As you know, I belong to a group that stitches on Saturday mornings. We started several years ago, meeting and stitching for a couple of hours. We talk, laugh, drink coffee, and stitch. It is a great group of gals. Anyway, everyone is working on different projects right now. Some times, we all work on the same thing. Like, the topiary trees. Some are still finishing theirs, and most of them are totally different. When they are all done, I will see about posting a photo of them. This piece, I just finished, is by Kick Back and Stitch. It was worked on green 18 count canvas, and used overdyed Caron, Kreinik, Splendor and Very Velvet. I have put a piece of gold lame' behind it and tomorrow I will put it in a black box top. It is going to be a birthday present for someone who shall remain nameless at this point as she reads the blog! She might guess at this point, but will not know until her birthday!
I also finished the middle petal of Akela Tulip except for the stem and incremental bottom shading. I will do that tomorrow and post a photo then. I also am going to try and finish the third petal as well. This tulip is white, with pinkish, dark mauve shading, and I hope tomorrow's photo turns out better so you can tell that.
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Tonight, I filled in the last blue value in the Splendor, as well as the two shades of gray around his eyes and mouth. I started down the left side with the lighter gray to round out his body. Since I did not have any gray Splendor--at all, who would believe that!--I am using DMC. The color matches very well and it is a small area to cover. That leaves the white in his face and upper body to do before I begin using the Snow for his belly.
The next color I put in is Splendor 860, all in the top half, or head portion of the bird. It is the next shade up in value from the dark blue previously stitched. Again, I used half cross stitches to fill in the small spaces.
Here it is! I finished cutting out all the leaves and attached them. I also removed the leaf from the First Kiss and redid it. It just did not look right to me, so I messed with it a little more, and got a more natural look, I think. When DH looked at the finished piece, he said "but they are sticking out, is that right?" LOL Anyway, I will mount the piece on batting and the foam core tomorrow and take it to the framer on Tuesday. I will post a photo of the framed piece when it returns.
