Heart to Heart

Two feet of snow does not make for ideal photographic conditions.  But I wanted to post these two cards I completed so we'll just have to deal with the blur.  You'll have to trust me that the real life versions of each are so much more appealing.

The first is destined to be a birthday card, but really could work as a very cute Valentine.  This panda is in honor of our new panda at the Washington National Zoo.  The design is by Durene Jones.  She offered a free Calender SAL for 2015 on her Facebook Group.  Each month has a charming little cartoon critter doing something appropriate for the month.  I think she's a master of the UK sketchy back-stitch style of x-stitch.  This one is done over 2 on 28 ct Cashel in a light mocha.

For an actual Valentine card, I turned to "Have a Heart" by Val's Stitchin' Stuff.   No matter how much tinkering I did, this photo ended up looking very washed out.  The whole thing pops nicely in person.   I think of this as a snowman begging Mother Nature to have heart  next time she decides to dump so much snow in this area!  This is done on 18 ct hand-dyed "Into the Sky" Aida from Sassy's Fabbys.

Finally got out to walk a bit yesterday and took the car out for an airing today.  But there is still a long way to go before normalcy returns.

Bouquet des Fleurs

Last September, my cousin gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.  Usually I stitch something immediately when I get news like this, but somehow it stayed on the back burner this time.  I'm happy that I finally finished a door hanger in honor of the new little one and especially happy that's it done before she grows up and goes to college!

I had picked out the design some time ago.  I wanted something feminine with an alphabet.  Once I saw "Bouquet des Fleurs" by Jardin Privé, it seemed like nothing else would do.  I was so pleased that I could purchase a PDF for this since those French patterns can be hard to come by in the U.S.    I modified the border to include all of the "baby facts".  It's stitched one-over-one on antique white Monaco fabric.  I used the suggested DMC colors with a few changes, notably the upper left orangey flowers and a slightly darker gray for the letters.  The bird was done in a random hand-dyed floss I had.  I was also determined to use finishing materials from my stash.  This sparkly batik seemed like the best choice from what I had.  There are a couple of layers of batting behind the stitched part only.  I like that look with the flatter border.  Probably doesn't show up that well in the photos.

Now we'll see how long it takes me to get it in the mail!