Six Page Views

So Blogger tells me I had six page views today.  Woo hoo!

I think the reason I'm thinking more about crafting these days is because Halloween is coming up.  I love cute-and-not-so-scary Halloween stuff.  Before I start any new projects, I think I will go through my UFOs and see if any spooky & cute ones are worth finishing. In the meantime, I would really like to stitch up this cute Happy Candy Corn embroidery [via Craft Gossip's Needlework blog].

Speaking of Halloween stuff to make, in September 2011, Feeling Stitchy had an embroidery stitch-a-long with a super cute pattern.  (Go look at the cuteness!)  I actually embroidered it back then but I just did it on a piece of fabric, which wasn't the smartest decision because then I didn't know what to do with it after it was finished.  I don't machine sew or make quilts or aprons or pillows or outfits for my kids.  I've decided to hand sew it on to a kitchen towel and maybe add some trim or rick rack, and just hang the towel up somewhere in the house for Halloween. Right now I am at "the dyeing the towel black" stage.  I dyed it once already and it was too light and looked more purplish than gray but I think I got the right shade today.  Once it's dry, I can start attaching of the embroidery design to the towel. Which will be fun since I don't really have a plan worked yet.  (Tip of the Day:  If you ever get Rit black dye on your bathroom counter and in your sink, Clorox Clean Up Cleaner + Bleach will take care of it and make everything look as good as new again.)  (Tip of the Day #2:  wear rubber gloves when dyeing and bleaching.)

Since I'm volunteering at my local animal shelter now, I have to share at least one dog that's up for adoption.  This is TRUDY.  I saw her with a volunteer on Friday in the play yard, having a blast.  She would run around on the grass and then she would jump up on to the bench and give the volunteer lots of kisses.  Trudy also kept trying to get the dog I had on my lap to play with her, even though a fence separated them.  She really is a happy and friendly little dog.  If you know anyone in the Orange County, California area who is looking for a small dog to adopt, please let them know about Trudy.

TRUDY

A1345389

Female, 4 yrs old

Wire-haired Fox Terrier mix

OC Animal. Care

561 The City Drive South

Orange CA

March 30 TUSAL Update

March 30 was the New Moon and as usual, I forgot to post a photo of my orts jar for the Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long aka TUSAL so here it is now.  For info on the TUSAL, go here. 

The cat is Katie Kitty from Brooke Nolan's Advent Animals SAL.  She isn't finished in that picture but she is now.  I've forbidden myself from starting any new projects but as soon as I saw this on Facebook (thanks, Sarah H!), I knew I had to do it.  Besides, Katie Kitty was quick to stitch -- it only took three nights to do and that was because I did part of her jacket twice.  The charts for the SAL will be free, with one released per month, and it will last until October 2015.

You can get the chart for Katie Kitty at the bottom of this page at Brooke's Books Publishing. You can see pics of the first three animals here on Liz's Tales of a Thread Spinner blog. They are so cute!  You can use Liz's Dragonflylotus Designs Handspun Threads for the SAL and the chart also has the DMC colors listed.  I used DMC.  I didn't have any blue fabric so I stuck a small piece of white Aida in a Tupperwear full of Rit dye and some water and ended up with what you see above.  Except in real life, it is REALLY BRIGHT BLUE.  

March TUSAL Update

The New Moon was on March 1st and I totally forgot to post a picture of my orts jar for the Totally Useless Stitch-a-long, aka TUSAL, but here's my jar as of 3/9/14.  (Usually, I collect orts in a small jar all year long but I didn't do much crafting in 2013 so those are from last year too.  It looks like a lot but I know the majority of them are from threads I ripped out because I changed my mind about the color or the stitching looked horrible or I screwed up the count on a cross stitch.    

For more info on the TUSAL, please check this post at It's Daffycat.

My orts jar is sitting on a dish towel I'm embroidering with an Easter egg.  I saw this Easter Egg SAL from Needle Knowledge linked on Craft Gossip and decided to stitch the egg on a dish towel, but there's a tutorial to make your egg into a puffy ornament here.  (I'll have to try that some day.)

There's a second New Moon this month on March 30th.  I'm hoping to post a photo of my orts jar by April 15th.  :P

Works In Progress...Sort Of

I'm not quite sure what happened but I could only find one picture of a pillow I'm working on. It's my first attempt at applique the right way -- I used Heat n Bond on my Scottie dog cut outs and then blanket stitched them to the pillow cover.  This other time, I sewed an embroidered piece on to the top of a wool case for my iPod but I had no idea what I was doing and didn't use Heat N Bond or turn the edge under or anything like that so it doesn't count as applique.  Anyway, I'm close to finishing this pillow.  The pattern and idea came from Bustle and Sew.

Every two weeks, Artecy shares two free cross stitch patterns, and after seeing the one with a donkey and a dog and finding I had a large enough piece of Aida this afternoon, I decided to stitch it.  I have the very upper left corner done so far and I can tell this one is going to be a challenge.  It will be 12" X 9" when it's finished -- I hardly ever stitch anything that big -- and I used five different colors of floss today and I swear they are all various shades of grayish beige.  If you click that link after September 8th, you won't see the donkey and dog cross stitch because there will be two new free charts available but you can probably find it for sale on the site.  It's called Ready for the Morning Ride by John Emms.  Looks like he painted a lot of dogs and horses in his time.  I know nothing about fine art but hey, I like dogs and horses.  And donkeys.

The "sort of" in the post title has to do with the Hallowe'en Trio stitch-a-long over at Feeling Stitchy.  I know I'm going to do it; I just haven't started yet.  I have to get moving though since it's a SAL for September and we're already a week into the month.

Ok, I am now going to work on my donkey and dog cross stitch and make a bunch of grayish beige X's until I get bored.

Cute Embroidery Stitch-A-Long

There's a cute stitch-a-long going on over at Clover & Violet.  It's about halfway over and blocks 1-5 are up already but I think you can catch up.  You can find all the details here, including stitch tutorials and the supplies you will need to make the quilt.  I love looking at the pictures in the Flickr group.  Thanks to Flickr member shawnlorette for finding this SAL.

Get Off Your Butt, Patty

I just read over at Craft Gossip that Aimee Ray is doing an embroidery stitch-a-long over at Lark Crafts and thought if only I could transfer some patterns using the stick-your-design-in-the-window-and-trace-it-with-a-pencil method right now and then I realized it wasn't 2 AM like it usually is when I'm online but only 2:30 PM and really sunny out (and 79 degrees!) so I should get up from this chair and go trace some patterns on to my fabric.

OMG, the free patterns are so cute!  You can read more about the SAL on this post.

How About Some Links to Some Freebies

Is Friday the New Moon or is it Saturday? Whichever it is, I have to remember to take a picture of my ort jar for the TUSAL before then so I can post it.

Bustle and Sew has the cutest hedgehog & turtle embroidery pattern for Valentine's day [via One Pretty Thing].

It's been awhile since I visited LaGattaC, a blog for links to free cross stitch charts . Most of the freebies are on blogs written in languages other than English, but when it comes to cross stitch, that doesn't matter all that much. And if you have to translate something, there's always Google translate.

There's a monthly Postcard Stitch-A-Long on Les grilles de Maryse. The January chart and floss list is on this post (English translation here). Some day I plan to stitch the 2007 Country Houses SAL (in English). Because I want to see pigs fly.

Stofnest is a Dutch blog with several free charts (monochromatic sampler type) that I really like. According to Google, Stofnest means Nest Material.

Over on TipNut, are two embroiderered potholder patterns of a sugar bowl and a creamer.

Look at this cute Quadropus made from a glove on Family Fun (that's an octopus with only four arms) [via One Pretty Thing].

Don't freak out but I may actually have something to share for Finished for Friday over at Lit and Laundry this week. I finished x-stitching my little reindeer and now just have to figure out what to do with him next.

The TUSAL 2010

Last March, I joined the TUSAL -- Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long -- over at Dragon My Needle. Once a month, on the New Moon, you were supposed to post a photo of your orts jar. (Orts as in thread ends or anything else leftover from your stitching projects.) Since I didn't keep up with it -- I only posted pictures through July and then fell off the wagon for some reason -- I was happy to see there will be a TUSAL for 2010.

You can join any time throughout the year but the first New Moon is on January 16th so why not register now? Go to the Sign Up post and leave some comments to let Yoyo know you'd like to participate in the 2010 TUSAL. If you'd like more information on the TUSAl, check out the rules on this post.

I think I ended up with two ort jars last year and I am ready to start a new one. New jar and new TUSAL: perfect timing.

And I am going to keep up with posting the monthly pictures no matter what. (Stop snickering, MaryBT.)

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!

The First Finish Of My Convalescence

Thank you all so much for the comments on my last post!!! With all of you wishing me a speedy recovery, it should be no time before I am back on my feet again (pun intended).

I had planned to make tons of "stuff" while recuperating from my surgery but so far, I've been too busy reading and playing Farm Town on Facebook to get many projects done. But I did make a cross stitch ornament a few days ago.

There's a monthly pinkeep SAL at Les grilles de Maryse [link via LaGattaC]. I doubt I'll be stitching them all (then again, I do have time and I think they're pretty) but I wanted to do the the June design because it has cherries. As you can see, I didn't finish it as a pinkeep. It has red felt on the back because it was handy and I didn't feel like searching for some fabric to use instead. I used all the suggested floss colors and stitched it on 18 ct Fiddler's (or Fiddler's Lite -- I forget which one I've been using and who knows where the label is at this point). My mom's already claimed my ornament even though I didn't get the loop smack in the center. (Let's blame it on the Vicodin, even though I haven't actually needed to take any.)



Go here to see the pinkeep charts for January through June. And, check out the January 14th post where Maryse shows how to make a pinkeep. The directions are in French but I think you can figure it out. I might try making one with the January chart.

Thanks again for the get well soon wishes!!

Finished For Friday: Remember Weepuls?

Lately, every time I see something cute to make, I add it to the list I have going in my head of things to keep me busy while I'm recovering from foot surgery (it's finally going to happen next Thursday). I just added the Bunny Stitch-A-Long to the list. It's an embroidery project with a super cute pattern from Polka Dot Bunny.

The other day I had planned to link to the Weepuls tutorial from Zakka Life, and also wanted to include a photo of the Weepuls that I've had for years. Well, I totally forgot to snap a picture of them so I held off on adding the link. So, today, in honor of Finished for Friday, I am completing my task by linking to the Weepuls tutorial and showing you mine.

I don't remember these little fuzzballs having a name. Thank you to Zakka Life for tracking it down. Wikipedia says Weepuls or Wuppies or Wuppets were invented in 1979 and became extremely popular in 1981. I don't know how long I've had mine but the whites of their googly eyes have yellowed over time so I think it's been awhile. Sadly, I don't have the supplies to make a Weepul tonight but I can always play with my old ones.

Be sure to check Lit and Laundry to see who else is joining in for Finished for Friday.

TUSAL May Report

Well, I totally forgot about the new moon last week so I'm late with my picture for May for the Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long aka TUSAL. My jar and I had a nice long photo shoot a little while ago but the majority of the pics were out of focus and had that glare on the glass so I ended up deleting them. Here's one (complete with glare) of the jar lounging on my bed.



And, here's a nice shot from up above. I wanted to show off the one strand of gold in there.



The TUSAL is hosted by YoYo at Dragon My Needle. If you'd like to join in, please go here for more information.

I'm off to circle June 22 on my calendar so I don't miss next month's report.

The Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long April Report

There's a new moon today so that means it's time to report in for the Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long over at Dragon My Needle. So, here is my orts jar. I started this one about a month ago.

The Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long

After Jennifer shared her very cool orts jar last year, I started one of my own and have been tossing all my pieces of embroidery floss that are too small to do anything with in it. It's nearly full now and I was thinking it was time to dig out another jar. (Not that I have a small collection under my bathroom sink or anything.) (OMG. I'm a jar hoarder too.) and get another one going. Here's my first orts jar. (Nice water spots. Someone's not using Cascade.)


Today I came across the Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long. Talk about perfect timing!

This fun SAL is a little different that the other ones. Just start putting all your floss leftovers into a see-through container of some kind and then share pictures of it every time there's a new moon for the rest of the year. (The next date to share pics is April 25th.) It's open to everyone and you can join in at any time. Bonus: there will be a prize for one of the participants at the end.

Link to SAL via Wahroonga.

I Am Certifiable -- Now with an added link for all you pattern geeks

Last night, I stumbled upon a stitch-a-long sampler on a French blog with four parts, which were all released last year, that I thought was really pretty. There are two versions, one in reds and another in pale pinks and greens, and it's a true sampler with a variety of different stitches that I have absolutely no clue how to do. So, guess what I did? I printed out all four parts in both color versions. As if I was going to someday stitch up BOTH versions.

Between all the WIP's I have going and plans to make "things" for at least eight friends, I am totally insane to keep printing out more and more patterns.

How many trees have I personally been responsible for destroying this past month thanks to all the paper I am using?

And, before you suggest I save the charts and patterns on my computer, let me say I can never find pdf's after saving them and I already have a busload of embroidery patterns saved.

Off to go find a few more three ring binders to store all of this crap!

Edited to add: Look at what Arizona made with the terry cloth bathrobe she was going to toss out. What a great idea!

I'm sharing this link because I think it's a cool way to reuse something and because it reminded me that I've been keeping a few old towels because I have instructions from Martha Stewart on how to make a rug with them. Yes, IT'S YET ANOTHER PATTERN IN MY VAST COLLECTION!!!!!!!

Edited to add #2 -- I've added a link to the SAL.

Patty Blogs! Alert The Media!

Remember when I used to make stuff? Me neither. But I do have some links for you.

There's a great tutorial on turning an embroidery project into an ornament on Bookwormbethie - between the pages [link via Needlework News].

They're doing a Christmas stocking stitch-a-long at Meet Me At Mikes [via Pimp Stitch]. Pip says it's especially good for embroidery beginners because she's going to explain how to do everything. Go see the cute patterns. I must stitch that dog.

And, just because Mary has issues with Goodnight, Moon doesn't mean we can't appreciate her Easy Handmade Christmas Gift projects. On her blog, she shows you how to alter a candle (glitter alert!) and how to make an acrylic bookmark.

Links For Last Friday's Finishes

I wanted to link to the patterns & tutorials I used to make the things in the photo on Friday's post. But, first, a few other links.

Anne at Green Jello is sharing her holiday embroidery patterns and boy, are they really cute. I am definitely going to stitch the sugar plum fairies.

Jo the Crafty Stitcher is sharing instructions to make tags out of muslin and her cute embroidery designs. I really love the bird.

Over at The Floss Box, Emily posted some Xmas ornament patterns to use for embroidery projects.

And, you have to check out Jenn's extensive floss dyeing tutorial on her blog, Sweet Pea Stitches. I have to wait on doing this but I really would like to give it a try after the holidays.

I made this fabric flower back in June and it was on my dog's collar for awhile but I wasn't crazy about my sewing. So I decided to take it apart and put it back together. I also added a different button and a pinback so now I can wear it on my sweater. The material is from a sheet I have had for years but never used. Instructions for making the fabric flower can be found at Pink Paper Peppermints.





I wasn't happy with the hat I made for this snowman months ago and I finally got around to making him another one last week so that counts as a finish. You can find the pattern at Runo's site.

Well, I thought he was finished. I just realized I forgot to give Frosty some buttons. Oops.




One of the monthly themes for the Christmas Ornament Stitch-A-Long for September was penguins. So that's what I made. The chart for this cute little guy is from It's Daffy Cat. I had previously finished all the cross stitching on the Nativity ornament (one of the themes for May) but didn't back it and stuff it until last week. The last time I checked, the free pattern was no longer available.





I love this peony. I wish I had some pretty wool felt in pink or even white but I only have brown and black so I just used the craft kind. I turned my peony into a pin but the instructions will show you how to attach it to a hairband. You can find the tutorial at Yoonie At Home.





Here's another card I made, again using the Chi Chi Fever pattern from Sublime Stitching. I messed up his head and I don't really like the small stitches I took but oh well.






Have you been to Tricia Rennea's blog yet? (I believe I found it through a link on One Pretty Thing.) There is so much good stuff there, including the pattern for her Maddie Bird. I made this one last night. I did the tail a little differently since I didn't have any red or white yarn (in the instructions, the yarn tail looks like a heart to me so I just cut one out and sewed it on). I am not happy with where I stitched the wing -- I wish I had put it a little lower -- but take a look at that! I actually used a chain stitch on that wing! How unlike me! I think my blanket stitching is getting better too. Well, except for that knot near her right foot. Anyway, I plan to make at least one more Maddie Bird this week. I also would like to make Tricia's mittens. Now, go see all of her amazing and fun work. And, if you have any trouble printing things, just email her and she will send you the pattern.

My Own Private Idaho

I haven't been blogging much since I've been busy working on this cross stitch.



Lately, I've been doing these quickie designs which take one night to stitch and one night to stuff and turn into an ornament, but this one is a major undertaking. It calls for 17 different shades of green. Well, maybe not that many, but there are a lot of them. The chart is called Puppy in the Garden and it was a freebie from Artecy last month but is no longer available. I've checked and found they change their free charts every couple of weeks so if you see one you like, be sure to save it or print it out.

Over at Green Jello, you can find some cute embroidery designs for Halloween, including a pumpkinhead girl, an owl, and kids in costumes. The pdf is linked in this post.

Look at these cute felt graham crackers! [Link via Chicken Betty, who posted the tutorial.] And, I found instructions for another pincushion. This one is a knitted and felted poppy that you can wear it on your wrist. [Link via Craft Tutorials.]

I finished a couple more ornaments. The first is from a free chart from Nenne Design. I just translated the title again and realized I made a huge mistake. I thought the chart was called Spot in the Garden so I figured filling in some pale green all the way up to the border wouldn't hurt. But Google Translator tells me the title is really Spot for the window (Spot in the window, probably) which means on my ornament, there are drapes above the curtain rod. Good job, Patty!



There are a few more Spot freebies that I'd like to eventually do. You can find all of Janet's free charts on this page. But you're on your own for the translations. :)

By the way, here's the fabric on the back of Spot. I'm only sharing it because it was once a dress from Target. Yes, I save stuff like that.




I'm still trying to get caught up with the Christmas Ornament Stitch-A-Long. One of the themes for May was Nativity and when I saw this chart, I decided to use it. Notice the donkeys. It still needs to be stuffed. And, see that blue material under the ornament? That used to be a shirt from Esprit. I used it to back the ornament. (As much as I love re-using my old wardrobe to make new things, I'm still jealous of anyone who can shop at Superbuzzy for new fabric.)



Ok, I am going back to my happy little cross stitching world for now. I may be back later in the week.

A Couple Of Ornament Finishes

I stupidly thought I could whip out one ornament a month for the Christmas Ornament Stitch-a-long but these are the first ones I've completed since March.

One of the April themes was churches, and for August, I went with pets (when I think of pets, I always think dog).




I stitched a different church on the back of the first ornament and you can also see the blue fabric I used to back the dog ornament. Not very Christmas-y but oh well.




Both of the church charts are from an old French embroidery booklet that's posted here (it's in Sajou No 103) and the dog is from another booklet but I can't find the site it's on right now. If anyone wants it, (someone who obsesses over dog charts the way I do), let me know and I will track it down.

For those that care: I used DMC 930 (or was it 931?) and stitched them on 18ct Fiddler's.

Edited to Add: I found the chart for the dog. Go here and under monographs, look for Moderne Stickvorlang. Dessins de Broderies Modernes by H.K. Berlin (about halfway down the page). It's in the pdf for that booklet.

Hungarian Freebies

The other day, I started part 4 of my Hungarian Sampler, only to discover two mistakes in part 3. They were not that noticeable so I decided to leave them be and continued with part 4. I didn't get very far before I realized I had miscounted. Since I hadn't done that much, I ripped out the stitches and was left with a pink stain on my Aida from the red floss. Lovely. I began part 4 again and messed up a second time. By then, I was beyond frustrated and thought it would be better if I started the entire sampler over. So I cut out the stitched part from the piece of fabric and tossed it into the trash. Then I remembered I didn't have another large enough piece of Aida for the sampler nor did I have the money or means to go get one. So I laid on my bed and cried for 20 minutes.

Pretty pathetic, I know.

In related news, here's a Hungarian blog with some cross stitch freebies, including a needlecase with cats and A through G alphabet blocks [link via Cross Stitch Pattern Addict].