large collections of redwork.   Several links on my sidebar go to stitcher's websites or albums who have lots of redwork: Casa Mia is a favorite.  Catherine ABC and Vero M both have redwork in their albums, which I drool over (actually all the work in both albums!!) every time I go looking.  Nicki's album has a special album with just redwork.  And of course there are the lovely designs by Marjorie Massey.   I have a very small collection of redwork (maybe I should put together a special album for it) that I have either stitched or received--but it is a small collection.  And now I have another book on redwork to add to my small stack of needlework books.  Vero very kindly (merci!) sent me this new gorgeous stitching book, Petits rouges: d'ici et d'ailleurs by Muriel Brunet.  It shows antique sampler reproductions--originals stitched by schoolgirls in France, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg and other countries.  It is a wonderful book and I am hoping to stitch some designs from it!   It makes me want to order more French stitching books (why are there so few published here in the US?) and also pull out a redwork design to stitch...

Another Suprise!

Yesterday another package came in the mail for me (two actually, but I will share the other one later!).  I am in a birthday exchange in a Yahoo group that I belong to.  There are five of us in my group, and on each person's birthday everyone sends a stitched gift and some other goodies.  This package came from my friend, Patti.  Once again I have been very spoiled!  She made me a lovely needlebook using a Quaker design.  She also sent along a frame, WDW floss, pearlescent pins to use on my pinkeeps, and a CHS chart.  I am excited to get this as I have wanted to try one of her punchneedle designs, and I love this angel series Kathy came out with.  Now I must practice my punchneedle!!   As for me and stitching this week...well it is good I have other fun things to share as I haven't made much progress at all.  I am actually working on a gift for one of the ladies in this same birthday group whose birthday is in March!  I need to get stitching as it will soon need to go in the mail.  I will share a photo after the recipient has it!  Hopefully I will get to stitch on one of my own projects again soon!

I have been spoiled!

I admit, I opened my birthday package over the weekend!  It had gifts from two friends.  One gift is part of the birthday exchange I am participating in this year.  My friend, Jodi, also kindly stitched this lovely faob for me (even though she is in a different exchange group).  I am assuming it is a Prairie Schooler design, but I should really check with her to make sure.  The back has a "T" with some tulips.  Needless to say I love this!  I am going to put it on my favorite pair of scissors.  Oftentimes I just display fobs, but this is such a great size that I think I will have to use it!

Kathy, who is in my birthday exchange group, was very generous.  First she made a gorgeous needlecase.  It has a similar stitched design on the back.  Inside there is lovely fabric to match and places to keep needles and pins.  The finishing on this is stunning!  I am just in awe over how perfect her work is!  And she included all sorts of nice extras.  There is a memo pad (which I can never have enough of as I am a list maker!), a lovely frame, three packages of beads, three skeins of Vikki Clayton silks, and one skein of Minnemurra Australian silk, and two cuts of fabric (Silkweaver-Sand Storm and Sugar Maple-Hyacinth).  Now I just need a better space to display my ever growing collection of stitched gifts.  Thanks very much Jodi and Kathy!!  And thanks to all who left birthday wishes yesterday, too!  I have been very, very spoiled!

Ta-Da!

Voila!  Here it is finished--Miss Kitty's Dragons as a needlecase.  You can see what it looks like (partially anyway) as a square on the chart photo.  Each corner has a ribbon and the opposite corners are tied together to close it.  You can sort of see the needlebooks peeking through--just plain purple felt attached with a ribbon.  I only wish I would have bought some different ribbon rather than using what came with the kit as it is so delicate I am afraid of fraying it too much by opening and closing it.  I am quite pleased with it!

Here is what the back looks like--with Miss Kitty herself!

And one more of the front!  I started this project last Spring/Summer.  I'm a slow stitcher, but this has been worth the work and wait!

Should I, or Shouldn't I?

My birthday is next week.  Look what came for me in the mail?  Should I wait...or should I be bad and open it now???  Ah, the temptation....

One More Row...

This is really a horribly photo--I guess I enlarged it too much.  But you can see the tiny progress that I made on it anyway.  I have added a line of the text.  I am about halfway down the second chart on Just Nan's "Barnabee's Quest".  I still need to add the little bees on each side.  I am a bit slow on stitching words as some of the back stitches are over one thread and I always feel like I need a solid chunk of time to work on these rows.  I have a feeling that I didn't feel like stitching this section and that's what made me put it down in the first place.  At least I have gone beyond this part and can work on other motifs next.  I think the last row on this second chart has more words, but that is several rows away!  I read the blogs on my blogroll through Bloglines now, and I have seen progress photos by several other stitchers and everyone seems to be making nice, fast progress.  This is actually a fairly small/narrow design, so once you get going it is pretty fast stitching!  Hopefully I will have more to share soon (and a better photo!).

A Teaser

Just a little teaser.  I really did work on this last Saturday.  I suspect I won't be able to finish the inside until this weekend as I just can't make myself move plastics bins to get to the one that has my ribbon spools--and then dig them out!  Very lazy of me, eh?!  But here is a picture of my work at the very beginning of the finishing process when I had just attached the charms.   Thank goodness for explicit finishing instructions!  Final photos to follow this weekend (fingers crossed anyway!).

By the way--Hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day!