La Vie en Rose!

  Hello to all.  Just a bit of good news that I wanted to share about my stitching designs - I am so happy that a major French publishing company, Editions de Saxe, which produces a number of beautiful creative publications, is interested in buying two of my designs!  They will, hopefully, appear in early 2013 - one for Valentine's Day, and the other a spring project.  So, I will have plenty to do in the next month or so, as I will also be stitching and finishing the pieces (which I quite like to do anyway, since that way I can see if colors etc are not working too well.)
  I only discovered French needlework magazines towards the end of last year, by chance really online, and I fell in love with them.  The designs all seem have a kind of typical French elegance and charm, even the simple ones.  They often also feature just a single color, or sometimes several shade variants of one color, and it is amazing just how effective this can be.  I also like the fact that most of the designs tend to be stitched on linen (often quite high-count, too) - in gorgous subtle shades of ivory, taupe, grey or natural.  Aida fabric does not seem to be all that popular - nor are lots of fractional stitches and backstitch.  This suits me - I find doing lots of backstitch totally boring, although I know it does have its place!
  If you would like to check out some of these magazines for yourself, here are a couple of websites.  A really good one, in English and several other languages, is the Italian needlework site, http://www.casacenina.com/. There's a lovely French magazine called Creation Point de Croix, which also has an English site, at http://www.creationpointdecroix.com/ .  Editions de Saxe, which I mentioned above, site is http://www.edisaxe.com/. This site is in French, but if you have some basic knowledge of French, or a French/English dictionary, you should be able to navigate around the site without too much trouble.

  Just a picture to finish off with - this is one of my little artworks, which I did a while ago;  it features two of my favorite subjects - cottages and teatime!  I am planning on adapting this into a cross stitch design - hopefully once I have completed these magazine projects, and also the Sweetheart Cottage design I am currently stitching.
  Hope you are all having a great week - and please let me know what you think of

The Mice of Rosebud Lane

  Hello!  Hope you are all having a good weekend.  In this post I want to tell you about something else I create, apart from my needlework designs and artworks.

  Many years ago I was given a little gray felt mouse as a gift;  she was tiny, no more than 2 inches high, and had a little felt jacket, lace collar and skirt made of tartan ribbons.  She stood on my dressing table for a long time, but eventually got lost during a house move.  Some time back I decided to try and make my own version of this little mouse - only a bit bigger!  After a couple of rather odd attempts, I got my first prototype pattern right, and started creating a whole village of different little mice. 

 I made a few as gifts, initially, and then people started ordering them for special people or occasions.  So, here are the first two I ever designed.  Camomile is one of my favorite mice, with her little teapot and hand knitted shawl;  I just had to take a photo of her with one of my lovely Royal Albert teacups!

  Another mouse I made for a friend, who is absolutely mad about knitting, is called Miss Purl;  she has a little knitted cardigan, and carries her needles and yarn with her wherever she goes.
 
These mouse stand around 13 cm (5 inches) high, and are completely hand stitched and crafted.  They are made from high quality felt, cotton quilting fabrics and natural yarns.  Should you be interested in ordering one, please send me a email at rosebudlane@gmail.com, and I will send you all the details, pricing and so on.  (Prices include airmail postage anywhere in the world).  I can also meet specific requests, as regards colors of dresses and so on.

 Some people have asked whether I supply patterns and/or kits of these mice - at the moment I have no plans to do so, but I am working on a book idea featuring all these mice and their accessories - so we'll have to wait and see about that!

 Anyway, back to the needles - I am working on a new cross stitch design called Sweetheart Cottage, that I hope to showcase on this blog very soon.  In the meantime, I hope you are all having a joy-filled weekend, wherever you are!
Smiles
Gail

Welcome to my new blog!

My name is Gail Bussi - those of you who are needleworkers may know me as a needlework designer, whose work has appeared in lots of different magazines and other publications.  Now I have decided to take a bold leap and start my own blog! - to share some of my designs and other things I create.

Apart from cross stitch and other forms of embroidery I also love - just for starters - art and design, writing, cooking and baking, teatime, and everyday simple joys like my little dog, Rosie. 

Some of my many dreams include:  writing cookbooks, getting my little artworks published as cards, fabric designs or in calendars, and - one day - opening my own little cottage teashop, with a section dedicated to selling stitched items and patterns, too.

Here is a picture of one of my latest cross stitch designs - this one will probably appear in a magazine in due course.  I decided to finish it slightly different to the usual framed piece;  it's a little bit lopsided, but I am pleased with the overall look on the fabric background, and hopefully I will get better with this finishing as time goes on! And my photography skills also need some work, I know.

I would love for you to leave a comment on this blog - it would be much appreciated.  If you prefer to contact me directly, please feel free to email me at:  rosebudlane@gmail.com.

Smiles

Gail