July's Trunk Show is at Emily's Stitchery!!

Emily's Stitchery in Northbrook, IL is hosting my trunk show in July!  Here is a look at their awesome set of my Hoot Owls, notice those cute little feet and the fun fabric used for the welting!!

A Quartet of Owls and More!

I have been waiting a long time to see these owls from my Hoot Hoot! club come back from West Coast Finishing and they were so worth the wait!  Judy G. used mostly stash threads, so I love to see the variations between these and the original series models. And as always, I just love Sue Parson's finishing! Great work, ladies!

And here is a trio of my designs made up into pillows for your perusal, each has some interesting variations as well. 

This is my Alpine Puzzle, courtesy of Fancy Stitches.  I love that this small 6x6 design has been inset into a much larger pillow, and the color, wow!  The bright had green is a very tiny part of the stitched piece, so I love that that color was chosen for the fabric, really makes it pop!

This is my Floating Hearts design, an 8 x 8 design that has been made into an only slightly larger pillow, and the extremely bright original colors have been greatly toned down, but I really like it!  Good work to the ladies at Gone Stitching!

This amazing transformation of my Lilly Damask design is courtesy of Rita S.  Originally in hot pink and lime green, Rita transformed into a very formal and elegant royal purple and green to better match her home decor.  Love it!

Keep those great finishing photos coming folks, I love to see your creativity!

Judy's Owls

Judy G. has recently finished stitching all six of my Hoot Hoot! owls, using my stitch guides but her own stash threads, and they came out great, like all of Judy's stitching.  I'm so happy to show the whole set off to you here today.  Hopefully sometime soon I'll have more photos, when they come back from the finishers!

Holiday Owl

 Spring Fever Owl

Patriot Owl

Harvest Owl

Winter Snowy Owl

Spooky Owl

Threads on Parade!

The first owl in my Hoot Hoot series, the Spring Fever Owl, shipped out to participating retailers this month, and my distributor, Ruth Schmuff, was pulling the thread kits for the series.  She remarked on the variety of colors and thread types used throughout the series and I kind of wished that I was there to see all of the threads together in one big kit.  I stitched them owl by owl so I never had all the threads out at once. As I referred back to my photocopies I made of the threads I used to refresh my memory (when I am done stitching, I take all the thread and materials I used and put them on my photocopier to make a reference picture for the future, just in case there are ever any questions regarding the stitch guide) and I thought that I should have taken a regular photograph of each thread kit as well.  So I went to the thread stash and pulled the threads again and took these photos.  I think I will do this in the future for other things I stitch.  It will be a nice way to show what you will look forward to working with for each owl and it's a nice little scrapbook project for me! 

Here is the kit for the Spring Fever Owl, those shiny black dots are the big Holographic sequins for her eyes:

                           

Here is the Summer Patriot Owl kit, complete with the sequins for his star-spangled wings:

The Fall Harvest Owl features Swarovski crystal sequins and some wonderful silks and velvets:

The Winter Snowy Owl kit is very pastel so I photographed it against a darker background.  The beads in the tray are the black Delica beads I used for his eyes:

The Spooky Owl Kit has all your traditional Halloween colors, plus some rick rack for fun embellishing:

The Happy Holidays Owl is all vivid greens and pinks plus more Holographic sequins:

                         




If you are a thread-a-holic like I am, I know you enjoyed looking through all these gorgeous threads too.  Just walking into a needlework store that is well stocked with threads makes my mouth start to water and then my pocketbook start to hurt!  But I have never regretted any purchase, even when I have ended up buying duplicates of threads I already have as there is nothing like having plenty of stash at home and finding just the thread you happen to "need" for your project in the convenience of your own house!  Hopefully, those of you in the Owl Club will enjoy these new additions to your thread collection.  Until next time, Happy Stitching!

Winter's Snowy Owl from the Hoot Owl Series

The pastel shades, fuzzy textures and the sparkle and shine of the Winter season were the style inspiration for the Snowy Owl. I picked through my stash for my iciest colors as well as five different shades of white in both metallics and furry textures. I think the end result is both frosty and cuddly!This detail of his wing shows a combination of Sparkle Rays, Wisper, Kreinik and beads, worked in a laid filling technique.
Another fun thread that gives a great subtle sparkle is Flair. I used a whole card of it for his eye rings, stitched in Loopy Basketweave. His pupils glisten with Delica beads worked in Basketweave Beading.
His beak glistens in a pastel orange shade of Water N' Ice. I placed two Sprat's Head stitches side by side for the shape.
Here he is all finished and ready to take flight on silken wings.
Hope you are enjoying these early peeks at the Hoot Owl series that begins next month with participating retailers. Spring Owl will be next owl profiled, please stay tuned!