Friday, July 10, 2009

Even More Pet Guardian Angels Arrive


I have three new pet guardian angels lurking in my house. The first one is not finished yet but because my scanner does a better job with unfinished pieces and I wanted you to see the dog's wonderful face, I am posting a photo of the ornament before it's made up. Nancy stitched it one-handed in honor of her Schnauzer Cookie. I am amazed that she did this with only one hand (she hurt her other) and that the face is so real! Nancy tells me she used a special thread for the fur called 100% Suri Alpaca Thread and it comes from Salt River Mills. It is distributed by The First and Last Stitch in St. Louis. She says it is for 13-18 count canvas which meant she could handle one strand one-handed and do long and short stitch on Cookie's face and paw with three shades of charcoal gray.
http://www.saltrivermills.com/Needlepoint_-_Yarn.html

http://www.firstandlast.com/






The second two angels just arrived from South Africa today. Odette stitched them and added all sorts of special touches, like crystal butterflies, a delicate beak, beaded halos, lovely green wings, a perfect little rabbit face, etc. I wish you could see them in person. My scanner does a decent job but you have to see Odette's stitching in person to appreciate it.



Aren't they amazing? I am constantly blown away by the artistry of all the stitchers who contributed to this project.

Tomorrow I will start assembling Nancy's angel for her. With only one hand, she just can't do this. Hopefully I'll do OK with two hands! Cookie the Tudor Dog deserves my very best finishing.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

What's Wrong With This Picture?




See this photo? I grabbed it from the Leigh Designs website. Notice anything different about it? No? Look at the photo on the left or the one in my last blog entry of the South Seas Fiji Dynasty ornament canvas I'm stitching. See any differences?

I got a horrified email from Leigh Richardson last night. She's the charming and talented woman behind Leigh Designs. She finally took a moment from her busy schedule to look at what I was doing with her South Seas Fiji and noticed----gasp!

My right side is black. Leigh sells this design with a shade of purple she calls "grape" on the right side. She says in the painting stage one of her artists accidentally painted the right side black. Leigh thought all those had been found and destroyed but somehow mine slipped through the cracks!
http://www.leighdesigns.com/Sgl8253.html

I feel like one of those folks who goes to the post office and buys some stamps to find out later they are worth millions because the shade of red on the American flag stamp is too raspberry. Leigh thinks the grape version is much lovelier but I am not giving up my black custom piece. Not only do I love black with the other colors and think it looks more like barkcloth, I have a Leigh Original!

Besides terrorizing innocent designers, last night I also worked a bit more on the boring border around Cape Cod Dogs. If I work really hard tonight I should finish it. At last!

I'm sorry I upset Leigh and sorry I'm so boring with my blog postings these days. Basketweave doesn't make for fascinating blog posts. But I have something more interesting for you tomorrow--promise!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow