Mr. Crow, I am sure you have met many of your adoring fans last week! I am really spending lots of time stitching away on him, much to the chagrin of Raymond Crawford and Needle Deeva who are probably saying at this very moment “and why are not stitching on MY canvas?” patience! patience! creativity can’t be rushed…

I should have told you that in this picture of Mr. Crow that you see here, he it is not stitched yet! Some of the canvas designers will have it finished that way so that you can envision what the piece will look like. Melissa Shirley was kind enough to give me permission to use her picture.

These are the outer wings of Mr. Crow, showing his brocade coat and brick style beading of the pumpkins. Wendy selected for this canvas Mill Hill Magnifica Beads. All I have left to do on this canvas is a fancy stitch for the wings. I am kind of saving that till later. Then as I get the hang of the stitch, which will work up fast, well at least I hope! I will just travel from canvas to canvas.

Now you are probably wondering okay so where’s our lesson? Well I am getting there. If you notice I have beaded up to and around where I will eventually add the black buttons. I probably should have waited for the buttons before I beaded up so close. So what happens if the buttons are too big and I need that space from the beads? Will I have to redo all that beading? The answer is NO!

You can break that bead with a pair of plyers! Do you see the beading needle? Slide that needle into the bead that you don’t want. Not only does that mark the bead that you need to break, it will also keep you from cutting the beading thread and totally defeating what you just tried to achieve. I sure wish that the reverse stitching was as easy as the reverse beading!

My Thanksgiving feast shopping is all done, the wine is chilling and I am looking forward to a wonderful week of stitching! I am not sure if you noticed yesterday’s picture, exactly who was lurking in the background? and until next time…keep on stitching.