Showing posts with label The O'Hares. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The O'Hares. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Clara - Finished!


I popped over to Art of Fabric in Pickering last weekend to look for the thread I needed to finish Clara's ears.  It wasn't in my stash, but judging from the other colours I did have, I thought it was probably DMC 841 that I needed.  Wrong!  It was a good thing I brought everything along with me to the store.  It turned out to be DMC 3864.

The new thread looked ever so slightly darker.  I used one old thread and one new thread together in the needle to blend out the transition, and I don't think you can see it at all on the finished piece.

I gave you a bit of a close up in the photo above so you can see the Algerian eyelets in the waistband, and the great shading you get from the Sampler Threads in the blouse.  The light blue squares are Morning Glory, the green ones are Evergreen, the purple is Hyacinth, and the pink is Victorian Pink.  The dark indigo of the apron is Midnight, and the lighter indigo of the skirt is Blue Jay.  The inside of the ears and the hearts on the apron are Cameo Pink.

Because I decided not to use any of the charms in the kit, I added another heart to the band on the apron (see below), and just used French knots for the buttons on both Clara and Henry.

Once they were both done, I saw that Henry was actually a little taller than Clara:


The plan is to set them both into pillow covers.  Given the great faded indigo look of the Sampler Threads, I think I will sacrifice some old jeans and make the covers out of denim.  I am glad the flood uncovered them. Clara was a fun and easy project, and I think they make a nice couple!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Clara - So Close!

This is how far I've come on Clara:


But I only have one length of the tan thread left!  I need two or three to finish the design.  Doesn't that just stink?!

The really annoying thing is that I made the same mistake twice on the left ear, which wasted exactly the two lengths of thread that I could have used to finish it!

The tan thread is a substitution from the original design, and I also foolishly did not write down the DMC number.  So I will be taking my last threads either down to my stash (fingers crossed) or out to the store to match them.  Wish me luck!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Flood Finds

Here's a couple of old, old UFOs that were unearthed by the flood in the basement. I think I bought them in the winter of 2002/03 when I was visiting Toronto, before I moved back here.  They are limited edition cross stitch designs from Lizzie Kate, Clara and Henry O'Hare:


They probably have not seen the light of day for 8 years until now!  I knew they were there but I've not been keen to finish them.  Henry was already done:


You may have noticed that I changed the colour of his fur.  The pattern calls for quite a dark, steel grey which I thought was just too cold.  Except for the fur and the backstitching, which are done with solid coloured DMC threads, all the rest of the stitching uses The Gentle Art's Sampler Threads.  I remember that I was pretty annoyed when I bought the kits, only to get them home and find the threads weren't included!  I'm sure that is part of the reason they have been buried in a hole in the wall for eight years.  I think I was holding a grudge!

But there is no reason not to finish them now, so I've made a start on Clara over the past two days:


It does not get any easier than this!  But I can use something completely stress-free these days, so they're a good pattern for now.  And you can see the hand-dyed threads are nice.

Pink and blue are not my favourite colours, so I think I may make these into pillow covers and sell them through my quilt guild at some future event.  They were meant to be stand-up ornaments, but all the charms and other doo-dads that came in the kit have not done well over time.  I don't know what possessed me to buy them in the first place, but I guess I was probably desperate for a project during my vacation!

Other UFOs have come to light as well, but I'm not sure if I'll be taking them on too right now.  Soon it'll be cool enough to start quilting again, and I am SO keen to get back to that!

Thanks to everyone who asked about my Dad.  He is being monitored right now, and they may adjust his pacemaker if necessary.  Hopefully he will take it easier from now on!
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