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.

Pumpkin Heads Altoid Tin

Donna from By the Bay Needleart offered the zaniest Halloween freebie ever in her latest newsletter. Who would expect this from a woman who usually designs such elegant waterfront landscapes? I was so taken with it that I had to stitch it right away. I had a perfect piece of hand-dyed aida from the good ole' days of Enchanted Fabric. Much more purple than the photos show. And as I was stitching it, I realized it would exactly fit on an Altoid tin top.

This Pumpkin Head Family is just so funny. Can't you just see the Mom thinking "Do these horizontal stripes make me look fat?". And the Dad is wondering how long they have to stay dressed up like this. The kid is saying, "Oh Dad, get with the program!".



The tin makes a perfect gift box to hold the Harry Potter beaded fob I won from Melanie. Melanie makes the cutest glass beads ever and I was so lucky to win this.




And the winner of the Blackbird Designs "Something Sweet" chart is Ms. Trillium! As soon as I get a snail mail address, I'll send it right out!

Something Sweet

Tropical storms make for rainy Saturdays indoors so I got a couple of stitchy things done yesterday.

I decided to test my new binding skills to create a little art quilt that I hope can be used by AAQI to raise money for Alzheimer's research. My friend Jane gave me the chart for "Something Sweet" by Blackbird Designs and I thought it was just the right subject. My Mom had Alzheimer's and flowers were one thing she could still appreciate right to the end. As usual, my finish is a little lop-sided, but it actually looks less so in person. I used the fast-finish triangles on the back to make an easy way to hang it.. just insert wood slats, a nail file, a straw.. whatever and hang from a nail on the wall.

I'd like to pass this chart on to someone who would like to stitch it. Just mention it in a comment if you are interested. I'll do a drawing if there are a number of stitchers interested and post the results in a week or so.


Part 2 of the iStitch SAL is now done as well. Since Carol added some letters, I thought I'd add another color to the mix. The intrigue is increasing!

Coaster with Mitered Binding

I know I wasn't made to be a quilter. Quilters have to measure precisely, cut precisely and seam precisely. I'm more of an eye-ball type of sewer. But, still, I wanted to see how difficult it would be to do a mitered binding so I could use that technique for finishing a cross-stitch wall hanging in a kind of art quilt fashion. I decided to do a practice run on a coaster. I had seen the logo for the UK Tea Guild and the graphic was easily adaptable to a quick stitchery design that was perfect for a coaster. After reading a ton of tutorials, I more or less followed this one. It didn't turn out perfect of course, but I thinks it's not too bad for a first attempt. Coasters work great for practicing.





On an impulse, I signed up to join Sew-Carol's Mystery SAL. It's an 8-parter, but very small size parts, so it will be easy to manage. I'm using 32 count bone lugana, with DMC color variations 4240, one-over-one. The first part is so small and dainty, it looks like it belongs in a doll house! I'm guessing it will turn out to be Miss Scarlett in the library with a lead pipe.

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.

Maison Fleurie

This little freebie, "Maison Fleurie" by Chantal Jordan, caught my eye and just cried out to be stitched. I had a lovely piece of pale pink hand-dyed Vikki Clayton linen that was perfect for it. Of course, my camera had other ideas about the color. The first image is closer to the pink color, but not nearly as pretty. I don't know where that little flaw in the center came from. It's not on the real thing.

I used to make these coasters all the time. I guess this kind of finish has gone out of fashion, but it's so easy to finish a design this way. The stitching is protected, and this particular type of coaster is large enough to hold a mug comfortably. I have a lot of these all over my condo.

Milady's Needle with CQ

Can't seem to get this CQ type finish out of my head, so I stitched another little piece to try again. I have plenty of fabric scraps in my stash from ornament finishing over the years, so this is a good way to make use of them. The little sampler is by Milady's Needle from the 2010 JCS Ornament issue. I stitched it over-one on 32 count Bay Rum Jobelan. The thread was a sample freebie from Rosace, a Spanish company trying to compete in the standard DMC floss space. This was a 115 equivalent. I really did plan to have the sampler straight up and down, but life's too short to worry about they way it leaned. And this is crazy quilting so, why not have the piece askew? The embroidery stitches include chained cross stitch, feather stitch, slanted blanket stitch, long and short blanket stitch, and loop stitch. I used a stem stitch to embroider around the butterfly and dragnonfly wings on the left. Plus I added a few stems with green beads on the ends. Of course, all the colors are more vibrant in real life (or whatever passes for real life). Might as well send this one to Attic for the fundraiser as well. It's quirky, but interesting I think.

Monster Bubbles 4 + CQ

There was one quirky design from last year's JCS Ornament issue that had been on my 'to-do' list for a while. I just loved 'Four' by Monster Bubbles for the four calling birds with their pretty beaded collars. I stitched it up on a piece of 32 count linen from Vikki Clayton and then I waited for inspiration to call me so I could finish it. I decided to try something new for me and see if I could make a kind of Crazy Quilt block. I cut the stitched design into a 5-sided shape and used the sew and flip method of foundation piecing to create the block. Then I used some embroidery stitches as seam treatments... closed blanket stitch, blanket pin wheels, coral stitch, spiny chain stitch and a poor imitation of the cretan stitch. Nothing perfect like the way Pam Kellogg would do it with waste canvas. Just my eyeballing everything. And I only barely read instructions for sew and flip.. just muddled through on my own. The charm is a little heart from Blue Moon. Special thanks to Kerry for all the stitch ideas in the sidebar on her blog. This finish is going to Attic Needlework for their annual Breast Cancer fundraiser.

Princess Parade and Printer Cover

Today was a pretty good day. Sent off my latest Love Quilt square. Pressed another finish so it's totally done and I could take a photo. Plus I got my hair cut and colored, always a way to feel brand new.

The LQ Square is for Hailey G, who wanted bright colored princesses, especially orange and purple. I picked out the "Princess Parade" pattern from Country Cottage Needleworks. Of course, the design called for beautiful, muted, pastel hand-dyed floss. Hand-dyed doesn't work for LQ squares since the quilts need to be machine-washable. So I picked some brighter shades of regular DMC. The fabric in the photo may look like light blue, but it's really white. I made the clouds blue to compensate. I think it will work pretty well for the theme.



And I found a use for my "Sisters" Stitchery. My poor printer stays in a corner and doesn't get much use. Quite the dust catcher, so I decided to make a dust cover for it. I used this simple tutorial for an ottoman slip cover. No piecing of the fabric, just four 'darts' and a hem. Then I used Stitch Witchery to fuse the stitching to the top center and added a blanket stitch around the edges. Certainly not perfect, but definitely does the trick. And definitely an improvement over the old pillowcase that I had draped over it before. I understand the construction principles now and I think my next such cover will be better.

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.