Christmas PIllow | Averyclaire

February Finishing

Wow…February is halfway through already! We have had a lot of grey days…not good for the psyche! Then my sister was seriously ill and nearly died. I am grateful she made it through and I still have her hopefully for a long time to come! The weather swings from pleasant to bitter cold and back again and again. I have been trying to get back to my daily walking routine with my DH, but I confess I am chicken on the bitter cold and windy days. So I worked on unfinished projects and did a couple of stitching projects of my own along with those of clients.

Here is another needleroll finish stitched by Southpaw Stitcher. It is done the same as the one I did for myself (which was posted last time), except that she chose pink wool for the needle holder section of hers. I LOVE the pink!

And here they are together…the two of them. I am quite sure you have seen or will see more of these needlerolls somewhere on the internet. Our EGA chapter, Water Fall Glen, did this as a group project. Other EGA chapters did the same project.

V.D.N. did this beautiful Christmas pillow by Brenda Gervais. It is large…14 x 25 inches. I love the script writing in this. It looks like it is painted on, but it is meticulously stitched! We kept the finish very simple so as not to take away from the primitive style.

Southpaw Stitcher did this exquisite needlepainted “Eastern Bluebird” designed by Tanja Berlin. She took an EGA class not long ago and already completed the stitching. I am in serious awe of the absolutely gorgeous detail done by one single thread at a time! I didn’t want to return it to her after I finished it!

And here is an owl pin done by J.DN. She actually made two of them, but I forgot to take a photo of the second one before I returned them to her :(( He is backed with black wool and has a pin back. The other one was backed in brown. J.DN asked me to leave the edges “naked” so she could do some beading around the face! I think the beads will make a beautiful finish.

Last post I showed you my own stitching and finish of “Merry One” by Plum Street Samplers. Well here is “Merry Two” done with a slightly different finish. I can’t wait to see her Merry Three and perhaps Merry Four! It will make a delightful set. On this one I changed the colors of Santa’s robe, the snowman’s hat and nose, the flowers on the sled and I used a thicker chenille trim around the edge which I dyed with antiquing spray. I guess I am a traditionalist. But I really like the way it turned out.

And last but not least, over the Christmas holiday and cold January I managed to finish my Stacy Nash’s Primitive Drumroll Pinkeep and slipper with strawberry. I changed some of the colors on this pattern as well. I added the rusty orange rather than what was called for. And then made my strawberry orange too, rather than the traditional red. The drum is filled on the bottom third with sand, the center section with crushed walnut shells, and the top third with fiberfill. This really makes a super heavy free standing piece. I am very happy with the end result. [Edit: I didn’t change the rust flowers, I made the chamomille ones WDW-dolphin blue instead…sorry…my mind is going!]