Berlinwork

I thought I would show you some of my stitched pieces of Berlinwork designs.  I love these beautiful designs from the Victorian age so much and hope you will enjoy looking at a few of them.

This is one of my very favorites, it comes from one of Raffaella Serena's wonderful books called Animal Embroideries and Patterns.  She has three books on this subject and I'm lucky enough to have all three of them.

A detail.  Can you imagine using such a fancy bowl outside to feed the pigeons?

Some of the roses.  I stitched this on 32 count Lugana with one strand of DMC over two threads of the fabric.  This is my preference for stitching detailed designs like this one, I think it has a nicer, neater look to it than it would have if stitching it over only one thread.   Here are some more designs from Raffaella's books.

A rosy cheeked girl holding a cat and a dog.

A beautiful swan with her little cygnet swimming beside her.  I love this one so much that I stitched it twice, I hardly ever do that!

A contented sheep among the flowers.

I love Victorian cat pictures.  I put this one on a large stitching bag and on the other side of the bag I put this kitty.

I'm currently stitching this kitty again, probably to put on another purse.

I'm pretty sure this one, called Floral Symphony can be found on Ellen Maurer-Stroh's website.  

This came from Victorian Cross Stitch a great source of Berlinwork patterns.  And speaking of Victorian cats, I want to show you my newest tattoo.

 Just a bad bathroom mirror arm selfie, sorry!  This was done by Erik who is always kind enough to tattoo whatever pictures I bring in to him.  He made this look precisely like the Victorian image that I had found online.  Now, I will end with a few pictures of some real kitties.

Cricket, posing on the stairs.

Sarah, helping me fold the sheets.

And Harley, as usual, up to no good!  Click on the picture if you want to see the toilet paper hanging from his guilty little kitty lips.  Isn't that expression the epitome of naughtiness caught in the act?  It's a good thing we love him so much!  

Thank you for visiting, I appreciate it so much!

Cottage Garden Embroidery

I made this embroidery using another wonderful vintage pattern provided by Flickr contributor Chez60, the same lady who provided the Crinoline Lady pattern in my previous post.  She has shared so many beautiful old designs that I just can't wait to use!  

This pattern originally had a crinoline lady, too, but since I had just done one of those I decided to make some changes.  Here's the original one:

I just left her out, added some more rocks and flowers and was reasonably happy with the result.

A little closer.  

I used a variety of threads including Valdani, DMC Color Variations, Gentle Art Sampler Threads and Cosmos Seasons.  All of these threads which are probably used more for cross stitch than anything else are wonderful to use for this kind of embroidery.

One more close up:

Those odd looking things in the lower right corner are supposed to be bricks.  I had tried several different ways of doing them including plain satin stitch and nothing seemed to look right.  So after several rip outs I settled on the way you see them here.  I still wasn't perfectly happy with them but decided enough was enough and this is how they would stay.

I hope you enjoyed seeing another embroidery, thanks for visiting!

Crinoline Lady Embroidery

I decided to do a traditional crinoline lady embroidery using a vintage pattern--kindly provided by Chez60 on the Flickr group Hoop Love Vintage Patterns.  But instead of the usual cotton floss colors normally used at that time, I wanted to go with variegated silks.  These are mostly Caron Waterlilies, with some Dinky Dyes and a couple of Gloriana silk flosses.

Another way to have it be a little bit different was to make the lady a dark complected one.  I've only seen crinoline ladies as light skinned white ones, so I thought we should see a lady of color for a change.  I also used a tiny piece of fabric for the hankerchief she's waving because I was pretty sure it would look better than one embroidered on the background fabric.

This was a fun embroidery and I can't wait to start on another one!

Thank you for visiting my blog!

Beidermeier Sampler Redo

I've always admired the design and motifs of this sampler, but never cared for the mostly dull colors that were charted for it.  I don't know if these were the original colors or if it was charted using the faded over time colors but I thought it could use a little brightening up.  So I decided to change not all, but a lot of the colors to ones that I think are a lot nicer. DMC threads were used.

It won't be done for a while, but I've gotten a good start on it.  

I left the bunny motif alone, but changed the flowers below it to a nice violet color.

How do you like my color changes?  Have you ever done this with an old sampler?  I will show you my progress as I continue to work on it.  

This is the old Burda magazine that the chart came from, I've collected many of these over the years from Ebay and I love them.  I think Permin may have sold this as a chart, also.

A lot has happened since I last posted, we were very sad last February to lose our sweet Maggie.

We had found her living in our shed several years ago, she had given birth to a littler of kittens which we found homes for and then had her spayed.  Eventually she came to live inside with us and the other kitties and she would always show her appreciation with lots of love.  She was such a joy to have with us and we miss her terribly.

On a happier note, here's a picture of Sarah and Tigger locked in a tight cuddle.

Thanks for visiting, I always appreciate it!

Some Embroideries and a Small Sampler

I've been finding some really nice vintage transfers on Ebay and Etsy and have been enjoying turning them into embroideries like this one.  I used traditional DMC vareigated colors on this embroidery and the next one, trying to keep with a vintage look.

But for the next one I decided to use a more modern color scheme and I used newer brands of threads;  Cosmos Seasons and DMC Color Variations.

Even though I love the vintage look, I do love the colors on this embroidery, too.  

I got what was supposed to be a kit for a stamped cross stitch sampler, but it looked like it was going to stamp onto the fabric in a wonky way.  So I decided to do it in a counted way, which was kind of a challenge because the chart that was included was meant just as a guide to the colors and was a bit wonky itself.  I also changed most of the colors to vareigated  DMC ones, I felt that they made it look more interesting and it was definitely more fun to stitch.

I will leave you with a picture of three of the kitties, Pepper, Tigger and Sarah relaxing on the couch.  Thank you so much for visiting!