Tuesday, March 24, 2015

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!

Sunday, March 15, 2015

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!