This time of year makes me want to work with muted colors

in hues of yellow, like the Italian Jasmine that is blooming on the grounds,

and in pinks and creams.

This is still a work in progress which has cut work and eyelets stitched.

I chose 3 different muted and soft yellows for the large cut work flowers. A soft olive green for the stems and leaves, and

a very pale and soft pink for the daisies.

I wanted to show you and easier way to make eyelets instead of having to cut the fabric for the hole.

I have learned this technique that works wonderfully. Take a large upholstery needle and push it through the eyelet hole.

Keeping the upholstery needle inserted, come up with your stitching needle right against the large needle and whip all the way around, keeping stitches close together. Remove the needle and you find the perfect round eyelet. Push your stitching needle to wrong side and finish off.

Sounds a little easier? Maybe?

Here is the beginning of the cut work which I will show more of in my next post. The portion of fabric marked with small X's is the part that will be cut away once stitching is complete. The stitching used in the project is the closed buttonhole stitch. The string part you see is also threads that have closed buttonhole worked along them to create a bridge to hold the design once the fabric is cut away. How about you?

Do you like bright vibrant colors or do you like muted and pastels best?

I would love to hear!

*******just to let you know, I removed word verification for those of you who had problems commenting on my last post. Thank you for letting me know.

kathleen