Patio Wraps, a French finish

Here we are at the start of summer:  I don't know about you, but I was wondering if it was ever going to make it!  Things have been ticking along in my crafty world, though I have been on a bit of a social media break the last few months.  I will flit in here and there on various platforms, but actually enjoyed feeling like I don't have to "keep up" anywhere. 

I have been doing a LOT of cross stitching during  the past three months.  Oh, I'm so happy to be back into it!  Most of what I have worked on are still incomplete:  usually I only like to show my finishes, but I think that will have to change if I want semi-regular blog content!  I participated in Stitch Maynia this year:  I had fourteen new starts and love every one of them.  I was happy to get back to my regular works-in-progress at the end of the month though.

One thing I did finish was this sweet design above from Danybrod.  Bluet, Marguerite, Coquelicot.  The flowers are just so summery, and each colour represents the stripes on the French flag.  A perfect stitch in anticipation of our trip to France next month!

Crochet has taken a back seat to my cross stitching this year.  I think I may have burnt myself out on it from the two years where that's all I wanted to do. It bothers my shoulder as well, so a break is probably a good thing.   I even considered selling off my yarn stash:  thankfully I realized that was just the gremlins talking and instead just boxed it up to keep the dust off of it.  One day I will get it all out again and it will be like the best yarny Christmas ever!

I  do try to keep just one crochet project on the go:  I pick it up occassionally and put in a few stitches.  No deadlines for finishing and slowly, slowly things come to completion.

I call these Porch and Patio wraps.  They are made from easy care, washable acrylic yarn;  perfect for early morning coffee on the patio or late night sitting by a camp fire.  The pattern is really easy and mindless, but I think the finished piece looks more complicated than it is.  I used two skeins of Caron Big Cakes for each shawl:  'Nightberry' for the shawl on the left and 'Blue Hawaiian' for the shawl on the right.  You can find the pattern here: https://thecrochetcrowd.com/crochet-2-cake-shawl-pattern/

I hope your summer is swell:  thanks for visiting☺.

Happy days,
Jenn

I finally got glasses....

..and now I can stitch again!  I can't tell you how excited I am about that, so needless to say I have been cross stitching like crazy these past few weeks.

I finished stitching up three projects:

Stitching Friends by SubRosa Design on Etsy.  I changed the colours and the placement of the letterimg.  I love the little mice but my family does not!  The extra large sewing implements make them uneasy apparently.

Winter Stamp, a kit by Vervaco.  This almost got put away for the year because I didn't want to stitch anything more with winter.  However, it was the bright crocus and sweet snowdrops that kept me stitching, and I am so glad I did!  I just love the colours and those two sweet little chickadees.  This is one part of a seasonal series and I would love to stitch them all, however the only place I can find them now is in the UK.  I am also taking part in Stitch From Stash again this year, and so far have not done too badly.  Best not get off track with an impulsive mail order purchase!

This last picture was my oldest work in progress, and also the first kit I ever purchased.  I started this close to three years ago and it is nice to have it completed.  I found the frame at the thrift store the same day I finished stitching, so it was nice to be able to fully finish it right away.

Butterfly Scene by Creative Accents/Dimensions.

Being able to stitch again has really brought my stitching bug back.  I recently had a birthday and asked for cross stitch kits of course!  My kids gifted me some lovely ones, and I have started one and am setting up for another.

I also treated myself to some pretty new scissors, so I will be one happy/busy stitcher for a while!

Thanks for visiting!
xo  Jenn

February Things

February is only, at maximum, three days shorter than other months.  Why then, does it feel like two weeks shorter?  I guess I start the month with great enthusiasm:  I mean, January is over, so that's exciting.  I also love Valentine's Day so I  am full of plans for handmade cards and decorations.  I drew this little chalkboard, above, and my Welsh dresser got a pink and white make over.

There is that rush for Valentine's Day crafts, which for the life of me I can't seem to plan before February 1st.  So the first week and a half are spent madly stitching, and hoping I can get to the mailbox in time.  

I got my kids cards made:  they're teenagers now but I can't help myself:

I got my gifts made and mailed in time:  crocheted soapsavers ( these things are amazing!) and an owl for a Valentine birthday.

I use Red Heart Scrubby yarn for the soapsavers:  not the cotton kind, but the acrylic.  It dries faster and has a better "scratch".  Pattern:  https://jaydainstitches.com/workshop.php

I love this little guy!  I think I want my own.  The pattern is from here:  

https://www.hollyshobbiescrafts.com/single-post/2018/01/25/Owl-Will-Always-Love-You-Valentine-Caddy-Crochet-Pattern

I finished a few small cross stitch projects once all the gift stitching was done.

My January country house by Les Grilles de Maryse.  These used to be free on her website, but there is now a fee of 15 euros I think for the set of twelve. Still a good deal though, less than two dollars per chart.

I completed Feruary's design last year, so it was actually on display for the month.  I don't think I will stitch one per month;  they will get finished when I feel like it!

I have had this chart in my stash for years.  Every February I pull it out but this year I actually stitched it!

'Chocolate Covered Cherries' by Casey Buonagario.  I have a few more of her charts in my stash I would love to stitch this year.  Sadly she is no longer designing and her charts are out of print.

Another DMC Coloris stitch:  I used this thread because it reminded me of those satin lined, heart shaped, boxes of chocolates.  I should have used another fabric because the cream part of the floss blends in too well with the fabric.  I think this thread is fun for certain kinds of projects, but I don't really love the quick colour changes.

I also started another throw: Flowers in a Row with a colourway I saw on Pinterest.  I love that they look like tulips!  It has been great to work on during our exceptionally cold and icy month.

How perfect that they matched my Valentine's tulips!

As I mentioned it has been very cold and icy this month, so there was a lot of time for making.  I started at least five other things, organized my cross stitch magazine collection and built four Ikea pantries.  At times it felt like a lot of wheel spinning, but in hindsight I think I made the most of it.  I am happy to see the beginning of another month and *hopefully* the arrival of Spring.

Thanks for visiting!

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!

Summer

Hello!  Happy August!

I was hoping I could sneak back for a quickie update.  It's funny that you can have lots of extra time during the summer for fun little pursuits, but keeping up with the day to day routines seems harder somehow.

My house is a mess:  I don't recall the last time I gave it more than a quick sweep.  I have been doing laundry, but the clean clothes sit in the basket until the basket is almost empty.  I think I must be rebelling a bit because I feel summer is going way to quickly.  Perhaps the more I act like a sloth, the more I feel I will really have had some time off.  That kind of thinking must be logical somewhere, right?

Despite all this heel digging I have been making.  The orderly part of me that is still trying to get through the mountains of yarn has been preparing for future cleaning.  I am (still!) going through my cotton yarn stash.  I now have enough dishcloths, swiffer covers and scrubbers to last for a very long time.  I am also working on a colourful mat for somewhere in the house, just because the thought of stitching up fifteen more dishcloths was a little depressing.

I do feel I can see the light at the end of this Bernat Handicrafter tunnel though:  once the mat is finished I have allocated almost all the rest of the cotton stash to specific projects.  They may not get started right away, but at least the yarn left over will have Purpose, and that changes the way I feel about it.

I tend to cross stitch less in the summer, so other than some birthday cards and a yet-to-be finished ornament,  I have just been poking my needle into a few of my current WIP's.  I joined a Facebook stitch-along for August whose theme is 'All Creatures Great and Small':  for this I brought out the butterfly kit I purchased last summer.

I signed up for Stitch From Stash again, and am hoping to do a bit better this time around.  'Miserable Failure' would be the right way to describe my last attempt at it!
I started off with a decent sized finish, so that combined with the three small finishes leaves me in the black at fifteen dollars.

This chart is by Veronique Enginger, one of my favourite French designers.  The chart is from her book, 'Douceurs et gourmandises au point de croix'.

I have done a tad of sewing too, but I think if this was not for another person I would not have it finished yet!  Another project bag for cross stitch with a sparkly needleminder, and two Eiffel Tower stitch markers because they also knit and crochet.  It's pretty obvious I love a good theme!

Now here we are, almost to the middle of August and fall seems to be waiting just around the corner.  As much as I want summer for a bit longer, I can feel the shift in my mind as I catch myself thinking about meal planning and cooler weather home projects.  Time marches on I guess, but it would be nice if it just stopped to put its feet up for a little bit wouldn't it?

Enjoy the rest of your summer:  I'll be back next time with another crafty slice of life. 😊

Happy Days!
Jenn

Spring Things

Hello!

Well Spring has definitely arrived where I am, but it has been cloaked under grey and mostly rainy skies.  I thought a little crafty update with some colourful things might be the best rememdy at the moment.

 My daughter bought me this lovely transferware jug for my birthday.  I was especially happy to put these sunny daffodils in it:  I think blue and white transferware was made for yellow daffodils, don't you?


On My Hooks

These scarves are thankfully not needed at the moment, but I was happy to complete them and use up some more yarn for my stash reduction challenge:

A simple crochet linen stitch and two chunky 'mystery' yarns went into this one.  It's a bit skinnier than I would have liked, but I used up every bit of both yarns.  I wish I knew the brand name because it is really soft and lovely.

 This is my Ravenclaw-Inspired scarf I made for the Harry Potter CAL/KAL on Ravely through the Victorian Podcast Studio.  I used Red Heart Soft yarn, and the pattern is called the 'Mindless Scarf' by Knotted Nicole on Ravely.  This is probably my favourite scarf pattern as it is so easy to work up.  The scalloped sides happen as you go, so once you reach the length you want you are all done.

Moving to something more Spring-like, I hooked up this crescent shaped shawl from the book,
Poetic Crochet by Sarah Kay Hartman.

The pattern is called 'Avalon'.  I used a yarn called Bamboo Pop, in the colourway 'Soothe'.
The yarn is 50% cotton, 50% bamboo, and is really soft and has a lovely drape.

 I wouldn't say this is my favourite colourway, and it was a bit difficult to find the right pattern for it, but now that it's all done and ready to wear I feel more happy with it.

My last hooked project is another mesh shawl using ribbon yarn.  I had this left over from the crochet mat in one of my last posts.  While these are very quick to work up, I have to say I am done with ribbon yarn shawls!  This is my fourth, and this is the last!

While I have been working on lots of different crochet projects, I have been trying to be more disciplined with my cross stitch.  Since January I have been trying to work on one or two projects only, just to to get some of these WIP's completed.

 I was happy to get this one finished, just because I was tired of working with all that DMC 310!  I stitched this on a light pink evenweave fabric I dyed myself, and made a few colour and design changes to the chart.  While it did seem I was just slogging it out for a long while, I am really happy with the finish.  The chart is from the May 2012 issue of Cross Stitcher Magazine.

This project is a gift for my son, who turns into a teenager in July.  I bought the pattern from Holly's Hobbies on Etsy, and changed up the floss colours to some that were a bit brighter.  I don't know which I'm happier about:  the fact that I completed another WIP, or the fact that I have it ready three months before his birthday!

As a little reward for finishing two projects, I did start something new!  This is 'Spring Bird' by Jeanette Douglas.  I bought this chart while on vacation in March.

 The whole time I thought I was stitching on 40 count linen and was feeling very impressed with my advancement as a stitcher.  Well, pride does come before the fall, and it was only when I could not find a frame that I realized I could not have been stitching on 40 count linen:  I was stitching on 28 or 30 count!  Thank goodness there were enough silks in the embellishment pack to finish the design.  Now that I won't be able to display it in a pretty, vintage looking frame, I will have to turn it into a flat-fold or something.

Keeping with the Spring theme, I then stitched this Sheep Sampler from Elizabeth's Designs:

 There is a companion piece to this, but after all those specialty stitches from this design and Spring Bird, I think I will leave it until next year!

Every once in a while I like to do just plain embroidery.  I guess it's not really plain, because some of the stitches can be quite complicated, but all I wanted to do was make a few straight lines with thread on fabric.  I found this embroidery in a past issue of Bustle and Sew magazine:  I think maybe 2015.

 Originally I was planning on painting the hoop white, but I found some white seam binding that belonged to my grandmother and thought I would try wrapping the hoop instead.

Just for the record, here is another picture without that piece of fuzz between the 'P' and 'R' that I only just noticed!

Moving on to sewing, I wanted to make some things with some of the pretty fabrics I also brought home from my March trip.

First up is a small, quilted patchwork table topper using two packages of mini charm squares:

There is no batting between the layers:  just some white flannel on the back so it lays nice and flat.

 I couldn't resist this photo:  the colours just went together so well!

And lastly, (phew!) another project from Bustle and Sew using some of  my new fabrics:

I have a hard cover for my sewing machine but it's so bulky to have hanging around.  This is much prettier, and gave me another opportunity to play around with free motion embroidery.

I started off with a birthday picture so I'll end with another.  We had Afternoon Tea at home and it was just perfect.  The treats came from the local bakery; sandwiches were made by me, and a good time was had by all. The kids even dressed up so that was a gift in itself!

 The floral tablecloth was definitely overkill, but it was my birthday party!

Well once again that was an extremely long post, so thank you for making it this far.  I hope warmer  weather is at your doorstep (or cooler, depending what hemisphere you're in) and your flowers are blooming.

 Until probably next month,  Happy Days to you and thanks for stopping in!

xo  Jenn