2016 Treasures in Miniature Show

It is time again for the Treasures in Miniature show, I have completed two pictures and two more are on my slate frame.  

I am also, making the ribbons for the winners, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 3 honorable mention, this is the third year and they are getting easier each year.

The middle of the sunflower are about a million French knots, petals are woven, the leaf is needlelace with a wire around it.  So much fun to make and almost looks real.

The tulip is silk shading or long and short stitches on silk.  This is a design I drew for a future needlepoint class.

They are 4" x 6" each, the requirements for the show is no larger than 64 square inches, just my size.

If you are interested in entering the show you can see the information on the Mercer Island Visual Arts League website.  

Sweet Pea Stumpwork Class

Today I taught a stumpwork class for the NW Sampler Guild. There were six very experienced stitchers and I had a great time. Hope they enjoyed the class and learned enough to complete the project.

The description of the class said you will learn a new way to use embroidery stitches in a stumpwork sweet pea design. Some of the techniques will be silk shading, wired petal, padded pea pod just to name a few fun things to learn to stitch. The kit will include the silk for the background fabric, fibers, wire etc.

I requested that the ladies send pictures of their completed projects to add to my blog . . . . . you may see more soon.

Framed Pictures

Today is a very sad day, my favorite neighbor and knitting buddy is moving :( out of state, actually clear across the country.

The good news is we can visit them next year.

This is the embroidery that our daughter painted the fabric from a photo that I took at Hampton Court Palace and then I did the embroidery in a class at the White House Community Centre in Hampton England. This is the first time I have done a project like this and really enjoyed doing it and will do another one soon.

The castle is a two day class at the Royal School of Needlework. This was a fun class and project!

This is another two day class I took at the RSN. Silk Shading it is stitched with two ply of DMC and Anchor floss, actually cotton floss. The pitcher was my
Grandmother's, she was from Kansas and the sunflower is the Kansas state flower. My Dad and my Husband were both born in Kansas too. I just like the yellow.



This is the Jacobean Crewel project from the first Certificate Class (two weeks) I took at the RSN. It looks totally different now that it is framed and hanging on the wall. I have attached all the paperwork from the assessment to the back for future generations.

The second Certificate Class (two weeks) I took was canvaswork. In all of the certificate classes we are suppose to stitch original designs, for the canvaswork class I used a picture I took in France. The original picture, the drawing and stitches with the assessment are attached to the back of this picture too.


I hope everyone is enjoying nice fall weather, it is beautiful here with all the leaves changing, love all the fall colors makes me want to stitch a tree!

RSN Day Classes

The other days classes I have taken at the Royal School of Needlework are Silk Shading, Stumpwork and Knot Garden.


The Knot Garden class was actually in Winchester for just one day, but enough to create a small garden and make plans for a larger one soon. I have the DMC box with the glass insert in the lid, I think it will be fun to make a knot garden to put in this box and I have been thinking about a lavender knot garden too. I have taken pictures of many knot gardens for inspiration. especially the gardens at Hampton Court Palace and Kew Gardens.


The stumpwork class was two days, again enough to give me ideas of other projects I can make later. There were several kits to pick from, I selected the castle because I wanted to learn to make buildings and the mount with the bushes. I also, purchased one other of a snow drop. Some of the other people made orchids, they were beautiful.







The silk shading class was for two days and we used DMC and/or Anchor floss and stitched on silk fabric with calico (muslin to the Americans) on the back. There were several different flowers to pick, I like yellow and my husband is from Kansas so the sunflower had to be my project. Now I have learned that I should have picked a tulip instead of the sunflower, but that can be my next silk shading project. This project is still not finished, I will finish it and work on more silk shading to improve my stitching. In this class we used two ply of floss, but most classes use only one ply which is slower but much easier to work with. I think the silk shading is the hardest class that I have taken, so I need to practice a lot before I take the Certificate Class next spring.