Patriotic Pinkeep and Cross Stitch Camp

Several weeks ago I joined in on the Cross Stitch Camp challenge for July.  It's a virtual event created and hosted by Sheri of Colorado Cross Stitcher.  Cross Stitch Camp is being held for 3 months (June, July & August) in which stitchers can participate in various monthly challenges set by Sheri.  Luckily there is no requirement to participate in all 3 monthly challenges (I was behind on watching Flosstube and didn't learn about it until in June) but I was motivated and decided to join in for July.  The challenge was to stitch something by a designer whose pattern you've never stitched before and being that it was for July, I thought a patriotic item would be a good idea.

I looked through my collection of patterns and chose the Patriotic Pinkeep by Bendy Stitchy Designs.  Another factor of choosing this pattern was because I had to take into consideration the stitch count/size of the design.  I was joining in on the challenge on July 17 which meant I only had a few weeks to get the design stitched by the end of the month.  Well, it was a fun stitch, the perfect size and, with my plan of stitching a minimum of 30 minutes per day, I completed the challenge!  Not only did I get the design stitched (finishing the stitching is required and fully finishing is optional), I also fully finished it!  Being that it was the end of July, I stopped in at Michaels a few days ago to search for any patriotic type item to use in finishing my project.  I was in luck because there was a good hand full of items on clearance!  I chose a Red, White & Blue shadow box frame which only required minimal alteration.  This is the original box design.

 

Here are the details about my finished project.

Fabric:  14 count light blue Aida (brand - Loops & Thread [100% cotton])

Floss:  DMC 3865 and Sullivans (the DMC conversion) 45006, 45106, 45235, 45275, 45217, 45375 & 45238

Design Changes:  I left off the year and added a stitched star from the pattern.

 

Finishing:

I measured the inside of the shadow box and cut a paper template and traced it onto chipboard.  I cut a piece of the stars fabric (a fat quarter from Michaels) and adhered to the chipboard.  I placed the fabric covered chipboard square into the box for the backdrop.  Using a 5" Fiskars circle template, I cut a piece of chipboard.  I then traced the circle to the back of the stitched piece ensuring the design was not cut off and then cut out a circle approximately 1/2" away from the traced line.  This is to ensure there was enough fabric to wrap around the chipboard.  I then laced the design to the chipboard and adhered red 100% cotton rick rack for embellishment.  (Was I the only one that didn't know rick rack came in cotton?  I had never even thought about the material it's made of and the few packs I bought from the fabric store, they are made of polyester.  Not that anything is wrong with polyester but I thought it was good information to share!  So, I don't remember what got me looking but I found some cotton rick rack in a variety of colors and sizes on Etsy and made a purchase from the shop Sew Vintagely.  Anywho, back to the project!)

 

Finally, I adhered the stitching to the backing panel.  A quite quick and simple finish! 

 

Happy Stitching!

The fabric, oh...and some bags

It's always fun to peruse the shelves and walls of the local fabric stores and even better bringing home some great finds!  I've built up a bit of a stash over the years and rarely have the courage to cut up those pretty designs.  Well, over the last several months, I put in some effort and made some bags!  I used fusible fleece in all bags except for the sewing machine bag; for that one I used batting and added a few rows of quilting.  It was a good feeling to get productive, and now at least I've made something useful and fun to look at with delight!  I also wanted to share the joy with others so I made a bag for Priscilla and Chelsea (Stitching with the Housewives) in each of their fabric design, and also one for them to share with a fellow stitcher!  Now, let's see the bags.

Bag 1

Fabric:  Enchant by Chong Hwang for Timeless Treasures

Zipper pull:  Serendipity enamel keychain charm from Fat Quarter Shop            

Bag 2 

Fabric:  a fat quarter from the fabric bin at Michaels

Zipper pull:  Quilt Shoppe Main Street enamel charm from Flaming Toes Shop

Bag 3

Fabric:  Sew Excited by Andi Metz for Kanvas with Benartex

Zipper pull:  Needlework Shop Main Street enamel charm from Flamingo Toes Shop

 

Bag 4

Fabric:  Sew Excited by Andi Metz for Kanvas with Benartex

Zipper pull:  ribbon, handmade charm using pendant blank, element from the fabric and scissor charm

 

Bag 5

Fabric:  Priscilla's Pretty Plaids by Stitching with the Housewives for Henry Glass

Zipper pull:  ribbon, handmade charm using pendant blank, piece of  fabric and glue gun charm

 

Bag 6

Fabric:  Chelsea's Checks by Stitching with the Housewives for Henry Glass

Zipper pull:  ribbon, handmade charm using pendant blank, piece of  fabric and glue gun charm

 

 

Bag 7

Fabric:  Tea and Dessert designed for Joann Fabrics

Zipper pull:  Vintage Oven enamel happy charm by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet from Fat Quarter Shop

 

 

Happy Sewing!

Knitting - Heart Baby Cloth

Wow, it's the last day of February and the project I have to share fits in with the occasion that is celebrated in this month.  Last night I finished knitting this Heart Baby Cloth pattern from Knit Picks.

I had intended on using this as a dish cloth but, well, it turned out a little larger (8 3/4" wide x 10" tall) than I wanted but that's not a problem.  I already thought of knitting several more in other colors and making a wall hanging or some other craft project.  I mean if you don't use the suggested needle size and yarn or do a swatch, the final product will differ.  The majority of the time, I like to wing it and use yarn from my stash and because it's not a garment, I don't worry about measurements for this type of project.  And I haven't blocked it either but I should since it's not completely flat.  I just have fun with it to see my end results and I can always knit it again with the recommended supplies.

So for the supplies, I used size 7 US (4.5 mm) needles and Lily Sugar'n Cream 100% cotton yarn in the color red.  Another item I used were stitch markers which I highly recommend because it helps to track the beginning and ending rows of the heart pattern section. 

Well, that it's for now, happy knitting!

Grow (fun with mixed media art)

Inspiration is everywhere and my latest project is inspired by a picture of a quilt I saved from a sales catalog!  This quilt had a floral design and the flower petals were made of ribbon and, well, I have tons of ribbon and I knew making ribbon flower petals would be a fun way to use some of it!  (Ok, this didn't put a dent in my ribbon stash but it's a start, LOL!)  So while I was organizing some of my craft stash, which occasionally involves looking in my file of ideas, my creative mojo kicked in!  A piece of leftover fabric from another project, the quilt picture and inspiration from a crafty video, I knew what I wanted to create.  This is my project Grow!

 

To create this art piece, I first grabbed some ribbon and cut 8 strips of approximately 3" pieces.  For the flower stem, I cut about a 4" length of rick rack.  I used hot glue to form each petal then glued each piece on top of the brown fabric.  Then, I glued down the rick rack at a slight curve.  I also needed a flower center and from my box of embellishments, I decided on a red button.  To spruce up the design, I added a few rhinestones and some smaller buttons.  Next, I pulled a 6" x 8" stretched canvas out of my craft stash.  I placed the fabric floral piece on top of the canvas to figure out my layout but what would I do about that plain white background?

I needed to add some color to the canvas and so I dug into my fabric stash and found a charm pack called Boundless Batiks by Boundless Fabrics.  It was a free gift that came along with a purchase I made from Craftsy several years ago.  The colors in this pack were perfect and I picked several different squares and starting cutting the fabric into various shapes and sizes.  I used Aleene's tacky glue to adhere the fabric pieces to the canvas and where I overlapped the fabric, I used Aleene's fabric fusion glue.  After the canvas was mostly covered (fabric wasn't needed in the center area where the flower panel would be placed), I used fabric fusion to adhere the flower panel to the canvas.  At this point, it did look great but I felt the design was not complete.  As I pondered, I looked through my craft stash.

Finally; I found a word sticker, I hand cut a leaf from the fabric and adhered both to the background with the Aleene's glue.  For the finishing touch, I brushed on a few colors of Distress Ink (spiced marmalade, walnut stain & fired brick) sparingly over various parts of the design.  Now it's complete!  This was quite a relaxing project to work on as I told myself to just let the creative juices flow and not mull over my creativity choices but go with my first instinct - this is meant to be fun! 

Cross Stitched Pillow Quotes

I finally stopped procrastinating and finished off three mini pillows, all works in progress from oh about at least 3 months ago!  I cross stitched these three patterns back in April/May, started the makings of pillows sometime in the summer and then nothing.  I got as far as forming the pillow for stuffing but then didn't have the desire to complete the project.  Well, I didn't want these UFOs to linger into the new year and motivated myself to finish them last night!  I put on flosstube, pulled out the fiberfill, needle and thread, and got busy!  

These cross stitch patterns are freebies offered for the "bewellandstitch" movement started earlier this year.  Numerous designers created some wonderful patterns to contribute to this cause and even though I'd love to stitch them all, I had to be realistic and narrowed down my selection to these three:

Here are the details:

Bee Kind - Pattern by Vonna Pfeiffer for Fiber Talk

Fabric:  14 ct. white Aida

Floss: Sulky cotton petite threads (1 strand used) - purple #712-1122, yellow #712-1124, blue #712-1198; Sullivans 45193 (wings), Sullivans 45094 (flower center), DMC 310

Fabric, ribbon and lace trim from stash - (The yellow fabric was also used for the pillow backing.)

Pillow size: 7 1/4" x 5 3/4"

Choose Happy - Pattern by Hands on Design (Cathy Haberman)

Fabric:  18 ct. white Aida

Floss:  DMC 726 (outer petal), DMC 742 (inner petal), DMC 3364 (flower stem & grass), DMC 921 (words)

Fabric from stash (The orange fabric was also used for the pillow backing.)

Pillow size:  8 3/4" x 4 3/4"

Be well - Pattern by mylifewithmisssassy (pattern on Instagram)

Fabric:  14 ct. white Aida

Floss:  DMC 744 (left and right tulip), DMC 321 (hearts), DMC 742 (center tulip), DMC 839 (vase), DMC 3364 (leaves and stems)

Fabric and ribbon from stash (The brown fabric was also used for the pillow backing.)

Pillow size:  7 3/4 x 4 1/4"

It's such a relief to get these finished and I'm pleased with how they turned out!  Happy stitching and sewing!

 

  

Give Thanks

Thanksgiving may be over but there is always a reason to Give Thanks!  I finally fully finished the Lizzie Kate cross stitch piece in which, oh my goodness, I stitched last year!  Well, I just couldn't figure out the finishing last month but here it is:

It's a little fabric piece cut to approximately a 9" x 9" square that could be a wall hanging or other type of display.  The fabric is a fat quarter I purchased from Walmart a year or two ago and I knew when I saw it that I wanted to use it for some type of Thanksgiving decor.  I cut an opening to fit the design and sewed it down.  I then cut a piece of brown fabric for the backing and sewed the two pieces with right sides together and flipped them out.  To highlight the stitched design, I used fabric fusion to glue down strips of brown bias binding which also covers up the stitches from sewing the Aida cloth to the fabric.  For the final finishing touches, I glued on a ribbon bow as well as some leaves and a flower from my craft stash.

Welcome to Our Haunted Home

It's October which means Halloween will soon be here!  I stitched the Welcome to Our Haunted Home design found in the Just CrossStitch 2019 Special Collector's Issue for Halloween and finished it as a home decor piece.  It's a design by Linda Medina of Medina Originals.  I started it in 2019 and finished it this past January.  The only change I made to the design was omitting the stitches around the words Welcome and Home; I just wanted the focus on Haunted.  There were minimal floss colors

needed for the design; DMC 310 and 721, and Kreinik 152V.  The word Haunted was to be a blend of the Kreinik and DMC 721 but I used what I had in my stash and stitched it only in 721 and that was fine for me.  My choice of fabric was a 100% 14 ct. natural Aida by Charles Craft Gold Standard.  I loved stitching on it and the color is great too!  I had seen the black wreath at Michaels last year and the finishing idea popped up in my head!  When I went back to check for Halloween clearance they were sold out however, I did purchase a pick with the 3 skeleton hands.  So a few months ago I was happy to find the wreath was back in stock so I could create this Halloween finish!  The orange and green berries and the skeleton head I purchased from A.C. Moore during their closing sale last year.  I used a 12" round cake board (Lori from Once Upon a Stitch had mentioned this in one of her videos as an idea to use as a base for a circular finish!) from my cake decorating stash for the circular base, adhered two layers of batting on top for padding and then hot glued the stitched piece, corners only (the stitched piece is a square), onto the covered board.  I then used wire to wrap around the piece and weave it through the wreath to hold.  Instead of using glue, I also attached all the other embellishments with wire to complete the finish!  I have it hanging on the inside of my front door so I can enjoy it! (I got that hanging idea from a Helen D. home tour video!)