Photos on an April Evening

After publishing my latest post, I heard from an old friend who wondered if I'd ever taken photos of a few pieces I'd given to her many years ago.  Needless to say,  I was thrilled to be able to add the photos she sent along to my albums.  In those days, I was doing mostly needlepoint - here are some of them:

This is an eyeglass case stitched with Paternayan Persian yarn  - I'd made several of them in those days, and use my own now for sunglass holders.  The case itself was pre-made - thankfully I didn't have to insert the zipper myself! 

Eyeglass case

Union Jack pincushion

 My friend is British, and we had many happy times together when we lived in the same small town, and later during longer holiday visits, watching films and comparing British literature selections that we'd read and loved.   Appropriately enough, this needlepoint pincushion still has a place on her living-room bookcase. 

Butterfly bell pull

This bell-pull was a favourite of mine (and hers too, I know now) - done with basketweave stitch using Paternayan Persian wools.  My friend said that her grand-daughter uses it as a height measurement all the time, noticing which butterfly she's now "up to" ("Grandma, I'm up to the blue one now!")  - I was delighted to hear that this piece was still being displayed and enjoyed thirty years after I'd stitched it.










Now back to some counted cross-stich projects that I've finished up just recently.

This pincushion, from Cherished Stitches' Feathered Friends series, incorporates the thought:  "Be you to others kind and true, As you would have others be to you."  It's resting on a background of a chenille shawl woven by one of my sisters - aren't the colours gorgeous!   

Cherished Stitched Feathered Friends (September)

Little House Needleworks Snow White

 This was an easy quick stitch that I'll either frame or make up into a pillow.  The fabric is a Silkweaver evenweave (Blueberry Lugana) that I was given several years ago, and the threads are a combination of DMC and Kreinik blending filament (hard to see this one in my photo - the bunny has some of this glittery accent added). 

TeaTime Sampler - Threads Through Time

Another little quick stitch, using DMC on linen,  adapted from a Nancy Sturgeon Threads through Time pattern (originally designed for a high-count silk gauze).  This will fit into a small frame that I'll use as an accent on my tea-table occasionally.  I may stitch it again soon in another combination of colours, perhaps aqua with green.   











And finally, Monasterium's Four Seasons Quaker is finished and off the stitching frame!  The colours are very different than the ones portrayed on the pattern cover .  For my own version, I thought about what represented the seasons on the prairies for me and chose these four.  The very subtle, barely-there soft green of early spring, the paler  yellows of the ripening wheat and barley, the terra-cotta of our autumn hillsides, and the cool blues of our long frosty winters.   If anything, the colours are even  softer than this image would suggest.  The silk threads are a combination of Gloriana and Belle Soie , on a Legacy Linen Puritan Grey ground.

And that's all the photos for now - I'm currently pinning and mounting several other pieces for framing, and continuing to stitch on one or two larger projects. 

Have a blessed Holy Week, with the anticipation of a wonderful Easter Sunday.