Chinese Peony
Crewel embroidery, 16"x12", silk threads on silk canvas.
This piece was a pure joy to work on. Fade outline of the flowers was printed on silk fabric. I bought around four hundred shades of pure silk thread, organized the threads on a large white cardboard in rainbow sequence and picked the colors as I thought would go better. Crewel is very forgiving: if you choose the wrong shade, you can cover it with stitches of different shade. Crewel embroidery feels more like painting with thread to me.
The Virgin Mary
Cross-stitch embroidery, 11"x14"
Madonna Litta, the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, is my favorite work of art. The pattern designed by StitchingJoy. Back in 2001 I did not have much experience in cross-stitching, I used to do crewel embroidery on blouses, skirts, pillows, and curtains. But I wanted to stitch this beautiful painting badly and that was the reason I learned to make cross-stitch patterns and also I learned to cross-stitch complex pieces with many colors. This embroidery is not large, but is very dear to me, I worked on it with great inspiration. More than a hundred colors to complete were used.
It also traveled with me abroad. I started it when lived in Massachusetts, then brought it with me to Ukraine and finished when lived in California.
Summer Bouquet
Cross-stitch embroidery, 20"x24"
The Summer Bouquet pattern designed by StitchingJoy. It is the largest project I completed so far in cross-stitch. There were 84 colors of DMC thread used. The flowers in this painting are scrumptious: pink and white peonies, blue delphinium, yellow and red roses - they all remind me of grand mother's beautiful summer garden. The main difficulty of this work was its large size, and I like to work on one project no longer than month at a time, so it took me several years to complete this piece. I completed many more alongside with is it.
Tigers
Cross-stitch embroidery, 11"x14"
This pattern designed by StitchingJoy. The project was comparatively easy, because I worked hard making the chart and reduced number of DMC colors in the palette down to 39. At first I planned to make this embroidery in pair to "Siberian Gold" by Anchor; then I realised that they don't go together.
Rich Bouquet
Cross-stitch embroidery, 20"x24"
I used a pattern from "Cuadros" magazine for this bouquet. The pattern was of a very good quality and easy to stitch, also I modified it slightly to fit perfectly into the frame.
Tulips
Cross-stitch embroidery, 16"x12"
This is my favorite design created by Dimensions. Very sweet spring flowers. Several types of stitches make tulips to stand out.
Yosemite
Cross-stitch embroidery, 12"x16"
The pattern was created by a talented Bulgarian artist - Stoyanka Ivanova. I enjoyed working on this project although I wish there were more details on this piece even if adding more details would make the pattern twice larger.
Captivating Felines
Cross-stitch embroidery, 11"x14"
Love this piece. The design was done by Dimensions. It was very easy to stitch. Different stitch types, variable thread thickness, use of metallic threads made portiere and lacy fabric on the picture look quite realistic.
Magnolia
Cross-stitch embroidery, 12"x7"
This piece looks like a painting. The pattern designed by StitchingJoy. I used 104 DMC colors to stitch it. The pattern was complex in some parts of the flowers, but I intentionally used that many colors for artistic looks.
Tiger Portrait
Cross-stitch embroidery, 11"x14"
This bold and realistic design was created by Dimensions. Enjoyed working on this embroidery piece.
White Roses
Cross-stitch embroidery, 14"x18"
The pattern was created by Russian company called "Golden Fleece". My Russian friend gave this kit to me as a gift. I did not follow the instructions and used thicker threads in order to get bolder look of the bouquet. Also I made it larger to give more space for the roses.
Daisies
Cross-stitch embroidery, 14"x11"
This kit I bought when visiting Ukraine. It was designed by Ukrainian company called "Magical Moment". The pattern was complex, but I like the result.
Soaring Eagle
Cross-stitch embroidery, 12"x16"
I have got two kits of this design created by Dimensions. The kits differed by their palette because they were produced in different years and, probably, palette of threads got changed. I picked one which had more purple threads for the mountains and the sky.
Rose Dreams
Cross-stitch embroidery, 11"x14"
Rose Dreams cross-stitch kit was made by "Alisa", a Russian manufacturer. The kit contained 14 count fabric. I did not use it. My work is stitched on 16 count white Aida fabric. Also I did not follow the instructions which recommended stitching some crosses in two different colors: one color was for the lower part of the cross and another color was for the upper part. I mixed those two colors and stitched both parts of the cross with this mixed color.
Mistic Mountains
Crewel embroidery, 16"x12", silk threads on silk canvas.
This silk embroidery was a journey. As I covered surface with stitches more of the magic picture was revealed. Sometimes I had to undo the stitches and embroider them again with slightly different color. But most of the time I was able to make necessary corrections by adding a thread of lighter or darker shade on top of previous stitches.
