Framing the Geisha

No, I didn't commit a crime and frame a geisha. I wouldn't do that. But I am definitely the kind of person willing and able to frame the geisha I stitched and finished this year. It turned out pretty, although I'm not at all happy with the framing part. Too much mat, not enough fabric. It is lashed to the backing, but I would have preferred thinner mats had I but known they would take up so much space. I'll leave it for now, but the next time I buy a frame for a 5 x 7, I'll use one of my fabrics and not the kit fabric so I will end up with thinner mats and more space to lash the fabric to the frame. It makes such a difference.

And now for the reveal.

It turned out nicely, but not nicely enough. I think a lighter green top mat (and also thinner) with the gold bamboo frame next time. In the meantime, it will hang above my bed with all the ladies with fans will eventually reside. This is a Dimensions Gold kit, the 5 x 7 version, but a very nice kit.

Don't forget to click on the picture to make it bigger. It is quite beautiful. I even managed the bullion stitches that make up the hair ornament above her ear. The gold is pretty too in the back stitching details, subtle but not too subtle. 

Happy stitching. And may all your framing turn out the way you want them.

Backstitching the Bride

I thought I'd share how far I've come in the backstitching for the Japanese Maiden and how much of a difference it makes.

What looked muddy and off color to me when I stitched it now looks much more beautiful with the back stitching. I am amazed at how she is turning out and how lovely the gold threaded stitches look.

The backstitching makes such a difference. The bride is much more prominent against the background and the cranes on her kimono are more vibrant as well.

It is difficult to see the gleam of the gold thread in the designs on the hat. Looks much better in person. Maybe when it is framed it will be more obvious in a photo, but I think I'll have to get a special lens and better camera skills to make that possible. Trust me; it looks beautiful in person.

I should finish by February and I am very pleased with the work so far. A few more days of stitching and she will be a fait accompli. That's a good thing.

Don't forget to click on the pictures to see them up close. Happy stitching

On an Asian Roll

Since I was already here and couldn't get the previous post to give me any more space, I'm putting the update for the Japanese Maiden here.

This is where I stopped to work on Xmas stockings. I love this design and I can't wait until it's finished, framed, and ready to hang. I'm keeping this one for myself.

Here's a closeup of the new details. Still have the outside to work on, but it's getting there and I'm really happy with what is coming from the threads. I'm so glad I decided to do this one. It's beautiful.

Happy stitching.

Just when you think it's taking forever...

Well, I'm finally finished. I put the last couching stitch in the Kreinik #8 braid (gold - 002) and rolled it up ready for washing, pressing, and taking to the framers. There were times I didn't think I'd ever get this one done and did several other projects to ease the frustration, but it is done. I'll take it to the framer tomorrow to get an idea of cost for this and for the companion piece I stitched 20+ years ago. I am glad to have it finished. So very glad, which is not to say I'm not proud of the accomplishment, just that I wished sometimes it didn't take so long.

I thought I'd share more of the individual elements. It's interesting to see how a few stitches and some back stitching can create a recognizable image.

 Like the quail peering out from behind a tree or the birds in the rest of the trees.

More birds and a fish surfacing in the water.

A song bird and a moth.

The two lovebirds at the left corner. Love birds always remind me of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

A little dragonfly and the letter C illuminated.

The little fellow in the right corner is wearing a kilt and playing the bagpipes, something I didn't realize until I back stitched him.

This was the final step, couching in the gold braid. You can almost see it gleam.

And this is how it all goes together. There is far more back stitching in this piece than any other I've done and a lot of tiny elements that have to be stitched, back stitched, and connected by vines. As frustrating as it was at time, I am glad I stitched it -- and that it is actually finished.

One thing I've learned is not to be afraid or daunted by any project. I may have to rip out sections (which is why I prefer to buy patterns and use my own floss), but in the end it is worth it for the pleasure it gives. 

Happy stitching.

Illuminating a manuscript

This is where I began yesterday. I decided to do some more work on part 2 of the Illuminated Manuscript from Cross Stitch & Country Crafts nearly 20 years ago. This is the second part of the design, or at least another illuminated manuscript which can be joined with the first part to make a pillow. I prefer the designs separately but with coordinating tarnished gold frames.

This is after today's stitching session. The illuminated letter is a C and begins the next section of the canto, or song, that is part of the design. This project takes a lot of Kreinik gold 002 blending filament and I wish you could see how it sparkles. The fabric is ivory, but looks white with a blue tinge because of the program I use to fix my lack of photography experience.

This will be about half again as big with animals and gold designs all around the outside. As I work with the blending filament, I have learned how to make the designs sharper. That's all part of the learning curve and having done this project before. I think the colors are brighter and the fabric a bit thicker than before, but even colors and fabrics have changed over the past 20 years.

In the end, it's all about enjoying yourself and doing those projects that will either make good gifts or simply satisfy that creative urge.

Happy stitching.

Stitching with Gold

I worked on the Xmas sled stocking this past weekend and actually got somewhere. I left in old stitches that will eventually be pulled so you can see the difference between using 4 stitches instead of the 2 listed, especially when working with the gold wire. The wire reminds me of DMC's gold filament wire, which I also bought and will be using on one of the Celtic group, Celtic Christmas.

 I began the lettering too far left and the letters look faint.

As you can see, the gold thread looks much more prominent here. I'm not happy about the single thread that holds the gold in place because I can see it. 

Here the couching on the top of the sled is much clearer and I like the curlicues that form off the leaves. Much still isn't done, but there a lot more done than what I started with over the weekend.

In this closeup, you can see the individual details better.

The pine boughs are all done here as are the pine cones and the leafy detail. The leaves are made by combining the gold filament wire and the floss. Seen in person, it glitters with just enough gold.

On the left hand side, geese fly by in the cold winter sky at dawn. There are no special gold threads here, just half and full crosses and back stitching in 2 colors: black and brown, to make the geese look like they're flying.

This is a closer view of the geese. The effect is like impressionist art, more effective from a distance.









This has been a complex project, but I am glad I tackled it and am close to finishing. All that is left is the gold couching on the ribbons, some trees, a bit of back stitching, and putting on the name, and then it's time to cut out the stocking, backing, and lining for the inside and stitch it all together. I'll attach a braided hanger I already made and set it aside for Xmas. I'm already anxious to begin on the next project and the one after that and the one after that.

There are plenty of frustrations and a lot of fun in cross stitching, but for me the payoff is giving the work away to someone who will appreciate it. It's no fun keeping it all to myself.

Happy stitching.

Leopards, Butterflies, and Illuminated Manuscripts

I didn't show the finished Leopard, and now seems to be a good time to rectify that mistake. I suppose I'm the only one that knows the bottom right of the finished piece is one stitch off, but it still looks good. Now more people know my mistake. Oh, well, that is -- in the Chinese version of ultra-perfection -- more proof that I am not infallible and make mistakes, as if I didn't have hundreds of ways of telling that without the Leopard.

 I believe this particular piece was adapted from a painting by Joadoor -- and it was. I suggest checking out more of his work. I googled him and found some lovely work, many of which I wouldn't mind adapting for cross-stitch.

This is the original and I definitely see the differences. I do think the artist adapting the painting for cross-stitch did a good job of rendering Joadoor's striking work.






I doubt you will remember it, but I originally (as in ~20 years ago) stitched a piece from a cross-stitch magazine. It was adapted from an original illuminated manuscript and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it, and so I stitched it in a feverish week that resulted in the first piece of a project. Now, 20 years later, I am stitching the companion piece to give to a good friend because I think she will appreciate it.

This is the original done ~20 years ago.  My sister Tracy sent it to me, along with a whole lot of DMC floss. The companion piece, published in Cross Stitch and Country Crafts a couple issues later can be mated to this to make a pillow. I decided on the full piece so as not to lose the rest of the work.

All these years later I find the colors are more vibrant than the original, but still beautiful. I have a long way to go to finish this one. Suitably framed, they will make a lovely gift.

While not cross-stitch, this is one of a set of pillow cases I began last year as a gift. Other projects have taken precedence, not only because they are cross-stitch, but because I'm still honing my embroidery skills. Once the stitching is finished, the pillow cases will be washed (to remove the embroidery lines), ironed, wrapped, and sent to someone who loves butterflies almost as much as I do.



I have found that when someone receives a gift that is handmade, it says more than the usual happy whatever day or merry Xmas. It says that you took the time to choose something for the person and stitched it yourself. No matter how small or how complex, the gift that usually ends up in pride of place in someone's heart is the handmade gift. My mother kept horrible clay projects I did decades ago when I was a child; she kept everything. Going through all those paintings, drawings, sketches, ceramics, and thread work is a lifetime of memories, and she kept them all.

Happy stitching.

The story behind the background

I don't think I mentioned before that the background for this blog contains two cross stitch patterns I bought about 20 years ago and stitched. King Tut's death mask was done first and was my first major project. I bought the pattern and the materials and worked with metallic blending floss for the first time. The whole thing from start to back stitching took me 2 weeks and some people consider that astonishing. I wasn't working full time then and put all my attention on cross stitching.

Nefertiti's bust (that's statue of head and shoulders for the guys whose minds went directly THERE) took me a little more time to find. The company that made the pattern was bought out by another company and the pattern redone with different colors. I wanted Nefertiti to match King Tut, so I did my own revision of the colors so it did match. I think Nefertiti was done about 2 years later, but it could be more like 5 years.

My mother instantly fell in love with King Tut and, when I refused to let her have it after it was framed, she threw a fit and threatened to break into my apartment and steal it. Like I wouldn't notice. She also didn't know I had planned to give it to her for Xmas. Everyone was in on that secret and helped me to get it out of the trunk of my car and hang it in the front hallway. Mom must have passed it a dozen times going up and down the stairs past where it hung without seeing it.

My siblings were anxious to go home and stood next to King Tut talking. Twice more Mom passed and didn't see it until Jimmy, my younger brother, asked Mom to settle a mock dispute between he and my sisters as she was going up the stairs yet again. She turned to answer, caught sight of Tut, and nearly fell over the banister trying to get back down the stairs to snatch it off the wall, hold it to her chest, and run through the house screaming, "I got it. I got it. I got it," in her most unholy gleeful voice.

I gave her Nefertiti a few years later, appropriately framed, and she was as tickled with that as she was with Tut, although there was a lot less furor.

Mom didn't like that I had both famed and matted without glass, so she had them framed and matted a second time by the daughter of a friend of hers who offered to do the work for free. I think the daughter wanted to get her hands on Tut and Nefertiti and see what the back was like. I never did mention how much it cost to have both framed and matted or how long I took choosing just the right combination. It wouldn't have mattered to Mom anyway.

When I was home 6 years ago, Mom decided I should take both of the framed pieces home with me. My father was dying of bone cancer metastasized from prostate cancer he thought he had beat 10 years before, and Mom was certain she'd follow Dad soon. Mom lasted until last year, January 13, 2012, Friday the 13th appropriately, and she often told me she wished she had held onto Tut and Nefertiti longer. It was the first place guests to the house were taken once entering the house. They hang on my living room wall now and are about 24 x 36, done on Navy blue 28-ct Lugana with Kreinik metallic blending filaments and DMC floss. I still think they make an appropriate background for this blog as they were my first foray into the world of challenging cross stitch and the beginning of a love of thread art.

King Tut's Death Mask

 Nefertiti

Nefertiti reminds me of Mom: fine small features dressed in jewels and covered in gold. Mom would've liked that -- being covered in gold and studded with jewels. They were her favorite things. 

Happy stitching.

Xmas stockings Part Deux

I know. Pretentious that Part Deux, but it works for movies.

On to the next offering in the Xmas stockings, finished and unfinished.

I thought the next pattern was cute, but not as cute as one I remembered from years ago, a white kitten playing with a red or blue glass ornament from a tree. Since I couldn't find that one and had recently spaced on how to find it (the way I found the sunflower pattern for Jillie's afghan), I chose a pattern that had kittens, ribbons, ornaments, and Xmas tree limbs. It was a choice and it turned out so much better than I thought it would.

 Sorry about the angle. It was late. I was tired. I'm not a great photographer. Pick one excuse and run with it.


At any rate, this one is for Ariyanna. The stocking doesn't have the sparkle of the Winter White stockings or the difficulty factor of some of the others, but it is cute. Very cute.

As it emerged from the blob of stitches and showed more personality and nuance, I was happy with my choice. 


I did find the white kitten playing with the red ornament under the tree, but I have no more grandchildren to make stockings for, although I might consider stockings for relatives or friends or someone who would like one for their favorite kid for Xmas.


A closeup view of the cats shows a better view of their eyes, which are gorgeous, and some of the details not visible on this view.

It's not flashy, but it is adorable and I think it will stand the test of time. I hope Nonny, Ariyanna's nickname and a name that fit on the upper section of the stocking, will think so.

This is the ornament that goes with the stocking. It will be cut out in a circle, hence the circular pattern to the stitching, and will be ribboned and added to a few little trinkets inside the stockings for Xmas giving.

Winter White stockings have ornaments that go with the stocking, and a ribbon was included, a green ribbon.  You can almost see it in the shadow of my arm and the camera. What you cannot easily see, thanks to my ham-handed photography, is the iridescent blue snowflake among the background pattern surrounding one of the magnolia blossoms similar to the snowflakes on the body of the stocking.

Since not all the stockings had ornaments, I've decided to do an ornament for Sierra's stocking and not one for the boys, Connor because he's gone and Jordan is much too mature and old for an ornament. He'll get something else in his stocking.

Sierra's stocking appealed to me because of its design of snow woman and birds, but also because of the artistry, which always translates into difficulty.

The shading is achieved with half cross stitches, called satin stitches in Europe (something I discovered on another project).

The coloring is beautiful and I love the birds, but they are somewhat difficult to back stitch. I had even forgot I wasn't finished back stitching this one. Back stitching is not my favorite part of the x-stitch process; I prefer patterns that do not need to be back stitched.

There is a sunflower on the snow lady's hat, some seeds in the divot in the center of the hat, and lots of birds. I do love the birds.

This cardinal is partially back stitched and I do like the suet and seed bell hanging from the tree branch. It reminds me of the ones my grandmother hung on her trees throughout the winter.

The last little bird and he isn't back stitched at all.  I obviously have a little more work to do on this and will finish it once the wedding afghan is done.

I didn't even mind all the changes in the thread colors necessary for some of the birds, but I did decide to leave out the continuation of the branches and trees in the background above the name.

I haven't decided whether to use a bird for the ornament or do the suet-seed bell instead. Maybe a combination of both: bird head and a bit of wing eating from the bell. That might just do it.

The last stocking is Jordan's and it is way more challenging than I realized. Lots of color changes and shifts from half cross to cross stitches, but this one has fine gold wire as part of the design and gold beads for the wreath in the center of the sled that is the focal point and the main theme of the stocking. It's a bit hard to tell just from what I have already done, but it will be beautiful -- if I can stop making mistakes and having to tear out sections to get it right.

Getting off even one stitch on the count is disastrous in a project like this. You can fudge it but it won't look right in the end, which is why I have spent much more time on this one than I usually need to. My x-stitching skills are a bit rusty, but coming along.


In the end, it is all about enjoying the process of x-stitching, even when you want to crumple it up and throw it to the birds and mice to rip apart instead of tearing out a section again and beginning over. For me, it is also about making something that will last for years and may be handed down or even used, a legacy of love in colored thread and even weave fabric that won't end up in a jumble of toys in the toy box or laid out for a garage sale. Personal gifts made with x-stitch and love last forever, not only in the lives of the recipient, but in the memory of the stitcher -- mistakes and all.

First stitches

Since I've decided to get back into cross stitch and found a lot of interesting cross stitch blogs, and since I'm a writer as well as a cross stitcher, I decided to give it a shot.

The background image is of two pieces I did about 20 years ago, King Tut's Death Mask and the bust of Nefertiti, both done on 28-count navy Lugana fabric with Kreinik blending filaments. I did adjust Nefertiti's pattern to match the colors in King Tut's death mask, which I did first, but they do go together.

They went so well together my mother, upon seeing them framed for the first time, snatched them up and ran out of the family room to hide them. I did get them back but she threatened to break into my apartment and steal them. She didn't have to; I gave them to her for Xmas, but she did have to wait more than six months to get them. That's another story for another time.

I recently got back into cross stitch because I wanted to make Xmas stockings for six of my grandchildren, in cross stitch, and in time for the holidays. I have four finished completely, one nearing completion, and the sixth is partially done. It is a more complicated pattern and I needed a break. I also needed to do something a little different and saw the ABC afghan and figured it was a good piece to take a break on. I thought it would be a perfect heirloom gift for a friend's niece, Baby Mac, otherwise known on her birth certificate as McKenna. She is an adorable blue-eyed angel and I wanted something special.

When I received the kit I was somewhat disappointed. Not in the materials, they were top quality, but in the pattern. Cross stitching an afghan with one strand of floss was called for but that provides no stability or durability, so I changed things around a bit. I decided to double the thread count, using 2 and 4 strands of floss for the 1 and 2 called for and I changed the pattern slightly (mostly on the fly as I was stitching) to make use of material since I was stitching over 2 threads. The results aren't too bad but I would've liked more time to properly adjust the pattern so the animals look more fluid and less blocky, maybe even streamlining the letters as well.

As you can see the letters are laid out in a positive-negative design. That is, the letters are positive (cross stitched) and negative (denoted by the empty space within a block of cross stitch). I would suggest contacting Wilton and asking for the conversion from their colors to DMC (my favorite) or Anchor and buy enough floss (about 2 skeins per color) to convert from the 1/2 to 2/4 strands of floss. The floss for back stitching is sufficient in the kit, so no need to buy more.

The afghan did turn out fairly well, although wrinkled from its journey from Colorado to Georgia, and I hope Baby Mac will enjoy it and one day pass it down to her children, something she would not be able to do using the original counts of 1 and 2 strands of floss. Enough of my grumbling and on to two more pictures of the finished afghan.

I'm mostly pleased with the design and may give it another shot, although I'm leaning more towards making afghans for the grandkids next year and have chosen some wonderful patterns and kits from 1-2-3 Stitch. I recommend them highly. They have been a great source of kits and materials and they deliver quickly.

In the meantime, I have another afghan to finish. This one is for my cousin Jillian who is getting married on Aug. 11, 2012 to Cyrus, her long time boyfriend. I do hope she likes sunflowers.