Ladies Day

Late last week the clouds cleared long enough for Sharon (that's her smiling at lunch) and I to hit the road for a ladies day. We went to Stream Cliff Herb Farm in Commiskey, In. Sharon had been once before but it was my first time. It was delightful. We started with a delicious lunch in their tea room. Then we wandered the gardens.I have ponds on the brain at the moment, so I only took a pictures of some of the water features at the farm. I just filled in my small pond a few weeks ago. I need to relocate it, probably to the back yard instead of by the front door. That's why I was so interested in what I saw at Stream Cliff.I would love to go back. Maybe next time I can take my daughter, daughter in law, or my mom if I can get her to come visit.

Claire's new pattern

If you've read "The Red House" you've met Claire. Claire loves to make things and this is one of her new designs. She started out thinking it might be for a new set of dishes but decided it would make a great background for her paper art instead.

It was digitized with Janome's Digitizer Pro v3. Aren't the corners beautiful! That is the Florentine effect. The embroidery was stitched with Coats & Clark 40 wt. trilobal ployester. What rich colors!

Can't wait to see how Claire uses it.

Mother's Day

After my last birthday I told my family "That was the best birthday ever". Last Christmas I told them " That was the best Christmas". Now I can say the same for this past Mother's Day.

I requested a picnic in Bloomington, where our son Charles and his wife Tessa live. We started the afternoon with yummy appetizers our daughter Jane made. Then we took a long walk around the IU campus. After a quick stop back at the house we walked to a public park for a delicious picnic dinner created by Tessa. Back to the house for dessert and coffee, then we headed back to Indy.

The best Mother's day ever.

Great shoes!

Aren't these shoes beautiful! They are not really embroidered, but then I'm not sure how they were made. They were in a showcase in the Ethnographic Museum of Prague. They look like great fun to wear.

A Stitched Wreath

The images I enjoy embroidering are rarely stitched directly on the finished product. Often I'm not even sure what the finished product might be; a story illustration, part of a quilt, or through the wonders of digital toys maybe a brand new work. That is what happened to the design above. I digitized it in my Janome software and stitched out two different color versions. I thought I might use it for a Christmas card last year but Christmas came and went too quickly. So I started playing.
This is an illustration from "The Red House". I selected individual pieces of the drawing while in Photoshop, then combined them with the embroidered wreath.
Here is the result. I love adding drop shadows to everything. It is an easy way to add lots of depth to an image.

The man on my heart.

Here is the first stitch out of the design. I tried to follow the colors of the Photoshop version but wasn't very happy with it.



Here is the second stitch out. A few color changes made a big difference.