Take Me Home, Country Roads...

Do you like creating samplers with many different types of stitches?
Do you like stitching houses?
Do you delight in miniature landscapes?
Do you enjoy the blue/green/gold colors of summer?
....Then you'll definitely enjoy stitching my new COUNTRY ROADS piece!

It's stitched on 24 ct. Congress Cloth, so it has a finer, more detailed look to it, with a finished size of 9.5" x 11.25".  This patchwork quilt of fields and pastures is built around the variegated silk Waterlilies 257, "Spearmint" and I pulled out a varied palette of greens and golds to give it the look of a lush, summery day in the country.  Here's a detail photo of the buildings:
 

Here's a peek of my favorite section, with poplar trees, tiny grazing horses and a red tractor (psst: if you prefer cows, I've included a cow graph, too):

Very fun, but very fine work; nothing too taxing, except the fiddly counting of the border lines and boxes! I used 12-ply silk Splendor for this piece, but I also give DMC floss recommendations on the pattern.  Although I wanted the miniature look of Congress Cloth for this piece, it could be stitched on 18 ct. canvas, but you'd need a bigger cut of canvas (do the math from the design count).... And I can only guestimate how much more thread you'd need - at least double the listed amounts, since you'd be moving up from 2-3 ply on 24 ct. Congress Cloth to 3-4 ply on 18 ct. canvas.

Anyway, if you have a hankerin' to create your own small piece of country, please mosey on over to my website and see all the particulars on this new COUNTRY ROAD design! 

Is Your House Decorated for Halloween?

Time to gather the pumpkins....

Decorate your entry....

Stock up on your favorite candy..... and get ready for the spookiest holiday of the year!

Pssst:  That's my HARVEST MOON HOUSE, stitched last year and still a favorite with counted canvas stitchers!

Harvest Moon House

 
Woo Hoo! I got my HARVEST MOON HOUSE finished in time to offer it in October!

 And yes, it's got the required pumpkins, black crows, owl, chrysanthemums, full moon, curling chimney smoke, and of course, the mysterious black cat sitting on the left porch:

Here's the right side of the porch:

I know it looks overwhelming to stitch, but really, you start with the front door (an easy geometric) and then count outwards from there (over to the porch pillars, then over to the shutters, up to the roof eaves, then add the roof peak) and before you know it you have the foundation of the house underway.  After that, you can easily place all the other objects in this piece, and enjoy creating your house bit by bit.

I've chosen a bunch of ThreadworX Overdyed Floss for this design, along with a handful of Splendor silks (although I also give DMC floss colors).

I like this house because I can display it throughout the whole autumn season, until it's time to switch out the fall stuff with the Christmas decorations!

So if you're interested to building your own Harvest Moon House, please visit my website and see more information about it there.

My Little House

After seeing this pattern on SPINSTER STITCHER'S blog a few weeks ago, I was totally smitten and had to track down the pattern and then stitch it up as fast as I could. (It's "Needlework Shop" by Country Cottage Needleworks.)

I stitched my version on 24 ct. Congress Cloth - light green - with 2 ply of DMC floss and a few variegated threads. Since I actually live in a pale green house with lots of pink flowers around it - and I sit in the front bay window and stitch - it was definitely something I just had to stitch!

(Oh, and of course I changed the text to "I Love Needlework" - which also seemed more appropriate to my little house...)

Anyway, here's a close-up of part of the design and my stitch switcheroos:


To speed up the stitching process, I used a half-cross stitch thruout (instead of a full cross stitch). Then I snuck in various canvaswork stitches, wherever possible, to make the stitching go faster. Like diagonal satin stitching the roof, the steps and the clapboard house; satin stitching all the little leaves; substituting an elongated tied cross for the shutters; whipping up little improvised flowerpots; and using a variegated thread for the brick foundation.

I pass these little substitution ideas on to you, in case you'd like to try your own versions of these sweet little cross stitch patterns. After all, we all know how many wonderful patterns and projects there are out there for us to stitch, and the faster we learn how to stitch them, the MORE projects we can finish! WOO HOO! ON TO THE NEXT!!

Stitchers, BEWARE!

Thank you, Blog Readers, for you kind comments about my newly-finished HOUSE AT CROW CORNERS. To answer your questions:

~ The whimsical painted canvas comes from Dream House Ventures (Vickie Hastings, designer). The finished size is approximately 7" by 8" on 18 ct. canvas.

~ As many of you may relate to, I was so focused on COMPLETING the piece, I didn't really give much thought to HOW I was going finish it once the stitching was done.

~ As Coni suggested, it certainly would make a cute stand-up project...if I wanted to do all that work. Nope. I decided to frame it - my usual fast and easy finishing technique. (I cut mat board to fit the piece, then lace it up in both directions using long pieces of #5 pearl cotton.)

[And here's My Secret Finishing Tip #1: Periodically, I check my local discount stores for frames. I especially look for square frames, but often times you can get good long narrow frames too...I ignore the image, the matting and the glass...and just look for interesting frames. If they're on sale because the glass is cracked, so much the better. I don't put my stitchery behind glass. Now I have quite a stash of frames, so I went looking for a dark frame to fit this house, and lo and behold, I had the perfect dark frame with bronze accents.]

(Okay, stitchers, are you sitting down?!? This is going to shock you, so BEWARE of what comes next!!...)

[My Secret Finishing Tip #2: Occasionally, when I don't want to stitch a background on a canvas, I'll color it with colored pencils. Yes, you heard right - I use colored pencils. I can hear your collective gasp out there....Yup. Colored. Pencils. Scribbled. Directly. On. The. Canvas. (Quick! Grab your smelling salts, ladies!)]

Here's my process: Sometimes, I'll color right up against the stitched image - like a santa, for instance - and then fade out to the borders. Yes, you have to be really careful not to brush up against the stitching. But once you get over the shock of coloring on the canvas, you get a little braver, and that's when I start overlaying different colors.

In the photo above, I used greens, oranges and golds, starting softly and then building up pressure and darkness around the outer edges. I was aiming for a spooky forest look, and I think it does look like an illustration in a storybook. You can smear the pencil colors with your fingers, or a bit of rag to soften/blur the colors. And then I went back over in bolder marks to increase the look of scratchy scribble lines. Above, you can just see some orange, gold, and green lines in the shadowy areas.

And yes, I do sort of hold my breath while doing this because I don't want to get carried away and end up with a muddy mess. But at some point, as I'm carefully scribbling away, I say to myself, " oh, well, in for a dime, in for a dollar" and just go to it. Worse case scenario: if I hate it, I can cut a close mat for it and cover most of it. (And, before you ask: I don't use any fixatives, but I don't rub my fingers all over it, either. And I don't expect these pieces to be sent to any museum or last for two hundred years, so I really don't worry about the wearability of this coloring process. These fun pieces are for my enjoyment only and I don't expect them to last forever....)

So there..... now you know some of my most PRIVATE and SHOCKING finishing secrets. Do with them what you will....if you are brave enough to give them a try....ha, ha, ha...

The House at Crow Corner

Here's a canvas I purchased last autumn. I saw it at my local needlework shop, REGAL RABBIT, and immediately fell in love with it. (I JUST LOVE HOUSES - of practically any kind or color - and find them impossible to resist. sigh.)

I started stitching on it last year, but you know how, sometimes, when you reach a certain area of a painted canvas and you can't figure out what to do, it stops you in your tracks and you lose your stitching momentum? So you set the canvas aside, start stitching something else, and consequently, forget all about it until you pull it out later and decide to tackle the problem area? (Can you RELATE to that? hmmm??)

Well, that's what happened to me. I was going along, happily stitching the variegated clapboards, and tent stitching all the cute stained-glass windows...when I got to the roof area and just....STOPPED. The roof areas were so small, they couldn't handle large overlapping shingle patterns, or even offset cashmeres....So I put the canvas away and forgot about it.

Until THIS year, when I pulled it out again and determined to finish it by October.

Sooo, I had to figure out what to do with the roof. I settled on tent stitching the background, but first placing little random scotch stitches. It gives enough of a discreet pattern to suggest a patched roof, without overwhelming the little house.
(Actually, it kinda looks like the roof has lots of warts, doesn't it?) But I'm pleased with it. And also pleased that it got me over the hateful HUMP and allowed me to continue stitching on the rest of it.

And check out the two-broom garage! Isn't that a hoot?

And of course, once I had all the stitching done, I had to figure out how to deal with the little colored "dots" that were sprinkled in the sky - were they supposed to be falling leaves, or pieces of candy (my preference)? Anyway, beads were the answer - in muted autumn leaf colors. So I went to a bead store in Santa Rosa and found some great beads! But THEN, to put on the falling beads, I needed totally invisible thread, right? So I rummaged around in my old sewing stuff and pulled out some invisible quilting thread and used that. Perfect!

Well, I'm pleased with everything: the roof, the beads that suddenly look like piles of leaves, the crows and even the smoke swirls coming out of the chimneys (I added that, so it looks like someone is home. I also added a black cat charm.) And, best of all, I got it finished it plenty of time to display for October! Woo Hoo!

Town House For Sale

I've recently finished stitching up my latest counted canvas quilt design; it's called TOWN HOUSE. (It provides a totally different look and layout from my earlier COUNTRY CABIN design.)

I was inspired to create a monochomatic quilt pattern after I visited my sister, who has been working on putting together a house quilt using all red and white fabrics. I thought to myself, "Hey, I should try that with thread!" So I came home, pulled out some monochromatic variegated threads, and after doodling around with house blocks, came up with this design.

I couldn't decide which color to focus on: red, blue, green or purple. But blue won out this time. (But on the pattern, I include the thread choices for the other color options as well.)

And I have to admit: it was really hard to stick with the monochromatic blue. I really, really wanted to stitch with a variegated thread that had other colors, but I resisted - I so seldom stay in one color, I thought it would make a good stitching challenge for me. For extra fun, I used lots of a soft blue, metallic Ribbon Floss in the border areas (it matches the lightest blue pearl cotton, so it's hard to see in the photo, but in the flesh, the piece has a nice shimmery sheen to it). And I COULD have used a very pale blue for the background as well, but decided to play it safe and use ecru instead. (But I do list the pale blue color on the pattern, if anyone wanted to use it for the background color.)


I designed two different house blocks; one house has shutters and one house has two chimneys. And the striped and checkered border worked up so fast and fun, that it truly was a pleasure to stitch. All in all, this pattern was really a fun one to work on. So, if you're interested in it, check my website in a few days....I'll be posting it for sale sometime soon.

(FYI: I still think this would be tremendously fun to stitch in other variegated colors...or, hey - how 'bout every house being a different color? Anyway, I definitely think this pattern has lots of potential for stitchers who like to create their own color combinations! ...And I sure think this would make a darn cute pillow top, too!)