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I love it all: embroidery, canvaswork, quilting, crochet. So much to do, so little time.





Monday, December 26, 2011

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!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Happy Holidays

No matter which holiday you celebrate:
Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or the Solstice,
have a happy and safe one.


Monday, December 19, 2011

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!


Friday, December 16, 2011

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!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

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.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

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!

Friday, December 9, 2011

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.

Monday, December 5, 2011

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!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

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.