Swimming Into Summer!

 

The Finishing Line

Although the wait times at the finishers is still pretty long, lots of stuff is making it back and I have some really good ones to show off!

My Pirate Mermaid stitched by Sandy T.  Fabulous!!!

My Floating Hearts stitched by Lana B.  Great stitches!

"Let's Stitch!"-- this is from a class at Family Arts Needlework, who is currently hosting my Trunk Show:

Some Great New Stitches!

People have been busy stitching bees this summer so far, here are some great stitches of my canvases, soon to be on their way to the finishers:

Paula B. stitched this fabulous rendition of Pirate Mermaid, doesn't it look great?

Andrea A. completed her CandyLand Christmas so quickly I could hardly believe my eyes!  Love the background stitches on this one!

Barb W. gets a ton of stitching done while she travels, she just completed one of the designs from my Stitch a Falling Star club:

I'm sneaking in a stitched and finished one too, this is one of my Thistle Hill ornaments stitched by Ann T.:

And Now, Off to Austin!

Just back from the Needlepoint Nation Retreat in Nashville, and now I am off to the Lake Houston Chapter ANG Retreat in Austin!  We are being hosted by The Needle Works, so we will have a wonderful classroom to stitch in plus an amazing needlepoint shop to spoil us.  

I'll have some pictures to show when I get back, but in the meantime, please enjoy these photos of my Pirate Mermaid, stitched by Catherine Stroup.  Didn't she do a great job?  From the stitching all the way to picking the perfect frame, great work Catherine, thanks for sharing your photos!

Stitchy Stuff

I realized it's been a while since I updated you on the Stitching Games over on Stitcherie.  Last month's clue was "Cheese",  so I stitched in my the face and hair on my canvas, with the story that my Little Witch (canvas by Patty Paints) was getting ready for picture day at Spell School.  Making up the stories that go along with these clues add so much fun to the actual stitching-- go check out the discussion group over on Stitcherie to see what I mean, our participants have really come up with some entertaining yarns (no pun intended!)

Next up is a fabulous stitch of my Pirate Mermaid by Andrea K of Stitch by Stitch in Larchmont, New York.  Great work, love the beads!  Be sure to check out the shop blog to see more! 

And lastly, here is a stitched and in the finishing process Garden Party Heart by Jeannine Bartnicki of BeStitched Needlepoint in Scottsdale, Arizona.  She has Carolyn Hedge Baird of the Chaparral in Houston choosing ribbons from the shop's extensive ribbon selection for the finisher to use when fabricating this into a pillow.  I cannot wait to see it when it comes back!

Hope you've enjoyed looking, I'll be back by the weekend with more from Crazy Patch Boo-nanza!

Kit N' Kaboodle!

Someone shopping for stitchy Christmas gifts asked me the other day if I had any kits, looking for a ready-to-go gift for a needlepointer friend.  (I need to get on this person's gift list!)  It got me to thinking about all the designs that I know have guides/kits at the ready and I realized there are quite a few aside from the ones that were club pieces or class pieces.  Ruth Schmuff, my distributor, has been really busy lately writing stitch guides and kitting designs.  These are the EyeCandy designs she's done just recently, but really, ANY canvas you ask for can be stitch guided and kitted for you-- Ruth's Bedecked and Beadazzled is a full-service shop and then some! 

If you are looking for something in season, her most recent EyeCandy guide and kit is Holiday Star:

If you are already thinking ahead to next Fall, HalloweenVille Forest will be available soon-- Ruth is stitching away on this one now and will have a fabulous model to show off soon! 

Look at the fabulous, glittery goodies she pulled together for the Pirate Mermaid!

The Sleeping Beauty design is not just for little girls and Fairy Tale fans,  I know one stitcher who is making it up as a wedding gift-- how sweet is that!

And that's not all, folks!  Ruth and her staff will put something together for you for the canvas of your choice, (many times with matching accessories if you so desire!)  Hoping your holidays are happy, see you next time!  

A Mermaid for Monday

Ruth Schmuff has been exceptionally busy lately-- she has new stitch guides for not one but two of my canvases.  The Pirate Mermaid is the latest and I am so eager to see the stitched model with all that bling.  And talk about happy coincidences, I didn't know about Swarovski's new neon fuchsia and orange pearls when I painted this mermaid's necklace, but what a perfect choice they are to create it!  

(I'm pretty certain that mermaids would wear pearls!)

As you can see here, that's only some of the fun in the kit-- there are also baubles, boucle', leather, sequins, gold and silk:

 

It was only a week or so ago that Ruth debuted the Stars N'Stripes stitch guide, but look how much progress my friend Judy F. has already made on it!  Talk about a fast stitcher, this is one of several projects that she worked on over the July 4th weekend.  She used Ruth's stitch guide plus added some of her own touches as well:

Can't wait to see the rest!  (Knowing Judy, we won't have to wait long!) Hope you all had a fantastic weekend with lots of stitching as well!

A Couple of Characters!

Here is the latest incarnation of Sammy, this one belongs to  Palma the Super Stitcher (as we all think of her over on Stitcherie!)  I like her sky very much, it's very dynamic.  She explained that she used a technique she learned from Ruth Schmuff where you concentrate a stitch in one area and make it more sparse in others.  This definitely makes for an interesting background that has a little movement as well.  Her addition of the kite button got all the other Challengers on the phone ordering kite buttons for themselves, myself included!  Such a nice touch!

That's one character, now let me introduce you to the other.  Last week you met my Pirate Mermaid, this week I give you my Lone Star Witch!  Hailing from Texas, my cowgirl sorceress has a holster for her magic wand, a tall black hat (yes, Stetson makes witch hats) and of course her big silver state of Texas belt buckle!  Big red boots, a bat bolo tie and her cute little pet armadillo complete her look.  I hope you like her, she will make her public debut in time for this June's TNNA needlepoint market.  Until then, happy stitching!

Spring and Summer Preview

I shipped the last of three boxes of new canvas designs to my distributor, Ruth Schmuff, this week, just in the nick of time for the upcoming TNNA trade show this June. These shows are only twice a year, but do they ever seem to come up fast when painting deadlines are looming. It feels like only yesterday that I was rushing to be ready for the show this past January in Phoenix!

I've broadened the scope of my line this season; in fact, I will need to add a whole new category to my EyeCandy web page to accommodate my new designs! I will probably call the new category "Fantasy" as so far it will contain both Fairy Tales as well as fantastical beings like my Pirate Mermaid:

Hope you like her! I plan on painting her a sister or two for the next trade show. In the meantime, I have to figure out rules for my new canvas category, since I have a Pirate Owl too. He resides in the "Nature" category with the other owls, but perhaps he should move to Fantasy as well. On the other hand, since nothing in needlepoint really has to make sense, I have a lot of canvases that perhaps qualify as Fantasy-- cats in hats anyone?? Such a dilemma!

Well, at least scissor fobs are easier to categorize-- they are tools, and fun ones at that! Back in November 2011, I sent Ruth's shop, Bedecked and Beadazzled, a big batch of fobs in time for Christmas shopping season. I sent the kitty ones below and the mixed batch below it:

In the box I sent this week, I included about a dozen new fobs, a couple each of the styles seen below. Hopefully, they will fit the bill for Mother's Day presents which is coming up fast next month. The photos here really don't do them justice as I don't seem to be able to photograph jewelry very well. Suffice it to say, they are in the EyeCandy style, very bright colors and extremely sparkly-- I add crystals and rhinestones to every one! With all the blingy needle magnets out there, I figure the scissor fob needs to match!

Hope you have enjoyed this peek at new arrivals and soon-to-be-released designs. I'll post the rest of my new canvases here in June, which will arrive before you know it! In the meantime, Happy Stitching!