Lloyd and Lola are Done

No, not as a couple.  (smile)  I named my wolves, so why not the lovebirds!  I've kept up with the lessons in my cyberclass, so now my blackwork lovebirds are finished.

Tanja Berlin's Just the Two of Us

I really, really like them.

This was billed as a beginning blackwork class,

but there were a lot of challenges along the way:

the stem stitch around the toes was tricky,

the heads are a dense layering of

DMC 310, YLI black silk and a

Belle Soie in dark periwinkle

(hard to see in this photo).

And let's not forget the very fine pearl purl

which had to be couched down

around the bodies and the beaks.

But challenging yourself does

give a feeling of accomplishment.

Here are the heads in various stages of progress.

I was really happy to be able to get

rid of the last of the red tacking stitches!

 And here is a close-up of the head.

You can see the periwinkle peeping through the black.

The reason the red in the beak

doesn't extend all the way to the

black stem-stitched inner border is that

this type of lovebird has a

white band across the top of its beak.

I actually looked up lovebirds on the Internet

because it was bugging me.

The eyes are spangles (sequins) held down

with a kind of eyelet stitch.

I would definitely urge you to try a cyberclass,

if you see one that interests you.

We posted WIP photos all along the way,

and got lots of good (and prompt!) feedback from Tanja.

I felt that I had plenty of time

to complete each class, too.

That's it from here.

I'm taking them to the framer's today.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

November Turtle Trot

Hey Blog Buddies,

How was your weekend?  My quilt guild had its annual giant boutique (think a rather large gymnasium overflowing with thousands of items), and I sold four embroidered items.  The items for sale don't necessarily have to be quilted, just handmade.  And no, I didn't price them to compensate myself for any time involved, just the materials.  It was a fundraiser, and I wanted them to sell.

What does this have to do with the Turtle Trot, you may wonder.  Well, it's leading in to the excuse I have for only working on one piece this month.  The four boutique items did take a bit of time to make after all.  I've also been diligently keeping up with the lessons in my blackwork cyberclass (photo coming soon), leaving little stitching time for anything else.

Yes, the day has finally come when I have ignored everything in my Turtle Trot list except for one (and we all should know what's coming next):

I'm sure that regular readers of this blog knew that it would be Mates.

Here is where I left off last month.

 

This is where I am now.

Hey, most of the white holes in her head are gone now!

For the past couple of weeks, the theme song

from the 70's comedy series "The Jeffersons"

has been playing in my head:

"Well we're movin' on up (movin' on up)

to the East side (movin' on up).

I'm already on the east side!   Ha!

I'm spending entirely too much time

with Wolfgang and Wanda!

This is a good example of a

no-matter-what project.

I work on it a little bit

every day before breakfast

no matter what.

And I'm getting results, albeit slowly.

To see what the other Trotters have been up to,

check out Claudette's blog, BAP Attack.

She's our Head Turtle.

 That's it from here.

Thanks, as always, for visiting!