Halloween Ornaments

A while back, I painted a set of four Halloween teardrop-shaped ornaments inspired by the Christmas themed ones I had done for my first club series, Tickled Pink.  They feature motifs that had first appeared on my Halloween Sampler series and each has it's own color scheme.  I stitched the Black Cat ornament to serve as a model for the set:

More recently, Judith Furie stitched the other three designs in the set, choosing amazing stitches and threads for each.  Here is the Jack-O-Lantern ornament:

Isn't this great?  She did Basketweave Beading for the pumpkin, plus found a way to add both color and sparkle to even the teeniest rows!

The Witch Hat ornament-- again, just fabulous thread color selection and beads for the center motif:

 The threads Judy selected for the Bat ornament are just mouth-watering aren't they??

She also added a bit of dimension to this one with ruched RibbonFloss for the black and white borders.

Did you notice also that she hardly repeated any thread or stitch?  Judy is always so creative, plus you can count on great color, sparkle and bling!  Remember my Summer Stitching post from last July?  That was Judy again with my Stars 'N' Stripes canvas.  Keep 'em coming Judy, we love what you do!

Can you believe Halloween is tomorrow night?  I can't, mostly because I still have two full bags of candy that have not yet even been opened!  Usually by this time I've had to purchase a replacement bag (or two.)  Guess I really have been busy!  Next time I hope to have a new Halloween piece to share with you.  In the meantime, I hope you have a very Happy Halloween!

Trick Or Treat!

I have a whole bag full of Halloween goodies for you today!  First of all is this super cute Bride of Frankenstein treat bag, stitched by Robin Smith and finished by Aristeia.  

Look at all the loot they managed to fit in there! The canvas is only 2.5 inches square so I'm pretty impressed with their "piling it on" skills.  Robin did a great job with the stitching, I especially like the little side swoop hairdo she gave to Mrs. F!  Great job Robin, thanks for sharing your photo!

Suzy Lee shared her stitched Monster Mash cone with me too and here it is!

Suzy is a great stitcher who is always working on amazing projects, so I was pretty flattered when this one made its way into her stitching rotation.  I love her thread choices on this one, especially for the stripes and for the werewolf.  Wonderful work Suzy, thanks for sharing your photo and please do send me another when it comes back from the finisher. 

You may have seen this one on Ruth's blog last week.  This is my Pumpkin Patch canvas being worked on by Judy from a stitch guide by Brenda Hart.  Sure hope Judy will finish it and send me more pictures! 

Finally, I'd like to reintroduce this project.  This is my Witch Hat Topiary that Threads offered as a class last March.  It is now available as a complete kit and they would be happy to send you one!  The stitch guide is amazing for this canvas-- a different stitch and thread for each stripe plus beaded fringe too! 

Hope you've enjoyed these little treats and until next time, Happy Stitching! 

Summer Into Fall

This blog post title refers to the two new finishes I have to show off today.  We'll take them in seasonal order, firstly, here is my Summer Flower Fields canvas stitched by Beth Briggs:

Beth did a fabulous job stitching this!  I think she managed to make the Tiger Lilies even blingy-er than I did.  I love the finishing too, especially those cute striped feet.  Great job Beth, and thanks for sharing!

Lynda Clark stitched my Hoot Owl and made him part of her gorgeous display for Fall and Halloween on her mantel at home. 

This one has some pretty fancy feet too, they are painted to match the canvas!  Love the little pumpkins on the edges as well.  Lovely work, Lynda, I wish my silk ribbon leaves looked as good as yours!  Thanks so much for showing him off.

And on a Fall note, it is such a great season for stitching.  I hope you all are enjoying yours and finding some time to stitch as well!  

Trunk Show Tardiness

I'm still not quite up and running with EyeCandy yet, so please do excuse my tardiness in announcing this month's trunk show host.  But don't worry, it's not too late, this month's show at Needlepoints Ltd. in Garden Grove, CA did start back on October 12th, but it will continue until October 29th.  But wait, there's even better news!  There's a sale on the canvases as well, 20% of all in-store purchases and a great big 30% off of on-line orders.  Check out the sale page here for a sampling of some of the great deals. 

Halloween Spirit!

It has been a fun week for me to follow along on other folk's stitching, they always come up with such great ideas.  I love it when someone makes a change to a stitch guide, it makes me look at a piece in a whole different way.  Check out my Black Cat candy pail (part of my Vintage Halloween series) stitched with RibbonFloss rather than Arctic Rays:

Stitched by Elizabeth Hurd

If you look closely you can see the color she chose is a red/black blend called "Night Ember".  It is a really clever use of the thread and only enhances the "Vintage" look-- great choice Elizabeth!

I have also been following along as two Facebook buddies, Karen and Shelly, challenge each other to come up with stitches for each stripe on two of my Halloween Topiary designs.  Karen is stitching along on the Black Cat tree:

Her pal Shelly has the Bat tree and this is her progress so far:

It's been a blast for me as I wait to see each new photo of the next stripe.  I certainly do like what they have done so far and look forward to see what they will do for the black and white stripes and for the little characters on the bases. 

All this is certainly motivating me to pry myself away from the tail-end of unpacking and get back to stitching.  I have a Challenge myself that I need to start-- over on Stitcherie we have a design-your-own Counted Canvas Challenge going on and I really need to get started on it, especially since it was my idea to do it!  (How's that for pressure, like not showing up for your own party!) I have some cute new Halloween buttons that I picked up at my Hobby Lobby (love that store and this is the first time I've ever lived near one!) to try out on a canvas.  Hope to post some pictures of my own soon!  In the meantime, Happy Stitching!

Stitch or Treat!

I am ready to do some Halloween stitching!  I am still not set up to paint yet, so I have been looking through my older designs for something to stitch on until I can finish setting up my studio.  I have quite a few older designs that I'd like to make some new companions for, plus ideas for new series as well.  The design at the top is a long, skinny banner that I'd love to stitch up to add to a black feather wreath that I have in my collection.

The three scary fellows below are Heckle, Jekyll, and Boo.  They are part of a series I started a while back called "Little Terrors" and I have always wanted to stitch them.  They should be pretty quick projects as they are only 3x3 (hence the name "Little" Terrors!)

I'm not the only one working on stitching my older designs, as Ruth Schmuff wrote on her blog earlier this week, she too caught the bug to stitch my Halloween Forest canvas.  Take a look at those yummy threads and beads-- this one will be great, hope she will have pictures to show us soon!

I've been working on my Halloween decorating and that has really gotten me in the mood for the season.  I am still only about half done-- here's a somewhat crummy iPhone picture of my mantle, it still needs some work but I do have some of my favorite pieces up there. (Or at least some of my favorite pieces that I've unpacked so far, there are several more boxes to unload so I'm bound to find more!)

Hope you are enjoying the beginning of the Fall season as well-- Happy Stitching!