Revived UFO and one new technique

Once I started combining the internet with my stitching, I seem to have switched to only doing smalls. It started when I joined a lot of exchanges, and then it just seemed like more fun to get things finished quickly. So I have one neglected larger piece that was in progress at that time and has since fallen by the wayside into UFO-land. I picked it up recently and discovered that I really do like working on it, although I doubt that I would start something like it today. The stitching at the bottom with the bunnies is the latest addition. This is "Countryside Spring" from the Stoney Creek Magazine, April 2005. Its on 18 count Aida from Silkweaver.com (the first piece of hand-dyed fabric I ever bought!). It's clickable for more detail.



Once the knitting needles had been fired up, I couldn't put them down either. So I tried a new technique, knitting with double-pointed needles. I made a ton of errors in this dishcloth, and I can barely recognize some of the petals in the Double Flower pattern I used. I probably should have chosen something simpler to practice on, but this was the design that appealed to me. It kind of reminds me of a white pizza!

Dishcloth Mania & Minipops

I really had to scratch my head to understand why Dishcloth Mania seemed to be sweeping the on-line knitting community. Then I realized it was like making x-stitch smalls. You could try out new patterns, stitches and yarns. You could complete the item quickly before the project bogged down and became a potential UFO. Plus they make good little gifts, and they are actually useful.

So I dusted off the knitting needles that hadn't seen the light of day for a few years. Then I found an intriguing pattern for mock cables that needed no cable needle. The cables are all made by increasing and decreasing the number of stitches. I used Butter Ombre Sugar & Cream cotton yarn and I loved how the variegation worked up. I made a lot of mistakes, but it's just a dish cloth so I don't think it matters so much.

You can find the pattern here along with lots of others.



For more quick finishes, I stitched up two additional minipop designs.

We have the Fleetwood Mac cover photo from the Rumors album. Who would believe you could get the idea with such limited detail. And then the cast of Seinfeld. A readily identifiable Kramer at least.



Finally, the winner of the Angel Collectors pattern is that Venezuelan angel, Sandra. Only took a flip of a coin to decide, but I'm happy the chart will have a good home. Thanks to both the entrants for playing!

100th Post and Giveaway

I can't believe this my 100th post. I never knew I had so much to show and tell. And I'm so happy this came on Valentine's Day, one of my favorite days of the year.



Thanks so much to all the readers and commenters. That spurs me on to continue. And in honor of the occasion, I'm offering this Alma Lynne chart, 'Angel Collector', as a give-away. Leave a comment if you are interested and specifically state that you want to be in the drawing. If you don't have a blog, then please leave a way for me to contact you if you win. I'll draw a name next Friday, so you have plenty of time to sign up. I stitched this chart for a baby girl some years ago. It was a labor of love and it turned out beautifully. This was way before my camera and web days, so I don't have a photo.

Meanwhile, I've been listening to the Blues Brothers today. They never fail to make me happy, even with a name like that. So I stitched a Valentine tribute to them based on the digital mini-pop image created by Craig Robinson at flip flop flyin. It's now a fridgie displayed in my kitchen. I think I might stitch up a few more of the easily recognizable characters. It was quick and fun.

It's a yin-yang thing

Presenting the final heart in the series. Another design by Kirsten



The hearts have all been sent to Michigan to be given to the sweet little girls that sent me the thank you notes for the Halloween tags.

And now for something completely different. I was lucky enough to win a contest on Ranae's blog for the classic Voodoo Boy chart by Haberdashery designs. I've always wanted to stitch this little guy. I really didn't want to use Aida, but I didn't have the right color fabric on hand in any other weave and I also wanted to start stitching him the minute the chart showed up. He's going to be living in Miami so I thought I'd crochet him a jaunty hat to wear on his trip (and this may be the first time I've ever used the word 'jaunty'). It's done in a multi-colored sock yarn. The hat design came from a book of instructions for crocheted home accessories. The hat is meant to be an egg cozy! And of course I added a couple of pins since a self-respecting Voodoo boy should never be without them.



The backing is pretty purple mottled hand-dyed fabric. I sewed him up by machine and I hate doing the final slip stitching by hand, so instead, I sewed a buttonhole in the center back just to use for turning. Then I sewed the 'Little Helper' label over the buttonhole to close him after stuffing. And a few sequins added for fun.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

I've just about finished my heart project. One more left to go and I will have 10 heart favor pockets. They each have charms inside from Oriental Trading Co.

Here are the latest. These are all lined and backed with pink and red fabrics. I used a cookie cutter as a template on most of them. The linen ones are done with Vikki Clayton's 35 count linen. I bought a grab bag of light neutrals to try this out. This linen is fabulous if you like the 35 count. I may become an addict!

Clockwise from the top:

Stitching cherub by Casa Mia
Monochrome heart by JBW
Love Bug by Erynne
Bluebird by San-Man Originals from a newsletter for members only
White dove by Kirsten
Candle and jam jar from Cross Country stitching magazine

Imitation is the sincerest...

I seem to get so many ideas these days from blog-reading. I feel like I'm such a copycat! My latest inspiration was seeing this hat
at Be-Stitched with instructions at www.rheatheylia.com. I assumed this hat was knitted, but was surprised to discover it is actually crocheted. I was intrigued since it's usually so easy to tell the difference.

I find that crocheted hats don't stretch much so the sizing has to be more exact. And hats knit with a single strand of worsted weight yarn are often not warm enough. Plus I have a pretty high failure rate anyway for making hats that fit and look decent, but I really wanted to try making those cables in crochet.

So for a $2.00 investment (including a 20% off coupon), I picked up a skein of Red Heart yarn in a color that I had been thinking about ever since I saw this sweater at Loopy Lou's. (Scroll past the chicken scratch). Not exactly the same, but the same effect. It's called 'Flecked Aran'. Wool has a nicer 'hand', but is too irritating to my skin.

The cool part of this hat is no seam to sew at the end. I made it in one evening (albeit a long evening). I refused to do any frogging so there are tons of mistakes.. but I just think of those as customization. The front and back post stitches made the hat thicker so the single strand of yarn was perfect. I never really quite understood how to do the row following the cable row. It was hard to find the 'post' on the row below.

The beauty part is that this hat fits, and I wore it for a walk in the winter cold yesterday. I'm very pleased with this experiment.

Valentine and more....

On this historic inauguration day in the U.S., I'm displaying the Valentine's card I finished last night in the spirit of love and hope.

The design is another cute freebie from Claire. The fabric is lilac flair from Enchanted Fabrics. I went crazy with eyelets! Much easier to set on a card than on fabric actually.



Here's the little card I made to go with the baby sampler from the previous post. I met the new little prince on Sunday. He's just the absolute cutest! The design is from Prairie Schooler, a piece of Winter Wind.



Still experimenting with heart favor pockets. The designs on these are from Cross Country Stitching magazine. I like the designs, but I'm not at all happy with the finishing on the tops. That's what happens with experiments. Some work out and some don't!

Snowman Baby Sampler

I'm still trying to recover fully from a nasty attack of bronchitis. But at least I've been able to stitch again without coughing after every 'x'. Last night I even did the finishing for this baby sampler so I must be getting better!

This design is by Homespun Elegance, with some modifications by me. Some things about the chart annoyed me:
1) The model for the design was shown in fancy hand-dyed threads, but DMC alternatives were given with the warning that the design would not look the same as the model. I think they should have included a photo of the piece done in DMC as well.
3) There are not a lot of colors, but the symbols are so small and some look so much alike that you had to really refer to the stitched model constantly to be sure not to make a mistake.
4) The chart was one sheet, printed on both sides. So the chart was on a different side from the color key. Pretty much forced you to make a working copy and that would not have been necessary otherwise.
5) The chart was really too large for one page and is very hard to read.

But I do like the design and I think it's perfect for a baby boy born on X-mas eve. I used Zweigart Edinburgh linen in Summer Khaki. The piece looks quite different from the photo on the chart using these colors, but I like how it turned out. The actual design called for snowman buttons in the fours corners (available only from Homespun Elegance!), but no problem.. gave me a place to put the baby facts.

For the finishing, I sewed a section of a wire clothes hanger inside the top of the hanging so it wouldn't sag in the middle. If you just bend the hanger back and forth a few times, it breaks off neatly and you don't need special tools. One of my favorite finishing methods.

Heart favor

I'm experimenting with heart favor pockets in anticipation of Valentine's Day. Here's my first, a free design from PCB. The ribbon at the top is hand sewn. I used DMC 107, the old-style variegated thread.



For the new year, I received an ornament from Kerry for the Stitchin' Fingers exchange. This little guy took his time traveling from Canada, but he has arrived just in time since we are anticipating our first 'winter mix' weather event this week.

Prairie Points

Always looking for new finishing ideas, I googled up a storm a while back trying to find out how to make the arrow-head like edges that are used on some quilt finishes. I didn't know what to call that edging so I never found what I was looking for. But out of the blue, Liz put a post on her blog about doing a variation of 'Prairie Points' and then I had a label to search for. Found several different techniques, so I picked one that looked like the least amount of work, method 2 on this page. Problem is, that one also requires the most precision and is very unforgiving when you don't cut and sew perfectly. Found that out the hard way. I stitched this little fairy from Chez Mounette, "Mariage d'Ariane et Jean-Pierre", for the sole purpose of trying out this technique. It's stitched in DMC 719 on a lovely piece of Miek's hand-dyed fabric. Next time I try this (if there is a next time), I won't use the one-strip method. I'll have to bite the bullet and make individual points so I can move them around in the sewing to make them fit perfectly.



The photo is also featured on the blog, Chez Mounette, on this page.

Happy New Year to everyone!