Fall Sampler

Many years ago I picked up the book, Sample the Seasons Cross Stitch Designs, at Joanne's. It is pretty awesome; the designs are pretty but not overly difficult. There is some back stitching but it isn't complicated or involved-it mainly follows outlines or adds some simple details to things like leaves or faces. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to cross stitch and is looking for some easy and fast seasonal pieces to do and even to the beginner cross stitcher.


I have probably done three or four different samplers from the book and my latest pull from the lottery was to do  the fall inspired design entitled, "Let Us Give Thanks." Here it is completed:

My favorite part is the leaves!

I think it is very sweet.I did it on 14 count Oatmeal Aida and the finished design is only 9 1/4" x 4". Now comes the tricky part: yes I have completed the cross stitch portion but now I need to do something with it so it doesn't just sit in my unfinished pile (the whole point of this lottery!). My goal is to make it into a small wall hanging for my entryway.

 I spent a good portion of this weekend going through my fabric stash trying to find some coordinating fabric to make a couple of borders. I thought I might make some stars as one of the borders but trying to figure out the math of how big to make the stars vs the size of the piece just gave me a huge headache. Instead, I will keep it simple and make two borders. My goal is finish it by next week.  I also realized that trying to do something overly involved, getting frustrated and then setting it aside is ultimately what got me in this mess!

When I do finish it completely I will take some closer shots of the piece so you can see the details.

Again, if you are looking for some pretty seasonal samplers that move pretty fast, I highly recommend this little book.

Quick Valentine Wreath

This latest project wasn't part of the lottery. It just kind of happened on one of those days when nothing seems to be going right and I needed to say to myself I accomplished more than just laundry, changing diapers, feeding little mouths and cleaning up that feeding.The month of January was kind of tough for me and I am very glad that today dawns a new month!

I think I can count on two hands how many days this month more than 50% of my little family has been well. We have had lots of jammie days this month. While awesome to be so nice and cozy, it's driving me nuts. I hate January. We just spent the last four months looking forward to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Easter feels so far away. St Patrick's Day is ok but I don't get to partake of any sweet green cocktail (side note: I refuse to desecrate beer by turning it green. That is simply wrong).

"What about Valentine's Day?", you ask. Yeah, Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day kind of gets lost in my house. For one, it's sandwiched in between a birthday and our wedding anniversary. Seriously, all three days fall within less than a week of each other. So celebrating all three kind of becomes ridiculous. Plus, the husband and I kind of think Valentine's Day is...well....stupid. I said it. Valentine's Day is stupid.

Random fact: I didn't notice the tree etching in the door for at least a year after we moved into this house.

I wrote this big long rant about why I think Valentine's Day is stupid but I deleted it. Don't jump down my throat. I know lots of people who like Valentine's Day and think it's awesome. Let's just agree to disagree. :)

Despite my whole soapbox about Valentine's Day, I kind of need something to look forward to right now so I am going to embrace Valentine's Day and love and puppy dogs this year.  Plus a little color around the house is nice to look at after having the house  decorated for Christmas and it being all dark and gloomy outside (which is starting continuing to reflect in my attitude, I'm well aware!).

I'm not sure where I first got this idea for this little wreath. Who are we kidding? I'm sure I saw something like this on Pinterest. Now, this bad boy I made in about 30 minutes only because I had the strips of felt already cut out from an abandoned craft I started last year. The strips of felt are about an inch wide and six inches long. I used four different colors - white, red, light pink, and dark pink.   I took an old wire hanger and fashioned it into a circle using duct tape to keep the ends secure. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the hanger before I started tying the strips of felt on because than you could see that it was not a perfect circle.

Once I had the wire hanger circle complete, I just started randomly choosing a strip and tying it on; easy peasy. After the circle was completely covered I started pushing the pieces all together to make room for more (I wanted it really fluffy and full) and tried to shove as many felt ties on there as possible. I didn't do a count, but I would say there are at least 100.  If you are going to attempt this project, it will take you a little longer if you don't have the fabric already cut; but cut the fabric one day and tie it on the next and it's still a nice, quick little crafty win! Quick note, if I had to do it again, I probably would have made the felt pieces only 1x4 or 1x5.

I've seen these done with all sorts of scrap fabrics and they look so cute. The wreaths made with red, white and blue scrap fabric would be really cute for summer.

What little craft do you have that could be done in a few hours or so that might cheer up your house?

Martha Stewart Inspired Curtains

So, I don't love Martha Stewart. I just don't. I like her. She has some nice ideas but I don't think she is the end-all-be-all of home decor. Plus, I find most of the directions for crafts or recipes overly complicated. In the past, I have had to print them out, read, and re-read directions for crafts many times just so I can re-write and simplify them. But that's just me.

But, many moons ago, I found a cute way to use up all the men's handkerchiefs a person has laying around the house. I don't have the problem but what I do have is lots and lots of cloth napkins running around my house. Why do I have so many? I love linens and my mom and her best friend send them to me. However, I don't need a dozen sets of eight dinner napkins especially when I don't throw lots of dinner parties. But most of the ones they send me are beautiful (and the ones that aren't get donated so somebody else can love them) and I make curtains for my kitchen window out them.

Fall themed cafe curtains

I change the curtains in my kitchen window about every two-three months, depending on the season. Some of the curtains I have made; others my mom has made. It is one of those things that makes me happy. Plus, making these curtains is nothing more than sewing straight lines and there's no hemming since napkins are already hemmed for you. Bonus!

So my latest pull from the lottery was to take these beautiful fall napkins and make some curtains out of them. I forgot to take pictures through the different steps so you only get to see the final product. This was another great project because it only took me a short afternoon; I think I finished it during nap time! Bonus again!

Also, you get to see the sweet suspension bridge my husband built last summer in our backyard. It is pretty awesome!

So, what do you have lying around your house that could be used to make curtains? Want to make them for yourself? Here's the link!

Happy Sewing!

First Pick!

I am excited to be done with the Map of the World. Very excited. In less than 48 hours I was already itching to start something new!

So the whole point of this blog is that I have created a lottery system to choose which of my many, many craft and sewing projects I will work on next. That being said, I have a confession to make: I totally started a project on the sly since I was hoping to give it out as Valentine gifts. You know those cute little Quite Activity Books (like here , here , and here - just to name a few)? Well, I thought I would make a few for the various toddlers in my life and I kind of wanted it to be a surprise so I wasn't going to mention it until I was all done. I got all the supplies, I made various templates, cut out lots of felt and even made a few pages. It looked cute but I hated it; I hated every single moment of working on it. I kept on thinking of all the other awesome stuff I could be doing (even cleaning toilets- that's  how much I hated working on them) and this was such a waste of my time. So, I scrapped it.

I haven't throw it all away--I just can't bring myself to toss everything out--it's just too much waste for me and I don't like wasting stuff. Maybe one day I will go back and finish them but on the giant list of things that I need to be doing that I keep going in the back of my mind, this has a giant line going through it.

Sometimes you just have to walk away from the whole thing. One friend asked how I felt walking away from it and I said I felt kind of free. That was another monkey on my back.

Moving on!

The first project I chose was to convert one of the first counted cross stitch projects I ever started -and never finished- into something other than the pillow it was intended to be. Here's what I started out with: 

I wasn't a big fan of this project. It was too outdated-my mom told me she bought the pattern in the 1970's. It was supposed to be a pillow and I didn't like the idea of committing that much time, effort and money into making a pillow that would look so out of place. The idea was thrown out there to cut the piece up and making ornaments or door hangers. I did just that!

I cut the whole thing into fourths, picked some extra Christmas material I had laying around and just made little pillows. People of the internet, this will blow your mind: I finished this project in an afternoon! That included spending an hour trying to figure out why my sewing machine was broken-it turned out not to be; the needle was bent and once I replaced it it worked fine. Here's what I made:

The best part is I LOVE these little pillows. I love them! I don't know why. They are the same patterns but now they are small, compact and cute. Plus, the kids had a great time helping me stuff them with batting; they thought we were stuffing them with either clouds! It was great!

I walked around the rest of the day totally dumbfounded that this little project had been languishing in my sewing box for at least 20 years since I thought it was ugly and now I can't wait until next Christmas to display them. Simply awesome!

Later this week: loving this lottery system.

Happy Day!

Oh Happy Day! Happy Happy Day! I have finally, FINALLY, finished the map of the world that I have been working on since last Spring.

This is a minor miracle in that it took me less than one year to finish it. I have had many projects-some bigger and some much, much smaller-that took 2,3 and I daresay, 10 times as long to complete but this was becoming a weight around my neck.

I just have this one terrible picture to show you since I have already sent it off to be framed. Here it is, in all its horrible lighting glory:

I am really happy with how this turned out; believe it or not, the back stitching (or outlining) was not as intricate as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, the sails on the boat heard a few curse words but it went really fast once I had finished the counted cross stitch. I'm also happy I had the foresight to back stitch as I went along. I hate back stitching and to do it in smaller chunks helped make it seem less tedious.

The best part of this project being finished, is I get to move onto SOMETHING ELSE! This has been a weight around my neck; not letting me start anything new and I have been lusting after several different projects to start. So I am hoping that my next project is one that is really awesome (and maybe not so huge!).

On an unrelated note, I get the Stoney Creek Friday Flash email sent me to each week. Sometimes I glance through it and other times it goes straight to the trash can but for whatever reason I looked through it last week. Oh man, bad idea. In their Overstock and Closeout section there were a few  items that I felt that I just couldn't live without. The good thing was I didn't spend more than $10 on any one item but they will just have to get in the lottery along with everything else! They did speak to me since they were all things I would make and probably keep for myself-which is nice since about 75% of the stuff I make doesn't stay with me.

I'm trying to think of anything else I have worked on lately and the only thing I did do was make a basic Christmas tree skirt out of muslin for my friend Taylor--check her out over at Red Vine Spirituality. She has a love affair with burlap that can not be denied and decorates her house at Christmas with burlap and red that is super gorgeous. Anyway, at the beginning of December (or late November, I've already forgotten) we got a little Pinterest goofy and figured we could reproduce this beauty!  All I did was take some scrap muslin and make a basic skirt for her and she did all the rest. It was fantastic. She was kind enough to send me a picture:

Isn't her tree gorgeous and fun? I love the polka dots on the tree skirt. I am amazed at how fast she was able to get it done.

Well, now that this monkey is off my back, I'm on to other things. The first choice from the lottery will be picked tomorrow!

And, yes, I am sorry I haven't posted anything in quite a while. This blogging stuff is HARD! I'm amazed at the people who are able to do it every day or multiple times a week! Amazing. I will work to be more diligent in my blogging efforts.

What projects are you working on? Anything that you just can't wait to finish?