Friday, September 27, 2013

Pumpkins for Cathey

Today is the big day to show love and support for our dear blogging buddy Cathey at the Pumpkin Patch.   This is Cathey's blogoversary so first we congratulate her for her many years of successful, entertaining blogging.  And we also want to send all the positive pumpkin energy we can as Cathey goes through difficult times.

When I first learned of this special event, the brainchild of  Sharon/DaffyCat, I immediately starting working on pumpkin stitchy projects.  Some are still in the works, but here are the finishes.  Hope they bring a little surprise cheer.

We start with a cute little girl coming out of a pumpkin to yell, "Surprise"!  This is a quilty mat/coaster from a design by  GreenBeanBaby .

Next is a cell phone case to be given in honor of Cathey to WOCS for distribution to a woman in a domestic violence shelter.  The design is the Autumn Mini-Sampler by Waxing Moon.  The x-stitch fabric is a scrap from an 18-count evenweave fabric in my stash that I really can't identify.  Plenty of pumpkin love on this one.



A slice of the October Doorways design by Vermillion Stitchery made a perfect bookmark  to welcome Halloween and show off some cute pumpkins.  This is on 36 ct Edinburgh linen with a black gros-grain ribbon fused to the back.

And finally, a finish for a design I stitched last year.  This piece is "Autumn Buddies" by Oakhaven Designs stitched on 36 ct HDF linen.  Perfect size for an Altoid top and perfect expression of pumpkin love for my "Autumn Buddy" Cathy.


Cathey, hope your day is filled with wonderful surprises!  You have tons of friends pulling for you.








Sunday, September 8, 2013

Nook Jacket & Cell Phone Case

My Nook tablet said that summer was over and cool weather is on the way so he wanted a new winter jacket.  The sleeve I made a while back is ok, but not as convenient as I would like.  Luckily, I had stitched up The Sampler Girl's "Austen/Alcott Sampler" for just this purpose.  I love that sampler and bought the pattern as soon as it was released. I did it over-one on 25 ct. Jobelan so it would fit on the cover nicely, leaving me room for a flap closure if I managed to position it correctly.   I searched through a ton of tutorials to pick one that resembled a book cover and wasn't too tricky to sew up.

The tutorial I picked is a simplified version of this Kindle Cover Tute.  I left out the pockets inside that she added for inserting boards to firm up the cover.  Some deep purple corduroy in my stash left from the old days of sewing clothes worked well for the outside body.  I pieced it with the stitching and changed the direction of the nap on each piece to add a little interest in shading.  The lining was from a Gatsby collection of modern quilting fabric.  Didn't come out perfect of course, but very usable and I'm quite happy with it.



After I made the cell phone case I posted previously, I wondered if WOCS might be interested in adding those to the type of gifts they make for people in need.  Turns out, they do make gifts for families in a domestic violence center, usually for the kids.  The center accepts donations of used cell phones to give to the women for emergency 911 dialing and they said they would love to get some cases.   I whipped up this one by adapting a design by Diane Duda of DudaDaze and stitching it with simple embroidery stitches.  The original painting is called "I Love You, Little Dog".  Diane does the most fabulous whimsical paintings and sells originals, prints and accessories like notecards featuring her work.   I love how some of her originals are done on cereal box cardboard!    


The wedding I attended over Labor Day was just marvelous.  I hadn't been to a wedding in many years and it was so much fun to go to one.  I really danced the night away too.  I thought I'd show you the cute gift wrap idea I used from a Martha Stewart tutorial.  It was really quick an easy, plus it looks a little different from the standard.  This is the "Pyramid Box" that you can find here with some additional cute ways to wrap a gift.