Last Week in the Craft Room...

One good thing about these cold temperatures is I try to stay warm by being busy!

Last week I started turning my stack of crocheted snowflakes

Into a stack of blanket squares:

Only fifteen more to go!

I tried my hand at acrylic paint pouring:

I had more success with the green and yellow ones.  The red and orange were my first attempts, but I would like to re-do them.  It is a pretty addicting, though messy, process!

Something else I have been wanting to try is to tea/coffee dye fabric.  I got a lovely new cross stitch chart for Christmas that I feel needs to be stitched on something that looks like aged parchment.  I also put some previously dyed pieces of evenweave in the pot to see how they would turn out.

I followed this tutorial by Vonna Pfeiffer of The Twisted Stitcher.

I am quite pleased with the results, but I could use more practice to get more mottling in the fabric. 

We had some empty Illy coffee cannisters hanging around:  I hate to put them in recycling because they are a great size for pantry goods.  I got out my scrapbook supplies and had a fun time cutting and pasting pretty papers onto them.

And finally, a small cross stitch finish:

I am using my DMC Coloris threads to stitch up these little month blocks.  The patterns are from the Palko-lap blog.  I am not sure how I will finish these as they are quite small, but the right idea will come along eventually

The weather will be even colder this week, so I have hooks and needles at the ready!

Thanks for visiting!

New Year Stitching

Happy Monday!

  I wanted to show some of my recent stitching finishes.  Last year I hardly did any cross stitching:  eight finished pieces in total and five of those were smalls.  Let's hope 2019 has a little more balance between my hooks and needles.

My first finish has been in the works for almost two years.  I only stitched on it on Sundays:  pretty consistently for the first year and hardly at all the second.  I joined a Stitch from Stash facebook group again, only this time my budget is zero, so the only credits I get will be for completing a project.  I figured this was the best way to get some of those languishing projects out into the light of day!
  During the Christmas holidays I put the finishing touches on this English Sampler by Sandy Orton.
The original design has all sorts of white work and drawn thread work at the bottom.  I wasn't interested in doing that, but I did have a lovely piece of crocheted lace I tacked on instead.  The frame came from the thrift store and is the most perfect size I think!

My next finish is ' by The Drawn Thread.  I knew I wanted a different kind of finish for this one, and was inspired by the super talented Priscilla Blain.  I glued the design onto mat board and put it on a wreath decorated with wintery picks and ribbon from Michaels.  This design is one of four seasonal ones, so I would love to stitch up the rest and display them the same way.

This last design was a kit gifted to me in a Christmas swap.  The picture is printed onto the aida fabric, and the only stitching to do is some accent cross stitch and french knots.  I have never done anything like this before but it was a lot of fun.

Blackthorn Fairy

Thanks for joining me today!