It's a Party!

It's a Peacock Party that is! There are now two great stitch guides for this canvas, the latest one was created by Sharon Quick:

I think this is so fabulous!  Lots of bling and fun stitches and did I say bling??  I have seen the actual stitch guide too and it is extremely high quality-- color pictures and numbered stitch graphs along with easy to read clear instructions.  If you would like to order a stitch guide for yourself, contact Sharon on her Facebook page.
Robin King also has a guide for this design, and sadly I don't have a photo because I am the model stitcher for it and I haven't finished it, bad on me!  Not for lack of fun, just lack of time!  Robin's guide is also excellent and loaded with fun techniques, to order email her at creativecats@comcast.net

Merry & Bright Shipping Soon!

My newest club series, "Merry & Bright" is going to start shipping very soon!  Another exclusive from Fancy Stitches, the kits include canvas, threads and of course a great stitch guide by Martha Johnson, Queen of Color and Bling!

This time they will be shipped every other month,  giving us all a little breathing room between projects, how nice!  Just give Gayle a call at 817-641-4761 to get signed up, then just let me know if you'd like the join the Merry & Bright Facebook group I'm setting up. We had a FB group for our last club and it was lots of fun, so of course I'm doing it again! 

The photos here show you all 5 designs, and we are offering them in TWO color schemes, Bright and Traditional!

Please visit Fancy Stitches web page to see the complete set in the Traditional colors! http://www.fancystitches.com/page3.html

This is the first design in the series:

An example of the Traditional color version:

Our print ad with all the info:

The 7 Day Needlepoint Challenge

I don't know who came up with the 7 Day Needlepoint Challenge, but it has really taken Facebook by storm lately.  A friend challenges another friend to post photos of their completed needlepoint every day for 7 days, then that friend challenges another, and well it goes on and on, chain letter style.  It has been great for me to see my designs appear, both older items, new ones and one or two that I barely recognized!  Here are a few of my faves:

This is Ann L's Purr More Hiss Less, with brilliant finishing by West Coast:

This is Pastel Puzzle, stitched by Beth S. and she changed so many of the colors I almost didn't recognize it!  I love what she did, it is the most creative stitch of one of my designs I have ever seen!

This is Harvest Puzzle stitched by Diane G. and finished in a Stirling folio.  I'm so sad Stirling is gone, they had colors that were perfect for my line!

CandyLand Christmas Trees stitched by Marla M. and finished with that wonderful West Coast finishing. (You know it is West Coast when you see those darling custom made feet!)

Garden Party Heart stitched by Mary J.  That gold frame is exactly what I would have chosen and those pink and green mats!  To die for!

Hope this challenge thing keeps on going for a while, it has been fun! 

New Online Group For Stitch a Falling Star!

If you are on Facebook you can join our group for the Stitch a Falling Star club!  Group members can share their photos and stitching progress and more!  I look forward to seeing you there! Click on the title below to be taken directly to the group page:

Stitch a Falling Star on Facebook 

A New Look at Mod Ornaments

Thanks to Cleta R., a member of our Facebook Mod Ornaments stitching group,  I now have some very nice photos to share of this design done in traditional Christmas colors.  Sandy Arthur adapted her stitch guide for those students interested in an alternate to the painted pink and green color scheme, choosing threads in a red/green/gold collection.  Cleta has been busy stitching and has two ornaments completed:

Just wonderful! Cleta did a great job stitching and Sandy outdid herself coming up with a conversion that completely transforms the original canvas.  Kudos to you both!

My friend Connie has hers nearly complete and in the pink/green original color scheme:

Such fun!  I am still plugging away on mine, hopefully I'll have it done in time for this Christmas!

More Mod Ornaments!

Here are are few more photos from the Mod Ornaments stitching group-- great work by Nathalie, Ann and Mary Ann!

Needlepoint Nation Nashville Retreat & Trunk Show!

I'm off tomorrow to enjoy a weekend stitching retreat at Nashville Needleworks!  Columbus Day weekend marks the annual get-together held at the shop for the members of the Needlepoint Group on Facebook, a.k.a.s. "Needlepoint Nation".  Really looking forward to this one as there will be as many new people to meet as there will be older ones that I haven't seen since the Austin NN retreat.  My trunk show will be there along with me, here's a photo of all the models that will be on display in the shop:

Hope some of you may be able to stop by and say hello!  The trunk show should be there until the end of the month.

First New Designs of 2013!

It's time to introduce my first new canvas designs of the year!  The first TNNA needlework market is gearing up and shop owners across the country are getting set to place their orders for new designs, so here is a preview of my new offerings.  If you see something you can't live without, contact your favorite store to have them order one for you!

My recent move really threw me for a loop, so my new line for this year is a little smaller than in years past, with twelve new designs total.  Here are my four new Christmas and Holiday designs:

I was really in a "Mod" '60's state of mind for some reason this year, so I painted "Mod Ornaments".  This is 9" x 9" on 18 count.

And then came "Mod Merry"!  This is 7"x9" on 18 count.  Lots of room to try out fun stitches on this one!

I had to call this one "It's a Mod, Mod Christmas", but several people have told me that not only is this an overall pattern design that could be appropriate for all year, but with a simple color change it would also be a great design for Hanukkah.  This is 7.5" x 9" on 18 count.

This little fellow snuck into the mix somehow, probably because I have cardinals on the the brain as I am lucky enough to have a whole flock of them at my feeders every day.  I posted this on my Facebook page and he quickly became the winner of "viewer's choice" with the most comments of any of the designs.  Guess a lot of you also love cardinals, and I think I see some more cardinal designs in my future as well!  This is a small canvas, 3.5" x 5" on 18.

I was also in the mood to paint florals too and added four new ones into the line:

This is White Peonies, 8" x 8" on 18 count.  I am really into this aqua color, it seems to be everywhere these days!

And this is Rose and Butterfly (clearly I was stumped for whimsical titles this season!) and it is 6" x 6" on 18.  Orange, pink and brown is a color scheme I continue to be obsessed with-- the dark chocolate color on the butterfly is a regular brown paint, but the other browns are actually several different shades of dark gold metallics, which give the canvas a nice sparkle that doesn't show up well in the photograph.

I'll leave off with this half of the collection for now and show you the rest later in the week.  Until then, Happy Shopping! 

Presenting... "Crazy Patch Boo-Nanza!"

My newest club series, available starting April 2013 at fine needlework retailers nationwide! 

Remember when I started this blog back in March?  I teased you with this pile of orts:

These were the leftovers of this pile of threads, from yet another teaser photo that I posted on Stitcherie and Facebook:

I think I even posted a teeny little close up of one of the Candy Corns-- look familiar?

Well, thank goodness the time for teasing is finally over and I can actually show off the finished work!  I have had to keep these under my hat for months now so it's great to be able to share.  I'll post more pictures over the next few weeks so you can see more of the fun details on each piece.  Until then, Happy Stitching! 

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!

September's Trunk Shows

It's a big month for EyeCandy and Ruth Schmuff as we have trunk shows on their way to two great shops, Peacock Alley, located on Ada Drive in Ada, Michigan (a needlepoint shop on a street and city that shares my name? I love it!) and Needlepoint This! in Dallas, Texas.  

Peacock Alley (be sure to check them out on Facebook too) does some fantastic window and table displays in their shop.  One of my kitties and one of Ruth's ladies appeared in the window last December:

My owls are a great part of this Halloween display:

They are happy to mail order anything, give them a call toll-free at 877-550-9898 or contact them via email peacockalleynp@sbcglobal.net.

Needlepoint This is a fun store that also offers great finishing services and LOTS of threads:

They are on Facebook too and you can call them at 214-363-6377.  Of course, if you are in the vicinity of either of these great shops, be sure to stop by between September 14th and October 1st to see all our canvases and stitched models in person!

Happy Stitching (& Shopping)!