Sunday, December 6, 2015

Beidermeier Sampler Redo Finished

I started working on this sampler several months ago, but as you may or may not remember, I really wasn't very fond of a lot of the dull colors it has.  I thought it might look nicer, at least to me, if some of the browns and beiges were replaced with some brighter colors.  Now it is finished and here is the result.
I left all of the greens and a few browns and grays as they were, but changed most of the other colors.  I love pink and blue so I used a lot of those and also some very light peach here and there, especially in the lower and the right border.
I love these motifs, don't you?
I first stitched the cherries in a medium pink, then changed them to this dark red just to have all of the red in the sampler more balanced, but I'm not sure it was the right choice, they did look nice when they were pink.  Sorry about the turquoise fuzz on one of the leaves, I don't know how that ended up there.
This wreath motif is my favorite one. 
Thanks for looking!  I also want to say sorry I have not been visiting or commenting very much on your blogs these past few months.  In July, my husband started having to do dialysis and it was very rough for a couple of months.  I've always been a terrible worrier and it was difficult for me to think about very much of anything else during that time.
But I'm happy to say, he is doing so much better now, it just took some time for him to get adjusted and he is feeling quite well.
Thank you so much for visiting!

Friday, May 1, 2015

New Embroidery

This was a very enjoyable embroidery to do, it was done from a pattern provided by Cheryl {Chez60} on Flickr.  She has a wonderful collection of vintage landscape embroidery patterns and I'm very grateful she has decided to share them with us.  Here is a copy of the pattern:
I used several different types of threads.  I'm very fortunate to have a large collection of them to choose from.
On the roof I used Valdani Twisted Tweed Pearl Cotton, I thought it provided an interesting texture.  For the chimney I used a Cosmos Seasons variegated floss, I have used this one many times when doing bricks.
I used Caron Watercolors in several places in this embroidery.  I especially like it for French knots since each of its three strands even when separated are quite thick and fill up an area fairly fast.  
These hollyhocks were made with Watercolors Cherry Cordial.
In the background a chain stitched farmer's field and French knot teal colored bushes.  
I can't say I'm totally happy with the entire embroidery.  For example, after stitching the rain barrel next to the chimney, we were driving somewhere and I saw a real wooden barrel and it was a weathered gray, not brown like mine.  And I'm not really crazy about those teal bushes but have you ever tried ripping out a large area of French knots?  Let me tell you, it's not something I enjoy.
But I try to learn from each project and for the most part, it's quite fun!
Thank you so much for stopping in and taking a look at my embroidery!