Cushion Fest

It has been raining a lot here in the past few days.  Not just drizzly rain either:  it's been full blown, torrential downpour; complete with thunder, lightening, and skies so dark you would swear it's 9pm all the time.  There's nothing to do when the weather is like this except go down to the basement and sew.

For once I am getting ahead of the game and making some cushion covers for upcoming seasons.  I found these lovely poppy window valances at the thrift store and thought they would look great on the couch come fall.

I still have a crush on those cozy, sweater pillows.  After making these ones last year, I knew I wanted to keep going.  I have been collecting sweaters with stand-out stitch patterns for the past few months, and this week I turned them into four more pillows.

I *almost* can't wait for fall so I can get them out.  I'll take a nice long summer first though!

This last cusion is for using now.   It has been in the works for so long, I don't have the heart to put it away for another few months!

The pattern is a cross stitch one from the March 2014 issue of Cross Stitcher magazine.  I wanted to work it in needlepoint with wool instead of cross stitch.  I was pleased at how quickly it worked up, but then I ran out of white and had to order more.  It didn't match up, so there was much unpicking and two more orders of DMC ecru to wait for.  I am happy with the end result, though I see my piping skills could use a bit of further education in the finishing department!

In between all the rain my peonies have been blooming.  There is so much silken petal goodness going on around here I am in flower heaven!  I'll leave you with a few photos.

Thanks for visiting!

May Makes

Happy June!  Can you believe it?  May was so lovely I hated to see it end.  June is nice too, but I find it's a lot like December in that it just screeches by as we wind down the school year and get ready for summer vacation.

I have a few quick things to share that I completed in May.  First up are two letters from Brooke's Books Stitcher's Alphabet.  I stitched up the letters D and F.  D took some patience as there were many small patches of colour.  I just love the end result though: isn't her little face so sweet?

F was much quicker; it took about four hours and was super easy-going.

I am so far leaving any added embellishments off.  There are a few buttons to put on, and beads, but I'm not sure about the beads just yet.  I will decide at the end.

Here is what it looks like so far:

I also managed to complete another long suffering work in progress.  It has been years since I started these quilted hot pads.  Not quite sure what I was waiting for, but I am happy to have them out of the "Inbox"!

I am working on a few crochet projects:  one is a blanket with left over Lake Erie throw yarn.  We have been sucked into the black hole of watching "Game of Thrones" on DVD so I try to get at least one square per episode completed.  That makes me feel a bit better about watching for hours on end anyway!

Mr Crafty World and I got away for a few days to celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary a few weeks ago.  We went to beautiful Niagara On The Lake and spent two days in a lovely little boutique hotel.  I would like to be able to show you lots of pictures of this charming place, but do you know I only took this one picture the whole time and didn't work on any of the crafts I took with me?!

This yellow magnolia was just stunning and now I use this picture as my screen saver to remind me of the lovely trip.

Thanks for visiting!   Enjoy June!


xoJenn