It’s finished! and in plenty of time to take it along to the Spring Needlework Market in Dallas next month. I really enjoyed working on this so very much. Beading, French Knots and basketweave…just a few of my favorite things.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to stitch a very special background on this canvas.  What’s good for dogs? woof, woof? fire hydrants? bones? Well I searched through 3 books that I knew had a dog bone pattern in it. I liked this one the best that was part of our stitch book that was given in our classes with the Fabulous Four last year at the ANG seminar in Philadelphia. Thank you Beth, Suzanne, Tony and Meredith! I amd sure that it was meant to be a darning pattern…but since I like to be different, I stitched each one individually. It was fun stitching it! well until I tried to travel through the letters that is and that was another story.

My little Wendy H. touch… as I remember her teaching me “give ’em what they don’t expect!” is the Mother of Pearl heart. I first tried a Swarovski crystal heart in both red and clear, but this one is it. I just need to attach it yet to the canvas!

So if you gotta have this canvas, just contact your LNS~Local Needlepoint Shop or FNS~Favorite Needlepoint Shop and tell them it’s the Keep Calm and Love Dogs canvas by Unique New Zealand. I will need to check with them to see about the stitch guide. It is short and sweet!

Now that my stitching is ready for Dallas, I took Bastet out and ceremoniously unstitched most of what I had done. I have left a few areas of stitching that I like and unless Ruth does something that is an OMG! that is amazing moment…that will be my touch. Our special magnet is on the canvas

and here is our snap tray which sits on my stitching table and holds the packets of threads just waiting for me to pick them up and get started. I will start with the cat of course and not sure if I want to do the beading while in my stitchy chair or if I should sit at a table.

Okay we talked about the dogs, then the cats, so where’s the bird? I had so much fun stitching the Pumpkin Bird for NeedleDeeva, that I thought I would just start on another one!

I bought more feathers, so I am good to go!

and who knows, I might even get to this one too! After all I have about a month yet and that is a whole lot of stitching time.

You know I have to thank my sister for picking this purr~fect fabric for my quilt. Why do I say that? well look at how beautifully it matches the cats! and until next time…keep on stitching