Altoid tin dragon

My brother's birthday is coming and I always include a little stitchy gift as part of his present. He said he thought I had made just about everything there was to make for him. But he hadn't seen the covered Altoid tins. So I stitched up this one with a little dragon freebie that you can get here to use as a flash drive caddy. I used DMC color variations 4030 on tea-dyed Monaco over-one. I forgot to put batting between the stitching and the lid, but since my brother has nothing to compare this to, I think it will be fine. Plus I'll add the drive and a gift card to his favorite restaurant so it should make for a nice birthday package.

Unfortunately, the Altoid tins are just a touch too small to hold a gift card, credit card or business card, so the gift card will have to remain outside of the tin. It's a shame since the tin could really have more uses if it was just a tad larger.

From washcloth to potholder

I was about to toss some old frayed terry washcloths, when I stopped myself, remembering that I had read they make good insulators for potholders. I really wasn't in the mood for sewing, but I did want to see if that would work out. So I dug up this little cross stitch design that I had stitched long ago. Reminds me of the Campbell Kids from the soup can days. It came from an old Cross Stitch and Country Crafts or Cross Quick magazine from the 80's or 90's I think. I whipped it together so quickly that it looks like I must have been high on something and had my eyes closed, but I just consider it 'proof of concept'. This can work just fine and if I had only taken more time with it, I'd be very happy with the result. I'll file this technique away for future reference.

Hearts don't grow on trees!

As a wise person once said, "Hearts don't grow on trees. You only get one, so be careful what you do with it". But it would be nice if they were replaceable. This heart tree Valentine's card represents that sentiment. The design is a freebie from Passione Ricamo, one of her beautiful heart designs. I used a cookie cutter to draw the heart shape on card stock and just a plain old scissors to cut the opening. Added a couple of little crocheted hearts and voila! The fabric was a piece of 36 count hand-dyed linen from Sassy's fabbies that I got in a grab bag of ornament cuts a number of years ago. The top of the card is not really skewed.. that's just my camera playing it's usual jokes on me.



I received one final holiday exchange gift, a card from Gina. Beautiful design and I love the sparkly fabric.

Hearts and flowers humbug...

A new year and time for a new 3-d shape. This is my first cross-stitched humbug. I wanted to see how the designs are laid out so I would understand how to select patterns on my own later. This one wraps perfectly and even has a cute little heart that meets at the underside seam. It's very easy to stitch up using the biscornu whip stitch method over a back-stitched border line. Especially easy on linen since that fabby is so flexible. In keeping with green efforts, it's stuffed with re-purposed thread-clippings (i.e. orts).

Here's the pattern, a freebie from Hearty-Craft. I think her stitching and finishing are much better than mine, but I'm pretty happy with the result.

Spiral scrubbies & dish cloths

Crocheting and knitting are very relaxing, and if I pick small projects, I don't get bored before the end. So that's what I've been doing in addition to a stitched project that I can't show yet.

These cute little spiral scrubbies have always intrigued me. You can use them for your face or your dishes. The small one is knitted and the other two are crocheted. I much prefer the crocheted because you get those nice ridges by crocheting in the back loop only. I haven't figured out how to make them as neat in the end as all the tutorial photos, but how neat do they need to be really? But if anyone knows a trick they can share, I'd appreciate it. They are all done with worsted weight cotton yarn.

Click here for the crocheted tutorial.

Click here for the knitted version.



I haven't been keeping up with the Monthly Dishcloth Group, but I checked in and found a couple of designs to try.

The first is 'April Showers'. Supposed to look like raindrops I guess. Fun to knit.



The second cracks me up. The pattern is called Log Cabin, as if you couldn't guess. It's kind of hard to see the pattern in the photo. I could use a good lesson in photography I think.

Too much snow!

The DC area is still recovering from the record December snowfall we had last Saturday. We're now in that miserable cycle of melting by day, re-freezing by night. Personally, I only like stitched snow, not the real thing. But in honor of reality, I finished up this little ornament, Snow Merry, by Homespun Elegance from the 2009 JCS ornament issue. I used a hand-dyed 32 count evenweave and added a simple buttonhole stitch for the border.



I had one final holiday card to mail and realized I better use this one before the year ended. The design is the 2008 freebie from Rosewood Manor slapped on top of a piece of wrapping paper for a background. And the crop-a-dile helped me touch it up with a few eyelets. Kind of funky, not my favorite, but it's always fun to experiment.



Happy Holidays to everyone. Enjoy and stay safe.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Poe

Only a little more time left to celebrate the year of Edgar Alan Poe's 200th birthday. I remember so many Saturday afternoons as a kid when, with all my friends in the neighborhood, we walked to the movie theater, and our parents could be free of us for several hours. Those were the days when it wasn't so risky to allow the kids to go off and do this kind of thing without parental supervision. We saw the giant cartoon show followed by a double feature. So often one of those feature films was a Vincent Price horror movie based on a Poe short story, like "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Fall of the House of Usher".

So, in need of another 'boy' design, always a challenge, I chose this Plum Street Samplers pattern based on "The Raven" for my last altoid box of the season. Again, over-one stitching on tea colored Monaco. And I tucked a thumb drive inside.

Plum Street card and goodies in the mail

Gina and I decided to do a personal card swap since we were the only two to express interest in it on the Stitchin' Fingers Cross Stitch Group. Gina has received mine so here it is for show and tell. It's a freebie from Plum Street Samplers that I changed a bit. I also added the little crocheted bird. He was my own invention. I tried to write down my steps so I can make more of him, but if past experience is any indication, I suspect my scribblings will look like so much nonsense when next I go to use them.



The mailman brought be some goodies in the last few days. Mylene sent me a surprise pinkeep. She does such exquisite stitching and finishing. I am so honored to have one of her pieces.



My gift package from my partner, Janeth, for Sue's 123-Stitch ornament exchange arrived also. What a fun set of gifts! Janeth chose a beautiful Lizzie Kate design. It looks so gorgeous on that blue fabric. She also enclosed a variety of pretty floss, plus snowflake embellishments and stickers.



And to top it off, she added the most adorable little chicken pin cushion. This photo doesn't really show its super-cuteness, but it is a real treasure.

Doll Alphabet Altoid Tin

The half-doll silhouette alphabet found here by Meridel Abrams has always been one of my favorites. But until now I had never found a way to use those letters. Turns out they were the perfect size for over-one stitching on 28 count Monaco for decorating an Altoid tin top. This one was made as a gift for my friend Jenny (initials JW). The 'J' doll is just especially charming to me!. And kudos to the postal service. Took less than a week to get from DC to Sweden.

American Pie

One of my friends just passed her citizenship test and has now become a full-fledged citizen of the U.S.A. No self-respecting stitcher could pass up this opportunity to commemorate the occasion. I picked out a Bent Creek design called "Made in the U.S.A.". Changed the lettering a bit and added a few little crocheted touches.

The little heart crochet pattern can be found here.

The little bow crochet pattern can be found here.

The fabric is 32 count Jobelan in Bay Rum.