A Little Stitching

Last year I agreed to participate in a crafts pay-it-forward. (I know....I'm a little late.)


Most of my problem was deciding on what to do for the people that signed up for me to send a craft to. I did actually manage to get one of them out last year. Anyway, this one goes to my cousin. She recently got married, and moved to another part of the state where she lives. She's now in a smaller house along the coast so I really wanted to make something that could be hung up and was really simple. I also wanted to honor her recent marriage.

So here's what I decided on.

It's VERY simple, but I like the idea of the two of them being joined together into one heart.

I'm putting it in the mail to her today.

I hope she likes it!

What next?

I posted before that I was going to participate in the stitch-along for Halloween at Feeling  Stitchy and I've actually done it.


Woo-hoo!

I decided to use the crayon technique again and then just outlined it with 2 strands of black thread.

I thought it came out pretty cute. And, certainly, using the crayons to fill in makes it a super fast project.

Now I don't know what else to do with it. I can't decided on framing, adding a fabric border to make a quilted wall hanging, or even using it as a table decoration or maybe even a pillow. See? Too many options.

What do you think?

Something else....

I've decided to participate in a stitch along over at Feeling Stitchy (like I need something else on my 'to do' list.)


But I can't help myself!! Look how cute this pattern is:

Click on over to her site and download the free pattern and join in!!

Tried something new

Last week at We Love French Knots she had a guest post from Wendi Gratz at Shiny Happy World. Well, Wendi had included a coupon to get one of her patterns for free for a limited time. It was adorable and I thought it a perfect fit for one of my ongoing projects.

A little background. My girls' bathroom is painted in an awfully bright pink. Right now it has a lot of butterflies around but I've decided to re-do it. I'm doing things slowly as my budget allows. I decided to go with a retro theme. I'm using the 50's Barbie silhouette. You know, the one with her hair in a ponytail. And the stylized black cat silhouette from the same time period. I bought new throw rugs when they were on sale awhile back along with a few other things. (Ah, the lengths that I will go to just so I don't have to repaint. lol)

I guess now the colors will be the same bright pink but with black and white accents this time around.

So, here's that pattern that I stitched up (in a single afternoon, mind you!)

It's actually stitched on white but it glared too much in my picture with enough light on it to make it look white.

The pattern is called Betty's Beehive. Isn't it just adorable?!

The something new that I tried is the coloring. I had never done it before. My colors are much more intense than I had planned. I had read that you should color it darker than what you want the finished product to be, because a lot of the color will come out when you use the iron to set it. Well, almost none of my color came out. lol I don't know if it was because I was using twist up crayons instead of traditional crayons. But, regardless, I'm thrilled with how it came out.

Now I'm just trying to decide how to finish it off - like frame it, add a fabric border and hang it as is, etc. The girls love it too and can't wait to have their bathroom re-styled.

Birdie Block #3

I finished up the 3rd block in the Birdie Stitches BOM at Little Miss Shabby.

I am still loving the bright colors that I'm using for this. (Not that you tell they're bright from this picture.) I usually work with more muted colors so this has been a fun change for me.  This is the March block so I'm still behind, but as long as I'm moving forward with it, I'm happy. lol

Another one done

I got my 2nd pillow for the cat block of the month finished.

These are so stinkin' cute!


And, honestly, once I actually get around to working on it, they stitch up really quickly.


I needed to listen to a class online and managed to get about 1/2 of the stitching done in that one session.


This block of the month is from Daisy Cottage Quilting. In addition to this and the Annie BOM that I'm doing, she's got some other really cute things!

Annie Block #8

I did manage to get another one of my Annie BOM's finished.

I'm still one behind but I'm trying desperately to catch up on all the BOM's I'm doing. With the kids having so much going on it's just hard to find time to do this stuff when I'm not exhausted. LOL I understand that I only have 3 more patterns to receive and while I find that a little intimidating at this point, I'm excited to put together a finished product.

Another block done

I finally got another block finished in the birdie block of the month. This is the February block. (That's how far behind I am. *sigh* This whole raising a family thing takes a lot of time. LOL)

These are really cute and I'm determined to get this done. Goodness knows I don't need any more UFO's!!

Another Annie block done

I finished Annie block # 7 just in time. My next block arrived in the mail yesterday. LOL

Don't know why it looks so yellow-ish. Guess I should take these photos as the sun is coming up, huh? LOL

I so can't wait to get these done because they are going to be sooooooo stinkin' cute when they're put together!!!

Craft Pay it Forward

This year I'm participating in a craft pay-it-forward.

I've completed my first project and it's ready to send out, if I'll just get that done. lol

Anyway, this is going out to a friend that I worked with years (and years) ago.

It's a mug mat and I got the patttern from As Sweet as Cinnamon. She did her's in colors and, as you can see, I did mine in redwork.

Please ignore my Christmas mug. I'm still using them because I like the way they're shaped. LOL

Muscle cats.....

I'm doing another block of the month from Daisy Cottage Quilting. This one is cats through the months.

I fell in love with it because the cat just makes me laugh.

When I showed it to Dax he wasn't sure what to think. When I told him that it made me laugh because the cat is all muscled up like some body builder, he relaxed a little. I think he was afraid that I had gone horribly off course when I was tracing the pattern. LOL

These blocks are being made into little pillows each month. I had to fight this one away from my kids. And really, it matches my room better than theirs. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

Anyway, after I finished the pillow and wrestled it away from my kids, I put it on my bed. I swear to you it wasn't on my bed for FIVE minutes before one of the dogs had gotten it and was laying on the floor chewing on it!! Luckily I caught him right away and was able to get it before any damage was done. But, he had already gotten one corner pretty slobbery. lol

More stitchin'

Okay, I've had these finished for awhile. I just kept forgetting to take a picture.

These are part of the doodle stitch-a-long over at Lark Crafts. I still have some other things to get stitched up. Well, if we're being honest here, I have a ton of things started that need to be completed. lol I need more hours in the day!! Do you think my kids would be willing to just sit around the house quietly while I get to play in my sewing room?

Aaahhh, I can dream, can't I?

Little Birdie

I decided to do the Little Birdie BOM over at Little Miss Shabby.

Here's block #1

I decided to do something outside of my usual and chose these bright colors.

I tried to match my threads to the colors in my fabrics and I'm really liking the color combinations. It doesn't show in the pictures, but for the snow man and the snow flakes I used one strand of a pale blue and one strand of a pale blue DMC Effects thread. In the light it's got a little bit of shimmer to the snow that's really nice.

Once it's finished, though, I don't know what I'll do with it. My girls have already all said that they want it. LOL

Productivity

It was a good weekend. 


I was actually able to get something done this weekend. Woohoo!! Feels like that doesn't happen often enought at my house. It was a really busy week--soccer practice 3 days, orthodontist with new braces for Kirsten, meeting for cheerleader try-outs--so I was in desparate need of some down time by the time Friday rolled around.

While the kids were all pre-occupied I snuck out to my studio and played around a little. (I have to wait until the kids are busy or someone is constantly out there digging around in stuff and then I don't manage to get anything accomplished.)

Anyway, I had finished the stitching for these blocks awhile ago, but finally got around to putting the borders on.

They are from Lynette Anderson's Noah's Ark block of the month. I have two other blocks that are almost done as far as stitching goes. I need to go buy one more color of thread to finish them. And then I think that will put me at only having a couple more blocks left to get the project all together finished. I need to do that since they stitch up so quickly.

I haven't given any rhyme or reason to the borders that I've sewn onto my stitching so I'll be interested to see how it all comes together when the piece is done. Does that make it a mystery project?

Valentine Stitching

I've been doing a little Valentine stitching.

This is a pattern from Chestnut Junction. It's a redwork stitchery pattern that I tweaked a little bit. The original pattern is all stitching. I decided to add the felt hearts and buttons instead of stitaching those. I used a piece of fabric to stitch on that I had tea stained and I used fabrics I already had on hand to do the piecing around it.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. And again, I had everythin on hand already.

Go Thrift!! lol

Stitch Along

I decided to participate in the Doodle Arts stitch along over at Lark Crafts. (click on their name for the link to the first pattern in the stitch along.)


Here's the first stitchery in the series.

It stitched up so quickly and that little troll is just so cute!!

I don't have a lot of options in my little town for fabrics to stitch on. Because of that I've learned to look for fabrics in the items that are available to me. I was in Goodwill last week and bought a blazer made of a nice heavy, ecru, 100% cotton. I was cutting the pocket off to use for another stitched piece and it occured to me to use part of the sleeve for this little pattern. Since it was already hemmed on one end and sewn in a circle I decided to make it into this little bag.

I'm still trying to decide whether or not to put handles on it. We'll see if I get around to it or not. lol Regardless, I love the way it turned out and there was minimal sewing involved to turn it into a bag. I kind of like it when an idea strikes that pushes me into thinking outside the box.

Oh, and it fits in with my theme of thrift for the year. A double win!!! LOL

Annie BOM

I finished my first block in Sharon's Annie block of the month.

Isn't she cute?!

It worked up so quickly and I'm loving the bright colors. It seems that everything I've been working on lately use dark or muted colors so this was really refreshing.

I can't wait for next month's package to arrive.!

Transfer-Eze continued......

Getting back to the transfer-eze.....

I cut out a couple of the pieces of my stitcheries to see how the transfer-eze  came off.

I placed the pieces in a pie plate with just a little bit of water. (I didn't even bother to get the water warm.)

The transfer-eze felt a little slimey as it started to dissolve and disappear.

I don't think I even let it sit for the full minute before it was all gone!!

I took the pieces out, got the excess water off with a towel and let them dry.

There was no residue left at all.

I think I might be in love with this stuff. My head is swimming with all the ideas for stitching on all kinds of darker/thicker fabrics that I might not have otherwise.

Woohoo!!

More Stitching

In the last post I showed how I printed out my patterns on the transfer-eze.

Here's a few of the pieces stitched.

After this step, you soak the stitchery in water and the transfer-eze is supposed to dissolve. I think it should be totally gone within one minute.

I haven't tried that part yet. I've still got some more stitching to do before I'm ready to start  cutting the sqaures out.

So far I'm thrilled with how it's working. I can't wait to see how it dissolves.

At this point it's still a product I highly reccomment (I might even love it. lol)

I'm back!!!

WOW!!!! I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted. I've had good intentions about getting it done but it kind of ends there. It's been crazy between tax season and getting through the end of the school year with the kids. Next year is the big transition into junior high so there's been much to do there.

Anyway.....

I have been getting some things done, just haven't posted them.

Have y'all used Transfer Eze? OMG!!! I'm loving it!

I have been working on the Noah's Ark monthly stitch-a-long but my fabric was just too thick to get it traced on there. I have tried a number of techniques in order to transfer the pattern and I just could not get a good transfer. I mean, these patterns are pretty small. So, I had given up on ever finishing the project.

I came across Transfer Eze through another site and decided to give it a try. At this point, I figured it certainly couldn't hurt.

First I cut out several of the patterns and taped them onto one sheet of paper and then scanned that into my computer.

Then, I just printed this image onto the Transfer Eze.

This product is not paper, it's like a fabric that will go through the printer and it's backed with paper. The paper peels off and the fabric is sticky on the back. I just cut out each pattern and stick it onto my fabric for stitching. (I'll show you those pictures soon.)

After you're done stitching, this product dissolves in water.

Yeah, just that easy.

I highly reccommend it!! Just think of all the things that I can stitch on now. lol

Oh, and you can get it from here and here.