Catch The Wind

April  2003

Sometimes you see a cross stitch charts and you know straight away that you want to stitch it but for some reason you feel that the colours the project is stitched in just aren’t right for where you plan to hang the finished piece.

That’s exactly what happened when I first saw a picture of ‘Catch The Wind’  in a magazine. 
It’s a Marilyn Leavitt Imblum counted cross stitch design from her Butternut Road line.

I really loved the picture but the colours were just too dark for the walls of my craft room where I wanted to hang it, so I set to and had a go at changing the thread colours to fit my décor.

In the end I decided to stitch on Pale Blue evenweave fabric and stitched the little girls dresses in pastel shades of Yellow, Green and Blue. 

When it was finished I had it framed in a Blue frame with a Yellow mount which complemented the stitching and matched my Lemon walls.

Celtic Christmas (Lavender & Lace)

August      1998             

I love stitching Christmas designs especially when they are by one of my favourite designers Marilyn Leavitt Imblum.

Apparently the inspiration for this particular piece, ‘Celtic Christmas’ from a company called Lavender & Lace came to her after seeing Loreena McKennitt a concert .  She’s a Canadian  singer who plays the harp, accordion and piano as well as writes music with Celtic and middle eastern themes.

This design is of a young lady wearing a flowing Red dress with beautiful Gold work around the bottom and she carries a wreath and candles. 

The Celtic theme is picked up in the beaded border and the word ‘Noel’ features across the top of the piece gives it its Christmas feel.

When I think that this picture cost me almost £80 to have framed,  it was a bit of an extravagance really, but then again this stitching lark isn’t a cheap hobby.  When you take into consideration the time it takes to complete, almost eight months in this case, it’s worth every penny to have it framed the way you really want it.

It’s stitched on 28 count Linen in a subtle Dusty Green colour which really complements the deep Reds and Gold’s of the threads and the stitched area measures  approx. 30 x 44 cms.

DMC Threads

321           356           433           434           435
469           498           498           754           758
780            781           783           801            814
815            898            934           936           948
3371         3820         3822         3823

                                                                                                      
Specialty Thread
DMC metallic floss  284Z

Mill Hill Beads
00557
02011
03003
62020

Oh Christmas Tree

October      1996            

Towards the beginning of 1996, around about February I decided it was time to start work on a Christmas project. 

It was going to my biggest project to date, the stitched area measuring 42 x 35 cms  and it involved not only counted cross stitch on even weave fabric but also lots of beading,  so I knew I was going to have to start work on it early if I wanted to have it framed and on my wall in time for Christmas.

The design………..Oh Christmas Tree, another Marilyn Leavitt Imblum design for a company called Told in a Garden. 
As with her Catch the Wind, the design is full of detail and shading and I simply fell in love with the picture of two Victorian children dressing a Christmas tree when I saw a finished sample of it on a wall in my local needlework shop.

By mid-October  I had finished all the stitching  and spent the next couple of weeks adding all the beads before taking it back to the needlework shop for them to send it away  to be framed. 

Here's the finished project.  

It's really such a shame that it's only hung on the wall through the Christmas period but each December it has pride of place about my fire surround.

The finished piece measures 60 x 66 cms and looks quite imposing In its double mounted frame .