Patriotic Betsy.........

I know, I know,.... a post 2 days in a row from me...?..... What in the world??  I nearly pulled an all nighter (anything after midnight is crazy late for me!)....But I just had to show you my Patriotic stitch.... Once I get on to Patriotic colors I somehow stick with them for a while...........! So, get ready.

Betsy

Sheepish Designs

40 count Vintage Pearled Barley

npi silks as called for

This is a design I have kitted up for a little while now and happened to have with me. I have to thank my good friend Nicole for sending me a couple snippets out of her npi stash... She is the "Queen of npi" and mailed me a few colors I only needed a smidge of....thanks again Nicole~~

Only if you are familiar with this design will you notice I omitted the date and opted to customize this piece with a piece or two of wool...Had to put my spin on things....

And, I satin stitched in the peacock's feathers....

texture, I seemed to want to offer more texture to this design......

Not only is there a nice peacock, but this flower has many sweet birds flying near it....

And, I have to tell you....

since this design is a mere 4" by 12 1/4", I plan on doing another "non-traditional" finish....

Before I give you that hint, I really must reply to a couple questions from my last post ...

I found the LHN~A Stitcher's Heart kit at Country Sampler (here)...They are the best ladies to deal with and I find the  most unique items there....

 As for the question about rouching the rick-rack....I think the directions in the kit are wonderful and I followed them to the letter...Running a long thread through the rick-rack and slowly gathering it up...Then, once I evened up things, I used thread that matched the rick-rack (C/C BeanSprout) and did a blind hem stitch around the perimeter of the heart tacking the rick rack to the heart.... Email me if this isn't clear as I will be glad to offer more exlplanation....

Lastly, the idea to make a fold in the back of the heart with my backing fabric is used by many sewers and I just remembered reading about that technique on someones tutorial....I wish I could take full credit for thinking it up totally on my own....Try it though, you will be pleased with the outcome!

So, as I sign off to finalize my finish of my stitched Betsy piece, I leave you with these photos just to give you a glimpse of what might be running through my head !!....

Oh! Many a congrats to Linda P (stitchhag on 123 MB),

as she became a  grandmother again  yesterday!

Congrats to the entire family and welcome little sweet Miss Roxie~~~

Many smiles and blessing to all of you!!!

Faye