Happy Christmas!

Feeling all Festive in the studio.

Production ...
a little sparkle here and there.

We gathered together and we laughed and talked
a LOT!!
Thank you Stephanie
for capturing us all
so wonderfully with your lens.

Next ...

Introducing

"Yes, I'm Special"
He is the second of "The Nine"
a series of technique classes being offered through
The Black Sheep Shop
in Orlando
Class time is the second Saturday of
February and March
click here for details.

Wait til you see what I come up with
for this handsome peacock!
More sparkle to pick yet...
maybe some beads...

influenced...

Here I am calmly stitching along on my
"basketweave" piece, watching Scrooge.
Can early exposure to Dr. Seuss have influenced
my color muse?

It's almost finished!
I may actually have it ready to use before
the big day! Behind the ornaments are stripes
of tinsel yet to be stitched.
This makes me happy!

This is me avoiding the bead work
on Harrumph's planet and moons.
My son is coming for Christmas and I felt the need to
deck the halls in celebration of his arrival for the holidays!

Mom lined up our fun mod ornaments for hanging.

I've never hung outdoor lights before.
Turns out
"I've Got This"!

Love this color combination!

Definite advantage to living in the South.
We don't need to buy Poinsettias for in the house,
they're in the yard growing!
Beautifully!

As soon as I went inside,
the grounds crew came to check
out the new additions.

what I do ...

First...
I sketch on tracing paper.

Then I play with color,
here I used colored pencils
but sometimes I splash paint on it.

At this point, I've also darkened in the
pencil sketch with a black marker.
This enables me to see it through
the canvas for tracing.

And so begins the actual painting
once I'm happy with the preliminaries. 

Tada!
Painted and ready to send to Ruth
for the next leg of it's journey.
Ruth being Ruth Schmuff Designs
my illustrious distributor.
Once Ruth gets my finished master, 
it's measured, photographed,
hopefully ooooo'd and aaaahhhh'd over,
and then
... it's sent to the repeat painters for production.
Whew, it's a journey.

Viola! A belt...
I love borders, I love to make a design feel
solid by boxing it in and most often adding some
kind of border. The border can happen in the stitching.
Or as with this design, in the painting.
This border took some figuring mathematically,
hence, the belt was born
so I could figure out the count and spacing exactly.

The next step in the design journey,
stitching!
Although, I don't always write a stitch guide for
each piece. I'd love to but the time
just isn't there to play with each new design.

I draw much faster than I stitch!

Movement!

Can you believe it??

Class time is just around the corner!

Pictured below is 

"Movement"©

the first of my nine smalls 

being featured at

The Black Sheep

in Orlando, Florida

Class time is December 12!

follow up is January 9

We'll plunge in to learning 

padded leather applique, couching, cut turkey work, 

bullions, and playing with silk wrapped pearl purl!

Most importantly

we'll have a blast!

"Movement"
If you're in the area
or able to zip on down
for some warm Florida breezes,
we'd love to have you join us!

"Yes, I'm Special"
is the next design to be featured from, 
as I'm fondly calling them...
'the nine'
This oh so modestly handsome birds class
will begin on February 13th,
with the follow up on March 12th.

Can't wait to show you peeks as to
how I'll stitch the feather eyes!

Dragon weave ...

 'My Castle, My Dragon'©

Wish you could see how the sun 

was making this guy sparkle.

I've incorporated some needle weaving 

for his neck flare.

Proof that embroidery/stump work 

techniques can be adapted

for just about anything!

I've used Kreinik Braid here and it 

catches the light beautifully!

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