Saturday, February 18, 2017

Gifted Gorgeousness February


As usual, I am late with my Gifted Gorgeousness post! What is Gifted Gorgeousness, you may ask? It's the brainchild of the lovely and talented Jo at Serendipitous Stitching, who invites us to celebrate gifts we've been given that we are stitching on (or gifts we're stitching for others). If you're up for seeing more eye candy, click on the graphic above and visit Jo's link up post!

First, I have to share some tulips my wonderful spouse brought me a couple weeks ago to cheer up a gray Winter day.
Tulips are my favorite; it won't be long before the Atlanta Botanical Garden is overrun with them and I can't wait!!

Now for actual stitching...I spent a fun afternoon trying to pick threads for this beautiful squirrel canvas that a good friend gave me for Christmas.
I've done counted canvas before, but this whole painted canvas thing is new to me (she keeps telling me she's trying to bring me over to "the dark side"). So I was kind of clueless on what kind of threads I should be picking, but between the employees and a couple friends, there was plenty of help...and plenty of opinions. ;) But it seems to me that was the easy part, since now I have to figure out what stitch to use for all the areas. I'm most puzzled by the metallic gold outlines of the squirrel. I don't want to just tent stitch them...bo-ring. Any canvas aficionados have any suggestions? I got Caron Snow in a metallic gold for those.

Now I will shoehorn in an old online class piece (the "gift of knowledge" from the instructor) that I've been working on. She had another class I wanted to sign up for, so I gave myself until the deadline to see if I could get at least half of this one done. I didn't...so I was a good girl and didn't sign up for the new class. This one is a lot of fun, though, so I'm not disappointed!!

Have you worked on anything this month that has been gifted to you or is going to be gifted to someone?

12 comments:

Tiffstitch said...

Nice thread choice for the squirrel! I can't help for the canvas stitches, but do you follow The Southpaw Stitcher? She may have some ideas.

Justine said...

Those are very different! I love the colours, especially those blues you've chosen for the squirrel. I only ever cross stitch so can't help on the stitches but I'm sure someone else will - good luck and have fun!

Christine said...

Great thread choices for the squirrel and the blue squares are gorgeous

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

Thanks for taking part in GG this month. Two gorgeous projects for this month. Looking forward to seeing how you decide to stitch the squirrel.

Kerryp77 said...

Those threads for the squirrel look gorgeous. Loving the colours in the squares project. All the different stitches fascinate me.

jocondine said...

I love the 2 gifted projects you choosed to show us on GG report, colors are great, good choice and the blue squares pattern looks very interesting, I'll make some research for closer pics. Amitiés.

woolwoman said...

wonder if a chain stitch might work for the outlining of the squirrel? it may not entirely cover what is painted but you can fill up to the chain with the stitches chosen for that area. I have a nice little stitch book I use a lot of stitch selection. Stitches to Go and also stitches for effect. Bet I know who that evil friend is who is trying to deport you to the "dark side" of NP! all lovely works you have going on. Mel

Carol S. said...

Do you happen to know the name of the designer for the squirrel canvas? If so, you can do a search for a stitch guide and see if anyone has created one.

I'd like to know the name of designer to see if there are other animals in this style available.

Thanks!

Beth in IL said...

I think you need to remember when you do painted canvas, the background does not need to be completely covered. So the suggestion about doing the chain stitch might work. And Carol S suggestion of finding a stitch guide is a good idea too. If I work on a painted canvas-not often!- I place it where I can see it often and think about what stitches would work in a certain area. I see bargello in the blue section with the gold being some sort of slanted goblein...

Melinda Forbes said...

Tulips are my favorite too. What a wonderful gift. Have never stitched on canvas, looking forward to watching this piece come to be. Your Online Class is beautiful.

Julie said...

Your colour choices for the squirrel look superb.

Heather said...

Gorgeous pieces! The squirrel looks fun!

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