A Girl Can Change her Mind, Can't She?

Hey Blog Buddies,
I believe I mentioned that I had started stitching my last holiday gift recently.  Well I finished it, and guess what--I've decided to keep the newly stitched piece and make another one for my friend (we are not getting together until January 4th, more than enough time to finish another piece).

Anyway, the piece I was originally going to give to her had a couple of errors in it.  I'm sure she wouldn't notice them, but I would know that they were there.  Here is a photo of the finished piece:

This is "Winter" (aptly titled)

from a leaflet by Lizzie Kate

entitled "Winter Crazy."

The ground is the called-for

30-count WDW Morris Blue.

I grabbed whatever DMC threads

in my stash that

I thought would work.

(No, I'm not going to

point out the errors!)

There is another design in the leaflet

that is all about snow

(which she loves and I definitely don't).

I'm stitching that for her now.

Hope everyone had time for stitching

during the long holiday weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Holidays

No matter which holiday you celebrate:

Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or the Solstice,

have a happy and safe one.

It's Greek to Me

Hey Blog Buddies,
Did you ever feel that you were spending a little too much time on one project?  Did the shapes that you were stitching (and stitching and stitching) take on a life of their own, reminding you of other, entirely unrelated things?  Do your projects ever talk to you?

Well, that's about where I'm at right now.  Here are a few progress pics by way of explanation:

A week or so ago,

this is where I was at

on CT13 (the red Christmas tree).

Well, that's obviously the top of

a Greek architectural column.

Don't believe me??

...oh yeah!!

Here is my latest progress pic

from said project:

It should be apparent to anyone

that these are the snakes that Medusa

(from Greek mythology)

was condemned to wear

in place of hair.

Skeptical?

Color those snakes red

and you couldn't tell the difference!

"Hee, hee, hee," Southpaw cackles insanely.

My final progress pic

is of my Little Lady.

Thought I'd forgotten

about her, didn't you?

(So did she.)

At least she has feet now.

But you'll notice she still

doesn't have a mouth.

That's so she can't start

complaining at 2 o'clock in the morning,

"Hey you over there in bed.

Why aren't you over here

working on me?"

CT13 and I are going to take a little break.

It's going on hiatus because

last night I started stitching

(yes only just started)

my final holiday gift.

Now that's planning ahead!

Hope your projects have

nothing but nice things

to say about you!

Thanks for visiting!

An Early Christmas Present

Hey Blog Buddies,
Earlier this week I went to Indiana to see a talented woodworker named Rick.  He makes wooden quilt hangers, and they are quite nice.  I 've used one of his hangers for a couple of years for the wallhangings displayed in the dining room.  Now I have another one for smaller pieces on the wall upstairs in the computer/sewing room.

The piece shown here

was actually offered as a class

about five years ago

by my embroidery guild!

It was what got me started on quilting.

Prior to doing this,

I didn't even have a sewing machine!

I know you're thinking that

this wasn't a beginner's project.

I didn't let that stop me, though.

Here's a glimpse of how the hanger works:

it's two pieces of wood

fastened together by several screws.

Loosen the screws,

slide the quilted piece in,

tighten them back up,

and it's ready to hang.

That's all I've got for ya today.

Have a groovy weekend.

And thanks for visiting!

So Long, Erica

Erica Wilson died today.  She was 83 years old.

This is the first embroidery book

that I ever owned.

She was an inspiration to

us Baby Boomers

back in the day.

(She still owned a needlework store

at the time of her death.)

Thank you, Erica.

My Very First Ornament

Hey Blog Buddies,

I admire those bloggers who post their vintage stuff complete with name of design and designer, type of linen and floss and even start and finish dates!  I must admit that I was very bad about keeping track of what I made and when I made it before I started this here blog.  I never took photos back then, either.  I do, however, have an educated guess about what was the very first Christmas ornament that I made.

This was made not too long

after we got our first dog--

Maxine, a basset--

on July 30, 1976.

That date I do remember!

I don't remember

ever making any ornaments

prior to that.

I can tell you that it's

crewel embroidery on felt

(the long and short stitch with

French knots for the hat fur).

Crewel was BIG in the 70's

for those of you

too young to remember.

What was the first ornament you made?

Thanks for visiting!

A Visit with Santa

Hey Blog Buddies,

Yesterday the folks at our veterinarian's office threw a holiday party.  There were cookies, cakes and all kinds of goodies to eat.  If you donated a new toy for a needy child, you could get a free nail trim for your pet.  Santa even made an appearance for a few photo ops.

Molly wasn't too happy after this photo.

They used a squeaky toy to get her attention

(with spectacular results)

but she didn't get to play with it!

Hope your holiday preparations

are going along smoothly.

Thanks for stopping by.

Swirls

Hey Blog Buddies,

As if I don't have enough WIPs going on,

I made another start today:

This is CT13 by Alessandra Adelaide.

"Say what?" you may be thinking.

Alessandra Adelaide is a European designer.

Italian, I believe, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Her stuff is available at the big Internet needlework shops,

and also at my LNS.

Some of you may have seen her work,

but I haven't noticed it being done

on any of the blogs I follow.

A lot of her patterns are swirly.

This is what it will look like finished....

... some day.

Yeah, don't let the close-up fool you.

The stitch count is 168 x 207!!

I'm using Gloriana Silks "Poinsettia"

on a very pretty 32-count white opalescent linen

which doesn't show up here at all.

(Weather here is overcast, of course.)

The width of the linen is 17 inches.

As you can see, it just barely fit

onto the widest of my scroll bars.

I like so many of her designs

it was hard to choose which one to stitch.

Many of them are quite large,

like this one,

so this might be the only one I tackle.

If you want to see more of her stuff,

her blog is here.

She does some cute

minimalist animals, too.

That's about it for today.

Hope everyone had a groovy weekend

Thanks for stopping by!

Just in Time for December...

...I put the last stitches into the binding of my holiday quilt last night at quarter to ten.  When I got the quilted piece back from my LQS, I put off the binding for at least a week because the job seemed  like such a pain in the butt so daunting.  It's not like it's the first time I've ever bound a quilt, but sometimes my ambition just evaporates.

In this photo, the red seems to dominate,

but in person it fights for attention

with all the leaves in the

cream-colored fabric.

I'm still thinking it looks a little busy (sigh).

There are many leaves

in the cream-colored fabric.

I chose a medium drab green

for the quilting thread.

I wanted it to fade into the background,

which it does.

It now lives on my dining room wall.

Not planning to take it down

until at least February!

And while I was in a binding mood

had my sewing machine out,

I decided to finally finish-finish

the quilt-as-you-go square

that I put together in May.

This binding was sewn

entirely by machine--

a first for me.

If you look closely,

you can see that I used

a 3-step zigzag

to tack it down

instead of hand sewing.

The corners gave me

conniption fits!

(They still need to be "fixed" by hand.)

This the the "wrong" side.

The corners look better.

But it was a learning experience.
From now on, after I attach the binding to a quilt,

I'll finish it by hand.

It's much less stressful for this stitcher.

Happy December!

Thanks for stopping by.