dreaming....

finally, i've done a new piece!


this line from the blondie song "dreaming" crept into my head a couple of weeks ago and i couldn't let it go -- the more i thought about the words, and the more the line went 'round and 'round in my head, i knew it was something i wanted to put into stitches.

when i design a new piece, i usually start with the lettering -- finding a letter style that i like is the first challenge. then, there's creating the pattern for the letters - which, when i'm working from a book or a blurry image of an old pattern on my computer screen, makes my eyes want to kill me. then i come up with a border style or ornamentation to flank the letters, and then i go about getting everything spaced and centered. color choice is almost always the last step. for this one, i think i knew i wanted blue stitching on the platinum aida cloth.

i got this far with the stitching -- about 3/4 of the way finished, when i figured out my color inspiration:


a-ha! i had been in flemington, nj the days or week before, helping my sister to pick out paint colors and ideas for her new restaurant. (she and her husband own the blue fish grill -- they're moving into a bright shiny new space in a refurbished pottery factory.) seems the colors we picked out stuck in my brain just as the words to the blondie song did!


once the piece was finished and framed, i had just a day to snap some photos before sending it off to los angeles, where it'll be a part of the upcoming "these friends 3" show at THIS.

luckily, there was snow, because i also had this image in my head of me holding the piece in the snow, captured from above.

b is a great sport in helping me with my chez-sucre-chez projects. he had just gotten home from the gym when i said, "baby, would you please help me and take some photos outside for me?" and then i kept him standing outside waiting for me while i looked all over the house for any one matching pair of gloves. i couldn't find one...


we took a couple dozen shots and then came upstairs and i looked at them and said, i love this one, but.... i really wish i had gloves on. so we went back down for another round. (i found the gloves that i was looking for -- they were in my car.) i'm glad we did. even though i like the sunshine and the shadows in this first shot, i'm even more pleased with this one for the second round. i think the colors are perfect.


see what i mean about the difference a small detail like gloves makes on an image?!

(thank you, b, for being my photographer. xo.)