Jo's stitching 2022

[Steam.Jo]

Thank you I like to put the frames in on pieces before I start infilling as it gives me a good guide if I am still following the chart as printed rather than doing something artistic

I am moving forward on Bunny:



All the crosses are in place and it is time to do the backstitching Weather is looking good tomorrow for getting a bit of stitching done (a bit too cool/damp for gardening ) so the target is to finish the backstitching tomorrow.

Once bunny is done I will let you know what the cloud shaped frame is for, unless you want to try guessing first

Jo

[Squirrel]

I am curious - what happened to dear Bunnies other ear or is it yet to be stitched.

[Steam.Jo]

One ear is standing up the other is laying down. I suspect the designer wanted to capture the way bunnies scoop down one ear and lick down it but it would be very difficult to capture it to look realistic.

Hopefully it will become a little clearer once the backstitching is completed

Jo

[rcperryls]

Bunny gets more precious with each update. I am sure the backstitch will make it all clearer!

Carole

[wendywombat]

Bunny gets more precious with each update. I am sure the backstitch will make it all clearer!

Carole

A lovely bunny....I agree!

[Steam.Jo]

Thank you. Here we go backstitching completed :



Framing will be delayed until after I take it along to our sewing group on Friday.

I've just moved something else out into the Conservatory to work on

Jo

[Mabel Figworthy]

Makes him extra fluffy! You have stitched his shaggy fur very neatly

[Roland]

He is so cute…looks like he might hop right off the screen.

[Squirrel]

Thank you for the explanation Jo I can see the other ear now. You are making good progress.

[rcperryls]

Absolutely adorable!!

Carole

[Steam.Jo]

It has been a while since I posted my stitching. I'll start with my Conservatory stitching : After the bunny I did some sweet tweets:



With all the birds starting their families around I felt it was appropriate to do these. However since then the Great tits have fledged and when ever I put out food for my Robins they pounce and the ground is covered with a mass of their green backs. Less than a minute later and they have scoffed everything, even the Pigeon doesn't get anything

Which I why I started playing fetch with the Robins, the game went: They sit politely on the the outside table, chair or piece of bamboo and I throw them a mealworm pellet. They swoop down, hop up to it, pick it up and then take it back to their growing families. That went ok until they started fighting each other over the pellets and then the Female Chaffinch turned up...

The Chaffinch is a real character and a much quicker more agile flier than the Robins. What initially happened was I threw a pellet and this brown bird with white flashes zipped past and took the pellet before the Robins got there. After a couple of weeks she has become very brave and almost sits on the door step to make sure she gets some first.

The down side to all this bird feeding is if they see me doing nothing in the garden I get pestered to go and feed them. It also takes longer to play fetch than just to put a heap of food out for them to SHARE

The good news is found a nice cross stitch of a Chaffinch in my Stash. So its priority for stitching has increased

Enough of my birds I'l go an photograph what replaced the Sweet tweets in the conservatory.

Jo

[Steam.Jo]

Not long ago I did a cross stitch of a Geisha by Stitch-by-Stitch. This was a companion to one I did 20 years ago that had was in very similar packaging by Prelude. They are both 25cm by 30cm so I assume one company brought out the other. I found a completed Cross stitch of a third design so I have been keeping my eyes out for some more when this one turned up on Fleabay.

I didn't read it just hit the buy it now button and waited... When it arrived I noted that instead of being on Ivory Aida it was on white, so I purchased a piece of ivory instead. Then realised it was bigger This is it:



And a comparison with one of the earlier ones:



As you can see it is much bigger, it is 32cm by 38cm. And nearly finished. I still have the lower right corner to do and then all the details and work with the metallic gold, then I will need to choose the next one to do

Jo

[Serinde]

Still beautiful, though.

[mags]

Gorgeous stitching - love the bunny and the tweets.

[Mabel Figworthy]

The birds are adorable, and I loved reading your account of the birds in your garden!

[Steam.Jo]

Thank you Ladies

In my dining room I am working on another piece. You may recall I started posting this a couple of months ago and it is still going. In the corners are four Chinese characters done over one thread on 28 count evenweave. The bottom left corner is Virtue:



They say that patience is a virtue and something that is required for doing our cross stitch.

In the bottom right is wisdom:



Wisdom is the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement all things that I believe doing cross stitch gives us.

I have not taken close up pictures of the other two characters but you can see them in the top two corners:



On the right is longevity, by keeping active and doing something that challenges our minds we can expect to live longer. And lastly, but not least, the top left hand is Happiness, which is how we feel when we do our cross stitch.

And so to the centre where you can see face of the Dragon slowly appearing. Slowly as all of the threads are blended threads and some have an additional strand of metallic.



This dragon is of a type known as a Celestial as it does not have wings. The Chinese believe that dragons are mythical creatures that bring ultimate abundance, prosperity and good fortune. The Chinese dragon, or Lung , symbolizes power and excellence, valiancy and boldness, heroism and perseverance, nobility and divinity. "Eastern" dragons are beautiful, friendly, and wise, instead of being feared/hated as Western dragons, they are loved and worshipped.

Jo

[Midge]

Beautiful work. The colour mix is lovely too.

[mags]

Oh nice! I do like that.

[rcperryls]

What beautiful projects you've been working on! I love the story about the birds feeding in your garden. And the geisha designs are so lovely. Your comments about the dragons reminds me of the Disney/Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The dragon in the movie is called The Great Protector and is exactly how you described it. One of my favorite movies and she looks very much like what the dragon you are stitching.

Carole

[Mabel Figworthy]

Lovely detail on the characters!