Diamond Lil

Diamond Lil is one of four (I think) designs in Quartet by Amybear. I love the way it turned out, but it was more of a challenge than some of the others. I had a much harder time figuring out the "new" colors and threads, plus I had to pay a LOT more attention to the actual stitching! I used Watercolors, Neon Rays, FyreWerks and floss.
(The colors are the same top & bottom. The way the flash hit the piece, it looks like it is darker on the top. Sorry about that.)
I hung this piece on point again. There is one more piece in this arrangement, which I will show you on Wed., along with a pic of the whole arrangement.

Windmills

Windmills is a design from Rainbow Gallery. It took quite awhile to stitch, longer than most of the others of this size. I used Watercolors, Kreinik, Pearl cotton, Floss and Neon Rays. It is pretty and goes well with the others.

Summer Sunburst

OK, here is another small design (6" square) from Nancy's Needle. This one just used three Watercolors and two Kreiniks. It hangs on point again, to go with the others.

Solar Flare, Framed

Wow, I'm so pleased with my framer (Fast Frame on Moana in Reno, NV)! Solar Flare is finally framed, I picked it up yesterday. We chose red and yellow mats, both in suede, and the gold frame has just little touches of red. I think it sets off this piece just beautifully. It has taken up residence in the place of honor: A wall just inside my front door.

Navaho

Next up is Navaho by Northern Pine Designs. This piece really turned out beautiful! It is another one of my favorites & it was fun to stitch. I used Watercolors, Kreinik, Pearl Cotton, Frosty Rays and Neon Rays. I love the way the Watercolors background looks! This is another piece that I hung on point.

Jagged Edge

The 3rd piece I did from Neon Flamingo was Jagged Edge. This one really turned out pretty. It is one of my favorites. I used Watercolors, Wildflowers, Kreinik, floss & pearl cotton, plus beads. I did the center diamonds first, but it was really fun deciding on the threads for each band as I went along.

Compass Corners

Compass Corners is another design by Neon Flamingo. It is very small, 5.75" square. I decided to hang it "on point", as I did with some others. Changing the colors, I used Watercolors, Kreinik and floss. I do not like this one as much as most of the pieces I stitched for the house, but it blends in well.

Log Cabin Fever

OK, back to projects in my Las Vegas house! This one is Log Cabin Fever by Neon Flamingo Designs. I used Watercolors, Kreinik, Floss and Pearl Cotton. this is a small piece (7.5" square) and I like the way it turned out. Well, yes of course I changed the colors!

SOTM Section 5

This weekend I took a break from other things and stitched Part 5 of ANG's Stitch of the Month. This one was a real quicky! I used some old Needle Necessities overdyed floss #120 that I had with Kreinik #3232 for the accent.

Desert Star

This next piece, Desert Star by Nancy's Needle, is another fun piece to stitch. Of course (you guessed it) I changed the threads and colors again to match my "decor". Most of the pieces I did for the Las Vegas house are not too large, so stitched up quickly. For this one I used Watercolors, Splendor silk, and Kreinik.

And here is Desert Star and Adagio hanging in the family room, along with a signed Helen Hardin poster that I have had for many years. If you are not familiar with Helen Hardin, she was a wonderful Native American artist. I am sorry to say that she died a few years ago, much too young.

Las Vegas House

When my husband accepted a job in Las Vegas a few years ago, we bought a house there. Oh boy! All these blank walls to fill up! Since we kept our Reno house, the new one needed everything, including wall decor! Whoopee! I started stitching like mad. The main color scheme of the house is aqua/brown/black so I pretty much stuck with that for the needlepoint pieces I did.

The first one I'm showing you is Adagio by Amybear. I used Watercolours, Kreinik and Pearl Cotton, changing the colors to fit my house. This is a fun piece to stitch, if you don't make any counting mistakes! The many different stitches used keeps you from getting bored!

Map of Australia

I don't have any in-work projects to show you and won't for quite awhile. I'm working on a piece that I can't show you right now. I'm also about to start on the prework for the Mystery Retreat I'm going to in Las Vegas in July; there won't be anything interesting to show on that one till after the retreat!

Sooooo, I thought I would show you some older pieces that I have completed. The first is a Map of Australia which I completed last year. It is a HUGE (for me) cross-stitch with a lot of backstitching. I purchased the pattern in Australia a few years ago. The piece is stitched on linen with just a couple of shades of brown & some ecru. It was very tedious to stitch, there were waaaaay too many partial stitches, but I'm quite pleased with the result.

Mary Rhodes

I don't have any stitching to show you, so I thought I would share with you: If you have never seen this book, "Needlepoint: The art of canvas embroidery" by Mary Rhodes, you owe it to yourself to try to get a look at it. This book was published in England in 1974. Maybe your library has it? Or your LNS? If you own it, get it out and take another look, I'll bet you haven't looked at it in years. I hadn't. It is a fabulous book. There are the most wonderful stitched pieces, so much inspiration! Rhodes was a master at combining stitches and creating incredible texture without the wonderful threads that we have today. You probably know that she created the Rhodes stitch, which is one that we all use and love. But you may not know what an amazing artist she was. I came across this book the other day when I was searching through my library for ideas for textured stitches and I've been looking at it ever since!

I'll bet we all have books in our libraries that we haven't looked at in ages. Maybe it is time to see what treasures we have forgotten. I found one and I just know I have others. How about you?

(Added later) One of the things I love about this book is the interesting stitch combinations. There's one piece that alternates Rhodes stitches & Square Eyelets of the same size. It looks wonderful. Another one combines Smyrnas and Rhodes and Tent. Surround a Rhodes (over 5) with Tent Stitches, then surround it with Smyrnas. Develops a wonderful kind of diaper pattern repeat.