Introducing Opus Magnusson

In June I tossed Opus Magnusson, by Long Dog Samplers,  into my rotation.  I've decided that I like rotating.  It helps me stay in love with each of my projects and helps them to not become chores to finish.  Here's the progress:

Tiger, tiger, burning bright!

This piece will be (at some future time when it is finally finished) for my eldest son who adores Celtic design.  It speaks to him, as it does to me.  Back in my art school days, I pursued learning how to draw knotwork and it is quite challenging.  You will note that I have made slight design changes.  The flowers are supposed to be the same colors as the tigers.   That was too much gold in one place for me so I changed the petals to shades of blue and added one color to the scheme - green.

Here's something I've noticed lately - many of the European designers just print a picture of their gridded chart in color on the cover of their charts.  Most American charts have a photograph of the completed piece, with frame and fru-fru.  Interestingly I have seen several charts by Little House Needleworks in what I will call "the European style".  I chose this piece based on the colors I saw online of the chart.  And I imagine that if I had used the DMC colors, I'd have come much closer to getting the same colors shown on the chart.  As it is, and this is my fault for not taking more time to prepare for a project (as I usually do) -

I used the recommended Gentle Art thread colors.  Now, does that tiger (above) look as golden orangy as she does on the picture of the chart?  So I am a little disappointed.  Too late to make the color change though.  There's a LOT of work on that girl and her cubs.  The darker blue (above) is GA Presidential and it is shown as a purple color on the chart.  So, I guess the grapes will look more like blue balls than actual grapes.  I'm OK with that - and the rest of the colors.  But I decided that I really wanted the leave to be GREEN leaves.  So, they'll all be stitched with GA Tiger Lily. 

The last change to be made is the border.  I will be dead before I finish this piece if I stitch that border.  So, I am not going to.  I will do one using all the colors in that bargello band that is the first border on the top of the piece.  The one that looks a little like W's and M's.  The reason I'll do that?  Those are my son's initials.  I will not cross stitch the border, I'll do it in bargello.  That should make it go a little faster. 

Sherry

In other news, my stitchy friends and I went on our long awaited road trip this last week.  We headed down to Waynesboro and visited Cross Stitch Station, owned by Terry.  The shop is small, but has a huge amount of stuff packed into it.  And the owner and staff are VERY friendly.  It took us about an hour and a half to drive down from the Winchester area and we yak yak yaked all the way, so it didn't seem that long at all.  Sherry greeted us in her friendly southern drawl "Ya'll come on in" when we got there at 10AM.  Two and a half hours later we fell out the doors!  I managed to pick up the last AotH chart that I need to complete the project as well as an older Loose Feathers pattern.  I saw the Award of Merit charts, but thought they were a bit too dear for my budget now.  One thing I have to say about BBD charts - they do produce some of the finest charts that I have ever worked with, so they are worth paying a little bit more.

We looked over every single inch of that shop.  The best part was that when one of my friends said she was interested in learning more about punch needle, Terry was right there talking about how easy it is with this special needle that you can dial down the pile and even went so far as to get her own project out and not only give a demonstration, but allowed my friend to give it a try.  I'd tried it a few years ago and found it more difficult than it was worth, but I have to admit, although I personally didn't try it, Terry made it look really uncomplicated and my friend understood all of her directions. 

Terry Demonstrates Punch Needle

So we had a wonderful time in the shop.  I had a 6PM meeting, back home, so we were a little pressed for time for lunch if we wanted to have time at our next destination.  Terry had recommended the Purple Foot or the Tail Gate Bar & Grill.  However, we ended up at the Shoney's.  I had a surprisingly good hamburger there.  I mean really, really good!

Then, we were off to the Factory Antique Mall.  It was kinda sad to go in there.  I think the economy has really got antique dealers down.  Almost every stall had some sort of sign up saying so much percent off.  Some were up as high as 50% off.  I did get a few good buys on stitchy antiques.  I'll show them to you over the course of the month.