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! 

Never following instructions!

My wreath turned out fantastic! I LOVE IT. It is 90 degrees outside, but fall is on my door.

I used one of those straw wreaths. I took off the plastic. I am not sure if I was supposed to because I now have straw all over my house. I didn't cover the base but I think it works out ok. I guess I could have and that would have kept the straw from scattering. The tutorial called for an 12 inch wreath but when I saw it in the store I knew it would be too small. I went with 18 inches. It is large, but it looks good.

As I keep looking at the picture, I may adjust the ribbon. I like using the ribbon over, but it is smooshing the felt. Hhmm. . . need to think about this.

All the makings of a 'Karen' project

I shared my story with a friend of mine and below is her response. It made me laugh and a little proud.
"As I’m reading your email today, all I am thinking is how this project has turned into a typical Karen project. J And not in a negative way! Just that you always have a plan and good intentions, and then the project gets tweaked along the way and finishes up slightly differently than expected. But maybe that is just crafting in general. We all do it."

If I have a couple minutes to spare while waiting around or if I can't sleep I browse Pinterest. I found a felt wreath I liked and a tutorial to go along with it. You cut circles of felt, fold them in half twice and pin them onto a wreath form. I should put a disclaimer that I only half read instructions. I read just enough to get started. I started cutting Wednesday night. Hancock fabric had 40% off their rotary cutters so I picked up a circular cutter to make my life easier. It was going well. I am still getting used to using the circular cutter but it is still MUCH faster than using scissors. So I was cutting along. Cut about 40 circles and then decided to check the instructions on how  to really use the cutter. On the back it says ‘set at 2 inch for 4 inch circle’. Uh oh. I wanted 3 inch circles but I set it at 3 inches so that is 6 inch circles. I look at the picture of the circles in the tutorial and sure enough mine are HUGE. Well, I cut a 3 inch circle and it was tiny and would take FOREVER to cut so I decided that I am ok with my 6 inch circles. It will be more peony than coxcomb. So I set my cutter for 3 inches (6 inch diameter) and start cutting again. As I was piling I realized these circles are smaller than my previous 6 inch ones. Sure enough they are! The first set are actually 7 inches because my 3 inches was really something else. Who knows what. So now I have divided them up into 4 piles of oversized and correct sized circles. I am going to divide my wreath in quadrants and start pining so one side doesn’t look more peony than the other. I think I will get the rest cut tonight.

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!