New Frame

I just wanted to share my new frame canvas that I painted this afternoon. It has red poppies and butterfilies on a pale green background and a place for a monogram at the top. I think it makes a lovely frame for a 3 x 5 photo, hope you like it too.

Progress

I got a bit worked on my Skating Santa last night as I sat in front of the TV and enjoyed my favorite drivel. We have Netflicks so I can rent all kinds of great shows from the BBC. They have so much better stuff over there I don't know why we can't have better quality shows here.

Anyway back to my stitching. Last night I worked on his red tunic. Since all the parts are red I picked out two shades of Splendor, #S911, the lighter bright Christmas red and #S820, a darker crimson red. The sleeves are worked in Nobuko with the slant running from lower left up to the right and the larger area is also in Nobuko but I rotated the canvas so that the slant is going the opposite direction. Not clever or original but effective. Hopefully I'll finish the red tonight and perhaps his black pants. Can't have Santa running around without his pants finished! I'm still considering how I will work his beard, ponder, ponder, ponder.

New Project

I was expecting the weather this weekend to be less than wonderful. With that in mind I selected another project to stitch. I picked one of the four simple Christmas designs I had. All four are in the 5 x 7 inch size which makes them a quick stitch. They all have a central figure with plenty of background space to try out a great darning pattern. I've stitched up #99, Santa With Star and even have a stitch guide available. The one I'm working on now is #101, Skating Santa. Our weekend weather turned out to be beautiful so I didn't get much done. I did make a run into Houston to visit one of my favorite shops, The Needle House, owned by Nancy Laux. They have a wonderful selection of threads, books and canvases and all the staff are incredibly helpful.

As you can see from the photo above all I got stitched was the background. The thread I used was a green Gold Rush 18, #GD33C. I worked the background in a darning pattern of Christmas trees. I should get a bit more done today as the promised rains have arrived. I plan on finishing this piece as a small stand up although all four would look nice finished as styro boxes or pillows. One shop in Austin, The Needle Works, finished #102, Rudolf as a stand up but added a music box inside, and of course the song was Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. I love the idea and if anyone knows where I can order a music box for my piece I'd love to hear.

The last of the four designs is #100, Penguin with Tree. You can see larger pictures and get design details on my website: http://happyheartdesigns.com/

Picture Frame

Well today was a very blustery day as Winnie the Pooh would say. We were under a tornado alert yesterday and had horrible rain, thunder and wind. This morning the wind was still here but at least it blew the clouds out. It's beautiful out now but way too cold for this Texas girl to venture forth. Instead I put my time to good use and I don't mean I did any housecleaning.

I stayed in my warm and toasty studio and painted a new design. I've been wanting to do some picture frames. I had one design finished and another one nearly so. I'm thinking this would make a beautiful Mother's Day gift for some lucky mom, perhaps even my own.

One Day Spring, The Next Day Christmas

Although we had another beautiful spring day, I found Christmas in my mailbox. At long last my Christmas Wreath was home. For a before view see #164 Winter Wreath on my website.

Janet Perry of Napa Needlepoint stitched this piece for me. We went back and forth several times trying to find just the right shades of red, green and gold threads to use. After seeing the stitched piece I can say that it all turned out perfectly. A big thanks to Janet for all the hours she spent stitching. The next step is to have it finished. Just this afternoon I was talking with Summer Truswell about my ideas for finishing. I wish I could say that I've been as industrious with the wreath I'm stitching. I'm working, and have been for a while, on the wreath that is featured on the first page of my websites new flip book. That wreath, #121, Spring Wreath features two white bunnies with pink daylillies and other greenery. It will be beautiful whenever I get it finished, all I need is a clone.

March Starts Me To Thinking Of Spring

March is my favorite month. First and foremost it's my birthday month, but it also means spring is around the corner. To celebrate the coming of spring my husband has added a new flip book to my website. It's filled with my favorite bunnies. He actually tried to teach me how to make one of these but it was a total joke. I finally gave up and bribed him with a batch of homemade rice krispie treats. Take a look: http://www.happyheartdesigns.com/ I hope you enjoy looking through the book.

The picture above features three of my favorite stitched pieces. On the right is Easter Time, #74. This is a design from my Two of Us Collection. The base was made by Sharon Hall of Mountain Shadow Studio. http://www.mtnshadow.com/ The piece in the middle is #75, Spring Equinox. I painted a small clay pot for the base, then filled it with moss and placed plastic Easter eggs on top. It's easy enough for anyone to do. The piece on the left is Happy Spring, # 167. Janet Perry of Napa Needlepoint http://www.napaneedlepoint.com/ did the stitching for me and made a stitch guide as well. I think she did an excellent job. I bought all the pieces for the base at my local hobby shop. I had my husband drill a slanted hole in the egg and then we used a screw to attach the wooden egg shape to the small base. After that I just painted it in bright cheery colors to match. And Viola.

Mardi Gras Heart, Stitched

Sunday night I sat up and finished stitching the Mardi Gras heart. The hearts are small enough that as a project they aren't overwhelming. This one is a special request from a shop owner.

I had outlined the eye holes and the edges of the mask with a wrapped-back stitch using the DMC floss the shop requested (yellow, #444). I wanted the mask to have some sparkle so I used Petite Sparkle Rays in a matching yellow to fill in. The next step was to stitch the feathers. Here again I used the requested colors of DMC floss, green #700 and purple, #333. The purple ribbon is stitch in two shades of Fyre Werks and the stick holding the mask is done in a padded satin stitch using the yellow DMC. After the mask was stitched I added the 'bling'. The center jewel is a large green sequin with a Mill Hill Crystal Treasures bead in the center. Then a row of emerald green Sundance beads was added along the bottom of the mask. My main problem was the background. I originally thought to make it a soft white but after stitching a small area it just seemed so blah. I tried several other colors and variations and finally settled on a bright lime green shade of Splendor. (#S1105) The background is stitched in a cashmere stitch. I plan to have it finished with a purple silk fabric on the back and a twisted braid trim using all three of the Mardi Gras colors.

While working on this piece I researched the colors of Mardi Gras. I found out that the Krewe of Rex first introduced this particular scheme in 1872 but the meaning of each color wasn't revealed until twenty years later. Purple represented justice, green was symbolic of faith and gold represented power.