Now for the pillow making

Any suggestions are welcome. Fabric border or no fabric border? If border, how thick? Does border fabric have to match fabric on back? What fabric? What size pillow? The aida is 15x18 and the picture is pretty much all of it.

I love it. It will be hard to part with, but it is going to a very deserving home. I am also happy that I am having a hard time giving it away because I know then that it is worthy on the recipient. If I didn't like it, then why would I gift it?

Good thing I prepared

I am blessed to have electricity, heat and internet right now. There are homes around town right now who are out. I also don't have to be at work. 

I woke up to this.

We got a foot of snow overnight and this afternoon we have high winds to create blizzard conditions. We even got thundersnow last night. I am glad to be home. My door decoration flew off. I will need to retrieve it after things have died down. 

I knew the storm was coming so I stocked up. Megan from Canoe Ridge Creations was doing the same thing. I got to meet here this weekend. I was up in Decorah for a wedding and stopped at the LQS. I thought I recognized her, but to be sure I kept staring. I am pretty sure they noticed my staring. I mentioned to my friend that it was a blogger, but wasn't sure if I should say something. Well I did and I'm glad I did. It was nice to meet her in person after reading so much on her blog. 

I have today to work on my cross stitch. I won't make it for Christmas but that is ok because season 3 starts on January 6th. I HAVE to have it done by then.Yes, I know I sing that song a lot. 

My plan is for 2013 to be the year of 'not buying and finishing'. I am little burned out on quilting. Over stimulated and burned out. Does that make sense. It seems like I see something and everybody has it and I want it. It is also an expensive hobby. I'm going back to my general crafting and cross stitch roots. I signed up for The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery 2013 Sampler. I lurked last year on flickr so this time I decided to join. It is on sale right now so check it out.

The fabric they suggested was tea dyed linen. I do not like linen; I am sticking with aida. I picked oatmeal because it was the darkest before beige. Beige seemed a bit too dark and flat. I hope the light colours show up. From looking at the picture it should be ok. 

OK, off to cross stitch. May have an update later tonight.

Make a demo

If you are making a gift for someone, make a demo. I found out the hard way. There was much unpicking and redoing for this project.

It is a baby height chart. I picked up the idea from this post. The link to the tutorial had been broken. Anyway, here are some pictures of my version. There is a wonk to it and  my first attempt at machine binding did not go well. Now the whole world sees my mis-mitered corners. The back though looks fantastic! I used the Frixon pens for the straight lines at inch increments and really like them. I would make this again. . . now that I've done it once.

Christmas, Christmas time is near

The Chipmunks Christmas song has to be the most annoying song ever, but it is catchy! I find myself wanting a hula hoop every time I hear it.

Christmas time is near and I have been cross stitching like crazy. I HAVE TO GET THIS DONE. I am terrible about keeping project/gift deadlines. I figure it is because my work life is run by deadlines so what do I care about my hobby deadlines. This time though I do care and I WILL get this done.

So I still have to add the people in and I haven't done that yet because I would have to keep looking at the pattern. I have been schlepping it around everywhere for the last week. I have cross stitched in several different libraries as I kill time for wherever I need to be that evening. Does it look three dimensional? I am worried now that the contrast isn't working well enough to make it look 3D.

I have started doing some Christmas decorating. I used an idea from Pinterest to make my door hanger. I love the stitched ribbon. Is there a term for that? I have a pair of shoes that are black and the stitching shows. I really like that look. The pine cones came from Emily's yard. I'd had them for a year in my garage, but then realized that they may have been full of bugs so I washed and baked them. The smell in my kitchen was lovely. True woodsy smell. Speaking of Emily, she has done a ton on her deer. I don't have pictures; I keep forgetting my camera.

Last weekend I was at Home Ec in Iowa City. Cute store. Very eclectic for lack of a better word. One of the sales staff had a cute scarf and she said she had made it from fabric in the store. Very cute fabric, but it is jersey. I bought some and want to make an infinity scarf out of it. I have never sewn jersey before. A friend of mine said I probably have some hand sewing in my future. I anticipate that as well. The fabric is from somebody up in Minneapolis called Ten14 Textiles. It is organic, blah blah. I don't care about organic. I just thought the pattern was nice.

I thought my last picture of the yarn didn't do it justice, so I took another one. I think this one turned out better. As you can tell, I still haven't started on the scarf. I will get there. 

Late night

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I am worn out, but I am staying up to shop online. How sad am I?! I just need to make it to midnight Eastern. At least I hope that is when the online sales kick in. I am not sure if I could make it for an hour and a half. This last half hour is killing me.

Thought I would post a couple pictures since my last post didn't have any. I'm making decent progress on my Downton cross stitch.

This is the yarn I bought last weekend. I really do love it. The picture doesn't do the colours justice. I took both pictures while sitting on the couch.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Community sewing

Emily and I have been hanging out a lot lately and sewing. The accountability has been good for us. We are actually making progress; Emily more than me. The cross stitching has proved contagious and I am working on a project right now. It combines my love for Masterpiece Theatre and cross stitch. How awesome is this?!

I bought the pattern off Craftsy. It is a super simple pattern and well written. I am going to drop the 'I'm down with'  and possibly the 'Downtown Abbey' part as well. I think it is going to end up being a throw pillow. I wanted to turn it into a wood box top to store tea, but those things are crazy expensive. It is supposed to be a gift so I really need to stay on pace. I have finished up the windows (just the darkened panes) and working on the rest of the house. I will post pictures in my next post.

Emily has made much progress with her deer. It may not look so but she has. She is trying to figure out the boundaries so she keeps moving in different directions to see how bit it truly is going to be. More like how much do I have to fill in, in my opinion.

I did get distracted from quilting with another purchase. Winterset has a lovely yarn store called Heartland Fiber.They had an open house this weekend and had a trunk show for Esther Purl Fibers. I bought some yarn. It is pretty! The sheep were raised locally and it is hand painted. All the colours have different people names and are specific sheep varieties. Mine is from a California Red sheep. I plan on crocheting a scarf. Let's see when I start on that! I bought beautiful alpaca almost 10 years ago that I still haven't touched. 

Had to share. . .Ode to the Seam Ripper

From Jill at Simple.Frugal.Quilts

Seam ripper, seam ripper.  Where have you gone? 

I need you! I need you!  For that sewing machine has done me wrong.

Oh you darn machine!  You stitched this block all wrong!
My points do not point. My stripes are all wrong.  Come to think of it, so is my tension.

Seam ripper, seam ripper. Where have you gone?

I need you! I need you!  Show yourself now.  Before that darn machine makes me bang my poor head.

Oh you darn machine!  How you frustrate me to no end!

I clean you, oil you. I cover you.  And you treat me so bad.

Seam ripper, seam ripper.  Where have you gone?

I clean you not. Your cover is forever gone.  And yet.  You still help me out of a jam. So I take back those evil thoughts in my head.

Oh you darn machine.  Will you ever learn?

I am the boss.  I am! I am!

Seam ripper, seam ripper.  You are my friend.  You judge me not.
Unlike that darn machine.  Who torments me to no end.

Yes seam ripper.  You have helped me time and time again.

For you dear seam ripper understand.  I am better at stitching then what that darn machine says I am.

http://simplefrugalquilts.blogspot.com/2012/11/ode-to-seam-ripper.html