thistles : The Silver Needle, Fine Needlecraft Materials


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Charming Arrivals by Thistles - Direct from The Netherlands! Liezbeth Gottshall has quite a collection of delightful Cross Stitch designs... you're going to love her things! We have a fun pumpkin curtain (!), cute baby pillows, day-of-the-week pin cushions, a multiplication table, stitched and stuffed sheep (you can make a flock of them!), a snowman penny rug, and some darling Christmas pillows! Everything is offered in chart format and stitched with Weeks and Gentle Art flosses. Unique designs, some different finishing ideas!
Odds & Ends Basket This is a really cool open-topped box, that sports needlework all around the edges and lining the inside bottom. Super cute, it's simply one of those brown paper mache boxes from Hobby Lobby, covered with all sorts of cute needlework and sewing motifs. The design that wraps all around measures 68 x 389 in stitch count... so it's 4 x 22 on 36ct! It would be cute finished flat if the box thing scares you. The inside bottom liner is about 95 stitches in diameter. Liezbeth has this charted for Gentle Art Sampler Threads or DMC, it's just the most charming project! I took several pictures all around the box to show you all the cuteness on it. Thistles has several other new designs this season... scroll down to see them all.
Red, White & Blue Summer - Quite the bold and cheerful line-up of Summer Cottages for feathered friends in your backyard. Finishing 8 x 8 on 36ct, it's stitched with regular 'ol DMC floss, and it looks great! I suppose you could switch to some hand-dyeds to give it a more weathered look, that'd be fun too. Baa Baa Black Sheep - Another of Liezbeth's half-round designs, this one sings the song. I see only two bags of wool on here though... coded for DMC or Weeks hand-dyeds, it finishes 5 x 8 on 36ct. Hello Spring - A mountain cabin surrounded by pines, this is just so peaceful looking. Charted for Gentle Art or DMC, it finishes 5 x 7 on 36ct. I love the cabin, the trees are awesome, and the sheep are swirly and just plain cute!
Mini Books - This chart includes 24 tiny 30 x 30 designs that Liezbeth has finished into little tiny 'books.' Coded for DMC or hand-dyeds. I have the models in the shop -- they are small and don't sit up very well, so I think they'd be perfect as little stand-up blocks, or tiny books that are attached inside one of your stitched sewing cases. They're fun, you want to 'page through' them... and I think finding them inside a case would be a fun surprise. Show & Tell at the Witches Retreat - Witches have stitch retreats too, you know! They're showing off their quilts instead of brewing! See, the cauldron is put away? Cats, bats, owls an spiders came along for fun. Stitched on 35ct Weeks Dolphin hand-dyed linen, this finishes about 4-1/2 x 8-1/2.
Some Cute Designs by Thistles All are offered as charts and travel here from The Netherlands! Counting on the Farm - is darling! One farmhouse, 2 horses, 3 tractors, 4 pigs... cows, sheep, goats and chickens round out the yard... all surrounded by a border of drying corn cobs! Finishing a generous 14 x 20 on 32ct olive green, this would be cute in a classroom or kids playroom. Coded for 23 shades of DMC or Weeks hand-dyed flosses, she has dominoes in the design to help teach counting! (Hence the dominoes glued to her frame. We brought home all her models - I have no idea how she carried this one over here in her suitcase, because it's pretty big!) Make it Bloom - A cheerful little log cabin with a blooming yard of colorful flowers! Finishing approx 8 x 10 on 32ct Summer Khaki linen, it is so pretty. Love it all - charted for DMC. Autumn - A unique-ly shaped pin cushion finishing treatment... might be fun to tuck these into a bowl of traditionally-shaped cushions and see if they are discovered! Worked with Gentle Art Sampler Threads, these are actually pretty good sized - about 5 x 6 on 32ct. Not a ton of stitching on them, but finishing is cute, and you could do a lot of decoration up by the stems. My Stitching Project Bag - This is a fun design - a nine-patch of sewing and stitching motifs. Each area is only 3 x 3 - so each would make a cute pin cushion to nestle together in a basket or box. They are stitched with DMC or Gentle Art Sampler Threads. Lizbeth finished this with a backside of clear vinyl to make a stitching pouch (shown as the right-hand model). She has finishing instructions in here, but maybe my pictures of the model will help you with visuals. Pretty cute!
Thistles has fun new designs! Liezbeth is from the Netherlands...and when we took our Silver Needle/Jeannette Douglas Tulip Time River Cruise to Holland two years ago... she met our group of 90 stitchers for a day with a huge trunk show of her things. It was delightful... and a neat memory. Flowershop comes straight from her imagination! Stitched with 23 different shades of Weeks hand-dyed flosses, I'm not sure how large it is... but I think about 8 x 15. I see three panels here... the little shop and all it's gardens of flowers and trees. It's so happy, I just love it! Hugs & KissesA pair of piggies in LOVE! Little piglets... all in pinks of Cranberry, Faded Rose, Tea Rose, Black Crow, Briar Rose, Red Grape and Antique Rose... and a skinny black kitty along with his plump ghosty friend... he thinks he's the witch, and he's riding the broomstick! Save a Pin - Oh my gosh... find an antique glass dish - one with the holes around the edge... Liezbeth designed a pin cushion center for her dish, and now it's perfect for storing scissors too! Find your dish, then decide on fabric count and colors to make it perfect!
Hilltop Village in Winter - This finishes Liezbeth's 4-season set... she traveled in southern Italy in 2019... and loved all the old villages on the hilltops and mountains. So we get smidgens of European villages all throughout the year. Finishing about 6 x 8... all of them are delightful! Hilltop Village in Summer - The 3rd in Liezbeth's 4-season set. Finishing about 6 x 8. Hilltop Village in Fall - The next seasonal installment of this set, stitch your happy little village in gentle Art's overdyed flosses - stitch count is 81 x 119. The houses have all changed color, but everything on the hill changes with the seasons! Hilltop Village in Spring - A fun little scene, coded for DMC or hand-dyeds, it finishes only 4-1/2 x 6-1/2 on 18/36ct. You'd have to weight it a lot, but it'd make a cute doorstop too!
Friends - This is the CUTEST little kitty - do him on 18ct linen with lots of floss or #5 Pearl Cotton - he makes a DOOR STOP! The stitch count is 129 x 97 - so it finishes 14 x 11 and by the time you stuff it and weight the bottom - your kitty might think he has a new playmate! (or your dog might bark at it!) Coded for DMC floss... you'll use a ton... you can even change the cat color to match yours or even stitch the mouse in WOOL! Just a fun, fun design... presented in a chart. Little Dumpling Travelbag - We call this The Taco Sewing Case! It is really an 8-inch round piece of stitching that Liezbeth folded like a TACO, and added a zipper closure! It is really cute! Stitched on 32ct linen with Gentle Art Sampler Threads or DMC, it's got tiny spools, scissors, needles and buttons all over it! Really a cute gift to make for stitching friends (especially if you're the one in the group that always gets the most stuff finished!) You know... gather three friends - one buys the stuff for all three, another stitches it for all three, and the third assembles them for all three. Three Happy Friends! Star Village - This is a bustling village-in-the-city! The sheep are out in the schoolyard, and there is the church and high-rise apartment building - it does remind me of a European Village. Everything is all crammed in there, the narrow streets are so much fun to walk through... cute shops everywhere... and every building has neat windows! Measures 200 x 177 so a huge 13 x 14 on 28ct, it's coded or DMC or Gentle Art Sampler Threads.
The Chicken Coop Liezbeth's Market exclusive... What happens in the chicken coop stays in the chicken coop. A fun little barn full of noisy chickens, we'll never know what's really going on here!!! Coded for DMC, this finishes approx 11 x 12 on 32ct... might be kind of fun to fit that verse on the back of a pin cushion and stitch a chicken or two on the front side!
Cute New Arrivals from Liezbeth Cottschall All different seasons this time... all presented in charts. I chose the Spring and Summer designs to show here... Winter and Halloween are on the inside Thistles page. Everything is coded for DMC floss as well as Gentle Art hand-dyed Sampler Threads. My Soul is Fed - 'by needle and thread!' A sweet pin cushion design with tiny spools, scissors, and the verse. This was a challenge to photograph because she puffed it nice and round! Super cute! 7 Houses on the Beach - Aren't they cute? Perfect little dressing houses, you just want to change fast and get out onto the sand! Just 61 x 67 stitches - or 4-ish inches on 32ct.
Wintersheep, Snowstop These three winter-y designs are all totally different in finished size and shape. I am sure our pics cannot convey that enough, but I chose to group them by season... so that's just what we got! Wintersheep is a little pin cushion! All the little fluffies are wearing beanie hats. Although this is stitched with cotton floss, I think it would be awesome stitched with Gentle Art's Simply Wool on the sheep and hats instead. This finishes just 3 x 8. Snowstop is another whopping huge piece! Liezbeth has him finished into a charming door stop! He is stitched over two on 18ct natural linen, and although she has him coded for Gentle Art Sampler Threads - we think he'd be better worked with #5 Pearl Cotton! He finishes 16 inches tall and he's 11 inches wide... wouldn't he be fun perched in front of a door somewhere?
Circle of Sheep This is cool! Who knew squares could be sheep??? *Theres a white sheep in every flock!* Nine of these little guys -- all with patterns on them -- are arranged with such symetry. Hand-dyed flosses or DMC, these finish approx 14 inches square on 32ct... I think she has used 20ct in the model pic -- so this pillow is 20 x 20!!! Really creative and contempoary... very eyecatching!
A Tree for Me - Spring A sweet penny-rug finishing treatment on this, it is worked on Weeks 30ct Cocoa Linen with Gentle Art hand-dyeds or DMC flosses. Bunnies and Pine Trees, simple and cute. Offered as the chart with the actual-sized penny rug finishing template.