Copyright

(c) 2009 - 2024 (MEM)

Please keep in mind that, unless otherwise noted, everything on my blog is copyright material of some sort. Either by me (as picture taker, writer, creator) or more importantly by the designer of the needlework pieces I present. If you promise to be copyright mindful, my promise to you is to do my best to provide you enough information in my post for you to obtain your own legal copy. Please be respectful of these copyrights and not take business away from our wonderful designers. Thank you.
............. . ."She looks for wool and flax and works with her hands in delight" Proverbs 31:13 NAS


Friday, June 29, 2012

Bead Crochet Bracelet - Made by Me

Just a little item I thought I'd share with you. I am thinking about entering it in the County Fair this year. What do you think??



It was fun to make once I got the hang of holding the beaded thread. The hardest part was probably pre-stringing the beads on the crochet thread in the correct order!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

What I did on my Summer Vacation.....or

Band Sampler Update

Last week my mother-in-law was in town visiting. I am very lucky and get along (and even like) my in-laws so her visit was not a bad thing! She is also very easy to entertain. We went out to eat a few times, drove over to Evergreen (it was cooler) and walked around. We went to downtown Littleton and walked around. But mostly we all hung out together at the house. She reading, hubby on the computer or watcing TV or doing little things around the house (like laundry :) ), and I mostly stitched!!  Truely a good time was had by all despite the record high temps (house has air conditioning). Miss Maddie slept as usual.

So with all that stiching time I made pretty good progress on my band sampler and thought I'd share.


 Below is a close-up of the left side completed

 Below is a close up of the rest of the piece still being worked on.

This section is the first part of the second part of the three part series (got that?) Go here to see the entire top part (first third of the sampler).  The last third should be in the Fall issue of Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly and I hope to be caught up by then---could need another vacation!

Monday, June 25, 2012

Hand-Beaded VW Beatle

Here is a news article about the hand-beaded VW Bug that is on display at Denver International Airport (DIA) through Aug. 31, 2012. I snapped some shots while waiting for my mother-in-law's plane to arrive. Great fun to see up close. It on the public side of security, so we were able to get a good look. It is right outside where people arrive off the train from the concourses. ENJOY!!

 Beaded inside and out!


Now get to work on yours!!!



Thursday, June 21, 2012

I last told you about "Flower Patch" here when I finished it. Many of the ladies in the Sampler Guild sent there finished piece to Jill Rensel in Ogden, UT because she does great work and had the perfect frame for the piece. So I decided to give it a try to, having never mailed out stitching before. It all worked out great, price was good and Jill was great to work with. I had called her on the phone first to make sure she still had the frame and then we corresponded by email. She even sent me an email when it was all done that included a photo of the finished piece. I was not sure where it would end up in the house so I had her use conservation glass which would help with any ultraviolet ray issues. Turns out it is in the hall way to the upper levels, with some, but not much, sun exposure.

I think you will agree that the frame is perfect for the piece....look closely at the design on the frame and the aqua blue stitching around the flower patch! Picture is at a bit of an angle to avoid glare, but you should be able to see it quite well.

Happy day everyone!!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Band Sampler Update and TUSAL

Here is my TUSAL new moon offering for June. Check this link for more information.


 Since 99% of the orts in the jar are from the Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly Magazine's year long (well in three parts anyway) offering here is my progress so far:

 I am a third of the way done and now starting the next part which is in the current issue. That is about all for now, tomorrow or the next day I will be showing you how nice my Flower Patch looks framed.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Gifts for a Friend

My college roommate is a quilter and appreciates the handmade, so I made her a couple of things for her birthday this year (it was June 9) and being a sewer/quilter she understands over due gifts.

I saw this cute grab-it and go kit at a quilt shop. All the pieces were already cut, I just appliqued them on and added the backing. I purchased a sugar cookie scented candle in a jar for the center. It was great fun to do.

I know she likes rabbits and the color red, so I stitched this cute bunny in red and black. I used variegated DMC floss, I think number 75 and the chart from Gift of Cross Stitching  Issue #71(Mar/Apr 2012).

Here is a close up of the trim I glued on the edges - I attached the stitching to some comic book board padded with batting.

I found a nice box at Hobby Lobby and stained it a colonial pecan and then lined the inside. I used some brick red ultra suede for the inside. My husband provided the technical support for prepping the box through the final steel wool - which included the suggestion to add a second coat of stain.
I just got word that she received the box and know it is safe to post about it now. She was very happy with her presents. So once again HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY Sandra!!!!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Fun Friday (June 8) Report

This past Friday I went to a 60 years worth of craft stash sale! It was amazing, I had never seen so many different trims and lace and tons of fabric and boxes and boxes (and I mean big boxes) of mounted buttons. Also button jars and bags of button. The lady doing the sale was a member of the button society which would explain all the buttons. But she had lots (maybe 4 six foot tables worth) of fabric. I thought I'd share what I picked up all for $22.00.

Most everything was nicely marked and in zip lock bags. Here is some fabric I picked up. Harder to see at upper right is fabric with button designs on them.
 At the upper middle are two bags of snaps then clockwise is some lace then some buttons and back to the fabric.

I also picked up a McCall's pattern from 1978 or 1979 and a quilt book from the 1930s that is still in good shape (no brown acidified pages).
 I also picked up a book for my brother, so it is not shown here (early Christmas gift purchase) and two Whitman Sampler tins with hinged lids. The top one is about 2 inches deep the bottom one is 3 or 4 inches deep.


Then since I had the day off and it was still early in the day I decided to make it a "Mary" day and on the way home stopped at all the yard/garage sale signs that I saw. I would guess I hit about 6 sales. The last one (and closest to home) I found this box marked cross stitch with some fabric and hoops all for just $1.00.
Inside was a treasure trove of things as you see below:


Some of the items I really did not need and since the next day was the Sampler Guild of the Rockies Retreat at which I could sell stuff, I put some of it on sale myself. I sold 4 things from this box for $1.45! A good deal was had by all.

That is the report for the day!!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Sampler Guild of the Rockies Retreat Report #2

WARNING PICTURE HEAVY

Final report on the Sampler Guild of the Rockies June Retreat:

I will try to show things in order of the day, but might get off a bit (as if it really mattered)!


This is what was at our table as we sat down. It was in a plastic bag, but I took this photo at home. A pair of craft scissors, a pencil, some applique pins and a notebook.

This is my seat at the table. See the great houses made out of pretty card stock and the tree pin cushion/place holder with name (Mary)? My neighbors had other colored houses, while mine was blue.


Now lets look at what was inside the house! Picture also taken at home. A Lizzie n Kate with fabric and floss, a notepad and pen donated by a local shop and a MOUSE pin cushion. I love THIS kind of mouse in my house!


 Our first project of the day was a wool applique ort keep which I ended up working on all day and finished that night (see previous post). Here is the picture of the model.


Our next project is a cute needle holder that rolls up. Here is the model. There are places for the different sized needles and our initials at the bottom.


There were breaks throughout the day to shop at the tables (we could sell stuff there if we wanted) and door prizes handed out. Here are some of the door prizes and not all were the same. I cute little cloth ort holder made by some members, a Vera Bradley ID purse and a great scissor fob made by one of our members.


I think by now it must have been time for lunch. We had a nice soup and salad lunch with chocolate or pistachio pie for dessert (I chose chocolate). You can see my pin cushion tree is holding my place at the lunch table.


After lunch there was more time to shop, more door prizes and PROJECTS!! I will show you photos I took of the models since I only worked on the wool applique and lets face it even I can't stitch fast enough to finish them all in a day!!

This was a nice ornament.


The kit for this next project were in our house. This part of the retreat we learned how to make a stand up using cut up foam core. The cut to size foam core, batting, backing and side fabrics were provided and oral instructions given on how to make it into this stand-up. It is pretty easy. The technique has a name which I do not recall, but when I actually do the finishing I will give you the name and maybe be brave and do a tutorial! Probably will just find a good tutorial and provide the link - we'll see.
 Not sure why this posted sideways when I cropped and saved it upright, but our final project was a cute house bookmark. Once we have done the stitching we place it (with heat n bond, or similar) to a grosgrain ribbon (provided).

So by the end of the day a GREAT time was had by all, the final door prize I received was a pretty vase of yellow Iris which I forgot to take a photo of - oops.

Stash was enhanced and I have a few projects to complete once I am done with the sampler I am working on, or if I need a break from the sampler, I may start one of the projects - they were all fantastic after all!!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Retreat 2012 Report #1

Yesterday was the third annual Sampler Guild of the Rockies (SGR)Retreat! It was great fun as always. I plan a more detailed report later, but for now thought I'd show you that I actually finished one of the projects last night. It was a wool applique ort keep. It was the first project we did and I basically worked on it during the retreat and will do the other projects here at home. So by the time I got home I just needed to do the chimney and then add the embroidery accents and iron on the inside cover fabric.

This is the outside of the ort keep. The bottom with the wool applique is the front when it is folded in half. You can see in this photo I added my initials and the date (which are upside down since it should be folded) to the back at the bottom.


This is the inside opened up. The bottom is some fabric (prettier in person) that was placed on the wool using heat-n-bond after all the wool applique was completed for a prettier look than the back of the stitching. The top in the picture is the part that holds the orts. Some batting was zig-zagged on the wool and this holds the orts until they can be disposed of. It is approximately 4"x6" and it folds up nicely taking up very little space in a stitching bag!


I will have more to report on later this week about the retreat and about a very fun garage sale find that occurred this past Friday.


Thursday, June 7, 2012

Wild Weather Night!

Last night for the Denver metro area storms started around 6 pm to the east of us and we got our share with hard rain and the LOTS of lightening and hail starting at 12:10 am. The weather radio we have seem to go off every 10 minutes for a while and just before the same notice appeared on the TV, so our radio let us know sooner. We got an alert that finally affected us around 12:15 am. Woke me up, hubby slept through it!

Non- stop lightening flashes until about 1 am, tons of pea size hail layered the yard. I heard a few larger hail balls hit the various vehicles on the street - hubby's truck included. Had the window open and could hear the "pings" as they hit. Weather radio went off about then for a sever T-storm over SW Denver to include Chatfield Reservoir (and other locations) which put us right in the middle of it. Rained hard and fast, we had puddles and a small stream on our back patio.

Later (and the last alert of the night at about 1:30am) said flood warning since the storm dropped about 2 inches of rain in 45 minutes. I believe it!

Dog finally let me know she was not happy. Normally she would have gone under a bed by now, but she is in the crate. So I went down with her a bit until about 12:50 when things started to settle down. She did not bark after that at all.

Here are some pictures, you will see my lovely planted whiskey barrels took hit. Two are out in the open and two have a bit of roof over hang. Hail piled up to about 6 inches in places it could drift.

We could get a repeat around here today, but it is not going to be as hot, so hopefully will not be as bad. Right now the hail is melting and light fog all over.

As far as I can tell only plant life was damaged, house, fences and truck seem to be ok.

Before the storm:

 After: geraniums, petunias and cosmos not happy campers. Snapdragon seems to have done ok.

 Our rain gauge in this barrel had 1.5 inches, a dead bee and geranium petals in it.

 Hail drift on front porch is about 6 inches.
That is today's report, hope it is quieter in your neck of the woods!!!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Hornbook Finish Finished

I finally finish finished the hornbook. I finished the stitching and told you about it here. The meeting to learn how to mount the stitching on the hornbook was the night before Maddie's surgery. I was able to get it to the point of mounting it to the hornbook during the meeting, but with Maddie's surgery it had been sitting in my studio waiting for this last step until I had a bit of free time. While on Maddie watch my hubby and I have to alternate cores or put her in the crate while we are home. I hate to crate her if I don't have too since she is in it all day while we are at work and all night while we sleep. My computer is in the same room as her, so right now she is out and able to enjoy lying in the sun.

This was a Foothills Chapter EGA project. A member's husband made the hornbooks and she adapted a design for us to stitch and she instructed us on putting it on the hornbook. I think most people put it on their hornbook with the handle at the top so they could use the hole to hang it. I decided to mount it with the handle down which is how the original hornbook would have be oriented. The twisted cord I made for it originally was too skinny so I used it as a hanger and made a bigger cord to go around the stitching. As a side note, the original hornbook, would not have had those holes down the sides to hold threads since it was used as a means to learn the alphabet, math and other non-stitching related subjects.

Truth be told it has been finish finished for about a week, I just now got around to posting about it!

It was a lot of fun to do, THANKS Donna!



Friday, June 1, 2012

Memorial Day Flowers

Besides making the Red, White and Blueberry Pie on Memorial Day this year I also planted some flowers and I thought I would share some pictures.


The first one is in a sunny area on a corner of our back (east facing) patio. The plastic cup is our rain gauge. I planted a yellow snapdragon, two red geraniums, a pink cosmos and some purple petunias.

The second one is in the back yard between some trees and is in partial shade. For an unknown reason there was a slab of cement next to the fence between the trees. My hubby painted it brown and put the whisky barrel down and filled with potting soil. My job was to plant stuff. I put in some impatiens and coleus

 The third is not a whisky barrel because one of those would have been too big for our front porch. It also is in partial shade so has the same plants (just a few less impatiens) as the one in back.

I also have another whisky barrel out front at the right of our garage it looks the same as the back patio since it is in the sun (west facing.

My hubby has been GREAT at helping me keep them watered and some do get water when the lawn sprinklers go, but that is only three days a week and not a good soaking.

That is about all for now!