FROM MY NEEDLE - Wow, I had a VERY productive weekend near the beginning of Feb, LOL.  Remember some of the things I said were on the drawing board last month?  Well, not only did I finish the project notes for the three projects for Issue 50 of A Needle Pulling Thread (needlework magazine), I also finished designing the NEXT project (for Issue 51 - this will be the second in the series),  LOUIS ARMSTRONG, done in blues, to be stitched on a hand-dyed grey background fabric from Picture This Plus... and of course, I used my favorite song/saying "... and I think to myself, what a wonderful world..."  Now I just have to get it stitched in time!

FYI, the first in the series (an Audrey Hepburn design), was released to distributors and shops in January... which means you'll find it on the website this month (wink), just click on the link.

On the same weekend, I also finished up the Collective Stitch design I mentioned last month, a bough of apple blossoms, and the world's HELLO SPRING! in decorative script.  Gitta's will have the design as a free handout from June to August (note that Kathrin's DD is getting married, so they will be CLOSED JULY 13th).

And on the SAME weekend, LOL, I ALSO got a design done for Wichelt's newsletter... I did an interview with them as well, and I'll post a link here (and in my newsletter) when it's available.

(WHEW), that was a BUSY weekend, but I felt sooo productive!  Now I just have to finish that Keirstead I've been working on - and find a stitcher for it ... but that will probably be in the next update! 

As for MY stitching, I finally FINISHED the LION wallet (second of four), and can't wait to start the next one (CAT or FLAMINGO, hmmmm), but I think I better stitch LOUIS first (sigh).  The back of the lion came out beautifully... I started with a Zen-tangle inspired layout, but ended up selecting colors that gave the whole thing a very African vibe - quite suited to the LION - so I am very pleased with it!  I used Rainbow Gallery Fuzzy Stuff (FZ) for a nice furry mane, and that was the hardest part of the stitch... I did it last, but might suggest to anyone else stitching it that they stitch all of the lion (except the FZ), then start the back of the wallet, and alternate between stitching the mane and the back, as the FZ can be a little scratchy on the fingers! I used two shades of brown, but the darker one isn't quite dark enough, so I'll have to change that color to a darker one in the pattern instructions...  I have to play with the FZ as well, as I'm wondering about stitching over 2 on Aida (for a 7ct FZ mane!)... it may not be thick enough, but at full count is SOOOO thick, I'm curious...

And I had trouble finding dark enough gold-yellow (button) eyes for the LION, though I did find some nice pink ones for the FLAMINGO (I also re-designed the back of FLAMINGO the other day, and I really like it now, LOL)… I finally found some nice shiny gold ones with my CDN distributor, though they didn't have as dark a yellow as I wanted for the OWL (I bought the buttons shown in England, and am having trouble matching them now (sigh)), so I ended up ordering THOSE in bulk from the States!!  I've also ordered in some green buttons for the CAT eyes, so we'll see how I like them ... Here's a pic of the first 2 of the 4 designs that will all be in the same chart (the LION looks a bit funny w/o eyes, LOL, but they haven't arrived yet) ...

As you can see... I ended up adding a lightweight cotton sleeve to the top of each wallet, as the Aida was just too thick for the Flex Frames, even when I removed the seam allowances from the sleeve area.  However, I like them even better, (GBG), so that was lucky!  Now I'm trying to decide whether to put all 4 in one chart, or set them up individually...

So I actually DID start stitching LOUIS the other night, and have put in about 8 hours so far... I started with an area that had ALL the colors in, so I could see how they fit together, as they are all shades of blue, and so far, I'm loving it!!  I'm a tiny bit concerned about the amount of stitching I'm taking on myself... I may need to follow up with some of my stitchers who have been quiet lately...  Speaking of stitchers, a funny thing happened this month, LOL.

A customer emailed me to ask about a 3D design she thought she'd seen (turns out she was mistaken), but we got to talking about the idea... and it excited us both... and the long and short of it is that I have agreed to do the design, and she has agreed to stitch it for me!  I don't want to say too much right now, as it's just on the drawing board, and not being worked on yet... but here's a really big hint... think Santa and Mrs. Claus ... and 3D!

Well, I think that's it for me this month... basically, I'll be stitching the same project for a while, so I'll come visit next month, and let you know how I'm progressing!