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...

I've been putting some little Christmas designs on towels. I bought these organic towels off Etsy and they are lovely, but difficult to see through, so I just have to draw my design on it without a pattern. I've been using DMC flosses since they are colorfast and the colors won't run. I'm really enjoying this little project. The towels will also work well for basket liners so I am going to make a few with spring designs. I got a set of ten towels so will sell some and keep some. I have another style of towel I will be working on next. Those are lovely linen with a lacy edge. They are more of a table napkin size but would also work well for a basket liner or display on the hutch.

Since there is snow on the ground now and it will be near zero this week I found myself thinking of spring and decided to paint some apple blossoms and a clear robin's egg blue sky. It was fun for a bit as I imagined myself among the sweet fragrance in the warm weather; but I'm not ready for it yet. I am looking forward to the holidays and maybe some snow shoeing... This is my priscilla gown embroidery pattern. Lots of French knots - or you could use beads - and red roses. All stitched in hand dyed silk. I love silk floss. I bought some crisp white linen towels off ebay a few months ago to embroider. This was a fun project so I decided to hunt down some other towels to try and hand embroider. I found some on Etsy the other day and ordered two different kinds. They are from eco-friendly sellers so they are made of all natural fibers (very important :) and I am really looking forward to getting them. I'll show you soon.

This little pumpkin square pattern was in the October 2010 Create and Decorate issue and I stitched mine with Gentle Art Sampler Wool flosses. It was the first time I used the wool flosses and they were really fun to work with. Gail Mumford stitched the design her own way on a dish cloth using varigated wool and a half cross stitch. I thought it was really neat and wanted to post it. Our local art group, Sagebrush Sisters, is getting ready for our annual Christmas Fair in December. We decided to make grapevine wreaths to sell. I decided to do a natural wreath - I did add a few little golden colored bells and raffia- but otherwise it's all natural. It was a really fun project. I'll display it for a while in my house before the fair.

Another sewing day. Woke up before the sun this morning inspired and this is what I worked on today. I like to be able to create versaile patterns to make many different things. Ornaments, bookmarks and such. I like little things. I traced just portions of the patterns to make ornaments and dressed them up with lace and ribbon. These work up really fast. I like that too. And a little row of gifts. This picture shows the great red shade of the "Cherry Wine" hand dyed floss from The Gentle Art. Their floss is great. And this is my son Aaron (on the left) after he won 4th place in the state cross country race in Las Vegas on Saturday. Very proud and happy for him and I had to share it with you. :)