Needle Delights Originals

I finally can show you a photo of all of Stained Glass Stars ! The patterns are off to distributors and shops today! This was a really fun piece and was stitched all with Watercolours except for the background which is an overdyed floss from Threadworx. It finishes at 13x13. I included six additional colorways in the pattern and you can see photos of them on my website . Also now available is Color Delights - Lemon . When I took a good look at the Color Delights as a group last fall, I realized I only had one design that was yellow (Sunshine). Since yellow is such a happy color and we could sure use some sunshine around the country about now, Lemon is the perfect project to head towards spring! Hope you're staying safe and dry wherever you are - it's a cloudy rainy day here - perfect for stitching but I'm mailing kits for classes and packing to head to Texas on Thursday. Kathy

I've had trouble adding photos to my blog and finally figured out a way to work around it and get some added so here we go!  Here are a few photos I've recently received from people who've done awesome things with some of my Color Delights patterns! First up is Rainbow - Jodi B. added two borders to my original design and really elevated it!  Jana B. has been working on what she calls her "Color Delights Mashup" and just sent me a photo of the finished piece! She was inspired by  this post.  She did a great job and even changed some of the colors to use the designs she wanted.  I've just finished Stained Glass Stars, which I will be releasing next month. There will be alternate colorways listed in the pattern - I'll show them to you later but here's my finished stitching. Next up is writing the instructions - definitely not the fun part! This is the last week to register for my Shining Needle class "Hope & Love...

Wishing you much love and hope and all the strength, courage, and energy to make 2014 the best year ever. While I enjoyed the holidaying, stitching, and quilting in December, I'm actually looking forward to "getting back to work".   I've just finished stitching (woohoo; I already have a finish for 2014!) a second colorway for a new design I think will be offered through     Shining Needle Society.   Here is the first colorway I did and I’m calling it "Hope".  I have a very close friend who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer so this one is pretty close to my heart and will eventually be sent to her. She was actually diagnosed after I had this done...   I’m calling the second colorway “Love” as it represents my support of the American Heart Association and especially, Women's Heart issues.  Working with red is always a challenge as it doesn’t shade well but I’m happy with the way this turned out.  When I photographed the...

I'm back from two weeks vacation and have had to drag myself back to the computer to work again. I spent the first week of vacation in Shipshewana, Indiana at the Dear Jane quilt retreat. I missed going last fall so it was especially wonderful to see old friends and meet some delightful new ones as well. The weather was interesting the last day we were there - these two photos were taken 10 minutes apart! It was fun to see snow the last day we were there and a relief to not see too much of it on our drive home the next day!   I stitched all the way up on the drive but spent the rest of the past two weeks doing hand applique. I'm hoping to put a quilt in our local guild's quilt show in April and was able to get a lot accomplished but I still have to stay on task the next few months! I finished up the 40 applique blocks for the quilt - here are the last ones I finished up at the retreat - I'm not sure what I was thinking when I picked out the brown flowers in t...

I've been home for a week and am just about caught up! It's a good thing since I'm leaving again next Sunday! This time I'm going to Shipshewana for a quilting retreat with my mom - we go every year but missed last year because we were in Santa Fe. We're so looking forward to seeing our friends, quilting, relaxing, and of course, shopping and eating! This is one of my favorite weeks of the year and is total ME time - no work although I will check emails sporadically. I had the most fabulous time in California - I taught two classes at Needle in a Haystack in Alameda. My students were wonderful and came from all over - east coast, Phoenix, Canada, and even England! Here's Annie from England - I had a special connection with her as we share the same birthday!   Here are a couple of fairly new canvas stitchers - they caught on quickly and were a teacher's dream!       Here's some of the class on the 2nd day - such fun ladies!    ...

Boots wanted to come but I didn't pack him! I'm leaving on a jet plane early in the morning and will land in Oakland tomorrow night (my time). I'm gaining two hours going so I'm thinking it will be good stitching time! Friday, I'll be spending the day oogling threads at Needle in a Haystack  and then giving a lecture on color. Saturday and Sunday I'll be teaching two classes and am especially looking forward to meeting one of my online students who is coming from Canada. She sent me a photo of her framed "Inchies" and it's fabulous! The framing and adding the black sashing makes it look very dramatic and elegant!   Until next time... Kathy

I received this photo from Gretchen at Threads, LLC in Charlottesville, VA ( http://www.threadsinva.com/ ) - she took Color Delights "Shamrock" and modified and enlarged the design by repeating it and changing the colors. I think she made it fabulous. She told me they're also stitching it in a jewel tone colorway and will be offering it as a future class. I love what she did with it - it made me think "Shamrock Garden"! I can't wait to see the jewel tone version!   Before I went left for National Seminar, my mom made a quick visit and brought some finishing she'd done for Marilyn H. in Texas to show me. She made BlackJack into a fabulous tote bag and here are a few photos of it. I wish I could have kept it!       She also had finished Spring Logs and Summer Logs into pillows - this is the best photo of Spring I've been able to get...     Below is a photo of Winter Logs stitched by Marilyn - she added a border with T...