Monday, September 22, 2008

"Autumn Colors" Scissor Fobs

On the first official day of autumn (here) I finished my "Autumn Colors" Scissor Fobs. Yes, I made two of them and I made two charts for them as well. The first one is a specialty stitches fob to match the pin cushion which I showed to you in the previous post. Here are the pictures of both sides of the fob:

I also made some little changes in the pin cushion, here is how the set looks like now:
The second scissor fob is a full crosses version. I was curious to see my design on a black background and on a higher count fabrick. Unfortunately, I do not have black linen or evenweave, I found a nice piece of 18 ct. Black Aida. I know some of you will say : Phew! because you do not like Aida. But I was just experimenting with the fabric colors to show you how the design can look different. I also finished this fob in a little different way:









If you are interested in buying any of my designs, send me an-email please. My e-mail address is in my Profile.


Take care and happy autumn stitching!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Prairie Schooler Exchange Received

Yesterday I received Prairie Schooler Exchange package from Angela in Canada. I could not post straight away because I was waiting for some sunlight to take good pictures.
Angela made a scissor case and a fob for me. She chose a very interesting chart called "Pins and Needles" , the backing fabric matches PS pattern perfectly well. The Scissor case and fob are nicely stitched and finished, I love them so very much. Here are their pictures, look how bright they are:
Angela spoiled me pretty much including some extra goodies: PS chart, my favorite needles, some DMC floss, pins , beads, a beautiful post card.
She also wrote a short message for me. It is interesting that this was Angela's first exchange with HOE and for me it was the first Prairie Schooler pattern - I have not finished mine for the exchange yet, still a lot of doubts what to finish it into or maybe to stitch something different. Angela says she was nervous to stitch for me! I am stressed out every time I stitch for somebody.
I want to thank Angela for the wonderful exchange, I know how much of herself she invested into it. I really appreciate it. It was nice "meeting" you Angela!
Happy stitching to everybody!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

"Autumn Colors"

We survived one more hurricane! I wonder how many more we are going to have this year?
After the first hurricane my friends asked what hurricanes look like. Well, it's better to see one to understand how terrible they are. This time I took some hurricane pictures and some short movies. But I only remember about the camera when the worst was over, still you can get the impression of this natural disarster. In the picture you can see what the lawn looks like during the hurricane: limbs, big and small, are everywhere!
In the video can can see how much the trees swing, how fast the clouds are and you can hear the noise of the wind. The strongest wind we had this time was 60 miles per hour, in the video it is already not so strong.




Have you ever seen Hurricane Lilies? They are also called Spider Lilies. I have wanted to get them for such a long time and last year I found some bulbs. I was also told that the bulbs are easily shocked and they will not bloom next season. Luckily after the hurricane among all the debris.... I found about two dozens of these stunning blossoms!










While we were waiting for the previous hurricane I was drawing a design which later got the name of "Autumn Colors". The idea of the design was to show that even a grey rainy stormy day in autumn is gorgeous! While I was working on the design I was recallecting poems by a great Russian poet A. Pushkin, he wrote so much about his favorite season .... "унылая пора, очей очарованье " - It is a sad season but pleasant for the eyes. (The translation is mine and I am not a poet).
Yesterday I finished stitching the pattern and at first wanted to make it into a biscornu. Then I thought why a biscornu again! The design looks better if to make it into a pin cushion or a pin keep. Here are the pictures of the pin cushion with funny tassels on the corners .


I also made a design for a scissor fob in two versions ( one has lots of specialty stitches and the other is its simplified version in full crosses with just a few specialty stitches ) to accompany the pin cushion. Next post I will show you pictures of the fob.
If you are interested in buying any of my designs, send me an e-mail, please. My e-mail address is in my profile.
Thank you for stopping by and happy stitching to everybody!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

My Favorite Month

I want to thank all my stitching friends who worried about us, sent me e-mails wishing good luck on that terrible hurricane Gustav. Everything is fine here. Weather people were wrong again: the hurricane hit to the south from us, you might have heard of the hurracane damages from the news.
* * * * *
I do not know which is your favorite month but mine is August, probably because my son was born in this month. I also had two anniversaries last month. First - it was exactly two years since I started to cross stitch, never thought I would ever get this kind of hobby! And it was so hard for me to start it in a new country, with neither stitching friends nor my mother by my side ( my mother can do everything!). If you want to know why and how I started cross stitch, I will tell you about it in another post, it will be a humorous story.

Another anniversary is .... half a year to my blog! It's hard to believe! Time really flies! On a fine August evening I invited my husband to have an excursion on my blog. After looking through all the posts (mostly pictures), he said he was impressed. And soon I got all these as his present for my anniversaries. I love my new "toys"!


I 've got a pleasant surprise from Cathey , Pumpkin Patch & Co., who passed Brillante Weblog award to me. I 've found Cathey's blog recently and enjoy reading it and looking at the pictures of her beautiful works. As I already have this award, I will add her name to the list of stitchers who nominated me for this award.
And one more award from two wonderful stitchers Holly and Olga, UK. If you have not been to their blogs yet, go now! Look at the picture alboms of their works and you will see that it is they who have deserved all the Blog awards. It is a great honor to be nominated by them. Thank you ladies!
The rules of this award are:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you have nominated.

Well, and the award goes to.... On the right side I have "Blogs I love" and I think it will be fair if this award goes to all stitchers who are in this list. My heartest congratulations to all of you!

One more stitcher, Bhooma, sent me an e-mail with the picture of "My Rose Garden" Biscornu which she has finished recently. Thank you Bhooma, it is so nice of you . Your biscornu is so bright, I am happy to hear you enjoyed stitching it.

And one more picture for today. In the previous post I told you that I was working on a birthday present. I could not tell you the name because it was a birthday present for my husband. For a long time he has been asking me to stitch him a dragon and the most beautiful dragon designs which I know of are designs by Teresa Wentzler. This is what I stitched up for my husband:

It is "Stretch", the Magic Dragon. And some more detail ( you can see tweeding and fracture crosses in these pictures):







Next time I will show you pictures of what I will make "Stretch" into.
Thank you for stopping by and leaving comments. I love to read your comments!
Happy stitching!