I Did It !!!

I finished stitching on my Bluebird of Happiness canvas last night. I took a deep breath this morning and trimmed the edges, worked the piece into place and applied the fabric glue.

Just like that I had a finished wallet. How fantastic is that? Fortunately for me the sticky layer is rather forgiving and let me align the piece more than once. For those of us who like instant gratification and hate waiting weeks for a finisher to return a piece these Lee's Leather projects are perfect.

Bluebird and Wallet

This picture shows the black wallet I ordered from Lee's Needle Art, Inc. They have a wide range of styles to chose from and Robin Clark was most helpful. My canvas measures 2.75 inches by 6 inches, 18 count canvas. This size will fit into Lee's Barrel Bag, the Zip-Top and Regular Wallets and also the Checkbook. The best part is that you, the stitcher, can finish it at home. Each piece from Lee's comes with instructions for finishing, all you add is a bit of courage!

Of course, if you are more like the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz you can send it to your regular finisher. The Zip Wallet has lots of places for credit cards and money as well as a zippered compartment and a wrist strap. Each is well made in good quality leather.

Bluebird of Happiness

I've been taking it fairly easy this summer as you can tell by the lack of new posts. Sorry about that but sometimes you just have to wallow in slug mode. I decided to do something a bit on the fun side and this being a small piece, it should be a quick stitch. Using a piece of scrap canvas I painted a bluebird from my In My Garden series and added a pink flower with leaves. The area to be stitched is only 2.75 by 6 inches, 18 count canvas. When finished I will insert it into one of the Lee's Needle Art wallets. (see above post) At this point I have the background to finish and the brown center of the flower. I used threads from my overflowing stash so I didn't even have to make a trip to my LNS. The background is worked in a Mosaic stitch using Impressions. The bird's body is worked in a Criss-Cross Hungarian stitch using Splendor and Tiara for the shiny dots. The beak and tail are done using 2 shades of Soy Luster solids. The cheek is a Wound Cross stitched in Splendor and the wing is worked in Gold Rush 18 with Petite Sparkle Rays for the white Smyrna crosses. The flower is edged with Tiara and filled in with Splendor. And last but not least, the leaves and stem are worked in 3 shades of Splendor. All these stitches are rather basis and can be found in most needlepoint books.