"B" Is For Bunny

After the garden tour I spend more time working in the garden than stitching. It was so inspiring to see nice gardens that I also took my husband to one of the gardens to show him some things that he likes: maple trees and pools. I did not take any garden pictures during the tour as I do not want to copy anybody's garden, a garden is a very private thing, at least for me.


We spoke to master gardeners and learned some new facts about plants and got some ideas. Almost all our free time last week we spent working in our garden. I will show you some pictures later.


Now I want to show you what I had been stitching all this time and managed to finish. The Bride's Tree task for April was to stitch a rabbit. I chose "B" Is For Bunny by The Sweetheart Tree. I was a little late with my piece but... I stitched 9 rabbits not one, lol! Is it an excuse?

After a lot of thinking I decided to make it into a needleroll but there was a little problem - not enough linen for it. For a long time I had been wondering if it is possible to add some more fabric to the piece that you are working on and how this is going to look like.
I like experimenting. So I sewed two pieces together, on both sides of the seam I stitched a band and added some more bands to the top and bottom parts, here is what I got:








I guess the piece of the fabric which I added makes the design look brighter. I also coffee dyed a piece of the ribbon for the bottom part for a better contrast and finished the needleroll.
Here are the pictures of the needleroll and its sides:

But this is not all. I have another bunny to show to you! Here it is:

This little rabbit lives in our garden and is not afraid of me at all. When I go out to work or walk in the garden, he ( I think it is "he") also goes out, sits somewhere close to me and eats the grass from the bed. I say he is the only one who helps me weed the beds. He takes grass from my hand but does he not like bread. He made his bed under the Azalea bush, in the morning I can see him there through the window and I begin to worry when I do not see him there: we have a hawk in the garden too. My pet rabbit has a Russian name Zika , pronunciation is Zi-kar. Isn't he adorable?







Thank you for stopping by and leaving your comments , I enjoy reading them!

Happy stitching to everybody!

April-Rose Needleroll

I have been absent for quite awhile: my computer collapsed and my husband bought me a new one. We were busy installing software, learning and tuning the new computer. I can't say I like Vista but my husband says I will like it when I learn it better.

I did not have much time to stitch but I have one finished piece and a couple pieces more unfinished yet, just do not know what to make them into.

I usually do not show WIPs but today I will show you some WIP pictures. Janaina and I were once discussing how to stitch with a neat back . Janaina is famous for making very neat back, her stitched towels are very pretty from both sides. I said I can stitch with a neat back a little. At the moment I was working on April-Rose Needleroll by Lena Rose. It is stitched on very hole-y linen with different silks. Here is a piece which is done in solid colors:















Of course, that is not the way to stitch with variegated flosses. When stitching flowers I like the color to change gradually without many stripes - so - forget the neat back .



And here are some pictures of the finished needleroll. There are some mistakes in the instructions for the pattern because of that I got some excess of the fabric. I decided to fill the space with the lace, coffee dyed a little to match the color of the linen and I used Swarovski's butterfly to embellish the needleroll.


















That was my first needleroll and I am pleased with how it turned out.




Thank you for stopping by, special thank you for those who leave comments , it's a pleasure to read them.


Happy stitching!