Chanukah Pinkeep and French Cellphone Case

Most of my crafting time since my last post has been spent in frogging everything I attempt.  Very frustrating.   So I have some knitting in the works that should have been finished long ago, but not when I can't make any valid forward progress!

I really never stitch for the Jewish Holidays.  Frankly, what small ornament patterns exist for this are so uninteresting that I'm never tempted and I don't do larger pieces much anyway.  But when I saw this Shepherd's Bush Chanukah piece, I was intrigued and thought I'd stitch it up.  Who would have expected a Chanukah design on that site!  I was still mad at myself for not being able to crochet my favorite trim in black for the Mary Gary Halloween ornament. So I gave it one more try for this one.  This thread seemed to have a little more heft so it went much more smoothly this time.

The design is a bit busy, but I thought the idea of doing a Chanukah-related word for each letter of December was pretty clever.  The 'B'  for bulbs was a bit of a stretch, but I couldn't think of anything better so I went with it.  I know Chanukah starts unusually early in November this year, but with eight days, it will slide into December as usual.  I substituted little buttons for the dreidel button they had at the top.

Taking a break from that knitting, I decided to stitch a little French design that caught my eye.  This is a free sample from a magazine and I believe the designer is Perrette Samouïloff.  You can get the freebie here.  She's such a perfect little French girl with her kitty.  It's stitched on what I thought was 32 count lambswool Jobelan, but it came out larger than expected so maybe it was 28 count.  Whatever.. goes with all the other mistakes I've been making.  I turned it into a cell phone case for WOCS.  These are photos before I added a button on the back.

 

 

Fall, Halloween, Winter

A few assorted finishes to show today.  I finished one more cell phone case for WOCS.  This is based on a digi-stamp, 'Happy Harvest' by Doodle Garden.  Tried a different way to do the closure just using a fabric loop.  I think I like it better than elastic actually.

While I was packing up my finishes to send to WOCS, I remembered a little tea wallet I knitted some time ago, so I sent that too.  Nobody needs a special pouch to hold their teabags, but the pattern was too cute to pass up.   The free pattern is right here.

 

Next I finished a classic Mary Garry Halloween design.  I think I'll send it to a friend who has a brand new grand-daughter.  First Halloween ornmanent!  I was trying to do a crocheted border in black, but my eyes said no way.  So I substituted star sequins with beads and a running stitch. This is on 36 count linen.

I needed (needed?) and extra Halloween card, so this little Prairie Schooler witch filled the bill for a quick stitch.  I had planned to get more elaborate in the finishing, but I always seem to run out of steam for that when it comes time to actually do it.

Inside, I have the cutest vintage printable.  You can download it here.

And cold weather holidays will be here before we know it.  So when I happened to stumble on this Shepherd's Bush Warm Heart little Miss Snowlady, I just had to stitch it in anticipation.  She's just perfect for a neutral holiday card.  Oddly, she's wearing the colors of the Washington football team.  I guess that influenced me to stitch her as well.  The photo got cropped on the right.  For once, I did manage to get the circle centered in real life.

 I think it might be time to do a little knitting.  I always get the urge around this time of year, but after I do a little bit of it, I get bored and quickly return to x-stitch.  We'll see what happens.

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.

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.

Cellphone Case and Traveling Pattern Winner

The winner of the Lizzie Kate "Wear a Smile" pattern and, hence, the next in line to stitch the traveling pattern is Angi at My Happy Memories.  If you haven't checked out Angi's blog, take a look.  She does some lovely crafting  including free original cross-stitch designs for you to stitch.  Angi, please send me your snail mail address so I send the pattern to you.

I spied these cute birdcase designs in my freebie collection while searching for something else completely.  I thought I'd make a birthday card from one of them, but after I stitched it up, I thought it was too pretty for just a card.  I had seen a tutorial with a slightly different method for sewing up a pouch from the way I usually do it and I wanted to try it out.  Plus I wanted to try a different closure.  The design was a perfect size for a cell phone pouch, so the project plans were set. 

The stitching is on 18 count hand dyed Aida from Sassy.  The floss colors have been modified since the contrast was not to my liking when I used this blue fabric with the suggested colors.   I used cotton batting and the piece is lined with no exposed raw edges.  The closure loop is made from a hair elastic, and I found a reasonably sized button in my button jar.  Makes a nice padded case for those who carry the phone and don't want it to get damaged.  Probably not ideal for those who are glued to the screen at all times.  Fits my Blackberry Bold nicely so I hope it fits whatever cell phone the recipient of this gift uses.

You can download the free patterns for the birdcage cards at the Making Spot.
The tutorial for the pouch can be found here at Elizabeth's Whimsies.