Stitch til you Twitch

So I went a little crazy.

It all started the day I stumbled across this on Pintrest

Does it make your heart flutter when you look at it? It does mine! At first I thought it was done on pegboard but after visiting the site, I found out it was a rug made by an artist and cross stitched on wool padding. It's also horrifically expensive, at least for my budget.

That didn't stop me from loving it however.

Fast forward a few months and we are cleaning out my grandma's house to get it ready to sell. My grandpa, who has been gone for 15 years, was a cabinet maker, and while we were working in his barn/shop out behind the house, I found this piece of peg board and I knew instantly what I wanted to do with it.

I dry brushed it with some mis-tint paint from the hardware store to make it look like linen, then got to work. The entire family worked on this project. I would sit in front of the board putting the needle through, then my helper in the back of the board would push the needle back through the hole that I indicated with my finger.

I feel pretty impressed that all three of my teenage boys took time to help me with this, and even my husband. I have great men in my life!

The only problem? It's huge. 4'X5' and I can't figure out what I'm going to do with it now. I sure do love it though! The neatest thing about it is how it changes depending on what angle you view it from. If you catch it from the side it's very saturated and vibrant. As you move around to the front, it's more washed out and water colorish. Give peg board cross stitch a try, it's so much fun, I am trying to figure out where I could possibly hang another one =0P

Keeping Busy

I have been so busy at work lately that I come home pooped and have no energy left for crafting. Things are finally starting to slow down a little though, so hopefully I will get my craft on soon.

This past weekend my mom, sister and I had our twice yearly girls sewing weekend. The guys all went golfing, the kids played with their cousins, and the girls hid out in mom's sewing room making tree skirts. I didn't get very far on mine because I decided to be sick that day *Sigh* so mine is only pieced and basted. I love the way our different personalities come out in our projects, even though we all make the same thing.



Last night I was browsing through pintrest and came across the photo of a crocheted minion hat. I LOVED IT and thought "I could easily do that" so PF and I ran to Wally World for some yellow yarn and off I went.


In hindsight I wish I hadn't put the space between his goggles, it looks kinda weird to me. And I made his mouth so it's saying "Whaaaaaa" cuz that was my favorite part of the whole movie =0)Now my other two boys want one too. Guess I know what I will be up to for the next few days!

Pyro Flowers

Have you tried melting polyester yet? If not, get thee to the store and buy some polyester! You are in for loads of fun!


This is the first one I made, there is a tiny tiny bit of a learning curve, but just simple things like "Don't actually stick the fabric IN the flame because polyester is rather flamable!" I got some of these a little close and there are some scorches, but I don't think it's too bad, do you?


This is the second one, note to self, Taffeta doesn't really work very well, and is even MORE flamable! DO NOT go near open flames at the Prom people, you will go up like a Roman candle!


And the last one...all of my fabrics came from Walmart (Except the turquiose, it was left over from 100 years ago when I made one of those fancy schmancy covered binders. Remember those? With the ruched frame on the front and the silk flower? Oy!)The best part is, that they were like $1 a yard, and you don't need anywhere CLOSE to a yard. I think you can easily get a couple of flowers out of an eighth of a yard, so we are talking pennies here!




Just cut a circle out of polyester material, wave it over a candle flame, it melts and curls up, stack them and put a button or a bead and voila! you have a flower! Sorry, I don't really feel like I can make a tutorial for you since it wasn't my original idea, and it makes me crazy when people put a tutorial on their blog for something that they learned from a tutorial on other people's blogs, KWIM? But if you google "Melted fabric flower tutorial" you will come up with a million and one tutorials to choose from! Have fun!

Joy is found in the little things

I very rarely buy kits, in fact, I have now bought a sum total of two quilt kits in my entire life.



But I saw this little quilt on the wall at my LQS and loved it, and the kit had the exact fabric used in the sample except for one, and I while I didn't really care for the substitution, I went ahead and used it anyway. I love how this little quilt turned out, it will go on my living room wall when it's finished.


I also made a little disappearing nine patch quilt for my son's teddy bear. He has been asking for a quilt for Jack for quite a while now, and I finally got around to it. Now I know what not to do when I make the baby sized quilt next week (Make sure all prints are facing the same direction!!!).


And since I was all warmed up and crafting anyway, I decided to make a little coffee cozy for my son's teacher. I kinda winged it from a cardboard cozy I picked up at Carl's Jr. this afternoon and it didn't turn out too bad I don't think. I sure hope it fits since I don't have any coffee cups to try it on.

So what have YOU been up to lately?

Adore Pennant Banner

I know Valentine's Day is over, but I had this idea in my head and didn't have time to get it done.

A close up, can you see the irredescent glitter on the edges? It has such a pretty sparkle! The fabric is a thrifted bed sheet.

I think, since this matches my bedroom though, I may put it on my headboard and leave it up all year long.


Oh, I forgot to tell you! After 14 1/2 years of sleeping on the worlds ugliest waterbed, B finally bought me a REAL bed, with a REAL mattress! I can't tell you how heavenly it is to wake up in the morning without a back ache! Although I do really miss rocking myself to sleep at night. We got the mattresses for a killer deal at RC Willey, and the bed frame is from Ikea. We also went from a King to a Queen and now I actually have room for a bed table HORAY!


My only complaint...This bed is so high off the ground! We got the low profile box spring, but the mattress is so thick that I feel like a little kid crawling into bed, I have to throw my leg up and then hoist myself in. B might have to build me a little step stool while he's building my bedside table!

DQS8 Quilt finished!

K, here it is, my DQS8 Quilt is finished! She asked for red and aqua, and she has commented on every single red and aqua quilt on the flickr group BUT mine. It's making me a little worried. I hope she likes it, and if she doesn't, I hope she lies to me and says she does LOL


I was a little unsure of it to start with, but I love it now and I have plans to make a second one for me to keep!

Little Blue Birdy

So I got this little bird at my local thrift. It was a souvenier from the Guadelahara Shereton apparently. It started out white with black flowers and the hotel name painted on it. I painted it aqua, added a little glitter and a pin cushion.


So far no one in my family likes it. I think it's cute and I hope my friend does too since it is a gift for her.

Heart to Heart Valentine Swap

Well, I finally accomplished something. I decided I was going to sit down and JUST DO IT, whether I liked them or not, whether I was happy with how they turned out, or not. I had to get these done so that I could get them in the mail!


The bingo cards are vintage, the lace is thrifted, the music note hearts are vintage sheet music. There is red glitter on the bingo card, and irredescent glitter on the little cupid valentine.


I don't absolutely love them, but I like them and that's just going to have to be good enough, I am tired of worrying about it.

I just hope the ladies in the swap like them.

Happy December

I have been on blogging hiatus. There just hasn't been much going on that is blogworthy and when I start to feel stressed trying to come up with something to blog about, I know it's time to step back and just let it go for a bit.

The boys have been off track from school and I haven't had much free time lately, so not a lot of crafting going on, but I have made some new winter hats for the boys. They picked the pattern and it's a free one found here...Visor Beanie Crochet Pattern. (Ps, check out the name of her site, it totally cracks me up and brings back memories of being a teenage girl drooling over cute boys.)

Here are a few that I've made...




I kind of winged it on this cute hat for my neighbor's new baby.


And used this pattern... Olivia's Butterfly Hat for a hat for my niece, because she needs a girlie hat, not a hand-me-down boy hat from her brothers LOL And here is my darling boy, very unwillingly, modeling it for me.


I have also been bitten by the beaded watch bug. I have seen them around for a while, and thought they were cute, but when I went to a craft boutique with my mom and they had watch faces, I fell in love with a little green one and it came home with me. I have had it for about two months now and finally got around to making my first couple of watch bands yesterday.

The first I made with natural stone beads and I love it.


The second one is made in my favorite color combination; red, aqua, and green. (If I ever need to match my living room, this is the watch to wear!)



I have a few other things to blog about, but this post is long enough. So Ta Ta for now!

Finished

Frame from the dollar store, it was white, I spray painted it black. It's the perfect size for my cute little pumpkin.

I'll admit it, I'm a geek

I know it's not fashionable, or cool, or in style, but I have to say, I love to cross stitch, I always have. I haven't done anything in cross stitch in years, but when I went in to my local thrift a while back and they had a HUGE stack of old Cross Stitch magazines, I had to take a peek and see if there were any worth buying.


I ended up buying six issues and have found quite a few things that I really love, and some that I may even get around to making.

(Click to enlarge)

For now, I am going to start with this sweet little pumpkin. I have a little, tiny, square picture frame to frame it with and I think it will make a charming addition to my fall decor.


I think next might be this...

Tuesday UFO finish...
I stuffed and blind stitched my ruffled T-shirt pillow closed.


I wish you could see in the pictures what color it really is, it's a rusty, earthy red, not as red as it seems. It looks really cute with my two little fall pillows that I made last year or the year before, I can't remember.


Wednesday UFO finish-
I started these little skeleton heads several weeks ago then they have just sat in a little stack on my computer desk since then. I cut out backs, stuffed them, and sewed the backs on. They look so cute mixed in with my little candy corns and halloween colored yo-yos.

Burlap Buntings

I was browsing blogs the other day and stumbled upon Everyday Chaos and guess what she had? A tutorial for a burlap bunting. I have wanted to make one for about a year now, but have never gotten around to it because I didn't know how to do the letters without the paint bleeding under the stencil and getting all over the place.

Well this tutorial is fabulous! I tried it and it worked perfectly!


You should try it too!

The only thing I did differently was that I used black bias tape instead of the jute. I also zig zagged around my individual pennants, my burlap was unraveling horribly and I also like the look of the black zig zags.

Bunny Hill BOM 5

It just occured to me that I forgot to share my latest Bunny Hill block.

I don't know what my problem was this month, when I saw the new block pattern I just didn't like it. It seemed so.....I don't know, I just didn't like it and because I didn't like it, I couldn't get excited about making it.

Looking back on it now, I can't decide what it was that I didn't like about it. I just remember that I had a strong adverse reaction to it. Maybe it's the butterfly. I have a strong aversion to butterflies. Could it be the horrifying 70's flashbacks?

The good news is, that now that I finally FORCED myself to make this block, and now that it's done, I like it. I'm happy with my fabric choices and overall the block has grown on me.

Hmmm now that I think about it, I think it's the 70's, because I also have a strong aversion to owls and mushrooms, although the new 2009 version of owls and mushrooms is really growing on me. Maybe there is hope for butterflies yet.

Making Progress

So...
I have been working away on my rug and have once again come to a stand still. I have run out of blue and yellow. I was able to find a white sheet with aqua flowers, so that is going to stand in for my blue for a while, but I can NOT find a yellow sheet!

There is a drastic thrifted sheet shortage around here. I used to find them nearly every time I went to the thrift store but now they seem to have vanished into thin air, they are nowhere to be found and I have checked EVERY thrift store.

So, here is my rug as it now stands. I will pick it up again if I ever manage to find some blue or yellow sheets.

A little bunny told me

It's that time of the month again, a new block from the "A Tisket and Tasket" block of the month series by Bunny Hill.

This is my kind of chocolate, it didn't even give me hives!



I also decided to redo block one, I liked the look of the ric-rac handle but it was a pain to sew on and I didn't want to have to do it again, and you can't have just one basket with a ric-rac handle. Not to mention I didn't care much for some of the fabrics I used in the first block. So...here is the redo of #1

Aqua wall quilt

Saturday I locked myself in my quilt room and didn't come out all day. It was nice and peaceful and quiet. The boys played outside all day long because it was warm and sunny, B found his own things to do, and I enjoyed a full day of blissful craftiness.

It was just the balm I think for my battered little heart, and I think it has helped a lot with my emotional state. The panic attacks are slowing down. I'm still not sleeping and that makes me cranky, but I didn't cry at all yesterday and that's a good sign.

Today is my Hysterversary, another hard anniversary for me. I wasn't done having children yet. I always wanted a large family but when you have a seven pound tumor that is invading your uterus, your bladder and attaching to your stomach lining and bowel...what do you do?

Despite the anniversary I am feeling fairly stable today. It's early yet, but I'm hopeful that things will not take a turn for the worse. Today I have come to terms with the fact that I will never have more children. Maybe I will fall apart this afternoon, but this morning, I am resigned. Of course I haven't seen a pregnant woman or a baby yet today, so that could be part of it LOL

I keep waiting for this yearning for more children to go away. I pray for it to go away. With every passing year it gets a tiny bit easier

I miss Lucey, and I am very grateful for my three rowdy, smelly, crabby little boys (Even as PK storms up the stairs and slams the door because he didn't get up in time to get to the milk before his brothers and now he has to eat something vile like scrambled eggs, or frozen waffles.)

And of course, just because I woke up today determined to have a good attitude, I have a runny nose and sore throat....again *Sigh*

Crochet Rag Rug

I am taking a little break in between Preemie hats to crochet a rug for my bedroom. This is made from thrifted sheets and I am loving how it's turning out. Now I just need to make another run to the DI for more sheets, I have had these all ripped and in storage for about ten years, I started a rag rug back then but in a different way, it was sewn with a needle made from a sharpened toothbrush handle. It took FOREVER to get very far on that rug and I have forgotten how to do it, so this time I am just crocheting and it's going much faster. I did all of this in about five hours.

It's so soft and squishy to step on and I think it will look nice next to my bed. The only major draw back is the lint that working with the sheets creates. It looks like I haven't dusted my office for about three years *Sigh*

Easter in the wings

Despite B's best efforts, I found a few seconds today to make something.

I picked up this frame at the thrift for $1, two seconds later it had a chick and a Spring greeting.


Made this little bunny to go in a wagon I got at the thrift, I want to make several but not sure if I can stand to make more, I am not a 3 dimensional sewing kind of girl I have decided. B wants to know why he doesn't have a face, I don't know why, I just didn't want him to have one.

On my "To Do" list

I have a huge to do list...

Finish binding on mom's birthday mini quilt
Bind my red mini quilt
Bind Valentine Table runner
Finish Valentine quilt
Oh Cherry Oh Quilt
St. Patty's Table runner
Spring Table runner
Easter Table Runner
More preemie hats for donation


And this isn't even counting my huge UFO drawer.

I better get busy!