Fringes And Tassels....

 

 Finishing Details.....

I Completed the Fringe on the lovely antique carpet, Dear Readers, but it seems that I haven't yet found a good photo location for getting good pictures of this beautiful project. You might be aware that it doesn't quite have a "destination" in any of my current projects! How could this be, you ask? Well, I was given this kit completely unexpectedly by a co-worker who was given it with a bunch of quilting materials. It is fairly large by doll house standards, being 8 inches by ten inches. Unless it is to cover the entire floor, the room has to be a good bit larger, which is rare in kits. My Castle has large floor areas, but they are usually "inhabited" in the Medieval times when these carpets were not yet discovered. Add to that the reluctance to cover the entire carpet with furnishings and obscure the beautiful pattern. So, this is a puzzle I will have to solve! For now, be assured that it is finished, fringe and all, and I just love the way it turned out!

And by the time I was finished with all that fringe, I had become rather good at the "fringe stitch" which led me to start the fringe on another carpet I had completed months ago and never showed you.

I believe I was working on this carpet last summer

 and had decided to change the design just a little bit from the kit instructions.

It is one of Janet Granger's kits and the

 central medallion was much simpler in her design.

There were only the red roses and fewer leaves, 

and the whole was surrounded with an area that

 had scattered single stitches of the pale pink in the pale ground.

I just didn't like those dots of pale pink!

But I felt it needed something in all that space...

 but perhaps I went overboard

 and put too much "something" in the space...!

Anyway, I added all those pale pink roses

 and scattered buds

 and pale leaves...

I will admit it might not be my best design alteration.

And I am sure Sally May will love it anyway... 

once I get it done and into her Living room!

All it needs is the fringes... 

which I had been procrastinating about

 while I stitched other carpets.

So I've made a start!

But Heaven knows, one can't Only do the fringe stitch!

So I've also been finishing

 the little Elephant Tea Cozy!

The instruction page is generic for the "tea cosy kits"

 and doesn't show the Elephant.

It says to stitch the two sides together

 using the thread of the background color.

Well, the Elephant is the background except around his legs!

I decided it would look terrible to have either a green stripe

 all along the back of the Elephant and down his face,

 or the gray stripe running up through the grass at the bottom!

So I carefully stitched with green at the bottom

 and gray all the rest of the way around.

Here the sides have been stitched together, 

but I didn't get a good shot of the seam... 

the light is too much from the side and the Elephant kept falling over!

And ever since I started this kit, 

I have felt that it would need to have

 a "Tassel" as a handle at the top.

And when I used the glittery embroidery threads

 to add some sparkle to the saddle,

 it seemed obvious that they would also serve for the tassel.

I have started to make one in the above picture...

 can you spot it there?

And I wanted it to attach with beads...

Which was a little tricky, 

because I hadn't thought it through...

which end attached to which part first....

But I think I made something that works!

(Unless you think it looks like a rather large night-cap...!?)

I do think it is rather cute! 

Even though it still tips over too easily....

Perhaps he is just missing the right teapot to cover!

As you can see, Dear Readers,

 I have been getting very carried away

 with the finishing details... 

Fringes and Tassels just add so much!