Wow! That Goes Really Quickly!

I started this punch needle project last night.

It's a kit I bought at The Old Tattered Flag last fall. I'm going to modify the border because I want it to be squared off rather than wavy and curved at the top.

This morning I finished the leaves and started the pumpkin.

These are Sullivan flosses that Julie Thomas dyes herself under the OTF brand. The variegations will really show up when I do the background in Dirty Linen.

I'd better get another one of these projects ready for the retreat next week as this one is going to finish up quickly.

Lilac

I finished the punch needle piece today. I used #8 Valdani thread in JP1 colourway (Sunwashed) for the background.

I simply mounted it on a piece of foam core - nothing fancy.

I need to paint these little easels that I've had in my stash since last fall. I may be investing in some chalk paint because no prep or sanding is required before application. 

Today Jen1, Marilyn, and I went to The Gathering in Port Hope.  Also meeting us there were Alexa, Annie, Donna, Terry, and Betty. We also saw Rosemary and Gini from Windreach. Mo also joined us. There were lots of great vendors.

After dropping Marilyn off, Jen1 and I went to Fabricland for their 50% off sale.

Now the focus will be planning what projects to take to Elim next Thursday - Sunday.

Hoop De Do!

My Morgan lap stand hoop came today! It's great for doing punch needle because it holds the fabric drum tight and the stacked hoops (7" and 10") keep one from stabbing oneself whilst punching.

In anticipation of its arrival yesterday, I traced the pattern onto my fabric (weaver's cloth). As the punching is done from the back and shows on the front, the pattern needs to be backwards on the fabric.

It's "Lilac Garden" by Michelle L. Palmer and was printed in the Spring 2018 edition of Punch Needle and Primitive Stitching magazine. I have a digital subscription which entitles me to 4 new issues and one year of back issues for a mere $24 US.

 The original pattern measured 4" x 7" but I didn't want to make it that big. A) that's a lot of punching, and B) that's a LOT of floss. I reduced it to 80% on my printer which brought it down to 3 1/4" x 5 3/4".

I got this much done in just a couple of hours this afternoon.

This is what the front looks like. The word 'Lilac' will be better defined once I get the background filled in.

I already have planned how I'm going to FFO it (finally finish).

The PNPS magazine has both punch needle and cross stitch patterns. I think the subscription is a really good deal as there are no shipping costs, no hard copy to store, and because it's digital, it is much less to produce and distribute. I've had no trouble printing the patterns on my printer once they're converted to .pdf format.

I've also been getting a lot done on my Kathy Barrick "Bird's Eye View".

I turned the horse into a donkey by making the ears longer but my stitcherly friends tell me the tail is too long for a donkey so I'll pick out those stitches and make it a bit smaller. I rather like the definition of stitching on 40 ct fabric and using only one thread, I don't need to 'railroad' to get the thread to lie flat.

I need to get my 'Cinnamon Stars' by Plum Tree Samplers kitted up and ready to take to our stitching retreat next week. I like to take lots of projects to the retreat so I don't run out of things to do. There may be another punch needle project to take as well. That reminds me, I still have the Drawn Thread 'Stars' project to take and finish.

Skip and I got our taxes done today. Ours are so simple but with income splitting, I can't be bothered trying to navigate through the tax prep CD that can be purchased. The preparer gives us a loyalty discount as we've been having her do our taxes for years and she did Skip's parents' taxes before us. She also gave Skip a senior discount. Rats! I should have waited until after my birthday so I could have got the senior discount, too.

On the way back home from Port Perry, I stopped into Myrtle Station Wool and bought the yarn to knit another Cunningham baby blanket as yet other friends of ours are becoming grandparents again.

Project Bag Blitz

I made 4 more project bags with vinyl windows. Everything came from my vast stash, including all the threads and zippers.

I went for high contrast with the lining for the turtle batik fabric.

 I now realize this is probably Sleeping Beauty fabric. There's a witch, a rose, a castle, a prince, and princess but I don't see anything that looks like she's being awakened with a kiss.

I really like the lining fabric on this one.

This hedgehog fabric is so cute! I used the apple green lining fabric again, including above the zipper as I didn't want to cut any hedgehogs in half to fit there.

These are really fun to make but do take a couple of hours each from start to finish.

Last night I finished knitting the Cunningham baby blanket. I want to block it tonight so it will be dry by Tuesday for 'show and tell' at spinning.

Trillium Embroidery Guild March 2019

Last night at guild, Jeanette conducted a workshop on embroidering miniatures. She provided everything we needed: blanks for the stitching, wool background, threads, etc.

My creation was cited in the previous blog post.

There were several items for 'show and share':

Alda's granddaughter stitched this for an arts competition at her school. A little help was given for the 2 French knots for the eyes and the smile. She won first prize.

Jeanette brought in this two-sided, five-layer, framed piece with stiffened felt background.

It was a project from a workshop she took at an embroidery seminar in New Mexico.

Alda brought in her beautiful floral piece on 22 ct fabric. She had a little help stitching the last little bit on one corner. It is framed in one of her collected antique frames.

Marion brought in many of her wool felt appliqué pieces:

Two tray liners and their trays,

a bird and basket pillow,

a big autumnal pillow,

and a little ,night-time house pillow.

I brought in my array of needle minders.

Our next meeting has a 'surprise' program.

A Very Crafty Day

Yesterday afternoon I participated in a needle felting workshop at Windreach Farms, directed by fibre artist, Rosemary Oliver.

She had a selection of wool shapes for us to use as a base that were die-cut from old blankets. There were lots of beads, buttons, and pieces of fibre for us to use.

Before I left home, I did a bit of searching and found my multiple needle felting tool and felting surface that had been in my stash for years. The multiple needles made my work very efficient. The red-handled scissors are micro-serrated and are WONDERFUL for cutting any type of fibre as the serrations 'grab' the fabric/thread.

I was able to complete this circular piece. Rosemary provided the little knitting needle her husband, Jonathan had fashioned for us from pieces of knitting needle and little knobs glued on the end.

I got the felting and stitching done on this leaf. I just need to sew the beads on.

Last night was our Trillium Guild meeting for March. Jeanette did a workshop on having us embroider miniatures. We did a search on Pinterest for inspiration.

I decided to do lilacs.

I have a few more French knots to do for the second bunch of lilacs and will add a few more 'leaves'.

We were provided with the little hoops to frame our pieces. It could then be used as a pendant, pin, or hung as an ornament.

The day before I got ambitious and cut out fabric to make 4 more of my vinyl-window project bags. From the top down: Hedgehogs, Beauty and the Beast stained glass, sea turtle batik, aqua paisley and floral.

I got the interfacing ironed onto all of them and am in the process of cutting out the linings. I figured I'd do a production line of four of them. Not sure when I'll get back to the sewing, though. because

MY CHARTS CAME IN!

I'm in the process of deciding what 'fancy floss' I'll use or DMC conversions. An excursion to my LYS is being planned.

Another FO

I had this kitted up and ready to take to Texas. It is a chart that I'd had in my stash for years

There were two choices of colourway and fabric gauge. I chose the DMC colourways and some 32ct antique white linen.

I'm starting to get quite the pile of FOs that need to be FFOd.

3 Beads

I finally stitched the 3 little 'mistletoe' beads onto the Kissing Cardinals piece.

Their position was not indicated on the chart so I had to use the photo to determine where they should go.

Yesterday, Jen, Marilyn and I went to the Peterborough Fibre Arts Festival and Sale. I bought a seam ripper with a hand-turned handle and a felting needle with a handle. I'm all set for my needle felting class on Wednesday.

While there, I saw all kinds of people I know from other groups: Windreach fibre folk, Shuttlebug Spinners and Weavers, my Tuesday night spinning group, etc. We are all looking forward to The Gathering in Port Hope on Saturday, March 30.

For lunch we went to Apollo Grill on Lansdowne St. in the Mapleridge Mall, then ventured to Needleworks - a fabric and cross stitch shop in downtown Peterborough. I bought a yard of blue turtle batik fabric - all blue fabrics were 30% off - and a vintage cross stitch magazine containing an intriguing pattern for an embroidered accessory bag with a flap.

On the way home we stopped into From The Heart - the lovely quilting shop in Bethany. I didn't buy anything but did enjoy looking at all the lovely wool felt and quilting fabrics.

It was a fun day out.

Cable Hat and Dorset Buttons

I actually knit something with my handspun!! I've been enjoying knitting hats and wanted to do a cable hat so I found this free pattern Ravelry. It is designed by Dora Stephensen.

I didn't put a pom pom on it - yet. When Skip and I were in the US at the beginning of the week I found a sale on fake fur pom poms so I do have one that would be perfect.

The pattern is sized for a baby, child, and adult. Although I have a small head, I did pick the adult size.

The handspun was worsted weight - more or less - and hand-dyed by me, using Jacquard dyes in spruce and teal. It does have somewhat of a mottled look. I have some left but probably only enough for a pair of hand warmers.

At my spinning and weaving guild on Wednesday, Suzanne did a workshop with us on Dorset buttons.

We took a plastic ring that was about 3/4" in diameter and did buttonhole stitch all around the ring, hiding the tail under the last few stitches. We then 'slicked' where we twisted the edging to the centre, then we wrapped the 'spokes' of the 'wheel'. Once they were done, we did a series of backstitches all around the spokes, filling them in.

Here are several completed ones.

There were also instructions for adding a shank to the back that we could decide to do or not.

Suzanne also circulated a very cute quilt she created with various buttons and embmroidery using variegated threads. Some of them had beads, others had the spokes wrapped in different ways. I'm sure an online search would give many ideas for decorating the buttons. And there is a myriad of ways the embroidered embellishments could be done.

Goldfinch Finished

I started this Mill Hill Buttons and Beads kit for over a year ago. I finally finished it (FO).

I haven't pinned or laced it yet. It's just set into the frame wrapped around a piece of cardboard. I just happened to have this frame in my stash.

The original kit came with the light aqua perforated paper. I substituted 28ct linen in the exact same colour.

The kits come with both a stitching needle and a beading needle. All the cross stitches and long back stitches are done before the beads are attached.

It makes for a very attractive, dimensional piece.

My stitching friends mocked me when I pulled out the threads as I finished up the last stitches. True, it does looks like a disorganized rat's nest. When I originally sorted the threads, I was on vacation and had to use what was at hand. In this case, a piece of corrugated cardboard from a box.

However, at closer inspection, one will note they're all sorted by colour. I had no trouble finding the thread that was required when it was required. When I've FFOd the piece. I'll just throw these leftover threads away.

I still need to cut the backing to fit into the frame, then pin and lace the piece.

I've also been working on the Hands On Design smalls set Just Bee: Bee More.

It's a quick stitch - great for binge-watching FlossTube and Netflix.

The real colours are not as blue as the picture on the package looks.

The chart comes with the bee charm and gold chenille 'cording'.

I recently had to buy a new laptop. My previous one was 7 years old and starting to run v e r y   s l o w l y. Rather than sink more money into a veritable 'antique' I bought a new Acer Aspire 5. The SSD (Solid State Drive) was only 30GB so I have signed up for Cloud storage. I'm happy to report that the new Acer is running great and much faster.

More Needle Minders

At Laura's the other day, she showed me the cute needle minder she made and informed me that I could buy the magnets at Princess Auto. On my way home, I picked some up as well as 1/4" washers. The washers are a little bigger than I wanted but I'm thinking I'll glue buttons onto them to make them look more aesthetically pleasing. I also picked up more button blanks in two sizes on the way home.

Once home, I grabbed some more bits of fabric to make more of my own needle minders.

This fabric was from an old printed panel.

I had a heck of a time getting the back piece into the button blank for this Snoopy and Woodstock one, and had to use pliers. Consequently the dome of the button got a little flattened out. It's still very cute, though.

Here's the back with the washer. Don't you think a button would make it look a little less industrial?

I hate paying full price for stuff so I'm going to have to wait for a notions sale at Fabricland to buy more button blanks. Of course, there's also JoAnn's in the US that I'll be visiting for a couple of days very soon.