October's Here

 The days are shorter, the nights are colder.... Leaves are falling, and it's time to put out the pumpkins!
As far as seasonal decorating goes, I like having autumn pieces around my house that can be enjoyed before and after the Halloween holiday, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite with you....

PUMPKIN HARVEST, which is a small piece (about 4" x 10") of plain ol' Tent Stitch done on 18 ct. brown canvas.  You also get to choose from several stitched sayings (Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, and  Celebrate the Bounty of the Season).  You can find this in my "Secret Garden Collection".

RUSTY O'TOOLE is basically a sampler piece with LOTS of different fall elements.  Besides stitching a happy scarecrow, you get to make pumpkins, Indian corn, sunflowers and crows!  You can find Rusty in the "Sampler Collection".

And then there's HARVEST MOON HOUSE, which I have hanging in my entryway, so I can see it coming and going around the house!  Love, love, love the bright spill of pumpkins that glow across this rustic cabin's porch.... You can find this piece in the "Secret Garden Collection" if you scroll down on the left sidebar.

And I can't forget the Sandra Gilmore painted canvas I stitched last year, and created a stitch guide for, called FALL SPLENDOR.   This is a BIG piece, and fortunately, I didn't have to stitch the whole background area - just the muted gold leaf pattern, while leaving the brown canvas unstitched.  And boy, am I glad I can hang it in my house and enjoy it now!

Anyway, I hope this has inspired you to get out stitched projects for fall decorations... and maybe try a new project or two.... HAPPY FALL STITCHING, EVERYONE!

Celebrate the Bounty

Here are more of my designs that share the colors and feel of the Autumn season. 

(They are all available at my website,  in the Sampler Collection and Impressionist Collection,

if you are interested.)

 Anway, I love designing things that can be displayed for longer times during the year; so 

I've amassed quite a collection by now....

Rusty O'Toole

Prairie Star

 Long Autumn Panel

 Red Poppy Collage

 Turning Leaves

My latest stitched painted canvas, Fall Splendor

and last but not least, Pumpkin Harvest 

 

Have a lovely Thankgiving weekend, and I hope you manage to sneak in a bit of stitching, too!

Fall Splendor

Well, here it is.... my largest finished painted canvas piece to date, FALL SPLENDOR by Sandra Gilmore.

It's been painted on the darker sandstone canvas, so it has a lovely aged parchment look to it; and with the "zig zag" border I designed for this piece, it measures 15" x 15".  Here's a peek at the variegated outer border:

What the photo doesn't really show you is that the entire floral pattern in the background is worked in simple Tent Stitch, using a glitzy Kreinik #8 Braid (6 spools, to be exact!), while the rest of the sandstone canvas is left unstitched.  Then for the leaves, I wanted something very simple (to show off all the colors) and decided to use long Straight Stitches.  Surprisingly fast, fun and non-stressful (well, if you don't count concentrating on keeping the long stitches flat, smooth and untwisted), it really was a joy to stitch all the different types of leaves in 5 ply of Splendor silks.

As this big leaf photo shows, just by changing the stitch directions in certain areas of the leaves, you can create surprising color changes, because the light hits the stitches in different ways....

Those red berries and fat acorns are padded and stitched with a shiny rayon ribbon, just to provide additional texture and surprise to the piece. (The padded elements are a bit smushed in the photos, since they're smack up against the scanner bed, but trust me, they are nice and poofy in real life.)

This canvas was an absolute joy to stitch, and I plan to enjoy looking at it all autumn long.

If you are hankering for an elegant fall piece, please contact your favorite stitchery store so they can order you both the FALL SPLENDOR painted canvas and stitch guide from my friends at FLEUR DE PARIS.  The stitch guide is also available on my website. 

HAPPY FALL FRIDAY!

My Current Fall Project

After finishing Sandra Gilmore's OLIVER last month, I was eager to get back to work on this very large piece (another Sandra Gilmore beauty) called FALL SPLENDOR.  It is such an elegant piece that I have been enjoying working on it every night while I watch (ahem, listen) to tv....

Whew!  It's a large piece - 15" x 15" with my added border work - but the sandstone background isn't solidly stitched, so only the gold floral work needs to be done, which I'm doing in plain old Tent Stitch with a Kreinik #8 Braid. I'm making progress, one leaf at a time...

It's rather restful, doing lots of tent stitching with metallic thread; then switching over to long Straight Stitches for the leaves. I've never done any of those old "longpoint" kits that Dimensions used to sell, but I've certainly enjoyed creating my long-stitched leaves, using 5 ply of Splendor silks. It's a simple but effective way to showcase all the luscious fall colors in this piece.

I've already padded the acorns, but still have to finish the red berries at the bottom -- they'll be padded too, with a shiny rayon ribbon, I think.

Anyway, I'm hoping to have this finished shortly (one leaf and five berries to go, woo hoo!), and then I should have the FALL SPLENDOR stitch guide done and mailed off to Fleur de Paris in the next week or so.  Stay tuned for further stitching adventures!
HAPPY FALL FRIDAY!!

More Fall Favorites

After I stitched a few fall quilt designs, I decided to broaden my approach and do some sampler-type designs that would be appropriate for displaying for a longer time in the fall,  and didn't depend on Halloween elements for their continued enjoyment.  They range from traditional designs to more

abstract or impressionistic pieces....

Here are some of my all-time favorites:   PUMPKIN HARVEST (which is basically a cross-stitch graph that is stitched on the plain brown 18 ct. canvas -- simple but elegant) 

RUSTY O'TOOLE 

 

 

AMBER WAVES

        

PRAIRIE STAR

 

and TURNING LEAVES

As the days and nights get cooler, it's delicious to stitch with these warm, rich colors, plus working lots of elegant patterns is another fun way to transition into the season of long dark nights -- now we'll have lots more time for stitching at the end of the day!

Fall Color

Over the years I've designed many pieces for the autumn season. 

 The first ones were quilts, such as FALLING LEAVES,

  

 CHEROKEE STAR,

 

MAPLE LEAF,

  

INDIAN AUTUMN, 

   

 and FOUR WINDS

 They are all built around traditional quilt blocks that stitch up fairly quickly and easily, and provide an excuse to play with lots of rich reds and golds and greens in a satisfying geometric design.  So if you're looking for an autumn design that is fun to work while sitting in the evenings watching tv, 

these fall quilts are just the thing!!

Colors of the Harvest

Instead of my usual Friday Flowers, I wanted to share with you some of the spectacular vineyard colors that are carpeting the hills of Northern Sonoma County this autumn. Literally in every direction that you look around here you see all these amazing fall colors, as the wineries in the area gather up their grapes and are now in the midst of their "crush" season...

Cloverdale is at the northern-most edge of Somona County, and just a little way up Hwy 101 you cross into Mendocino County, where there are vineyards, too:



In the hills above Cloverdale, I've been fascinated by the vineyards that, seen from a distance, remind me of pieces of variegated corderoy:



I stopped along a Cloverdale road this week and took these photos, starting up close and then panning outwards to the larger panorama...






And here's a view looking southeast, towards what I think is Geyser Peak (since Geyser Peak Winery is just below it along the highway in Geyserville).


And would you believe that after a day of taking shots of golds and oranges and reds, the evening sky decided to give the vineyards a little competition by ending the day with this blood-red sunset:


May your weekend be filled with dazzling Fall colors - wherever you live!

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.