La Cucina Italiana Part 4 - Finished!

I finished the olive border from my La Cucina wip.  I love the result!  As you may remember, I stitched this border onto fabric that I am going to use as a bread basket liner.  The fabric is a nice large size, the finished dimensions are 19 1/2" x 15 1/2".

As you can see, it is much easier to photograph this when it is folded in half!

I hand stitched the hem.  This is a 1" hem, with the raw edge folded under.  I had considered top stitching the hem but decided to just press the hem and hand stitch it in place.   I am so glad I did because you can hardly see my stitching and it just really gives a nice soft edge to the piece.

And I actually successfully stitched mitered corners! 

I am happy to have this project completed and to have kept an accurate record of all the details!  Or maybe not when I see the amount of time between my project start date and project end date?!

Here are the floss colors I used:

La Cucina Italiana WIP - Part 3

Remember this wip?  I am still working on it - I updated it here and now I have some new progress to report.    All the olive leaves are stitched, I used the fishbone stitch.  I finally selected a green to use for the branch.  I had this spool in my floss box but without a number!  I think it is close to DMC 966, it is a sage green with a bit of a yellow undertone.  Do you like the stitching for the branch?  It is parallel lines of split stitch. 

I think it goes beautifully with the purple, this is DMC #208.  I am filling in the olives with concentric circles of back stitching.

It also sets off the leaves nicely.  I still need to fill in all the olives, stitch the other branch and wash out my marker lines.  Then of course, iron this wrinkly fabric!

I will be sure to post a picture when this is finished.

Purple And Green

Here is my progress so far on my olive branch border.  I have been experimenting with the olives.  I have tried various thicknesses of floss and I think that the olive in the top left of the picture is the winner.  Three strands of floss in rows of backstitch as a fill.  I think that will work!  The leaves are done in the fishbone stitch.     I also have progress to show on a new project:

This says "Benvenuti Amici" which is Italian for "Welcome Friends" .  I am using the chain stitch for the lettering and for the motif on the bottom the double knot stitch.  You may recognize the double knot stitch, remember this disaster?  Let's just hope I don't have to remove any of these stitches and risk it happening again!
I really love the color combination of purple and green, as you can see by both of the above projects.  I was looking at my color wheel and noticing that purple and green are part of a triad with the third color being orange.  I think I will have to use some orange somewhere on the benvenuti stitching. 

There are so many beautiful shades of green, I am growing several of these pale green zinnias this year, I really love the light green color.  I should have grown some purple flowers to go with them!

These are certainly not purple but I can't resist their beautiful color!

An Almost Finish And A New Wip

I finished all the embroidery on my La Cucina stitching.  I am really pleased with it!  Especially the colors:

I used a variety of stitches, the lettering is done in the Back Stitch:

The flower petals are Fishbone Stitch and the flower centers are the Jacobean Couching Stitch.  The yellow swirls are Satin Stitches and French Knots .  I will post again about how I am going to finish this little project now that the embroidery is done.

Now on to my newest wip - this olive branch border is also from La Cucina Italiana.  Isn't this fabric beautiful?  I can't wait to start stitching on it.

For my floss colors, I am thinking of this combination:  I may add some different greens to give a shading effect.  I love how much this fabric and these floss colors match these recipe cards too:

I think I will start stitching these olives first. 

I will be sure to post pictures of my progress!

Progress Report - La Cucina Stitching - part one

I have an update on my La Cucina stitching project.  You may remember I was satin stitching the lettering with perle cotton floss?

Well, I wasn't really thrilled with the uneven, patchy look of the "C" so when I started on the "u" I used a back stitch for the outline and to fill in the letter.  I am much happier with the even-edged chunky look.  I think the small "c" looks great too so that is the stitch I am going to use for all the lettering:

The satin stitching does look really good on the decorative border, especially in this dark yellow floss.  This is DMC #742:

I love yellow and especially yellow roses!  I wanted to share a picture of these beautiful roses.  These are some blooms from my garden, the yellow and pink/yellow are the Peace tea rose, the red bud is from the Chrysler Imperial tea rose.  They are both really easy to grow.  I see plenty of new buds so more pictures to follow!

A WIP From A New Pattern!

This stitching project is from my new pattern packet, La Cucina Italiana.  I am stitching this with some beautiful perle cotton floss:

I am so pleased with all the motifs in this pattern set!   I can think of so many projects to use them on.    I am definitely going to make kitchen towels and stitch all the days of the week in Italian:

Maybe I should do them in the colors of the Italian flag...

I also really like this color combination:

Here is a picture of the pattern packet.  This is listed in my Etsy shop: