Framed Winds

Here she is! This is my framed The Winds of Color, designed by Elsa Parrish. Unfortunately, the mat colors didn't show up very well in the picture. The inner mat is a pale silver paper mat, and the outer mat is a very dark mauve suede. The frame is actually wooden, but painted silver with purpley-red streaks.

It took a very long time to find the right framing selection, and this was made worse by the need to visualize it as a circle! Overall, I'm very pleased! I haven't yet found a place for this to hang, but I don't have to worry about it yet. I really want to send this in to the exhibit at the ANG National Seminar. Wish me luck!

Dodecagon presentation

In response to my last post about finishing another of Jim Wurth's ornaments, both Mary and Cynthia asked what I was going to do with all of the dodecagons. I really had no idea about final presentation when I started doing these. They're really a tad bit too big to use as regular ornaments, and I'd like to display some all year.

Somebody in my ANG chapter is also doing these, and she came up with the idea of making them up as individual ornaments, then hanging them in a frame, allowing for them to be switched out seasonally. See?Thanks for the idea, Lynne! I'm adapting this slightly. Lynne's frames were black with a black background. I'm going to have the framer leave off the craft paper on the back of the frame and provide me with several suede mats so I can customize the background. I haven't quite figured out what frame to use yet. I'm going to start by having a few of the ornaments made up. I'll find a good frame for them after that. I think I'll have 2 of these frames, but I don't yet know where they'll go in my house!

Framed Mystery Sampler

Tonight I picked up my framed Mystery Sampler. Because of the borders on this piece, I found it did not need a mat. Rather, it looked best with just a simple frame. I tried several cherrywood frames, but they were all too red. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the sampler is stitched in a cranberry color, almost a red-violet. (Specifically, it's Winterberry 1431 from Vikki Clayton.) So, instead of a true cherry frame, I went with a dark reddish-brown, and I love how it turned out!
On the current works front, I'm still frogging and restitching acorns. I should be back to working the acorn caps tomorrow evening.

Stumpwork: One framed, one UFO

I haven't had a fairly slow day to show this yet, but last week, I picked up Fantasy Remembered from the framer. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the top mat actually sits about 1/4 inch above the bottom mat, creating even more dimension than the stitching itself. I'm very pleased with how this turned out.

To continue my stumpwork momentum (because I had so much fun with this), I pulled out an old UFO. This picture shows the partially-complete panels and center of Rose's Pyramid, a stumpwork etui by Marsha Papay-Gomola. Marsha taught this class to our EGA chapter a few (3?) years ago. I worked on it for a while, and then it was stored away in a closet.

I'm dragging it out again, and want to start a semi-formal rotation with this, Examplar IV, and Scottlee. I'll switch between them every other day or so. Of course, when the new Jim Wurth ornament arrives, the rotation will go out the window for a week or so until I finish the ornament! :-)

Framed Goldwork

Last night was our local EGA meeting, so I didn't get much (ok, any) work done on my ongoing projects. Instead, there was a program on ruching. It's pretty neat how a few running stitches can turn a strip of fabric into a pretty flower!

Since I don't have any new work to show you, this post will feature the recent framing of my three goldwork pieces stitched over the summer. The same molding was used for all three pieces so they can be laid out on the wall in a column or row as shown, although I haven't found the right spot for them yet. From top to bottom, we have English Goldwork Heart II, Luck of the Irish Golden Shamrock, and English Goldwork Heart I. All three were group correspondence courses from Michele Roberts. The hearts were from ANG and are now retired, and the shamrock is an EGA course.

Enjoy!