Sunday, July 31, 2016

Night Cap Done

The Night Cap is done!  I love how it turned out.

 I thought the top needed something right where the four panels meet.  I looked for a fancy pin with beads on it but I didn't find any I liked.  So I looked for a bead or charm.  I liked how the pearl looked.

I have another Sharon Cohen nightcap pattern (somewhere) that is done with detached buttonhole stitch and in color.
I got this in the mail yesterday.
It is a Breast Cancer fund raiser through Elegant Stitch.  I am a fan of Betsy Morgan so I couldn't pass this up.  Supplies in the kit:
It included a little pair of stork scissors too.  I'm not sure about the pink fabric.  I think it would look fine on white too.
I'm hoping to take Betsy latest teaching project The Virgin Queen's Stitching Wallet sometime.
I'll show you how Mistress L is coming along tomorrow.
A

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Nearly

I am nearly finished with the Night-Cap pin cushion.

It was easy and quick and fun to stitch.  I used a gold thread that I had on hand rather than the called for Kreinik Japan Gold thread.

 I started putting on the paillettes but they were too large.

You know you have good stash when you can scrounge up more than one size of paillette (and more than one color!)  So I took out the paillettes and put in smaller ones.  I'm much happier now.  I found some checked dupioni silk for the bottom fabric which will be laced to a comic board circle.

  So I just have the finishing to do.


It was bucketing down this morning so I had to go walking at the Y.  Then I went to the Farmer's Market, lucky that I had an umbrella.  I guess I'll get back to my pre-stitching and Mistress L when the pin cushion is done.
A

Friday, July 29, 2016

Serendipity

I went looking for a certain thread that I might use on the gold bird.  I didn't find the thread - yet.  But I ran across some other stuff.  I found a mostly done side of a Jackie kit, Attic of Dreams 1.

 It looked like I could finish it easily.  So I put in a couple more rows.  I must have put it down when it came to the lettering.  My lettering doesn't look that great since the state name turns the corner.  But I don't think it stands out.  Maybe it is okay.

I also saw this chart:

I want to make this.  So I dug out a piece of Belfast, found some dark gray Hand Dyed Fibers thread and started it.  It is almost done!  I just have some more of the gold chain stitch to do and then I can put it together.

Luckily, I got my walk in before it started to rain.  I'm going to Indy next week with my BFFs for some classes.  It will be fun!
A

Thursday, July 28, 2016

PreStitch Update

I have been diligently working on the pre-stitching for Ode.  Ode is a class I'm taking with a guild in New York in September taught by Jackie DuPlessis.  There is a beautiful box involved.  I'm a sucker for wooden boxes, especially cherry ones.  I have gotten all the pieces for the box lining done.  There is the bottom and four sides and lining for two of those sides.

Then there is a "stamp booklet".  Maybe it will be a needlebook.  It has what I assume to be Jane Austin's profile on it.  I have one half done and was looking yesterday to see if I could do the other side in mostly over two.  I'm still thinking about that one.

Then I started the mattress pin cushion.

Yes, there is more!  There is a needleroll.  But I'm terribly tempted to change the design as I am sick of the half circles.
What I have left to do is to finish the mattress pin cushion and stitch the needleroll.  What I want to put on the needleroll is a blackwork design I found on the internet.

I feel good about my progress.  I know I can get this all stitched before September.

On the docket for today is pizza and stitching with BFF#2.  Fun!  Usually we talk more than we stitch.
A

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Biscornu

I finished up the little biscornu yesterday.  It went from this:
To this:
 My dilemma now is do I put a button or bead in the middle?  I'm thinking about that one.
I'm thinking of starting the matching little needlecase.  It wouldn't take very long to do.

Then on the Cabinet of Curiosities site, I saw someone finished the pink pin cushion and put some lace around the edge as well as little stitched spheres on the corners.  I  got out some of my trims to see how they would look on my pink pin cushion.
I don't think either one is the right color.  I need a more gold color to go with the gold on the pin cushion.
It's a nice day outside.  I'll show you my progress on my prestitching for Ode tomorrow.
A

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Stuff

"Stuff" is easier to spell than "Miscellaneous".  I wanted to show you two things I bought recently.  Both of them are related to my friend Janet, the most creative person I know.  The first item I got because Janet has one.  I saw it at her house and I wanted one too.
This is a fancy-dancy key fob.  I put my casket key on it.  I think it just ties on, I wasn't sure how to attach it other than just tie it on.  I think it is cool.
I started the stitch along from a design by Janet.
As you can see, I didn't get very far before getting distracted.  I would like to finish it. Stitching this convinced that I could just embroider a design.
 Then I was looking at the French General site.  (Dangerous, I'm always tempted to buy something).  I happened to see their gift card and thought, I really like that design.  So I looked through the site to see if it was based on a fabric.  Nope.  Then I looked through the embroidery kits.  I found it!  But the embroidery kit was done in many colors.  The gift certificate was just red.  I really liked just the red.  So I bought the embroidery kit and plan to stitch it entirely in red.

It is big (11" by 14") so I guess it could be a pillow.  Now if I just had more time...
A

Monday, July 25, 2016

On the Floor

The project that I picked up off the floor was. . . . Catherine Theron's Strawberry Biscornu!

I started it as a travel project I think.  The first half is done.  I just have to do the other half.  I managed to find all the pieces to it.  I put it in with a matching project the Strawberry Needlecase.

It is going well and I think I can finish it soon.

Delfi was delighted at the prospect of seeing some progress on the Gold Bird.  I also picked it up off the floor.  I managed to find all its pieces too.

I looked at what I needed to do nest.  Then I sort of remembered why this project was abandoned a while back.  It is done in too few threads.  Three main metal threads.  And there is white felt showing!  No way Jose.  The kit needs some tweaking.  So I went in search of other threads.  These are some I found.

I'm going to use some Italian stretchy ribbon.

 I  used some on Hampton Court.  Janet told me where to order it (Specialty Beads).  There is another thread I need to find that I think will add something.  It bothers me that some of the threads are not going the right direction.  The threads should go in the direction that a birds feathers grow.  That's why I don't like to top of his head.  This may turn out to be a learning project where I figure out what I want to do next time.  We'll see.

The bathrooms are cleans.  All is well with the world.
A

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Two Finish-Finishes

It seemed like I did everything twice yesterday.  I goofed it up the first time and then had to redo it.  ARGH.  That happened with the Shepherd's Bush Tray.  I laced the stitching on some comic board but when I was all done, it was a quarter inch off, too small.  So I had to cut it off and try again.
The second time things worked out better.  I admit that I installed the stitching into the tray with double stick tape.  Ta-dah!
I got good mail yesterday.  I had been looking for some nice fabric to finish the pink pin cushion.  I looked at the fabric store for some velvet, velveteen or dupioni silk in the right color.  I even looked for some cotton, anything in a peachy pink color.  No luck.  So when Tricia offered a small cut of velvet that matched, I had to order some.  Her velvet is a nice heavy duty kind and not so hard to work with.  I got my order in the mail yesterday and had no excuse for not finishing the pink pin cushion.  Ta-dah!
I'm happy with how it turned out even though the edge is just plain.
I didn't start something new yesterday as I have so many WIPs.  All I had to do was pick something off the sewing room floor.  I got to thinking of what I would like to work on and two WIPs came to mind.  The gold bird and the Flemish Ornament.  I'll show you tomorrow what I picked up off the floor.
A

Saturday, July 23, 2016

A Finish!

I bought a Shepherd's Bush kit that fits in a tray a while back.

 I have two of the trays and thought it would be nice to stitch something for the bottom.

 This is a regular style Shepherd's Bush.  I changed just a bit as I don't like the wonky writing.  This stitched up pretty quickly.

I cut comic board to fit the bottom and now all I have left to do is mount the stitching on top of some warm and natural batting.

I'm not sure if I will finish off the back of this or glue it to the bottom of the tray.  Ideally, the mounted stitchery would fit snugly and not need to be glued.  We'll see.

I've been walking this morning.  I passed over a hundred runners on the trail.  Then it was off to the Farmer's Market.  Got my cinnamon roll.  It was so good.
There were no bills to pay today.  Yeah!
Since I finished something, maybe I can start something new?  Please?
A

Friday, July 22, 2016

For Maria

Maria asked to see a photo of the new and improved Floss Bin of Shame.
This is the before photo:

 With a gift certificate from my sister, I bought this pretty box from Michael's.

 It has been sitting around for a while here in the sewing room and I wasn't sure what to put in it.  So when I sorted out the Floss Bin of Shame I used the box for the floss that I wanted to keep.  It totally filled up the box.

Jackie DuPlessis has boxes like these too.

But in all honesty, this is not the only box of floss.  There are specialty threads in these boxes.


There are also ziploc bags of specialty threads in this basket.  I'm proud of this basket because I made it.

And we won't talk about the floor.  Yes, I need a maid or a cleaning woman.

It is very hot and humid out today.
Did I show you the Christmas stocking that I am going to make for Evan?

156 shopping days until Christmas.  At least that's what the radio said this morning.
A


Thursday, July 21, 2016

Confessions

When BFF#2 came over to my house to stitch on Monday, I had an embarrassing moment.  BFF#2 needed a certain color of floss so I had to open my sewing room closet door and pull out the Floss Bin of Shame.  We went through the box looking for DMC 3859 but never found it.  BFF#2 kindly remarked that maybe I might want to get rid of the big knot of floss that was in the bin.  That big knot is probably two decades old.  Why can't I throw it away??  I confess that sometimes when I need floss, I don't even want to look for it in the Floss Bin of Shame.  It is so much easier to just run down to JoAnn's and get what I need.  I was thinking about this yesterday and decided to clean out the Floss Bin of Shame.
I decided to keep all the floss that was in those little floss bags.  It actually would be nice to have all my floss in individual bags that can be put on a ring for a project.  Then I decided I would keep all the floss that had its number still on it.  Numberless flosses are not useful.  I also decided to throw away small bits of floss with the numberless skeins.  I worked on the bin for a while and the pile seemed to get bigger rather than smaller!  At last, I came to the knot.  It was a big old tangled mess of floss.  Yes, I threw it away.  Finally.
I have confidence that I can buy the floss I need and will never miss that knot.  What was interesting was how many skeins I had of 632 and 420.  I bet I had 10 skeins of each one.  Whenever I go looking in this bin for white, I can never find any in that bin. 
My Floss Bin of Shame may still look messy but at least I got rid of that stupid knot.
A

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Gifts

I have been working on a little picture album using photos of our trip to see Claire and Evan.

 I finished it this morning.  It is a gift for Claire to be sent along with the completed Evan name pillow.
It is going to in the nineties for the next five days so we will be trying to stay cool here.
I ordered a panel (Moda Northwoods) that I thought would make some cute Christmas ornaments.  What you can't see when you order is exactly how big these suckers are.  I wanted sweet and petite but these ornaments are way too big.

I have to figure out if I can use them or not.  I got some backing fabric that is very nice.
We'll see. . .
A