Color Palette Inspiration

 I have a new inspiration picture to add to my color palette journal. 

I think that this is a beautiful palette for a winter themed embroidery project - maybe one of these?

I am going to add this palette to my journal - the floss colors are {from left to right} DMC # 159, Kreinik Silver Metallic, DMC # 823, 3866, 931, 3833, 3774, and 160: 

I have a collection of vintage fashion and needlecraft books.  They offer so much color and design inspiration!

Embroidered Valentine Heart

I just finished stitching this heart from the Be Mine Valentine embroidery set.  Do you recognize the stitch inside the heart? 

It is the Cloud Filling Stitch! 

It is the perfect stitch for a large open area like this heart. 

The two floss colors I used are DMC Color Variations #48 {baby pink perle cotton} and DMC #349 {six-strand cotton}

Using my water soluble marker, I drew all the guidelines before stitching:

To outline the heart, I used the Pekinese Stitch:

Finally, I removed the hoop and washed out the water soluble guidelines:

Stem Stitch Shading

 A new stitch on the 100 Stitches list - this is Stem Stitch Shading. 

This very easy filling stitch is made by filling a shape with lines of Stem Stitch colored in evenly shaded tones from light to dark or dark to light:

First, I drew parallel lines to guide my stitching:

I started with the lightest green, this is perle cotton floss in DMC #3384 {light yellow green} and made two columns of Stem Stitch:

Then I made two columns with DMC #3347 {medium yellow green}

Next is two columns of DMC #895 {bottle green}and two columns of DMC #890 {black forest}

Then I repeated those columns in reverse from dark to light:

This was easy to learn and I really like the shaded effect.

I found the instructions for this stitch in the book Embroidery Stitches by Mary Webb.