Christmas in June?

Today I worked on my Christmas Design! It's kinda hard to get into the Christmas spirit when it's 95 degrees outside! Now to order the supplies and decide on colors and then work on the stitching. I have several projects in the works...which reminds me of a post I read on one of my favorite blogs. The writer said, today I have stitcher's ADD, I've been jumping around from one project to another. I totally understood what she was saying...I just never knew what to call it. I guess we all have those days when you can't seem to settle on a project. BTW...I am looking for model stitchers. If you are interested, email me at gaylereger@aol.com and I will give you the details. Three more weeks until my Catherine Jorden class. I'm so excited...it's a combination of a little stitching, painting and dyeing fabric. I received the instructions for what to bring to class and it mentioned not to wear good clothes....so we are gonna have a great time! The rest of the summer is full for me....and before I know it...summer will be over. My husband and I are going to spend a week at the Gulf of Mexico right after my stitching class, then 2 weeks later I am off to Chicago for a conference and then back to Dallas for a second conference. So I have stitch when I can... I purchased a beautiful tote to make my stitching supplies a little more mobile. It has 3 cat faces and was designed by Laurel Burch who also designs needlepoint canvases. I'll get a photo of it and post it later. I hope you are having a great weekend!

Speak Kindly

This morning I put the last stitch in "Speak Kindly".  So off to the framer tomorrow.  I've enjoyed working on this series and hope you have enjoyed stitching it too.

I've had a few e-mails regarding how to stitch these as one...

When I designed them, I wanted each sampler to be 58 X 58 stitches.  If you choose to stitch them as one, you could stitch them horizontally and separate each sampler with about 10 to 20 stitches depending on your preference.  You could also leave off the individual borders and stitch one border around all four.  I kind of like the look of the individual borders.  They were designed so the colors would alternate using piney woods and peacoat.

You can also stiched them vertically for a different look.

So what's next...  Several years ago, I published a design called,
"Home is Where You Hang Your Needlework" which was very popular.  I still have people ask me where to find that design.  It's still out there in a few shops. I've also seen it on the web.  My new design is similiar to it, just a bit updated and a of course a new "saying".  It  will probably be released in the late summer.  I have an ornament that will be released soon and of course my two reproduction samplers that are in production right now.

It's funny...so many ideas....so little time!

 I hope everyone is having a great summer.  It is HOT here in Texas and it's only the middle of June.  Makes you wonder what the rest of the summer will be like!  We are in hurricane territory to I am hoping that we can get away with another summer without a major storm.

Love Generously by Abby Rose Designs

I've attached a photo of Love Generously.  It was released today by Hoffman Distributing so you can now order or purchase it from your favorite needlework store.

Thank you to everyone who has e-mailed to say they love this series.  As a new designer, it is always fun to hear what your thoughts are about my designs.  It also helps me decide what is next.  The final sampler is "Speak Kindly".  It will probably be released some time next month...it happens to be my personal favorite of the series.

Wishing everyone a great weekend and "Happy Father's Day to our male stitchers!

Send me pictures of your stitched series and I will happily post them on this blog! 

Today Was A Good Day!

Today was a good day! Another design back from the framer! Love generously is the third in my series and I have one last that is a work in progress right now. It's kind of funny how ideas for designs come to you. I have been playing around with the design for Speak Kindly for a couple of weeks now I have the basic idea for the design but was having some difficulties with the details. Then I was in my car on the way home from the grocery store and the idea suddenly came to me and I knew immediately what to add to Speak Kindly. That's usually how it works... So tomorrow I'll finish up the computer work and move on to picking out the colors and start stitching. By the way...Care Deeply was released today so you should be able to find it at your LNS or order it online. I'm also taking Ann Merchant to the framer next week. She is my first reproduction sampler. I had so much fun charting her. By the time, I was finished, I felt like I knew her. She was stitched by a very dear lady Lenore Ramos who stitched this sampler in record time....I think it was not quite three weeks. It's not a small sampler! So thank you Lenore, I can't wait for everyone to see your beautiful work! Tomorrow I will post a picture of Love Generously and maybe a peak at Ann! Hope everyone has a great weekend. Happy stitching.