Obviously I Need New Glasses

Beware: Bad Photos Ahead

I wanted to show you the felt turkey I finished last night (just in time for next year's Thanksgiving!) and the daylight is fading so I quickly snapped a few pictures of it after picking the poor thing up off the floor (it had fallen off my night table) and tossing it on the bed. I had no idea there was stuff stuck on it until I looked at the uploads. I've circled them so you wouldn't miss them. See where it says "Open" -- well, that's really a circle around the pen mark that I noticed as I was stitching the turkey together. I tried but couldn't remove it and hoped it would blend in with the orange felt.



Those other two circles are drawn around things that were not there when I put the turkey on my night table last night. I'm not sure what they are, which is why there are question marks next to them. I guess I could walk down the hall to where the turkey is still lying on my bed and inspect them. Or I could go vacuum my bedroom rug, especially around my night table. Or maybe I'll just show you my garland. It's still Autumn, right?


(Sorry it's so dark. The wrinkled sheet is a nice touch.) I can't find the link to the blog where I found the tutorial but I'll add it as soon it it turns up. I didn't follow the directions very well anyway. Basically, you cut a bunch of fall-colored felt into leaf shapes (I found one on Google) and then back stitch them as you're attaching them together, placing beads in between the leaves. But I'm not that talented so I did it my own way.

First, I cut out one set of leaves and back stitched each one. I didn't like how the backs of the leaves looked and that you could see them so I stitched a second set and then whip stitched them together in pairs. Then I attached three beads to the ends of the leaves and put them all together, and 17 months later, I had a garland. And it was still Autumn!

By the way, I checked the turkey and the two extra marks on it were just fuzz. Here it is again, fuzz, ink and all.

You can find the turkey pattern at Wee Folk Art. I stuffed mine instead of doing it as an appliqued block. I wish I had stuffed the feet as well since they're a little too flat.

Be sure to check out all the fantastic free applique patterns and other patterns at Wee Folk Art if you haven't been there before.

Lilith, A Shih Tzu Who Needs A Home

It always kills me when I hear about an older animal who needs a home. My dog, Maggie, is 16 years old now and I just think it would be so sad if she ended up in an animal shelter for whatever reason. She is relatively healthy for her age but there sure wouldn't be a line of people, waiting to adopt a senior Shih Tzu who doesn't hear much anymore or see very well these days.

I moderate a Yahoo group for Shih Tzus in need of rescue. That's where I heard about Lilith. Sorry it's not the best picture.

Lilith is currently at the Loudon County Animal Shelter in Tennessee. I don't how she came to be at the shelter but I read she was matted when she arrived and has since been shaved down. Lilith is an older dog and she may possibly have cataracts. The assistant director of the shelter says they have had some inquiries about her, but so far no one has come in to adopt her. If the shelter gets more dogs and runs out of space, Lilith will be put to sleep.



I posted the link to her Petfinder page on both Facebook and Twitter, and I'm going to do that again. I thought I'd post it here as well. Feel free to crosspost the link below to anyone and anywhere you think it might help. Thank you!

http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=15068924

Are You Following The Gum Tree Designers?

Um, why are my titles in the form of a question? That's twice in a row. Maybe it's because I'm writing the second entry right after I posted the first one.

Anyway, every Monday, the Gum Tree Designers are sharing a new freebie. Last week's pattern was for an embroidered felt heart ornament that I love, and this week's is for a lovely Christmas apron that someone should make for me that you should download if you're the Xmas-apron-wearing type. Or know somebody who is. Named Patty. Be sure to read the entire Among The Gum Trees blog so you don't miss any of the freebies. (Next week they'll be sharing the last one.)

What is the difference between someone and somebody?

Do You Like Embroidering Elves? How About Skiing Koalas?

I have got to get back to blogging regularly. I keep jotting down things on random scraps of paper that I want to link on here, when, instead, I should just post them as I come across them.

Do I use too many commas? Whatever.

So, tonight's first link is to an elf embroidery freebie from Tangarang. That entire design would make a cute Christmas card, now that I think about it.

The second pattern is for a skiing koala from Follow the White Bunny. I love his reindeer sweater.

One more thing: does anyone remember visiting a site with vintage postcard images, including one of a boy with an ax?

Giveaways At Needlework News

Hey, Denise at Needlework News at Craft Gossip is giving away several books and some note cards. Go to the main page and check out all the November 15 posts. (Yes, I am too lazy to link to each one.) You have until next Monday to enter. Good luck!

Happy Monday...er, Sunday

I totally forgot to post this entry last week. I also wanted to mention that I am finally going to start working on my three Pay It Forwards that I signed up for back in (I think) March, and make a few other things for friends. I am not making anything else for myself until I finish all these either projects. Except for this koala biscornu. [Link via Needlework News.]

Sew Mama Sew is having their annual Handmade Holidays theme this month and will be posting brand new tutorials on their blog everyday. Plus they're giving away fabulous prizes, and there are recipes and printables to check out. And, if you don't want to make anything, they'll suggest handmade products you can buy too.



If you'd like to get the code for the button, you can find it on this post.

Finished For Friday: Donkey Pillow

For this week's Finished for Friday, I have a little felt pillow to share.

One night, I was looking at this pillow that I made...




...when a song called "I Will Dare" by the Replacements came on my iPod. The line that goes "meet me anywhere...meet me tonight...if you will dare, I will dare" just seemed to fit in with the two little dogs on the pillow. Except it was daytime on the pillow. So I decided to make a night time version.

I went with donkeys instead of dogs this time. I knew I wanted a moon and I knew I wanted the donkeys facing one another. The rest, I kind of made up as I went along.



Did you ever see moonflowers? They only open up at night. Mine look nothing like the real thing but I had to add something in a chain stitch so moonflowers it was.



The pillow top was all finished, except for attaching the bottom and stuffing it, when I got the brilliant idea to cut the piece of blue felt that the donkeys are standing on. Of course, I didn't cut it straight. So the black ribbon was added to hide the uneven edges of the blue felt. The ribbon came with the white stitching but I hand sewed it on and that took forever. Also, black floss on black felt will hide many of your mistakes but boy, is that a pain to sew. I had such a hard time seeing my stitches.

I typed the words out and then traced them on to my fabric. I forget which font I used but I really don't like the Y's.



I'm pretty happy with how my little pillow turned out. By the way, I used the same pattern for the donkeys in the pillow as I did for my blog header. It's originally from a set of vintage stamps and you can find it here.

If you'd like to see who else is sharing their finishes this week, check out this post on Lit and Laundry.

Sibling Craftery Giveaway

It's giveaway time over at Sibling Craftery and the prizes are pretty fabulous. To celebrate their one year blog anniversary, Kandra is giving away embroidery floss, fabric scraps, two tea towels to stitch, and a copy of Embroidered Effects by Jenny Hart. You can read all the details on how to enter here.

And be sure to check out Kandra's latest Homemade & Heartfelt embroidery freebie and printable gift tags. They're really sweet.

Holy Toledo, Another Post

I'm going through my 518 emails (seriously) and I was reminded of an embroidery freebie of a slice of chocolate cake I had wanted to link to back in September from Dawn Hay Designs.

Reading Dawn's blog just now led me to the Life's a Hoot BOM at Sew Much Time, Sew Little Fabric. It started a few months ago so the first two patterns have already been shared and are no longer available for free (but you can purchase them). I printed out #3 and will make sure I get #4 next month. I had wanted to link to Sew Much Time, Sew Little Fabric awhile ago because of the other freebies from Paula but I don't think I ever did.

There are scraps of paper all over my messy desk with notes about stuff I wanted to blog about and I promise I am going to get to all of it this week. And with tonight's post, I can cross off two of the items. That is, if I ever find the paper I wrote them down on. [sigh]

The second Quaker Motif embroidery pattern from Needle 'N Thread is now in my stash. Mary has "translated" two Quaker cross stitch designs into embroidery patterns. You can find the first pattern here.

I also wanted to link to this Heart Christmas Tree cross stitch pattern that I really liked from Matrioshka Biscornu. I see now that she's posted a second Heart Christmas Tree Chart. Instead of wasting hours on Facebook tomorrow, I should stitch up one of these.

I'm pretty sure, in one way or another, these links all came from Denise at Needlework News at Craft Gossip. Thanks, Denise!

I think one reason I haven't been blogging as much is it's a pain to add the code so all my links open in a new window. Why can't Blogger do that for us?

Happy Halloween!

I was halfway through a post about my lack of blogging but it depressed me too much so instead I'll just show you my recent finishes and wish you all a happy and safe Halloween.

Here's a little bag I made because I wanted to embroider Tubby* as a pirate on a pillow. Somehow she morphed into a witch on a little felt bag.



I used a picture of Tubby for the pattern for her body and Anne's bat & spider patterns (click the pdf to get them) but everything else, I just kind of did on my own. That's why her eyebrows are not even. I'm still not sure what the chain stitch around her neck was supposed to be. (A lace collar?) It's against my religion to cut in a straight line as you can see. And, yes, the purple felt needs to re-glued where I unstuck it so I could attach the handles.

I also made this little pumpkin pillow out of felt. For the original, you used a t-shirt and a sewing machine. (Ooooh, scary!) I planned to make a larger version and also his little kitty friend but I ran out of time.



The Friendly Ghost pillow pattern can be found here at Value Village. [Link via One Pretty Thing.]

One more thing: My mom got this witch somewhere a few years ago and I've always liked her. She hangs on the front door around this time of year. I don't know what she's made of but it's something hard (clay?) and I worry she's going to break when she bangs against the door as someone closes it. You can't tell from the photo but her face is all glittery.


I just realized she looks like the model for Tubby as a witch even though I hadn't seen her since last year. And, here, I thought a pointy hat, a black dress with a lace collar, striped socks and a pumpkin bag (at first, Tubby was going to have one of those) on a witch were so original. :)

Have a Happy Halloween!!

*Tubby is from the game, Pet Society

Yoo hoo!

I am not leaving this computer until I come up with a post for this blog. Oh, wait. Is that lasagna?

(Be back later!)

You Can Embroider These For Next Halloween

Yeah, I know I should have posted this a month ago. Halloween is practically tomorrow but there's still some time to whip out a few spooky scary projects, right? Or, to get started on making stuff for next year. I'm re-posting some of last year's embroidery freebie links because I totally think they are worth sharing again.

Pumpkinhead girl, candy corn, owl, bat, kids in costumes from Green Jello

Bunnies in costumes from Craft Blog

Pumkin Girl from Andrea Zuill at Bad Birds

Witch and vampire from Quixotic Pixels

Ghosts in costumes from Annie Oakleaves

And, I can't forget Jenny's adorable Dangly Spider.

And, thanks to One Pretty Thing, here's a prim Fall Stitchery (pumpkin head with cat mask) from Cash Strapped Crafting (I totally need to check out that blog) and Bat Boy from Andrea Zuill. If you don't regularly visit, One Pretty Thing, you really need to start NOW. Rachel posts so many great links to freebies there.

I haven't done anything for Halloween except for turning some older cross stitched designs into ornaments, but I made a garland of felt leaves last week and I'll share it on Friday. (Have to take a picture first.) And I am almost finished with an embroidery of Tubby as a witch for a little bag. (For those of you just tuning in, Tubby is my Pet Society critter. Here she is hanging out in her back room where she pretends to sell baked goods and lemonade while wearing fish nets and a witch hat.) (Why, yes, I do live vicariously through Miss Tubbalicious.)

Here, Have Some Links

Remember when I used to post links here all the time? Yeah, me either. I just put a couple up on Facebook and wondered why I wasn't posting them here as well.

CakeSpy is giving away a $50 gift certificate for Bake It Pretty. You have until Friday October 16 at 12PM PST to enter. Check this post for details. By the way, Bake It Pretty has a blog and I was just there for the first time and saw this recipe for Ginger Tea Bread. I think I need to make that.

Speaking of recipes, last week my mom and I made this Asparagus, Artichoke, and Mushroom Saute with Tarragon Vinaigrette -- well, I made the vinaigrette and she did everything else because I was dealing with some evil antibiotics that made me nauseous every time I moved my head -- and it was really good. I love anything with a vinegar dressing on it and I love tarragon so this was perfect for me. It's served warm and it was totally fine that way but it was even better the next day after it sat in the fridge overnight.

Jenny over at Allsorts, renamed Owlsorts for now, is sharing some free patterns for making Halloween spinners. How fun!

Edited to add: I just came across this thanks to Denise at Needlework News at Craft Gossip: The Gum Tree Designers are sharing a free Christmas pattern every Monday in October and November. The first one is a gift bag that I just love. I'll definitely be checking their blog every week to see more of their freebies.

Some Links For Wednesday

Thanks for the nice comments about my Pekingese embroidery! :)

I have a few links I wanted to share:

Here's a super adorable fabric dollhouse tutorial from UK lass in the US. If I ever learn to sew, I will make one of these.

I found the dollhouse tutorial from this list on Blue Bird Studio and I just realized that I have been to Blue Bird Studio in the past because I remembered her embroidery patterns of dollies, eggs and bunnies & chicks, and the wall hanging she made with them. I even commented on that post. I swear there are just too many blogs and projects and free patterns to keep track of. (Hey, Patty, isn't that why you started a blog in the first place? To keep track of them all?) (Shut up, voice in my head.)

Heather of Blue Bird Studio also put together a nice list of free BOM patterns.

And, here's a tutorial for a super cute Little Letter Needlebook from Skebba.

Did you see the Apple Tree Applique block from Wee Folk Art? I really want to try that woven spider wheel stitch now.

There are two cute Vintage Pots embroidery transfers over at No Pattern Required. There's lots of other vintage stuff on the blog that's worth checking out. I especially love the posts in the Mid-Century Menu category. You have to read the one about the Welch's Grapelade Cake. Um, yeah.

Pekingese Embroidery

A few years ago, I found a coloring page with a Pekingese and thought I could use it for an embroidery pattern. I printed it out, filed it away and forgot all about it. When I finally did get around to stitching it last year, I ended up tossing it out not long after I started working on it because there was a scorch mark from the iron from when I was transfering the pattern.

Not too long ago, I decided to embroider it again, and even though I wish I had used more of a variety of colors for the lanterns, I am pretty happy with this.

It seems like every time I take pictures of this embroidery, I notice more marks on it. First, there were several pencil smudges on the material (I had traced the pattern with a regular pencil and not a transfer one the second time around). Luckily, they came out with a little spritz of Spray N Wash and a little rubbing with a toothbrush. The second set of photos showed some pieces of floss left behind. I thought I finally had it all cleaned up for the latest round of pics but look at this lantern. See the mark on the lantern near to the pink symbols? (I think it's from a pen.) That was not there last time. I swear this thing is possessed.

Unfortunately, the URL for the Peke coloring page no longer works, and I can't find a similar drawing. But the patterns for the lanterns came from Hoop Love on Flickr.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this embroidery now. I'd love to make a pillow from it. That is, once I make sure I got ALL the the spots out and cleaned off all the thread ends.

I Love You, System Restore

For the past several days, I couldn't get on the internet. Windows suggested I shut off the modem for ten seconds and then turn it back on. I decided I would try that during the following day when there was enough light to see which cord was which under the desk since the flashlight was not where it was supposed to be. I should buy a miner's hat. It would really come in handy at times.

Well, then my sister got involved. There were phone calls made to Cox Cable, which were of no help, so last night, one of their techs came out. He looked at my computer and said something along the lines of "Sorry, I've never seen this before so I can't fix it. It's a hard drive problem."

After he left, the System Restore button caught my eye and I said "What the hay" and clicked on it. I followed all the steps and changed the settings back to September 14th. Guess who's back online now? That would be me, thank you very much.

While my computer was refusing to be friends with the internet, I was using my sister's and all I did was go on Facebook to play Pet Society, so I now have a ton of email to go through and a bunch of blogs to read.

And, for reading this entire thing that has nothing to do with crafting, your reward is a link to The Stitcherhood. Thanks to April Mechelle for posting her finish of one of their freebies. I hadn't heard of The Stitcherhood before I read her blog. I love their designs and they have some nice free charts too. I think I'm going to start one later today.

Enjoy your weekend!

I Swear It's A Caterpillar

Before I get to the crafting, I need to ask this: Can Kanye West be any more of an a-hole?

Ok, moving on to something that would never think to interrupt a Taylor Swift acceptance speech.

This eyeglass case from Betz White made me drool (Argyle sweater felt! Rick rack! Pretty fabric lining! Caterpillars!) so I made one that looks absolutely nothing like hers. I shrunk the pattern a little bit because I wanted a smaller case for my cheapie magnifiers. Which, by the way, were less than three bucks at Michaels.



I used some nubby eco-felt which is stiff enough to protect my cheapie magnifiers when I toss the case in my purse, but the dark color made it tough to see how far apart to place my blanket stitches. However, the softer white craft felt that I used for the lining makes it easy to see how uneven my blanket stitches are.



What's that? You want to know what's up with the random buttons. Try squinting a little. See the caterpillar now? No? Squint some more. Memo to self: use a darker colored floss for the antenna next time.



I also used the same felt to make this little bear. Here he is balancing on one foot in my TUSAL jar.



I keep calling it eco felt but it's felt made with Eco-fi which is a polyester made from recycled plastic bottles. It comes in a variety pack in an assortment of textures and colors. The brown felt that I used for the case and the bear has a rough surface and it's not as flexible as regular felt but you can easily get a needle through it. It's perfect for the eyeglasses case.

If you're not a regular reader of It's Daffycat, you may have missed Sharon's cute Elephant Hello cross stitch freebie.

Finished For Friday: It's Tubby

Time for another Finished for Friday post!

My new favorite Facebook game is Pet Society where you create an adorable little critter and then feed it and play with it, decorate its house and visit its friends. Thanks to the cuteness factor, I am now obsessed with this game.

My pet is named Tubby and her turn-ons include guitars...

...making googly eyes at her stuffed horse (which is cute and creepy)...

...and lattes.

Recently, I decided I needed to immortalize Tubby in felt and ended up making a pillow with her image on the front. Sorry for the dark picture. When I lightened it up, it looked cartoonish so I just kept it as is.

I printed out a picture of Tubby and used that for a pattern. One copy worked for the body shape and then I cut up a couple of others for patterns for the eyes, nose and the white fluff on her head. The dress I cut out freehand but used the body as a guide. She's made from a combination of craft felt, eco felt and wool felt. (Jo-ann, if you're reading this, the felt for her dress came from you. Thanks again!)

Here's a close-up of Miss Tubbalicious.




If you'd like to share anything you have finished lately (a craft project, a book, a bag of Cheetos), head on over to Lit and Laundry and leave a link to your blog on this post so we can see what you've been up to this week.

Vintage Thingies Thursday: An Old Book

There was a link to "a recipe for roast beef" on a great new-to-me blog called Bookmark Collector and I HAD to click it. (I'll click most anything to do with a recipe and/or food.) That led me to this post on my new favorite blog, Forgotten Bookmarks. The recipe had turned up in a book by Louisa May Alcott called "Eight Cousins." It looked like the one I have, except the color on the spine and cover was green and mine is orange-y. That reminded me it had been a long time since I did a post for Vintage Thingies Thursday so I thought I'd share my copy of "Eight Cousins" today.


"Eight Cousins" is one of the books in a set that my mom gave me in 1974. (Or was it 1975?) (And, boy was my handwriting sloppy when I was 11 or what?) The set includes "Little Women" and "Little Men." After the Little House series from Laura Ingalls Wilder, they were my favorite books when I was a kid.



I remember being fascinated by the color illustration before the title page of each book. (You can click the image to see a larger version.)




Visit Suzanne over at Coloradolady to see who else is sharing their vintage treasures this week.

Bookmark Collector is full of links to bookmarks you can buy, ones you can make, to bookmark contests and collections, so go take a look if you have a thing for bookmarks.

And, be sure to check out my new favorite blog Forgotten Bookmarks for more random ephemera (postcards, post-it notes, credit card receipts, etc) found in old books by someone who works in a used and rare bookstore.

A Day Without You Know Whats

Today, 09/09/09, is A Day Without Cats on the Internet, so please enjoy I Has A Corm. The hammie is not playing the piano but it still cracks me up every time.


see more Lolcats and funny pictures