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Santa Fe Garden


Last August I got to spend a few beautiful days in Santa Fe eating great Northern New Mexican food and wandering through the Plaza and up Canyon Blvd.  I brought my camera and I filled the memory card with pictures of adobe buildings, doors, windows, trees and flowers.  I was sure I would be able to get a design or two out of the trip.

My first attempt was a thread painting I did during a class at the local needlework store.


It was done quickly without much planning but it has the basic elements of what would become the cross-stitch design.

I went back to my photos to find the design elements I wanted to include.

Hollyhock ...


And more hollyhock ...


and yarrow ...


 and faded wood doors ...


And flowerpots.  Somehow I didn't get any pictures of the flowerpots but they where just glorious so I had to include one.

So there they are the elements of my Santa Fe Garden Sampler.  I wanted the adobe to be the linen showing through the stitching.  At the needlework store I rooted through the bins of hand-dyed linen.  There was a very mottled terra cotta color but it was a little agressive for me so I settled for a lighter tan.  The fabric was slightly mottled but it turns out you can't see any of it so the hand-dyed effect is lost.  I'm tempted to go back and see if they have any more of the terra cotta fabric.

Or maybe I'll save that fabric for the next Santa Fe design.  I'm sure there will be one sometime soon.

This pattern is available at http://www.patternsonline.com/.

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  1. Carolyn McNeilFebruary 13, 2010 at 7:24 AM

    Keep us posted on your progress - I'd like to see the finished piece...
    Carolyn
    http://www.stitchopedia.com
    An encyclopedia of needlepoint stitches…

    ReplyDelete

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