My Valentine exchange to Paula

STOP!!! Before you maybe rush ahead to take a look at the stitched piece I would like to say a few words...Last year whilst visiting Nataliejo's blog I saw she had on two occasions stitched and finished little Shepherds Bush hearts. There is no real need for me to say... I absolutely fell in love with them (as I do all her exquisite needlework:) When I got Paula's name for this Valentine exchange from the SBEBB I was so excited on two counts... ;-) I know Paula is a BIG Shepherds Bush fan so much so she has even been to the Retreat there at the end of last year!! The other reason is with this being a Valentine exchange... here was my opportunity to stitch and finish a SB heart in the same style. I asked Natalie if she would mind me doing the same style of finish..... :-)))

So..... here we have below my version of the heart with the tassel finish. I used an old (1990) Shepherds Bush chart 'Father Yule' for the design, this is called 'Warm Hearts'. I stitched it on 40ct ivory with one strand. I used the stated colours but did make a couple of changes to the design to make it a bit more my own.

Heart Valentine Exchange to Paula

It had a section of writing that I did not want to put on. Instead of that, I decided to use one of my favourite pulled thread stitches and I added the line in underneath that section. Other than that it is as charted. This picture is closer so you can see the pulled work which is the cream on cream.

Pulled Work

I had decisions, decisions over the colour for the cording and tassel, first I did try ecru cording with a pink tassel as the contrast. I felt for the colours of the stitching it looked a little bit bland as it is quite pale. Then I re-made some more cording in the DMC 316 pink and a tassel in the ecru, this I was happy with as it brought the colours together and made it look alot richer :-))) I have finished the cording at the bottom of the tassel with a large pearl bead that I had. You can see this in the following picture below...

Cording, Tassel and Pearl bead

I have really enjoyed making this so cheers Natalie for the inspiration and I am really pleased Paula is so happy with it :-))) Another coincidence lol...it was Paula who stitched for me on the Needlework Smalls exchange, the redwork items a few postings below.





I really don't know how people manage to blog nearly everyday??? This must be a record for me:) I am going now to get on with my SAL on BD 'GOL'. I will be back before long, have a great weekend everyone and once again THANK-YOU very much for all of your visits to my blog that you take the time to do :-))