Back in 2019 before all the crazy, my husband took me to Las Vegas and a trip to Vegas means a visit to Stitchers Paradise. Well usually, DH stays in the car but it was just too hot this time and he came into the store.

I was in the back room fondling fabric when DH comes over with the 6 patterns from Magical Mystery Tour by Blackbird Designs and asked if I would stitch them for him.

He doesn’t ask me to stitch things very often and it meant I could get 6 patterns which I kind of liked.

As we were heading home I was looking over the patterns and DH asked if it would be possible to stitch them all on a single piece of fabric so he could hang it in his office.

I pulled Gentle Arts Sampler Threads at Shepherd’s Bush and somehow I ended up with very yellow greens.

But here we are 4 years later and I’ve stitched all 6 patterns on one piece of 28 count natural linen from my stash. I stitched it 1 strand over 1 thread.

I’m going to digress for just a minute and give a mini tutorial on 1 over 1 stitching. When stitching 1 over 1 its easiest to cross each stitch as one does it. The bottom stitch always goes the same direction. The key is the direction to go for the top stitch. Every + of the thread will have a bottom thread going either – or |, one wants to cross under this bottom thread in order to make the top leg of the x. Doing this helps keep the stitched threads from slipping under the fabric threads.

So every one who has seen my arrangement of Magical Mystery Tour has loved it and many have asked for my layout.

With the reaction, I figured I wanted to enter it in the state fair which means I needed it framed. My framer has an 18 to 24 month wait for framing. I took it up and luckily, I had a piece which was coming to the front of the line so we swapped places and the piece which had been about to be framed moved back to the end of the line and Magical Mystery Tour was now in its place.

I love the work that Rensel Studios does.

It’s home and I’m still getting a lot of attention for having stitched it. I’m looking forward to taking it to the fair. Along with Stars for a New Millennium which was framed by Dustin of Art and Frame Station in Murray, UT.

Dustin knows how to stretch Needlepoint and was willing to hand cut the mattes for me. Not many framers who know how to do either of those things anymore.

In a month, I’ll let you know how the fair goes.