Stitching slump

Right now I'm in a stitching slump.  I'm trying to blame it on the busyness of "the season" that each year drains my creative energy--until I have time to recharge my creativity.  I have 3 projects currently in progress.  They are the star mini-stocking; the 13-mesh silent night pillow; and the personalized key fob.
None of them excite me.  I grudgingly pick one or the other up and stitch a strand or two.  Then, I put it down.  Ho, hum.  I've got to find a project that will jump-start my enthusiasm and let me finish each one of these boring projects while alternating my stitching with a more interesting project.  What can it be? I have several under consideration, but am hesitant to make a choice since it may turn out to be just as booooring as these.

To fill my stitching void, I'm going to feature a past class project from my pre-blogging years.  Amanda Lawford has a series of about 40 or so designs that fit the same format:  about 5x5, 13mesh, checkerboard border, dotted border.  Other than their individual attractiveness, from a needlepoint class standpoint their major plus is their similarity in design features so one stitch guide fits all.

Amanda has a multitude of designs in the center from this pig to a sheep, flower basket; rooster, and on and on.  I actually selected the pig for the model because I thought it would be the least popular with my students. 

This is the stitched canvas that has been inserted into a framed pillow.  Notice the tiny twisted cord of perle cotton that I had the pillow finisher attach to the join between needlepoint and fabric.  Usually I use a tiny fabric cording, but had no matching yellow fabric so fell back on this perle cotton.







This is a cut-out of the border elements.  First I did a row of black continental in silk 'n ivory.  Next a row of the fern stitch, again in silk 'n ivory.  Then a border of alternating Scotch stitch in silk lame braid.  Again a row of black continental and then the inner border of diagonal mosaic with a counted pattern of black dots.  The dots on the canvas aren't counted--I'm too much a former library cataloger to allow that, so I counted out a pattern. 

And the star, Needle Nicely's shop model.  If you look closely, you can see the silver push pins we have used to attach this to a wall that features other  canvases in this series by Amanda Lawford.