Wildlife canvases (and 1 floral!)

Yesterday I received about a dozen canvases from Melissa Shirley.  The first is about 18x18 square and is of  swallowtail hummingbirds.

When Melissa does these large canvases, she also does variations of the designs as 5x5 (18mesh) and 8x8 (13mesh).  Several of the 8x8 canvases I received were the blue heron and African grey parrots.

Another bird canvas I received was this one designed by Mary Lake Thompson and distributed by Melissa Shirley showing some yellow birds (chickadees? goldfinches?) on lemons.  I try to buy canvases featuring citrus products since Indian River County, the home of Vero Beach and Needle Nicely, is known for Indian River fruit.  If you have never tasted Indian River red grapefruit or freshly squeezed orange juice, you are missing a wonderful experience.

My customers need to be reminded of needlepoint cuff bracelets so I added this cattleyea orchid canvas.

I also received two 5x5 canvases featuring hydrangeas--this is one of them.  I have a lot of customers from New England where hydrangeas abound.  I also have fondness for them.  I have great memories of huge blue bushes on the side of Highway  321 from Blowing Rock to Lenoir, NC.  I wonder if they managed to survive the recent widening of the highway?  (Sad to say, I've been gone so long I had to check whether it was 321 or 221 or 421, all meeting in Boone and quite confusing!!)

I've been busy trying to get finishing to finishers in time for the Christmas cut-offs.  I feel especially fortunate that my ornament finisher is doing yeoman duty to get some finished in time for one of my customers to decorate a tree for the Festival of Trees the weekend before Thanksgiving.  She has already finished my petit-point creche and my local framer is working on the stable.  I'll show photos of the completed tableau before I give it to the festival organizers.