Name Tags, my first Love ~

My very first love was the simple, expressive, cute name tag. I have been called "The Name Tag Queen" and that is the only Queen I will ever be. I have a shoe box full of mine and have made scores for other people over the years. I even made one for Ginny Morrow and she designed a square for me from a piece of fabric I wanted to use in her Seminar piece.

I love them because you see a cute little picture, like this cute s'more, you won't want to frame, but lo and behold it will make a great name tag. I do the original image, add my name and then go crazy and just start stitching and soon I have a border done.

Voila ~ I have a finished picture and it is also a functional name tag!!!

I love to use variegated thread for the borders.

The two below I stitched when I was still dying my hair red. I made her hair red to match mine but I have since let it grow out and it is now salt and pepper. But mine is short!

My kids call me the Rooster! My youngest son says he will not accept the fact that my hair is now natural. To him I will always be the Rooster. So I send hugs and pecks ~

Good Night and God Bless !

Lenna

A Biscornu by any other name. . .

is still as lovely! This is the pattern for the biscornu we are doing in the EGA guild. It is a freebie at Teresa Wentzler's website but it is called English Garden something. It has beads in the buds and wherever there is a green shoot. It will have a border stitched around it. I took mine out to use a different thread. The back piece will have the out line stitched and some of the inside.

I did help with one but read the pattern wrong and only put the satin stitches in the corners and sewed on the beads. I put it together and sewed on the two buttons. It was easy to stitch and I will finish this one by the next meeting. I think it turned out to be very pretty.

I have many more to do from Barbara Ana, a couple from Helga and some I got off of Auntie's Attic. I will have a basketful by next year.

Little Miss Muffet sat on her . . .

tuffet! Or biscornu, if you prefer. In America they are called biscornu's but in England and places across the water they are called tuffets or little pillows.

Thursday night at our EGA meeting we are going to look at these little pillows and finish stitching ours. I got the smallest pattern from Auntie's Attic and the one next to it.

I stitched the big one with a Dinky Dye silk called Airlie and Whitsunday. The littlest one was stitched with WDW Confetti.

Now to the biggest one. It is a Barbara Ana design and it has been put together once and I spilled my drink on it. Washed it immediately and when it dryed it was wrinkled so I took it apart and washed and ironed it again. I have not put it back together yet. Fact is, I misplaced it after I took the picture. But don't worry it is still here!!! Among all my stash!

This little one looks like it would be hard to put together but it was a snap. They are easy to stitch and easy to put together.

Thanks for looking ~

Tiger eyes are looking at you. . .

or so it seems. I have a twin brother who has been divorced for 21 years. He has not gotten involved with anyone much in all those years. He moved to Tulsa about 3 years ago and has fallen in love. Peggy, has never been married and she is finally committed to my brother. Long story short, they are getting married in Nov.

So. . . I stitched this white tiger eyes for her and I am going to mat it in a grey, blue and black mat and frame it in a black frame about an 1" wide with O's all around it. I am going to come down to the outline of the face top and bottom and in on the sides. When you look at it you will just see the eyes looking back at you!!! His eyes are stitched with blending filament so they sparkle that light blue, very striking!

I plan to take him to work Sat. and work on him then. She loves wild animals so I know she will love him. I will take a picture of him finished.

I leave you with this sweet little Angel to watch over you and keep you safe from harm.

One of my good friends grafted this piece the three little angels in a row from a Christmas card. She is very talented!!! I couldn't do it. The last one, this one, had a crooked halo so I thought she was me and I stitched her. She has blending filament in all of her dress. So she sparkles. I matched the thread to the fabric for her eyes. Needless to say she is one of my favorite cross stitches.

To bed I go!

God Bless and Happy Stitching~

Lenna

Two seriously crazy cats ~

Here are my two cats. First is Knee-Hi and second is Jade. At first we called her Skitty Kitty cause she was just that, afraid of everything. Now, she is the old girl at 18. She looks pretty ragged and she has a slight tremor of her head. She has taken up meowing at night and wakes you up, as if I was sleeping. You tell her to be quiet, or to shut up, if you get desperate enough and she does one more soft meow and then is quiet for a little while. But then she will run through the house like a crazy cat. Yes, she is just that ~ CRAZY!!!

Now comes Knee-Hi she is called that because she has white fur up to her knees, as if a cat had a knee, thus Knee-Hi. She is about 8 years old and she loves to get on the table especially if my mom is writing checks. We have to constantly yell at her to get down! One day last week my mom called me at work and Knee-Hi had gotten up on the second shelf of the hutch and my mom could not get her down. I left work, I only live 1 1/2 miles from work, and got her down. Knee-Hi could not jump down either she was stuck. It is always a joy to be around these two nuts! I love my cats and can't begin to know what it would feel like to not have them around.

I just wish Fleabag, my first Siamese, was still here.

I had better close now it is late.

God Bless ~

Lenna

Father Christmas

This is one of my favorite cross stitches. It took me a while to finish him cause I put him away to do something else. I get bored easily thus many, many, many WIP!!!

He is done on linen an aqua with DMC threads, when they were still good, didn't run or fray and a dark green suede mat. I framed it in a brown frame and this was one of the first fillets I ever made. I didn't take the photo far enough away so you can appreciate the frame, just the fillet.

I have done many now but this must have been the second. The first was done on a cat ~ go figure! I love cats! A fillet is a small frame like piece you put under a mat or around the inside lip of the frame to enhance the picture. It was great fun stitching and framing him.

God Bless ~

Lenna

Siamese cat

This is the first big piece I did in 1982. I had a Siamese cat, Fleabag, and I did it to honor him. He was the greatest cat ever. He was cross eyed but it didn't slow him down one bit. I had to put him to sleep in 98 and I will always miss him.

This took me two weeks to stitch. It is done on 14 count Aida and I built the frame and my friend at the time framed it. She ran a frame shop and I was her frame builder.

Here is the up close version! She is a very talented stitcher and I love her work. The back looks like the front.

Way to go Debbie! Now she is working on Santa and all his toys. I got her to join me this year at a retreat I go to and she is hooked!

God Bless ~

Lenna

Here is a stitched picture my sister, Debbie, did and my brother and I successfully talked her out of giving it away. She put a lot of work into it and we wanted her to keep it in the family. She didn't need much encouragement thank goodness. She let my brother take it home for 3 months and hang it. Now she has it and my mom and I will get it for Christmas.

Pretty cool huh?

I am a picture framer so I stretched it for her and matted and framed it for her birthday. She came to the store and picked out the mats and frame and we put museum glass on it. It is amazing glass looks like there is nothing there. I was very proud about the way it turned out. It is done on a purple/blue background and it has sparkles in the halos and angel wings. It is quite stunning up close.

God Bless ~

Lenna

Grand Canyon

Here are two photos of the Grand Canyon the top one is the first day and the second is where I am now. After I had my second heart ablation done I decided I would stitch my doctor a cross stitch of the Grand Canyon. I have stitched one for my brother and it is stunning.

I stitched and framed my doctor a picture of a flying eagle after my first ablation and he loved it. I have never seen a man get so excited about a stitchery before. I think they should, but they seldom do!

Well, as you can see it quickly became a UFO and WIP. I do vow to get back to it soon though. It is one of the hardest pieces I have ever stitched because some of the colors are blended and you have no reference for what they will look like. I had to cross off what I had stitched the first time to keep track. It also has so many of the same colors.

I have the mats and frame picked out for it and everything. I especially love the one picture where you can see the shadow of my spiky hair at the bottom. I hope he will be as thrilled with this one as he was the last.

Please don't let me down Dr. Z!

God Bless ~

Lenna

I have been working on the Mary Wigham Sampler, except tonight when I just fell asleep right in the middle of NCIS! Here is my progress. Yea I am so excited I successfully uploaded this picture to the Mary Wigham blog!!! and this one too. Small steps!

God Bless ~

Lenna