Country Garden Stitchery

In this design I tried to use wintery January colors and thought of forced tulip bulbs to get some gardening in during the cold months. I also tried forcing paperwhites one year and it worked wonderfully and they were beautiful, but the fragrance was too strong for the house. I couldn't believe how strong it was. Hyacinths are another favorite to force and they are potent too. Fun winter projects - stitching and forcing bulbs... Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

I've been inspired by pansies again. It has been a little while since I've stitched with DMC floss exclusively. Great vibrant colors. This is just a peek and will be done for stitching in the new year, for dreaming about the garden with the snow flying outside.

Inspired to stitch summer time designs in winter? I love linens on the clothes line. This is one of my bigger designs and it uses all DMC floss on 16ct. hand dyed yellow linen from Wichelt. I use variegated flosses so much I kind of liked having a basket full of many shades of DMC for this project.

This patchwork pillow project can be done with cross stitch and other types of needlework as well as fabric panels and any other things you can think of. It is great to use up left over pieces of fabric you may have. Trim your design to have a 1" border on all sides. Begin with the right and left sides and cut two strips around 2" or so wide and the same length as the design and sew with a 1/4" seam. Do this with the top and bottom making the strips the same width. Continue to add strips in this manner until you are happy with the size. Put smaller pieces together to make a strip for a patchier affect. After you have your panel the size you want you can add buttons here and there. Add laces and ribbons and attach with novelty stitching with variegated coordinating threads using your sewing machine. Sometimes I add small patches of fabric 1" x 1" or so, pom pom trim, and such to add some more interest. There are lots of fun things in the craft stores to play a...

Thinking of Christmas gifts I decided to make up some quilted needlework cases with matching scissor fobs. These are really handy if you like to travel and stitch and/or like to work on small projects that take little supplies. Pockets for scissors, threads, beads, etc. and a pin cushion. I was really in a red mood I guess.