Wouldn’t this just be the cremé de la cremé for your holiday decorating? These were quite the showstopper at Dallas! I can only dream that I would have the time to stitch these…one of these, let alone all 3!

These are designed and stitched by Jane Eidman. Her canvas line is known by the name of Fiori.

Dream House Ventures is her distributor. You know, gets her name out there by exhibiting for her at shows, showing her canvases on their website and just making sure that you see these beautiful works of art!

Dream House Ventures is also known for canvases By Georg! and Elements just to name a few of them. You might recognize their thread lines Pure Palette, Soy Luster and Baroque Silk.

These are beautiful, aren’t they? You can see some cloesups of the work in progress on Joan’s blog Needlepoint Design by Joan Eidman

Just in case you are thinking about doing some stash enhancement with these beautiful canvases, there is a stitch guide for them!

Let’s see what were the feline children up to yesterday while I spent the day stitching and watching baseball? Well they both disappeared into the deepest recesses of the house as I didn’t see hide not hair of them for hours! Well until I opened the refrig late afternoon for a piece of cheese. It’s amazing how fast that I saw the white of their eyes… and heard their little meows of feed me! feed me!

After I filled their tummies, AlleyCat did grace me with her presence! and until next time…keep on stitching

The magic that my framers worked with the latest piece that I dropped off to be framed is just purr~fect! Nancy of New Creations Picture Framing was kind enough to share a picture on Facebook since it is a 2 hour drive for me. Didn’t this come out wonderful?

I swear I select the most color challenging pallette that is out there with my choice of canavses and threads. Thank you for having the patience to go through just about every single possible color combination that you had in the shop and just nothing was working. I mean nothing! I was getting very discouraged…

Until they pulled out a box of these Lucite tiles. This is it! You make several selections and the piece is sent out and a frame is created according to your choices.

I have to thank Ruth Schmuff of Bedecked and Beadazzled for finding this framing for her Pear Collage mystery class…and the rest is history!

As Ruth describes it, you pick the pattern color, the background color and design, even the lip color and it is molded as a single piece. Amazing engineering indeed!

I will take you backwards in time…this was piece all finished and ready for the framers… or did I want a bag? or did I want it framed?

Selecting the background stitch with the help of Meredith at The Blue Bonnet Stitching Studio earlier this year.

The stitch charted out as I had so many people ask me, what stitch is that?

The canvas before I started stitching. Peacock Alley was kind enough to send me a magnet along with my canvas. One can never have too many magnets?

Sylvester I believe was sticking out his tongue at me as he was saying I am keeping your spot warm. and until next time…keep on stitching

Buddha…how old are you? yes I know that it is very impolite to ask your age….

Lotus lanterns have been hung in preparation for Buddha’s birthday in Seoul, Korea. Buddha’s birthday was actually yesterday.

A man prays under lotus lanterns that have been tagged with prayer petitions in a Buddhist temple in South Korea.

This canvas is a Sandra Gilmore design. The words have been beaded and next I will work on the lotus flower, which too will be all beaded. The rest of the canvas will just have some light stitching… that is when I am able to get back to this as it has been moved down to about 6th in the stitching order.

Even Mooch and Earl are in the Buddha state of mind…

I did spend my day yesterday between charting for the July/August issue of Needlepoint Now and stitching on the Alice Peterson bicycle. Got to watch allot of wonderful baseball too. I really lost myself in the charting and asked Elizabeth is something was wrong with me? I was enjoying working on the charting so much and drawing the stitches instead of stitching. Okay no more work this weekend, only stitching! and for me at times my stitching is work, but fun work!

and here is my Buddha kitty sitting in a box that is way too small for her! but she does look cute. and until next time…keep on stitching

Really it is! I kid you not! Today is the national ride your bike to work day. These days I don’t have far enough to ride my bike to work, but I love the idea. It is a great way to exercise, diminish the traffic and a way to help the environment by diminishing the emissions.

This new canvas by Alice Peterson was quite the hit at the Dallas Market! Even though I have already showed you this canvas…it is so wonderful that I am using it again. I am anxiously awaiting my canvas as I have put this on my must need to stitch sometime in this lifetime list. There was another new bicycle too and as soon as I have it in my hot little hands, I will share it with you too…but my picture of it was not ready for prime time publication!

So instead I am stitching on this one! canvas by Alice Peterson. I swear I think I have every teal, aqua, fuchsia, red/pink thread and bead out of my stash and strewn about in my stitching area…and I bought several new threads too. I was convinced that Kreinik 024 Fuchsia was the color, but there really is more red in it, but yet not a true red, so I am going to try 421 Azalea. You know it is scary when you talk in Kreinik numbers! I have Silk Lame´ Braid to try, the new Sulky Holoshimmer and ooh so much more.

This will get all of my stitching attention this weekend as I am getting this ready for a very special date! A date to teach this bicycle at the Enriched Stitch in the latter part of July along with the Trick or Treat piece of Raymond Crawford’s.

Another great bicycle to ride to work would be this wonderful one by Melissa Shirley Designs. I love this…now just change that canvas to a little black kitty in the basket and I would stitch this in a heart beat!

AlleyCat was the great escape artist and looks like she was just craving the sun, so I let her be for a moment or two. By the time I came back to the front door…guess who was waiting for me?

Such a silly girl! and until next time…keep on stitching

I’ve been up for a few hours already since my “silly cat” as Joanne C calls Sylvester, woke me up at 5AM! He just wouldn’t take no for an answer that it was way too early for his breakfast. What am I to do with him? Now he is back to sleep and I am wide awake and raring to go!

So what does me being up for hours already have to do with this canvas? Well honestly, absolutely nothing at all. Most days I know what I am going to blog about, and sometimes I have the entire week planned out, pictures are cropped, framed and ready to go….but for today I really didn’t have a clue. No ideas, no thoughts, but I still do have allot of pictures yet to share with you from the Dallas Market.

Have you seen this canvas designer? Annie Lane is her name and her work is just wonderful! I love the big areas and the simplicity of the designs. There are a limited number of colors in each canvas…but oh what you could do with these canvases with stitches and thread selections. Check out the May/June issue of Needlepoint Now and look at the ad on page 66 with more pictures of their designs.

Look at some of the canvas names…they are so clever!

I discovered these designs at the Dallas Market and instantly fell in love with them! As I would say I am leaving…”ooh just one more picture, please. I need to get a picture of this one, that one” I think you get the idea. So many pictures that I will have more to share with you yet.

The very first canvas that you saw of the great screen door did come home with me. I have it on bars and look at it often as I gather ideas in my mind how to stitch it.

Sylvester, move over as I think I too am ready for a little cat nap! and until next time…keep on stitching

You know him as Raymond Crawford…well to me he is just Raymond! and I say it just like that too. Have you seen his newly redesigned website lately? Rumor has it that Raymond laid out the artwork and then his talented webmaster Laura Z (or is webmistress?) made it happen.

This was the beginning of the thread selection for this awesome Trick or Treat piece that Raymond designed. Rainbow Gallery sent me a great selection of Halloween Threads. I was hoping that this little spider would work into the piece after it was stitched…but it was really too big!

More threads were then purchased, threads taken out of my stash and I went through all sorts of books for inspiration. Sometimes it is just sitting down and trying out the stitch with the thread to see if it works or not.

I tried Sparkles from Sundance, Wonder Ribbon from The Collection, even bought a piece of tuille and it all looked amazing in my mind, but when I actually got down to it…it didn’t look so good on the canvas.

So when all is said and done, and the stitch guide is written this will be a class at the TNNA Summer Market in Columbus on Friday June 21rst and Saturday June 22nd. They liked it so much that it is being offered twice. The threads are all ordered, well except for a little bit  of pearl cotton that you will need for padding.  I will just buy a few skeins from my favorite needlepoint shop for cut lengths.

There’s lots of Kreinik and Sundance beads in assorted shapes and sizes, Delica beads too. Pepper Pot silk, Rainbow threads, Glow in the Dark Threads and Crescent Colors overdyed floss. It was a very fun piece to stitch!

And if you are not a market going person, I will be teaching this at The Enriched Stitch in the latter part of July.

ooh and don’t forget this little spider! pick one from the pair in the color you would like from black, fuchsia and chartreuse.

and it seems that Sylvester had his eye on the big spider! and until next time…keep on stitching

Mooch and Earl are joining me to wish you very Happy Mother’s Day! Somebody shared this wonderful comic strip with me years ago and it was love at first sight. I haven’t missed a day of reading it since.

Now you wonder how I know it is AlleyCat who loves my purple felted cat and thinks it is her own? Well I almost caught her red handed…or should I say red pawed?

Usually I will say to the kids “what do you think you are doing?” and they know instantly that they shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing or be where I just caught them. I let AC slide a bit as I wanted to get a picture first. But after the picture, she knew that it was time to move on as she talked back to me. What’s a mother to do?

and Sylvester was just waking from a cat nap. Tough life these kids!

I am thinking about going out for a very early breakfast as it is a beautiful morning here. The kids have not yet selected a new orchid for me for Mother’s Day yet…maybe a little retail therapy?

Happy Mother’s Day and until next time…keep on stitching

If you are a fan of the shop Bedecked and Beadazzled…and who isn’t? and have been following the mystery class on line of Bastet, the Egyptian Cat Goddess… you know that Ruth finished hers and declared yesterday National Bastet Day!

It is such a wonderful feeling when you put that last stitch in and can declare “I am finally finished!” well I am not finished yet…very close though. Just the beaded collar, the background and a little around the lotus flowers is left to stitch and then I will be finished too!

If you look at parts of this canvas and then look at Ruth’s and say hmmm…it looks different. Well, I have made a few changes. I believe that a stitch guide is just that. It is to guide you through your stitching journey and if you make a few changes along the way, that is totally okay. It needs to sing to you and make your heart skip a beat. That is something that I always say when I am teaching too. My biggest compliment that you love it, is that you finish it! and I will finish this soon and frame it. Well maybe I will wait and see how Ruth’s frames hers first though!

Many shots of my progress as I move along and not necessarily in any order. Can I tell you how much I am loving stitching on this canvas? love! love! love! did I say love? and based on the size of it, I have done very little reverse stitching.

Just a little trial and error with the purple in the lotus flowers and now I am being challenged with the last 2 stitches in the Jessica’s that will create the circles at the top of these same lotus flowers. A Swarovski crystal will then be placed within the Jessica. I will need to do some U-tube searches as I am sure that there is a video or 2 out there that will show me exactly how to!

I started working on the jeweled collar the other night and I am pleased with how it is coming out so far. I am thinking that the yellow in the amulet will be changed to a gold bead and…

Sylvester was right in the middle of all the goings on the other night. The million dollar question I had was “who would win, the threads or the cat?” and “would the box of threads wind up on the floor?”

Well I finally moved the threads as Sylvester kept sleeping so very soundly. Notice his tongue! and until next time…keep on stitching

and isn’t that the truth? as much as I love travelling and seeing new shops, taking classes, sightseeing and all that goes with that…there really is no place like home!

Destination Dallas’ theme this year was “There’s No Business Like Sew Business” Ooh did you really think that I had nothing left to share with you? Shudder the thought! Some of the designers really get into the mood and cleverly decorate their rooms to the theme of the show. This was the door way to the room of The Point of It All Designs and Hyla’s High Cotton. Hyla outdid herself!

Speaking of High Cotton…look at all these wonderful colors! and, and this amazing Point of It All Design called “Nouveau Heron” that is being stitched by Sue Haines. Stitch selection by Brenda Hart.

Speaking of Sue Haines, she was kind enough to model her darling apron for us! I have known Sue for along time and we haven’t had a chance to visit and gab for years. We sure made up for lost time!

Wonderful new designs by Sandra Gilmore of Once in a Blue Moon. This would be wonderful in a child’s room and the latter one is designed to be a footstool.

I love this one…bead the letters and look for a wonderful background pattern and you’re done! This canvas is by Unique New Zealand. Too clever, isn’t it?

The kids were keeping me company on the couch last night as I was stitching away. Great baseball and great stitching! I am sad to say that I need to take a break from stitching on Bastet, my Egyptian Cat Goddess for awhile. A few new projects for stitch guides and a wonderful new piece that you will soon see in Needlepoint Now in the July/August issue have moved to the front of the queue. There are 4 of us now that will be stitching it together as the stitch guide evolves for the magazine, well we will actually be ahead of it all. You know, work out all the kinks and make sure that it is just purr~fect for you!

Time for me to get to work! and until next time…keep on stitching