Dozens of Cards

For Christmas, I made dozens of cards and gave them to my mom and MIL as gifts. I started with a Stampin' Up! Project Kit, altered some of the suggested designs, and added some more cards.

 

 

 

 

 

Hello again

It's been ages since my last post. That wasn't intentional, but somewhere along the way, I lost my motivation to blog. I'm not promising to be any better in the future.

The past 6 months have been a bit rough, and I've spent a lot of time in western NY visiting my parents and helping them manage health-related issues. Since I have a lot of downtime while I'm with them, I worked on a few stitching projects. I made 18 keychains for friends of mine who have allowed me to vent about all of my frustration and have given me encouragement. I've gotten great reactions as I've handed them out.

Here's another project I'm working on. I started this for our 20th wedding anniversary in 2012, but didn't get very far. I stitched nearly all of the flower and the open box in January. My new goal is to have it finished and framed before our 25th in 2017!

 

 Additionally, I've made a lot of cards this year. I gave my mom and MIL tins of cards for Christmas. I'll show you some of them next post.

Given Away

Back in March, I offered a giveaway on my 250th post. I selected a name, and started working on what I wanted to do. There were little delays here and there, and I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to complete this.

Last Friday, I finally managed to give Christine the prize. I stamped some cards for her. Stamps are Flower Factory and one of the greeting sets. All products are Stampin' Up.

I also turned a piece from the Bride's Tree stitchalong into an ornament. This is the "house" and the image is Liberty's of London. Christine and I both lived in London, so I thought this would be perfect for her. The fabric in the background is what I used to back the ornament. While it's not a Liberty's of London fabric, it reminds me of something they would have. The brown ribbon is from Stampin' Up.

March Swap Card & 250

For the monthly card swap hosted by my SU! demonstrator. Theme was "manly" cards. Pinwheel is 2.5" square, cut on the diagonals, and folded in.

This is my 250th post. Since I first started blogging Christmas 2007, I've mostly posted about cross-stitch, stamping, and books. I've also had my hands full raising twins who are now 4.5 years old!

In honor of my 250th, I'm offering a small give away. Comment on this post by March 16, 2013, and I'll pick one person from those who comment to receive a surprise package, which will include some cards and possibly other items hand-made by me.

Graduation Card

Our favorite babysitter just graduated from nursing school. This is the card I'm sending her to celebrate the event. I received the card in a swap and didn't like the original details. It had vellum over the verse and a turquoise ribbon. There was no lighter card stock inside. I took apart the card and put it back together with Groovy Guava instead, adding the inside panel to write on. Apricot is the color used in academic regalia for nursing, and this was the closest to apricot ribbon that I had on hand.

Speaking of academic regalia, one of those crazy, almost useless skills I have is knowing how to flip and affix the hoods worn with academic gowns so that they sit flat and don't choke the wearer. I learned how to do it working graduation as an undergraduate.

Little Gifts

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week at my daughters' school. In addition to contributing to the big gifts for their teachers, I made these little gifts. The girls' class is known as the Turtles, hence the theme. Sorry for the horrible background in the picture. Scanning 3-D objects on my scanner is tricky.

Glossy White paper; Wasabi, Bayou, and Basic Brown inks; brayer; Natural Prints SU! stamp set; sticky note pads; Velcro dots; double-sided tape and sticky sheets; microbeads; and Pentel RSVP pens.

WIPocalypse

While I'm not joining any of the formal SALs, I was inspired to take stock of where I am with my projects. Here are the projects I have in progress that I hope to finish stitching (and maybe even finish-finish) this year. There are many, many more lurking in the closets still.

• Spring Hare by Erica Michaels (75% stitched) PDF
• Snowdon (sea otter) by Jemini Designs (75%) JCSO '08 - in the top left of the 2nd picture
  
• Buttercup Alphabet by Cathy Jean (50%)
• Lavender Alphabet by Cathy Jean (90%)
  
• Peace 2001 by Hillside Samplings (5%) - fingers crossed that the 3rd time's the charm on this one. This is the piece I'm working on for Lee's Older But Better Challenge from last March!
  
• Sparkling Bluebells by The Sweetheart Tree (0% - This one *was* 30% done, and then I discovered that I cut the fabric wrong, and it's about 6 inches too short. Argh!!!!!)

And I have 3 projects waiting in the wings, all kitted up.

• Dolphin by Alita Designs (a companion for Snowden in my house)
• French Country Bunny by JBW Designs
• French Country Cat by JBW Designs

I also owe a friend a handmade gift from a "pay it forward" I signed up to do last year. I want to stitch her a sheep. I suspect I'll stitch one from the JCSO 2009 issue, since it had a number of cute sheep.

Except for Bluebells (which is a birth sampler I need to do to complete the set for my niephlets), I'm still excited about all of these projects. The Buttercup and Lavender alphabets are birth samplers for my girls, and I need to rechart the alphabets into birth details.

Hmmm. 10 projects. I'll be pleased if I finish 5 and delighted if I reach 8. Plus, I'll probably start another project or two at some point. I'm bad that way.

Pay It Forward Gifts

At the beginning of the year, I signed up for a Pay It Forward challenge on Facebook. Here are the first 2 of the 5 handmade gifts I owe to people this year.

Butterfly ornament for Brenda in UT Austin orange (her school).

Zee pillow for the daughter of one of the other participants. I've made 5 of these this year: 2 for my girls, 2 for my nieces, and this one. They whip up pretty quick. I blanket stitched the edges instead of gluing them.

I won something!

CJ recently posted a giveaway over on her blog, Tea-n-Stitches, and I was the lucky winner. I'm very excited. Not only did I win the delightful Plum Berry Sampler from Bent Creek, but I finally figured out the name of a chart that I admired long ago but couldn't find its name or designer.

You see, back in 2009, the Pumpkin Patch Stitcher posted on her blog some pictures of her work. I immediately fell in love with the pumpkin alphabet sampler. Marjorie no longer had the pattern and didn't remember the details, so I was stumped. When I saw CJ's post, I just knew it was the same designer and was able to track down the pumpkin pattern.

I feel like I've won twice!

May Giveaway

Not mine, CJ's. She's giving away 2 charts. Go check it out.

http://tea-n-stitches.blogspot.com/2011/05/stitching-update-and-small-giveaway.html

November SBQ: Thankful

In this month's SBQ, Lee asks us to give an example of a specific instance when we've been thankful for our ability to do needlework.

This question is difficult for me. I've not had to deal with a difficult illness or terrible loss of a loved one. I've not had one of those "ah-ha" type happy moments either. Stitching really is just part of the fabric of my daily life. I tend to turn to reading, especially escapist reading, when I'm really stressed out.

Two stitching-related incidents do come to mind. Way back in 1997, DH and I were flying stand-by on a military flight to Hawaii from Travis AFB. We were on vacation, and the flight was essentially free if we could get on. We'd been checking the schedule and availability regularly, so we thought we'd easily get on a flight. What we didn't realize was that we were trying to fly the week before school started back in Hawaii, and all the families stationed there were trying to get back, and they had priority over us. Every morning, we'd get up bright and early to go check in, only to wait for hours to be told that there was no space. We spent the afternoons touring the local area. We did this for 3 days before deciding to book commercial flights out of San Francisco. I was very appreciative of having my stitching with me during all the waiting. I stitched in the waiting room. I stitched in the car. I made significant progress on this project. Coming back, we were able to take the military flights. Whew!

Last year, I wanted to do something special for a close friend of mine. We've been friends from a very long time, and she was with us all during my labor and delivery of the girls, and went way above and beyond in helping us out during the first year of the girls' lives. When I saw Casey Buonaugurio's Hot Cocoa Sampler, I knew that I had to stitch it for her. My friend was delighted to receive it as a gift last Christmas.

Two Finishes

I promised you that when Lee received her package that I would share photos of my February finishes with you. She has, so here they are.

I finally found a teapot design I liked for the Bride's Tree SAL in a pattern book that a friend sent me this fall. When I went looking for a scrap of fabric to stitch on, I found the pre-finished jar cozies in my stash. Perfect, except, of course, that they're not ornaments. Oh well.

I only kept the general shape of the teapot from the original pattern. (It was blue, with a heart motif.) I chose the colors to go with the fabric, and I designed the poinsettia motif myself, based on some other patterns I had.

Here's Lee's gift. I included a chocolate bar, 6 different teas, 6 hand-made cards with envelopes, a card folio, and (not shown) a piece of ~8"x10" archival mat board, as well as the cozy.

In other news, I've started stitching my rose pattern for the SAL. I'm determined to get these done this year. To recap, I finished stitching January through July last year. I've started the November angel. I've now finished the September teapot and am working on the August rose. I have the October pinecone pattern ready to go, which leaves me with figuring out a December Santa. Both the October and November patterns are a bit intricate, so they may take me a while.

Winner of the Giveaway

Thanks to the True Random Number Generator Powered by RANDOM.ORG, the Result was 4.

And the giveaway goes to... Lee!

Congratulations.

I'll post a picture of the giveaway once Lee receives her surprise in the mail.

Thanks to all who commented, especially those of you who de-lurked.

Milestone Post and Giveaway

Today marks two milestones for me.

First, and more importantly, it's the 6 month birthday of my girls. It is amazing to me how fast that time has gone by. As someone who was unsure about the whole parenthood thing, it has been an amazing journey. They continue to surprise and delight me. I couldn't have more wonderful babies.

Second, this post is the 100th post on my blog. When I started this blog, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, and I'm still figuring it out. I plan to continue blogging, so we'll see where it goes.

In honor of these events, I'm doing a little giveaway. I'm not sure what all I'm going to include, but there will at least be a couple of handmade cards and some edible goodies. Leave me a comment by Sunday, February 15, if you'd like to be considered for the giveaway. I'll pick a name randomly.

Booties

I received two sets of handmade baby booties. I had delusions that I was going to cross stitch two pairs myself, but, of course, I ran out of time. So it's really nice that my friends and family made some for me.

The first set is from my SIL and are made out of felt. I like the fact that she wasn't afraid to use blue in one set.

The second set comes from my college friend Lisa. These are knit. My mother is going to be delighted when she sees the ladybugs, as that's one of mom's "things".

I think both sets are great and will serve different purposes.

Sweaters

Today I'm showing you some of the sweaters we received as gifts. The first two, the aqua-colored ones, were made by my mom. You'll notice that they're the same color, but in different patterns.

These next two were made by a friend of my mom's whom I've not met. DDA is in the first picture. I love this little sweater, as it is a pullover and wears like a sweatshirt. It feels soft and comfortable and well broken in.

Here's DDL wearing the second sweater made by the same person.

These pictures of the girls were taken in September. They're now much bigger.

Hand-knit gifts

I have received many gifts for the girls that were hand-made. They're all lovely. I thought I'd showcase some of them here, since I'm not crafting these days. My friend Kim from college made today's selection. The first is a pair of socks made from scrap yarn. Very cute.

She also knit two blankets in a spiral pattern with washable wool.

These are the perfect size to use as lap blankets in the car seats, as modelled by DDA (white hat) and DDL (pink) here.