Another one!

I have finished the stitch guide for the Cool Cardinal!  The design is by Charley Harper and the canvas by Treglown designs.

Flying together

All of the Charley Harper Cardinals are now home and comfortably posing on the wall!  Thought you might like to see them all together!

The cardinals are framed

Maggie just emailed me these photos of the cardinals all matted and framed!  They are in North Carolina for a while but I thought you would like to see her exquisite work!  Thanks, Maggie!

Cool Cardinal Finish

Cool Cardinal is finished!  I finished the wing first and then completed all the French Knot snow he is sitting on.  I am back from all my travels and happy to be able to stitch again!  Woohoo!  Tomorrow the Snowbird reappears!

Moving right along

First, I finished the tail in the Knotted stitch, and then started on the wing.  I am using six strands of Splendor 1005 and doing a Byzantine stitch so it is diagonal to the body and following the direction drawn on the paint.

The fun stuff

I started his body with six strands of Splendor 820 and am doing the Knotted stitch.  The tail will also be worked in the 820 as well, but his wing is going to be a different color as it is painted a darker shade.

More snow

I added the perch Cool Cardinal is sitting on by laying in 4 strands of Splendor and then coming back over the top of each row of three strands with upright Gobelin stitches. I then started the French knots for the snow on his head--thanks to Jane for this idea!  I was trying to decide what stitch I wanted for the snow and she suggested the French knots.....so I used a single strand of Kreinik 100 and double wrapped the needle and he is covered with the stuff!.  I moved on and did the beak and black in four more strands of Splendor in the painted colors.

Snowflakes

I finsihed all of the snowflakes today using Snow by Caron and I did a modified rice stitch in each square.  Pretty chilly here today with highs only in the sixties so working on snow almost seemed appropriate! 

I did it!

I finished all the background!  And.....I worked on snowflakes too!  The top eight rows are done!  DH says I should do the beak just so I don't have just snowflakes done.....LOL

You can see it

You can see the end of the background Brick Stitching to be done!  Next round on this one will finish all the Brick stitches and I will be able to work snow flakes.....good thing, since it is going  to get warmer here!

Just over 2

Actually the Brick stitch is worked over two threads, but I was referring to the fact that I worked on this just over 2 hours and this is where I am at.  I think some evil demon snuck in here yesterday and took out what I had done.  I thought that two more sessions would have finished the gray, but I am rethinking it will be two more.....and, just in case, I marked the back side to make sure no one is ripping out what I am putting in while I am not looking!

Will you look at that?

I stitched almost two inches of Brick stitch and can see the bottom of the background!  Stitching at this pace, I should have the background finished in two more sessions.  Woohoo!

Down the sides

I completed the Brick stitch down both sides to the snow!  A few more sessions and the background will be done.

As a side note:  we took Bernadette to the framer today and she will be ready in a couple of weeks!

Inching along

I worked on the Cool Cardinal background today and managed to get down past the snow on both sides...you will have to enlarge the picture (by clicking on it) to tell....And, that is not a shoe print on the right.  It was gorgeous outside today, so I took him outside for a breath of fresh air and set him on the patio table to take the photo.  Note to self:  don't do this again without a cloth to lay the canvas on.  Duh!

Boring, you say?

Yes, a tad, but I think I actually got more done today than last time!  I set the T pin there in case you have trouble telling where I am at!  LOL  DH eveb said it is going to take a long time to get that gray part done!  At least he did not call it sewing today!

More than half

I worked on the background again today on Cool Cardinal.  I figure I am more than half way to the cardinal!

Snow

First I did several more rows of the Brick stitch for the background using two strands of Splendor 976.  Then, I decided to start on the snow flakes.  I wanted these a bit different from the first piece flakes, so I chose to work them in Caron Snow in white...how appropo?!  Anyway, I first did a rice stitch and then am alternating additional diagonals....some are // and some are going in the opposite direction so they don't all look alike.

The second cardinal

This is the second of three cardinals that I am doing by Charley Harper.  This one is 5.5 wide by 17.75 long and is also on 14 count.  He is the next new item adding into the rotation.  I started at the top and using the same Splendor 976 and two strands, am doing the brick stitch over 2 threads.  He was painted by Treglown Designs.  His description is Cool Cardinal, so I will call him  that as well. The card that came with it from Treglown Designs says "Zero with a hundred percent probability is cool, man, cool, even when you're wearing your red flannels.  Air traffic's grounded, feeding station's socked in.  You can't stuff your gizzard in a blizzard, so how do you survive?  Hunker up and sit it out, rationing your reserves, moderating your metabolism.  to put it another way, when there's snow on the roof, how do you keep a fire in the furnace?  Cool it, man."  Charley Harper, 1974. 

LOL, and he does have an attitude doesn't he?