Crafty Odds and Ends

The craft room has been a busy place lately.  Gobble has been framed and is already gracing the family room with his cuteness. This was a fun project and a pretty quick stitch.  I'd like to stitch seasonal pieces to frame and put in a little frame stand at the appropriate time of the year.  It'll be interesting to see what I come up with.

I also finished stitching Christmas Box Ornaments last night.  The boxes are very pretty decorated with metallic thread and beads.  I will admit that I didn't enjoy working with the metallic thread, even the end result is lovely.  I know I want to make this into a bellpull, but still have to figure out how I'm going to do that.  Should it have a different fabric backing, or should I just fold the fabric back to make a self-backing?  Should the bottom be straight or pointed?  Any suggestions are welcome.

Sheila and I have decided to do a wreath project that she found instructions for on the web.  The base is a straw wreath, and the decorative part is fabric.  So I spent part of Friday morning cutting out hundreds of squares of Christmas fabric.  It didn't take me that long to do once I had a method.  This week we will attempt to make the wreaths.  I'll let you know how it turns out and will post pictures.  I'll also post the link IF the project is successful.  I mean, I've never jammed squares of fabric into a straw wreath with a Phillips head screwdriver before, so who knows what will happen! I bought a new rotary cutter with a pinking blade to use for this project, but it won't cut through the fabric!  I've used rotary cutters before with no problem, so I don't know what the deal is here.  I watched a Youtube video of people cutting through fabric like it's butter.  Mine - not so much.  Has anyone else had this problem?  Or am I doing something wrong?  I haven't tried it with the straight cutter, just the pinking.  Luckily I had some pinking shears and they saved the day.

And just to prove that I was able to overcome my fear of the serger, I'm posting a picture of my "progress" in threading it.  I've actually succeeded in threading it, but there is one step that is wrong.  I know what it is, but can't figure out how to place the thread where it says to.  I might be able to if I had Barbie hands.  The cats might be able to fit their little paws in there, but then there is the problem of lack of thumbs.  But I am still determined to get this thing going. 

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