Happy New Year!

Hello everyone,

          I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to move on to this new year of 2015 with lots of stitching projects and finishes.  I can't tell you how busy I've been since mid-November with meeting deadlines, getting 3 private on line SAL's going and finishing the stitching for the Mayflower Rose Needlework Smalls.  Now all I have to do is assemble them, take pictures while doing so, write the finishing instructions and get the charts printed so I can put them on the retail market by the end of January.  I think you will be pleased with the set and I will be sure to post pictures of it when it is complete.

          I've also been busy finishing the design for the Sampler Guild of Georgia/Magnolia Sampler Guild for a class I'll be teaching in April.  I'm so looking forward to seeing Georgia in the springtime.  It will be my first visit there and I can hardly wait!  Here is a sneak peek at the sampler:

This design has been a labor of love for me and I am so going to need to be in my bionic stitching mode in order to finish it before April.  The floral motifs on either side of the chimneys are cotton plants.  I'll be stitching the cotton bolls using "Whisper" to give them the fluffy, cotton like appearance they need.  I can hardly wait to see how they will turn out.  This design is being stitched on 40 count Vintage Pear by Lakeside Linens.  The colors of the flowers just pop on the fabric and it is a break from the usual beige linens I usually use.  The small bird motif  on the left side of the magnolia tree is stitched over one and is the Brown Thrasher, Georgia's State Bird.  I had to design it over one in order to get the detail I wanted but it will be well worth the effort once it is stitched.  I hope you like the sampler.  It is named "A Time Forever Gone."

          Again, Happy New Year and check back by the end of January to see pictures of the Mayflower Rose smalls.

Yours in friendship and stitches,

Theresa