Happy Pre-Valentine's Day!

So, here's my finished valentine for this year, stitched up from the freebie pattern on my website:


I really thought I was going to do a "winter white" valentine on the red canvas. But then I was browsing through a magazine and saw this red and gold cup and saucer.


And I thought, "Ooooooh, wouldn't a gold valentine look scrumptious on that red canvas?"

So, I pulled some red and gold threads and started stitching right away.
And, in my typical tweeky designer way, I made a few modifications to the original graph as I was stitching.

Check out my heart pattern - Version 2 - on my website, if you want to stitch another heart with a slightly different pattern from the first version.



Oh, and if you want to try a PINK version of the valentine, I'll offer you this magazine photo as inspiration!

(Can't you just see a "winter white" valentine on pink canvas, with just a touch of soft pink metallics?!? Oh, YUM, another deliciously fun idea....)

Two Hardanger Valentines

Well, here's another old pattern that hasn't seen the light of day for lo, these many years, called TWO RED VALENTINES:


I like doing Hardanger. It's exciting and rather dangerous.... you know, CUTTING the fabric after you've done a lot of the stitching! Scary stuff, right?
But of course, I can't do Hardanger in ONE color. Nooooooo, I always want to see what it will look like in different colors - or better yet, in a variegated color!
[Aside: Yup, what can I tell you, except I'm afraid I'm totally addicted to variegated threads. Can't. Stop. Using them. Ever.]

So here was my attempt to see if I could make two different "valentines" that were the same size, but with different designs that incorporated 1) Hardanger motifs, 2) blackwork motifs, 3) woven ribbon borders with wrapped roses, 4) two different variegated color palettes, and 5) two distinctly different canvas colors.

One has a more traditional hearts & flowers theme:



Here it is up-close:


The other has a floral theme:


And here's this one close up:


And, if you're interested, both of these designs were worked on 25 ct. Congress Cloth; and each design measures approx. 7.5" by 7.5".

Are Your Hearts All Afire Yet?

Keeping with this week's valentiney heart theme, I thought I'd show you some of my other heart designs. The pattern above is an older one called HEARTS AFIRE. I just wanted to do a bunch of heart shapes floating around like balloons and fill them with different composite stitch patterns. It's kinda silly really, but it was fun, too.

My favorite thing about this design is the lovely Watercolours skein I used: 028 - "Confetti". [Aside: don't you just love the names of all these threads? I think they add a magical allure to each thread, making them even MORE irresistable...] It has a yummy mix of dusty pinks, with pale golds, greens, teals, lavenders...so you can pick and choose the contrasting colors you want to highlight. (Of course, I can't guarantee that current dyelots are the same as the one I used many years ago, but chances are "Confetti" is still a happy mix of mid-range pastel colors.)

Here's an up-close look at part of the pattern:


As you can see in the close-up shot, I also stitched it on eggshell canvas that has gold metallic flecks in it. A good "cheater" canvas, when you don't want to stitch all the background areas.

If you ever get a chance to pick up a piece of this fancy canvas, do so... it makes a great background for ornaments when you leave the background unstitched - because it still looks elegant! (FYI: This metallic canvas also comes in white with silver metallic flecks, and white with opalescent flecks - like snow. It's available in 18 ct. mono canvas, as well as 25 ct. Congress Cloth.)

Just a Little Heart...

Recently, I was reading in Janet Perry's site (NUTS ABOUT NEEDLEPOINT) about her suggestions for different ways of finishing needlepoint projects. I found it particularly timely because I had just finished stitching up the sweet little canvaswork heart (a Barbara Richardson design in the Jan/Feb issue of Needlepoint Now magazine).

Although the magazine model was stitched all in winter whites & golds for a box top, I wanted to stitch it in variegated reds & pinks, so I went thru my stash of home-dyed threads and found a suitable colorway to stitch on pink canvas (just for fun). I envisioned a happy valentiney heart that I could make into a stuffed ornament, that I might hang on a doornob somewhere in the house.

The photo above shows how far I've gotten....I wasn't worrying about how it turned out - I just wanted to experiment with the stitches and threads. I improvised a bit, made a few boo-boos....but I just had fun with it. It's a fun project, with several areas of fun stitch patterns to play with. And I particularly enjoyed stitching the center row of hearts - each one in a different pattern.

Maybe I'll stitch a bit more around the hearts....maybe I won't...but I'm looking forward to turning it into an ornament that I can display all year round.

Thank You, Pierrette & Janet!

I was delightfully surprised to get two emails last week from two different stitchers - Pierrette (Love To Stitch) and Janet (Nuts about Needlepoint) - who had both given me their "You Made My Day" Award. What a lovely treat!

When I decided to start a blogsite last year, my mission was to share my thoughts, ideas, and stitching projects with other stitchers who love stitching as much as I do. And it's truly been wonderful meeting and visiting the large community of stitchers that stretches around the world.

Aren't we fortunate to be able to get a glimpse into the lives of other stitchers; to look out their windows at their view of the world; and to peek over their shoulders at whatever project they are stitching? Although we may never physically meet, we have found a way to become friends with stitchers around the world, who, just like us, are delighted, challenged, and inspired by the whole wide world of stitching.

To all those stitchers who share their love of stitching with the world: I give you ALL my "HEARTS AFIRE" Award (see the above Hearts Afire photo).

May we continue connecting through our common interests; spreading joy and beauty; warming and lighting up the world with our stitching!

A Creative Eye

Most people, when they see a photo like this in a magazine would be looking at the little boy and saying, "Oh, how cute...." When I look at this picture, I'm looking at the patterns on the sweater and saying,"Ooooh, those patterns would really look good in a stitchery design..."

And I actually did keep flipping back in the magazine to look at the sweater in this photo....and it became one of the sources of my next nordic designs: NORDIC VALENTINE. But I wanted to use bright valentine-y colors: red and blue and green. So I found a happy variegated Watercolours thread: "Passion" and began stitching, keeping focused on the hearts/valentine theme, but also incorporating other simple and fun nordic-type borders. And here's the final piece:


I'm thinking I'll turn it into a pillow...so now I need to find some happy fabric that compliments this design....and sew it up!