Fatties Luggage Tag & Crocheted Bookmark

Every time I see a four seasons design with a small motif for each season, I automatically think 'luggage tag'. The recent SAL on the San-Man board for the Four Seasons Fatties was no exception. I stitched two motifs on each side and omitted the original border. I'll hold onto this one to use as a gift later on.





I couldn't resist trying out this cute thread crochet corner bookmark. It's such a cool design. You might think you would make two identical triangles and then crochet or stitch them together. But this is worked in the round, all in one piece. So only the beginning and ending threads need to be worked in. And the instructions were super-clear. That's not always the case with crochet instructions, freebies or purchased. This turned out so well that I think I'll make more in other colors. Another good little gift idea. You can find the instructions here.



Here's my super-find of the weekend. For $.99 at the grocery store, the cutest pair of socklets I've seen in a while. I just couldn't resist! I mean, really... pink ladybugs? They were calling my name!

Card Exchange plus Exercise Chart

Our cross-stitch group on Stitchin' Fingers held a card exchange to try to energize the members. Seems to be hard to get members to participate and the hope was that since a card is such a quick finish, we might get some interest. My partner was Noel, a gentleman from Ireland. I decided to do this Bayview Estate freebie from By the Bay Needlearts, a good uni-sex design. Got a bit carried way with stickers!



Noel stitched this sweet little pony for me. Just precious!



And I did one more exercise magnet for a survivor that was on vacation when we had the fundraiser.



Here's the chart if you want to make your own:

Beach Dreams

I was in the mood to stitch something 'beachy', but I didn't really know what I would use it for. Then I found one of the Cole's Quilt kids who liked beaches. I downloaded the design from PatternsOnLine, kind of taking a chance on what it really looked like since the photo wasn't too detailed. After signing up, I wasn't sure I really wanted to stitch all that sand, sea and sky. I really just liked the motifs. But I was committed so I bit the bullet. Turned out that I loved stitching this piece. I did the sky in 1/2 x-stitch so it went pretty fast. And I'm very satisfied. The photo may look like the fabric is blue, but it's really white. The design is by Sharon Pope.

Back to the 50's Crochet

When a friend of mine told me she has a Smithsonian-sized collection of Scottie dog tchotchkes, I started looking for stitching designs to make her something in this theme. I knew there was a Scottie ornament in the 2009 JCS ornament issue, but I wanted to see what else was around. My web surfing took me to a booklet of vintage crochet designs from the 50's that featured Sunbonnet L'il, a more grown-up Sunbonnet Sue. I fell in love with the appliques in this booklet. And one design in particular called "Out for a Stroll" was perfect for my friend. I decided to applique it onto a ready-made totebag. It was fun to crochet this, but much less fun to stitch it onto the bag. I don't think I'll be making many more of these. But my friend was so surprised and she seemed to love the bag even though it's way outside the type of thing she would usually go for.

The booklet called for Lily threads that I don't even think are made anymore. It needed different weight threads and hooks for various parts to get the proportions correct. I only had size 10 crochet cotton and several different hooks so I had to improvise. I think the Scottie is a bit large, but that's ok since the Scottie was the most important part.