My Lonely Craft Room

I've worked at making my craft room as comfortable, user-friendly and welcoming as possible and I think I've succeeded.  But there's one thing missing and that is me.  Look how sad and lonely my craft room is.  I think I can hear crickets chirping.  Over the past 2 months several things have prevented me from getting crafty.  Those are:  working extra hours, being sick, and the holidays.  Excuses, excuses, right?

The really bad thing is that if I turned around and took a picture of the opposite wall, you'd see a book case (used for storage and pretty display) that is crammed with stuff that I just stuck there.  You'd find gift bags, my fabric wreath, magazines, framed holiday cross stitch which should be stored properly, and an assortment of miscellaneous items.  Do you like how I just photographed the neat side?

Maybe I haven't been TOTALLY idle.  I made a pretty tote bag for a Christmas gift.  Now that it's been given, I can show you.

This past weekend was Stitch Day for the Sisters In Stitches.  I worked on another gift that I can't show anyone just yet, but will soon.  But I did have a small finish during the holiday time:  "Cardinal Winter" by LHN.

Now that life is back to normal, I am enjoying getting back to stitching and planning my next project.  And I plan to get back into that craft room soon to try my hand at turning a tiny stitched project into a greeting card.  I also have an ongoing painting project that has been sorely neglected.  Happily it's in the home stretch so when I do get back to it, it will be a short time before it's completed. 

But first, I think I should do some serious cleaning up of my craft room mess and get a little organized. 
Maybe.

A Very Merry Stitch Day

What's better than our monthly Stitch Day?  That would be a Christmas celebration Stitch Day!  This took place last Saturday and was no ordinary gathering.  We had decided to bring food to share, which is a departure from what we usually do.  So no little sack lunches for us!  Instead, we feasted on a ham spread appetizer, meatballs, pulled pork sliders and salad.  Peggy, our resident baker extraordinaire, provided us with a selection of delicious desserts.

Peggy also made sure that our gift table was festive.

And for when we drew numbers for our gift exchange.

Now that's pretty creative.

We each received a festive Christmas cracker and a coffee mug gift package, courtesy of Peggy.  I missed the opportunity to take a photo of all of us wearing our paper crowns.  You would have loved that!  Some boy scouts were visiting the fire station (we meet at a community room adjacent to that) and laughed at us enough.  We appreciated all of the work that Peggy put into our gathering to make it extra special!

Peggy's gifts for all of us.

Oh yes!  We also stitched.  Here is a sampling of what we were working on.

Trish's project.

My "Cardinal Winter"

Autumn leaf by Sheila.

Renee was working on a pillow.

Peggy's work of art.

Pat's Christmas tree.

We did miss two of our group members, Laurie and Thea, who could not attend, and look forward to seeing them in January!

Pat presented each of us with a lovely handmade scarf.  What a nice gift, so beautifully crafted.  And then we got creative with our scarf display for this photo.

  

So you can see what a fun and special gathering this was for the Sisters In Stitches.  I'm pretty sure that this is something we will be doing again next year! 

A Kooky Project And A Stitched Finish

I completely forgot to show you what I finished while I was on our group's stitch retreat!  This is one of the old (1997?) ornament projects that I found while doing some actual cleaning in the craft room.  Some of you may be familiar with that story as I've posted about it in the past.  The items I found are turning into some lovely ornament finishes, and here's another one.

I put the final stitches into it during the retreat only to figure out that I didn't have any beads.  You know how we stitchers like to finish things.  So Laurie came to the rescue with just enough tiny red beads that turned out to be perfect for this little project.  It's not a traditional cross stitch project, more of a long stitch done on what looks like needlepoint canvas.  Now it just has to be completed into an ornament. 

Another project I've been working on is a little different.  I saw this idea all over the internet last year and decided to make my own.  First I had to get a clear wine bottle.  So after drinking a bottle of mediocre wine (bought just for the clear bottle), I sprayed it with a frost finish.  Looked good and went on easier than I thought it would.  Then I painted on a trio of ghosts and some other spooky stuff, tied on some black ribbon and then stuffed some clear lights into it.  I'm pretty sure that the light cord is supposed to go through a hole that should be drilled through the bottle.  Gulp.  I'm not brave enough for that yet.  I have visions of glass shards flying everywhere.  And the bottle should have a cork to finish it.  But it's kind of a fun finish, isn't it?

Bottle Of Boos.  Get it?

Today I started a painting project that I will be sharing right here on the blog.  So far so good.  And I am photographing the process as I go.  So stay tuned.

I'm Back After My Blogger Blip

I'm not even going to make excuses for why I haven't contributed to my blog in so long, but I do apologize for my lengthy absence.  Let's just dive into what I HAVE been doing. 

My stitch group, the Sisters In Stitches, enjoyed our fall retreat at the beautiful James H. (Sloppy) Floyd State Park in Summerville, GA.  Yeah, it sounds funny, but it's a very pretty setting and we chose a good time of the year to go.  We stayed in two cabins, convening in one to stitch and eat.  The meals and desserts were delicious as usual.  We all agreed that our retreat was a success and a good time was had by all.

The Sisters In Stitches.  We asked a stranger to take this picture.  We're a friendly group.

The table of busy stitchers.

Each stitcher received a scissor fob/keychain.

For a retreat remembrance, Sheila and I made Ice Resin charms with the group's name and then I put together some fall-themed scissor fobs/keyrings for each stitcher.  I'm glad that everyone liked this little surprise.

I have been stitching!  You can see my progress on Song Of The Seasons in the lower left hand corner of the top (messy table) photo.  I've also been working on a freebie snowflake using Garibaldi rayon overdyed floss.  The color I'm using is a purply-pink color.

I have to say that I love using this floss!  It's great for one-color designs like this snowflake.  This is going to make a cute Christmas ornament.

Also in the works is "Cardinal Winter" by Little House Needleworks.  Such a cute little chart.

I've also been doing some miscellaneous crafting, which I'll talk about in future posts.  And I'm about to embark on a painting project that I'm very excited about. I'll be sure to post about that.  Unless it turns out really bad.  No, no.  Either way, you'll see the results coming up soon.  Thanks for sticking with me during my blogging lull!

Stitch Day Craftiness And Finish

The Sisters In Stitches held our Stitch Day for October on Saturday.  One of the things we do at each Stitch Day to add to the fun is a gift exchange.  This gift can be something stitch related, but it doesn't have to be.  This month I wanted to do something totally different and unique, so I came up with the idea of a box of frogs.  Not THOSE kinds of frogs.  You know, the ones that make our stitching a little less fun.  But I did tie in the frog idea and made a bunch of jumping frogs from dollar bills!

My son used to make these and occasionally would make one to use as part of our server's tip at a restaurant.  He wasn't available to teach me how to make dollar bill jumping frogs, so I went to the next best source -- Youtube. 

I made up a herd? swarm? gaggle? of these, found an unusual box, added some tissue paper and a funny note, and there was my one-of-a-kind gift.  And it was thoroughly enjoyed by the recipient!

My goal for this Stitch Day was to finish something.  I don't know how optimistic I was, but I did actually complete Bent Creek's "Quaker Star".  I like the use of different shades of red and blue in this chart and think it is a very nice finish.

Now my fellow Sisters In Stitches and I are getting ready for our Fall 2013 retreat which is just around the corner!  We share meal duty, and have all of our meals planned.  We're going to have a smaller (but just as fun) gift exchange.  And of course, we are all looking forward to a weekend of uninterrupted stitching.  I've got to decide what I'll take to work on!  I plan to take pictures to share right here.  So stay tuned. 

Thanks for visiting my blog!  I enjoy all of your comments and am happy to know that people are visiting here.

A Halloween Finish In Just One Day

On a shopping trip to Michael's craft store one day, I found this little frame in their bargain bin area.  It just said "Halloween" to me.  The other day I decided it was time to put something into that frame, so I started to scour my Just Cross Stitch Halloween issues.  The tiny opening in the frame really limited what I could put in there, but I finally found this cute little cat chart in the 2012 issue.

I had to leave out the fence that the cat was sitting on, and I also repositioned the bats, but I think it turned out very well!  And all in one day!  I'm one of the slowest stitchers I know, so this is pretty amazing.  And really, this spooky little frame couldn't hold anything other than a Halloween something.  Looking through the Halloween issues of Just Cross Stitch, I found so many fun things to stitch. Maybe it's time to start something new.........

I Thought They Already Had All Of The Colors!

What are the three main things that we stitchers like the most?  That would be charts, fabric and thread, of course.  There are lots of other necessities that are always on our radar -- scissors, needles, needle minders, lights, cases to hold all of our stuff, and more.

I always like seeing new charts that have come out, and spending time ooh-ing and ahh-ing over new fabrics, but I think my favorite thing is floss.  I like all kinds of floss, but DMC is my preferred go-to brand for its consistency, softness and sheen.  So when I heard that DMC was introducing new colors, well, it made me pretty happy.  But then I wondered where they were going to get new colors.  I mean, don't they already make every shade of every color in the rainbow?  Apparently not.  Last week I received in the mail my little box of DMC's 16 new floss colors.

It contains 8 soft, natural shades and 8 bright, vibrant hues.  Ahhhhh, what a wonderful stash addition for a floss fan.  I just want to stitch something with them.  And just look at that orange.  Wouldn't it be perfect for a little Halloween something?  So if you feel a need to add to your floss collection, this is just the thing.  Happy stitching!