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 :)

MORE bullions!

I truly was trying to use another stitch, something quite unique actually ... but they discontinued the thread on me!

And to my mind, you can never have too many Bullions!

Are these not the coolest worked in 

Rainbow Gallery's Petite Very Velvet ??!!

kid leather...

...try searching those two words on the internet. 

Actually, it wasn't that bad. 

Learned a little about Kid Rock and 

I did find a helpful video from Sarah Homfray. 

Although, it was like looking for the 

proverbial needle in the haystack. 

Below are the results of my search.

I do have 'old' knowledge of the how to apply leather to canvas ...
just thought it smart to refresh my brain cells on the process.
Thank you to Kreinik for the materials 
that continue to inspire and embellish!

Traced above, then drawn on the leather with pencil.
[a sharp pencil the dots will be beaded ... I think ...]

Wool felt for padding, just one layer makes the magic.
And as you can see, cut much smaller.

Applied with silk couching thread.
I came up to the outside of the leather,
then pierced as close to the edge as possible.
This would be easier with a thimble.
I, however, used my thumbnail. 

TaDa!
This is the beginning of a new series.
I've painted nine new five inch square designs.
Each will feature some fun off the wall
techniques for embellishing.

They're tiny, yes, but stitch up quickly.
In my humble opinion, I think they're going
to look ever so awesome displayed
all together.

This is where the teaming up with 

The Black Sheep 

in Orlando comes to life.

TBS will host the workshops!!

Watch for dates and times to come soon!