BOO, Part Two!

Here is the rest of the Halloween goodies that I started showing you in last week's post!  

Here is "Halloween Night" finished as the coolest pillow ever:

My Witch Hat Scissors Case finished as a stand-up:

My Witch Accessories Biscornu finished as a box top:

And finally two views of my Halloween Humbug:

Hope you all have a fabulous Trick or Treat weekend!! 

Tons of Stitched Models on Display!

I've loaned all of my stitched models to Fancy Stitches and they have them on display all over the shop.  And better still, their fab photographer, web page master (and teacher), Cynthia P.  came in and took pictures, then made a special web page to show them off to all the online customers!  Check it out here.

And here they all are in full size, thanks again to Cynthia! 

Bracelet Series:

Halloween Treats:

Flowers & More:

 Bags for all occasions:

 Tickled Pink ornaments:

 Halloween Treat Bags:

 Pillows:

 Even More Halloween:

And more Tickled Pink:

Christmas Tree Trio:

 Book Covers and an Ice Cream Treat:

Some Halloween goodies:

Thanks for looking, if you happen to be in the central Dallas area, be sure to stop by!

Biscornus and Humbugs, Oh My!

You might recall my series of needlework accessories that were published in Needlepoint Now, the Spring Garden Biscornu, Humbug and Floss Tag.  Here's the biscornu:

Recently, Barbara Evans of the Maryland chapter of ANG sent me photos of finished Humbugs and Biscornus they did as a chapter project:

Aren't these just terrific?  I love seeing different colorways for my designs!

Speaking of different colors, here's another version of the biscornu that I posted a few months back, by Jana Bendawald:

And here is a variation on the floss tag by Elaine Flood, also from a while ago:

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

So Many Models!

The gals over at Fancy Stitches in Cleburne, Texas sure do get a lot of stitching done, and boy, have they stitched a lot of my canvases!  Thanks so much ladies, I was perusing your terrific website and was floored not only by the sheer volume of stitched models you have on display in your shop, but how many I recognized as my own designs.  

This is my Witch's Accessories Biscornu, which they have cleverly finished into a box top instead, complete with the cutest little handle!  

This is my Harvest Puzzle, mounted onto a gorgeous tote bag:

Pumpkin Patch-work finished into a very cute little bag:

These are two of my Seasonal Trees that they did as a shop series a couple years ago, I have pictures of the whole set over on my website.

My Witch Hat Scissors Case finished up as a stand up ornament with cute little feet:

I absolutely love how this shop's very talented stitchers have put their own creative spin on everything, making them even better than the originals!  Thanks so much to the team over at Fancy Stitches, be sure to visit if you can or check out their website.  Keep up the great work over there ladies! 

A Winning Weekend!

I have some real winners to show off to you today!  The first is this gorgeous version of my Spring Garden Thread Keep from the May/June 2013 issue of Needlepoint Now.  Elaine Flood stitched this one with her own choice of canvas and thread colors and I think it definitely wins as my favorite color variation that I've seen so far.   

Front of tag

Back of tag

The colors really "pop" off that gorgeous blue background, don't you think?  Great work, Elaine, and thanks for sharing!

Here's another favorite color variation in this series-- Jana Bendawald stitched this version of the Spring Garden Biscornu on green canvas instead of the original pink and added an antique button from her collection.  I love getting to see these kind of variations on the original work!

This set of my Halloween mini ornaments were all stitched by "First Timers" for the ANG Auction this month in Anaheim.  What great work they did, they all came out so cute!

They were all displayed on this great little tree and ultimately won by lucky bidder Lisa Eddo!  Big Congrats to her and wishing her a very Happy Halloween too!

Thanks for visiting my blog!  I hope to get back to my regular blog schedule now that Labor Day has passed and things get back to normal.  What happened to "the lazy days of summer" anyway?  I find that as of lately, summer is much more busy and hectic than the rest of the year.  Anyway, I hope to have some new stitching of my own to show off next time!  

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!

Gardening Tips

Today I am sharing some extra photos of the Spring Garden Floss Tag, the third project in the set after the Humbug and the Biscornu.  This project appears in the current May/June issue of Needlepoint Now:

In my last post, I shared with you my source for the best way to do Chain Stitch, which is the technique I use for assembling all of the Spring Garden series projects. Here is a photo of the tag in the finishing process with one of the sides joined together:

Here is a photo of the Humbug, illustrating how the Chain stitch border is used to join the edges with Whip stitch, sliding the needle cleanly under the pair of Chain stitches:

This is a really easy way to self-finish small items-- I hope you will give it a try!

Speaking of Needlepoint Now projects, here is a close up photo of Prismatic Quartet, which is available as a reprint now that the original magazine issues it appeared in have sold out.

It was my hope when I designed this piece that it would inspire stitchers to raid their stash and put their own spin on the original design.  I was extremely happy to see this photo in a recent edition of the Needlepoint Now newsletter-- Ruth Wallis stitched her Prismatic Quartet as a Duet, using mostly stash threads and adding her own borders to the outside edges.  I love the result, it came out fantastic, don't you agree?  

Great work Ruth, thanks so much for sharing!  If anyone else out there has any photos of my designs, finished or not, please do send them on to me, I love showing off your work!  

Finally, I'd like to show off my ad in the recent issue of Needlepoint Now, wonderfully put together for me by my distributor, Ruth Schmuff. It features designs from my 2013 collection, Cardinal Joy, Mod Merry and Floral Collage:

That's it for now, next time I'll be back with some peeks at what will be new for Summer 2013!  Thanks for looking and Happy Stitching!

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!

Spring Garden Humbug, Plus a Decision Has Been Made!

The January/February 2013 issue of Needlepoint Now should be arriving in your mailboxes and at your LNS too, so I thought it was high time to share some extra photos of my latest project to be found in this issue.  Spring Garden Humbug pincushion is the companion piece to the Biscornu pincushion from the previous issue.  You will be pleased to see that the Humbug uses all the same materials as the Biscornu, plus just a couple of additional threads and buttons that I think you will like.

Here is the finished Humbug, viewed from the side:

To better orient you as to how this piece is stitched and assembled, here is the piece stitched and flat, prior to finishing:

A Humbug gets its shape from being stitched together along its shorter edge, making a tube, then having each of its ends closed in different directions:

The photo above shows the whip-stitch technique I use for assembly-- the needle is slid cleanly under each pair of chain stitches and the edges are pulled firmly together.  The edge at the bottom of the photo has already been closed, with the far corners folded inwards to meet the center.

In the photo below, the stuffing has been added, and the edge is being closed, this time in a simple fold right down the middle, with the far corners meeting each other:

Here is that same edge from the photo above, closed and finished:

Here is the finished Humbug, viewed from the backside:

And finally, the bottom side:

I hope you will enjoy stitching this piece, and as always, if you have any questions, please do email me here at the blog.  And please do share photos with me of your finished pieces, as this is a very adaptable design and I would love to see how it would look on different canvas, with different threads and buttons too!

Additionally, if you read my last post, you will recall I was trying to decide among five canvases to work on for the Stitching Games over on Stitcherie.  I did finally choose one, after much deliberation-- I'm going with the Patti Paints witch design.  Her corset seems to be the obvious starting point, since January's clue is "shape up", now I just need to get to work.  Meanwhile, we have had loads of stitchers joining in on the fun, with 22 official entries thus far and quite a few of those participants are stitching celebrities in their own right-- Kelly Clark, Sandy Arthur, Sheena James, Janet Perry, Sharon Crescent (of Crescent Colors fame) and Ruth Schmuff-- quite a distinguished group, right?  There is still plenty of room, come on and join us, or just cheer on your favorites-- it's all good!  Hope to see you there!