Scandia Birds Club Starts This Fall!

I have a brand new club starting this Fall, exclusively at Bedecked & Beadazzled!  This seven piece set of Mid-Century Mod style birds has been a long time in the making and I'm so excited to share it here with you all!  For details on signing up, visit Ruth Schmuff's blog by clicking here!

Winter Fox Finished!

Remember when I showed you this mouth watering photo of all four of my fox canvases with their stitch guides and threads, taken upon their arrival at this lucky stitcher's home?

Well, that stitcher got started stitchin' right away, starting with the Winter Fox:

And ta-da!!  She is all done-- doesn't he look great?  Love all the textures, from the sparkly snowflakes to the velvety fur!

And if that doesn't blow you away, look at this-- she has a fox magnet AND a fox Snap Tray!

And if that didn't blow your socks off, then this will (it did mine!)-- she made a fox dress to celebrate the finish!!!! OMG, I am in AWE, no joke! Caroline, you may be my favorite stitcher EVER!

Will she have a new Snap Tray and dress for the other three foxes as well?  Oh, I hope so!! If so, you WILL see it here, so be sure to check back again soon! 

More Fox Stitch Guides!

Ruth Schmuff has written guides for and kitted up my other two fox designs too-- here is a look at the Summer Fox:

I am really loving those variegated silks on the bottom left-- someone hurry and stitch this one, I want to see what those will look like!!

Last but not least (and my personal favorite of the four) is the Spring Fox:

More gorgeous silks for this one, plus look at the silk ribbon/sequin combo for the flowers-- those will be gorgeous!

Meanwhile, at least one person is already stitching up a storm on the Winter Fox-- this is Caroline's progress so far:

I really like the fur, which is all in Very Velvet.  She's saving the best for last-- the snowflake embellishments!  Looks like she will be done in no time!  Stay tuned for updates, and Happy Stitching!

New Stitch Guides Available Now!

Ruth Schmuff has worked her stitching magic on all four of my new fox canvases!  Here is a look at the thread kit for Winter Fox:

The Very Velvet is going to make such nice fox fur, and of course Water N'Ice will make for a perfect snowbank as well.  Plus, look at all those sequins!!

Fall Fox is going to get the Boucle' treatment, along with some sparkles:

Here's a look at the whole goody box of all four canvases with kits and guides that just went out to a very enthusiastic customer:

Looks so yummy that I want to order one for myself! :)  

We Have a Winner!

Voting ended for the Stitching Games Viewer's Choice Award this weekend, and the winner was Nancy K. and her Bird Song canvas!  Congrats to you Nancy, we can't wait to hear what your prize will be! As I understand it, Ruth Schmuff is putting the prize together, so it's sure to be spectacular!

I expect most of this year's participants will be joining in on the Games for next year too.  I know I am already picking a canvas from my stash for next year, the trouble is in narrowing it down to just one.  Hope some of you may decide to join in too!

Speaking of Stitcherie and our talented group of stitchers, this is my Chat Noir canvas as stitched by K.B., who is one of the masterminds behind the Stitching Games and a very fine stitcher too!  She did a  great job with this canvas, I am loving those background stitches!

That's it for now, hope your holiday season isn't too busy.  I am in the midst of painting new designs for the needlepoint market this January, but still trying to find time to stitch.  Currently, I am trying to get caught up on Ruth's latest Mystery Class, Silly Christmas Birds. Hopefully, Christmas will bring lots of extra stitching time for all of us! 

Things to Remember About Memory Thread

Reading the Bedecked and Beadazzled newsletter this month I was reminded of just how fun it is to work with DMC Memory Thread!  The "Technique of the Month" for November is applications with Memory Thread and you should definitely check it out (if you haven't already), click here. 

This is the first project where I used Memory Thread, on my Floating Hearts canvas.  This was a featured project in the May 2010 of Needlepoint Now. I needed to "clean up" the edges of my hearts because of all the compensated stitches and Memory Thread couched around the hearts fit the bill perfectly!  As you can see, you can couch it singly or with two or more strands side by side.  

It worked fabulously for the smaller companion design, Floating Flowers as well!

This is a detail of a flower from my Wedding Cake Slice, where I used Memory Thread for both the outside edge and for four of the petals too:

The Cake Slice as completed:

Leave it to Ruth Schmuff to find a really innovative use for Memory Thread rather than just outlining with it-- she used it to pad the candy canes on my CandyLand Christmas canvas.  Here is the first layer:

And here is the final layer with the Frosty Rays stitched over the top of the Memory Thread:
 

Great effect, right?  I love how it makes it both dimensional and gives it that nice, clean edge as well.  See more of the magic Ruth worked on this canvas here.

Hope this has been informational and inspirational too!  Until next time, Happy Stitching!

Fresh Crop Picked From The Pumpkin Patch!

Hello!  I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween weekend!  I have some lovely finishes from my Crazy Patch Boo-nanza collection to share with you today.

First up is the Argyle Pumpkin, courtesy of 3 Kittens Needlearts.  Is that an exuberant bow topper or what?? 

From Louise's Needlework comes this stunner, my Pink Stripes Candy Corn also with a very cute bow topper and sweet pumpkin feet:

Last but certainly not least is the Orange Stripe Candy Corn with fabulous finishing via Bedecked and Beadazzled:

Hope this gets you in the mood for the rest of Fall and Thanksgiving, just around the corner!  Happy Stitching!  

Are You Ready for Halloween??

I was just out shopping this morning, and yes, the Halloween stuff is already making it's appearance on the shelves!  With the back to school rush over with, the stores are pretty eager to move on to the next event.  No complaints from me, as I absolutely LOVE Halloween!  I have to say though, that after a few years of living up north, the early appearance of Halloween goodies was bittersweet as it really marked the end of blissful summer and reminded me of the dreaded upcoming winter (I am a warm-weather gal!).  Here in Houston I get to enjoy Halloween and the Fall season fully, with no real winter coming to dread, I am loving it!
  
Seeing the spooky goodies on the shelves today reminded me of two Halloween projects I wanted to share with you.  First off is my Halloween Night Collage, which is one of the canvases being stitched at Pocket Full of Stitches' upcoming Canvas Enhancement class with Robin King.  Here is the fabulous thread kit she has pulled for it:

I am hoping for some pictures of the stitching progress on this from the retreat, I know it is going to be fabulous!  Robin will have the stitch guide available for purchase after October 1st. 

Ruth Schmuff has also written a stitch guide and pulled a thread kit for my other Halloween Collage canvas and here it is:

Are those threads just mouth-watering or what??  I am especially loving those ribbons in the upper right hand corner.  

Hope I have gotten you in the mood to stitch one or both of these!  Be sure to share the photos with me and I'll make sure to show them off here on the blog.  Until next time, Happy Stitching! 

Join the Club!

Hi all!  I am back from a little summer hiatus after my birthday last week.  Since I have been stitching on some of my own older club series projects (as I didn't stitch the original models I'm stitching a few for myself to keep) I thought I would do a little EyeCandy club series retrospective today.

My very first club series was "Tickled Pink".  Ruth Schmuff did the stitch guides for these and they made their debut in her shop, Bedecked and Beadazzled.  These ornaments are very sentimental for me, as they gave me my start as a needlepoint designer.

I just recently finished stitching this one, it will be off to the finisher soon:

Only three more to go and I'll have the whole set of seventeen completed!

My next series was also a set of ornaments, this time with a retro theme, called Atomic Christmas.  Ruth  did the stitch guides for this set too.

I could not have been more excited when Cynthia Thomas contacted me regarding stitch guides she had done for three of my Vintage Halloween Pails.  After some consultation, we added three new designs to the original set of three and voila, my first Halloween club was created!  It made it's debut at the Chaparral in my current home town of Houston.

Cynthia did such a great job on this club, with both the stitch guides and the concept for the finishing. I'm just about done stitching the cat, then I'll have only two left to stitch.

For the next club, I changed direction completely from ornaments to a set of owl stand ups, complete with cute little wings and embellished bases. (Actually, the cute finishing was a result of Ruth and West Coast Finishing putting their heads together!) This series, called "Hoot! Hoot!" had a seasonal theme and I did the stitch guides and stitching.  

My current club is Crazy Patch Boo-nanza and it is shipping right now to needlework stores nation-wide.  This one is also stitch guided by me.

You can still sign up for Crazy Patch at your local needlepoint shop.  All of my previous clubs are currently available as individual canvases with stitch guides, so you can pick and choose or get the whole set if you want!

One of the clubs that excited me most was one that Fancy Stitches in Cleburne Texas did with my set of Seasonal Tree canvases.  Their in-house stitch guide guru, Martha Johnson, stitched all four canvases and somehow managed to make the colors even more vivid than I did!! The results were fantabulous I think-- here is the Winter Tree:

So pretty!  I love how she added even more colors with the addition of the overdyed thread and ribbon.

So there you have it, hope you have enjoyed this little trip down memory lane with me.  My next club is currently "under construction" and I can't wait to share it here with you!

New Stitch Guides!

Ruth has cooked up a great stitch guide for my Witch's Garden Halloween Collage canvas-- just look at this yummy kit!

Robin King writes her stitch guides "on the fly"-- this is my original Halloween Collage that she's writing a guide for as she travels between teaching gigs.  This guide will be for a customer at Pocket Full of Stitches upcoming Fall retreat. 

The big summer TNNA needlepoint market is this week, so I thought I should give you a little peek at what is new and coming soon from me:

That's all I can show for now, the rest will be posted here real soon!  Thanks for stopping by!

Homecoming

I had a little "family reunion" of sorts last week when my distributor, Ruth Schmuff, sent me a box containing some of my older stitched models.  These guys have logged many a mile on the trunk show circuit, as well as quite a bit of time in Ruth's shop, Bedecked & Beadazzled.  I haven't seen these in person since I finished stitching them, years ago now.  It's nice to have them back to get reacquainted! 

These two are from my earliest set of Halloween designs, a collection of teardrop ornaments, stars and topiary trees.  Both pieces were finished by Marlene's, whose idea it was to make the Jack o' Lantern star into a magic wand.  It came out so cute!

My Halloween series right after this was a set of three Victorian-style candy cones.  This one is the "Witch's Accessories" cone, featuring her fancy red shoes.  Loading it up with selections from my Halloween doo-dad collection was lots of fun! 

I stayed with the witch theme in my next collection, which merged Halloween with my interest in stitching accessories.  The witch hat shape is such a natural choice for a scissor case.  This was also the first time I ever tried the technique of Basketweave Beading and I was very pleased with the way the little Jack o'Lantern motif came out.  I made the little witch scissor fob as well to round out the set.

Now for something different, this checkbook cover is called Floating Flowers.  This was designed for and published in Spool magazine, which is, sadly, no longer published which is a shame as it was a great magazine that appealed to every kind of stitcher.  The canvas and stitch guide however, are still available.  

Finally, this early Christmas Tree Forest canvas takes me way back to my very first collection!  This one was one of my very first stitched and finished models.  I was sequin-crazy back then, the embellishment pack for this very small design has almost 30 sequins and beads of various sizes and shapes. 

Hope you have enjoyed this little trip down my memory lane!  Thanks for looking and have a great weekend with plenty of stitching time!

Spring Garden Bonus Project and More!

I am happy to announce that the May/June issue of Needlepoint Now features a bonus companion piece to my Spring Garden Biscornu and Humbug-- a fun little floss tag to round out this little sewing set:

The above is a preview from the actual issue, I will post some more detailed photos later on.  For those of you working on these projects, I would like to share here once again the best tutorial on working chain stitch.  All of these projects employ a fair amount of chain stitch as it is used for the finishing process on all three designs.  Chain stitch was always a difficult one for me to do, until I came across the technique of working it in reverse.  Not only is it now super easy to do, it also made it into a very utilitarian technique as well.  Read more about it here on the fabulous Sublime Stitching blog.

And in other Needlepoint Now related news, reprints are available for my Prismatic Quartet design published last year.  Some of those issues have sold out, so the magazine is offering it as a reprint booklet.  It is available both direct from the magazine and from Bedecked and Beadazzled. 

Thanks for stopping by and as always, Happy Stitching!

Finishing Up the Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  Many hopes and wishes for all of us to have a great 2013!  Here are a couple of new finishes to close out 2012-- Linda from the Split the Needles blog just received her Garden Party Heart back from the finishers and it looks great, just check out that wrapped cording on the edge!

Ruth Schmuff had to show off the wonderful framing job done for Lisa's CandyLand Christmas, read more about it on her blog:

Looking forward to many more great finishes in the year ahead!  Happy Stitching to all!

Bells on Her Toes!

Or at her feet, that is!  Green sparkly jingle bells for feet on this stand-up, courtesy of Sue at West Coast  Finishing, stitching by Marla Muth.  Great work, both of you and thanks for sharing!

Lone Star Witch

Keeping it short and sweet today, the holiday rush is on!! Hope you all are having a great holiday and finding some time to stitch!  

Still More Kits!

Ruth just recently added my Halloween Collage to the list of canvases with stitch guides, and this one is by Julia Snyder herself, no less!  Look at all those great threads and beads, you know it's going to be good!

Here are the thread kits for my Fall Tree and Winter Tree, with stitch guides published in Needlepoint Now magazine.  Thanks so much to Melinda from Living the Good Life blog for her lovely photos!

The wonderful folks at Peacock Alley Needlepoint pulled these pretty threads for my Halloween Star:

The Pockettes at Pocket Full of Stitches were intrepid enough to put together thread kits for my Prismatic Quartet design, also published in Needlepoint Now.  These are the threads for just ONE of the four sections!

Threads of Virginia designed a stitch class using one of my Halloween Topiaries and now the instructions and kit are available to all, so give them a call if you are not local and they'll be happy to send this beauty your way!

Hope this has helped you to fill out that shopping list a little further!  Until next time, Happy Holidays and Happy Stitching!