Completed Birthday Village

Not a lot to show today. I've been stitching and crafting, but mostly for gifts that haven't been sent out. Plus I've been experimenting with different ideas I see on the web just for fun that don't necessarily turn into finished items.

But at long last the San Man Birthday Village is all done. As I suspected, the December installment was Christmas-themed so I knew I would be changing it. Too bad since as charted it had a very cute Santa and reindeer flying over the roof. My modifications are ok, but not nearly as cute. In this village, you really have to dress in layers since the seasons seem to change as you walk along the street. Anyway, here is snowy December sans Santa and Christmas decorations. I changed the house to blue from red, removed a wreath from the front door, removed decorations from the tree, added a bird and re-positioned the snowflakes! Whose design is this anyway?



And the whole village laid out in a row that you can view if you have a magnifying glass I guess. It's clickable so you can see it a little bit larger. Also, you can use the Birthday Village SAL tag to find the previous posts with the close ups of each month if you are interested.

Seasonal Pantries & SAL Updates

AAQI has provided me with a new way to use all the designs I've saved up for the 'right occasion'. I never stitch anything twice, so when I really like something, I don't like to waste the stitching when I don't know how I'll use it. Am I the only one who does this? But the AAQI mini-quilts are perfect for those designs, especially since it doesn't seem like the 'right occasions' are ever going to come! Reminds me of how reluctant I am to wear new clothes until a special occasion comes along. Sometimes, those clothes hang in the closet un-worn until they completely go out of style!

So I decided to stitch up the seasonal pantry designs that Brooke Nolan offered to members of her Yahoo group some time ago and use them for a mini-quilt. Brooke graciously gave me permission to use the designs in this way. They are so beautiful, I just didn't have the heart to stitch them without a purpose. I used four different pieces of hand-dyed 18 count Aida. The amount of shrinkage was different on each so they aren't precisely the same size. But I don't ever stitch things up precisely anyway so not a problem. I used all cotton batting in this one. It's nice.. retains its loft when I press it and also stays in place without a lot of slip-sliding while I'm sewing it.











I added two months to the San-Man Birthday Village. We now have an LNS in town. Notice how it is the tallest building in the village, just as it should be! And you can buy a tasty apple snack on your way.




I'm up to date on the Carol's SAL too. The piece is small and the photo is even smaller. Carol wants to prevent people stitching from finished images and this is the best way I guess.

Ornament for Chelsea and Birthday Village Update

Some of you may know the story of Chelsea, a stitcher who passed away recently after a battle with a rare pulmonary disease and heart-lung transplant. Her parents own a dive shop in a suburb of New Orleans. You can read her story on the Harry's Dive Shop web site. Some of the stitchers on Vikki Clayton's message board have volunteered to make some ornaments for the family. I chose to do a door-hanger with a nautical theme as several others have. The design is from the now-defunct blog of Carmela. Carmela's blog was in French, so I left the wording in French. Seemed fitting since they are from Louisiana. The family referred to Chelsea as their little mermaid so I appliqued the crocheted mermaid and the little crocheted fish I made some time ago to the back. I used a very pale blue-green piece of 35 ct linen from a grab bag of Vikki linen. The ornament is stuffed with thread clippings.




The July installment of the SMO Birthday SAL, brought a much-needed bakery to the town. I believe there were some zoning problems, since the town regulations limit the height of gingerbread men on signage to be somewhat shorter than the average person in the town. But rumor has it that some pastry pay-offs convinced the town council to approve. It's a rumor.. you just never know.

Finished cushion & village shake-up

Finally got in the mood to finish my Sampler Girl pillow. Probably because we are having an early summer heat wave here in DC and I just didn't want to spend too much time outdoors. I found a pretty rosebud print fabric so I used that instead of the printed corduroy I had planned on.



Got a bit of a surprise when Sandy released the May installment of the Birthday Village. The motif she designed is a church with a bride and groom outside. I couldn't decide whether to skip this month or re-chart. And once again, I didn't like the people either. So off to the drawing board. We now have a shul instead of a church. And a somewhat changed bride and groom. This is kind of weird. I really didn't want to stitch anything religious, but I couldn't think of a reasonable substitute. Better start thinking of a December idea now.




Last week I received the best little surprise in the mail from Nia. She made me this sweet little bunny sachet filled with super-fragrant lavender. Hope you can read that accompanying card. It really made me smile on a day when I could use cheering up.

Holds Upon Happiness

I seem to be in a somewhat unproductive period these days with respect to stitching and crafting. Too many distractions I guess and not in the right frame of mind. But I did finish stitching this very sweet design from The Sampler Girl. This is done on a piece of 32-count hand-dyed Lugana from Sassy. The fabric looked so different in various lights that it was tricky to pick colors. But I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm planning to make it into a pillow trimmed with the print corduroy fabric in the photo. Just didn't have enough of that for a backing too, so I have to find the right backing fabric before I sew it up.



Spring break is over in the Birthday Village and the kids are going back to school. I tried stitching the kids just as they were designed, but since I had changed the girl on the swing, the new kids just didn't match. So they are all completely re-charted to be a little more in proportion. Don't know if I love them, but I was definitely ready to let them stay as is after stitching them.

March Birthday Village

I'm still here, but life seems to have interfered with my crafting so not much to show. I did manage to complete the March installment on the San-man Birthday Village SAL. Looks like the little girl in the pink house has come out to play on the swing. I completely re-designed her. I just wasn't happy with the way the original came out, and even with my "no frogging" policy, I felt compelled to re-do her. Proportions are a little weird on this design, but I do like her better now.




And for SherryA, who asked for the link to the double flower dishcloth pattern from this old post, here it is.. Click Here

Alice In Wonderland Bookmark

Time for the Stitchers for Literacy Challenge again. When I saw this free design made especially for the challenge, my needle almost jumped into the fabric by itself. This design is by Ship's Manor - Erik D Shipley. It's a freebie at the Stitchers' Village. Isn't this the most clever tribute to Alice? Look at all those sweet motifs - the rabbit and his watch, the Eat Me cookie, the Drink Me bottle, the Mad Hatter's hat, the chess piece, the talking flowers and the little red hearts. Plus it makes me think of the hookah smoking caterpillar in the Disney version saying 'Who are you' to Alice. I didn't even mind doing the border, something I usually am not so crazy about. This is done over-two on Vikki Clayton's 36 count linen. Comes out to be about 7", long enough that I didn't feel the need to allow any ribbon overhang.

I found a piece of cotton fabric ribbon in my stash. It's been treated with something that makes it stiff and prevents it from raveling. I just cut it to the length of the bookmark and used Stitch Witchery, the iron on fusible web, to attach it to the back. Very simple finish. Not sure where I got that ribbon, but it works great for this purpose.



And February brings new neighbors in a pink house to the San-Man Birthday Village SAL. What kind of people paint their house pink?

Autumn Button Baby Sampler

Another new baby boy arrived in November for my friend who had her first one a couple of years ago. I decided to make a companion baby sampler to go with the one I stitched for the first baby. You can see the first one on this post. Both designs are from the Homespun Elegance Button Sampler series. For the latest little bundle of joy, I stitched the Autumn Baby Sampler. I did this mostly in the suggested DMC alternatives. Several of those used the blended needle technique to give a tweeding effect. For the pumpkins, I used DMC color variations. The fabric was a piece of Rue Green 36ct Edinburgh linen that had been waiting in my stash for a good use. I added a little wooden leaf button at the bottom since I omitted the squirrel buttons in the corners as shown on the original pattern.


The trickiest part was the squirrel tail and acorn top. They are done in French knots just packed in to give that textured effect. This would have been a disaster if all the French knots had to be the same size, but not a problem for this kind of thing.


One of my non-stitching friends happened to look at my blog one day and grew very fond of my Fetching fingerless gloves. I told her the knitting fairy might help her out. The knitting fairy doesn't usually like to knit the same thing twice, so these gloves were done in Patons Classic Wool, New Denim. These knitted up smaller than the ones I made for myself. It's a good thing because my friend's hands are about half the size of mine.


I've decided to participate in a year-long SAL on the San-Man Board called "The Birthday Village". Each month will bring a different building in the village. Someone on that board started the SAL on linen banding and when I saw a piece that would work and was on sale at 123 Stitch, I couldn't resist. The piece is Mill Hill 27ct Simplicity Banding in Natural. It's 3.5" wide and almost all of that area is stitchable since this banding has only a very narrow selvedge. Here's the January house all stitched up and waiting for it's next door neighbor to arrive in February if the schedule is upheld.