Country Garden Stitchery

This Christmas we received some handmade pillows with our last name initial on them done in a neat chenille technique. I'd never seen this done before and think it looks great. I love to get handmade things for Christmas. I gave several handmade things for gifts this Christmas. Baskets from Etsy, pens and pottery from our local artists. My husband and kids gave me a lap table for Christmas so I can work while watching TV (lately I've been watching retro TV and love the show Kojak :) I can draw using this and do my needlework. It has a nice cushion underneath it too. This is a project I've been working on using one of the linen towels I bought on Etsy. I will use it as a basket liner probably. I will ink some of these and have them available in my Etsy store soon after the new year holiday. I've been setting up my Zazzle store for the last few weeks and decided to order some products to see the quality and printing clarity on some of my designs. My order arrived yeste...

I found these lovely linen napkins on Etsy a couple weeks ago while on a shopping spree. I wanted to buy lots of handmade gifts this year and found some nice things on Etsy and at our local craft fair. I plan on embroidering some type of spring design on these. They have a lovely lacy appearing edge on them too. I may decide to put some in my shop with the design inked on them ready to embroider. I went to the fabric store on Saturday because I was inspired to do some French themed patterns for 2011 using some grey fabrics. I found a bunch of French General fabrics and they are one of my favorite designers of fabric. I had a great time and came home with a stack of fat quarters to work with. This is my color scheme for my next dress form embroidery pattern. Completely different color scheme than I usually work with so I'm excited about it. Stepping out of my comfort zone for 2011... well a little, I still like my flowers.

I decided to do a free pattern for Wichelt for 2011 and my month is January so this is what I designed. A New Year wreath. I wanted wintery peaceful colors to reign in the new year. Visit the Wichelt Imports site and you can get it in January, www.wichelt.com Christmas shopping last weekend I found these two little journals. Since I have a blue theme in this post I wanted to post them. The owls are so cute. I haven't decided which one to give to my daughter and I just had to have both of them. On the inside is paper decorated with patterns and dots and flowers and such. Fun. Last weekend we had our annual Fine Art and Fine Craft show here in Fallon. It is held every year at the old post office that the city has fixed up and rents out. It has great windows, heavy ornamental wood features, and other neat things old buildings have. It was a great show and I found this stocking one of the crafters upcycled from a quilt. Small pentagon shaped pieces put together s...