Little Birds Pillow...

Tada!!
Emma with Emma's pillow
designed
just for her by her Mimi!! 

What a poser, she's perfect!
Not the least bit prejudice, am I??

Three pictures came,
all too cute to choose just one!

Celebrating the holiday with all of us somewhat scattered across the globe is always interesting. We seem to manage just fine though. There will come a year when we are happily all in one place together. And won't that be the best ever. 

Until then, I'm extremely happy to be blessed with two fabulous kids, a wonderful caring son in law, and the best grandbaby ever. 

My Mom and I spent the day with my brother and sis in law, eating way too many goodies and exchanging special gifts. 

Very blessed times.

This grocery store bought cactus is not one to disappoint.
Three years in a row, just in time for Christmas too.
Amazing color, amazing blooms!

Making one corner of my new studio
very colorful indeed.

Tree has to be in front of a window, right?
Makes taking a picture complicated though.
Like my small skinny tree all decked out.

Another colorway from last weeks
free charted design.
Click here for Gallery of Trees

Merry Christmas!

From me to all of you!

 This is an ornament design I released through 

Rainbow Gallery in 1999! 

Every year it comes out to grace my little tree and every year I remember how much fun I had in the designing of it. 

Some times a design just happens and this was one of those. 

I've stitched it up many times and in many different colors on different colored canvas too.

It's a quick and easy stitch, doesn't require a lot of thread and if you stitch two of them...you can work a binding stitch around the two and have an ornament finished in no time.

Wow...to busy to blog!

 I'm writing, wrapping, shipping,

and then...I'm going to yoga!

Positive I can catch you up next week, same time, same channel!

Om Namaste everyone

Remember this guy...
'Santa Up Close'©
he's available for your holiday
stitching with guide by moi!

Original art by moi from 2009

...broccoli, a brain, really?

Introducing 

'Blossom'

a Kimberly design©

I think all of you know my favorite stitch is Basketweave.

However...

I have other favorites too.

I will admit...I see the broccoli correlation albeit very flowery.

Although...who says a brain can't be full of wonderful 

colorful thoughts. 

New windows, new view. 

I think it meets with his approval. 

Remodel of the front porch, 

soon to be studio space.

Makes this one very happy.

I've been wanting one of these 

for a very long time.

More on this later.

it happens...

the best laid plans...even those who over purchase...RUN OUT!!  Onward, mess ups, magic, and mint, life is good.

Mess Up...

See the last two little red dots above...
I couldn't squeak out even two more
with the ends out of my ort dish.
Thank you Ruth for calling Jean at River Silks
and thank you Jean for drop shipping one card to my humble door.
 Last two are now stitched and the background is well underway.
 More to come on that in my next post.

Magic...

This pile of metallic cord may seem ordinary to most,
but to me, it's magic.
I love making a bullion cord.
Three spools of Kreinik #12
and poof! 

Mint...

This is probably the last mint from
my farmers garden for this season.
Makes ones cuppa tea so nice to wake up with....
time does fly, spring will arrive fast enough.

What she said...

Ruth posted a fabulous accounting of my weekend in Baltimore teaching 'Flying Jewels' aka the big bug. Please go look at all the wonderful pictures that were taken with a special 'look back' at the way we were photo posted at the bottom of the blog!!  

Click HERE

Sharon, who was our first distributor when Ruth and I were all about charted needlepoint, picked me up from the airport. Which was a fabulous start to the reunion we had all weekend!

It was waaaay back in the mid nineties when we all met. We've all evolved since then, happily in wonderful creative ways. I would miss the 'old days' more if the 'new days' were not just as awesome!

Cest Fini!
Provence Purse©2014
a Kimberly design©

Our first day of class was devoted to working
the top and bottom border designs.
The second day was all about the 'big bug'
and his magnificent copper mesh wing span.

What a wonderful group of warm hearted
women to have in my class.
I am humbled and honored that you all joined us.
Thank you to Ruth and her amazing staff for putting the kits together and keeping all running smoothly throughout.
All you do is greatly appreciated in case you don't hear it enough,
we LOVE you!

almost ready...

This is the weekend I go to Bedecked and Beadazzled to teach my 'Flying Jewels' design. I'm very excited to show all how to create my 3D dragonfly featured on the blogs cover photo.
The time has flown by!!

Just finished the Kumihimo strap last night (aka wee hours of the morning). Fabric for backing and lining lying here in front of me ready to be turned into a purse. Just in time to take with me to Baltimore. One should have a new bag to travel with, right!!??

I seem to hear a harumph coming from him.
So he's traveling North with me where I'll get to pull some amazing threads to deck him out with.

These are small snippets of a new piece. Once I get to the shop with the lime green walls and get to play in the threads, I'll post a picture of the entire piece. 

Sunny Sunday...

On this beautiful Sunday morning,
as I sat down to focus on painting.
This one became a total distraction for me.

I finally did get painting.
Little Dancer©2014
Progress is progress

The border on this design was a bugger
to count out...
so of course, it's also a belt now.
Snail Trail©2014

With some to spare! Truly thought I would run out of steam or thread working these swirly bullion curves.
Thankfully neither was an issue!
And I LOVE the way they turned out.

Next up, finish the coils and the
tiny red ribbon flowers.
Then to figure out a stitch for the background,
already have something in mind for the pink flowers
....you'll see :-)

design time...

...balanced with stitching time. 

Sometimes these two happen naturally, sometimes...not so much. 

Today I was counting out the border along the right hand side

...and I screwed it up.  

Ugh...the debate in my head is to start totally over 

or white it out and re count. 

Cute snail, cute flower, cute snail, cute oops, off center.

Are you doing a happy dance that I count this out for you!??

'Little Dancer'©2014
Getting a feel for color 
before putting brush to canvas.
This is typically how I 'do' it.

Coils...couched...sort of.
I laid a base of diagonal satin with Very Velvet, then coiled the Memory Wire. There is one tiny couch stitch at the very center
and then just around the outside coil.
Tiny ribbon flowers have been re stitched since you last saw a picture of this corner in my world of stitching.
As I worked another area my thread caught one of the Montano knots several times...another ugh. I think the end result is 'cuter'...so sometimes frustration leads to better results.

Our little Emma the world traveler,
here she is in Belgium looking her cutest ever!
Besides exploring the globe, she is sitting up and cutting teeth. There is just so much happening in her world! So much to be grateful for, her sweet smile makes my miscount of cute snail and flower border a mute point. I find myself just staring at her pictures and are we grandparents not the luckiest,
I get videos too!

all is quiet...

I'm super busy designing and super excited about teaching in Baltimore in November. Time just keeps rushing by!

My favorite past time. 

My favorite girls. Sweet grandbaby girl is now FIVE months. Too fast!

brilliance...

or insanity :-)

Swirls on a design always throw me,
even worse when I do it to myself on my own design!
So late last night I had one of those blinding
flashes of  'try this you crazy lady'
These are tiny bullions with Soie Perlee,
actually easier than you think
because the silk slides so easily.
I did find that I had to spin my needle between my fingers
to un twirl the thread between each bullion.

Right away, I felt this was going to look awesome.
I have ripped out the little green stems...too fuzzy.

'Blossom'©
in progress, yay!

stitch by stitch...

In between playing with my grandbaby, 

a little stitching on Blossom.

Sometimes a groan comes from my stitching spot. I'm loving the play of the Memory Wire. Love the beaded background of the light green area. Don't ask me what I'm going to do with the big dots yet.  Underneath the coil is a smooth spiderweb that didn't turn out the way my minds eye saw it. The coil is fun but will lose its fun'ness' when I attach it with couching.

I'm also obsessing over the red dots. I've lost track of how much ribbon I've wasted. Right now they are worked in Montano Ribbon Knots. Basically everything I've ever taught anyone about making a French Knot, FORGET.
Many loose wraps,
do not hold the end of the thread taut...
DO NOT pull firmly.
They are to be fluffy, loopy knots. 

Beginnings.
This tiny dancer will be a companion piece
to my 'Emma's Pillow' design.
This is what I do when stitching frustrates me,
grab my pencils!