Skip to main content

Bleeding Hearts Framed


I've gotten another piece framed.  I'm afraid that this stitched piece has been sitting in a drawer for over 10 years so it's about time.

The frame came from gift box of frames and is a simple 5 x 7 frame.  Several of these where in the box - 2 of them unfinished wood.  This one was painted unevenly - like the phone rang and interrupted the painting and it was never finished.  On the bottom and left sides there is a lot of gold and almost none on the top and right sides.

 If I were painting it myself I would be more even.  But, I didn't paint it and I decided I'm happy with the way it looks.  Finished IS better than perfect.  I think there is a lesson there.

I don't have the pattern anymore and I had to do some searching to find the designer of the pattern.  It is by Curtis Boehringer from the Wildflowers of America series and was published in the late 90's.  His website is his name and I discovered that I still like his patterns.

When I started cross-stitching again I purchased 4 of the series.  I'll talk about the other 3 later.  I'm not sure why I decided upon Bleeding Hearts.  The design must have appealed to me as I wasn't very familiar with the flower.  In fact, I don't think I'd ever seen one growing in a garden.

That has changed in the last few years.  At work, under a shady well-irrigated overhang by an entrance are several bleeding heart plants.  Every spring I watch them sprout, grow and flower.  They are flowering now (but these are last years flowers).




Every spring I want to get one to plant in my garden.  But, I'm afraid my garden is too dry and they wouldn't be as nice as the ones at work.  So, for now, I'll enjoy the ones at work and the framed piece that is now on my wall.
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 1, 2010 at 4:55 PM

    Nice work. I love bleeding hearts - they are one of my favorites. I don't have any right now because the deer like to eat them.

    I agree with you on the framing - better late than never.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More Wildflowers of America

Since I have framed the stitched Bleeding Heart from Curtis Boehringer's Wildflowers of America I decided to track down the other 3 wildflowers that had I stiched earlier.  I chose these flowers because they reminded me of the forests of Ohio where I grew up - Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Wake Robin and Bloodroot. The Jack-in-the-Pulpit and Wake Robin where both finished with fabric frames.  This was a favorite finishing technique of mine for a long time.  On the back they are dated 1999 - that was a while ago.  I remember the quilt store where I purchased the fabric, but not its name.  It's gone now but it was in an old Victorian house in Old Colorado City.  The turrets where lined with bolts of fabric and hey had a great selection of plaids. I had never heard name Wake Robin before and it means nothing to me, but the flower is definitely a Trillium.  Back then, I dutifully followed the pattern.  Now I would have used the name Trillium ...
2 comments
Read more

Diverted by Dorset Buttons

I learned how to make Dorset Buttons yesterday at our monthly EGA meeting . These little buttons are so much fun to make!  We only got three rings so that's how many I made.  If I would have gotten more I'd probably be still making them.  One nice thing is that they are very forgiving.  I made countless mistakes on my first one and you can't tell. A quick google revealed lots of websites with historical information and tutorials on how to make them so I'm not even going to try to describe the process. Some people made their buttons with yarn, others used perle cotton.  One of the examples had beads on it, so once I got home I had to find some beads to sew on. That's it for now.  I'm going to be keeping my eye's open rings to use.  I'm also going to have to go through my yarn stash.  Using yarn gives a totally different result and I want to try some yarn ones too.
4 comments
Read more

It's about time - the big reveal

My bright quilt was finished in June but I wanted to wait until both were done before sharing the pictures.  Quilting the blue quilt didn't take long but finishing the binding sure did.  I did procrastinate a bit as it was too warm to have a huge quilt on my lap for most of the summer.  After this, I'll probably do all the binding on my sewing machine (and stick to smaller quilts). Notice the cut-out corners?  That was a challenge.  I found instructions here and it looked easy enough but I wished I had practiced some.  After a lot of finessing I finally got good miters but I could have done much better. The cut-out corners allow the quilt to hang nicely over the edges of the mattress and it's a perfect match for a full sized mattress.  But, the top edge isn't even close to the pillows.  I wonder how the quilt fit on the bed it was made for. Here, at last, is the original quilt that I was copying.   I just...
Post a Comment
Read more