Hi, there! Soon it will be Christmas ... again ... already!

Here's a Santa ready to pop down the chimney. Have fun stitching it in time for Christmas.

Thanks, Microsoft, for the free clip art: MC900290678. I've used StitchPainter, and turned it into a needlepoint design for your personal non-commercial stitching pleasure.

Merry Christmas to all!

Medieval Christmas cookies baking in Pennsylvania: http://www.medievalists.net/2011/12/24/medieval-christmas-cookies-still-in-fashion/

Christmas in Milan: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2011/12/merry-christmas-to-all-and-hint-from.html

Merry Christmas to all!

Have you been good, or bad? Santa's making his list!

Santa's frantically finishing his toy list...have you been good, or bad, this year?

(Thanks, Microsoft, for the free clip art. This one is MC900285786, which I turned first into a StitchPainter diagram then into a BMP file to share with you here freely for your personal non-commercial stitching pleasure.)

Enjoy! and Merry Christmas!

Xmas gifts and candy cane

Winding our way to Xmas, here's a small do-able image of presents and a candy cane thanks to the free images of Microsoft clip art (thanks, guys!). I uploaded it into my StitchPainter program, and turned it into a BMP for your personal, non-commercial stitching pleasure.

Enjoy!

Frosty the Snowman for more holiday cheer

Here's another pattern of Christmas cheer...Enjoy!
(Microsoft, thank you, again, for your free graphics...this one's called "inverno"...turned into a StitchPainter diagram, then a BMP to post here for your personal non-commercial use, thanks.)

Christmas is nearer than you think...

It may be the second half of October, but considering how long it takes to do needlepoint projects, Christmas is nearer than you think.

So here's an adorable mouse I adapted from a free animated gif, turned first into a StitchPainter diagram then into a BMP image for your personal, non-commercial use (for any other use, please contact BOTH me AND the source of the image):

http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/christmas-food.shtml

Enjoy!

Another Christmas stocking: it's almost time for the "Befana"

One strike, and you're not out! In Italy, you have a second chance to get gifts. If you were naughty all year, and Santa brought you a piece of coal, be good for a few days and the "Befana" (an old crone witch riding a broom) just might fill your stocking the eve of the 6th of January, the day dedicated to the "Epiphany" of the visit and gifts of the Three Magi.

Here's a Christmas stocking for you, thanks, again, to the free clipart provided by Microsoft (this one is n. MC900245593, in case you want to hunt it down on their site). I turned it into a StitchPainter diagram and then a BMP to share with you for your personal, non-commerical use.

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas: panettone

Ahhhh, panettone. For those of you, who have not had the delectable privilege of eating (good) panettone, yet, here's an eye-opening Christmas surprise for you.

Here's a needlepoint/cross-stitch pattern of this typical Milanese Xmas treat, which I created by uploading a photo of "paola77" into StitchPainter, then turning it into a BMP for you.

To learn more about panettone and find the link to the recipe, please go to my blog on Milan: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/12/merry-christmas-panettone.html.

Merry Christmas to every one!

Christmas stockings on the brain

Here's another Christmas stocking. I designed it in 2004 for my dear sweet husband, Mario, so look for his name, the date and my initials to replace at will.

I captured my drawing, imported it into Stitchpainter, then turned it into a BMP just for your personal, non-commercial use.

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday (07)

Christmas tree

Here's a Christmas tree! Finally! The original free clip art image is on the Microsoft site, n. MC900439764. Thank you, Microsoft! There were a couple of others, too. Have to find something not just cute, but which translates well into the StitchPainter diagram, which I then turn into a BMP to share with you...for your personal, non-commercial uses, as usual! Enjoy!

(Today is a special day...you know who you are...Much MUCH love, Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to you and to us all!)

Angel clip art (01)

Here's the first of cute angel clip art uploaded from the free Microsoft clipart page (n. MC900199651), imported into StitchPainter, and turned into a bmp for your personal, non-commercial use.

Should be an easier image to needlepoint, or cross-stitch, than an image imported from a photograph, and the image is generic enough to serve all angel purposes.

Enjoy!

Angels...what would Xmas be without them?

I just realized that I haven't posted an angel diagram in this Xmas series, yet, so here's the first one. If you're not into the religious thing, the long cross shape should be pretty easy to turn into a trumpet.

I took a picture I snapped in July 2005 of one of the Bernini angels on the Ponte S. Angelo in Rome, imported it into StitchPainter, and turned it into a BMP, just for you and your personal, non-commerical uses.

Hark!

Candy Cane (without bow)

I had found a very cute candy cane with a bow on a free clip art web site (I underscore "free," because I do want to respect copyrights). "Oh, this will be a lovely needlepoint diagram for my needlepoint friends," I happily thought to myself. Well, the person putting the (I repeat, free) image on the net had figured out how to code it so it wouldn't cut and paste.

Too bad for you, Mr. Smarty Pants ClipArtist.

YOUR work is not being perpetuated.

Instead, here is a beautifully shaded candy cane--without a bow--courtesy of other free clipart pages...More......

I uploaded it into my StitchPainter program, then turned it into a bmp for you for your--as usual--personal, non-commercial use.

If you want to find the original, look up candy canes on the Microsoft free clip art pages. It's number MC900305465.

Credit happily cited.

Wordless Wednesday (06)

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Christmas garland

Here's another free Microsoft clip art (MC900234187), a real cutie, turned first into a StitchPainter diagram, then into a BMP for you.

Enjoy!

Santa checking his list

My kindergarten teacher was right. She told my mom that I and my little friend were her two "magpies"...couldn't stop talking. I have gotten better, I promise, and even find that it's so much easier to let others do the hard work of talking, especially at formal dinners, but Wordless Wednesday is turning out to be just about impossible for my needlepoint blog. It's already hard enough for my blog on Milan (http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com), where I'd like to be able to say where and when I snapped the shot, but for the needlepoint blog, if the original design isn't mine--as in this case--it's impossible...More......

When it's not my original design, I want to cite the source, and so if you want to see the original free clipart of this santa and his list, go to the Microsoft clipart gallery, and look up "Santa Claus." This image's Microsoft file name is, by the way, MC900098091.

Let me take this opportunity to remind you that my designs are free to you for your personal non-commercial use only...so Microsoft shouldn't worry about 'lil ol' me making Stitchpainter needlepoint and cross-stitch designs out of their free clip art.

More to come!

Designing: places to start

So, you want to make a needlepoint. You even have an idea about what it will become after being finished, AND you know to whom you'd like to give it. These two things already will...More......influence the design, itself. Let's say you've even settled on a subject, and have an idea about how you'd like the composition to be. Where to turn, next, in the absence of a pre-fab kit? Though a perfectly viable alternative--one got me hooked on needlepoint after all!--as I've mentioned it's so much fun to design one's own.

Looking through books of needlepoint patterns helps (if you're a beginning, I'd put off translating complicated images, such as a photo of your kid with his/her first b-day cake smeared everywhere but in his/her mouth).

Start with something simple, such as this little hand-done Xmas tree. If you have trouble drawing, then get yourself a kid's coloring book with the desired images in it, or hunt on the web. Once you have the image you want, you can trace it directly onto your canvas WITH A PENCIL, OR A WATERPROOF PEN, up against a window, in absence of a light box. It's a bit tiring, but works great.

Always remember to figure your initials and the year into the design from the very beginning!

Appliqués and scraps...it's later than you think!

Aaaaaah, the first real and delightful days of summer in this year of oddly tenacious cool weather and rain, here. "Thumbing" through other needlepoint web sites, however,...More......I saw Christmas patterns, already! "That's cute," I found myself saying, "but there's still lots of time." The small Xmas ornaments and the like didn't trigger any particular emergency messages in my adrenaline system...the Christmas tree skirt did.

I'm just guessing, but the total space to cover seems like it would be equivalent to at least two chair seat backs, seats and arm rests. For me, that's about two years of work in "needlepoint time."

How to remedy this problem? While using scraps of left-over canvas, too big to toss out, but too small to use easily, probably will provide you with small objects, such as tree ornaments, thinking "appliqué" also may let you kill two birds with one stone: use up those odd bits and pieces AND have a personalized tree skirt in time for Christmas.

Though not a Christmas theme, here's a good example of just such concepts. I needlepointed this image seen in a stained glass window, then used black trim to imitate the leaded canes around the crest, rather than needlepoint the whole surface of the pillow.