Inching Towards Completion

This week I devoted all of my stitching attention to Sunflower and Berries. The end of this fun project is in sight and this week I was able to add a few of the fun elements to the canvas.

The first bit of fun to be added was the little sprinkle of orange sequins in the upper left of the canvas. When the light hits them, they really sparkle. Next came the two remaining strawberries.

The strawberries are stitched entirely with French knots on a piece of muslin in an embroidery hoop. Then you baste around the berry and cut it out. When you pull the basting threads together it gathers up the muslin under the berry giving it a nice rounded shape and then you stitch the berry to the canvas. This technique is known as stumpwork. It's fun and the strawberries add so much dimension to this piece. You'll have to try it sometime!

Speaking of dimension, just look at the stacked beads on the sunflower -

I absolutely love these stacked beads! It's like a little forest of beads on the canvas. Robin King, who wrote the stitch guide and selected the beads and threads, chose the most wonderful tortoise shell color for the beads that are used in the stack. They positively glow! Great choice, Robin!

It's time to turn my attention to the deep purple border. I'll be using a dark purple Kreinik and Splendor in the border. Nothing like dark threads on a dark background for aging eyes! I noticed that when I had my eyes checked this week that the phrase "as we age" was one that the optometrist used more than once. Hope the order for my new contacts arrives quickly!  I can use all the help I can get! The border is stitched with a Slanted Burden stitch. A Burden Stitch - hmmm, I hope the name doesn't imply that it will be a burden when it comes to stitching! It would be interesting to know how this stitch got its name.

The heat we endured last weekend was still with us for most of this week. It is slightly cooler this weekend - only in the upper 90s. Who would have thought that the upper 90s don't feel so terrible when compared to 105 degrees? I was looking at my poor hydrangeas this morning and noticed the scorched areas along the edges of the leaves. I have two small crepe myrtles in large pots on the patio and their leaves are scorched as well. We have had a couple of thunderstorms this week but the storms produced mostly wind and thunder and very little rain. I was really concerned the evening of the 4th when one of my neighbors down the street put on his own fireworks show for about an hour.  Everything is so dry but luckily he didn't cause any problems with all the sparks flying everywhere.

Hope you get to stitch in a nice cool place this week!