Happy New Year!

My year-long not-store-related project has begun!

I started about 9pm on the 31st, and I'm possibly 1/8 done with the border. But promptly at midnight, the Garnet Dragon chart dropped.

Whee!

Mount Vernon mini-sampler done!

One down, two to go!

All the repairs...

Monday was the day for electrical inspection, HVAC check, and the start of the massive plumbing repairs. 

As my job was pretty much open the door, then stay out of the way, I had time to play with the pre-stretched canvas pack I got at Michaels.

The canvas isn't taut, and the one I picked needs ironing (turns out my tiny quilting iron is useful for more than O thought). A quick internet search gave me the perfect free pattern.

So, here it is, all finished:

One Sheep Coaster, finished!

Quick, fun little Scottish kit. :)

Next up:

Threads & beads sorted and ready to go!

Fox Fur

Got a couple of holiday Bucilla ornament kits. Finished one in the wee hours: 

Mind you, that's not quite how Bucilla intended it look. I like the English style out outlining color blocks to smooth edges, colonial knots are fun, and the fox fur/faux fur was hilarious at 1am.

(Waits a few minutes.)

Yeah... still funny to me. I like my version better.

A finished thing!

Some time since January, I was somewhere in a craft or dollar store, and picked up this:


It's cute, it's easy, it's an owl. I think it was either fifty cents or a dollar. So I got it.

The real miracle is that I have actually FINISHED it in the same year I bought it! See?


It was supposed to be all cross stitches mostly, but pfffffft on that! I had fun, added a couple of colors that weren't in the kit, and just had fun. I noticed later that my front side was actually the back (there are laser lines to show where the wings are & such on the front), but whooooo cares?

Not this little owl. I finished something!!

Stitching Copyright (not what you think!)

So, I needed a stitched copyright symbol. I picked a bunch of fonts, chose one I liked, and blew it up to 72pt type. I then ran it through Stitchboard.com's Free Pattern Wizard (a wonderful, wonderful resource!), and got this:


Now, I'm not actually cross-stitching, per se; I just needed a shape generated so I'd know what shape I was stitching. (Um, that was clear as mud. Hopefully you followed along anyway.) So, I backstitched the whole thing, and started filling in the backstitched area with Smyrna crosses, cross stitches and French Knots.


I then chose a fill stitch for the center background:


And then finished it up. I love the look of the French knot "flowers", and how the design gets warmer closer to the center. I think it came out great!

This is how my WIP numbers soar over 100... or 200

In a fit of I'm-not-sure-what, I started a set of Margaret Sherry kitty coasters that I bought over a decade ago and just found again. I'll be following the pattern on four of them (and then doing heaven only knows what for the other two coasters).

Okay, fine, I bought more.

Okay, fine, there were actually TWO trips to In Stitches. Since my two bffs couldn't go to the Woodlawn Needlework Show on the same day, I went twice. (Well, fine, thrice, I also went with my mom.) So, perforated paper, three canvases... and this stuff.




That was the first trip. The second trip, I was relatively well behaved (for me) and just got JBW Design's French Country Owl sampler (and some floss and fabric). That, I started right away one evening last week at around 2:30 a.m.:


There was a lot more done, but I had to rip it out because it was either incorrect placement... or... well, pretty much, I had the entire word "Whooooooo" at the bottom in a very, very wrong place. So it's in time out this week.

Maybe I'll stick to cross stitch.

I tried to make an Art Deco-ish bracelet/cuff.

I failed.


I really should look into getting some sort of how-to book for this stuff. Winging it will just get me so far...

At least I can finally finish my second Halloween beaded pin, as I managed to get some perforated paper at In Stitches!



I swear I've already done the black cat pin - but the perforated paper isn't in the kit, but all the threads and beads are. Just one of those mysteries that manage to attach itself to kits/projects I've had around for more than a decade, I guess!

New iPhone Case - Done!

First, the photo of the finished thing, for those of you who want the final results fast:


Ta-Daaaah!
I have an "ancient" iPhone 4. (It's actually my second one, the first having died as a result of the Great Toilet Water Hilarity last May.) Even though it now lives permanently in an exceedingly waterproof (and dustproof, shockproof and drop-proof case), I make cross-stitch iPhone covers for it. BECAUSE.

Anyway, the latest (not that I've finished the first two yet or anything) got started last December, and is the most likely to be completed as it's currently on my table and I can still find all the fiber necessary. It started because the internet gave me THIS:


NOT mine, someone else's, couldn't find whose, but it's lovely!
So I just had to make one. I found several versions, and am combining them - I love stars in the background, feet out, all that sort of thing.


Didn't have to hit the store, even!
Note: If you decide to stitch yourself a cover (any size item), I cannot recommend pearl cotton strongly enough!! I'm usuing size 5, one strand, for all the blue in the background and it's working like a dream! I only reached this epiphany because the first color blue I picked I just plain didn't like:


All Hail The Seam Ripper!
Here's where it was at the end of December:


Stars!
I picked it up again recently, and kept going...


More Stars!
Unfortunately, the stars I did at first got in the way of the rainbow, so they had to come out.


Less Stars!
Luckily, that was pretty easy - so it was finished!


Just Right!
I really have to recommend one strand Size 5 Pearl Cotton for these cases - easier than floss (don't have to worry about railroading the stitches, stays flat), and the coverage is about the same. Anyway, I had it done in time to take along to the Woodlawn needlework show last weekend so I could show all my stitching friends. Hooray!!

Use Your Right Beads!

These are beaded cross-stitch ornaments that I found when clearing out the house... rather, I found the kits, and there were shiny things in them, so I made them. (I'd just found the HibernaStitchatorium on FaceBook, and wanted to play along and be actually stitching something. Which eventually started me on beading... but I degress.

Anyway, here are the two ornaments finished, ready to have gilded loops and felt backing adhered to them:


Both are Mill Hill Beads kits, and I belive both are still available. Tannenbaum was fun...


... so I started the Clover. Which had beads that I thought were the same color as the ones from the Tannenbaum kit, and hey, they were, so I used them instead.

Only problem was the Tannenbaum beads were bigger... noticeably so if I'd bothered to notice. So, after a quick dash to AC Moore in hopes they'd have comparable beads to the ones I had half-stitched onto the perforated paper (they did!), I was able to finish it up.


So, moral of the story: Pretty Beaded Ornaments Are Fun, if you have a kit, USE THOSE BEADS!

And now, a Peacock.

So, Peacocks. There is a "Peacock Stitching" group on FaceBook... and therein I both found my people and my doom. Because I love stitching peacocks enough that It Will Cause Problems Eventually. But, as soon as I joined, I had to start something, right? Found this lovely pattern - I believe it's a Joan Elliott, from one of the books I have. And one of the other women was stitching it, too, and hers was really pretty, so I started. Here it is about three days in:


And about 5 days in, when I decided Beads Would Happen:


And here it is done!

A Partridge Named Harriet

Whups, a bit late this week. In my defense, um...

.... okay, I got nothin'.

I did manage to cross-stitch and bead a lovely little partridge-in-a-pear-tree Mill Hill kit I got at the Stitcher's Stash Superbowl Sale, though:


I really like it; I think I will name her Harriet.

Cross Stitch is In.

This was in the window at CUSP last week:


Yep, that whole waistband is cross-stitched. I was wondering if cross-stitch would ever be "fashion" the way knitting & crochet have been the last couple of years, and I guess the answer is "yes"!!

Things at my parents' house

Since it's Groundhog Day... wait, what do you mean it's February 3? It seems like it was the 2nd forever... anyway, it's a good time to look into the past a bit. Since I was at my parents' house this past weekend, I took some photos of stuff I'd done in ages past. I think showing off your daughter's needlework is probably the grown-up version of pictures I drew stuck on the fridge...

My first and only bit of successful crewel, originally done for my mom's mom back in the 80s. I framed it myself, too, and was very proud of it.


First of a set of four I started in law school. I finished this one (Spring), and I'm about halfway done with the second one (Summer). I've been out of law school for quite a while.


Done when I first moved back east (after aforementioned law school), and one of my first samplers. Mom totally stole it, but that's OK.



A commemerative needleroll from a stitching camp in Ocean City, in October, 2001.

I'm going to guess that the cross-stitch bug started being replaced by the knitting bug not too long thereafter. I have finished some cross-stitch in the last few years, but it's mostly things I started earlier. I should pick one or two things and try to get some more cross stitch off The List!