Stitching Up a Storm in Alamo City

Bonnie did it again!!

I got the turkey back last week.  Remember that we had struggled a bit to find someone to do a custom tray for it, so Colleen suggested I take it to Bonnie at Art, Inc. here in San Antonio.   Bonnie used to work at a shop in Austin, and does absolutely excellent work.   A couple of years ago she moved to San Antonio to be near family or something - anyway, we're so lucky to have her.   She wins awards at framing shows, especially for her work with needlework. 

So - we chose a frame to and she found some drawer pulls on line that were the right angle to be used as tray handles.

Of course, she sealed it all the way around - top and bottom - to make it actually usable as a tray - no worries about water seeping in on the needlework.

She's amazing.

Happy stitching.
Jane

One last look.

He's totally done now.  He's off the stretcher bars and hanging out in the closet until I send him off to be finished. 

Here's a close up of the turkey.

Colleen at The Needleworks has a company in mind to make a tray for him - so I'm waiting to get the word from her to mail it.   

On to the next project.

Jane

The turkey is DONE!! Almost.

I thought I was totally finished until I carried him in to be photographed.   I'm thinking there's one spot I need to add some additional color to.....can you guess where??

The feathers between the red harnesses -- the canvas was painted lighter than the forward feathers, but it really sticks out to me.

So now that I've figured out that the front lower feathers are Mandarin Floss, I will add some of the lighter color from the front to the back part, making them a little jagged like the front ones, and I think we'll be REALLY done.

I'll try to snap one more picture before I put this guy in the mail.

He was fun.   I really enjoyed him. 

Do you like the final version of his fan?  It was a lot of trial and error, but I'm happy with the final product, so I guess that's all that matters.

Happy stitching.
Jane

In a fight with the turkey feathers

When I switched off of working on this piece a few months ago, it was mostly because I couldn't figure out what to do with the turkey feathers. 

Now that I'm back on it, I'm done with almost everything but the dratted turkey feathers.  All I have left to do is make him a bullion knot beak, make one of the toes on his back foot longer, put in the rest of his tail feathers, and then couch down the memory thread for the harness.

So I have two problems.  First is, I cannot get the regular feathers to look right.  Real feathers are perfectly aligned and even and straight, etc.   I cannot make that happen.  I will surely pull out what I've put in so far and try again. 

Second is, I can't figure out what thread I used for the darker tail feathers (just above his feet).   It looks like a twisted, overdyed silk.  And it's not in the bag with all the threads for this piece.   I probably pulled it out of another project, but can't figure out which one it might be.  This is a problem.

I'm going to Austin this weekend, so if I don't have a flash of brilliance between now and then, I'll take it with me up there and let the real experts tell me what it is!

I'm so close to finishing him.  I think if I worked on it for a day, he'd be more than done.  This week is the week.

Stay tuned.
Jane

Working on turkey feet

I've been working steadily on this guy - I finished the background over the weekend and put in a bunch of little detail stitches, too.

This morning, I started on the bullion knots for his feet. 

I'm determined to get him done so I can take him with me when I go up to Austin for a class in early August.  I know stitchers aren't supposed to worry about their stashes, but I've got too, too many big projects that are in process.  It makes me crazy and sort of paralyzed about what to stitch next.   So I'm going to get this one done, then work on a couple more big ones to try to finish them before the end of the year.  

I think I want to have him made into a tray. 

Back to stitching.
Jane