Sue Hillis Cross-Stitch Designs Blog

Posted on March 3rd, 2010 by Sue
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Posted on February 15th, 2010 by Sue
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These two were so fun to design!  I had two of my grandchildren in mind when I worked on these…Ella (age 3) is a girly girl, and Jackson (age 5) is all boy!
I also recalled favorite toys from when I was young and added them ALL into these two pieces because I like to stitch pieces that have a lot of components.

L431 Thank Heaven for Little Girls

These two fit perfectly into 8″ x 10″ frames when stitched on 14/28 count fabric. 

L430 Thank Heaven for Little Boys

Also included are color numbers for African American, Asian, and Latino skin
tones so you can truly personalize these designs to suit yourself.  These two leaflets should be available from your favorite shop at the end of the month. 

Posted on February 14th, 2010 by Sue
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For a while it seemed like these pirate designs took over my entire life…lucky for my sanity, I have a new series coming mid-March featuring angels…but more on that later!
I’m not saying that there won’t be more pirates…as you can see here, there are still more in my design file.  It’s amazing how circuitous a design can be…a friend gave me one idea (that hopefully can be used eventually if I can find a rum bottle charm), that evolved step by step into a whole new design “Burnt to Perfection”.  So the final design, is often a surprise to me!
I think “Burnt” will be a great seller, especially for Father’s Day, don’t you think? 

PS157 Burnt to Perfection

And with record breaking snowfalls this year, I thought the pirate snowman was the perfect stitch while we sit waiting for Spring to arrive!  When our family was deciding on where we wanted to live after my husband retired from 22 years of military service, we decided to settle here in Virginia.  We wanted the change of seasons and the little bit of snow we experienced here in two tours at Fort Lee.  So, that was more that 20 years ago, and aside from a few minor snowfalls over the years, there was just no snow!  Well this year makes up for it!  We have literally piles of snow everywhere and so far, I still love it!    L432 Shiver Me Timbers

These two designs are going to be introduced at the Nashville Market next week and your favorite shop should have them soon after that!  Enjoy the stitch!

Posted on February 14th, 2010 by Sue
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TaDa!!  Here is my living room tree…this one is the favorite because every ornament has a special mean to our family.  However, as we were decorating this tree this year, we realized that even though we KNOW there is history behind each ornament, our memory takes a bit longer to recall the connection!  For instance, there is a tiny llama on the tree, which I was trying to connect to a good friend in Australia (Hi, Kristeen!) who has llamas on her farm…but then I didn’t actually remember getting this particular llama from her which confused me.  Several days later, it hit me…when my oldest son was in preschool he went to a local petting zoo where he stuck his finger in the llama cage and was bitten very slightly but we had to take him to the doctor’s for a tetanus shot…THAT was the llama story!  

 
To provide some semblance of order, some of the branches have themes.  The top 12″ of the tree is filled with angels who represent our daughter in law who lost her life way too early. 

 There is a branch of needlework ornaments that dear friends have made me; there’s a branch dedicated to the beer served at my son’s wild party when we first left him on his own for a weekend (20 years later, I am still learning some of the goings-on!); one branch holds German ornaments when represent the 5 years our family spent there while John was in the Army; another branch holds beautiful glass ornaments of sweets (does that need further explanation?) 

That Smokey the Bear reminds us of when John caught on fire while buring leaves–a few minor scars but more to his ego than his body.  The green and red silk balls are just two of many that I made while John spent our first year of marriage in Viet Nam.

 
So these are my trees.  I hope you enjoyed the tour.  A lot of you have commented asking how I get it all done…after I get through the holiday, I will post a blurb about how it all happens!   I hope you and your families have a wonderful Christmas holiday!

Posted on December 24th, 2009 by Sue
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We have a landing which is really the grandchildren’s playroom…at least that is what we built it to be.  It overlooks the living area and who knew the acoustics would magnify every laugh and scream to 5000 decibels?  Anyway, as long as there are not more than 3 of them together at a time, the sound is bearable…besides, what kind of grandma would tell them to stop the glee?? 

This tree is our tribute to the red, white and blue.  Having been a military family, patriotism is in our blood. 

 The flags were all tea-dyed by me, those hobby horses were made from more of those flags which I found at a craft show—lucky me, they are WONDERFUL and such a clever use of all the flag parts, even the stick!  The toys are all red, white, and blue—I find them wherever.  The top of the tree is a Muffy bear dressed in her finest Lady Liberty outfit and she’s holding a flag.

This arrangement is on the landing on the stairs.  I love this basket–it’s a World War 1 ammunition basket and it’s about 26″ wide and 32″ high.  There are four partitions in it that each held a round of ammo.  During the rest of the year, it sits on my mantel holding sunflowers…from ammo to sunflowers!

Posted on December 24th, 2009 by Sue
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This is the tree in the master bedroom…these are the kind of ornaments that we used on our tree when I was a child.  They were magical then for me, and they are still magical. 

These are not my actual ornaments which is a shame because we had some that came from my Dad’s family that had his birth year (1913!) on them.  In his later years, forgetting that those were cherished ornaments Dad gave the box of them to his cleaning lady when he was in a downsizing frenzy.  When we found out a week or so later, we called the cleaning lady and begged for the ornaments back but she said she had “disposed of them”…so sadly, those are long gone.  These are ebay replacements—no history, but every bit as pretty.  The colors are now faded and the look is very soft but it just sparkles.

Posted on December 23rd, 2009 by Sue
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This is more of a “boy’s room” than the girly guestroom downstairs.  The tree here is decorated with a group of teddy bears that used to be a serious collection.  We had a German exchange student many years ago and many of the teddy bears were sitting in a wagon wearing Halloween costumes that I made for each one.  It seemed like that was the only serious memory she took back home…I am sure she is still telling people about the crazy American lady who dresses her bears for Halloween!  Anyway, I put all the smaller bears on this tree, plus some tin tea sets, and I found some really cute little handmade Raggedy Anns and Andys many years ago at yet another craft show.  The base of the tree is filled with old children’s toys and books.  

  The bed has a number of Christmas needlepoint pillows–no, I did not stitch them, most were given to me by my sister and she didn’t stitch them either! 

The “Skates Sharpened” sign was painted by my friend Tony who owns Feathernesters in Richmond (a WONDERFUL shopping experience!)

Posted on December 23rd, 2009 by Sue
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This tree is in the family room in the area where we watch tv.  I have always been drawn to arks…I love old toys and animals!  And over the years, I have had a lot of arks…some of which were played with too hard and so the animals ended up on this tree.  Those two birds at the top are from folk artist Nancy Thomas of Yorktown…I found some of her work at a local craft shop before Nancy was famous and her prices were affordable.  There are also a group of painted paper ornaments (see the lion) that are just beautiful in their shading and facial expressions also from early craft shows. 

 And my favorites are from my grandchildren.  I filled in with papier mache stars painted gold.

Posted on December 22nd, 2009 by Sue
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I really have to work to squeeze this tree into my kitchen…which is small but efficient.

I bend the back branches to the sides so the tree can scoot up to the wall as closely as possible.  I used to have a tree on the island counter top instead of this one but I would rather give up floor space than counter space.  This is another red and white color scheme!  A collection of old kitchen baking toys, cookie cutters, gingerbread men, and some cottage-y looking newer ornaments decorate this tree.  The red and white gingham balls I found on ebay—they’re from the 50’s which probably is the reason I am drawn to them…maybe we even had some of them on my childhood tree! 

I used to have a lot of delightful real gingerbread ornaments that were dipped in wax to preserve them.  They had little plaid gingham scarves…one day I came home to find NO more gingerbread on the lower branches and the scarves were all piled up by the dog’s bed!!   I know Maggie thought they were mighty tasty!

Posted on December 20th, 2009 by Sue
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