New Design To Share

In between changing my garden over from winter to spring/summer I've been working on a new design. This is a piece that will look perfect in my daughters bedroom. Well that is IF you could see her bed! Neat she is not, which is odd considering I'm such a neat freak. Anyway the colors are hot pinks for the letters "L-O-V-E" and then three shades of green for the leopard print. It's called Wild Love. I painted it on 13 count canvas and the design measures 12 x 12 inches in size. It's the perfect size for a pillow if only she had room on her bed. Hope you like it as much as she did.

Getting Ready to Stitch

I've just started working on my St. Claire piece. I haven't finished much, just the face and a bit of the white around her face. Then I realized that I didn't have the treads in my stash that were just the right shade.....can you believe it? We all have a stash box or in my case a rather embarrassingly large basket. The idea that I wouldn't have every know thread and in every color was inconceivable, but there you have it. Well there was nothing to do but make yet another trip to the nearby thread shop. It's a very nice cross stitch shop and the owner does keep a good selection of threads. More importantly it keeps me from driving all the way into big, bad Houston. I do hate the Houston traffic. As you can see from the picture I picked up some Splendor, Impressions, Sparkle Rays and a small skein of Kreinik. Hopefully this will do the trick and I'll get some stitching done this weekend. It's hard to say though, our weather has been absolutely perfect for gardening....and I do love to garden

Patron Saint of Needleworkers

I didn't even know there was one until Judy Harper, http://www.elegantwhimsies.com/ ,

told me about her. It seems we have our own "gardian angel" to watch over us, help us make the right thread/stitch choices and to give us some much needed patience. Meet Saint Claire: Patron Saint of Needleworkers. I'm hoping she will help designers as they rack their brains to come up with new designs, travel to and from trade shows, deal with shop owners and send off stitched models to be finished. I know I can use all the help I can get. This lovely, serene lady is holding a small, golden monstrace, which is all part of her story. She is only 2.5 x 5.5 inches in size and painted on 18 count canvas. I plan to stitch mine up as a small stand up so that I can place her on the shelf above my work table. From there she can survey my studio, keeping me and all my project under her protection.

PS: Be sure to visit Judy's new website. Great job Judy, all those hours of hair pulling have really paid off!