Now these need to be finished too! Items to be finished are piling up by my sewing machine...
Meanwhile, I'm procrastinating by sorting and organizing floss. I'm about 1/3 down with DMC... When I get it sorted, I'll post a photo, I promise!
Carol Stitches |
|
I finished final tieback (the one on the far right) on Monday, February 23, 2009. They really are all the same color --- it's the different times of day and backgrounds that caused the color shifts. Now these need to be finished too! Items to be finished are piling up by my sewing machine... I have to decide on the next project now. I have two, both of which my husband has requested. One is the salmon ("Spirit of the Sockeye" from The Stitching Studio, based on a painting by Blaine Billman) as a gift for his brother; the other is a floral alphabet (designed by Permin of Copenhagen and published in "Just Cross Stitch" Volume 27, #2) for him (he's a Master gardener and "into" flowers!). I'm thinking since it makes sense to give him the alphabet for our anniversary, and the fish aren't "due" until Christmas, that I'll start the alphabet and see how it goes.
Meanwhile, I'm procrastinating by sorting and organizing floss. I'm about 1/3 down with DMC... When I get it sorted, I'll post a photo, I promise!
0 Comments
It actually moves faster if you stitch on it! This is the result of 6 out of 7 nights in the past week stitching, and the 3rd tie-back is almost done! The fabric arrived this week for my BAP so when I get these tie-backs done, it will be time to start on that! Xīn... This is the pinyin spelling for the Mandarin character for "heart"! My thought for this February is "Xīn", which is an emotional component, or radical, in many Chinese characters, like yearning, love, even forget! Seemed appropriate since Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year (the first day of Spring festival) are on the same day this year! And one of the traditions for Chinese New Year, besides jiao zi, is a branch of cherry blossom... at least that is what I remember from Beijing, that and the couplets that decorated the front doors of each and every house. Kind of hard to portray a jiao zi in beads, I don't know characters well enough to embroider a couplet let alone bead one, and no way do I have the skill to do a tiger (this will be the year of the tiger). So... Two pieces of fabric, one a pink batik which almost looks like cherry blossoms and a deep red Asian fabric with couplets printed in a lighter red; a branch of cherry blossoms in three shades of pink beads attached a matte blue-green metallic seed bead stem, and the character "Xīn", very stylized (apologies to those who can write characters!), in red seed beads. I had a preconceived idea of how I wanted the cherry blossom branch to go, but it did it's own thing and I decided to vary the blossoms according to background and to exend the beaded branches with Kreinik very fine braid. Thanks to Robin for advice on how to smooth out my backstiched lines, and to everyone on BJP Blog three for the example of letting the beading tell me what to do! Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái (Congratulations and Prosperity) to all, especially those of you who are tigers (your birth year would be 1998, 1986, 1974, 1962, 1950, and, if you are like me, older than dirt, 1938!) beadlust wrote on Feb 8, '10 I'm so curious about your knowledge and experience with the Chinese language... And I love, LOVE your beautiful piece... so clever to make the two fabrics uneven and the blossoms different on the two fabrics. It's subtle and beautiful and joyful! Much heart here! Robin A.
thatyankstitches wrote on Feb 8, '10 My knowledge and experience with Chinese comes from two years living in Beijing, three months studying Chinese (Mandarin), and learning that I'm so tone deaf that even taxi drivers corrected my pronunciation! Basically, I was only basic baby steps in pinyin; I could identify a few characters; count to 1000; and I managed to bargain in street markets with the aid of a calculator! Otherwise, I'm a total loser in Mandarin! deesnl wrote on Feb 8, '10 You are a total winner in this piece though Carol! I can only agree with Robin in that I LOVE this piece. It breathes such tranquility and yet because of what you have done with the fabric and beads it is vibrant and alive at the same time. I must look up what you have done to january! I'm having problems getting motivated with this one. Maybe it's because it's the third one of four and I'm sick of the pattern, or maybe it's because of the linen threads which seem to be so fragile. Anyway, not a lot of progress this week!
|
AuthorBorn in New Jersey, I grew up in Southeastern Ohio. Attended university at Bowling Green State University (B.Sci in biological science, 1964), University of Southern California (M. Sci in biological science, 1967) and University of Florida (Ph. D in zoology, 1971). Archives
January 2024
Categories
All
Follow Me to...
* 2012 Color Palette Challenge
* 2012 WIPocaplypse * 2012 Bead Journal Project * Take a Stitch Tuesday 2012 * Crazy Quilt Journal Project Challenge 2013 * Crazy Quilt Journal Project Challenge * Cross Stitch Crazy * Cross Stitch Crazy forum * On Beads and Needles * Black Swamp Quilter's Guild * Craft Kingdom Quilting * The Crime Readers Association * Blog #3 BJP 2010 * Blog #1 BJP 2011 |