The best gifts are hard to give away

I haven't blogged in three months. I am totally fine with it.

Over the last month I have been working on a cross stitch kneeler. I am making it for a friend of mine who prays the Lord's Prayer every day. I asked her what words stood out to her and these were her reply.

I LOVE this! It is so me. That sounds so self centered, but it really is. The font is Times New Roman. I like serif fonts and Times New Roman has a professional look to it. It looks like what a verse would read on paper. My Bible growing up was a red letter edition so I like that as well. The fabric is 28 count evenweave and I wasn't sure about it, but it worked great. Totally works for this. Just want to point out that the last line is intentionally offset. It should have been offset a bit more, but I didn't want to get too close to the right edge.

I looked online for kneelers and most of them are for weddings and just glorified pillows. A friend of mine suggested making it a box cushion. I think that is going to work out great. Since I have put a decent amount of work into the top, I think I am going to do a demo. I am going to use the evenweave for the whole thing. Having a different fabric will look weird.

This is going to be hard to part with, but I know it is going to a good home. I have a feeling this isn't going to be my last one.

I am alive

I had a very stressful summer with work and I didn't enjoy it at all. I read somewhere that a sign that your emotional health is not good, is lack of participation in hobbies that used to bring you joy. I felt that way this summer. I didn't do any crafting because I was so drained physically and emotionally.

Well, it is fall/winter now and there is time to do things! Emily and I have been squeezing time in, usually on a Friday afternoon to get some sewing done. We started these embroidery samplers and it is going pretty well. I will post pictures on a later post. Embroidery isn't my strength though. I am not that familiar with stitches and so I keep defaulting to satin stitches.

Last night I started a new cross stitch project. It was a free DMC chart for a snowflake sampler. I love the symmetry of the pattern. I ran to the quirky cross stitch store after work and was looking for some overdyed floss. I considered opalescent fabric, but I think that would have overwhelmed the pattern. It is too 'clean' for opalescent and variegated  floss. Well, I was looking at embroidery floss when the one of the owners came over and pointed out this other kind of cotton thread I'd never heard of before. Caron Wildflowers described as "a single stranded hand-dyed cotton in variegated colors. It has more of a matte finish when stitched. Use one or more strands as required by the ground fabric. It is between a #8 and #12 pearl cotton in weight." I am really enjoying it and I did some reading from the company's website and it is a nice tale.

I figured out why not since this is just a pattern that you can use any colour. I really like the finish. It is more raised in my opinion and I love to run my fingers over the top of stitches. Gives a bit more dimension and while the Xs are clear, they fill out nicely.

Long time no blog

Yikes! It was January the last time I blogged. I haven't been blogging, but I have been cross stitching. I started the Quilty Stitches cross stitch which is a nice combination of cross stitch and quilting. The blocks come together pretty fast, but my colour choices were mocked by my friend, Emily. Looking at it again, yes it is pretty hideous. I used this image as inspiration, but it just didn't translate. I think the problem was using a flat fabric. After using the sparkly hand dyed fabric for the 12 Days of Christmas pattern, regular fabric just won't do.

Oh, and I got a needleminder. It is a tree frog and I love it. I should have put something by it to show the scale and the colours don't show up very well, but it is about an inch and a half and the rhinestones are amber/brown.

Speaking of Emily, we had a craft day on Saturday with another friend. It ended up being one long chat and a Netflix marathon. I didn't do any sewing, but it was a lovely day. Here is an update of Emily's deer cross stitch. You can see her progress as well her needle minder and a cat! The last update was from well over a year ago, but there hasn't been much stitching going on since for various reasons. We both need to have more sewing evenings.

Happy Twelfth Night!

Today is the 12th day of Christmas. Somewhere along the way the days of Christmas have started before Christmas, rather than before. I am looking at you, consumer America.

In my last post, oh way back in early December I talked about starting the 12 Days of Christmas cross stitch. I have done all of it but the white. I had hoped to finish today, but instead I had a very leisurely and enjoyable lunch with a couple from church. The stitching can wait. Likewise, yesterday I had a great time at Stitch with a friend from the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild. I have a good life. Anyway, since today is twelfth night and the start of the new Downton season, I made a Galette Des Rois. I had never heard of it before, but while doing research about the 12 Days I found a recipe. I haven't tasted it yet, but it does look divine.

Happy Twelfth Night!

More cross stitch

I haven't been quilting recently. I've been hitting the cross stitch pretty hard. I will go back to piecing because I am 3 months behind my Toes in the Sand BOM. I just flipped through old posts and I have posted pictures of my blocks in awhile. I will have to take more pictures. I do like it. It is interesting and I can't wait to finish it out and hand it over to Jenny to quilt. Jenny just finished quilting another Jaybird Quilt pattern that uses the Hex n More ruler and it turned out super well.

Ok, rambling. I posted about my reindeer pillow and I thought I was done, but I found this pattern form Live. Love.Sew

I don't have the shiny floss I used for Rudolph's nose so I have yet to add the stars. I considered using gold, but I wanted continuity between the two pillows. The mitered bordered didn't turn out as well as the last one, but it works. I was going to pick up extra fabric for the back after church, but we got 3 inches of snow today so I am parked for the day. 

I laid the top on the other pillow and I can see the shadow of the deer coming through. Maybe I should combine the two for a third pillow? Too much I think. I like the way these are clean designs.

I've also been doing the '12 Days of Christmas' pattern. I've kept up pretty well in my opinion. I am almost done with week 1 and week 2 came out on Friday. The fabric is very pretty, but it isn't fun to work with. You know how generic crackers sometime tastes better than the brand name? Target brand blue corn chips are like that; they are delicious. This fabric is 'brand name' and it isn't fun to work with. It is hand dyed so it has shrunk. I ordered 16 count, but this 17 count in some places and 18 in others. There is no sizing in it, so it stretches and is soft. It does look pretty though. I am hoping it is worth it in the end.

While I was not blogging

I have been doing a good amount of cross stitch while I wasn't blogging. I have really enjoyed coming back to cross stitch. I love the rhythm of the craft. Not sure if that makes sense. There has been a revival of cross stitch and I am glad it is cool again. New designers have come up with modern designs and I've discovered a whole new set of tools- needle minders, overdyed floss and hand dyed fabric.

Anyway, here is my Halloween Sampler from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I finished the border up at the beginning of September but it took me a full month to finish out the actual pattern. It is done though! I switched out a few things and like how it showed up. The full moon shows the variegated floss the best. In large chunks it really is pretty.

So the next project is the '12 Days of Christmas'. I love the series. I have 12 Waterford flutes that I collected over 6 years. So adding cross stitch to my collection. I am using opalescent fabric. It is sparkly. I really do like it. It is 16 count and I usually work with 14 count. I am hoping it turns out well. There have been a couple sneak peeks that show a good pattern.

Snow. Ice. What else is new?

Last night was the Holiday Swap at the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild. We had our first bad weather event so I bailed out. I made this pillow for the swap, but a tiny part of me is happy that it stayed with me. I LOVE this pillow. I used a pattern I found on Etsy. I liked this pattern so much I bought another one of a pig. I used regular 14 count white aida, but I have since discovered hand dyed fabrics and opalescent fabric. I used Essex Linen for the border and it looks fantastic. It reminds me of denim but works like regular cotton. I picked it up at Stitch, the new fabric/yarn store in the East Village. They have the Essex in Flax and Indigo. The bolts are pretty slim right now though. It has moved fast. I totally understand why. If you go down there, look for a Flax napkin with a red reindeer cross stitched on it. I made that! I am pretty proud of myself. The store really is great. I enjoy just going down there, hanging out and stitching. There is an infinite supply of coffee and a very comfy couch. Tami, Jessica and Madie are very welcoming and if they are willing to let me hang out there, they will welcome anybody. 

I mitered the corners of the border and I am getting better doing that. There was one slight awkward tuck, but it is barely noticeable. The pillow is just very much my style. So Merry Christmas to me! 

Two hundredth post!

This is my two hundredth post. I am a bit of an erratic blogger, but I do try to be honest in my posts even if they just say 'I am not doing anything'.

So I talked about the Halloween Sampler cross stitch earlier and working with variegated thread. They suggested working every 'x' individually. I couldn't do that; it would have caused a very messy back. I went with two stiches at a time. I did / / like normal and then went back \ \ going lower right to upper left and then upper left to lower right. Hope that makes sense. I can't do little arrows to make it clearer. It worked out really well and the gradation showed up nicely. I pull each thread from the skein and then put them back together. I had to remember to put the same ends together so that the two threads were the same gradation pattern. The thread itself is nice to work with. I did have to do a fair amount of unpicking because I made a mistake and then my square didn't come together. The sparkle held up pretty well. The fabric is very stiff and the holes are now clogged (for lack of a better word). I don't mind the stiff fabric, but when you make a mistake it is very obvious what areas have been unpicked. I tried taking pictures that show up the sparkle, but I don't think it shows up well. In person it is pretty.

It has been beastly hot here the last couple days, but my roses are doing really well because of it. I do have to spray every couple days because of Japanese beetles. Those things are evil!

Using my time wisely

I work crazy hours during the summer so to keep my sanity I try to keep up with hobbies. I don't really like quilting during the summer because it takes large chunks of time rather than being able to leverage 20-30 minutes here and there. I've been doing cross stitch this summer and pretty much kept up with the Woodland Sampler. My plan is to cut them apart and turn them into garland or Christmas ornaments. Any suggestions on how to do that? Stuff them? Use interfacing and fray the edges, but not have a back?

I've signed up for their Halloween Sampler. It looks cute in the preview. They suggested (and I followed) using Weeks Dye Works floss. I had never heard of it before, but supposedly it is hand dyed floss which gives a variegated effect of sorts. I ordered the floss and was looking forward to using it, but after reading the instructions for the pattern it said I should make each 'x' individually to get the gradation effect. That I am not looking forward to. I like to count once and be done. It is also a waste of floss in my opinion. Need to figure out a way to work around that suggestion. I made my own sparkle aida for the sampler! The picture doesn't really show anything, but in person it looks pretty good. My fabric is gray and I used diamond sparkles. I don't know how much it is going to stay on. I was a little heavy handled with the paint so even if the majority falls off there will still be plenty of sparkle.

Still crafting

I have been busy with work, but still been working on projects. I've been doing a lot of cross stitch because I find that the most relaxing. I finished up the June Woodland Sampler and just started on the July. I am really surprised by how much I am enjoying it.

I also finished up my scarf. It is too hot to take a picture modeling it. I haven't decided if I want to stitch the ends together or use buttons. The colours lend to large wood buttons. I am leaning towards buttons. One of my local yarn stores is hosting a crochet along. A sampler afghan of different stitches. I am going to sign up. This year I have been branching out into different areas and I am enjoying the variety.

For the Toes in the Sand BOM, I've only done one of the two blocks. This month was a Y seam of sorts. It turned out well and I just need to find the time to finish out the next one.

Baa Ram Ewe

I'm in the middle of several small projects. I finished up my two June blocks for the Toes in the Sand BOM. I am really enjoying that. Fabric choice makes such a difference and i feel I am getting my money's worth from both the ruler and the pattern.

I'm in the middle of my June Woodland Sampler cross stitch. I need to take a picture when I get done. It is a firefly this month. It is cute. I have to use the metallic floss again. I'm not looking forward to that; it was a nightmare in the February block.

Saturday I went to the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival. I had so much fun. There were a ton of vendors for yarn, roving, spinning wheels and all sorts of good stuff. There were sheep to look at and pet. They did a great job with signage of the different varieties of sheep. I picked up yarn from Esther Purl again and already crocheted up half of it into a scarf. I didn't get the hank wound into a ball again, but this time I was wiser and watched a youtube video. Supposedly you undo the hank and if you position it over your knees you can unwrap it nicely. It worked pretty slick. The scarf is just treble crochets.I wanted something airy for the fall.

The festival had sheep dog trials which I found very entertaining to watch. I sat through several of them. Some of the dogs were in training so they would get distracted easily, but you could see the ones who had done it a while and knew what they were doing. So on that note, here is a clip from Babe.

May gnome

I got nothing to say.

Slight miscalculation

The first week of the Spring Sampler came out and there were two eggs in a nest. I figured that since they were unhatched eggs, over the next 5 weeks the eggs would hatch. Well, this week's came out and there are no hatching eggs. Oops.

This has kind of messed up my plan, but I am going to go with it. See my plan was to have the egg hatching on the far right and to be the sort of 'anchor' to the rest of the craziness going on. I decided to stitch the other 4 images randomly without the prescribed frames. Well, sorta randomly. I did make sure that I would have enough space. The pattern called for an 11" square so I upgraded to 15". I also divided up the fabric into 5 rows to give a framework. It was a bit weird to just sew wherever and not have set intervals. I sewed little bits of every image so I wouldn't lose my nerve and want to space them out appropriately.

So for week 2, I am going to drop a teapot design and repeat the eggs from week 1. If week 3 doesn't have eggs, then I really am in trouble. The April angry bunny turned out well. I added a couple raindrops over his head where the antlers should have been. I think the Woodland Sampler is shaping up very nicely. February is my favourite.

Angry Bunny judges you!

The April Woodland creature is supposed to be a jackalope (I had to look it up), but there was some peer pressure to change it to just a rabbit.

The antlers didn't show very well anyway, so I ditched them. I had to smooth out its head a little bit. Now it look just like a plain bunny, albeit an angry, judging one. The back story is that he is mad he is out in the rain.

Remember when Kona Ash was all the rage?

That is one thing I don't care for with the blog/instagram/flickr world; there is a bit of herd mentality. We say modern quilting is about being unique, but there should be a statement about following trends.

Now let me show you my following with my 'so 2 years ago' cross cushion :) I stuffed it last night and did a wretched job of whip stitching the opening. I need to go back and fix it after the filling has settled a bit. I have a couch to watch TV, but I end up sitting on the floor with my back against the couch most of the time. I used the cushion watching the Call the Midwife marathon and season 2 premiere. If you haven't watched it you really should.

So my statement about Kona Ash comes from a cross stitch project. I signed up for the Springtime Sampler from Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. My Woodland Sampler is going along well even though I refuse to put eyes on things that do not have eyes on them in real life. I decided to branch out and picked up very pretty gray 14 count aida for the Spring Sampler. I thought that the gray would represent the dullness of winter going away with the bright colours of spring. I had forgotten how much of a colour suck gray can be. I need to get some white. The floss colours are very pretty and very spring! I am getting together with church friends to sew tomorrow night so I will blog after that with pictures. 

Sewing circle

My friends Emily, Amy and I had a fun sewing evening Thursday night. I crocheted with yarn from Fiberpalooza. It is a silk/cormo blend from Esther Purl Fibers. The pattern I am using is from the Fiber Flux Crochet Along. I made a bit  mistake by just starting to crochet from the hank. I didn't know I was supposed to turn it into a ball. I googled and found out after the fact that it is just ridiculous to crochet straight from the hank. I didn't even know what a hank was! I am used to yarn from Hobby Lobby where you just pull from the center. I could kick myself because the Des Moines Knitting Guild was winding for free at Fiberpalooza. I am really not bright sometimes. Anyway, Fiberpalooza was awesome!!! I learned A LOT about how yarn is produced and how blends are made. Emily picked up a drop spindle to learn how to spin. This may lead to alpacas for her.

Emily has made decent progress on her deer. You can now see antlers. The purple-y bit of it's  body is really pretty in person.

Yeah, I've been busy

I went on a trip. That story may make a reappearance if I work on something I brought back. I have been doing some crafting, but not a whole lot.

I worked on the Woodland Sampler. I think February turned out well. March is cute, but I left out the 'March' text because it was bright yellow and I didn't care for that. I am waiting to see what colour 'April' is before I decided. I also signed up for the Springtime Sampler. There are 25 frames with a number in each. The control freak in me has shown up with this though. March 21st is the start of spring- the equinox is technically on the 20th, but 21st is the 'traditional date'. The sneak peeks I've seen are more Easter/April themed. Even if I consider them April dates, April 25th is nothing. I guess it is a sampler not a countdown, but I don't get the numbers then. I think I may leave out the numbers. I can always stitch them back in.

I've decided to the Virtual Quilting Bee with Amy Smart (Diary of a Quilter). It just seemed like fun. Her posts are very well written and I think that is what sucked me in. A fat eighth solid bundle from Pink Castle Fabrics went along with it, so I went that route. I don't have any super bright/rainbow type quilts so I figured I should try that. The stack is very pretty. The first block is out, but I haven't done it yet.

I am also working on another toddler height chart. This one has progressed much better than the first attempt. That was so awful. I'm using Riley Blake this time. I am starting to like Riley Blake. I used to be strictly Moda before. Oh and I LOVE Art Gallery. The feel of the fabric is fantastic.

What I REALLY need to be working on is my Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild Madrona Road challenge. I want to do a pillow of interlocking plus blocks. I just can't get motivated.

I think that is it. Wait, one more thing. Fiber Flux is having a crochet along. It is a beginner/refresher one. My plan is to participate. I haven't crocheted in years, so I figured this would be a good way to get back in. I don't have yarn yet, but I am in luck! Fiberpalooza is March 23rd in Winterset. I have missed the first two years, but Emily went last year and thoroughly enjoyed herself. Heartland Fiber Co does a great job with their in store events so I am sure this will be just as good.

Two steps forward, two steps back

This Saturday was an all day sewing day with the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild. It was a lot of fun. This was first real 'group sew' and I was a little intimidated going in. I had a great time and quilters make excellent bakers. I didn't get there super early and I left a bit before 8 o'clock so it was about a 9 hour cutting fest. I didn't take my machine; just my cutting mat and my 2011 FQS BOM. Still only done one block. I cut about 7 months worth and then quit. I was getting tired and I had sorted the blocks by number of fabrics and cutting difficulty. Instead of sorting with decreasing difficulty, I sorted with increasing difficulty so as I increased in tiredness I was cutting more difficult blocks. Yes, I am a science nerd and PROUD of it.

On Sunday we got snow which I was not expecting so I spent the day in after church and did some cross stitch. This deer couple has been a thorn in my side! It is suggested that if you don't have a colour to go ahead and use a lighter shade or darker shade than listed. So not me, but decided to give it a try. Stitched all of the word 'January' with 827 (on hand), realized that it wasn't frosty enough so went out and bought 828 (listed) and restitched the whole thing. The white snowflakes aren't showing up well, but I am just going to leave it as is. I have two more to do before this month is done.

Gifted and well received

I ended up widening my seams so the pillow would look more stuffed. It worked . . .sorta. It is fuller, but the corners are still a bit loose. I did try punching in the insert so it would spread out more towards the corners. I didn't try it because I can barely sew a straight line, but Linda suggested a slightly rounded corner. "Use a small drinking glass to draw the arc around each corner. Place the edge of the glass so they align with your sewing line. Follow your straight sewing line on the sides and continue 'round the bend' following the drawn curve, picking up the straight line again on the side". Next time I will give it a shot. 

I am still pleased with how it turned out. I gave it last night and it was well received. The family I gave it to have been so very, very good to me. 

I started working on my Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery Monthly Sampler. It wasn't as easy as I expected. The mark of a good pattern is having to unpick if you mess up. I unpicked twice! If you look closely you can see the larger holes from where I'd already stitched. This month is a deer couple. I had joked with Emily that we should do a side by side comparison of our deer, but at the rate I'm going, I not so sure. Hopefully I get done before February's arrives. I can't get behind on this. I still have 11 blocks of the 2011 Fat Quarter Shop Block of the Month to do. 

Pleased and proud

I am so pleased with the way the pillow turned out. Two wonderful ladies made great suggestions on what to do with the quilt and I had two other wonderful friends who gave in person advice.

I added a flange as suggested by Linda.

I used a textured type fabric as suggested by Doris. I wanted something that was more furnishing like and ended up with micro-suede. I did research on how to sew it and it ended up being a breeze. No different than cotton. No special needle either.

I mitered my corners and using the micro-suede was very helpful. It was very forgiving and being a pillow it doesn't have to be ironed. It took some figuring out though on how to negotiate the 45 degree angle and get the corners sewn together. I even did a flap back. So pleased with myself. I see more pillows in my future.

It has turned out super well, but as I type this and look at it at it I don't like how the corners seem baggy. I made it exactly to the pillow size (18x18), but it just seems kind of limp. Any suggestions? I think I am going to sew in another quarter inch on each side to bring it down to 17.5 inches.