Finally--a finish!

My Amanda Lawford Santa is finally finished, after working on it for more than a year.  It's by no means my first finish of 2015, but the other completed projects were for my Needlepoint Now column.  This Santa is my very own, so he had to take a back seat from time to time  so I could make a magazine deadline working someone else's canvas!

One small detail needs to be attended to before I can send him to a finisher:  he needs a real bell dangling from the end of his cap.  It's probably easier to find a jingle bell in November than it is in March, but I'll do a little hunting and hopefully find one soon.  Then I need to decide on a finisher, one who knows the meaning of the word "simple" and resists the temptation to slap a bunch of bows on him and hide all my stitching.

I'm waiting for a canvas that I've ordered to arrive--another project that will take some time but one I'm really looking forward to.  So stay tuned!

Getting ready for St. Patrick's Day

It's hard to believe I actually stitched this piece more than four years ago.  Designer Judy Harper had created an Irish Angel for me, since I'm 100% Irish, and then repainted it without wings to produce "Maureen."  I stitched her for Judy's last Possibilities column in the March/April 2011 issue of Needlepoint Now.

Some of my favorite threads were incorporated in this piece:  Petite Very Velvet for her green dress, Sheep's Silk by The Thread Gatherer in a diagonal oblong cross stitch for her shawl, and Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002V for the Celtic cross.

Just remember:  everyone's a little bit Irish on St. Patrick's Day, so have a happy one!