Cyberpointers Menagerie

The year long project for 2012 at Cyberpointers this year is a sampler project called Menagerie.  I started mine this weekend and stitched the first two blocks.  I have a bag full of red, white and blue fibers that will provide a perfect assortment of threads and textures for this project in a limited color scheme.  I also had a piece of 18 count tan canvas that was large enough for a 12 x 18 sampler which will allow for twenty four 3 x 3 squares.  The first two squares are shown here.  They are Hilton stitches and Rhodes variations.

TAST Week 5: Herringbone Stitch

This is week 5 of the Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge.  I have two new pieces and one old one to share.  I think that I stitched the first piece for a previous challenge.  It is closed herringbone with french knot accents. It contains a variety of different sizes and orientations of the stitches. 

 I also created a new free embroidery sample using herringbone, straight stitches, and a wrapped spider web for the eye.  A group of photographers went to take pictures of eagles last weekend.  I went to a high school basketball game instead.  The photos that they shared inspired this bird -- based on the colors of the threads it is really a Phoenix, not an eagle.

I continued with my stitch variation sampler this week using some new threads, adding beads, and using new combinations of stitches to show different herringbone variations.

TAST Week 4: Cretan Stitch

After a weekend of snow, freezing rain, and cold I was ready to think warm thoughts.  I looked at samples of Cretan stitch in several books and on the web and found a lot of crewel embroidery leaves and flowers.  So here is my tropical interpretation of leaves and flowers -- an island palm tree complete with coconuts.  I also added some Cretan stitch samples to my stitch sampler.  Some of them are kind of pretty but they were not very interesting to stitch.  

Family Photos

I love this picture of my mother as a little girl.  There are two others, one of her mother and one of her Grandmother all dressed as little cowboys at about the same age.  This one is from 1944 and it makes it easy to see that she came from Texas.

I also finished some stitching, a small needlepoint bookmark for a friend.  I need to sew the ends together and put it in the mail.