The Golden Rabbit Pet Guardian Angel is Done

I can see the finish line from here, despite the rain and fog we have this morning. Last night I put the Golden Rabbit together and added her trim. The Victorian Parakeet is next and then I'll work assembling the wisteria teapot.

I hate finishing but I must say making up 7 ornaments in a row makes it easier. I feel a lot more confident about finishing now.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Yummy!

The Needleartnut Blog is stitching a cupcake for a bride. It's an original line drawn piece on sparkly gold and ecru canvas and I can't wait for this to develop. Pat's rotating her stitching pieces so you have to scroll down to May 30 to see the outline and the threads she is using. Today's posting shows the metal cupcake tin all done and the start of the icing. Looks like she is using a bargello stitch for the icing itself but I'm not 100% sure. It's a mystery what the top will look like right now.
http://needleartnut.blogspot.com/

(Speaking of bargello, you might be interested in six clever (and free!) bargello ornament designs from Althea DeBrul which will be briefly available on the Bargello Needlepoint website.)
http://bargelloneedlepoint.com/bargello-needlepoint-christmas-series/

If you are wild about stitching cupcakes, you need to take a peek at Raymond Crawford's over-the-top little cupcakes. Go to Designs, then choose Cakes.
http://www.raymondcrawford.com/

Pocket Full of Stitches is doing a monthly club of his stuff. Here's their page. It's a lot easier to see the stitches used here.
http://www.pfos.com/OtherClubs/Cupcakery/Cupcakery1.HTM

Danae Designs has a few cupcakes patterns also.
http://www.needlenookoflajolla.com/storedir/products.php?cat=139

If you just like the real thing, a friend who is a librarian told me about this blog, which has the most beautiful cupcakes you'll ever see. Let's here it for the little cakes!
http://cupcakeartists.blogspot.com/

Why am I hungry now...?

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Two More Pet Guardian Angels Finished

Two more of the pet guardian angels are made up into ornaments, making the grand total of finished pieces four. I have two to go, the Georgian Rabbit and the Victorian Parakeet. The end is in sight! (Or course I have to make the wisteria teapot into an ornament also but we won't quibble at how much I have left to do, right? No one wants to see me burst into tears....)

Above is the Tudor Dog, which I call Holi because her colorful outfit and floral halo were inspired by Mexican floral embroideries and the Indian Festival of Color which is called Holi. Everybody seems to like Holi and she was a lot of fun. I'd encourage anyone to go outside their comfort zone occasionally and really cut loose with their stitching.

And here is the Baroque Fish. She is one of my favoriates as I love the colors and her silver halo and the stitches Kandy Merric created for her are magnificent.

The Golden Rabbit is tonight's finish. Wish me speedy fingers!

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

The Plumber Ate My Homework UPDATED

The plan was for me to finish one pet guardian angel ornament each evening but I'm only half way through stitching the front and back of the Tudor Dog together. Things never go to plan in Chilly Hollow and yesterday was no exception. Instead of taking my husband to his regular checkup, I stayed home to let the plumber in to deal with no hot water, and ended up learning a lot more about hot water heaters and brands of faucets that I would have believed possible. (Tip from Joe the Plumber: buy Delta faucets. They are sturdy but easy to fix. The expensive Kohler ones the hardware stores push are very nice to look at but difficult to repair.)

The end result was I was too tired from cleaning up before and after the plumber arrived to get poor Holi put together all the way last night. Sorry! How about I distract you with things other folks are working on? I hate for you to be disappointed after you came all this way to visit!

Terry Dryden's Tropical Jazz piece is coming together. I can't wait to see how she finishes stitching this and then what beads and sequins she chooses to add on top! Wouldn't you like to explore her embellishment stash?!

I don't know when she plans to teach this but two years ago Carole Lake told me Terry Dryden was a teacher to watch and I have to say, Carole, you hit the nail on the head with that prediction.
http://www.terrydryden.com/-blog/2009/6/3/tropical-jazz-update.html

By the way, Terry sells handmade scissor fob/threader sets that look wonderful. I found them when I was looking at her retired teaching kits which are for sale. (By the way, Whirlygig is one of the ones you can buy. I used it to illustrate this piece because it makes a gorgeous tote bag emblem.)
http://www.terrydryden.com/handmade-stitching-accessories/

Madonna is stitching a very pretty pink bargello pattern from Toni Gerdes called Pink Orchids. I might have to reconsider not liking bargello much as I love flowers and I love pink. It's coming together very nicely, too.
http://frontrangestitches.blogspot.com/2009/05/pink-orchid-bargello.html

Judy Harper has posted a little article about silk ribbon embroidery (SRE) on her blog. If you thought the wisteria teapot looked nice and you want to explore SRE a bit, read what Judy has to say about books and crazy quilting. I didn't know crazy quilters used a lot of silk ribbon embroidery but Judy finds their work very inspiring and uses it to choose color schemes for her original needlepoint designs. The next time you are trying to come up with colors that go well together, you might want to visit the sites Judy finds inspiring.
http://fairy-crafts.blogspot.com/2009/05/more-color-and-inspiration.html

UPDATE: Judy's added another posting about SRE and her crazy quilt style needlepoint pieces. She talks about what stitches and size ribbon she used for the various flowers which I found fascinating. Thanks for sharing, Judy!
http://fairy-crafts.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-silk-ribbon-and-color.html

Michele has some new sign canvases from Elizabeth Turner in her shop in Michigan. Her favorite is "Drink Coffee -- Do Stupid Things Faster." LOL
http://bristlythistle.wordpress.com/2009/05/30/new-needlepoint-signs/

And on that note, I'll go top up my coffee cup and try to finish Holi right now before the day begins officially! (Wish me luck....)

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Amy Bunger Strikes Again

It's the first of the month and Amy Bunger has the June newsletter up on her website.
http://www.amybunger.com/current_enewsletters.html

As usual there's a stitcher's profile, a stitch of the month diagrammed for you, a glimpse of Amy's own stitching (the elephant for the Kelly Clark Nativity set she is doing as a monthly club class is amazing), and much more. I grabbed a typical before and after image from the What's New section of her website to illustrate this article as an introduction for those who aren't familiar with Amy's stitching. The top is the bare canvas and the bottom canvas is what Amy did with it. The canvas is by Beth Hunt/Damarj and can be purchased from the Oriental canvases page if you are interested. I think all Beth Hunt canvases come with a stitch guide by Amy so you can recreate the effect yourself and learn something interesting from a master stitcher.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow