NEW COUNTED DESIGNS

SILHOUETTES 

Copyright 2017 M. Elizabeth Morrow

RAINBOW HORSES

Copyright 2003 M. Elizabeth Morrow

ART NOUVEA FLORAL

Copyright 2017 M. Elizabeth Morrow

Yes, I've been busy!  There are 3 new designs available on my website.
(Remember, if you go there from your phone, you'll need to scroll down and click on Classic".)  Please take a look!

All of these designs are suitable for counted needlepoint or cross stitch.

Silhouettes includes 3 fun little designs.
Rainbow Horses has a striped background.
Art Nouveau Floral is a free design!

Very Very Merry

Very Very Merry is a free design from Susan Johnson at sj-designs.  It was intended to be done in beads, but I just did it as a cross stitch on a small piece of perforated paper that I had in stash.  Threads also from stash - floss & Kreinik.
A very quick stitch.
And it's even finished!  This clear acrylic round was supposed to be a luggage tag, but I think it makes a fine ornament!

Jim's Cookbook Addition

We decided that Jim's Cookbook needed a matching spine.  So I did that this week.  It went quickly, I think I only worked on it 2 days.

I'm still working on the other secret project and it is taking longer than I anticipated.  Of course.

Jim's Cookbook

One secret revealed!  My husband is taking cooking classes and has started a notebook.  He is on his way home today from a week long business trip and I have spent the week stitching a slip-in cover for his cooking notebook:

This is cross stitch (yeah I know) on perforated paper.  The paper is a rust color.  I used an overdyed floss for the lettering and all the rest is regular floss.  All of the elements came from various books and online sources.  The only thing I actually designed, besides the layout, was the chef's hat!

Getting back to normal

Unpacking and organizing continues, but we have made great progress.  I now have a studio, but it is not organized and I can't find anything!  

I still haven't figured out how to change the header photo.

I have been stitching more, so I will try to post a little more regularly, once a week for now.

Frequently I have wanted something small and simple to work on, so I started a Mill Hill kit, Sapphire by Jim Shorr.  She is ready for beads, but I haven't found my bead buddy yet!  

Big Cats Cross Stitch, Progress #2

It's been quite awhile since you've seen this.  I don't work on it very often (I'm not really a cross stitcher), but when space is limited, like when my husband & I are sharing the love seat, it is something to work on that doesn't take up a lot of room.

I'm nearly finished with the 2nd Panther section.  Then there is just one more section and the border will be done.  Almost.  I'll still need to figure out how to join each cat to the one next to it.

Big Cats Cross Stitch

Oh no!  Not another cross stitch?!  Yes, I found another one in the UFO pile.  I started this nearly 20 years ago.  It was to be a top for a jewelry box.  Well, I have since made something else for the box!  
Anyway, I decided to try to finish this.  It is on 18 Aida, which seems a LOT smaller than 18 canvas!  I am using a single strand of floss.  These cat patterns are all separate and I will have to go back & fill in the "in between" spaces later.  As I stitch now, I'm thinking about how I want to do that.
The center is to be a large black Panther.  We'll see if I get that far!  I can't work on it very long at a time but I'm trying to stitch on it a little bit several times a week.

Kangaroo FINISHED

Finally, Mr. Kangaroo is finished.  I started him in 2009, shortly after returning from a trip to Australia.  He will be framed eventually.  Horrible pattern.  Way too many 3/4 stitches and weird back stitches to work on Aida cloth, would have been much easier on linen or evenweave.  I think.

Kangaroo, Progress #5

Kangaroo?  What kangaroo, you are asking!  Those of you who have been with me a long time, may remember this charming fellow, although I haven't posted about (or worked on) him for a very long time.  Mr. Kangaroo is a cross stitch chart I purchased in Australia at least 5 years ago.  I got him out recently because 1. I'd really like to finish it, 2. I hate working on it because I am using some rayon floss, and 3. It is small and easy to handle.

So, here he is today, well actually last week.  I have worked on it some since I took the photo and the rayon floss parts are finished. Finally!  I do hate that stuff.  Now for lots of French Knot flowers and a ton of backstitching.  Am I the only person in the world who HATES to do cross stitch?

Christmas Door Hangers

I have been doing some sewing lately.  These 3 little door hangers are my efforts to save money & make my own!  The cross stitched pieces had been laying around for several years.  The hangers turned out pretty well.  I did one more, but gave it away & forgot to take a picture of it.  Once I got the process down, each one takes about 2-3 hours to make up.  I am not a fast sewer!

Kangaroo Progress #4

I know, it has been a long time since I showed you this Kangaroo.  I do work on it occasionally, but not often.  You may remember that I hate rayon floss & a lot of the greenery is in rayon floss, so I hate working on it.
He's a cute little guy, and a "souvenir" of our trips to Australia.  One of these days I'll actually finish it!  Maybe this year?

Christmas Door Hangers

Here are some of my finished little door hangers.  They are just right to hang on a door knob.  The fabric "frames" are prefinished items that I got at my LNS.  All you do is stick in the finished needlework & then I use a little Stitch Witchery to make sure the edges of the fabric stay down.  Takes just a few minutes with a steam iron & you're done!

The bottom right one is a cross stitch that I did several years ago.  Turns out it fit just right in the brown fabric frame & will make a perfect gift for a friend.  The other three, also gifts, you have seen before being "finished". 

Byzantine Ornament

Finished another one!  This one is adapted from a Teresa Wentzler cross stitch design in her Best of Teresa Wentzler Christmas Collection.  It was harder to adapt than I expected due to using 18-count canvas instead of one of the fabrics.  I had to do some careful counting & adjusting!  But it turned out pretty I think.  I used 3 #12 Kreinik braids, 002, 153V and 018HL plus Rainbow Tweed RT61 for the overdye.  When I get this one and a couple others all mounted & ready to go, I'll post another photo.

Free Design - Christmas Angel

Hi again!  I'm back from San Diego and ready to get to work.  As promised, I have published a new Free Design on my website.  Go to the Free Design page, and scroll down.  The new design, Christmas Angel, is just below the Small Things.  Click on her and you will get a .pdf file that you can save or print.  She is suitable for needlepoint or cross stitch, works up quickly and is really cute!

Thanks to all of you for making my Blog (3 years now!) and website successful and fun!

I'll be back in a couple of days with new stuff to show you!

Fractal 276 Bookmark

Now that I have finished several WIPs, I get to start new stuff!  Always so much fun!

First up is Fractal 276 Bookmark.  Sorry, that's what it is called.  I think this was one of the daily freebies from Cross Stitch Collectibles that I downloaded last summer.  I thought I would do it on 18-count canvas, in needlepoint.  It will be a little big for a bookmark, but a reasonable size for an experiment!  Finished size on 18 will be about 4.25" x 11".  These pictures show the original pattern.

Well it was designed with 79 colors of floss.  I decided it would be "fun" to try to cut this down.  The chart was only in symbols, no color.  So, being crazy, I copied it, one square at a time, into my charting program.  This took a couple of weeks.  Then I pulled all 79 colors of floss.  The charting program tells me how many stitches there are of each color.  So my first task was to delete any color with less than 20 stitches.  Right away that cuts it down quite a bit.  I would pull the to-be-deleted-color, find another color in the pattern that was almost the same and substitute.  Next I matched up colors that, when stitched, would show little, if any, difference, like black & dark navy.  I kept on like this till I was down to about 50 colors.  Then by using an overdye to substitute for several colors in the background, I ended up with a total of 46 colors.  The picture below is my revised chart.

Now I get to stitch this baby!  I am going to substitue #12 Kreinik Braid for quite a few of the colors in the light swirly part, I think.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm not sure how I will tackle this, I guess I'll just start in the upper right corner & go.  I'll keep you posted!

May Mountain Middle

May Mountain Middle is a cute little cross stitch design from Pine Mountain Designs.  It is a pre-finished pillow, so once the stitching is done, you just slip in a pillow form & you're done!  This one is for my Mom's birthday, which is in May. 
The fabric around the Aida cloth is a soft flannel print & it makes a cozy little piece.

I finished this piece Sunday at our local retreat here in Las Vegas.  We have 2 retreats every year, spring & fall, and it is just one day.  It is inexpensive & we get lunch & lots of goodies.  It is a fun time, stitching and socializing.

Kangaroo, Progress #3

I have been working on the cross stitch Kangaroo once in awhile. You can't tell by the picture, but most of the green is rayon floss. I don't like working with the rayon floss, so I don't work on this very often! But I do keep plugging away at it. It has been quite a long time since I last posted about this (a year?) but I thought you might be interested to see that I occasionally do something besides Bargello LOL.

M is for Mom

This mini-pillow is a Christmas gift for my Mom. She doesn't use a computer, so she won't see it here! I actually did the cross stitch a couple of years ago and never did anything with it. I found this little prefinished pillow at my LNS and just blind stitched the cross stitch onto it. Easy finish! I hope Mom likes it.

Vacation Goodies

These are the 2 patterns I bought in Victoria, BC, at the Button & Needlework Boutique. You can visit this shop at www.buttonedup.com to see how nice it is and even order online.
The first pattern is by Sue Coleman of the Stitching Studio and is a darling pattern of a seal and her pup with a NW Indian design in the background. This piece was worked up and displayed as a model in the shop. It is so cute & couldn't resist it!
The other is a booklet containing 3 charted NW Indian designs. These would stitch up beautifully. Maybe I'll try to put them all in one long piece? If I live long enough!

Tomorrow we drive to Las Vegas. I hope I have remembered all the stitching things I will need there this winter! If not, the LNS is a good one!

Travels in Needlepoint & Cross Stitch

My husband and I have done a fair amount of traveling and I thought it would be fun to commemorate some of our trips in needlework. The one on the left is Alaska, in needlepoint. This was a painted canvas I purchased in Alaska and modified slightly. It is framed with a photo of us and a pin and a little vial of gold. Top right is Hong Kong. This is a cross stitch pattern that I searched for and finally found long after we were there. I didn't make any changes in the pattern and used the thread that came in the kit. It is framed with a photo of us in Hong Kong. Bottom right is Australia. I purchased the cross stitch kit in Sydney and made no changes. It is framed with 2 pictures of us and the Coat Hanger (the bridge). Such a fun way to remember great trips!