Happy Thursday

Seeing all the different ways to make flowers at Pink Paper Peppermints inspired me to come up with another flower for my dog Maggie's collar cover. I decided to make this fabric flower.

Sorry for the lousy photo. I took three of them and the other two are super blurry. Some day I will actually read the manual for my camera and learn how to take better pictures.

The flower tutorial was very easy to follow. I only had trouble when I was attaching the button. I didn't want to use a shank button because Maggie likes to roll around on her back and I was afraid it would poke her. I had made the collar cover for Maggie after I saw the fancy felt one at Bella Dia back in December. Her regular collar goes inside the felt one and this way she's still wearing her ID tags.

I just realized something as I was looking at that picture: the felt is from a wool sweater I washed, I did a chain stitch on it, and the material for the flower is from a sheet. Before I started reading craft blogs, I would never had done anything like that. Thank you to all the Crafty Bloggers out there for getting me to do more than cross stitch!

Speaking of collars, there'a tutorial on making a recycled collar (using the old buckle) for your dog or cat at Keyka [link via Craft].

Up until now, every pinkeep I've ever seen has been made from a cross stitched piece but take a look at this one. It's from a vintage embroidery pattern and done in redwork. Very nice.

Tip Nut will be sharing a set of Laura Wheeler gingham flowers embroidery patterns starting this week. And, have a look at Tip Nut's list of links to a bunch of crafty, kitchen and household printables.

The June challenge at The Floss Box is "to make something out of stuff that would otherwise be thrown away." Read all about it here. Also, Emily recently posted a tutorial for a stumpwork snail which looks really interesting.

Thank you so much to Jenny at All Sorts for hosting the A Post A Day In May challenge. I didn't post every single day but according to Blogger, I did post 39 times this month so that averages to at least one a day. I still haven't checked out all the participating blogs but I did find a few that I really like and will keep reading. (FYI: Jenny posted a list, if you want to go click some links and find more blogs to read, because I know everyone is seriously lacking in that department).

Saving the best for last: Kellie is having an apron giveaway and Barbara is giving away some vintage fabric. Woo hoo!

I Missed Thursday

Well, I missed doing a Thursday post. I was hoping to get it up before midnight but looks like I missed my deadline. Tonight, I was busy sorting through the stack of papers that has been piling up on my desk for the past month. I found a postcard addressed to me about a lawsuit someone filed against Lenscrafters. The card said (yes, it spoke) I could choose to opt out of the settlement and get a $75 voucher for the store or $30. I decided to take the money. It's been awhile since I bought anything on eBay and I am going through serious withdrawal.


I finally finished Part 3 of the chart for the Hungarian Sampler SAL. Part 4 was recently posted so I'm not too far behind. I'm stitching it in red and black because I read on the blog that those are the traditional colors.

Cross Stitch Chart Giveaway at Stitch Pink

You can win a Survivor Tree Ornament from M Designs over at Stitch Pink [via Patternnuts Place]. Enter by leaving some comments on this post (you have until June 7th). And, please mention the giveaway on your blog to help make people aware of Stitch Pink. Thanks!

(Hey, I am doing pretty good with A Post A Day In May. Yeah, now that's it's nearly over.)

Monday the 26th

I haven't done a very good job with keeping up with A Post A Day In May so far but I am determined to post every day for the rest of the week.

Uh, I don't have much to post right now (hey, I've been up all night) (never mind that I slept all day Sunday) (I am trying to enjoy my final days of being a bum) so please enjoy these links to pink Pyrex (I'm drooling), blue Pyrex and softie patterns at Meet Me at Mikes.

Time For Some Links

I love that Cute Overload is being taken over by embroidery patterns. Now up is a Doxie for Baroosday. (If baroo makes no sense to you, read this.)

Some people find my blog by searching for free scottie dog cross stitch charts. I just found one by accident at About.com.

I've neglected to link to Linda's Count Down to Japan before now. She and her family will be taking a trip to Tokyo in August and after Linda returns home, there will be a giveaway. But you can't enter unless you've previously left some comments so go get started on that.

There are two springtime biscornu charts (one with bunnies and one with snails) at Les chroniques de Frimousse (English translation). You can find the instructions to make the flower pincushion shown in the post here (translation) or you can make it into a cover for your tape measure (translation).

Roger Ebert has a blog now. So does King Arthur Flour, Bakers' Banter. I like Bakers' Banter because when someone ask a question in the comments about the recipe, it gets answered.

Another blog I've been reading is Matt, Liz and Madeline [via Pop Culture Junk Mail]. Liz passed away the day after Madeline was born and Matt has been blogging about that. You can also read an article about them, Without Liz, but not alone.

The Donkey and the Dog

I'm not sure I've linked to the latest embroidery patterns from TipNut. They're a set of six designs with kitchen proverbs and a girl and sometimes with a dog and/or cat. Really cute.

I know I linked to the French cross stitch blog Swappons some time ago but it looks like I missed the main page for all the old embroidery booklets. Start here and then either click each cover or the page numbers at the bottom. I got excited the other night when I came across the chart for "L'ane et le chien." It's No 104 on this page. Sometimes I search French blogs for donkeys so finding a cross stitch chart with both a donkey and a dog was a bonus. I started stitching it the other night. I also made another biscornu and guess what? It's lop-sided. So it's not uneven Aida. It's me. I'm going to leave it as is. That will be my thing: lop-sided biscornu. (biscornus? biscorni?)

A Post a Day in May

(First off: Susan and Brian, if you're looking for Missy, scroll down to the next post.)

Jenny at All Sorts is going to do a post a day in May and has invited everybody to join the challenge. I don't know if I will be able to keep that up but I love her cute button so I'm officially beginning now. Get the button here.

Edited to add: I started going through the other blogs that are participating and already found a new favorite, Two Crazy Crafters. Look at the adorable Poodle planter!