There are two uncovered dots just on the edge, which will get cut off when I applique the circle down. On the one hand, I only wanted to embellish complete dots. On the other hand, they appear obvious and naked. I'll have to decide what'll look best once it is sewn onto its backing.
(I'm getting really mad at my camera. The green of the fabric is completely washed out.)
I attached a shisha mirror with yellow thread, encircled it with pink feather stitch, and added purple and orange beads. There are lots of techniques for attaching the mirrors; for this one, I used a sort of modified buttonhole stitch, and I plan to use the "shisha stitch" to attach another.
This shisha is not an actual mirror, but a plastic ring covered in blue with a reflective sequin attached to the back. I sewed it on and surrounded it with french knots, long stitches, and beads.
surrounded by a loose chain stitch and bugle beads, to allow the colors of the fabric to show through.
I used seed stitches in the center of a beaded ring, and then added french knots, fly stitches, and more beads.
The fabric I bought several years ago with this specific project in mind. The threads are left over from various cross stitch and embroidery kits; this seems like a good way to use them up (I won't be using black or white, though). The beads are little mixes I've accumulated over the years. I've thrown in a few shisha mirrors, too, which I may use.
Get it?
Now I just have to figure out how to finish it, by which I mean stick it in a drawer while I focus on other projects and forget all about it until some time in 2013.
Looking over the whole thing, I realized I didn't have much blue (I'm not really crazy about it), so I decided to remedy that using my favorite bluish-indigo color. Delftware was the very loose inspiration.
This is a modification of an old pattern from Piecework (I should subscribe again), using embroidery stitches traditionally used in Madeira. The flowers are made with the bastido stitch, a kind of padded satin stitch, the stems and border are ponto de cordão stitch, similar to split stitch, and the leaf is the matiz stitch, like an uncontrolled long and short stitch.
We had a couple of lovely days of spring, so I embroidered one of my favorite flowers -- lilacs (the colors aren't quite accurate, but I really love this combination). The two bushes in front of my house have just started to bud, and by late spring they should be filled with fragrant, dark purple blossoms. 
I was aiming for a paisley, but instead it looks kind of like a peacock feather with a flower in the middle. I seem to have trouble with paisleys. The beads come from a "Mardi Gras" bead mix that I got in college. The bead store was called Beauty and the Beads, and I was there all the time (I even worked there Friday afternoons my senior year). The owner of the store (who has since passed away, I heard) came up with the idea of making seed bead mixes, inspired by events, poems, songs, really anything at all. I also have mixes based on a Langston Hughes poem and a Billie Holiday song; I long ago made necklaces from all three, but I still have beads left over which I save for bits of bead embroidery when the opportunity arises.
The square fortuitously fell under my other, non-traditional cross stitch square, for an interesting contrast.
I do love it though, even if I get bored quickly stitching it.
This pattern came from an old issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. I modified the size to turn it into a 9 inch (finished) block (and, in the process, forgot about the border I was supposed to attach, resulting in a background that was a little bigger than it was supposed to be). The hearts, which are kind of puffy, were appliqued in a non-traditional manner. I placed to rectangles wrong-side together and stitched the heart shape, then cut a slit in the center of one side and turned the heart right-side out, before appliqueing it to the background. Doing it this way allows for smoother curves (although, only as smooth as one can sew, as a close-up of my work will show) and a dimensional quality.
I used queen's stitch, three of which together form a nifty little heart.
I grabbed some scraps of thread and made random cross stitches throughout the square. Simple as that.
It took so long because I did more embroidery for the wing than the pattern called for. I was going for a paisley look, but it turned into a spiral, and then I got tired of stitching. I attached it per instructions to the clothespin, but it is a bit wobbly so I may have to fix that. My flock of birds is complete, for now.
I used a small scrap of yellow calico that came long ago from my mother's stash, and tacked it in place with small stitches. Detached chain stitches for the tail and wing, a french knot for the eye, and straight stitches for the beak, and the bird was done.
January can be a dreary month, especially when you get hit by snowstorm after snowstorm after snowstorm, so I always like to have something pretty and light and colorful in the house. That's why I made the birdies, and that's why I made this. I took a few inches of pink lace and gathered it into a circle, and placed a scrapbooking doohickey with sequins and beads in the middle. Simple and shimmery like the snow. Well, not the dirty snow on the curb.
Advent candles for the month I spent making things that had to be finished.
Stitched after a very tiring trick-or-treat outing, a stiff drink, and take-out. It is entirely in french knots, and I blended two shades of orange for the pumpkin and very dark gray and very dark brown for the features. The squished right eye makes him look like he is winking, and is probably the fault of that stiff drink.
I was initially going to use the turquoise for some little design on the cheeks, but the background looked so empty I tried to make it fancy, kind of like stipple-quilting.
