Friday Flowers: Azaleas

Azaleas!  It's all about the azaleas this weekend of The Masters in Augusta!

I've been busy running errands, plus printing and mailing lots of my new 

SPRINGTIME WREATH pattern this week.... all in hopes of clearing my desk

and looking forward to a Masters Marathon, watching tv and stitching this weekend. 

But seeing those luscious pink flowers reminded me to pull out my AZALEA COLLAGE
and hang it in my hallway, to enjoy my stitched version of these elegant flowers.

 

Well, YUM,,, Love, love, love these springy pinks and greens!

What better way to enjoy these bright blooms than to stitch them so they never fade;

that's my way of thinking, anyway.

 

But for one of this weekend's projects, I'm gonna finish up my small "R is for Rabbit" piece,

from Prairie Schooler's Alphabet (oooh, and it's got  more pink & green, imagine that):

 

 

I'm stitching this 4" x 6" cross-stitch design on eggshell 18 ct. mono canvas, using 

4 ply of DMC floss in plain ol' Tent Stitch.  Easy peasy, really, and something

I find very tranquil to do in-between other large, complex projects.

I'm almost done.... so I'll certainly be hopping over to another project in my stack.

 

HAPPY FRIDAY, STITCHERS and

hope you have a restful and stitchful weekend, too!

 

Stops and Starts

I thought I'd post a picture of the latest Prairie Schooler "12 Days of Christmas" Santa I finished last week. It's the "seven swans a singing" square and I thoroughly enjoyed stitching the swans in this one:

I think it's going to be the last one I work on for a while. Time for the Santas to go back in the Christmas vault, while I pull out a few half-started new designs for 2012...

The first one I'm focusing on is something I'm calling ACE OF DIAMONDS, because it's got lots of diamond motifs thruout the piece. And it's worked in what I consider my "January colors" -- icy blues, teals, and purples (I'm using Watercolours 192 - "Elderberry Wine"  - one of my favs, because it's so incredibly deep and rich and has such a good spectrum of colors to play with)...

There is a lot of icy blue and purple metallic in this piece, but the scanned image just doesn't pick it up. Sigh. Believe me, this is a sparkly, spangly piece with plenty of fun zig zag rows and all sorts of diamonds to whip up....

After working thruout the holiday season on lots of basketweave stitching, it's pleasant to return to some satisfying geometric work again.  So tonight I'm going to be very cozy in my evening stitching station, watching tv and getting back into the groove of my January blues stitchin' mood! ...

And oh yeah, so long, all you santas... I'll be seeing you again next winter!

Marching Right Along

I mentioned in my last Prairie Schooler posting that I was hoping to get the next row of Santas done in the "12 Days of Christmas" series. Well, TA DA - I met my goal and finished the row this week! And here it is (please ignore the scanner blip):

It was so fun to work on the parrots (for the "four calling birds") because it called for bright green and turquoise, for a change!

Then it was also fun to do the "six geese a-laying" with Canada Geese - one of my favorite birds!

But really, the "five golden rings" block was a total blast to stitch! The PS designer who thought up the golden hoops idea was totally brilliant, don't you think? And after stitching the little black dog, I decided to personalize it a bit to make it look like my half-pointer dog, Katie. I delicately added a bit of white on the dog's legs, neck and belly (to suggest Katie's feathery legs and tummy) so now it looks like this:

It tickles me no end to look at it, since it suits her playful personality -- she's ALWAYS ready to play fetch with just about anything, and I know this is JUST the way she'd greet Santa! Anyway, I've started the next row of Santas, but I'm not sure if I'm going to have the focus to continue much further....

It's time to get back to a whole bunch of new projects I'm designing for spring. They're hanging on my grid-wall, half-started and ready to pick up again and finish.... Sigh, I may have to leave the ol' Santa project for next Christmas to get finished.... but you never know -- ho, ho, ho!

A Little Post-Holiday Stitching

After the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I'm usually still in a Christmasy mood and want to keep working in those cheerful red and green colors. So as a relief from working on larger pieces, I decided to to whip out a few Prairie Schooler ornaments - just for fun...


I stitched all of these designs with plain ol' DMC floss on 18 ct. mono canvas, so that made stitching them up all the quicker!


And I have to say, the fact that they stitched up so fast (it took me 1-2 days for each of them, under no kind of time or stitching pressure) was an additional delight. As any stitcher knows, instant stitching gratification is ALWAYS a welcome treat!

And while I love all these ornaments, I must confess that this one is my very favorite:


I'll worry about making their rustic twig frames later... for now, I'll just go back to finding something else that's fast and fun to stitch!

It's a Start!

Remember that PRAIRIE SCHOOLER alphabet project I showed you a while back?

Well, I'm happy to report that I have two more letters finished: H and I.


My mini-goal for this past weekend was to get the I IS FOR INDIAN CORN finished in time for Thanksgiving next week. And I'm pleased to report that I met my goal:


As you can see from the up-close photo, I "cheated" a bit by stitching the corn leaves in long straight stitches. I wanted to get them done quickly and thought they'd look okay for the corn stalks. Hey, it works for me!

I was so happy to have the Indian finished, because that means I can start on the next three letters: D, E and F, on the left side of the same row.

Is there anything more fun than starting a new project? Which is why it occured to me while I was finishing the Indian, that this alphabet project is the perfect project for someone like me who is always struggling with a severe case of "STARTITIS" ... (and for those stitchers who have the same disease, you can certainly relate, can't you?!?)

Within this large alphabet layout, I can approach the start of each letter/block as a separate project ... how fun is that?

Soooo, I've gotta run now -- I'm off to start F IS FOR FRIEND, and can't wait to begin an exciting new block for my growing collection of alphabet letters.....

Still Stitching....

Here's another "FUN" project I've been working on as the mood hits (and my eyes aren't too tired). It's The Prairie Schooler's set of alphabet letters.


The leaflets show these designs stitched individually on 18 ct. fabric, but I'm stitching them en masse, and on 24 ct. Congress Cloth. As the photo above shows, this project requires a really long set of scroll bars. In order to figure out the size of the overall piece, I calculated the size of each design on 24 ct. canvas, then cut pieces of paper to fit. Then I rearranged the paper pieces until I had a suitable arrangement for all of the alphabet letters.

I decided to have A, B, and C centered on the top row, and then there will be four more rows of six blocks - to make 27 blocks in all (the patterns have all 26 alphabet letters plus one extra block.) I forget the overall dimensions of my layout, but it's gonna be BIG. But I figure it will be a truly fantastic piece to see when it's done. And I really am enjoying working on each letter block at a time. Each letter has so many witty details, it's fun to look at while stitching.

Here are my B and C blocks up-close:


The stitch I'm mainly using is the plain ol' Tent Stitch - or Basketweave Stitch when I have the room. But as I stitch, if I can substitute other easy stitches, I do. Check out the little red house on the B block; and the satin stitched leaves on the C block; and also the itty bitty french knot trees in the C block. Nothing too stressful or difficult, but just a change here and there to add interest and dimension to the piece (not to mention speeding up the stitching time).

I was happy to get the G for Garden block done while the work on my yard was underway - it's one of my favorite blocks in the series:


Now.....on to the rest of the alphabet!

Santa Time!

Well, it's that time of year again.... when snowflakes are falling and stitchers are frantically stitching to finish their projects by the holiday deadline.

I've been stitching up a few small Prairie Schooler santas that I'll be giving as gifts (the ones shown at the top).

And then (as time permits) I've been pulling out various Christmas canvases and stitching a bit on each one, to get back into the Christmas Stitching Spirit.

Here's a Santa I'm working just for myself - it's a Pat Thode Santa that I showed you quite a while ago....


It was one of those (many) projects that I stitched just so far then set aside when I got bored with it. I picked it up again last week and decided to push on through to (finally) finish it. In a spurt of energy I added all the finishing touches - the ribbon on the wreath, the pull string and button wheels on the sheep, bells on the boots, etc... and then I decided it needed a different kind of background.

I tried a bit of the vertical lines of snowflakes. Nope, too faint.
I then tried some pale vertical stripes - like wallpaper - but it looked like Santa was in jail. An upscale shabby chic jail, but still, not the look I was going for.

Then, as luck would have it, I was in the midst of printing a batch of my BLACKWORK PATTERNS book and as I was collating the pages, a thought flickered thru my brain - why not try a blackwork pattern for the background? Oooooh, that was intriguing....
so I stopped and picked out a pattern to try on ol' Santa. Here's how it turned out:


I think I like it. It's so different... maybe it's too distracting, but still, I like it. I used one ply of a pale seafoam green DMC floss (which the scanner goobered up a bit) and the ecru snowflakes are done with a soft Hi-lights thread.

But, you know, I really do like it. At the very least, when I look at it now, I'll be reminded to use more blackwork patterns in my future pieces.

So......Ho, Ho, Ho, cross this one off the list..... and on to the next!

My Autumn Blessing

For brightly feathered pheasants


And wild turkeys strutting through piney forests


For brisk walks with a four-legged companion through crunching leaves,

But most importantly, time for stitching new autumn projects... Oh, joy!

(These are my latest finishes from the Prairie Schooler "FALL FIELDS."
I've stitched them on 24 ct. Congress Cloth using a simple Basketweave Stitch, squared them up a bit to fit in a small frame, run a quick backstitched outline, and used a few quick long stitch embellishments to add a little texture.)

Hope you enjoy a cozy November weekend!

Just a Little Nuts

I'm a big fan of PRAIRIE SCHOOLER designs. I love just about every single design they've published, and as you might guess, have quite a few of their patterns. (I'm guessing you have a lot of them, too!)

Recently, I needed a small portable project to take in my project bag. I chose the latest fall series from PRAIRIE SCHOOLER, called "Fall Fields".


And per my love of all things miniature, I decided to work them on lt. caramel 24 ct. Congress Cloth so they would fit in the lovely little frames I have with small 2" x 2" openings. Here's the first one I've finished - the squirrel:


As you might have noticed by comparing with the leaflet above, the original pattern is rectangular in size, but my frame opening was square. So I thought I'd slightly enlarge the stitched area by adding more nuts in the lower left corner, to make it more squareish in appearance. I also added a simple backstitched outline around the image, to take up more of the frame space and give it a faux matted look.

Now that I have the squirrel done, I've started on the pheasant. These little designs are so fast and easy to work up, I'll probably do most (if not all) of them this fall. And I was pleasantly surprised to see that it only took two afternoons to finish the squirrel and also start on the pheasant.

And no, I'm not stitching these in full cross stitches. I prefer to use half cross stitches (or Tent or Basketweave Stitches) with 2 ply of DMC floss when I work on the finer 24 ct. Congress Cloth. It works up much faster than regular cross stitch, and I especially enjoy the quick results.

I really can't wait to get more of these little gems stitched... I'm definitely planning on having a turkey for Thanksgiving!

Prairie Santas

Well, now I've also got to show you some of my Prairie Schooler santas I've stitched over the years. They are among my favorite patterns to stitch; they have a limited thread palette and use simple stitches, yet the designs are rather elegant in their simplicity.

Just like a lot of you, I have a nice stash of these little santa patterns. And I love to take them out and shuffle thru them. I never have enough time to get them all stitched, but hey, hope springs eternal, doesn't it? I figure I'll get them all stitched EVENTUALLY.....

And as you can see, I like to stitch them on the brown 18 ct. mono canvas, using 3-4 ply of DMC floss. I use the old Tent or Basketweave Stitch, instead of cross stitches, so I can whip these out a little faster...

And I like the brown background showing thru... it looks rustic and old-fashioned to me...

And this year I decided to get the whole series of Prairie Schooler's 12 Days of Christmas designs(see the first one, below) because I just loved the simple images. I've only worked a few of them, but again, they're fun to stitch because the thread and color palette is limited and easy to stitch up.

Again, I'm stitching all of these with the basic Tent Stitch or Basketweave Stitch, instead of cross stitches...and I'm using sandstone canvas instead of brown.


Although, in this series I've decided to add a few other simple needlepoint stitches to add some extra dimension to them (see the pears? and Santa's pants?)...plus I've added gold beads on Santa's coat, just to add a little more sparkle. It's fun to embellish a cross stitch design with very simple needlepoint stitches...and there are so many easy ones to choose from. Give it a try!

I've been working these designs on little pieces of canvas, but it occurs to me now -how am I going to finish all of them? I originally bought the pattern thinking I would only stitch a few of the santas...but now I want to stitch them ALL. Maybe I should stitch the whole 12 Days of Christmas on one big piece of canvas, so they're all together. Ooohhh, wouldn't THAT would be something to see! Hmmmmm.....I'll have to give that some more thought!

A Prairie Wind

Here's another favorite PRAIRIE SCHOOLER design that I stitched up on 18 ct. Davosa fabric, using itty bitty cross stitches. I love to hang up this design when autumn arrives and the leaves are turning colors.

And those squirrels! I've stitched these squirrels with fuzzy tails - using Rainbow Gallery's Whisper - just to give it a little bit of fun texture.

Speaking of squirrels, my wire-haired pointer Katie loves to chase squirrels. We have a few that live in the oak and cedar trees around my house and she dashes out every morning to check if she can surprise a squirrel nibbling nuts on the front lawn. She's come real close a time or two, but the squirrels always manage to high-tail it up the tree and Katie is left leaping and howling underneath in frustration.

Last Sunday Katie and I were taking our morning walk around the town of Healdsburg, and I spied a squirrel in the tree-lined street far in front of us. It had something very large and furry in its mouth. As we approached (and Katie hadn't seen it yet) I realized the squirrel had one of its large babies in its mouth and seemed to be moving it across the street and up into some other trees.

I stopped far enough away to give it time to move across the street. It had to stop every couple of feet to rest with this big, furry, limp baby in its mouth. I squinted to make sure the baby squirrel was alive - its tail twitched every so often, so I guess it was used to being carried like that... Anyway, it continued travelling bit by bit, up the nearest tree, over onto a roof, then across to a group of trees, presumably to another nest.

As they disappeared into the leafy canopy, Katie and I began to walk again...and I hoped the squirrels had found a safe and happy new home for the approaching winter months.