another adventure!

Preliminary tracings of magic ...

All that magic in one tube ...
winging our way North to the New England states. 

First stop,
my cousin and his partners beautiful home.
The property is landscaped to the nines!

My gracious cousin Jeff & Moi
touring a few wineries on
a gorgeous Fall day. 

Mineral Hills Winery

Godard's Red Hen Farm

Through the wonder of the internet I met

'one of my tribe'

A woman with the same passion for color that I have.

She saw my Magic Carpet I painted in my studio 

and asked if I'd paint it for her in her beautiful home.

I'm honored that a piece of my art is now a part of her collection.

Big finish for me!

Actually, huge, four by seven feet!

There was a time when no wall went untouched in my home.

A mural such as this, I'd never attempted before.

I LOVE the Fall color in this Ornamental Cabbage,
A feast for the eyes during a paint break.

Next stop in my adventure ...
time with my two favorite girls!
My wonderful son in law is now teaching
for the next two to three years at West Point.
Recently promoted to Major too!
We're all very proud.

Of course, I have to have a basketweave travel piece going.

More on this later.

Pink Skies...

He's looking much happier.
I may change the sky a bit to the left of him ...
counting that out in those tiny spaces might
send me over the edge!
More on that later. [the counting bit, not going over the edge bit]
Sky stitch is compliments of Sheena's Sweet Stitching.
Now to figure out the sun rays....

For my next act.
My sweet Mom gathered these for me from the
banks of the Susquehanna River in PA.
We lived on a mountain top over looking
this river for many years.
I have a succulent garden growing in my
imagination. These rocks are going to grace that garden bed.
I'm planning to paint them with colorful [of course] designs.

"A Different Tassel"©
This is a charted design of mine from a
few years back. 
It's now making a reappearance at 
The Black Sheep
I'll be teaching this one day project
November 14th.
Join us for a fun easy day of stitching!
Click the link above & call the shop for details.

I just LOVE this!
It seems to bloom endlessly.
I'll step out with Chance in the a.m. for his walk
and
POW, color!
This obviously makes this one very happy!
My brain is concocting a new piece involving these
wonderful poofs of fuchsia and those great seed pods.
It also attracts lovely honey bees ... which will have to be
included with in the piece.
Oh for more time....

October 1!!

How?? 

Seems like yesterday we were still in August! 

Where did September go??

These beautifully fall colored Echinacea
greeted us as we entered our local museum
Sunday afternoon.
I love these flowers in all colors! Mostly I've seen them
in the deep fuchsia I love so much. 

I was going to be totally selfish with this piece,
keep it just for moi.
A piece was needed to demonstrate finishing
for my ongoing classes in Orlando at
The Black Sheep
So I pulled colors I love and the magic happened.
Ruth said NO, you have to share.
So, I am going to use this one as a teaching piece.
I have several places to submit to for classes, 
nice to have something ready.

Progress!
His spikes are growing and soon to sparkle!
I decided on Raised Stem, I'd totally
forgotten about this gem of a stitch!

Cool! 
Look at that dimension!
I found a wonderful stitch for the sky to try out from 
Sheena's Sweet Stitches!
Amazing where we all find inspiration!

New Designs!!

The Dallas Cash N Carry 

is this weekend!

It's always exciting to see

my pieces of art 

on their way to new homes!

'Catfish'©

'Little Lamb'©

'Scarab'©
I love this one, the colors are just too fun!

'The Swan'©
thinking of  the S.W.A.N.'s
back in Austin!
I find it amusing that I moved to a 
small town that is known for their Swans!
We have a lake full of them here!

'Dreamcatcher'©

'Little Dancer'©
Perfect for pairing with Emma's Little Bird.

There are several new belt designs up on the site as well, 
Go check out all, remember I'm distributed through
Ruth Schmuff Designs

roaring back...

Harrumph is back and very happy 

to be getting the attention he deserves.

A wise woman told me I shouldn't design pieces with faces 

if I don't like getting stared at grumpily from across the room. 

So we're both happy now. 

There is just something about dragons that captivate. 

Truly, it doesn't take much to make me happy.
These arrived in the mailbox yesterday,
tore into the bag like a kid with a new toy!

Rainy days ...

There are advantages to being a designer ...
I had to have a biscornu to demo finishing on for my class at
The Black Sheep.
Couldn't bring myself to restitch one,
so I painted a different version of one in colors I love.
Now to get it stitched up quickly.

I also decided to paint up
a bunch of dog collars in
different colorways, Fun!
Would you believe the gray/orange
to be my favorite so far??

Sweet Saturday!

Super sweet shop, super sweet students!

Fabulous day teaching!

They were pretty excited to dive into a new project!

Must have been a technical question,
as I look pretty serious.
I think they all have an idea how my brain works on
canvas at this point. 

We made a huge amount of progress on my
Paisley Biscornu© design!
Woven Squares, Couching, String Art, French Knots and ...
some crazy cut Turkey Work with plied silk!
We meet again in one month to 'finish' this little gem.

Yay! His collars were back from the finisher.
He has no idea how cute he is!

'Movement'©
Fini! and next in the class line up for
The Black Sheep
[see details on their website]
I thoroughly enjoyed stitching this design, 
it's just fun & happy!

to the dogs...

It's National Dog Day!

Granddog General gets top billing ... well,

sort of.  Her amazing cuteness at the other end of the

leash tops him by a long stretch. She did such a great

job walking him, even while she was swinging she kept 

hold of his leash. 

Hat - check, water bottle - check,
cute flip flops - check, leash - check
major attitude - double check!

Swings with her best bud!
What a good ole boy he is.

Of course, have to include Chance on this special day.
He's my constant!
His new collars are ready from the finisher,
can't wait to see them.

I've posted my progress on this new little bit.
Movement©
Here you see silk wrapped pearl purl
below the gold leather.
From Access Commodities
Above, the stamens are worked with
Gimp! I love Gimp!
From Tentakulum.
Both are couched onto the surface,
both easily add so much
dimension and texture.

I've packed a lot of technique into this 5" square design.
I couldn't leave the ends of the stamens just plain ...
so ... of course, I filled them with cut Turkey Work!
This is the first of a series of nine designs that I'm 
creating to help push stitchers out of their comfort zone.
They're small treasures packed full of fun!
Operative word here is small,
not overwhelming.

Offered as workshops through 
The Black Sheep
in Orlando, Florida
Yay!!

Each piece will be offered over a two month span. 
'Movement'© will begin the second Saturday of
October and finish the second Saturday of November.
Watch for more details.

Camels and flowers ...

Recently my stitchy friend Sara Leigh posted the beginnings 

of her work on my Camel Flowers painted canvas design.  

I'd told her the story of how they came to be 

and she suggested I share the story with 'more' of you.

So, once upon a time my sweet friend Kim Hollifield 

had two camels from Petei Designs that she 

wanted dressed up a little bit more with 'saddles'.  

She asked if I'd paint them and of course, I did! 

I enjoyed doing something different and helping her out. 

Kim is an awesome finisher of stand up needlepoint designs 

as well as ornaments and stockings. 

Over the years she's finished many pieces for me. 

Some were rather odd requests, I remember a small crazy purse 

but we won't visit that today.

Above are the two painted saddles. 

Now, as I painted these, I saw flower possibilities. 

Yes, my mind works in mysterious ways.

Look how awesome they are as saddles 

for these two nativity pieces.

Kim stitched and finished beautifully. 

Love the added bullion cord and tassels too!

Click here to visit her Facebook business page to learn more!

Kim Hollifield

'Camel Flowers'©
My version! or warped vision :)