Stocking Bit 10

Here's the second pink elephant and a sparkly pink butterfly.

Stocking Bit 9

A variety of heart charms hang below the flowers on this seem. The lace heart felt a bit flat and I knew I wanted to add something, but didn't know what. I really don't know how the little angel ended up there. I had considered it, but thought the angel was headed for another patch. It seems, when I finally had her in hand with needle and thread, she had a will of her own.

Stocking Bit 8

Embroidery with gold thread dresses up the beaded face. Working around the face, a fly stitch was tacked down with a detached chain. French knots add a bit of dimension within the fly stitches. Little glass butterflies finish the motif.

There is also a dragonfly tucked resting in the corner of two seems.

Stocking Bit 7

These little flower beads were just the thing to finish off this seem.

Stocking Bit 6 - Pink Elephant Story

I've added a few charms to the heel motif. The one in the upper left corner of the photo insists on lying upside down. It's a pink elephant. There are two of them peeking out of bits of trim like this. They may seem like just a pink girly thing, but they have a special story. I don't know why pink elephants are as easy to find as they are, but I'm happy about it.

When I was a young girl, my mother collected pink elephants as gifts for my Granddad. She considered it a special thing between the two of them. I should get the full story from her for the sake of posterity, but I think it had something to do with seeing Dumbo together when it was new. Pink elephants always remind me of my Granddad. He passed away several months after my older daughter was born. She's only a few short weeks from 16, just after the new year. Babies were a yearly event for a while there, between nieces & nephews, cousins, a brother, a sister, and my own two. My Haley was the last while Granddad was still with us. Miranda, who this stocking is for, never met him. She likes to look at her stocking and touch all the little bits. At only just two, she nods her head sagely and states, "This is my stockin'. It's a very special stockin'." She's a precocious child and wise beyond her years. Someday, I'll show her pictures of her Great Granddad and tell her about the pink elephants and why they are special.

As I'm about to post this, I see the date is my mother's birthday. It seems somehow appropriate.

Stocking Bit 5

If memory servers, my mother in law and sister in law gave me a package of these bows when I started the stockings several years ago. There were red, green, and gold. Interestingly, at least one of those matches the color scheme of each stocking. There aren't many unifying features of the stockings as a group, so it's nice they all have this little bow in common. I've also added the bugle beads along the curved seam. They add weight and sparkle to the area.

I think when I worked on the stocking last year, I was undecided about whether to add gold. The early embellishments leaned more towards iridescent as the accent color. More and more, gold has found it's way into the project and I'm liking it.

Stocking Bit 4

Added a few beads to a seam with up and down buttonhole.

Stocking Bit 3

Bead dangles - string 5 seed beads, one large bead, one seed bead, back through the large bead and 5 seed beads

Stocking Bit 2

I made a couple of these polymer clay faces to audition as the main motif on my black stocking, but hadn't sewn them on yet. On a whim I tucked one into the blankie on Miranda's stocking. I didn't like it, or the blankie, and eventually removed them both. Miranda saw it, though, and loved the sleeping baby, as she called it. So, I sewed it back onto her stocking without the blankie and then surrounded it with two rows of beads.

I am behind schedule on these stockings. I really wanted them done by the 1st of December. However, they are very close to finished now. I am into crunch time and I do get more done that way. I have a few pictures of newer additions to the stockings and will add them to the blog with a short blurb as I get time. I thought I might be able to finish them this weekend, but Miranda and I are sick, so it's unlikely. Soon, though.

Nativity Rug

The advent candles at church sometimes drip wax on the floor. It must be a nuisance to get out of the carpet. There was talk of buying a rug to go under the candelabra and protect the rug, but what type of rug? Before I knew it, I had volunteered to make one. I used painting canvas and dyed it as close to the color of the carpet as I could. We didn't want it to stand out. To give it a bit of interest, I asked Kirk to draw me some nativity figures and then painted them on as silhouettes. The stars add a bit of atmosphere so it's not just a rug with some figures painted on. I sewed it like a mini quilt with a thin batting and backing fabric dyed the same color. I wasn't paying enough attention and ended up slashing the top to turn it through instead of the bottom. Oops. I added the circle on top to cover the slash. It looks a bit funny in the picture, but it is covered by the base of the candelabra. I finished it off with two generous coats of a water based sealer, which I'm hoping will let us just pop off any wax that drips.

Knit socks?

I'm learning to knit socks. Well, there's not much learning. It's just following a pattern. I have no idea why I'm knitting socks. I have the yarn. It takes up very little space. It can be done while the baby plays. Lots of my other hobbies require more space and have sparkly bits the baby likes to get into. This is easier.

Stocking Bit

Free handed stem stitch sewn with DMC variegated perl cotton.

Halloween Crafts

Front and back of the little bag I made for Miranda. She was delighted that I made it just for her. The front was colored with regular Crayola crayons. Then, it was ironed to set the colors and remove the wax.




































I never did find a witch for my wreath. We painted little wooden signs at another group meeting. I tucked mine into the wreath. It'll do quite nicely until I find a witch.

Lost

I am lost without my camera. The last time I used it was a couple of weeks ago. I photographed Miranda playing with her birthday present from her Nana and Papa. I remember setting the camera down with thoughts of downloading those pics. Kirk was using the computer, so I tucked the camera away where Miranda wouldn't get it. At least, I think I did. Either that or Miranda got it first. I'm not sure which would create more difficulty in finding it. So far my search has turned up:

• several scrunchies and various other hair ornaments
• stack of patterns, including the overalls and jacket patterns I planned to make for Miranda
• lost cell phone that has since been replaced
• missing screw driver
• tin of pins
• one of my winter gloves
• the old planner that still has my only list of important telephone numbers
  

I have projects to share, too. Miranda's halloween bag turned out cute and she loves it. I never found a witch for my wreath, but I added a little sign that was cute. The shirt to go with Kirk's kilt turned out really nice. I've been working on my BJP pieces. I'm doing a series of ornaments. Speaking of ornaments, holiday crunch time is here. I have my stockings out and am channeling all the stitching mojo I can. They will be done and ready for hanging by December 1st - this year! I'm, actually, not far from that now.

Now, to find the camera (which may require copious amounts of cleaning and organizing) or stitch?

Halloween Wreath

The group that I do crafts with made wreaths a couple of weeks ago. Both my daughters helped me choose the flowers. The teen liked the black flowers and the baby liked the purple. With Halloween right around the corner, and black and purple as a start, I added the orange flowers to make it a Halloween wreath. It's not quite finished, yet. I want to put a big bow at the top with a witch hanging down. I'm thinking I want the bow to be purple, but I want to make sure the color looks right with the witch. Trouble is I haven't found a suitable witch anywhere. I've looked at all the craft store and the big discount stores. There are a couple more places to look, but I'm shocked that no one has little witches this time of year.

A Start on the Curtains

Lately, most of my sewing time has been taken up with making curtains. I've had the fabrics sitting around for months and finally found the motivation to just sit down and work on them. I started with the sheers because they were simpler. I needed the quick accomplishment to keep the momentum going. Nothing fancy there, only a casing with an extra line of stitching to make the top ruffle. The selvages provided a nice edge to the sides, so I left them. I still have to do the hem. That requires sitting on the floor with mass quantities of pins, definitely a step to be done while the baby is napping. I may have to go shopping and make a couple more panels for the sides. With the location of the hooks to hold up the extra long rod, the gathered sections aren't even. Kirk likes it, and I'll live with it for now, but it will eventually bother me.

Originally, I bought insulated panels for the living room. The first one I opened had a huge flaw in it. I didn't bother with the rest. I just returned them and decided to make my own. The purchased panels were the same color, chocolate brown, but they were a plain fabric. The fabric I'm using is an embroidered linen with an insulated lining fabric. Again, I still have the hems to do, and also the ties. I was planning on doing all four panels the same, tying them up at the top during the day with ribbons and loops on the back. Kirk wants to tie the panel on the side window and those on either side of the picture window to the side and only tie the center panel on the picture window up. We'll have to experiment with it. The important thing is that the dark panels are easy to open during the day. They block almost all of the sunlight. I need sunlight, especially during the shorter days of winter.

Harvest

This photo is from the beginning of September, but it was still in the camera, another day of harvest.

Stocking Details

The closer I get to being organized and settled, the more stitching mojo I find. It helps that my littlest angel has developed a bed time routine and is getting to sleep before I'm exhausted. I added another motif and some layering on a couple of seams. For the first bit, I added beads and sequins to the bovine princess seam. The sequins are not obvious unless you look very closely. They're only 2mm and a bead was used to sew each one on. Some of them are hiding behind the silk ribbon loops, but they help the ribbons stay flowing in the right direction.



For the other seam addition, I used metallic threads, burgundy and gold, doubled so that I was stitching with four threads. I added a running stitch along the center curve and detached chains with straight stitches in the dips along the sides. I wonder, though, if those look more like elongated fly stitches.



The motif is a trio of thread crocheted flowers. One was made with cotton pearl, most likely a number 8, but possibly 12. The other two were made with a fine silk/cashmere knitting yarn. All of the threads were dyed by me before the crocheting. I used the newer DMC linen floss to make the French knot centers. I really like the feel of the linen floss and enjoy stitching with it. It behaves very well.

Harvest & Inspiration

The garden produced quite a bit today. This is the most I've harvested. Usually, I might get a cucumber or zucchini and a few green beans. Today was the first of the broccoli, eggplants, jalepeno, and acorn squash. Along with that, I've got zucchini, cucumber, a pickling cucumber, chili peppers, a couple of cherry tomatoes, basil, parsley, and coriander. The cherry tomatoes are just starting to ripen, but the basket needed a bit of color. There are a few plants not represented here, but it seems that most of what I'm growing is green.

I don't know if I'll follow through on the inspiration, but I'll be taking more pictures of the various veggies I pick from my first garden. The theme for next year's Quilting Arts calendar contest is "Fresh Picked". I have ideas, but I'm better with creating ideas than creating finished projects. We'll see how it goes.

A finished project

Okay, so it was a small project, but it's still a project completed. I intended this small doll blanket to be more scrappy to use up some small bits of yarn I had dyed. It took on a life of it's own and turned out quite nice. My littlest angel is enjoying it. The baby hiding under the blanket is becoming known as 'Frankenbaby' to the rest of the family. Hubby suggested the baby was in need of a good washing a while back. The body houses electronics and the clothes are sewn on. I thought I could just snip the threads at the back of the neck and slip the clothes off, but I was mistaken. I knew the legs were encased in the clothes and not attached to the body. I didn't know the clothes were not made and then attached to the body. The seams around the neckline and sleeves were sewn to the body as well. Taking it apart made a real mess of it. My little angel didn't seem to mind and was thrilled with her clean baby. The poor baby has since lost an arm, and my angel still loves her baby.

Her second birthday is fast approaching. Time just flies right by when they're little and growing so fast. Her birthday is in October, still a couple of months away, but I am notoriously slow . She needs a new baby. Maybe I just want her to have a new baby. Either way, she's getting a new baby for her birthday. A proper baby with clothes that can be changed and washed and sewn for her.

I spent months looking at any store I shopped at before buying the first baby. I wasn't too thrilled with that one, but it was love at first sight for my little angel. There really aren't many adorable dolls in the stores today. So, what's a Mom to do? I splurged and ordered a quality baby online. This little doll is one of the Bitty Twins. She hopped out of her box to model for this photo during nap time. I have patterns for her new wardrobe and plenty of supplies. Now I just need to finish my organizing. Then I'll have two months of naps to sew a wardrobe for her before the birthday.

My organizing is coming along slowly. I haven't put too much energy into refolding fabric, but it's still taking a fair amount of time. I have four more buckets full of fabric to go in the cabinets, plus a bit. It's actually nice being able to put the fabric in before the doors go on. This way, I can see everything all at once. As I suspected, the yarn and laces just won't fit in the cabinets. For now, they'll stay in the buckets stacked under the window. All in all, things are starting to fall into place.