Bracelet

I was tickled to get the bracelet kits in the mail yesterday.  They were sweetly packaged in little tins.

I wasn't sure I could finish them well as I have very little experience with making jewelry.  First you have to sort out what parts you have.

There aren't specific instructions just a small general leaflet.  So I printed out the picture of the bracelet from the website.  I was able to put it together without too much trouble.  I used my Orna Willis tools and clipped the head pins and curled them under.  I don't know if I did it correctly but I ended up with this:

Success!

Then the other one looks like this:

The charms are larger than what I imagined but I think it will be cute when it is done. Again, there are no  specific instructions so I'm not sure what to use the little circles for and I am just guessing that they are for the gems.  I had to go get the glue to put the gems on the backs.  So I will finish it today.

I worked on Winter's Cottage and finished off the top inside part.

Now I am working on the front of the needlebook.  I managed to find where I am in the directions which are step by step instructions.

When I get this part done I can put it together.  I have changed a few things so I hope it works out.

I got just a bit discouraged with the chair seat.  The back stitch around the bottom was not centered and I (in my miserly stupidity put it too close to the top) am going to restitch the backstitch so that the initials and bird are centered.  It's on the bottom, so it really doesn't matter.  Actually, I don't like the design and would like to stitch something more delicate and more me for the chair seat.  But I don't know what that is yet.  I'm thinking.
This may take a while.
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Indian Summer

It is a beautiful day outside.  This weekend we are supposed to be in the 60's.  A warm reprieve in the month of November is glorious.  Most of the leaves are off the trees now.

I finished the Cabinet of Curiosities pin cushion off yesterday.  I think it turned out fine.  I like the silk velvet, it doesn't have the usually problems that velvet has and is rather sturdy.

Now I have three little ditties for my casket.

 It is a good exercise to try different techniques and different threads.  I want to get a couple of books of William Morris cross stitch designs.  I should just try working with my PCStitch program to see if I can take a design and turn it into cross stitch.  It is kind of frustrating as I don't know what I am doing but that is how you learn, trial and error.

I finished the top of the seat cushion for the chair.  The bottom of the seat cushion just needs the backstitch around the edge and the bird's eye, then I can whip those two guys together and mount them on the chair. But tell me why people make bird's eyes yellow???

 Then I can start on the head cushion.  I like the little scissors fob.  That would be fun and quick to do.  I may do that this afternoon.
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Done!

I am one of those people who would like to put an exclamation point after every sentence just to give it some emphasis.  I have to watch myself as I try not to use too many.  But I am very happy to say that I finished the Cabinet of Curiosities pin cushion.

 All those queen stitches!  I very much enjoyed pulling out the waste canvas.  I think it turned out fine.  You can not even tell that one bunch of flowers is one thread too low so I'm glad I didn't take it out.  I trimmed up the satin and fished out the silk velvet backing.  It doesn't feel like velvet, it feels like velveteen, not so slippery.  I want to put some cording on it so I went digging for some coordinating material since I don't have extra satin or silk velvet to make the cording.  I found some silk that I got at Delectable Mountain that I think will do.  It is quite light and almost see through.  I'll have to see if it covers the cord well enough.  If not, I'll have to line it with some muslin.

 That is my goal for today: to finish-finish the pin cushion.
When you finish something you have automatic permission to start something new.  I have been looking at this little chair that I bought while I was at the New England Stitching Retreat.

It has some small pieces to be stitched for it.  I was kind of craving a small easy stitch.  So I started the seat cushion last night.  It is going pretty quickly.  There are other larger pieces that coordinate but right now I'm not in the mood for those.  I love that I bought all the threads too.  I didn't have to go digging for colors.

Thanksgiving is two weeks from today.  How can that be?  I have to decide if how much trouble I want to go to.  We will have no visitors and DH doesn't care.  I think I do want to make a turkey.  If you make a turkey, you have to make dressing.  If you have dressing, you should have some cranberry sauce.  Of course you have to have some sort of potato, I like mashed.  If you're good, you have a vegetable.   It is a special day so you can have dessert. If you're going to that much trouble, you might as well have some homemade rolls.  So there you have it.
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Oops

This happens to me a lot.  I pick up a project in the morning and notice that I have made a mistake the night before.  Then comes the question:  Do I take it out and fix it?  This morning when I picked up the Cabinet of Curiosities pin cushion I noticed a mistake.  The vase is almost done but I realized that it is one thread too low.  Do I take it out?  I decided to think about it for a bit, to weight the pros and cons.

The vase is almost done!
What would the effect be on the satin?  Snags?
Picking out queen stitches, ugh.
Can you really see that it is one thread too low?  One thirtieth of an inch?

I decided not to take it out.  When I take the waste canvas off, it will be less noticeable.  And in my heart of hearts, I don't think I will like it anyway.
I'm not really too lazy to take it out.  I'm just being practical.
I think I can finish the stitching part of this today.  Yeah!
I watched two episodes of Downton Abbey last night.  What a good series that is!
Back to more queen stitches.
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Two Cents

I put in my two cents about this country and voted this morning.  I was number 264 at the voting place for our area.  It was pretty busy but there weren't any lines.  I also ran into three people I knew and hadn't seen for quite a while.

I worked on the Cabinet of Curiosities pin cushion.  I have a ton of queen stitches left to do but I am making good progress.  I am anxious to get done and see what it looks like when I pull out the waste canvas.  I almost messed up the initials.  I began stitching them and then didn't like the "W" so I changed it by deleting four rows.  That meant I had to scramble to keep the initials centered.  It looks good though.

I also put in some snow on the Winter Cottage.  The snow was originally supposed to be squares but I didn't like that and changed it to circles which makes it a bit harder to put in.  It is hard to work on something I'm not crazy about but I will keep plugging away.  One corner still needs finishing.

I ordered the sweet little limited edition mouse from Just Nan.  That will be a fun stitch.
I plan to watch some of Season 1 of Downton Abby tonight as there will be nothing on TV.
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UFO to WIP

I need to turn a UFO into a WIP.  With that in mind, I dug out Winter Cottage yesterday.  It isn't very far from being done but I am going to have to make myself work on it.  (It's not cross stitch, and therefore not as much fun to do.)  I took Gay Ann Rogers advice where she suggested putting the pattern in a notebook for easy reference.  So I put Winter Cottage and Victorian Painted Lady in a notebook.  Townhouse could have joined them but it is nicely tucked into a drawer in my closet.
The cover is done.

One half of the inside is done.

I just have to finish the other half of the inside and put it together.

Since my Painted Lady threads aren't here yet, I want to get this finished up.  Thank you Jane for recommending following the directions this time.  I am going to try that.  Really.
I am happy so far with the Cabinet of Curiosities pin cushion on satin.  The stitches look nice and even.  I have started the queen stitches, there are a lot of those.  I'm hoping the stitching will stay nice looking after I pull out the waste canvas.

The bathrooms are clean.
I forgot to turn back the clock by my side of the bed and got up way earlier than I meant to.  DUH.
Dylan and I have a checkers game to finish.
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New Technique

I was very happy to finish several of Aunt Julia's Sewing Box accessories yesterday.  The scissors fob is done and has some nice twisted cord.

 Then the pin keep is done but I think it needs something around the edge like lace or cording.  I wish I knew how to put that button trim on.

I'll have to look up and see if there is a tutorial on how to do that edging.   I tried the cording that I made for the box but I didn't like the colors.
 Then lastly is the scissors/needle book.  It turned out fine.  Thank goodness the wrinkles ironed out with a little help from spray starch.

I added some skirtex to give it more body.  I used the charm to sew on the wool needle page (instead of putting it on the scissors fob).  I think the needle page needs more tacking down as it flops around when you open the book.  There is a pocket on each side.

There are two other books to make.  I haven't started them yet.
I wanted to set up this month's project for Cabinet of Curiosities.  First you put the piece of satin on a frame and then baste the waste canvas to it.  I tried using the milliner needle but found that the embroidery needle is easier.  I need help threading the milliner but the embroidery needle has a bigger eye and is sturdier.

I enjoyed sleeping through that extra hour that we got last night.  It was nice to get up when it was light for a change.  I'm hungry for lunch but it isn't time yet.
Thank goodness the election will be over this week.  We got at least 8 robo calls yesterday and the endless commercials are driving us crazy.
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