A Priceless Day Stitching With Friends

This past Saturday was a Stitch-In day at The Stitch Store . Sheila and I hadn't been to one in a while, so this was something we'd been looking forward to. As usual, it was a lovely day stitching with a group of wonderful ladies. The attendees vary from Stitch-In to Stitch-In, but that doesn't change the fun level. As I thought about our day, I realized that we stitchers vary in so many aspects: age, where we're from, children or no children, married or not, education, employment, etc. But it seems that we all like to talk, laugh, eat and most importantly, stitch. It's the thread that holds us together, pun intended. We probably disagree on things too, but those things are trivial when we're working with fabric and thread.

There's a Glory Bee chart called Stitching With Friends that expresses this perfectly. It says "spending an afternoon stitching with friends is priceless". How true!

So, Terrie, thanks for the day at your store and for all that you do for us. And the cake. Oh yes, the cake.

What Makes A UFO?

Before you start thinking I've gone a little kooky and am going to start talking about aliens and flying saucers, just wait a minute. If you keep reading, you'll find that the UFO's I'm referring to are known to us stitchers (and maybe other crafters) as UnFinished Objects. Do we all have them? Probably not all of us, but my guess is that many stitchers have a UFO or two hiding out somewhere in their stash.

Now, a Work In Progress (WIP) is a totally different thing than a UFO. In my book anyway. A WIP is something you're actively working on. You may not have picked it up in a couple of months, but it's an ongoing project that you intend to complete. The UFO, though, is more likely to be years old and your needle has not passed through that fabric in an embarrassingly long time. Nor are you sure that you will ever finish it. They're not necessarily bad projects; there is just something about them that makes it a) not fun; or b) difficult to work on. Maybe you've just come up with things to do that are more interesting. Or it's possible that the fabric you chose is suddenly a challenge for your aging eyes.

Case in point: my two UFO's: English Cottage Sampler by Theresa Wentzler and Angel of Divinity Stocking kit by Dimensions. When I bought the TW chart, I didn't know how, um, involved these can be. They're beautiful and that beauty comes with a price: blended threads, 7 shades of green, tons and tons of backstitching. And the stocking, well, it may look like it's almost done, but no. It's one of these designs that's 100% stitched over the surface, so there's so much more to do.

It's not totally out of the realm of possibility that I'll someday pick these up and start stitching, which is the reason I haven't thrown them out or given them away. I just have so many other things, I'd like to stitch in the meantime. So, alas, these two will just have to retain their UFO status for a while. But who knows? I might surprise you, and myself, someday.

A Little Creativity

I should know better, but I bought some beads. Doesn't sound like a big deal, does it? If you saw my collection, however, you'd surely tell me that I should not buy any more beads. I found myself in Joann Etc. and saw these pretty mother of pearl looking flower pendants and knew that something had to be made with it. This is not the best photo in the world, but you get the idea. I hadn't made any jewelry lately, so it was fun getting back into working with beads and findings.

Also, the surprise of the week for me is the little pin cushion I made from my Blackbird Designs "Breath of Spring" cross stitch which I featured in an earlier blog. I knew I wanted to make it into a pin cushion as was suggested in the instructions in the chart, but decided to change the lace trim for a gathered ribbon effect called ruching. I found some pretty green sheer ribbon and ruched (is that a word?) away. Also interesting about this is that the pin cushion is filled with crushed walnut shells. This was also recommended in the directions. I had to go to the pet store to get these and then buy this giant bag. Apparently birds use these for something. But look! They make excellent pin cushion filling! Almost like a little beanbag. I'm really happy with the way this project turned out. My husband even remarked on my finishing work. Huh.

Crafty Guy

I never knew my husband to be particularly crafty. Oh, there was that one time when our son was a toddler and they both got wrapped up in creating with Play-Doh. They ended up making every Winnie the Pooh character known. So cute!! Why did I not take pictures? He also builds things very well. For example, today he's working on his latest project -- the ultimate garage storage system. No purchased plans for him!

So when a kind neighbor gave him a "vintage" wood lathe, I was pleasantly surprised to see what came spinning off of that thing. One of my favorites is the pencil holder he made for me. Then there are the embroidery scissor holders, which are great for us stitchers. If you look closely, one of them features a "captured ring" that moves, but doesn't come off. How he did this is a wood-
working mystery to me.

The little wooden box that kind of looks like a cross between an apple, an acorn and a pumpkin is another favorite.

There are more -- bowls, candle holders, Christmas ornaments and Easter eggs. Each creation is a unique treasure. I'll post more as they come off the lathe.

Oldies But Definitely Goodies

In my ongoing quest to organize my craft supplies, I've been a little surprised at how much stuff I was willing to part with. Attempting organization also uncovered a couple of things from my past that I had forgotten about. One is a small cross stitch sampler that I stitched in 1988. I know this because I conveniently stitched that it was "wrought" by me with the date right beside it. Also interesting is that this is my first piece stitched on linen, and it looks like 32 count. I don't know what the pattern is, but I'm pretty sure it came out of a cross stitch magazine. Why have I never framed this? It's a nice pattern and the colors are very pretty. Now that it's been unearthed, it will be getting framed.

The next item is a little strange, but I like it. It's a pillow kit that I bought from Avon in the late 70's. No year on this one but I'm thinking about 1978. Instead of cross stitch, this little number features yarn embroidery done on stamped fabric. The kit originally came with a pillow back in a very shocking shade of turquoise, which must have hit the circular file sometime ago. Despite the funky color combos and the fact that this looks a little dated, it will become a little throw pillow.

See what you might come up with when you decide to organize! A lot of trash (as in my case), and possibly some treasures.

Slackercat?

I knew I hadn't contributed anything to my blog in a while, but not since October, 2010? Especially when the whole idea of a blog is to actually write something in it once in a while. It's not as if I've been slacking off, craftwise. Just to prove it, here's what I've been up to. The Christmas themed one is Peppermint Twist by Blue Ribbon Designs. I used overdyed threads for the whole project - first time! Enjoyed working with Weeks threads.

The winter scene is Snow White by Little House Needleworks. Again, I ventured out of my comfort zone for this one, using silk thread. Very nice. I love the little flower baskets with the rabbits -- Breath of Spring by Blackbird Designs. This will become a pin cushion as I try my hand at something else new. And finally the two cute bugs are Mill Hill beaded kits. I made these to decorate the room of a very adorable little boy.
These finishes are quite an accomplishment in a relatively short time. Well, for me.

By working at The Stitch Store I've been inspired to do more stitching. Everything is right there, especially new charts. Always very tempting. And also not a bad thing!

The Bulletin Board Project

It's been a while since I posted, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been involved in some sort of craftiness. It's just that I've been stitching a lot, but not completing anything. I'll work on that. I do want to show you a very cool bulletin board that I made for my crafting area. I knew I wanted some kind of board to tack things like photos and cards to, but it had to be more fun than an ordinary cork board.

So I went online and located these directions supplied by the DIY Network and found them easy enough to follow. For the fabric selection, I enlisted the help of Sheila, who has an eye for choosing and combining different colors. The fabric I chose is a quilt fabric in an up-to-date paisley print in aquas, blues, tans and browns. The rope trim is a cream color and the ribbon for the diagonals is brown. Luckily I have a husband who has all kinds of wood tools, including saws, so I just put in my order for a plywood rectangle in the recommended size.

I found the instructions easy to work with and soon I was ready to staple. Let's just say that the hand-held (not electric) staple gun and I haven't always been friends. But now that I learned to use it correctly, the job of stapling the fabric to the back of the plywood was quickly completed. The most difficult part of stapling was trying to figure out how to reload the staples into the thing. I tried one way, then another, then decided to break for lunch. When I got back, that little light bulb popped on over my head (that seems to happen a lot to me) and I figured out that the way to load staples was the most counterintuitive process I've ever seen.

Close to completing my bulletin board project, I realized some things. First of all, all of those giant staples would probably scratch the heck out of the wall, so I hot glued a piece of fabric onto the back of the board once I was sure I was done with stapling. Then, I noticed that the scraggly ends of the rope trim are going to be visible. I solved this problem by buying some pretty big buttons and hot gluing one over the ends and another directly across the board from that one. Finally, after hanging the board on the wall and placing some items in it, I found that they were falling through. I knew that I would have to secure the places where the ribbons criss-crossed each other. Ordinary thumbtacks and a hammer were all that were needed for that. If I made another one of these, I'd use a thicker loft batting. I think that would solve that problem. After the thumbtacks were in place, I glued some little flat glass acorns right onto the thumbtacks. I don't know where I got these and what I intended to use them for, but they were just the right thing for this project.

The great thing about this bulletin board project is that it can be done for very little money. Most fabric stores have a nice selection of remnants and you don't need that big of a fabric piece for this. Plus, the remaining supplies can all be purchased very inexpensively. This was a fun project to do and no special skills were needed, thank goodness. I'm all about simplicity.

If you're reading this blog on Facebook, go to the bottom of the blog and it says something like "View Original Post" and click on that. The blog looks much better in color. And if you get a minute, become one of my blog followers. It doesn't cost anything, and who knows what you'll learn here.