Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Happy New Year!
I'm afraid I've been slacking a bit in blogging lately. I'm going to just blame being busy and go on from there. Stitching has also been a little slow, plus I keep forgetting to take any pictures of my modest progress so I'll just leave you with a wish for a good new year and a picture of little Firefly snuggling with her newest friend.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
More Christmas stitching
Last Saturday was my EGA chapter's Christmas party so now I can show some more of my Christmas stitching and show off some of the lovelies I received. Let's see .... where should I begin??
I think I'll start with the things I received. This first ornament is from our Guild ornament exchange and was stitched by Becky. Isn't that the cutest finish? And she rusted the jingle bells herself. I'm definitely going to give that a try.
We have a secret sister exchange also (don't you just love exchanges??) This jolly old elf was stitched by my secret sister (Becky, of the rusted jingle bell ornie above). When you pull the bottom string, his arms and legs move. How cool is that!?! I, myself, will probably never, ever, ever attempt this finish. I hung him on my frig so I can pull his string often and giggle at his jig. I hope I don't wear him out.
The lovely Mistress Jessie made everyone in the guild one of these wool trees. Don't you just love the little button ornaments? I certainly do.
Here's another of Jessie's handiwork. I love Blackbird Designs and pink. Needless to say, I love this needle book.
Now on to what I stitched for the big event. My secret sister was Jessie, a big fan of everything French, pink and Blackbird Design. Sooo, I stitched her a small pillow that covered them all.
And then I stitched this for my friend Becky
And this for the ornament exchange
And now I want to tell you the saga of the scissor keeps. For last year's secret sister I stitched this ornament:
I loved this little stitching lady so much that I decided I would stitch scissor keeps for the officers of my guild for next year's Christmas party.
And here the saga begins! I started them immediately in January and finished stitching them in January -- all 4 of them. I set them aside and forgot about them for a few months. Fast forward to June or July and I remembered I needed to assemble them into scissor keeps. Hmmmm, where did I put them? I searched high and wide in my house but never found the little buggers. Come October, I thought I better get going and stitch them again since they obviously have disappeared, not to be found again (at least until I restitch them -- you know how that goes). So I buckled down and restitched 3 of them, assembled them into fobs, bought cute scissors and little Christmas tins to put them in. Have you noticed a problem with the numbers here? I couldn't for the life of me remember why I stitched 4 the first time -- after all, I only needed 1 for each officer -- VP, Treasurer and Secretary (I was the President so I didn't need to make one there).
Sigh -- the best laid plans of mice and men . . . I forgot our region rep. Duh! Honestly, if my head wasn't attached, I would probably either lose it somewhere or forget to put it back on when it fell off. What do you think the chances are that the original 4 will turn up now?? I'm guessing zip. So I need to stitch another one. Hmmm, I can probably stitch her from memory at this point since it'll be the 9th time.
What did I learn from this -- don't stitch things too far in advance. Heaven forbid I should just get organized!
Have a good week.
I think I'll start with the things I received. This first ornament is from our Guild ornament exchange and was stitched by Becky. Isn't that the cutest finish? And she rusted the jingle bells herself. I'm definitely going to give that a try.
We have a secret sister exchange also (don't you just love exchanges??) This jolly old elf was stitched by my secret sister (Becky, of the rusted jingle bell ornie above). When you pull the bottom string, his arms and legs move. How cool is that!?! I, myself, will probably never, ever, ever attempt this finish. I hung him on my frig so I can pull his string often and giggle at his jig. I hope I don't wear him out.
Here's another of Jessie's handiwork. I love Blackbird Designs and pink. Needless to say, I love this needle book.
Now on to what I stitched for the big event. My secret sister was Jessie, a big fan of everything French, pink and Blackbird Design. Sooo, I stitched her a small pillow that covered them all.
And now I want to tell you the saga of the scissor keeps. For last year's secret sister I stitched this ornament:
And here the saga begins! I started them immediately in January and finished stitching them in January -- all 4 of them. I set them aside and forgot about them for a few months. Fast forward to June or July and I remembered I needed to assemble them into scissor keeps. Hmmmm, where did I put them? I searched high and wide in my house but never found the little buggers. Come October, I thought I better get going and stitch them again since they obviously have disappeared, not to be found again (at least until I restitch them -- you know how that goes). So I buckled down and restitched 3 of them, assembled them into fobs, bought cute scissors and little Christmas tins to put them in. Have you noticed a problem with the numbers here? I couldn't for the life of me remember why I stitched 4 the first time -- after all, I only needed 1 for each officer -- VP, Treasurer and Secretary (I was the President so I didn't need to make one there).
Sigh -- the best laid plans of mice and men . . . I forgot our region rep. Duh! Honestly, if my head wasn't attached, I would probably either lose it somewhere or forget to put it back on when it fell off. What do you think the chances are that the original 4 will turn up now?? I'm guessing zip. So I need to stitch another one. Hmmm, I can probably stitch her from memory at this point since it'll be the 9th time.
What did I learn from this -- don't stitch things too far in advance. Heaven forbid I should just get organized!
Have a good week.
Monday, December 9, 2013
Still happy dancin' ....
Santa is finished!
The pattern called for red and white threads with smyrna stitches in his beard but I changed to brown overdyed and ecru threads and used eyelets for the beard. Then to hide the black thread of his eyes, I attached a slip of ivory muslin to the back before adding the eyes. The fabric was only big enough to cover his whole beard. If you enlarge the picture you can see it peeking through the eyelet holes.
I also stitched almost half of the Autumn Log Cabin SAL part 3 over the weekend. Though I do have some frogging to do tonight where that thread is hanging. It isn't much so it shouldn't take too long to fix - knock on wood.
Have a good day!
The pattern called for red and white threads with smyrna stitches in his beard but I changed to brown overdyed and ecru threads and used eyelets for the beard. Then to hide the black thread of his eyes, I attached a slip of ivory muslin to the back before adding the eyes. The fabric was only big enough to cover his whole beard. If you enlarge the picture you can see it peeking through the eyelet holes.
I also stitched almost half of the Autumn Log Cabin SAL part 3 over the weekend. Though I do have some frogging to do tonight where that thread is hanging. It isn't much so it shouldn't take too long to fix - knock on wood.
Have a good day!
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Big Happy Dance
I'm ever so happy to say I have all my Christmas gifts stitched and assembled! Yippee! This is the very best gifting-shape I have been in for many a year. And, to top that off, I almost have my brown Santa finished. I started attaching the beads and it's going fairly quickly. Barring a catastrophe, he should get finished this weekend. Don't you just love the look of his beard?
Let's go back in time to Autumn . . . in October, I participated in a Halloween exchange and forgot to post a picture of the lovely package I received from Janet. I adore the pillow (that fat little bird makes me chuckle every time I look at it) she made for me and was sorry to put it away for Christmas decorations. Though actually, I just moved it into my exercise room where I can still see it while burning those holiday calories. I love the LK fall basket pattern and the pumpkin fabric is perfect. Thank you Janet!
For my part, I sent a package to Connie filled with assorted bugs, bats and pumpkins.
I love this pattern and one of these days, I'm going to stitch it for myself. This trio of jacks gets me giggling every time I stitch it. I love the goofy looks on their faces -- too funny!
And now back to winter . . . .
Let's go back in time to Autumn . . . in October, I participated in a Halloween exchange and forgot to post a picture of the lovely package I received from Janet. I adore the pillow (that fat little bird makes me chuckle every time I look at it) she made for me and was sorry to put it away for Christmas decorations. Though actually, I just moved it into my exercise room where I can still see it while burning those holiday calories. I love the LK fall basket pattern and the pumpkin fabric is perfect. Thank you Janet!
For my part, I sent a package to Connie filled with assorted bugs, bats and pumpkins.
I love this pattern and one of these days, I'm going to stitch it for myself. This trio of jacks gets me giggling every time I stitch it. I love the goofy looks on their faces -- too funny!
And now back to winter . . . .
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