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| It's been a long, long time... |
| 11.30.04 (12:01 pm) [edit] |
since I updated this blog! :D Sorry to say that real life intruded and I just didn't have time to do an update. Add to that the holidays, etc. and well... :?
So here is another update on current projects! I had a nice Thanksgiving and am now decorated for Xmas. When I pulled out my Xmas stuff I could definately tell which holiday I love and adore and it's NOT Xmas. ;) Don't get me wrong I have *plenty* of Xmas decorations (mostly snowmen) but it's just not the same as those lazy days of fall... (sighs whistfully) Okay, I'm over it. :D
It has actually snowed here and it's not even December!! It now looks like the dead of winter out there, it's rather depressing. I can see why people love those bright reds and greens at this time of year. :)
So I've been working frantically to get Santa Clothes done so that it could be out for a little while before Xmas and I got it finished last night!! This weekend I will make it into a pillow and set it out and admire it till the new year. :)
Here is the finished project:
It turned out great! I love the colors and the buttons I got for it are so cute!! Can't wait till it's totally complete! If you want to see up close pics of this there are a couple in the gallery.
I was at my mom's this weekend and looking for something and ended up cleaning out one of her cupboards and look what I found!
This is old, so old that I'd never even signed it or dated it. I went ahead and added my name, but have no idea when I originally made it, weird, huh?
My mom was asking about a Xmas cube, but I hadn't intended on making her one, but how can I refuse my mom? So last night I did this quick freebie of a Cardinal. I put it on some of my green hand dyed fabric and it looks great! (Much better in person, more vivid!) I'm going to cube it out this weekend and she will be so surprised! I can't believe I got it done in one night, backstitching and all! :)
Greg's been working frenetically on Xmas presents for his family and he also made me a white poinsetta that I am going to cube.
Poinsetta:
(This also looks better in person, not so washed out.)
He finished the redbird for his Grandma and it's so adorable! He used Just Another Button Company pine cone buttons on it, they look fantastic! This was a stitch it card that we decided to frame and the front of the card makes a great mat!
He also made this butterfly for his sister who LOVES purple!
I'm making this one into a cube for her as well!
And finally he is currently working on this for his mom:
This is also a card, but he's making it on 14 count instead of their 16 (or 18??) count fabric so we are just going to frame it without the front of the card as a mat.
So with everything and stitching we've been pretty busy! I think this month is going to go fast too, lots of Xmas activities! :) Hope everyone is enjoying the wind up to Xmas!!
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| Dripping with Color! |
| 11.16.04 (5:59 am) [edit] |
I am happy to say that I have my two surprise Xmas gifts finished and framed!! Yeah me!
They turned out better than I had expected! Greg picked out the frame for Friendship Grows, it's not one I would've chosen but after seeing it all finished I think it's very nice! I decided to add a dragonfly button to it and I love the color against the burgandy.
The other project isn't as bright as I had expected, but I think that the person receiving it will like it. Hand dyed fabric can be tricky stuff! I went to clean a spot off the back and it left a weird mark that fortunately didn't show through to the front. It was just cold water on the fabric, but I think it brought up some of the dye in the material. Actually you would only be able to tell it was there if you knew what it looked like prior to cleaning but still it's just odd how this happens. I try not to have to wash my hand dyed projects, I just steam them and frame them. It's not the fabric that I am worried about as cold water won't loosen up the dye normally. I think in the case I mentioned above it was a bit of vigorous "spot" cleaning that caused the odd mark. If you just rinse the whole piece you wouldn't have that problem. The thing I worry about with rinsing is in the threads. I didn't have any problems in that area with this one as I didn't wet the threads.
What brings this subject up is the "thing" that happened with Greg's project Tigger. He used hand dyed fabric and a combo of DMC and specialty threads on the project. In the past I have had to wash all of Greg's projects, they just seem to attract dirt. However in the past all his projects were sewn almost exclusively with DMC. Come to think of it his Never Enough Time used specialty threads but I didn't have a problem washing it.... Anyhoo! He used a Weeks thread called Confetti and not thinking much about it I rinsed the project in cold water to get rid of risidual dirt. I wish I hadn't. :( The Confetti was not color fast AT ALL. It released some nice red, blue and green into the fabric!!! HORRORS!! I panicked and immediately re-rinsed the whole thing and got most of the leaky dye out but it stilll left a nice halo around the border. (pounds head on desk) This is the first time that this has ever happened and YES I know that hand dyed threads CAN run, but obviously I've never had it happen before. (big sigh) Moral to this story is that I will be ever so careful in the future about rinsing hand dyed threads (and spot cleaning ;) ) as you never know what might happen. Fortunately the halo doesn't really detract from the picture, but in an odd way it is sort of funny, IF you aren't the person that created said halo on SOMEONE ELSE'S PROJECT. :roll: Ah well, live and learn!
Here are the projects:
I am still plugging away at Santa Clothes. I have been distracted lately and have had to frog out several areas, even though the project isn't even that difficult. (big sigh) I wonder if this is because I am just not into Xmas projects. :wink: But now that I have the coat nearly done I have hope that it will move faster. Unfortunately I don't think it will be ready in time for my Xmas decorating, but oh well...
I just can't believe that Thanksgiving is next week and Xmas only about a month off...it just goes so fast after Halloween. Anyway, here is my latest progress on SC:
Okay, now it's back to being busy at work!! :D
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| Here we are again... |
| 11.12.04 (6:45 am) [edit] |
:D No I didn't forget about my blog, I just got side-tracked...I've been very busy at work and also have been working on some projects for xmas gifts and haven't taken pics of them so I didn't feel I had anything to contribute.
I finally finished the last xmas gift and got back to Santa Clothes and Greg got some pics of things he's been working on so here's the scoop!
I decided to stitch this freebie from San-Man as a xmas gift. I didn't have the threads it suggested so I just picked my own. I have to admit my color scheme was nothing like the original, except for the holly. I like how it turned out though and I stitched it on some fabric that I hand dyed another green shade. I think it turned out great and I hope the person who is getting it likes it. I decided to leave off the word "Seasons" cuz - 1. I didn't want to take the time to stitch it and 2. I didn't really care for it. So here it is, completed but not framed:
I haven't gotten tons done on Santa Clothes, but it's slowly taking shape. I'm trying to be careful so I don't have too many mistakes in it, it's easy to get distracted!! :)
I love the fabric I'm stitching it on, it seems so perfect for it and really brings out the colors!
I finally got Greg's Frank project sewn into a pillow that he likes. It was kinda tricky and I'm not sure I really like the outcome, but Greg did and that's the main thing. ;D This pic doesn't do the project a lot of justice as it doesn't show off the cute fabric that Greg picked out to compliment the pattern. Basically it's an arched shaped pillow about 3 inches wide, the bottom is filled with beans and the rest is stuffed.
Greg also finished his Tigger project. It turned out so adorable! I love the floss he used for the border, it's called Confetti and it's so cheerful! He had a heck of a time with the french knots and so did I! I was trying to teach him how to do them and even I had loads of trouble and I thought I had gotten them down fairly well...apparently "knot". LOL, LOL I love how he signed this one, he put his signature on Tigger's arm, kinda like a tattoo, it's so cute!!
Now he's onto another mini project, a redbird card. It's very sweet.
Well that's it for now! It's gotten cold here, but not so miserable. I spose it's just a matter of time before winter hits. It's already looking like Xmas most everywhere, but I am surprised that there aren't as many decorations up as I had thought there'd be and not as many decorations for sale either. It will be interesting to see what happens right after Thanksgiving, the traditional kick off of the Xmas season. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!
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| Nothing Left But The Sugar High... |
| 11.01.04 (6:16 am) [edit] |
:lol: Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but Halloween has come and gone. It's always a let down for me when it's over as I enjoy it so much and then it's time for the decorations to come down, the ghosts and goblins to head home and we look on towards Turkey day. I always feel like Halloween is the epitome of a Fall holiday. It's still warm (mostly) the decorations are bright and cheerful and fun! Thanksgiving is a bit more toned down and more food and family centric than decoration centric. And for some reason I see Thanksgiving as the precipice before full blown winter. That's not to say I don't decorate for Turkey day and that I don't enjoy it, just not as much. :wink:
Nicole responded to my last post saying she finally bought Blessed Samhain from Witches Stitches! Good for you Nicole! She also wanted to know where to get Birds of a Feather's Scared Silly. Well there is always Ebay, although not 100% reliable. But my favorite online store is JJ's in Kentucky. I don't normally plug stores, but this one is superb. Friendly and reliable and fairly inexpensive. They have helped me find some hard to come by items. Nicole, I hope you find it and have loads of fun stitching it, when you do let me know where to go have a look I love seeing other people's projects!
http://www.jjscollectibles.com/index.htm?9784" title="http://www.jjscollectibles.com/index.htm?9784" target="_blank"http://www.jjscollectibles.co...
I got my Charmed Thanksgiving framed on Sunday. It turned out great! This is the frame the Greg found for $1.99 and it's hard to believe it was so cheap! The frame is perfect for this project. I had some tiny leaf embellishments that I glued on to give it the look of leaves blowing in the wind, it's a fun touch!
You can see a close up of the leaves in the gallery. :)
I haven't been working on Santa Clothes for a few days as I decided that I needed to finish up a couple of quick Xmas gifts before it got too close. These quick projects are always a lot of fun. Here is one freebie from Lizzie Kate that I did on some hand dyed fabric I purchased a while back. The fabric is called dark wine and I totally changed the colors of the original project in order to compliment the fabric.
I've already bought a frame for it and just need to get it finished up.
Greg is nearly done with his tigger project and we are still working on a finish for Frank. The one I did yesterday didn't turn out the way we wanted so it's back to square one. :D
Hope you Halloween was fun and that you don't have a candy hangover today!!
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