If Only I Got Paid To Hoard

My sister got involved while I was snapping shots of my orts jar. And, no, she's not giving me the finger. She was making a sideways peace sign. (See next post down if you want to know why I was taking pictures of a jar full of pieces of leftover embroidery floss.)

Say, what does that Monetize tab up above, in between Layout and View Blog, do? Let's click it and find out...nah, nothing exciting. It just shows you how to set up AdSense so you can add Google ads to your blog. Dang. I was hoping it was a way to make my blog look like a painting by Monet. For what's it worth, I have never clicked an ad on a blog before, and most likely, never will. (Links to Etsy shops do not count.)

Ok, moving on...guess what I did last night? Besides catching up with several episodes of "Burn Notice" on the DVR, I also hoarded more patterns. I promise this will be the very last time I mention my addiction -- I'm sure everyone else is getting as sick of it hearing about it as I am. I will do something crafty or fun or even illegal over the next few days so that when I am ready to blog again, I will have something else to talk about.

My latest hoards:

Prairie Schooler's little house with rain falling on it cross stitch freebie

Easter Egg Trio Tea Towel embroidery freebie from Bird Brain Designs

Redwork hedgehog embroidery pattern from a Flickr member

Pretty Posie Pushpins from Polka Dot Pineapple

Elephant pull toy embroidery pattern from So September

Embroidered Pint-Sized Pocket Pillows from Goody-Goody

Elephant quilt block from Miri

Pretty much everything from Wee Folk Art (join their Crafting Club so you can see all of their freebies)

Hopefully, I will be back later in the week to tell you about something I made from one of these patterns. Have a great Monday!

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.

There's Got To Be A Morning After

Earlier today, some guy knocked on the front door and I was ready to jump up from the computer and go answer it when I realized it was after 2:00 in the afternoon and I was still in a robe and pajamas. How did that happen?! I seem to remember coming up with a plan, while I was eating breakfast, to give my bedroom a good spring cleaning -- I was even going to move furniture so I could vacuum everywhere -- and then next thing I know, it's early afternoon and I'm still in my PJs and playing on Facebook. Have you tried the Pick Your 5 application yet? It lets you make lists of your five favorite whatevers -- movies, bands, TV shows, beers, sports teams, books, slopes, dog breeds, etc, and then share them on your page. I love doing that kind of thing, and also seeing what other people put on their lists. And, making fun of people who think Hannah Montana is one of the best shows ever always cheers me up.

And, it wasn't just Facebook that kept me busy today. I also wasted a ridiculous amount of time trying to get a pattern to print. Normally, I'd give up after the second try but it's for this adorable donkey on Etsy's blog and I HAD to have it. Who knows why but I couldn't get the pdf to open no matter how many times I tried, and printing the page only gave me the sidebars -- the entire middle section with the pattern itself was blank. Signing into Etsy didn't make a difference and neither did using Firefox instead of AOL's browser. To make it more fun, my computer kept freezing up when I was trying all these things so I had to keep starting over. The weird thing is I had the same problem a few months ago while trying to print another pattern from The Storque blog. I would love to link to that other pattern now but I just got stuck on Etsy again and had to re-start AOL. Anyway, the donkey is cute and I am sure you will have no issues printing the pattern. I think I'm just special that way.

On to the good stuff . . . You can win a copy of either The Apron Book or The Kitchen Linens Book by EllynAnne Geisel from The Apron Goddess. All the details are on this post. You have until midnight, Saturday, March 28th, to enter.

Kandra & Renee at Sibling Craftery are holding their first giveaway for some great prizes. (fabric! a pincushion! floss!) You have until Sunday, March 29th, to get in on this one. And, I know I've linked to them before but in case you missed it, be sure to check out their fun embroidery patterns too. I heart the Valentine's Day one.

There's another way to win one of EllynAnne's books but it's a little more involved: EllynAnne, along with Colonial Patterns Inc., is giving away six prize packages (full of Aunt Martha embroidery transfers, some towels to stitch them on, and copies of her books), over at Apron Memories, but to enter this not-a-contest giveaway, you need to create something using vintage household goods, (fabric, handkerchiefs, toweling, embroidery, doilies, place mats, napkins), and then post it in their Kitchen Linens Flickr pool. The deadline to enter is April 30th.

I am really in the mood to stitch something now but first I must print out even more patterns. I wouldn't want to get kicked out of Hoarders Anonymous any time soon. They're all are for embroidery except the felt Easter cone, which is now on my to-do list. (I'm considering joining Felt Anonymous as well.)

Bunnies and chicks at Orange Flower: Patterns and Tutorials [via Meet Me At Mikes]

Springy Chicken Day, flower for Spring, and (my favorite) Itty Bitty Circus and (even more favorite) a felt Easter Favor Cone at Tangarang

Henry the Hedgehog and Padraic O'Malley (links are in the right sidebar along with a few more) at Chichiboulie

Bunny pattern for March from Bad Birds (thanks, L&L!)

Have a great Thursday!

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.

I Once Shellacked A Butternut Squash

Ok, I've never shellacked a butternut squash. I was just stuck for a title.

As usual, I'm behind with my blog reading and with answering email but I've completed 157 quizzes on Facebook. Go, me! Seriously, I am truly addicted to them. And, you can call me by my nickname from now on. That would be Junior Braniac, thank you very much.

It's been awhile since I posted some links to free patterns and tutorials so here ya go!

Over at Orange You Lucky, you'll find some really cute cat book labels to print out.

If you missed "The Party's Over" embroidery freebie from Pimp Stitch last year, you have another chance to download it at Craft now. I love this one.

Molly is sharing a vintage DOW transfer pattern with cute kitties at Molly's Place.

There's a cross stitch chart and also an embroidery pattern of a chicken on the French blog, Cachounette.

On Martha Stewart's site is a project for embroidering t-shirts but you could use the templates for any kind of embroidery. They include an elephant, a giraffe, a dragonfly, a firetruck, and a tractor that I believe is really a skip loader. (I think heads are going to roll over this!)

Want to make an adorable little felt coin purse with a cupcake on it and Johnny Depp inside? Ok, he isn't really in the purse but there is blanket stitching involved. And, also a zipper which freaks me out a tad. Thanks to paper-and-string for the tutorial and to Craft for the link.

Also via Craft is a felt bunny card how-to from One Crafty Mumma.

And, at Wild Olive, Mollie is posting some sweet embroidery patterns (think pirates, cowboys, mushrooms and a tree stump).

I'm hoping to have something finished and ready to share by Friday. Have a great week!

I Might Need To Break Up With Facebook

The new Facebook layout is ugh-worthy.

The "news feed" is now supposed to be streaming live so every time your pal Joe Blow sends Peeps to 57 of his closest pals, your news feed lets you know about it. (I'd like to know who the loser was who thought someone using the Peeps application was newsworthy.) Meanwhile, my news feed doesn't bother to tell me when Michelle adds new pictures and no longer lets me know when my sister becomes friends with someone. Yeah, I could click on their FB pages and see what they've been up to since I last logged in 37 minutes earlier, but I don't want to have to do that for everybody, or at least not for the seven Facebookers that I actually like and consider real friends. I'd rather see it all in one place, like it used to be. Dear FB: if you're going to stream it live, then post everything we all do, not just the stupid gifting of the Peeps. Or at least let us choose what we want and don't want to see on our news feeds. It seems many people don't like how things are now so maybe our complaints will get FB to reconsider the changes. And, I believe in unicorns too.

Did you know that March was Adopt-A-Rescued-Guinea-Pig-Month? To mark the occasion, here's a super lousy photo of a felt guinea pig I made sometime last year (what's up with that white mouth? They look like teeth.) and my version of Jenny's Shamrock Pin, which I made the other night and then pinned on to a sweater that was left on top of a pile of clothes on a chair in my bedroom for all of St. Patrick's Day. But, hey, my shamrock is all ready to go for the wearing of the green next year.

If adopting a guinea pig sounds like a plan but you don't know where to find one that's been rescued, try Petfinder. They have a search feature on the home page where you can put in your zip code and the kind of pet you're looking for and get a list of available animals in your area.

And, thanks so much for all the comments on my pillow! That totally made my day year!

Meet My Pillow

Look at my little pillow! I am so in love with it. Now that's it's finished, I can see there are things I would have done differently but I'm just so freaking happy with how it turned out.



Around Valentine's Day, I saw this adorable stitchery on Jenny's blog and it got me thinking about doing something with embroidery and felt, involving dogs and a big heart. I even drew my idea on paper. And, of course, a sun and a cloud were added because when I, ahem, draw -- and I use the term loosely -- it's always a picture of a house with a sun and a cloud in the sky, and maybe a tree and some flowers next to it. I'm nothing if not consistent. Or maybe I always draw the same thing because this is what I hope to have in my life some day: a house in a sunny spot with a tree I can climb and flowers I can pick and put in a glass jar on the kitchen table to be enjoyed while I'm sitting there reading the morning paper and discovering I chose the winning lottery numbers the night before, and, oh look, there's Johnny Depp at the stove, frying up some bacon...mmm, bacon. Mmm, Johnny Depp.

Um, where was I? Oh, yeah, I was describing my attempts at designing an embroidery project. Since drawing a halfway decent dog was way beyond my ability, I cut one out of an embroidery pattern from Meet Me at Mikes and just flipped it over for the other dog. So, I came up with this plan for a stitched picture and then forgot all about it. Until I saw the cute felt heart with a bunny that Michelle made, which I just love, by the way.

Michelle's bunny reminded me that I never got around to making the dog embroidery so I tracked down my drawing and figured out which parts to stitch and what to cut out of felt. The original plan was to use hoops as a frame when it was finished but none of my extras were the right size, and since the end result was a little too big to be an Xmas tree ornament, I now have a little pillow.

Stitch-hance!

Maggie For Diane

Not exactly exciting You Tube material.

Jenny's Cute St Patrick's Day Pin

I'm in the middle of writing a post but I just saw Jenny's cute shamrock pin over at Stitcher & Scribbler and wanted to link to it so y'all could whip one up tonight and wear it tomorrow for St. Patrick's Day. I love it so much, I may wear mine for the next month. Well, first, I have to go make one...

I Made A Doggie

After I posted a picture on Facebook of my Scottie, my friend asked if I could make a Beagle. I went through my stash of patterns and a year later, I found a doggie one -- yes, it took me a year since I have so many due to my Hoarder's Disease -- and made this little guy.


His front feet look like flippers (I don't know what happened to the stuffing I shoved in them), his right eye is larger than his left, and my blanket stitching makes me think of Frankenstein but I still love him the same. And, really, could I iron my hankies before using them for pictures?

I confess the pattern came from that Portuguese blog that I swore I was never going to link to again because I think her posting practices are questionable. But the little dog was too cute and I couldn't help but print out the pattern. I did modify his face somewhat but I still feel guilty using that pattern.

The good news is I found a video with instructions on how to draw your own stuffed animal patterns, and I plan to give that a shot one day. I had been searching for a tutorial on attaching button eyes to a softie once it's stuffed -- I do mine beforehand and wasn't sure if that was right or not -- and instead found a very helpful video for embroidering the eyes & nose and that led to discovering a whole series of videos on making stuffed animals.

Did I ever mention The Toy Society? I heard about it from Kellie and thought it was such a great idea. It was started after a woman saw her artist friend leave his work in public places and she decided to do the same with handmade toys. The idea has spread worldwide and now more people are making and dropping off toys in their cities and towns. Now that I've made a few stuffed animals and know what not to do next time, I think I'm ready to make one for The Toy Society. And, now that I will soon be driving again, (I'm waiting for the insurance guy to call me back), I can drop it off somewhere in town.

I Once Shellacked A Hamster

I think I forgot how to blog.

I admit I've been spending far too much time on Facebook but looking at profiles of people I once knew has prompted me to go through lots of old pictures and boxes filled with things I've saved over the years, and that's brought back a lot of memories. Since I haven't finished anything this week, I thought I'd share what might be considered my very first craft project.

Meet my third grade teacher from University Park Elementary School: Craig Ritter. Thanks to Mr. Ritter, I learned how to play soccer. Except in his version, there were no positions like forward or fullback. Everybody got to be on the team and play, and the entire field was fair game. He called it Jungle Ball.



I had my first Rice Krispie Treat because of Mr. Ritter. I don't know how many batches we made the day before we went on Christmas vacation but all the kids in my classroom, and the one next door, ended up with a treat the size of a softball. I can remember gnawing on mine -- it was too huge to take a bite out of -- while waiting in line for lunch that day and thinking it was the greatest thing ever. My sister and I still tease my mom that if it wasn't for Mr. Ritter, we never would have known about Rice Krispie Treats since she never made them for us.

My first and only experience with shellac was in Mr. Ritter's class. He had asked us to bring pictures of something we liked to school. I had a thing for hamsters back then and I think I cut mine out of a how-to-take-care-of-your-hamster type book. Our project started off by gluing the pictures to a piece of wood. Then we got to shellac the hell out of it. I'm not sure if his lesson on using varnish fell under math, spelling or creative writing, but I remember I really enjoyed coating that piece of wood with shellac. (Can you get high if you inhale shellac fumes?)


Mr. Ritter eventually left my school and went to teach in Japan. He later came back to UP Elementary and became the principal. I'm sure he did a wonderful job in that role but I feel bad for the kids who missed out on making giant Rice Krispie balls or playing Jungle Ball or shellacking a hamster because they didn't get to have Mr. Ritter as a teacher.

Fun shellac fact from Wikipedia: Dried shellac is all-natural and is often used as a candy and pill coating.

Get Your Motor Running

I am so dang happy right now. Yesterday, I FINALLY got my drivers license renewed. (It had expired while it was suspended so it still needed to be renewed once the suspension was cleared.) I still need to get insurance coverage before I get back on the road but I am thisclose to being able to go down to the high school and doing donuts in the parking lot. Boy, I have missed that!

Then, yesterday afternoon, my foot doctor and I had a conversation about doing surgery on my deformity, (it's actually an enormous bunion), and she suggested operating on it now since I don't have anything major going on in my life at the moment, other than plans to drive all over Southern California in the next few weeks. The recovery could take anywhere from two to four months (six months for some people, she said) but the end result would be totally worth it. If I have this done, I could go back to wearing "normal shoes" (her words). Upon hearing that, I was immediately sold on the idea of having a triangular chunk of bone cut out of my foot. Hey, if it can get me back into my Chucks and my sandals and my red Mary Janes and my Keds, I say sign me up. It would have to be approved by the county medical program I'm in and that might take awhile but I told her to put in a request and start the process.

Did I mention how freaking happy I am? Pardon me while I go skip down the hall and maybe do a cartwheel or two.

A Gnome And A Guinea Pig Walk Into A Bar

Thanks for all the recent comments! You guys always say the nicest things about my little craft projects, which makes me wonder if you need your eyes checked. No, really, it makes me smile big time. And, I totally appreciated the comments about my recent low blood sugar episode. Thank you!

Have you seen Barbara's tutorial on turning an embroidered piece into a lovely needle case? It's a terrific way to use something that might be stained or torn but that you can't bear to part with because it's just too pretty. I knew I couldn't make one the way Barbara did because I don't machine sew and the only bias tape I have is white (boring). But then I heard a little voice inside my head ask why not just blanket stitch the edges together? And, I thought Boy howdy! I am so doing that!

(I swear if the blanket stitch were a person, I would be its biggest stalker.)

Well, I couldn't find the right embroidery to morph into a needle case so I was thinking I should just stitch a little design on some fabric and go from there. I'm about ready to go do that right now. But first, let me show you what I made for my sister last year since I never got around to taking any pictures of it until now.

On one side of the little bag, I embroidered a gnome . . .




. . . and, on the other, his pal, the guinea pig.



Susan chose the patterns, which explains why there's a gnome and a guinea pig. If I had made this for myself, there would have been a puppy on one side and a wombat on the other. And, a picture of Johnny Depp inside.

The gnome pattern was the January 2008 free pattern from Bad Birds. I had stitched him once before and thought he looked like he was wearing a uniform of some kind so this time I got out the crayons and gave him some color. By the way, the current freebie from Andrea Zuill is an elephant on a ball holding an umbrella in his trunk. I love it.

The guinea pig design is from a coloring book that you can find at Dover Publications (possibly this one) but I had saved the image from one of their sampler emails. If you haven't signed up for that by now, you should. You'll receive a weekly email with links to free illustrations, clip art, and stories from a wide variety of their books. Some of the black & white drawings and coloring pages work nicely as embroidery patterns. (At least that's what I tell myself every time I download yet another one even though I know I will most likely never get around to using it except for this one time that I used the guinea pig page.) Register to get the sampler here.

Do You Recognize This Poodle Chart?

UPDATE: It looks like the chart is from a Leisure Arts cross stitch booklet by Mary Ellen called Best Loved Dogs: The 13 Most Popular Breeds. Thanks, Google!

I found this Poodle cross stitch chart in an email someone sent to me a few years ago. I don't know if it was a freebie or one she had purchased. I was hoping someone might recognize it and know the designer or website it came from. Thanks!

Meet My Scottie

A little while ago, I won a book called "Knitting Pretty" from Protector of Vintage (great name for a blog, huh?). Learning how to knit has been on my to-do list for some time so I was really excited about winning the book. It was even better when I opened the box from Ann and discovered she had included three skeins of yarn and a heart shaped box of yummy chocolate-covered caramels. Armed with a 40% off coupon, my sister and I headed for Michael's so I could get some needles and get to stitching.

Well, it did not go as well as I had hoped. After pouring over the diagrams in the book and watching several online videos for hours and hours, I still had no idea how to knit or purl. I think I figured how to cast on but who knows if I was doing that right. I knew how to knit when I was a kid and thought it was would all come back to me when I picked up those needles but no such luck. I was really discouraged by the whole thing and thought I should stop obsessing over it for now and move on to something I kind of knew how to do: make a small animal out of felt.

I decided it was time to finally make a Scotty/Scottie dog from All Sorts. The pattern was one of the first online craft freebies I stumbled upon. It's just felt and a simple blanket (or whip) stitch so how difficult could it be? Well, hello, there's a head gasket (or is it gusset?), and two underbody pieces, and I wasn't sure which part to sew together first. He turned out cute, (how could he not be cute thanks to a great pattern), but there are quite a few mistakes. If you could see him from a different angle, you would see knots in the floss that I did not hide well enough, and the places where the pieces of felt came together that I had to stitch over more than once because I had left holes. I also cheated on his collar because I cannot tie a decent bow to save my life, so for now, the ends are attached by a straight pin.

I love that he stands up. That was worth dealing with the underbody pieces and head bustle(basket?).



I plan to make more Scotties in the future and I'm hoping to get better at it.

Fun Times In Diabetes Land

I had a post with several links to embroidery patterns all ready to go and accidentally deleted it the other night. I've been trying to learn how to knit and have not been at all successful. And, yesterday I spilled Cherry Coke Zero all over my ecru colored floss so now I don't know if I can finish the felt Scottie I had already half blanket stitched together. In other words, I have nothing craft related for you people so please enjoy this entry about my most recent experience with low blood sugar.

I was on Facebook yesterday and it kept running through my mind how I needed to type "OMGWTFBBQ" somewhere on my profile. After a few minutes of this, I realized my blood sugar was starting to drop since goofy thoughts usually mean low blood sugar in my world. Even though I was kind of out of it, I decided to get my camera and snap a few shots while waiting for the glucose tablets to bring me out of my hypoglycemic stupor. I'm not sure why I wanted to take pictures but I may have been worried I had told someone on Facebook to eff off and thought I might need proof later on to show I wasn't thinking clearly at the time.*

Since anything below 80 is considered low, this number explains my goofy thoughts.

Hey, Mr. Doggie Door Stop, mind if I just sit here while I wait for the glucose tablets to kick in?


In addition to eating a few glucose tablets from the large bottle, I also ate this entire tube of them. Usually four is plenty to get my blood sugar back up to a normal level, but sometimes I go overboard when I feel like they aren't working quickly enough. This tube was orange flavored and tasted like baby aspirin. Ugh. I had discovered this bag of cookies on my bed and scarfed them down too.


Over twenty minutes and at least 15 glucose tablets later, I was still not out of the woods.

Thanks to the cookies and all that sugar, my blood sugar had climbed into the 400's (that's way too high) about an hour later. And, I felt like crap.

What a fun day.

The end.

*Fortunately, I did not tell anyone on Facebook to eff off.

Unfortunately Meme

I saw this funny meme on Llyn's blog. Google the phrase "unfortunately _____" and put your first name in the blank. Be sure to enclose it in quotation marks. If you do this, let me know so i can read your answers. I love this kind of thing.

Unfortunately, Patty didn't know any magicians who performed at children's parties

Unfortunately, Patty loses her friend to the war and when she reaches the age of 18, she wants to go in search of a familial link to him in Germany.

Unfortunately Patty moved to New Jersey a year later and my heart was broken.

Unfortunately, Patty leaves Marcy in charge of getting the eggs ready.

Unfortunately, Patty, for one day in her career, had decided to wear a dress.

Unfortunately, Patty broke her arm on the trip down, but she seemed to be enjoying things when I spoke with her.

Unfortunately, Patty had John's day all planned out for him - lined up full of chores.

Unfortunately, Patty still managed to sit in a bit of sheep poo!

Unfortunately, Patty decided to shut down her blog, so you can't click over to see what she had to say about it.

Unfortunately Patty is pregnant again pretty much because they were too horny and we were too slow.

Unfortunately Patty and I had no idea what was causing the changes in my personality or my terrible and unusual behavior.

Unfortunately Patty was injured during the mischief last night.

Unfortunately, Patty has no skills whatsoever, and yet again, fails miserably.

Unfortunately, Patty is wild, vicarious and ill-suited to take on the role of care-giver.

My Blue Elephant

The other night, after printing out three more embroidery patterns that I will probably never ever stitch, I realized I had a serious disease and needed to go Hoarders Anonymous. I would love to show you the seven (or is it eight? Or nine?) binders I have filled with cross stitch charts, embroidery designs, and tutorials on making all kinds of things but I haven't Swiffered my bookcase in a quite awhile and wouldn't want you to see the dust-covered shelves. Some of the patterns and charts have been purchased by yours truly but the majority are freebies from different blogs and websites. The thing is I could live to be 200 years old and still never get around to making every single project in those notebooks.

Since I had no idea if Hoarders Anonymous even existed, I decided to stop searching for more patterns and start making something from one already in my collection. I've been wanting to make an elephant since forever so I whipped up this little guy (over a two day period).



I love my little elephant.

He's made out of acrylic felt and I enlarged the pattern, which puts him close to 7" from trunk to tail, if he had a tail, that is. (Oops. Looks like somebody forgot the tail.) I made the mistake of saving the stitching around his legs for last. I should have done that first to make it easier when it was time to stuff him. There are two smaller elephants in the pattern that I plan to make as well so I can have a little elephant family to play with. Uh, I mean so I can pose them on a dust-covered shelf in my bookcase.

About the pattern . . . I had printed it out a couple of years ago after seeing it on this post on this Portuguese blog. But it looks like it originally came from cafe.naver.com/feltzzang, which is a Korean site that I cannot navigate at all. I'm pretty sure they offer free patterns but I can't figure how to get to them since Google's English translation doesn't cover everything there. The Portuguese blog has lots of free patterns too, but it appears they all came from other sites. I have issues with this. It's ok to link to a pattern but it's not ok to re-post those patterns on your blog even if they are freebies. (Apparently I'm not upset enough to keep from using one of the patterns though.) If I could locate the elephant pattern on the Feltzzang site, I would link to that instead of to the blog.

Update: After looking at more of the posts on that blog, I'm not so sure all the patterns are freebies from other blogs. Take a look at this one. That's from a book, isn't it? I have mixed feelings about this blog now. Someone once told me copyright laws are not the same in other countries -- she was trying to justify sending photocopies of x-stitch charts in a swap -- which may be true, but I don't think anyone should be posting photos of patterns from books or magazines.

If you know anything about Feltzzang and if they offer free stuff, please let me know. I feel bad for using a pattern from them that may not have been offered at no charge.

Butter Box Peep Show

So, I was catching up on some blogs earlier and discovered Average Jane Crafter's latest project, which I thought was hilarious. I knew there was a Land O Lakes box in my fridge so I decided I needed to make a peep show for myself.

Yes, I am 12 years old.

Enjoy!

I can't stop giggling.

Bunny Cross Stitch

I knew I wouldn't finish anything in time for Valentine's Day -- I didn't even post all the project links I wanted to -- so I decided to just move on to the next holiday and make something with a bunny. I've been wanting to do this "Rabbit with Hyacinth" for years. You can find the pattern here. I used all the suggested floss colors, except I substituted something similar for the outline of the hyacinth, and stitched it on 18 ct Aida.




Since my iPod cozy was nearby when I was snapping a photo of the bunny, I took a picture of that too. Let's just say this was an early craft project and I pretty much winged it. I made this a couple of years ago with some felt from a wool sweater I washed and an embroidered puppy that I had no idea what to do with. As you can see, I knew nothing about applique. I chain stitched the embroidered piece to the felt and went around twice because once wasn't enough to hide the frayed edges of the white cotton material. This was before I had tried crayon tinting or else the puppy, flowers and the ball would all have been colored in. Some day, I'll make a new one and do it differently but this works for now. You can find the puppy pattern here.