Friday Flowers: Southern Gardens

 

 

I'm looking forward to watching The Masters in Augusta this weekend.  I'm planning to do a lot of stitching on several in-progress designs while watching this beautiful golfing event....and while I stitch, I just love getting glimpses of the velvety greens, and most especially, the azaleas and dogwoods in full bloom. 

Recently, I showed you my newest flower collage, AZALEA COLLAGE, which is the perfect piece for this weekend:

But I'm also reminded of an old favorite piece of mine called SOUTHERN GARDEN, which I've hung up in my hallway, to enjoy this spring.  I've revamped the pattern, so the charts are now in color (one is a foundation graph, and one is the flower placement graph):

I especially love the wrought iron fence and gate in this piece....I modified some blackwork patterns to fit for the fence and arching arbor... 

...and the masses of flowers - azaleas, dogwoods, camellias, and wisteria - are created with assorted textural stitches (lazy daisy, bullions, french knots).

   Yummy!  This is one way I get to enjoy those favorite spring blooms just a little bit longer...

So if watching The Masters this weekend gets you in a "Southern" mood for stitching some flowers, please browse my "Secret Garden Collection" at my website: www.laurajperindesigns.net.  And Happy Friday!

Need a Little Spring??

"Spring has sprung,

The grass has riz;

I wonder where

Them bunnies is?"

Ooooooh, I've got bunnies.... and chicks.... decorated eggs... spring flowers....

and just in time for Easter, too!

It's my brand new pattern, called SPRINGTIME RIBBONS:

 Boy, is this a fun one to stitch!

Lots of fuzzy little bunnies and chicks.. I mean, how cute is that?

  

I stitched the bunnies and checks with the very soft Bella Lusso merino wool (but you could also use pearl cotton or floss).  And check out those cute little eggs!   Two different styles, but very easy to stitch...

I had a hard time deciding on which spring colors to use in this piece, especially since I used Watercolours 270, "Easter Egg" as the foundation for my palette.  Should I use mostly pinks? blues? lavenders?  Tough to pick a favorite.... so I decided to mix them all into the design for a very colorful spring basket!

Same with the choice of canvas: I could have done it on the pink canvas, the light blue canvas, the lavender canvas, or the sage green canvas, but frankly, I was curious to see what it would look like as a "white-on-white" color scheme, so I went with the eggshell canvas with gold flecks.  This finished model looks just like a yummy Easter cake.  Or like the cover of a big box of Easter chocolates.  In any event, you can choose your favorite color of canvas for this piece and it will look totally YUMMY, whichever color you pick!

And if you like stitching ribbons, like I do, you've got three different ribbons to work up, with three different floral treatments - not hard,at all, just plain fun!  I chose to use a different color on each ribbon, but if you have a favorite springy color, you could certainly do all the ribbons in the same color family.  Just something to consider....

Anyway, if you are craving a pastel treat for a springtime project, please check out my sweet new SPRINGTIME RIBBONS on my website!

A New Flower Collage!

 Springtime comes early in Northern California.  Our daffodils have already bloomed, and the flowering cherry and pear trees have already lost their blossoms and are leafing out this week; even my wisteria is just starting to open its purple flowers.... 

To celebrate the return of spring, I've been working on a new flower collage, since I haven't done one of those in a very long time!  And what better flower to highlight this season than the AZALEA COLLAGE:

I guess I've been craving lots of pinks and greens this month, since many of my projects seem to feature those colors -- (oh, yum, they are my favorite color combination, to tell the truth)...

Here's a look at some of the fun stitching sections up-close:

It's always fun to work on these collages, since you get to stitch swatches of several lovely stitch patterns, plus it's always fun for me to think up new ribbon patterns.  This 9.5" x 9.5" piece is worked up on 18 ct. mono canvas, in the serene Santa Fe Sage Green color.  It uses a skein of Watercolours 55 - "cerise" with a bunch of matching DMC #5 pearl cottons, flosses, a few metallic Ribbon Floss colors, and a variegated ThreadworX floss for the leafy green background.  All in all, a very fun piece to stitch up and it definitely satisfied my craving for lots of luscious pinks and greens!!

If you are looking for a tempting floral design to get you in a springy mood, please visit my website for all the ordering info on this delicious new AZALEA COLLAGE!

Friday Flowers: Pastels

Are you feeling springy yet?

Need some soft pastel flowers to get you in the springtime mood?

 If the flowers in your garden aren't blooming yet, you might want to create your own spring bouquet by stitching up this lovely pastel piece, called SPRINGTIME BOUQUET:

I just love, love, love the soft pastel colors of this design!  It uses a favorite variegated thread of mine - Watercolours 64 - "Pale Lilac" and here I've stitched it up with pink accent colors, but the pattern also provides thread suggestions for periwinkle blue accent colors (if you prefer more blues than pinks!)  It's stitched on a 14" by 14" piece of eggshell 18 ct. canvas, and the finished size is 10.5" by 10.5' -- it would make a fantastic pillow, I'm thinking....

The four central floral blocks are actually blackwork patterns, done with 1 ply of the variegated Watercolours, but the soft pastel colors create such a delicate look!  Here's what they look like up-close:

 

Lacy leaves, a fun ribbon border, and oh yes, ahem, those ARE Wrapped Roses in the corners. Fun to try, if you've never done them...but if they are not your favorite stitch (grin), you could avoid stitching them and just add sweet buttons or even purchase pre-made ribbon roses!

Please skip on over to my website and click on the SAMPLER COLLECTION to find out
how to order this lovely SPRINGTIME BOUQUET pattern.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

March Colors

 I always think of March as a green and purple month...probably has something to do with St. Patrick's Day, I suspect...  Anyway, I was printing up a few of my Celtic designs recently, and thought they would make a good posting for this time of year!

This is the very popular CELTIC KNOTS, in the American Quilt Collection:

 and TRIPLE IRISH CHAIN, another favorite quilt design:

 Here's OZARK TRAIL (although maybe I should rename it "Leprechaun's Trail " with all the dancing greens and purples - grin!):

If you are a blackwork fan, this CELTIC CROSS 2 is a truly stunning piece that is worked on an evenweave fabric (24 ct. Lugana) with just a few threads:

Here's a look at it up-close, so you can see the different blackwork patterns, worked in dark green and gold, with a bit of emerald metallic blending filament:

As you can see, I added a Celtic button in the center, but you can embellish this piece with any type of charm or button you'd like to highlight as the focal point....

If any of these pieces catch your smiling Irish eyes, please jig on over to my website: www.laurajperindesigns.net and order them there!

A New Canvas to Play With!

Don't you just LOVE getting a brand-new canvas, 

and then mounting it on stretcher bars,

 pulling threads for it, deciding what color and stitches go where, 

and then jumping head first into a new project?

Yeah, me too.....

Even when I have a half-dozen (or more) projects underway

and needing some much-needed attention:

Still, sometimes you just have to start something new

(and hope it jump-starts your stitching excitement 

back to the other pieces as well; you know what I mean, don't you?):

This is a new Sandra Gilmore piece called "SHELLSCAPE".  When I received it, I was surprised at how small it was, considering all the detailed objects in the scene -- it's actually 10" x 10.5" on 18 ct. canvas, which is not too large and not too small.  Perfect, in fact!

Before I could even consider stitching, I desperately needed some beachy/seashelly colored threads.  So I ordered an assortment of variegated threads from ThreadworX, and they arrived last week.  Because the canvas was smaller than I imagined, I realized #5 pearl cottons would just be too big or too fat for the piece.  So I ordered lots of variegated #8 pearl and floss threads, hoping to mix and match them as I began stitching.

Woo Hoo! Now the fun begins...

I'm looking forward to starting on this canvas.  I'll begin working from the background forward: doing the window frames (in a variegated driftwood color) and then creating a soothing border (also in driftwood colors), and then have lots of serene tent stitching for the water and sand in the background areas (also in soft variegated threads).  So, stay tuned for my SHELLSCAPE stitching adventure....  

...(and yes, I will be doing a stitch guide for this canvas, but no, I have no idea when it will be finished/available...)

Friday Flowers: a peek at a new collage

 

 

 

Recently, I realized I hadn't done a new flower collage in a very long time, and since I was craving some spring flowers, I decided to start a new collage design.  Here's a sneak peek at what I've been stitchingon this week:

Oooooh, I do love working with pinks and greens! (Are you the same way?) This one has been so fun to create and stitch...

I added the "dotted swiss" background last night; so now I just have to finish up a few bits on the flower, and then sprinkle a few gold beads .... and then I'm done!  (Well, I still have to finish up the graphing and instructions, ahem.)  But I'm hoping to release this new flower collage in the next week or so.

So check back again soon, and you'll be able to see the whole springy - and totally finished - design...
Happy Friday!