Mystery Class Lesson Two.........................Curios is continuing with Lesson two.  Area 7 is almost square and has a very interesting border in two colors.  The center is Watercolours and Rainbow Gallery Silk Lame.

 

Area 8 is square and the border is Princess Perle and Very Petite Velvet.  The center design is Watercolours with accents of Rainbow Gallery Neon Rays.  The background is stitched with stranded silk, Splendor by Rainbow Gallery.

 

This photo shows the total progress to date.

Happy Mother's Day!!!.........This can be a difficult time for some of us who no longer have our mothers with us.  My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 29, I was 6 and my sister was 7.  Unfortunately, the cancer was advanced and terminal when diagnosed.  Because of our young ages we were not told much about the cancer so what type of breast cancer we never knew except that it had spread to multiple locations in her body.  Mom fought a good fight but died on February 5, 1973, three days after turning 33. 

This is a photo of Mom in the early 70's, she was very creative, sewed her own clothes and would try any DIY project from the women's magazines. 

Cobalt is finished.................Well nothing went according to plan.  I was unable to stitch for two days so my progress was delayed.  I got the car bug and sold my car to a co-worker so I've been test driving cars after work and in the evenings.  Still have more cars to drive but I found time to finish Cobalt so here it is.

Next I will work on Lesson Two of the Mystery Class.

Almost finished................I finished the third quadrant and well on my way to finishing the fourth and final quadrant.  If all goes to plan tomorrow I can finish the design.

Kathy has posted the second lesson of the Mystery Class - Curios which is only available through the Shining Needle Society.  I downloaded and printed the patterns for lesson two and it looks like we are going to have some stitching fun.  Since I am so close to finishing Cobalt I will finish it before starting lesson two.  Be sure to check back over the next few days to see the progress on Curios as I post new photos of lesson two.

Halfway there.....................I am a little over hallway finished with Cobalt.

In my last post I talked a little about the vibrant blue Mandarin Floss, this photo shows the color better.

 

This photo shows my progress up to this point, a little over halfway finished.  I added a framing border using Watercolours 235.

 

 

This photo shows some of the stitches in the second quadrant.  The design stitches up fairly quickly and would be nice in other colorways as well.  You never know when I might stitch this design again with threads from my stash and different colors.

Progress report............................Today I worked on the center design making good progress.  One of the threads is Rainbow Gallery Mandarin Floss the color is M865 which is a really vibrant dark teal color.  Mandarin Floss is a 6 strand bamboo thread that you use just like Cotton Floss or stranded silk.  The color is really beautiful and accents the other blues nicely.

Here is Cobalt.......................Designed by Kathy Rees of Needle Delight Originals.  This is one of Kathy's designs that can be stitched four times to create a square for a pillow.

 

I started in the center in order to determine the placement of the lower quadrant of the design.  Unless a design specifies otherwise I always start in the center.  Just how I feel comfortable with stitching the design.

 

One of the stitches that I have previously been afraid of is the long arm cross.  This stitch is not difficult once you understand how to stitch it and the result is a really nice braid.  The second band below is a long arm cross.  The photo on the right is from the Mystery Class - Curios and shows the long arm cross in green, it may be easier to see than in the blue.