Some Christmas finishes!

This one is "Hula Lulu" - I made it into a flatfold (although from this angle it looks like it could be a cube!) for a friend that we play bingo with every week. She decorates like CRAZY for Christmas, and her hubby is from Hawaii. So, I was trying to combine both of their personalities. I couldn't find a Christmas fabric that had that turquoise color in it, so I ended up with kind of a turquoise on turquoise floral. Not very Christmassy, but I think it will work!

This is my attempt at a creative finish - you can't really tell from the picture, but I made it into a "triptych" if you will (forgive my spelling! LOL). The three are connected by two ribbons (You can kind of see it between the snowmen) and then they're backed like you would a flatfold. The fabric I backed them with is kind of a royal blue with white snowflakes. This one is a hostess gift for my brother and sister-in-law who are having us over on Christmas.

Now the only remaining stitchy stuff I need to do is attach some beads onto my perforated paper ornaments and back them up with self stick felt. I need to get two of them done today so that Mike can mail them off tomorrow (pays to have a boyfriend who works in the mailroom at his company - saves me a trip to the post office!) The other six don't have to be finished until Christmas day! Hopefully I won't wait that long!

Thanks for checking it out!

Productive Stitching Weekend

Well, here's my latest start...Lizzie Kate's ABC Lessons. Mike bought this one (and the Christmas ABC's one) for me for my birthday. It's a fun, easy stitch, which was a nice break after stitching on Frederick last week. This wasn't all done this weekend, it was a week's worth of stitching.

Yesterday was our So Cal Stitchers Group get together at a local "medium box" craft store. It's not a national chain, just a local chain with (I think) 3 stores. The location we go to has a nice classroom area, and you can rent a table for the day for $5. The tables are set up in kind of blocks of 4, and we can easily sit 8 around a block of 4. So....for $20, 8 of us can stitch the day away! We were there from 9 am to 6 pm with a short break for lunch. Everyone was stitching away, and we had a great time laughing, talking, and TRYING to count! LOL! I was working on my dollhouse project - I'm almost done with the kitchen, so maybe soon I'll have some pictures of another finished room.

Then this evening I watched a really cool episode of "Ace of Cakes" . I don't know if you're familiar, but it's the one with Duff Goldman (I know some people think he's obnoxious, but I think his bakery does awesome cakes). This particular episode (which I think will be on a couple of more times - the description says it's about a building being demolished, which is one of the other cakes in the episode). The cake I was interested in was a replica of a cross-stitched stocking! The woman the cake was being made for has stiched FIFTY THREE stockings for her family members. Her husband wanted to surprise her, so he brought pictures of her stocking to the bakery for them to make a replica. They made a stocking shaped cake, and the decorator actually piped individual little X's to make the pictures on the cake. It really was awesome, and it was neat to see an artist in another medium (cake decorating) have "respect" (for lack of a better word) for the technique of cross-stitching. She actually took fondant and put it over graph paper on top of a light box to get the squares for the X's. If you get a chance, check it out!!!

Now this week I HAVE to start on family calendars. I make a calendar for my family every year for Christmas - actually I think I make 10 of them, because each one is a tad different than the others. I incorporate pictures each month of the family members who have occasions in that month, and put their occasion where it belongs on the calendar. It is a lot of work, but I love doing it. I think this is the 6th year I've done them! They actually take longer to print than they do to design! LOL

So....not sure how much stitching time I'll get this week. But...I'll be back!!!

Have a GREAT week! And thank you, as always, for your comments!

Frederick the Literate is started

Well, this week I started on Frederick the Literate. It was a Dimensions kit but I didn't like the aida (too stiff) and I didn't like the thread (too icky!). So....substituted some 28 count evenweave (not sure what kind) and re-did the floss with DMC and we're off to the races. This one will take a while, I'm sure. This is one week's progress. Stitching black on black is interesting, to say the least!!

Thanks for checking it out!

A new start

A quick blog update - I'm trying to get back on track with weekly blog updates and getting back into my rotation. Although this is a Christmas pattern, I'm not trying to get it done for this Christmas, and it's not a gift, so no rush on it.

I love this pattern - my sweetie bought me this one and the ABC Lessons one, both by Lizzie Kate. I started on this one first because Mike said he liked it better. Both patterns were sold as kits (well, almost kits - pattern and threads, but no fabric) so they came with the overdyed threads. I ran into a little issue along one edge (it's just on the edge, so it won't be a problem), but it let me know I need to be VERY careful. Where the edge of the fabric rubbed up against the red of the letter B, the edge picked up some red color. So - I'm being very careful to put paper towel around my fabric when I'm putting it away at the end of stitching time....hopefully that will keep it from happening on a more important part of the piece.

This week's project is Frederick the Literate. It will be challenging (stitching on black fabric) but I'm okay with that. My Ott Lite and I are good friends!!!

Thanks for checking it out - and, as always, thank you for your comments!!

Stitching and something else!

I finished my "Stop and Stitch The Flowers". I'm happy with the way it turned out - the specialty stitches around the outside weren't too bad! Now that I've finished that, I was (notice the use of the word "was") down to one project at home and one project in my travel bag that I work on at work (that is too big to really be a travel project). So...I broke down and kitted up SIX more things! I went Friday to my LNS and bought fabric for 3, and the other 3 I had fabric for in my stash. So...some time in the near future I will be stitching "Stitching" by Hinzeit (sorry if I've spelled it wrong), the St. Patrick's Day equivalent of Stop and Stitch the Flowers (by Blue Ribbon Designs), Lizzie Kate's ABC Lessons, Lizzie Kate's Christmas ABC's, Frederick the Literate, and cute little Lizzie Kate design that is Santa and a Moose (we collect stuffed Mooses!).

Now for something non-stitching...some of you may recognize the image below as a screen shot from the game show Jeopardy:

Now...you may be asking why I posted a Jeopardy question on my blog. Well, it's like this....I graduated from high school with the "David Cullen" mentioned in the question!!!! How awesome is that? He was a journalist for our school paper, and was always a great writer...and his book last year made it up to something like 7th on the New York Times bestsellers list! I just thought it was so awesome!!!!

Anyway - that's it from me for now - Thanks for checking out my blog!

Stop and Stitch the Flowers

Well...I'm almost done with this one. What's that you say? It looks finished? Well, it's not - it still gets three more rows of border on the outer edges. It calls for a "fly" stitch (which I've never done) that takes up two rows, and one more stitch of regular cross-stitches. I'm going to try the fly stitch, but if it annoys me too much, I'll just do cross-stitches (which is an option offered on the pattern.

Speaking of the pattern - it's called "Stop and Stitch the Flowers" and it's by Blue Ribbon Designs. I used the DMC conversions. The fabric is a light blue - I don't remember exactly what it was called, but it's a 28 count even weave (I think I have decided that even weaves are my favorite - I've done mostly 28 count, but I think I've seen 32 and maybe even 36, which I would like to try.

I have another similar Blue Ribbon Designs pattern for St. Patrick's Day. In my ideal world, I would have room to store multiple versions of this same pattern and change them out with the seasons - they have the St. Patty's one, a Christmas one, a Valentines one, and I think a couple of others. It's a fun stitch - I did kind of one block at a time. Well - I would outline a row of blocks, and then stitch each block individually.

Anyway - thanks for checking out my stitching! Love all the comments - nothing like feedback from other stitches to keep you motivated!

Would you believe....

...another snowman???? I don't believe it!!!

After all my whining about being tired of snowmen, I remembered I had one more kitted up to stitch...so I had to do it - that gives me an even dozen snowmen that I've stitched!

The pattern is called "Hula Lula" and it's one of the Snowballz by CM Designs. I made it specifically for a friend who decorates big time for Christmas - and since her hubby is from Hawaii, it seemed like it fit. I was originally thinking I would stitch it over one and make it into an ornament - but after trying to do a line or two over one (on 28 count) I just realized I was not going to have the patience. So....it's too big for an ornament - it's going to become either a no-sew cube or a flat fold.

This one used DMC variations thread. I have to say, I don't consider myself a floss snob - in fact almost everything I stitch, I stitch with DMC threads. But I was not impressed with their variations threads. They just seemed kind of rough or something. But, I'm happy with the outcome, just not necessarily the process!

I also changed the grass skirt technique. The directions (I thought) were kind of silly. They told you to just take a length of thread, run it thru from the front, take one running stitch on the back, and then back out the front. I felt like it would pull right out! So, what I did instead was first I did a whole line of back stitching at the top of the grass skirt. Then I kind of did a loop start, at the end of each back stitch and left the two ends dangling. I'm happy with it, and they won't pull out. I don't know if my explanation makes sense.

Anyway - thanks for checking it out, and thanks for your comments!