I hear it........on the radio

while I'm driving the lone country road back to home..........

making me want to sing along.............

bouncing up and down in the seat as I drive...................

not caring if the cows I am passing see me............{:

I hear it in the stores while I ponder away at my grocery list........

making my mood so light and happy, that I want to purchase things that are not on my list............

Those cheery Christmas tunes...................are stuck in my head

and in my heart............

I just had to stitch something with the holiday in mind. This will be a table runner when I am through stitching on it. It has the same design on the other end and a small poinsettia on each center side. It will make a cheerful holiday table. Don't you think??

How about you?

Does all of that Christmas music get you excited.........inspired?

I would love to hear!

Vintage blue and white dishes

are another one of my favorites in sets of dishware...........

 I always try to capture those beautiful hues of blue in my embroidery while working on designs like this. Tea pots are also cherished treasures I collect............either in dishware or in embroidery.I  stitched it on a little dish towel that has dark blue pin stripes running through it.

Do you have a favorite type of dishware that you like to collect?

 

I stitched the top rim of the pot and the spout, as well as  the knob on the lid in a darker blue. The flowers were embroidered in a lighter shade of blue.

I also embroidered the handle tip in a darker shade of blue. I almost embroidered the floral spray in blue and white, however, I wanted the tea pot to stand out...............the rose colored petals and green vine worked well with this............don't you think?

To finish it all up, I put a floral blue and white edge to the bottom of the towel along with a decorative blanket stitch.  It gives it a "cottage look"..........I think.

How about you?

Do you collect tea pots or blue and white dishware?

I would love to hear!

Thanksgiving is here..............

And I want to take the time to wish all of you who stop by here to visit a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving. We are blessed as this is a time where all of my family members get the chance to "slow down" and to get a break from the "busyness" of life. I have planned out a wonderful Thanksgiving meal for family and friends and then I hope to get in a few stitches of some new projects I am beginning. Are you expecting a house full of guests?.................or are you traveling?

Will you get the chance to slow down and stitch or create something?

While I am away and if you tire of reading my past posts, I have a wonderful

 wonderful cobbler recipe for you to try............just hop over to my country cooking blog........

My Country Kitchen

. If you would like to read about my life on the farm that  I am trying to create..........hop over to my country living blog...........

Eggs In My Pocket, A Needle In My Hand

and meet some of the critters that I share every day life with.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

My Life A Little Less Crazy...........is finished!

I am so delighted with how it turned out....................and I have to say..............I will probably do another quilt.....................someday.This measures about 20 x 16 inches and is ready to hang. I backed it and binded it with a floral green fabric, that was soft enough in color to let the embroidery stand out.

This is the first "crazy quilt" I have ever stitched.

As you remember, a few short weeks ago,  I started this quilt with this one center block..........with the idea in mind to build around it............the things I hold dear in my life.

Soon  a butterfly and beaded flowers found their way to flutter and to bloom...........

as well as a beaded dragonfly.............

the spider web along with the crawling spider..........even though it might freak some of you out..........represents the love I hold for  nature's insects............... and then there are pumpkins that I grow every year. As you look through each photo..........notice the different embroidered borders I used to stitch the blocks together? Some I used in traditional "crazy quilt" method and some I used my "creative license" to stitch..

Another sweet insect.............the lady bug, crawls on the leaf

of a cluster of roses.  I embroidered on all of the printed roses, leaves and flowers as I went along.

I added some embroidered sample pieces I had of my embroidery...............

and I had to add a set of china...........another thing I love. I stitched over the roses on the china to make the design pop.

I love flowers that grow wild and on the vine so I went a little "more crazy" with these.........

another snippet of embroidery work.............

my favorite fabric that I used years ago for my children's nursery............I stitched over the flowers and added the bumble bee............. when I see this piece.........I think of my family and the sweet times we shared.

I love trees and leaves..................

especially in the fall............

and of course............I had to add my rooster walking among a cluster of blackberries.........to represent my country life of raising chickens. I embroidered over the printed rooster and added some color to his tail.

The blackberries were made by sewing clusters of seed beads together..........I totally love this effect.

I finished the quilt and was ready to put the backing on.............when my sweetie husband said

"wait.............where is the needle and thimble??" He was so right...........that is exactly what sums up my life............so I quickly added that to the corner.

It's been quite a journey doing this quilt. I loved the stitch techniques along the way and the way I was able to let my imagination take complete control in how this whole design worked out.

And now I am off in search of another project to stitch.

A new creature has landed

in the upper corner of my small crazy quilt.

Sometimes, while I am deep in the middle of working on a project............my creative flow comes to a halt and I take some time off to reflect and gather inspiration.............and sometimes, it flies right to me..........as a colorful dragonfly did one day as I was ambling along the pond's edge..............

A dragonfly at the pond's edge in November?.........you might ask?......

Yes, here in the part of Texas I live in, although some days and nights have gotten chilly, the weather is still warm and balmy, with wildflowers still blooming, bees still gathering at the water dish and ............dragonflies at the pond.

Life is sweet.

After I watched it dip into the water and eventually buzz away, I quickly went to work at creating it for my quilt. . I embroidered the legs with regular embroidery floss, and I then embroidered it's wings with a decorative gold filament kind of thread that I usually use in counted cross stitch. I then whipped over the inside wing veins with a metallic blue filament thread.

 I then embroidered the dragonfly's head with a decorative silver, rose embossed bead, and for the body I used a gold bead. I then used jewel toned bugle beads for the tail and one jewel toned seed bead at the end of the tail.......making the dragonfly look as if it is ready to take off in flight.

How about you?

In your area, is it still warm enough to see bees.....dragonflies......or a graceful butterfly perhaps?

I would love to hear.

In my early days of designing..............

I was a little shy to "let the sky be the limit" in my designs........staying simple and secure in my "comfort zone". Taking a step into the water...........slowly. Although it looks quite simple...........I have to say, this little house sampler holds a special place in my heart. I designed it when I was a young mother of 3 small children and we were living in our first home............a fixer upper in a scary neighborhood. Yet within the walls of this old house and surrounded by my world of happiness, I tried to express that through my needlework design. That is why I have  hearts coming out of the chimney..........something that has now turned out to be my trademark and for the customers who know me well...........they know to look for that in certain designs.

As you can see..........house designs are one of my favorite......and even though we were still living in the "unfixed" fixer upper..........I had a dream of a home out in the country...........

with the picket fence.............more full bodied trees and yes...........those little love hearts coming out of the chimney.

Years have passed and my life has turned into a mother of 3 grown children and I live in the middle of mesquite filled woods with coyotes for neighbors.

Although I had worked these previous designs in cross stitch...........hand embroidery is my passion over all...........so I decided to make a sampler with hand embroidery, instead of cross stitch.

A country cottage..........with those hearts still flying out of the chimney.

I really liked stitching this piece in regular embroidery stitches.

I did not stitch a date on this sampler..........there is still room to do so ..........and I think I should add it..................as it shows the difference in how I design today.

How about you?  Have you changed the way you design, embroidery, paint, or in any other area you are creative?

Do you have a "trademark" that is known in your work?

I would love to hear!