Lovely work from Japan and France

More wonderful delights! These projects were stitched by needlewomen from Japan and France.

First is An Emblem of Love stitched by Tomomi from Japan. Tomomi wrote, "I love your design. I used Brethren Blue Gentle Art thread and 40-count Wichelt linen." Tomomi personalized her sampler with her name and anniversary date. How lovely!

I was inspired by some of the old pattern books to create a series of stitched accordion-style books. In addition to the front and back covers, there are eight more pages of stitched alphabets, borders, and motifs. The models were stitched over one linen thread; this makes the books very small--they can easily fit in the palm of your hand. The little books look so cute standing up on a shelf, yet they are so small that you can easily tuck them in your stitching bag. If desired, you can stitch the pages over two linen threads to create larger books.

Dawn Lombard from Rochefort, France completed one of these books, Petit Carnet d'Ouvrages, Livre II. Dawn wrote, "Here are a few photos of my first With My Needle project. It was a real pleasure to do.

I used 32-count Murano fabric and DMC 815 thread. Even though I was a bit worried about the finishing techniques the instructions were really easy to follow and I managed it without any problems. I'm looking forward to starting my next project now -Petit Carnet d'Ouvrages, Livre I."

What a beautiful job, Dawn!! As you are well aware, this project has more stitching than first meets the eye.

Chi from Japan has finished not one but two of these little pattern books!! Wow--that is quite an accomplishment. Chi, your books look wonderful! You did a fabulous job!

Petit Carnet d'Ouvrages is French and translated into English means Little Booklet of Works. Veronique from France helped me when I was chosing the name for this series of books. She told me that "ouvrages" typically refers to "works done by women". Thank you, Veronique, for your help.