Last night saw a rather tired Jane basketweaving a little bit. My progress isn't worth showing so how about I distract you with some fabulous finished pieces from other places? After all, if you don't like animals or Asian-themed pieces, you have been a bit disappointed here lately!
First, let's head to Michele Herron's blog to see her last four pieces, all shoe shaped! Two are Western boot canvases and two are Christmas stockings. All four are wonderful to see. Michele owns The Bristly Thistle in Michigan. You probably remember her Halloween canvas with the little kids marching in a row on their way to trick or treat. She calls her blog Neeldepoint Tips and Tricks and tells you what threads and stitches she chose for these designs plus she has a nice little blog entry about how to chart names for stocking tops. I love her blog!
http://bristlythistle.blogspot.com/
Next, how about we go see Ruth Schmuff? Ruth also owns a shop right outside of Baltimore called Bedecked and Beadazzled and is a NP designer, too. Her blog is full of pieces she's stitched for the shop or for classes. You may remember the pastel pink Melissa Shirley Santa she was stitching. It is covered in crystals, fur and fancy stitches. My kind of Santa! It is back from the finisher's and it is lovely.
http://www.tistheseason.org/blog/ruthsBlog.html
You should browse a bit. Ruth has photos of the many ways to finish the shop's new snowman club designs (that helped me decide to put my Squiggee canvas on a photo album cover) and shows off a gorgeous pillow as an example of how finishing really "makes" a stitched piece. Do not forget to go to the second page to see her cat portrait, complete with whiskers! To navigate her blog, click on the links under Recently on the right side of the page or open a month in the Archives and start reading there. Ruth loves finishing and embellishing painted canvases and posts great photos of her work to inspire us.
Finally, for something completely different, let's head to Edy's blog. Edy is sampler-mad! She has two blogs, a personal one, and a blog that collects photos of finished cross stitch samplers with detail like the designer name, the fabric count of the ground fabric, etc. If you enjoy samplers, you will want to bookmark and visit Edy's collection and perhaps contribute photos of your own work there.
http://galleryofsamplers.blogspot.com/
Edy's sampler blog is a great place to get framing ideas, find a designer whose style you like, or just get ideas for the next chart to add to your collection. Great idea, Edy!
UPDATE: Edy tells me the sampler collection blog isn't hers (although she's contributed to it), just her personal website that talks about her samplers and of course her ten darling grandkids under the age of eleven. Way to go, Edy! What fun! Here is Edy's personal blog.
http://grandmaelf.blogspot.com/
Now let's return to our regularly scheduled programming--I basketweave while we all complain about the winter weather!
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
