My first love is painted canvas…but you know every once in awhile a special piece of charted work comes along that speaks to me! This is one of them….

I need to say that these stitched pieces were done by Tony Minieri and not moi!

Design by the Fab Four of Suzanne Howren, Tony Minieri, Beth Robertson and Meredith Willett for your stitching enjoyment. I will share parts of their introduction of these charts with you now…

Picture it! It was a lazy afternoon down on the creek and the 4 friends were sitting around after an intense 3-day session of painted canvas interpretation. After a few glasses of wine, one of the tall ones (I think it was the one from Kentucky) saw the stack of unused graph paper and suggested “Why don’t we have some fun and design some 4 step stitch patterns round robin style?” The others agreed that it would be fun. Well it was, especially for the short one from New Jersey!

The exercise started slowly and soon gained momentum and before you could say “laying tool” there were 24 patterns designed and then the other tall one said “these are great patterns, but what should we do with them?” The guy from NJ said “lets turn them into 2 counted designs using a crazy quilt format.” All agreed and Creek Music and St. Leonard’s Dance were born. The combined pair is known as “Just a Few Stitches among Friends” because after all that is what they are.

Suzanne, Beth, Tony and Meredith hope that you will enjoy stitching these designs as much as they did designing them.

Wow aren’t these just amazing? These models were stitched on 18 mesh using Bella Lusso, Felicity’s Garden, Gloriana Silk, Sundance & Mill Hill Beads, Needlepoint Inc & Planet Earth Silk, Silk Lame’ Braid, Silk ‘N Colors, Splendor, Treasure Braid, Vineyard Silk and Waterlillies.

The materials list is laid out so that you could stitch on Aquamarine, Sante Fe Green, Apricot, Blue, Pink or Sandstone canvas with 8 colorways suggestions! There is a design outline for each chart and suggestions as to how to select your own colorway. Great color pictures of each design and great stitch charts for each and every stitch. You could even stitch this on Congress Cloth with just a few thread changes.

If the larger piece is too daunting for you, how about stitching this little box top? That is my plan as I go thread shopping later this week…now if I can only remember where my blue Congress Cloth is? Two stitches were selected from each pattern to create this box top. Suzanne who stitched the box top “if I had to do the box top again, think that I would make the areas smaller and select more stitch patterns.” My favorite stitch is in the upper right which is named Wopaho…go figure?!

These stitches are amazing! What is even more amazing is the names of these stitches… such as “Start at 1”, “Fine Wine” and so many more unique names. Someday I am sure that they will tell us how they came up with these clever names. Remember you have not seen these stitches anywhere before this. You need this just to see what the clever names that each stitched has been given!

Now you are saying to yourself…I need to order this, where can I get it?! Now! I need this now if not sooner! Well these shops have it for you.

The Edwardian Needle in New Jersey

Tomorrow’s Heirlooms in Glen Ellyn, IL

Fireside Stitchery in Frazer, PA

M’s Canvas House in Lexington, KY

Needlewoman East in Falls Church, VA

If you are a shop and would like to have this for your stitchers, please contact your account representative from Norden Crafts.

Sylvester wasted no time at all taking over my stitching spot. Now if I could just teach him to stitch, I would be all set! and until next time…keep on stitching