A New Summery Piece!

Are you having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend?  I hope you all are...

And to celebrate the unofficial beginning of summer, I've just finished a new design that is really, really summery -- and I call it "EBB TIDE" because it has such a beachy feel to it.  Here's what it looks like:

 I absolutely adore the Watercolours thread I built this design around (241 - "Shenandoah).  I've been eager to use this color thread for a project and this one is a perfect fit!   Because "Shenandoah" has a delicious watery turquoise paired with bits of white (think cloud whisps or the foam of ocean waves), and a smidgeon of sage green (waving dune grasses).  I then added some soft gold metallics that move throughout the piece like shimmering beach sand.

I picked out a handful of very fun stitches to use in this piece.... And because it's a geometric piece with symmetrical borders and sections, you know in advance that whatever you stitch once, you'll have to repeat three more times, in the other sections.  But I thought, "Hey, wait a minute... let's make it a bit more fun... why not create two slightly different border patterns, so they LOOK alike, but are actually stitched differently?"  So that's what I did... and I thoroughly enjoyed stitching the zig zag borders (in the north & south rows) and the wavy borders (in the east & west rows).  Here's a peek at the two different sides to give you some idea of how it looks:

And check out the fun corner blocks!  A simple Rhodes Diamond is surrounded by long diagonal stitches, then framed by some simple Jessica curves, with the remaining background sections worked in an alternating tent stitch with the fine Kreinik #8 gold metallic.  I love how those curves soften the hard edges of the corner boxes, and echo the gold circles in the rest of the design.

Also, a basic four-way stitch is used in the center block area (you can see it in the lower left of the photo above) and is embellished with two types of gold metallic thread. AND instead of stitching the same pattern in all four sections, I've decided to create TWO slightly different versions that you alternate, to make it a wee bit more fun to stitch.

As for the gold metallic circles that are the focal point of the piece, when I stitched them and left the centers uncovered, they looked a bit like sand dollars or round sea urchins.  But having found a terrific source of dazzling Swarovski crystals, I was itching to use them and decided to finish off the design with a few well-placed crystals -- and they are included with the pattern!

So if you want to kick off your summer fun with a new stitching project, please visit my website for more information on ordering the new EBB TIDE.... and enjoy the rest of your long weekend!