Introducing Gremlin

I had a question about the critter getting a belly rub on my profile picture, so I thought I'd introduce her here. Her name is Gremlin, and she's a 5 year old peach faced lovebird, silver pied color mutation. I was in contact with the breeder when she was just an egg, and we "met" when she was about 4 weeks old. At the time, she was bouncing around with the other chicks following her (looking like a little alien with only half her feathers in) and came right up to me with a "who the hell are you" attitude. She came home with me a couple of weeks later.

Gremlin spends most of her life living up to her name - she's full of mischief, as most lovebirds are. No, you don't have to keep lovies in pairs - they're actually more friendly with their human family if they're singles. She does have a buddy - my cockatiel Piper, who lives in the cage next door. While Gremlin doesn't like to be handled by most people, she'll happily roll over and get a belly rub from me. She's a bit hard to photograph when up to her usual antics because she's very alert and immediately gets defensive when the camera comes out LOL

Old Stuff

One of my primary reasons for wanting to have a blog was to start cataloging some of the needlework and other projects that I'm doing now, and to also show some things I've done in the past. So on that, here are two of my favorite cross stitch pieces that I've given to my parents.

This is from 1999 (I'm really glad I date my large pieces, otherwise I'd never remember!). It was supposed to be a bellpull, but I never did find bellpull hardware that I really liked, so my mom went ahead and had it framed. It's DMC floss on 28 count linen so 3 threads, no backstitching, and very simple colors. I really don't remember the designer or name of the design, but my mom has always liked Jacobean style florals, so she really loved this pattern. I loved that it only took me about 2 weeks to finish the piece.

This is from 2003; it's called "Dream Lover" and thus far is the only piece I've completed from Silver Lining (I've started another iris called Edith Wolford that is purple and orange). I made several trips to visit my folks during the period where I was working on this, and was informed - repeatedly - by my father about how much he loves irises, and did I know irises are his favorite, and that he really loves this piece, and by the way, did I know how much he loves irises? So guess what dad got for Christmas....? Ah well.

As promised - Fairy Idyll, finished in February 2009.

Some close ups of Fairy Idyll

Progress on "Meeting on the Turret Stairs" from Artecy.com

As you can see, this project required a different approach than the Mirabilias do. I've been working it one 10x10 block at a time, and usually drop down a couple of stitches here and there to make sure the next row lines up. I really love how it's coming out. The material is an 18 count off white Aida - it looks a little darker because of the lighting where I was taking the picture.

Update on Summer Queen

More of her skirt done, and some of the grey shading. All of the "white" spots on the dress still need to be filled in, but I try to leave the white for the last of the floss stitching.

Materials for Midsummer Night's Fairy by Mirabilia

Yeah, ok, I know. It's another Mirabilia. I think the background color for projects is very important. I still think the best way to find a good fabric is to get your floss together, and just toss the pile on top of the fabric - you'll see fairly quickly what works and what doesn't. This is Misty Blue 32 count belfast linen.

Materials for Sleeping Beauty by Mirabilia
This is a great example of why it's really great when people share pictures of their needlework. Sandy on the Mirbilia yahoo group had a fantastic background color for her version of Sleeping Beauty, and was kind enough to help me find the same fabric. It's a hand dyed 32 count lugana from Picture Plus called Fathom - it has a really pretty pattern (although subtle) to it.