May-July

And now to bring us into July.

This is another male birthday card.  The guy with the birthday collects glassware sets with pitchers.  So I think this works well for him.  I'm not sure where I found this.  Probably in a magazine at some point.
Stitched on 28-ct twilight mist Jobelan over 2.

This one is for me.  I've wanted to do "A Stitcher's House" by Stone Street Stitchworks for some time.  It's on Vintage Country Mocha 32 count linen.  I love how this door hanger turned out.  The colors are even prettier in person.

Here's a fun birthday card for a June 10th birthday.  I modified Heart In Hands Square Dance for June.  I loved the result.  Again on Vintage Country Mocha 32 count, apparently my new favorite.   I  enclosed a Baskin-Robbins gift card since it went so well with the theme.

 

Another finish for me using 32 count Vintage Country Mocha Belfast.  This is The Floss Box design, "Autumn Mandala".  It's an oldie that I saw stitched up online somewhere and took a liking to it.  I would never have known how cute it was if I hadn't seen it completed.  The pattern was only a graph with no photo of a finished model.
Makes a cute mat as a resting spot for my glasses, keys, whatever.

I made another cute coin purse gift. This is a modified version of the Black Hearted Queen freebie from SubRosa Designs.  The chart is still available on her blog here. The red dress idea was someone else's color change that I adopted. The wording change was my brain child. Less border too. Love my little heart charm zipper pull. This is on  32 ct summer khaki linen over 2.  Zipper pull charm from Creative Kinyobi on Etsy.

Finally, we have a last minute July 4th card stitched on 36 count summer khaki Edinburgh linen.  This is the "Liberty" mini-cat freebie from Lynn at Happiness is Cross Stitching.   Michael's made my job easy with those nice shiny star stickers and the star sequins jumped out at me in a local variety store.

Click here
for the chart.

March/April St. Pat's Candy Box and PS card

On to March-April.  

I've always liked this Bent Creek Snap Happy St. Pat's design.  I have a friend who is a 'clover whisperer'.  I've never seen someone who can so easily spot 4 leaf clovers.  She deserved a little gift so I made her this candy box with the design mounted on top.  And for good measure, I enclosed some Andes mints and added the crocheted shamrock on the inside lid.  Stitched on  28 count Cashel over 2. 

The next was card was done after another search for a suitable 'boy' design.  This is Prairie Schooler's "Weather Wise" made into a birthday card.  Stitched  2 over 2 on  32 count MCG white linen.  I'm kind of sorry they went out of business.  Not the worlds greatest linen, but I liked it.  Got a bit creative after reviewing Pinterest ideas for a craft life preserver.  I used a plastic craft ring wrapped with red floss and I was very happy with the result.  I doubt if the recipient paid much attention to it, but it's all about the doing for me.

February catch-up - Valentine card and tin, birthday card , coin purse

Catch up post for the record.  I have a couple more to add after this one. I know it's July, but I haven't posted for some time.  These are my February finishes.

This sweet little Valentine card  is from the book,  "A Rainbow of Stitches" book.  Done on 36 count linen over 2 with   DMC 4210.

My brother's birthday is in February.   He's a sucker for Marie Callendar Pumpkin Pie.  I went online and discovered there was, in fact, a real Marie Callendar and there was even a picture of her as a young women.   This card is a tribute to her using a modified Sub Rosa Design,  "Pumpkin Pie".   Esther herself laughed at a pumpkin pie as big as the table.   I was sure my brother would get a kick out of it.   Frankly, he was not amused.  Ya can't win 'em all.  Stitched on Belfast summer khaki over 2.

The next one is an old freebie by Drawn Thread, "All You Need Is Love", stitched on 32 ct Belfast summer khaki.  Perfect Altoid tin top size and I hadn't made a tin top in some time.  Filled with red berry flavored lip gloss before presenting as a 'Galentine' to a friend.

 

And wrapping up the month, I used an adaptation of Snowflower Diaries "You Make Me Happy" as the basis for this little coin purse.   Found an Etsy seller, CreativeKinyobi,  with tons of charms already attached to a lobster clasp and this little mermaid charm worked perfectly.  Another piece on 32 count summer khaki Belfast.

Candy box, snowmen cards, sling bag

Catch-up post for the record from 2018.   I'll do another soon with this year's entries.

First was a cute little candy box for a hostess gift.  I used  Mary Garry's Skating Party with some color changes to blues that I'd seen on the web by other stitchers.  This is done on Edinburgh linen, 36 ct summer khaki.  Had to go blue because I had the pretty blue ribbon that was looking for a home!

This is just the cutest little snowman from an old Stoney Creek magazine.  The magazine showed it on black fabric, but my eyes don't work well with that.  So I settled on Belfast Smokey Pearl 32 ct and crossed my fingers that the black shading around the edges would look ok.  I was totally pleased with this one.  The recipient of the card loved it too.

This card was done for a friend as an inside joke.  We have had some discussions about the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment.   When I saw this litte marshmallow head snowman cupcake in the "Festive Frostings" feature of the Nov., 2018 issue of "CrossStitcher",  I knew it was perfect for my friend's holiday card.  The design is by Maria Diaz.  Stitched on 36 count linen.

 

I've had the pattern for Niky's Creations "Numbers" forever.  I thought I was going to use it for a baby sampler at some point, but that never happened.  So I stitched it up and made it into a little sling bag.  The one I had been using with the peacocks finally wore out.  Stitched on 32 count MCG linen.  Cheap linen with a good heft for a bag.  I've been using it ever day since I stitched it.

So that brings us into 2019.  Stay tuned for more current work.