"Amour" by The Collection

"Amour"

by Sallie Luedtke for The Collection

"Word Weights" are fairly simple hand-painted canvases.  They are quick to stitch and make great stash busters.  They have photos of several on their website.  I did the finishing on several of their other weights several years ago.  

I stitched this one for my daughter, Madeline, who likes all things girly and pink.  It is made in Rainbow Gallery Neon Rays for the background and Neon Rays + (sparkles!) for the word.  I finished it with a hot pink silk dupioni flat back, padded front, and custom cording to match the colors in the design.  I then bought sparkling glass hearts at Michael's Crafts and used some nice 4mm Japanese glass cube beads and seed beads I had in my stash for the bottom trim.  Beads and Beyond in Bellevue, Washington is a great bead store for those stash builders.

Larkin Jean Van Horn, a Seattle artist, had a nice little book for beadwork that explains how to do some of the fancier bead trim techniques.  It's nice to be able to refer back to it when my skills have gotten rusty.