Finished!! The Sunflower in Talavera

The Sunflower cross is finished, and although stitching against a deadline ceases to be entertaining, I thoroughly enjoyed this one - an example of the effects one can achieve with simple materials. Only DMC cotton floss, Kreinik metallic braid #12 in 018HL (navy), and several different Kreinik blending filaments were used.

I also used shiny brown Sundance beads in the center of the flower - the only Talavera piece I've used beads on except for one ornament a while back. (Usually not the best thing for this sort of pattern.) In this case, as the beads are shiny rather than sparkly, it's a great look to add interest to the big brown area. It's a subtle effect, whereas textured stitches here would have been too distracting.

The next photo shows three green areas (two different crosses) which include blending filament. I couldn't get a good shot of this, showing the nice, random sparkle, but I used the chartreuse BF #015 on both the lime green (DMC #3348) and the medium green areas. On the darker green, I used the same floss - the DMC #988, but with BF #009, which is dark green. It really makes a difference!
Also finished, as I alternated among four different pieces in this session, is the first of the little "mini-crosses" in the Talavera series. I've already explained most of this one in a previous post. The turqoise flowers really made it come to life!! Note how shiny the centers are, worked with DMC Satin Floss!

The response to these Talavera pieces has been wonderful - so for right now a few of them are up on my ebay store for auction. Later today, Inge will pick them up and take them to Dallas for finishing in preparation for their trip to the TNNA market, as Creative Needle will be producing them. What a great collaberation, after all these years - since 1972. Our minds work alike!!