Surprise!

The next Mystery Class by Ruth Schmuff is....drumroll please....

'Emma's Darling Bird'

Yay!!

You just know she is going to have a blast with this one. 

I'm on 'pins and needles' to see what she comes up with!

I imagine sparkle and shine will be happening, at least a little bit!

This new mystery starts in two weeks, click below for info

Not Your Grandmothers Needlepoint

through Bedecked and Beadazzled

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

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!

sensing a trend here...

bubbles...I seem to really like bubbles! 

I use to always have a bottle of bubbles around, 

even had a bubble machine at one point or another. 

Dream Glimpse©
from this....

Too this...

TaDa! To this....

...goes with this, of course :-)
'Dream Fragment'©2014

'Flying Jewels'©
I seem to like pretty winged bugs too...
along with bubbles!

'Tree of Life'©2013
Because everyone needs one!
This tree has cute little birds and decorative bubbles!
Life and it's busy'ness' will see where this one leads me.

Emma's Pillow!

Emma's Pillow!!  Cest fini!
All in basketweave...for my friend that counts stitches...5,928 stitches!!  I could not bring myself to count as I stitched, the number was figured when complete just this morning.

I stitched constantly while waiting for our little bundle of joy to arrive.  Passed several hours in hospital with threaded needle zipping along.

Whitney [my amazing daughter] titled this little picture of Emma 'my favorite little human'.  I know I'm just a tad over the moon with her but isn't she the most adorable granddaughter!!  I started the design of her pillow after I read a blog post of Whitney's that referred to Emma as 'our little bird'.  It soaked deep into my head and brewed for a bit, then I started collecting photos of birds.  I'm not sure how many sketches I had going before the above finally arrived on my canvas.  

If you'd like a canvas of 'Emma's Pillow' to stitch for your own little bird, it's available soon.  Have your local needlework shop order through Ruth Schmuff Designs.  

This design is also available in a petite version without the ladybug border or as a belt with just the ladybug border. Pictures should be up on the website soon.  Happy stitching!