Introducing Gay Ann Roger's Cameo Ornament

Although I mostly stitch painted canvases, I occasionally venture out into the world of Counted Thread, especially when there is a project I absolutely love that is charted.  On the right you see my next project, Gay Ann Roger's large cameo ornament.  She taught two versions of a cameo ornament at Callway.  I'm stitching the larger one which is seen on the right.  It is going to be my mother's Christmas present as she loves cameos. I know she will love this piece!  But I'm going to have to hurry as this needs to be finished and made up into an ornament by Thanksgiving.  By the way, the link below is to Gay Ann Roger's blog.  On it she posted photos of all the cameo designs she has taught.  Each year in October she has what she calls E-Week when she sells selected designs from her years of teaching.  I saw and purchased my cameo ornament instructions this year from her website (second link below).  Don't miss the techniques pages.  You can get great hints from The Queen of Bullions herself that will come in very handy whether you are a painted canvas person, an embroider, a counted thread lover, or just interested in hand work.
http://gayannrogers.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Home_Page.html

The instructions arrived promptly and I immediately sat down and read through them twice.  In my experience, reading the instructions several times before you start really helps, especially when you are working from class instructions that were meant to be worked with the teacher present.  There are always a few little questions which Gay Ann answered via email promptly.

By the way, I also ordered the cameo bead separately from the instructions from Mrs. Rogers.  It really finishes off this piece beautifully, especially since I know my mother doesn't have a pin she would want to put on the ornament.

For this piece you use #12 perle cotton, #8 Kreinik braid, #8 perle cotton and silk ribbon on congress cloth.  The ornament is made up of three parts:  the front, the back and a flap on the front to attach your cameo.  The instructions include finishing tips and how to make the double tassel that finished the piece.  I choose sage green congress cloth, ecru perle cotton and Kreinik silver braid #102.  I am undecided about the silk ribbon.  I have a lot of shades of pink for the silk ribbon roses but may borrow ecru silk ribbon from a fellow threadaholic to use instead.  I am a bit worried that ecru flowers won't set off the ecru cameo button properly.  We'll see.

As I have a tight deadline, once I finished the squiggles on the Rabbit Geisha, I started the front flap piece.  Here is my progress so far.

Next time I'll talk about the perle cotton I'm using for this piece.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
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