I Really Do Make Things

I still have about two inches left to stitch up the opening on Tubby's pillow and then I'll be done. I was working on it earlier today while listening to the radio about the fires burning in Los Angeles County. Forget the earthquakes. It's the fires that scare the crap out of me. And now that I live a street away from hills full of dry brush, it's even more scarier. Anyway, I hope to finish my pillow tomorrow.

I usually don't post anything on Flickr until I'm ready to blog about it but sometimes I put pictures of things I've made on Facebook and forget all about blogging them. Like my Revoluzzzionary monster. The pattern & tutorial has been in my stash for awhile but one night I ran across it on two different sites and I thought that was a sign it was time to make one. Here he/she/it is before I stuffed it. I like his/her/its fang. I used patterned eco-felt. (If you enlarge the photo, you can see the butterflies in the felt. The ones I didn't notice until after I took the picture.)

Remember the Little Pink House Tutorial posted on Sew Mama Sew a couple of weeks ago? Here's my version. Which I hate. Apparently, cutting out round circles is beyond my capabilities. So is sewing a running stitch. (And, trust me, doing a halfway decent whip stitch is out of the question.) I didn't have a seven inch hoop so I made a pillow instead. I'm much happier with my monster than my pink house.



Speaking of embroidery, did you see the cute redwork pattern on Loobylu? [via WhipUp]

And, the two embroidery projects from Mollie at Wild Olive: her August workshop is all about making Button Buddies (hedgehog and owl alert) and her Tasty Paste pattern (scroll down a little) over at The Sampler? I don't remember ever eating paste when I was a kid but I do remember my friends and I coating our hands with Elmer's glue and then peeling it off when it was all dry.

One more thing before I go: Raspberry Buttermilk Cake. Make it. Simple, quick and really good. I'd share a picture of mine but it wasn't around long enough for me to take one but you can see Barbara's here. I'm making it again later today.

Tubby Doesn't Have Sexy Boots

My new favorite Facebook game is Pet Society and I have no doubt it's because the critters are so freaking cute. Here's a video someone made of their pet, Bamboosha, dancing to U2.

By the way, my pet's name is Tubby and I am in the process of making a felt Tubby pillow. I have to embroider certain features of her face and will have to wing it so I've put off getting starting on it but I'm hoping to get it done today so I can post it for Finished for Friday.

FFF: A Few Recent X-Stitch Finishes

I was saving this post for Finished for Friday and I got so involved with playing Pet Society on Facebook, that I forgot all about posting it this afternoon. Luckily, it's still Friday in California.

Time to share some recent cross stitch finishes for Finished for Friday.

I took these two pictures right after one another (and without using the flash for either one) but look how different they are.



I actually stitched those back in 2007 and last week I decided it was time to add some felt to the back, a loop to the top and stuff them, because that's pretty much what I do with everything I cross stitch these days. The black spider chart may have come from the DMC web site and the others were freebies for members of a Yahoo group. Helga Mandl was the owner of the Yahoo group and the Halloween charts are now available for sale on her site. She has some other free designs there too.

When I first saw this Red Sweatered Teddy cross stitch chart, it was on DMC's Italian website. You can now find it on their USA site but you'll need to join the DMC Club to access the chart. (It's free to join and your log-in will work on their other sites too.) I used all the suggested colors of floss and stitched the bear on 18 ct Aida. And, I backed it with some blue felt, stuffed it and added a yellow loop. I am so predictable.

This Korean website has a ton of free cross stitch charts. Forty-nine pages worth! Since there are no thumbnails for each one, you'll have to click on the links. Google's English translation will give you some idea of what you're clicking on but it seems not all of the chart pages will translate. You can pretty mnuch figure them out anyway. I had no idea how to finish off the koala and or bear so I just added some felt to the backs, and I may stick an ornament hook in them and hang them on my Xmas tree this year. The pattern for the bear in the blue shirt is here and I'm still tring to track down the koala chart. (I'm up to page 20 so far.)

Thanks to Lit and Laundry for hosting Finished for Friday every week!

Vote For Mya!!

Is this not the cutest goat you ever saw? Please vote for Kellie's dog, Mya! Thanks!

Please Vote These Dogs

For two days now, I have been meaning to take some pictures of my recent cross stitch finishes but haven't gotten to doing it yet. I've also received some care packages recently and wanted to post about them but not until I re-take photos of all the great stash that was sent to me by some really nice and generous people from Blog Land since the first round of pics didn't turn out so well. I truly am an expert at taking pictures out of focus.

You may have seen already since the Little Pink House Tutorial since it's been linked all over the place but go have a look at it over at Sew Mama Sew if you've haven't seen it yet. This afternoon I cut out all the house, flowers and leaf pieces, and then I ate pizza and watched poor pitcher Hiroki Kuroda get beaned in the face/head with a line drive during a Dodger game on TV, (I just read online that did not suffer any bleeding or fractures which is pretty incredible), and then I was on Facebook rearranging my farm on Farm Town for about 17 hours so I haven't had a chance to stitch up my Little Pink House just yet. I'm resisting the urge to add a John Cougar Mellencamp figure to it.

So I have nothing to share tonight but I know of a couple of dogs who are trying to win two different contests, so I thought I'd try to get some votes for them. You don't have to register to vote. Just click the links. Thank you to any and all who vote for these two pups!

First up is Buddy who is entered in the Doing More For Pets Rescue Stories Contest. I can't give you his background story because I voted once for him already and now they won't let me get back to his page but it looks like the rescue group who saved Buddy -- that would be the American Lhasa Apso Club Rescue --- will get $5000 worth of dog food from Purina Pro Plan if he wins. Try going here and then clicking on the Return To Voting button. If that doesn't work, my apologies to Buddy for not drumming up some more votes for him.

Voting for Stanley is easier. Just click the graphic below. I love his picture.

Happy Wednesday

Hey, did you guys know Sew, Mama, Sew was doing a month of hand sewing on their blog? Monday's post is from Margie of Resurrection Fern and she's doing a tutorial on a nature- inspired easy embroidery sampler. I love the pattern she is sharing and I'm eady to go stitch it up now. And, she mentions a new-to-me way of transferring designs to your fabric which I have to try out.

Be sure to check out the previous posts on Sew, Mama, Sew to see more photos and tutorials on embroidery, working with felt, hand piecing, chicken scratch and cross stitch. (All my favorites! Woo hoo!)

Finished For Friday -- Bunny SAL

Nicole announced her Bunny Stitch A Long back in early June and I thought it was such a cute pattern. I finally started working on it the other night, mainly because I found out Mary has been checking my blog to see what I've been making while recovering from foot surgery and I felt bad that there hasn't been that much posted.

My original plan was to cut the animals and leaves & acorns out of felt and attach them to the fabric, and then embroider the rest of the design. I stitched the squirrel's tail first and then, forgetting all about the felt plan, I embroidered the outline of his body. Mr. Squirrel looked very blank, and when I realized I didn't have enough gray floss to fill him in, I colored him with a pencil. I figured I may as well keep going and used crayons to tint everything else since my other pencils were pink, blue and purple. Can you tell I was coloring at 2 am in a dimly lit room? The craptastic crayon job aside, I'm happy with how this turned out, even though it's nothing like I originally wanted to do it. Woodland creatures frolicking in the forest -- how could you not love it?

I'm not sure what made me do a chain stitch with two strands of white and two strands of gray floss but I love how the squirrel's tail came out.



I think I could have done a little less of chain stitching on the hedgehog's tummy. Do hedgehogs have quills like porcupines do or are they called something else? I shocked myself by not following the lines to do these. Usually, I'm not such a rebel. (And, yes, I can see the spot I forgot to embroider.)

You can find the cute pattern for the SAL on Flickr and on Nicole's blog. And, be sure to check out her Etsy shop for more of her adorable embroidery patterns.

Technically, I am not completely finished with this embroidery but the stitching is done so I'm posting it for Finished for Friday. I haven't posted anything for FFF for weeks and I miss it. And, I miss blogging and I know you all miss me. [Insert sounds of crickets chirping here] Well, at least I know Mary does.

Show off your latest finishes for the week at Finished for Friday, hosted by Lit and Laundry.

Enjoy the weekend!

Remember Me?

Surprise, surprise. I am still here. (My new FB addiction is Hatchlings.)

The other day Mary mentioned on Facebook how she has been checking my blog every day to see what I've been stitching since I had my foot surgery. That made me realize how I had planned to make a bunch of things during my recovery but have only finished a few. That put me in the mood to make something, so last night, I traced the design for the Bunny SAL on to some fabric and began to embroider it. All I have left to do is the hedgehog. And, if I wasn't sitting at my computer writing about it now, I would be working on it this very minute.

I did a little blog reading the other day and found a few embroidery freebies that I wanted to link to but I have to do some back tracking to find them again. For now, the August pattern is up on Bad Birds. and it's a buffalo.

See ya on Friday! (I actually have some finished ornaments to share. Alert the media!)