4 Seasons Kitties Luggage Tag

These little kitties from The Cats Whiskers are just the kind of design I look for when I want to make a luggage tag. This is the first one I made using Jobelan fabric. The color is Bay Rum and really makes a nice background. I like when I can find a design to stitch on each side better than using a backing fabric on one side. This will be a little holiday gift.

Unfortunately.....

I don't usually go for these internet games, but when I saw this on Tanya's blog, I just had to give it try. The idea is to type your first name preceded by the word "unfortunately" into Google and see what you get. With a name like Annie, you get a lot of Annie Get Your Gun and Little Orphan Annie references. Here are some of my favorites:

• Unfortunately Annie's unorthodox, self-taught knitting style wasn't - at that time - well received by the more established knitting world. ...
  
• Unfortunately, Annie is left to realise a man isn't always interested in a woman who can beat him at his own game.
  
• Unfortunately, Annie's more into anthropology, and to be honest, she isn't even sure who she is.
  
• Unfortunately, Annie is a full nine years younger than Wilber; even had he wanted to make a move, the age gap alone made him restrain ...
  
• Unfortunately, Annie's evaluation of Gone With the Wind ended on this enigmatic note.
  
• Unfortunately, Annie doesn't seem to grow up at all as the story progresses.
  
• Unfortunately, Annie's lustful eye fell upon the young man, and he was soon called upon to pleasure the mistress of the house.
  
• Unfortunately, Annie isn't very interested in revealing secrets about herself.
  
• Unfortunately Annie loses all the money they win betting on horses!
  

No projects to show, just basic time wasting activity!

Quick cover-up

A bad spot on the kitchen wall was crying out to be covered with something. So I did a quick stitch of a section of "The Cafe" by Country Cottage Needleworks that would fit in a small frame I had. Not the world's greatest framing job, but I wasn't in the mood to go more slowly and carefully. The photo makes the frame look bowed, but it is not in reality. It serves the purpose for which it was intended, but it's not one of my favorite finishes. I do like the little menu board though. That was such a cute touch by the designer.

A Wicked Accident

The cute Halloween chart that I won from Aury was perfect for a 'teachable moment' to use the current vernacular. I had never successfully covered an Altoid tin. My gluing skills leave a lot to be desired. But I wanted to try again. This design was a little large for the purpose, so I stitched with one strand over one thread on tea colored Monaco, 28 ct. I usually don't like to do over-one because it's hard on the eyes. I'm not sure if I would have attempted it if I had considered how much black I would be doing, but it worked out pretty well. The spider is my addition. The broom was stitched in DMC variations 4140 on the diagonal (sort of like doing the needlepoint basketweave stitch but doing x's instead of just half-x's) to give it the striped look that Aury's sample had. I had the Halloween ribbon in my stash for the border. And I lined the box in orange felt.

Wizard Redux

About two years ago, I stitched a bookmark for the 12 year old son of some friends of mine. He is a voracious reader and an avid Harry Potter freak. I thought I had found a reasonable design for him when I discovered a pattern for a Wizard in the Mark That Spot collection by Cross My Heart. But I never expected how much he would grow to love that thing. After all, who would think a 12 year old boy would really want an embroidered bookmark anyway? He always has a book with him and always used the bookmark. All his friends were envious, wanting to know where they could get one, so I guess that added to the fun.

The family went on vacation this summer, and sadly, he lost his beloved bookmark. He wrote me a lovely e-mail asking if I would make him another one. His parents had offered to pay me for it.

Frankly, I detest stitching the same design more than once. And this one was so detailed, with confetti stitching, fractionals and backstitching, that I was almost sorry I had saved the chart.

But what stitcher could resist when someone actually loved her work that much? I did offer to stitch a different design this time, but he insisted that he wanted the same one.

So finally, it's ready. Ta-da! If he loses it again, I'll offer to teach him how to cross stitch and let him make his own!



Tuesday was my birthday so I guess it was my lucky day as well. I won the cutest chart on Aury's blog. I know I said I was done with Halloween stitching, but I just might have to stitch this one too.

Neck warmer/Pidge/Scarflet

The little mini-scarves seem to be all the rage on the knitting and crocheting internet sites. Makes sense since they are so quick to make. You can use up left over yarns and finish up the piece before you get bored with the pattern. And when you really just want to keep your neck warm without the baggage of a really long scarf, these work perfectly. Of course, unlike a full-length scarf, when you want to take it off, you can't just drape it around your coat collar. You need a pocket or bag to put it in so you don't lose it.

I'm particularly sensitive to wool, so I need to find soft yarns to make this work for me. I had a leftover skein of Lion Brand Homespun in Tudor from a sweater I made a few years ago. The sweater was supposed to be 'over-sized' and was true to the pattern. Except it turned out to be over-sized for a large elephant! So the sweater has been abandoned, but the 'pidge' remains as a memory.

I just made up the pattern after looking at a bunch on various sites and blogs. I used size 8 needles with about 23 stitches cast on. I knit a rectangle that turned about to be 7" x 24" long. The pattern is a 10-row repeat, 6 rows of stockinette (K1,P1) followed by 4 rows of garter stitch (knit every row). This helps to keep it flat since stockinette wants to curl up (good for roll neck collars). About an inch before the end, I made two buttonholes. After binding off, I added 2 buttons to the opposite end on the long side.

I think I might try this with some other soft yarns. They would make good gifts.

Here's a photo I took of myself wearing my new scarflet:

Blackbird Peace

I've been working on a design that is driving me crazy with confetti stitching, so I took a break to make a little holiday card. This is the Blackbird Designs ornament from the 2009 JCS Ornament issue, the first I've stitched from this issue. The design is in the same style as the Blackbird ornie from the Halloween issue, and I really liked the concept. I replaced the date with a little birdie since I never know when I might use the card. Otherwise, I used the DMC colors provided as the alternative to the hand-dyed fibers. The fabric is tea-dyed Monaco.

The crocheted snowflakes come from this pattern for earrings.

The bunny's job was to hold the card down while I took the photo.



And now it's back to final third of the squint-inducing design!

Even more Halloween tags

I think this will be the last of the trick or treat bag tags for the third graders. I still might stitch another Halloween design or two, but this will close out the set to send off. I did have a lot of fun with this and now I have to replenish my floss supply with all those fall colors.



Clockwise from the top left:

"Happy Jack" from Knotted Tree Needlearts, JCS Oct, 2009 issue, stitched on antique white Monaco


"Boo House" by Helga Mandl stitched on 32 count parchment Jobelan


"Autumn Stars" by Blackbird Designs, JCS Oct, 2009 issue, stitched on antique white Monaco. A few modifications to suit my tastes.


"Halloween House" (sans house!) by Drawn Thread stitched on 35 count linen from Vikki Clayton

Snow Bunnies

My partner, Janeth in Missouri, has received the winter ornament I made for her in the 123 Stitch exchange, so I can present the photo of it here. This design by Little House Needleworks is from the JCS 2007 ornament issue. It had been on my to-do list for some time, and since Janeth likes to decorate for winter and not for just the holiday season, it seemed very appropriate. I even sprung for the 36-ct Rue Green Edinburgh linen. No other color in my stash seemed right.

The crocheted snowflakes were my own design. I used modified versions of simple flower and star designs to get something resembling the snow motifs in the tree foliage.

More Halloween tags..

I've been making trick or treat bag tags out of all my saved small Halloween designs. I'm planning to give them to a friend to use as prizes for the kids in her third grade class. Here's the latest collection:



Clockwise from top left we have:
- Just Nan's Fraidy Frog, JCS Oct, 2009
- Cat's Whiskers' Halloween Kitty
- Barbara Ana's Boo
- Bent Creek's Blackbird house

I'll make a few more until I OD on Halloween and then send them on their way. It's fun to do the little designs, and I love all the opportunities for designer creativity with so many Halloween symbols available.