Guiltless Dragonfly Photo from Laura M

Laura M has kindly shared pictures of Guiltless Dragonfly adapted to a Mattress Pincushion for a Hooked on Exchanging project. I've never tried making a mattress pincushion and didn't join this exchange but I think she did a marvelous job on it and I hope her partner will enjoy it! Thanks, Laura, for stitching the chart and sharing the pictures!

Photo from Lori

Lori sent a photo of her finishes of two charts, Hummingbird Scissors Pocket and Guiltless Dragonfly Scissors Pocket. I just love the colors she chose - it's fun to see how different designs look with a different color scheme! Thanks for sharing your photo, Lori!

"Guiltless" Dragonfly Biscornu and Needlecase

I thought I would round out the "Guiltless" Dragonfly set with a biscornu and needlecase. I guess I need to do the same for the Hummingbird set!

I am always amazed at how much difference a few stitches can make. I changed the corners slightly for these charts but if you already stitched the fob and want the outline corners to match it, here is the corner variation.

Oooops!

It has kindly been brought to my attention that I made an error in the "Guiltless Dragonfly" color key. I had listed DMC 987 twice and actually the color for the symbol B should have been 3347. I have replaced the color key with the corrected version but if you saved the color key before today (Oct 1, 2008) you will need to save it again. I apologize for the inconvenience and want to thank "monkey22" for letting me know!

Guiltless Dragonfly Photos from Brenda K

Brenda K from England has kindly shared photos of her finished scissors case and fob set! I just love how it turned out and am so pleased that she sent the photos - it is really nice to see the finished projects. Please visit her Cyberstitchers' Gallery for more of her beautiful finishes - and there are many to see! She is amazing! Thank you, so much, Brenda, for stitching the set and sharing your photos!

Guiltless Dragonfly Scissors Pocket & Fob

I'm not crazy about expensive "limited edition" kits and designs. I don't like the pressure it brings on the buyer to hurry up and get something "right now" when it may cause a financial hardship on them or a big disappointment if they decide they really can't afford to splurge. This is not the same as "shop exclusives" which may only be available from one source but are available for a long time, giving plenty of opportunity to obtain it. There are some gorgeous designs that have appeared as limited edition kits that I would like to have had but just couldn't afford when they were available so I just missed out. Recently, Just Nan came out with the limited edition "Gilded Dragonfly" kit which was limited to 1000 kits. Wow, think how many stitchers there are that would have loved to have had that beautiful kit, but only 1000....? So I asked myself, "What is it about this design that I really like? Is it the flowers? No, not really. Is it the specialty stitches? No, not really. Is it the dragonfly? Hmm, yes, I really like the beautiful dragonfly charm (which I was able to find online here). But what is it I like the most about it? THE COLORS!!! I love the colors and the fact that it is a scissor case and fob set!!! So I decided to design my own set using the features I liked the most - similar colors and a scissors case finish with a dragonfly of some kind. It had to be an original design - I wanted to be sure it would be completely different than Nan's design so there would be no question of copyright infringement. I hope I have achieved that. The first step was to design a suitable dragonfly - I originally called the design the "Poor Stitcher's Dragonfly Scissor Pocket" because it was designed to be stitched with DMC instead of silks and had a stitched dragonfly instead of an embellishment one. I decided on the new name because a stitcher wouldn't need to feel guilty about the cost of stitching this one! I know you will recognize the chart as being the same as the Hummingbird Scissors Pocket and Fob. That's because although I designed the Dragonfly Pocket first, I actually like hummingbirds better so I adapted the design and decided to stitch it that way instead. "Guiltless" Dragonfly comes in two color schemes - a light and a darker one - depending on the fabric you choose to use. The opalescent fabric I like to use needs the darker color scheme to show up on it but I love the lighter color one which was actually the original design choice. A gold dragonfly or a silver one, metallic blue or metallic green, with French knots or with beads - lots of opportunity here to customize the design and make each one unique. I'm including some more fob variations that will match both the Dragonfly and the Hummingbird set. Happy stitching!!

Click on images for larger views

New and Old

First, thanks to everyone for the lovely comments you have left on the exchanges! I have enjoyed doing them and I'm happy that my partners have been pleased with the ones I have sent as well.

I have had several requests for the chart for the Dragonfly Fob I did for my friend Beth last year. The dragonfly on that one was an adaptation of another chart and even though I made several changes to it I didn't feel I could post the chart. Months ago I started over and made my own design and made it a smaller size more suitable for a fob. I hope this will be okay for those who have requested the chart. I would have posted it sooner but I kept forgetting to pull out the leftover threads to figure out which ones I used. I'm not 100% sure which of the ones I settled on using so I will list the ones I had pulled for the project and you can choose what to use. I know I used DMC Variations 4050 blended with DMC Light Effects E135 for the upper wings. Now here is the tricky part - I pulled DMC Variations 4030, Anchor Multicolor 1345, and Weeks Dye Works 2136 Caribbean - I'm not sure which I finally settled on, but I think I used the Anchor Multicolor 1345 and I blended it with the Light Effects E135 for the lower wings. I used DMC Light Effects E384 blended with the Weeks Caribbean for the body and the Light Effects E384 alone for the legs. The lettering on the back was done with DMC Variations 4030 and the cording and tassel was made with the Anchor Multicolor 1345. I used Mill Hill Magnifica Glass Beads #10104 for the eyes and around the edges and I added a few Swarovski crystals around the dragonfly. See why it has taken me so long to post the chart? The chart was easy but listing the threads wasn't!

Long story short, if I was going to do it again I would just use the two DMC Variation flosses and the two Light Effects colors like this: DMC 4050 blended with E135 for the upper wings - DMC 4030 blended with E135 for the lower wings - DMC 4030 with E384 for the body - E384 by itself for the legs and specialty stitches - E135 by itself to outline the wings - DMC 4030 for the lettering on the back, the backstitched edges, the cording and tassel - Mill Hill Magnifica Glass Beads #10104 for the eyes and edging.



***Edited: I forgot to mention, I used opalescent fabric to stitch on - it really gives it that special sparkle! And I have added a second version of the back - I realized I used the version without the apostrophe the first time.