Needlepoint Cowgirl Boots

Having just finished a large Halloween canvas, I wanted to work on a small and quick project. I raided my stash of pre-store ownership canvases and found these two Cowgirl boots. I had a blast stitching them—I finished them in 3 nights in front of the television (HGTV, the DIY Network, the Food Network and NCIS). These canvases will be my girls’ ornaments for 2009—I’m from Texas and they have cuzzins there.

The blue boot has stars of glow-in-the-dark Kreinik because it’s fun and it was the perfect turquoise match. I stitched the blue boot top in the Parisian stripe using Ultra Shimmer. The leaves are stitched using the Nobuko stitch (one of my go-to stitches) and Fiesta (only because I had a card of it on hand…ick). The black part of the boot is criss-cross Hungarian using Petite Very Velvet and Kreinik #12 in black. I was going for the effect of an exotic leather. Real boots are made with all sorts of interesting textured leathers, including ostrich. The toe is a Byzantine variation stitched with overdyed Kreinik. The tab is a Rhodes stitch done with Petite Sparkle Rays.

The red boot features a lot of basketweave dressed up with Coronet Braid, Kreinik braids and Renaissance threads. The red top is stitched with Snow using alternate vertical rows of Gobelin over 2 and over 1. For the bottom of the boot, I ignored the shading and stitched the Diagonal Hungarian ground using 2 different shades of Trebizond silk Perle. I experimented with Herringbone Gone Wrong for the tab, trying for a plaited suede effect, but after several tries, I went back to the tried and true Rhodes.

Chris commented that I put a lot of glitter on these canvases, but I think if they are going on the Christmas tree, they should sparkle. These are now available on our website.