Lovebirds - Lessons 2 and 3

Hey Blog Buddies,

What have you been up to recently?  I've been spending a lot of time working on my blackwork lovebirds in order to keep up with the cyberclass I'm taking from Tanja Berlin.  It's a good thing the overall size of the piece is not terribly large, is all I can say.

In case you missed my first post about them, here is where I left off...

This was Lesson 1.

And here is Lesson 2.

It's kind of hard to see in this photo,

but there are a couple of small stitched areas

toward the top of each bird

that look a little lighter than the rest of the body.

That's because most of the body

was stitched with DMC 310,

but the lighter areas were stitched with

YLI silk which is noticeably thinner than DMC!
How thin was it?
It was so thin that I had to tie it on to my needle!

And here I thought that silk floss

was always thicker than DMC floss.

Gloriana is.

You learn something new every day!

I thought that Lesson 3 was rather ambitious,

but I managed to finish it.
I'm all caught up to where I'm supposed to be,
waiting for Lesson 4 to be published.

The colors in the body are

four different shades of metallic thread,

and the beaks were stitched with Au Ver a Soie silk,

which is a bit thicker than DMC 310.

Here's a close-up.

As you can see, some of the octagons

contain a two-color metallic square.

It all depended on whether

they straddled the basting lines,

which are thankfully gone now.

They annoyed me.

Put them on my long list!

This is a fun class,

and I like how the birds are turning out.

Lesson 4 (coming this Friday): the heads!

Hope you're stitching something fun.
Thanks for visiting!

October Turtle Trot

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's the tenth of the month, so it's time to post our progress for the Turtle Trot SAL.  

Each month we post progress updates on the ten WIPs we chose at the beginning of the year.  Claudette of BAP Attack is our Head Turtle/ringleader.

This month, I'm afraid there's not too much to show.  I did make some progress on Ink Circles' 99:

This is where I left off last month...

...and this is where I'm at now.

I was hoping to get the entire 4th row done,

but the best laid plans, etc.

And last (already?!) but never least,

we have Perseverance Mates:

...last month...

...and this month...

The casual observer might think

that this piece is almost done.

Would that it were.

I estimate at least 2 to 3 more months of

stitching on it a little every day.

Not my definition of "almost done."

That's it for this month--short and sweet.

Visit Claudette's blog to check out her progress

and that of the other Trotters.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

Jo's 500 Followers Blog Hop

Hey Blog Buddies,

Jo of Serendipitous Stitching is celebrating her blog reaching 500+ followers with a blog hop geared to celebrate the friendships found in blogging.  Each blogger who joined was given the name of another blogger who is participating.  Then on October 7th (that would be today) we are to dedicate a post to that blogger.

"My" blogger is Kim from Wisdom with Needle and Thread.  I'm glad that I received Kim's name because I wasn't familiar with her blog until yesterday.  As I discovered while reading her blog, Kim is all about reaching out and forming friendships with others.  She participates in numerous round robins, exchanges and stitch-alongs.  She also thinks outside the box and has come up with some very clever and fun ideas to interface with other stitchers such as Swapaway and The Traveling Treasure Chest.

Kim and I seem to have quite a few things in common.  We are both:  from the Midwest United States, retired, living with a husband and one or more dogs, only children, and like to do a variety of needlework including cross stitch, canvaswork and quilting!

Jo suggested that each blog hop participant pick one of our stitched projects that we think our featured blogger would like.  I noticed that Kim is doing a canvaswork piece on a Tudor lady named Catherine Parr.  I also did a canvaswork "lady," perhaps not as regal as Catherine, but her attitude makes up for any lack of royal bloodlines:

This is Libby Sturdy's Uptown Stitcher.

I named her Betty.

I think Betty and Catherine Parr would get along famously

if they ever happened to meet, don't you?

So go check out Kim's blog, Wisdom with Needle and Thread, and Jo's Serendipitous Stitching to see all the blogs participating in this fun blog hop.

Thanks for dropping by.