Back At the Beach (again)...

I promised you a look at my finished new canvas (and the resulting stitch guide)....

          so here it is -- SHELLSCAPE, by Sandra Gilmore:

This was soooo fun to work on; and very different from the stuff I usually stitch!

There are lots of areas that need to be done in Tent/Basketweave Stitch, but I truly

enjoyed the simplicity of those sections.  Although I did jazz it up a bit

by using lots of "blended needle" work -- mixing thread types or colors, to add

subtle depth and texture to the large flat areas like the dunes, sea, and clouds....

And I used a LOT of variegated threads -- for the sea, sand, borders, shells, coral  -- 

well, almost everything!  Even the table ledge with its enlarged blackwork pattern is done 

with a "driftwood" looking variegated #8 pearl cotton by ThreadworX.

And you can see that most of the items are slightly padded as well.  I was surprised how fun 

the conch shell was to pad and stitch; if you look closely you can see that I used 

two variegated peachy threads for the outer conch shell - the lighter one on the top half,

 and the slightly darker one on the lower half:

I left the big white flowers for last, and I'm very glad I did.  Barbara Elmore, a designer 

who I consider to be the Queen of Embellishment, was kind enough to send me a sample

of a new ribbon she is marketing (through Sundance Designs) called RETRO RIBBON.

She suggested I give it a try for my floppy flowers -- and 

she was soooo right -- it was perfect!!

The 5/8" wide couture ribbon really mimicked the crinkly petals of a mantilla poppy; 

and I very carefully flattened, twisted or poofed each petal in place, before tacking them 

down with small couching stitches.  The ribbon also has a slightly transparent texture, 

so the yellow painted canvas showed through enough to create an interesting effect 

as well...  I was so impressed with the finished look of the flowers, that I asked Barbara 

to send me a bit of green RETRO RIBBON to add a few dimensional leaves!

So if you want to celebrate the end of a lovely summer

or perhaps you just love a good beach canvas,

please contact your local stitchery store to get this SHELLSCAPE 

canvas and stitch guide from FLEUR DE PARIS.

You can also order just the stitch guide from my website....

HAPPY END OF SUMMER, STITCHERS!