Red Tea Set

I wish this were a real tea set! I love the look of this tea pot in red with delicate gold accents:I stitched this using red pearl cotton and this gorgeous gold metallic flossI used some images from the Tea embroidery pattern:I used one of the matching teapot sugar and creamer sets along with the appropriately sized tea word: This would look really good on a tea "cozy":or in a picture frame: but I think I am going to frame this in a wooden embroidery hoop, decorate the hoop with red and gold ribbon and give it to my sister! It should look nice in her kitchen and she loves tea!
I hope you noticed - and were impressed - that I used the double knot stitch on the decorative stripes and the herringbone stitch for the gold bands!

100 Stitches - Roumanian Couching Stitch

Time for another 100 Stitches! I have just learned how to do the Roumanian Couching Stitch. According to 100 Stitches, this stitch is useful for filling in large areas. For my demonstration, I am going to use it to stitch this heart from the Be Mine Valentine embroidery pattern:and here it is: Isn't this a beautiful stitch?! I think it did a very nice filling job! Another plus, this was an easy stitch for me to learn. To show my progress, I am starting at an area of the heart that will take a full line of stitching...this will be easier to see than a little short line like you would have at the edge of the heart. So the first instruction was to come up through the fabric at the left or top of the shapeBring the floss all the way across the shape and take a small stitch on the right or the bottom of the shape. Make sure the working floss is to the right of the needle here: Pull the floss all the way through: Now cross over the floss line and take a small stitch under the floss line: Pull all the way through: again, cross over the floss line and take another small stitch under the floss line:pull all the way through:again, cross over the floss line and take another small stitch:pull all the way through and you are right in the perfect spot to start the whole process over again: You just fill in the whole shape with these lines of stitching!This stitch is #68 and is in the Couching and Filling Stitches section of 100 Stitches.

Ladybug Embroidery Pattern Packet

I really enjoyed stitching this little ladybug and whimsical mushrooms: This is one of the images from the new Ladybug Embroidery Pattern Packet:Can you spot all the different stitches I used? I used the back stitch, french knots, chain stitch, satin stitch and the long and short stitch! One of my favorite parts of a new embroidery project is the selecting of colors! I knew red and black would be on the short list...but for the rest, I relied on my color wheel:
I selected red as the "pure color"
according to the color wheel, the tetrad, or four colors that will make a nice relationship with red are orange, yellow, purple and blue. I didn't want to use blue, so I tried again, using orange as the pure color:
The four colors for orange are red, yellow, purple and green! Perfect!I have listed the pattern packet in the big B Etsy shop.