Happy Fourth of July!

It's the 233rd birthday of the United States, and a time for celebration!

The "Fourth of July" doorway pictured here was not a figment of my imagination: it's actually someone's doorway! A few years ago, a needlework shop invited attendees to its annual needlepoint retreat to submit photos of their doorways for me to convert to needlepoint canvas. When I saw this doorway, I fell in love! And luckily, the proud owner was happy to give me permission to market it after the retreat.

The main part of this doorway was stitched in DMC cotton floss and #5 perle cotton. The bunting was stitched with Silk & Ivory; Sheep's Silk, in a Nobuko stitch, formed the grass. The cat was stitched with black Petite Very Velvet, white Medici, and DMC cotton floss yellow eyes, just like the original!

One of my favorite parts of this design are the two urns of geraniums flanking the door, created with mounds and mounds of French knots in two shades of DMC floss to create more of a 3-D effect. The urns themselves were first padded with a basketweave of floss before adding the top layer of satin stitches in DMC perle cotton.