Hanging Gardens

I am thisclose to finishing the rock wall/hanging garden portion of the DK Designs Enchanted Forest scene.

That detail above is a finished portion.  This is one of those many pieces that look like nothing close up, you don't get the full effect until you stand back a pace... which you will still have to wait to see, I am SUCH a tease! 

I got a lot of it done yesterday during the football game, which was an epic underdog win of a game.  GO SEAHAWKS!  I think our yelling added to the 12th man effect, an hour away at the stadium, for sure. 

Anyway, as I work on this I've also been walking through our memories of the hanging gardens at Zion National Park. 

And the lush, vertical jungle vegetation in Hawaii.

OK so that picture isn't of the vertical vegetation, but trust me, it's there!  I couldn't find a good picture of it of my own, but if you ever get a chance to go to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden on the Big Island, don't skip it.  They have a gorgeous photo album on flicker if you'd like to see some gorgeous lush jungle and exotic plants.

Anyway I wandered off-topic again, didn't I.  No matter.  I'm currently working on these tiny little "comma ferns", which are quick and easy compared to some of that larger hanging stuff.   I <3 them!

A thank you

I stitched this card the other day as a Christmas gift thank-you.

Pattern from the wonderful book, Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection.

DMC cottons on 40-ct "flax" color linen.  I mailed this off, hopefully they have it by now, but I think I need to make another for myself, maybe as a book cover or something, it was so fun and quick!

A Fun Fern!

I had mentioned that I wanted my Brazilian Embroidery DK Designs forest piece to be the last finish of 2010.  That didn't happen...there was more to finish and less time than I had anticipated...but I am still making progress!  Overall, the section I'm working on doesn't look like much right now, but I love this little fern so much I thought I'd share.

It is made using a two-needle cast-on technique, and was really fun.  Made me want to put these ferns all over the place, but that's probably not the best choice design-wise. 

Honor what's ordinary

I am not a person prone to self-help books or navel-gazing introspection, and I would not normally link to such a long video (about 15 minutes) but this really stuck with me, after I watched it several weeks ago via one of my favorite non-stitching blogs, Geekmom.

Brene Brown is a researcher into shame and courage, and an author of several books, which I am going to give a read, after listening to this talk of hers from last fall.

What really stuck with me was her point that because our modern society has almost an allergy to the slightest risk or vulnerability, we close ourselves off to that experience, and in effect also close ourself off to joy.  If you care about something passionately, you become vulnerable. 

"So the question becomes, how do we embrace vulnerability?
....honor what's ordinary about our lives, because that is what's truly extraordinary...we can compete with the images in the media, from the news, from the scary shows on tv, with our own images of gratitude about what's ordinary in our lives, the people we love, our kids, our family, play, our community, and nature.  These are things that happen every single day that we're so busy being afraid, we're missing these.  So that's I think, the biggest thing, to be grateful for what we have and to honor what's ordinary..."

Wow, that that hit home for me.  Not everything or everyone can be exceptional or extraordinary, and shouldn't be.  The everyday things that are, are essential.  I will try not to get so caught up in the other stuff, that I lose sight of the ordinary.

Happy New Year!

This:

Is why my 1-1-11 start looks only like this today:

It is Laura J. Perin's "Malachite Maze" pattern, not that you can tell that yet, oh, well!

We took the kids for their first time skiing yesterday, it was a beautiful perfect day, all day, from the car ride in the morning on the way up to the mountain, which you can see in silhouette:

To the car ride home, and the gorgeous sunset looking down the valley:

And all the fun times in-between. 

The kids are naturals.  By the end of the day, the boy was skiing by himself, and going off little jumps with Dad's help, and the girl had tired herself out yelling "go faster" from her short little skis between my snowplowed thighs (my legs hurt BAD today).

My only goal for today is to take down the Christmas decorations, other than that, the Dude has decided he will take most of the kid-entertaining duties today so I can have a stitchy day.  Awww. 

Happy New Year, everyone!

2010 in Review

I'm not one for "resolutions".  But last year around this time, I decided that in 2010, I would really try to grow my needlework skills, both in trying different techniques, and trying my hand at not just designing my own creative needleworks, but actually following through on a few of them.  I love traditional cross-stitch and will never leave it entirely, but being exposed to some beautiful art quilts and needleworks over the last few years had really whet my appetite for expanding my own creativity, and seeing where I can go.

I started the year with my first stumpwork, a beetle from Jane Nicholas' wonderful book.

And in the spring I took an online design class from Sharon B of Pin Tangle, which was fantastic and resulted in these projects:

In early summer I designed a sampler for my cousin and neighbor:

The heat of summer brought out wild ribbons and sparkly things on sea creatures.

In the introspection of fall, the sparkles and spangles became imaginary worlds, based on tiny details of reality.

Somehow, some traditional cross stitch snuck in somewhere.



"Bertie" sampler by Needleprint



And even a little quilting.  (Only little ones though)

And along the way, I managed to see some beautiful places along the way and share them with the ones I love.

 

For us, 2010 was really a great year, and for that I am most thankful and lucky.  My 2011 goal is to continue the streak...and make some more imaginary worlds in thread.  

I hope 2011, for you, is productive and happy, and that you find what you are looking for.   Happy new year!

Finished trilobite sampler and free pattern #3

I squeezed in another finish!  My first little three-trilobite sampler.  I need to find a gray slate or stone frame for this.

I am enjoying building my little trilobite library but it's slow going, what with the ADD-like nature of my stitching whims and inspirations.  The first two in this series are Phacops and Anomocaroidea.

This little third one is Asaphida Ogygiocaris.  Cute, huh?

I've stitched this little sampler using HDF silk in colors "Primitive Barn Brown" and "Primitive Barn Bunny" on which are very complementary to the light gray and brown mottling of the 36 ct. Silkweaver linen color "Rock Quarry".  As you can see I took inspiration from real gray and brown trilobite fossils from my own collection. 

In the interest of science education and encouraging our small community of scienc-y stitchers, I have been posting the patterns for these little dudes.  If you would like to share these freebies with others, please do so, but please forward them here and do not copy or sell the patterns. 

To save, right click on the photo above and when it loads, right click again "Save picture as" and save as you like.  Enjoy!