Mistletoe Kitty!

Sharing this beautiful stitch and finish of "Mistletoe Kitty" by the one and only Vicky D! 

New EyeCandy Designs for Fall 2019!

Here's a look at my entire "What's New" collection coming to market this week!  Be sure to attend Local Needlework Shop Day on Sept. 21 if you can, or contact any needlework shop to order.  See my shop listing page on my website for a list of EyeCandy retailers!

Prize Winners!

Very proud to see two of my canvases entered into the LA County Fair!  Thanks to Garden Gate Needlepoint for the photos, and congrats to Gloria & Dolores on their well earned ribbons!

New for Fall 2018 From EyeCandy!

Peek a Boo!

A great finish of Peeky Kitty, courtesy of A Stitch in Time, San Marino, CA

Another Peeky Kitty & This One is GREAT!!

WOW!  This is probably my most-stitched design, so I have seen a LOT of these, but this one is one of my all-time faves for sure, and it's not even finished yet!  I really hope the very talented stitcher and Garden Gate Needlepoint will keep me updated on the further progress on this one!

It's Spooky Season!

Boo!  It's almost easy to forget that it's Halloween time here in South Texas, since anything that looks or feels like Fall is still several weeks away!  However, my house is all decorated for the season, and I have some great Halloween finishes to show you!

First up is my Halloween Sampler cone, brilliantly stitched by Jennifer T.  Such nice finishing by Marlene's too!

Jennifer took a lot of great photos and I am grateful-- you can finally get a look at the back and inside!

This next finish just fascinates me, I've never seen several small needlepoints combined in one piece like this.  Only one of the designs is mine, the little black "Peeky Kitty" in the top center, but the overall combination of Halloween scenes along with that amazing custom cut and hand painted mat is just too cool for words!  Photo courtesy of Needle in a Haystack, framing from New Creation.

Once again, Pat T. and West Coast have teamed up on my Candy Corn series, here are two recent finishes, I really love these!

That's a lot to look at I know!  Stay tuned for Halloween part two next week!

Cats and Birds Make For Some Great Finishing!

Cats and birds go together like oil and water, but together they do make for some pretty creative and fun finishing to show off this week!   Here are three of my Holiday Birds series canvases finished into a very one of a kind vertical garland:

Pretty nifty, right?  That is the kind of outside-the-box thinking that you get from the creative mind of Sue Parsons at West Coast Finishing, who came up with this clever way to combine two "landscape" shaped ornaments with one "portrait" shape.  Thanks so much to Pat Thompson who stitched this trio and shared her photo, great work Pat!

And another amazing finish of a relatively simple and small canvas belongs to Diane Gasior, who stitched my "Peek-a-Boo Kitty" and sent it to Mountain Shadow Studio for this incredible piece:

Look at these great details:

Hand painted details on the finial and a perfectly matched lamp work bead for the topper-- that is some top-notch work from the team at Mountain Shadow, love it.  It is a perfect complement to Diane's lovely stitching-- I am crazy about that background stitch!

And here is a photo of Diane's inspiration to stitch this design-- her daughter's cat, Ramona:

Look at that sweet face, isn't she a beauty? She reminds me so much of my own sweet Pooh Bear, who inspired me to paint the canvas design.  Cats are obviously very good muses!

As always, if you have any EyeCandy of your own to share, please do send me a photo so I can brag about you here! :)  Thanks for looking, see you back soon! 

Another Peeky Kitty Retrospective

While it is not my all time best selling canvas, I think my "Peeky Kitty" canvas must be the most stitched, as I have featured it here on the blog more than any other canvas.  With two new additions to show, I thought it was time for another retrospective.

Here is the newest addition, stitched by Rachel Grossman and finished as a sweet easel back:

So cute!  I love the trim and the background stitch.

Similarly, here is another finished as a hardback ornament, this one from Rittenhouse Needlepoint:

The second newest to the group is this really creative version stitched by Linda of the blog Split the Needles, from a Susan Portra stitch guide:

The addition of a border of beaded fish just blows me away!  Love it!

This is a version that I spotted on my own, "in the wild" at Aristeia Needlepoint, and snapped a photo with my cell phone.  Who says a small canvas can't be made into a lavish bolster pillow?  I love the touch of purple they added to the background too.

Last but certainly not least is possibly my favorite rendition of all, Vicky De Angelis's own version, with super-cute fish background:

There you have them as of today's date.  If you have any you would like to add to this collection, please do send them my way.  I may have to get on the bandwagon and stitch this one myself!   Happy Stitching!

Market Week Miscellany!

Happy New Year!! Hope your holiday season was a great one!  Mine was pretty busy, since in addition to all the holiday activities I have been preparing for the upcoming TNNA market in San Diego, as well as trying to decide on a canvas for the 2014 Stitching Games over on Stitcherie.  Maybe things will slow down a little in February, I hope!

Before I get to that stuff, I have a cute finish to show off.  Linda from the blog "Split the Needles" posted her finished "Fred" recently and it came out super cute!  This is my Peeky Kitty canvas with a lot of creative enhancement by Linda and Susan Portra.  Great work ladies, and thanks for sharing!

Next, this is the canvas I am considering stitching for this year's Stitching Games.  It's one of my own designs, the Witch's Garden Collage.  I anticipate a busy year, so I thought I had better kill two birds and get some model stitching done at the same time!

Lastly, here is a sort-of preview of what will be new in my Winter 2014 collection.  My little "Cardinal Joy" canvas from last winter's collection was a big hit, so I'm adding three companion pieces, "Love", "Merry" and "Bright".  Pop in back here next week to check them out!

Until next time, Happy Stitching!

Friday Finishing!

I went away for a week to visit the Outer Banks area of North Carolina and then came home to a flood of finishing! What a nice treat, I'll have to try that more often! 

Do you recognize my Spring Garden Biscornu, pictured below?  It's amazing how different it looks stitched on a green canvas (rather than the pink I used) and with different threads and buttons.  Jana Bendawald stitched this gorgeous variation using her stash threads and her antique button collection.  Thank you so much for sharing Jana!

Here is the reverse side of Jana's biscornu:

The original design was published in the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of Needlepoint Now, available from your local needlework store or direct from the publisher.

Linda blogged last week about her finish of my Peeky Kitty canvas that she stitched using a Susan Portra stitch guide.  You may remember me posting a photo of this one half-finished just a couple of weeks ago-- I was so excited about it I couldn't wait until it was done!  It was worth the short wait, as I knew it would be, how gorgeous is that fish border??  Be sure to read more about it on Linda's blog, where you will get to see a photo of "Fred", who was the inspiration behind this piece!  Beautiful work Linda, thanks for posting your work!

And in yet another great blog posting from last week, Diane shared her experience with stitching my Fall Tree canvas.  She has posted lots of great detailed photos of her process as well as some great tips on stitching with DMC Memory Thread.  Here is a picture of her stitched canvas, which is now on it's way to the finisher:

Wonderful work, Diane, thanks for "taking the time" to write such a detailed and informative post! Will look forward to seeing this one again post-finishing.

The stitch guide for this canvas also appeared in Needlepoint Now in the Sept/Oct 2010 issue.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you have enjoyed the photos!  Next week I will share some of my new designs for Summer 2013!

A Tale of Two Kitties

It would serve me right if you never read my blog again after making a pun this dreadful, but having two cute kitties to show you today, I just couldn't resist!  

First off, here is my Purr More, Hiss Less canvas, stitched by Ann LaPlante and finished by West Coast Finishing, who always seem to add the cutest little feet-- it's really getting to be their signature I think!  I love that glamorous black ruffle trim too.  Great job stitching Ann, and great job finishing Sue, thanks to you both for sharing your work with me!

I'm showing this one too, even though it is still in progress.  I saw this on the blog "Split the Needles" and was absolutely smitten!   I'm hoping that Linda, the blog author who's stitching this, will see and know that I am cheering her on to finish this one.  The fish border that she is adding to my Peek A Boo Kitty canvas is absolutely inspired.  Talk about adding your own personal touch to a canvas, this one is really her very own now.  I have seen this design stitched several times and I am amazed that so far no two are especially alike.  This one is for sure the most unique so far, so please do be sure to send me photo if you have your own version of this canvas you would like to show off.  

  

Hope you have enjoyed my very punny post today, thanks for stopping by! 

Kitty Retrospective

My Peek A Boo Kitty canvas has had so far nearly as many lives as a real cat!  I thought I would share with you today some of the incarnations of him I have come across so far.

Here he is on the original unstitched canvas:

Here is a wonderful framed version stitched by none other than Vicky De Angelis, with a Brenda Hart stitch guide.  Frame and photo from New Creation Picture Framing.

I was thrilled to see this one on my first visit to Aristeia Needlepoint in California.  What a fantastic bolster pillow!!

Here's a close up-- they stitched him in Fuzzy Stuff and added a jazzy dotted background:

Last but not least, is this sweet and simple hard back ornament.  Finishing and photo from Rittenhouse Needlepoint.  

Hope you enjoyed this little gallery show.  And if you have your own version of Peeky to share, please do send a picture my way and I'll be happy to add it to the collection!  Happy Stitching!