Prismatic Quartet and Beach Blanket Bingo!

I cannot believe how fast time flies!! I just received my preview copy of Needlepoint Now in the mail, featuring part 3 of my canvaswork design, Prismatic Quartet. To me, it seems like it was just yesterday that I mailed the finished canvas off to the editor-in-chief, Elizabeth Bozievich. I cannot believe this project is almost over already-- it seems like it took longer to stitch than it did to publish!

Here are parts 1 and 2 of the design, already published in the Nov/Dec 2011 and Jan/Feb 2012 issues:
And here is part 3, coming in the March/April 2012 issue:

The completed design, thanks to the Needlepoint Now team for their great photography!
It has been great working with the talented people at Needlepoint Now. Elizabeth wears many hats, in addition to being the editor, she also designs the terrific layouts. I have always been completely delighted by how she has presented my designs in the magazine-- she framed my Floating Hearts design from May/June 2010 with candies and made my Winter Tree look like it was part of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree lot, how could I not love that?! For Prismatic Quartet, I have had the extra added pleasure of working with Vicky De Angelis, who edits the projects as well as doing the meticulous charting work. Being a fabulous stitcher herself, she is great at her job and fun to work with too! Thanks so much, Team Needlepoint Now, it is an honor to be included in your pages!

Now, on to the Beach Blanket Bingo portion of our program! Karen has been hard at work on her Challenge canvas and shared her progress with the group this morning:
Is Sammy's beach blanket fabulous or what? Karen has thrown down a gauntlet for the other stitchers for sure, I cannot wait to see what other great beach blankies our other stitchers will do! Sheena has mentioned doing a bamboo-style mat, using the Sea Grass thread. If you haven't read the rules for this Challenge, one of them is to use Thread Gatherer's Sea Grass somewhere in the design and I assume Sheena may weave her's out of that, thus fulfilling two Challenges in one step, a woven stitch being another one of the rules. Clever Karen has ticked off 3 Challenges in just one step: she used the Blueberry Watercolors, the strongly overdyed thread and a Byzantine stitch all together for the blanket. Well done, Karen! I can't wait for more, our stitchers are pretty intrepid. There has even been talk of using the Sea Grass to "weave" a picnic basket for Sammy, so stay tuned!