drea_dear

My First Knitting Finish!

2012-02-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

I finished this Monday while K was home sick from school, so she got to try it on right away. She hasn't yet had a reason to wear it outside, since she's been home with an ear infection all week. But the bonus was that she was handy for checking the length and photographing. :)

She tied it herself. I was going to something with her purple coat and hat and gloves - because she really does love this color. (Rebekah - you 2 would get along so great! LOL)

This is a little bit closer look at the overall basket-weave pattern. And also me playing with the text/watermark options in Picasa.

I really enjoy the light weight fabric this created. Crocheting was faster for me for these kinds of scarves, but the finished product would have been more bulky.

So here's to a FINISH in February!

My Week In Stitches

2012-02-15T17:13:00.001-07:00

So now the problem isn't the stitching, it's remembering to take pictures and then POST! LOL

This past week my little one came down with what we thought was a mild cold - it's turned into a "nasty ear infection" (quote from the medical professional she saw yesterday). So she has antibiotics, and we're still giving her pain reliever and decongestant as she needs it. I hate it when she's sick, but I love that I'm the one she wants to cuddle with. :)

On to stitching:

Fairy Sisters - I only accomplished 2 more rows this week, which brings me to 8 for the month (again, these rows right now are the width of the page - somewhere in the 65 st. region). And I only have 2 rows left to meet my goal for the month. (And apparently I have to clean my camera, sorry for the weird spot.)

15-sided Biscornu - I can't remember now why I put these "opposites" not-next-to-each-other. I must have had a reason. Maybe I felt I was being too predictable...Anyway, this motif is done. As a reward, I back-stitched another empty square so I could start the next one right away.

Where's the purple scarf? Well, it's no longer a WIP, and thus deserves it's very own FINISH post! Watch for that one coming up!

My Week In Stitches

2012-02-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

It feels so good to be back to a normal stitching schedule again!! I'm making serious goal progress, as you'll see:

Tuesday, Friday - Fairy Sisters. 6 rows in, out of my month's goal of 10! 14 rows left to the top of the moon-shadow.

Wednesday - 15-sided biscornu. This is about halfway through the 7th motif, so I guess this is the true halfway point of the stitching process.

Thursday, Saturday & Sunday - purple basket weave scarf. It's at 24 inches right now. Since I'm making it for the still-under-4-foot child, I'm somewhere past 50%.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

February is Heart Disease Awareness Month

2012-02-04T21:39:00.000-07:00

I know I've talked about this in the past - my family has a history of heart disease, my grandfather has had 2 bypass surgeries, my grandmother has a pacemaker. But the importance of heart health has been reinforced to me during this past week.

One of my high school teachers died of a heart attack on Thursday. He was not only a teacher, he was an advisor to my graduating class. I don't know if other schools have advisors, we were a very small Christian school and didn't have a "guidance counselor." Honestly, any of our teachers were available for guidance for whatever we needed. But our advisors were the ones who went through all four years of high school with us. They supervised class elections and meetings and chaperoned our senior trip.

They knew us better than anyone. As a graduation gift, they gave each of us a paperweight engraved with a character trait they felt each student embodied. Here's mine:

The trait engraved there is "Boldness." I'm not certain anyone else would have described me as "bold." I was smart and shy, and often came across as stuck-up. I never felt bold - I was always unsure of myself. Especially as I neared graduation and I felt the pressure to know what I was going to do with the rest of my life! But Mr. S. (and Mrs. S. and Mr. M.) saw something in me. The Bible verse inscribed below the trait reads, "When I called, you answered me; you greatly emboldened me." (Psalm 138:3, NIV) They saw beyond my uncertainty, to a person of faith who was never afraid to ask her Father for what she needs.

I know, I never write like this. I try to keep my blog happy and light and kind of neutral. I hope you don't mind this deeper glimpse into who I am. As my classmates and I are reminiscing on Facebook about Mr. S., most are remembering his sense of humor. (He gave wet willies to almost every student in my school, although I'm pretty sure I avoided getting one.) But I will never forget his ability to go from cracking jokes to speaking spiritual truths that he hoped would stick with us. Don't worry, Mr. S. - they did.

So in honor of Mr. S. and all those who have lost the battle to heart disease (which kills more people than cancer every year), will you consider giving to the American Heart Association? If you are outside the US, please give to the local chapter of your country's equivalent - I suddenly realized I don't know if there is a Canadian or British equivalent, and I don't want to give the wrong links here. (I am not being compensated in any way for any donations made through this link.)

Cooking Ahead

2012-02-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

When things got crazy-busy a few months ago, I discovered I was having trouble getting dinner on the table at a reasonable time. Or, we were having the same easy-to-make things over and over again! So my hubby decided to try to make things a little easier by taking over the meal planning. A friend told us about a computer program that makes it easy to plan a month's worth of meals in advance - and they're freezer-friendly. It's called 30 Meals in One Day. We've never come close to accomplishing 30 meals. To be honest, in the 3 months we've been doing this, I think our record is 8 meals in one day! For us, it translates into about a week of intensive cooking and cleaning, and 3 weeks off.

So what is great about this is my husband is doing most of the dinner cooking - I just have to remember to pull something out of the freezer the night before to re-heat! And yes, that can be a challenge for me, so I've gotten very good at chopping frozen things up and reheating in a saucepan.

It's a little bit frightening to trust that the meals you're making over the course of one week will last an entire month. But it always does, and we have cut our grocery bill in half by cooking this way.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, because looking for yummy freezer-friendly food is a new obsession of mine. (Yes, Pinterest is good for this, too!) I will occasionally share some of my new favs, because we all get tired of having the same thing every night!

Besides lasagna, what's one thing you've tried (successfully or not) to make ahead, freeze and reheat?

This is a Great Idea

2012-02-01T09:09:00.001-07:00

and it's pretty, too! Organizing embroidery floss on clothes pins - because the plastic bobbins are really expensive, and the cardboard ones don't always hold up. If you don't wrap it super tight, you could still open and close the pins enough to clip them someplace - maybe if you use a clipboard to hold your patterns?

I really love how this looks, so colorful! The blogger said she did this for her daughter who makes friendship bracelets - and the clothes pins make perfect sense for that too. Click the link to go to the original blog post. (And yes, I found this on Pinterest - pinned it to my "Wish I'd Thought Of It" board.)

New Interest - Knitting!

2012-01-31T09:15:00.000-07:00

I resisted the urge to learn to knit for a while. There were a lot of reasons: I already had enough WIPs without learning a new thing to start, I like the one-handedness of crochet (2 needles seemed like it would be more complicated), I kind of liked being on the "outside" of yarn arts....

But the downside of being on the "outside" of yarn arts is that most of the patterns that catch my eye are for knitting, not crochet! And I really like the feeling of knitted fabric - it's not quite as bulky as crochet. You may remember a couple of years ago I learned afgan stitch, which produces a knit-like fabric. But it takes FORever to crochet.

So a couple of weeks ago I was waiting for a prescription at Walmart, and I didn't quite have an hour's worth of shopping to do - you know how it is. So I wandered into the yarn aisle. I'm fortunate that my Walmart still carries fabric, yarn and beads. So instead of buying yarn, I bought knitting needles and a book.

In my efforts to learn how to do knit and purl, I found this pattern for a basketweave scarf. Knit 3, purl 3 - I think I have the hang of it now!

I'd knitted up a swatch of it for practice, and K saw the Simply Soft in Grape (purple is her favorite color) and begged if she could have it when it was done. So now I have to finish it! I'll try to find my upstairs tape measure and use it in the progress pics.

My Weeks (and weeks, and weeks....and weeks) In Stitches

2012-01-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, maybe "weeks and weeks" isn't totally accurate, because I did very little stitching during my months of busy-ness. So here are some catch-up pictures with actual progress next Monday!

Fairy Sisters: This was my progress the last time I blogged about it:

And progress sometime mid-last week:

I've started putting in the navy blue (939) on page 2, since most of the confetti is done. I'm looking forward to when the "full-page-width" navy blue is done - that might warrant a mini-happy dance!

I thought I had a picture of my Idaho "postcard", but I can't find one. Grrrr.

And I'll be getting back to work on the 15-sided biscornu - here's the last picture I shared:

Okay! Tomorrow - knitting!

Redecorating with a purpose!

2012-01-27T16:35:00.000-07:00

So in August we did some redecorating in our living room (again) and downstairs. The last time I redid the living room was for Christmas, 2010, and I put my desk in the corner of the room near the sliding glass door. This was great when my work was occasional and the kids were at school. But as my business picked up during the summer, I discovered how difficult it was to concentrate with the work space in the main part of the house. Also, we got a piano, and there just wasn't enough room for all that big furniture in that part of the room!

This is in progress, the filing cabinet was pulled out of the corner first. You can kind of see the top of the piano behind the filing cabinet.

Unfortunately, moving the desk means losing my "finishing" space. This was a lot of cleaning up, most of the things in this space had been in place for about 2 years, when we moved in!

Worth it! This is the first day of school pic. We still need to get the piano tuned and have the key cover put back on - because free is never really free! But I love having my 1910 Warner - I'm excited to get the girls piano lessons!

Here's how my workspace looks now - I've upgraded to a laptop, so you can see the "void" where it lives normally. On sunny days the light in this space is so great, I hardly ever use my desk lamp!

And because we don't have a fireplace in the living room, we used the piano for the stockings. Love the way this looks! Will love it even more when the cover is on the keys!

Hello, Strangers!

2012-01-26T10:44:00.002-07:00

It's been exactly 4 months since my last post - really, where does the time go? I'm happy to say that my absence was caused by extreme busy-ness with my business. I recently restructured some of my offerings because I found myself entirely without a personal life! And when you have kids, that's a super-bad thing!

I'll be catching you up on what's been happening with me over the next few days (really, I promise!) - as you can imagine, I didn't have a lot of time for stitching. But I have more time now, and I have some new things to show. At least I think I do, I need to dig through projects and pictures and figure out what I've shared and what I haven't!

One thing I did want to tell you all (and forgive me, I haven't gone through your recent posts, so I don't know if you're talking about this or not) is that I've recently joined Pinterest. If you haven't heard of Pinterest, it's like a social network for the visually creative! Users "pin" images to virtual "boards" to make a collage of things that inspire them or that they want to try. The images then link to a source - often a tutorial or listing for an item to buy (Etsy is loving Pinterest, I'm sure!). I'm going to figure out how to add a "follow me on Pinterest" button to this blog, but for now you can go to http://pinterest.com/deardrea/ to follow my "pin boards."

I've also joined my Blogger account to my Google+ account, so you'll notice a different picture, and posts will now show up under my real name instead of my username. Which doesn't bother me, because the blog URL uses my real name anyway!

I hope you all have been well, and I hope to be catching up on what you've been doing! In the next few days look for updates on Fairy Sisters, knitting (yes, knitting!), Christmas, the family and other household things. Talk to you soon!

ETA: Pinterest is accessed by invite only. If you're not a member, you can still look at people's boards, but you won't be able to follow them or "pin" anything yourself. If you'd like an invite, please let me know in the comments, I have some available!

Free Potato Pattern

2011-09-24T15:22:00.001-06:00

Happy Saturday! I've signed up for another exchange...because I don't have enough to do. LOL This one will be very fun - it's a "postcard" inspired by the region of the world you live in. You may all find this hard to believe (pardon my sarcasm), but there are not a lot of Idaho cross stitch patterns available. *sigh* So I made a new one to stitch for my partner.

In my search for ideas, I discovered that there are not any good potato cross stitch patterns available - everything was of the "couch potato" variety. So I made this one, and I'm offering it...free!!! Because I'm nice!

I was trying to figure out how to upload it from PCStitch, but it can't be done. So if you would like to stitch this and you'd like the full file, you can e-mail me and I'll send it to you. You don't need to have PCStitch, but you will need the pattern viewer.

By the way, if anyone would care to share how they upload their pattern files, I'm all ears/eyes, fingers, whatever. I'm a little frustrated with this process right now.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Blogoversary #4!

2011-09-02T10:28:00.001-06:00

Thank you to Teena in Toronto for visiting my business site and reminding me of this special day! LOL I've been very busy with my new business...but I do have some pictures to show of my work from this summer.

This is the snowman/men ornament I made for the Facebook Ornament exchange - you can see the sweaters have different textures. And I'm glad the eyelet snowflakes show up! I finished this as a humbug, and the recipient is very happy with it. She'd never heard of a humbug until she saw the discussion for this exchange, and now she's excited to try one.

And here's the most recent picture I have of Fairy Sisters - I actually think I did more work after I took the pic - the moon progresses more to the center with lighter purples. I love this page (#2) right now. I think now that I have all the confetti outside the moon done, I'll take a break and do the navy blue, then reward myself with more fun on the inside of the moon.

I've had to put personal projects aside for one last GhostStitchers' project - this will be the final weekend on it. Then I just have to not accept more assignments for a while. When I had 4-6 hours of stitching time every day, I had no problem meeting their deadlines. But with a busy home-based business, I feel like I'm always putting something important aside. So I'll focus on my business, and allow my personal projects to give me that outlet for pleasure and relaxation.

Thank you, all of you, by the way, for sticking with me and not disappearing over the last 6 weeks. And thanks, also for the visits to my site - I get so happy when I see a click coming from this blog.

Until next time....

My Website Is Live!

2011-07-18T08:03:00.000-06:00

I'm very proud to say that my business website is live! As I've mentioned before, I'm a virtual assistant. The website will be my way of communicating my goals and philosophy to potential clients.

http://authenticallyvirtual.com to see what I've accomplished!

Finish Photos - 3 of 3

2011-07-15T19:56:00.000-06:00

Finally, here are the photos of K's Easter dress. Also a circle skirt, with crocheted straps. I measured her shoulders very carefully, and forgot that crocheted cotton stretches! So I do need to shorten the straps some what.

Here's the back - I made it into a racer-back style.

And her artistic "in the tree" shot. Because it's fun.

It will be Christmas in July for me....

2011-06-23T17:17:00.000-06:00

I'm participating in an ornament exchange through a Facebook group, so I'll be thinking wintry thoughts while it's 95 degrees outside, lol. I'm very excited to get started. I've decided on the pattern, and I'm pretty sure I know how I'll finish it, too. Now I just have to wait to start until I've finished the baby shower gift for the party on Saturday!

Finish Photos - 2 of 3

2011-06-15T09:20:00.022-06:00

My turn! When I finished taking pictures of H, I handed the camera to her. She actually really enjoys photography and is getting pretty good at it. I'm going to look for more opportunities for her to take pictures this summer. Okay, okay, enough stalling - here are pictures of me actually wearing my Easter dress.

Keep in mind my photographer is about 4.5 feet tall.

We decided to have a little fun - H liked this one because the leaf is covering my face. She's a little artistic like that. To be fair, I got one of the girls where I was peeking at them through leaves, so that probably gave her the idea.

This one I like a lot, and a cropped version is now my FB profile pic. :)

All of this to say, my dress is really comfortable, I'm so grateful for warm, sunny days, and I'm proud of my multi-talented child. Here's the "peeking at the kids through the leaves" shot I mentioned earlier:

Things are almost back to normal here

2011-06-14T12:35:00.000-06:00

I'm nearly finished with the GhostStitcher's project I started in May, which means I'll be back to my regular WIP and updates. I'm very happy to say that this piece will be finished well ahead of schedule and on it's way back by this weekend - which leaves me plenty of time to work on the next baby shower gift for church. On top of work, which is also picking up, LOL.

Finish Photos - 1 of 3

2011-06-13T08:30:00.038-06:00

Today's finish - my elder daughter's Easter dress. Seriously, it took me this long to get photos because it's been super-cold in the Boise area - we finally had a nice warm Sunday, so she wore it to church. When we got home, I dragged her outside for a photo shoot next to the plum tree in our jungle...I mean, backyard. We're working on that, I promise.

She chose this butterfly fabric - there's a little bit of sparkle to it. The "sash" is a left over piece of crepe-back satin, I think - we decided to use it for the center section to break up the pattern.

A close-up of the crocheted cap sleeves and the neckline. Can I just say that I was immensely proud to see Princess Kate's dress 5 days after Easter in the USA - I was sooo on trend. Go ahead, compare and see for yourself!

She thinks I'm crazy. It's okay, she's 8. She's supposed to think I'm crazy!

And one shot of the whole thing without her hands in the way - she still thinks I'm crazy, but she was starting to get into the photo shoot idea by now. This dress was "patternless" - I made a circle skirt then cut rectangular pieces that worked for her chest and waist measurements - another reason that I used a different fabric in the center.

This Blog is now Mobile-Friendly!

2011-06-12T19:48:00.000-06:00

If you use Blogger, they've rolled out mobile templates. I just updated mine to be viewable on mobile devices. It's a little bit annoying to click on a link in Twitter when I'm on my Blackberry and not be able to see all the cool and pretty formatting you guys do. If you haven't updated your settings yet, it's easy - from "Design", click on the "Settings" tab, then "E-Mail & Mobile" - it's the top option. You can preview what it will look like for mobile users before you change the settings. Even if you don't view blogs on your own mobile device, it's a great idea to update this setting. It makes it nicer for those of us who read blogs when we're between appointments (or too lazy to walk to the computer).

Photo updates are coming later this week!

Thank you for bearing with me!

2011-06-01T11:15:00.000-06:00

I really appreciate the feedback over the last few days. Sometimes it's easier to use creativity for others than for myself. I'll be returning you to your "regularly scheduled" stitchy goodness soon...I'm hoping for a sunny day this week so I can send my kids outside and finally get fun pictures of their Easter dresses.

Can You Help Me With One More Thing?

2011-05-30T14:32:00.001-06:00

Business-related, that is. After some overwhelming feedback on my Facebook fanpage, I've decided on a logo style. Now I'm asking you, my creative friends, for some feedback on the color scheme. I have a favorite, but if you look around my blog a little bit you'll see WHY that's my favorite. I don't want to box my business into the same color scheme as my personal blog - I want to have room to express myself in different ways. So please take a look at the 3 samples below and let me know what you think. I want to be able to appeal to both male and female business owners.

You may have noticed...

2011-05-28T09:04:00.000-06:00

There's a new item in my left sidebar! For the past couple of months, I've been contracting with a social media marketing coach - my long-time friend and mentor, Beth Neibert. With her encouragement and support, I am starting my own virtual assisting service. I'm very excited about this development, but a little scared at the same time. I've been doing this work steadily for the last few months, and whenever I talk about "work" pulling me away from my blog, that's what I mean. I still intend to blog here - you all know by now that stitching is not only how I express myself, but it's also how I deal with stress. And I love having a place to share what I'm working on. I never felt that anyone appreciated my work until I found all of you! So I will continue to stitch, and continue to share updates.

So the Facebook gadget to the left will take you to the fanpage for my business, Authentically Virtual. I hope that you will click over there and "like" me. I have a poll going to help me choose a logo - I would love for all of my stitchy/creative friends to give me some input. Yes, I created all 3 of them. I plan to offer some graphic design/image manipulation as one of my services. In the not-too-distant future, I'll have an actual website describing the kinds of things I can do, and a business-oriented blog there as well.

Thank you to you all for reading, commenting and liking. I appreciate all your support!

Friday Finish

2011-05-27T09:57:00.004-06:00

2 weeks in a row!!! I promised pictures of the baby shower gift I made last week - so here you go!

I made a bright pink "Sleep Sack" - you swaddle the baby, then slip them inside to keep them warm. The Calla Lily is removable (of course, what kind of mother would I be if I didn't make a newborn article that was 100% washable????)

The baby's name will be Lily, so I made this sweet Calla Lily out of bamboo-cotton, and starched it so it would hold it's shape. (Instructions use worsted weight yarn, and include felting directions.)

Newest GhostStitchers Project

2011-05-25T08:30:00.000-06:00

So most of you know that I don't post WIP pictures of things I do for GhostStitchers, per their request. And you also know that it KILLS me to not share about what I'm stitching. So I will tell you about it and give you some links and you can look at what the finished product would look like, and maybe purchase something from the designer for yourself. :)

I'm currently stitching Larnarte's Roma (see here also). I hope you'll at least go and look at the picture, it's really quite beautiful. I'm on the 3rd shade in the plaster behind the woman.

Lanarte is a Dutch cross stitch kit company. They have a large catalog on their website of beautiful kits, including a similar piece called Paris, you can go here if you'd like a larger picture or to purchase.

A quick HAED update

2011-05-24T10:51:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to show you my progress on Fairy Sisters - I told you it got more interesting on page 2! I actually counted the stitches I've done - my progress so far equals more than 5 rows.

I want to get all the confetti out of the way before I go back to the blue-black void. I'm kind of obsessed with finishing one color before I start another. Fortunately so far the confetti colors are also in the "dark side of the moon", so I'm not left with weird lengths of thread. I really hate that.

Friday Finishes

2011-05-20T21:24:00.000-06:00

Just stopping in quickly to post some pictures of finishes from a couple of weeks ago. (Sorry!!!!!!!) I've picked up another GhostStitchers assignment, so it's been occupying my time. So has a baby shower gift. The baby shower is tomorrow, so I will post pictures of that later.

I'm also working on something else on the Work From Home front, and I will update all of you on that as it develops. It's a good and very exciting thing.

Okay! So I mentioned before that we had our Secret Sister reveal at church on Mothers' Day weekend. My Secret Sister loves the color green, and is a busy mom. So I decided to make her a spring-y tote bag. I used the same pattern as I did for the straps on Katie's dress (I know, I know, you still haven't seen the finished product - I still blame the husband for that) - you can find the pattern here. (It's a free download, but you do need to register with your e-mail address. There are a lot of beautiful, simple crochet projects on this site.)

I used a dark sage green as my main color, and made the centers of the flowers out of different colors in my stash (almost entirely Caron Simply Soft). I used brown as an accent color for the base, the edging at the top, and the handle.

Instructions for attaching the flowers to each other are included in the downloadable pattern.

I lined it with a khaki cotton, and sewed it together on the machine, catching the straps as I did so. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

The other finish is the gift I made for my mom. She has to park a long way from her office, so she likes to carry a tote bag with all her things in it. She also has a lot of tote bags, and changes them often. So I made her a little purse that has a snap-handle - it can be fastened around the tote bag handle for easy access, and it's easy to remove! I'm proud of myself for that little innovation. There may be a tutorial coming on it soon. When I do that, I will definitely credit the sites where I got my inspiration, even though I modified the designs a bit.

In this bottom picture, I'm showing you the lining, and also the roomy pocket I made inside. Yes, I made pockets. And yes, that's an orange hair elastic with a blue button for the closure. Go Broncos! ;)

My Week In Stitches

2011-05-04T09:15:00.002-06:00

Last week was productive! I managed to meet all of my April goals!

Easter Sunday was beautiful here in the Boise area. Cold, but very pretty. We held 2 services at our church, so I didn't get a chance to take pictures of the girls in their dresses. By the time I got home they had already changed into play clothes. They also refused to take off their sweaters at church so I could show off my handiwork. Grrrr. I got a ton of compliments on my dress, though.

Did anyone else watch the royal wedding? I didn't get up early for it - coverage started at 2 a.m. in my neck of the woods. I'll just say that I love my DVR. I started crying about the time Catherine stepped out of the hotel. I like to see people who are really in love and are so committed to each other. I really hope the best for them.

Okay! Pictures! Goals met for April - 3 more motifs for the 15-sided biscornu, and FINISH FAIRY SISTERS PAGE 1!!!!!!! It's been over a year since I started this HAED. I am enjoying it, but it became very easy to put it off while it was just night sky. I think I've mentioned before, things get more interesting in page 2.

This week I have a lot of crochet going on. I'm making a "reveal" gift for my Secret Sister - I try not to do anything handmade until the very end, because otherwise they'd guess it was me. And also, it's a lot of work! I want to be able to present that to her at church on Sunday, so I have to finish by Saturday! We also have baby showers coming up, and I'm getting gift ideas for those little ones.

I hope you are having a great week - please go look at yesterday's Tutorial post and let me know what else you'd like me to teach!

Tutorial Tuesday

2011-05-03T08:36:00.000-06:00

This will be the last of the Satin Stitch Tutorials. And the last Tutorial Tuesday for a while. I'm trying to decide what to do next, and I'm coming up blank. If there are any Hardanger techniques you'd like to learn, please let me know in the comments on this post. Thanks!

So this week is a "sunburst". This was a lot of fun, and really quick to stitch. For a review of how to make the base shape, the Star, click here.

The arms on this sunburst curve to the left. To make the arms curve the other way, do these steps backward. :) (Text instructions for this are at the end - pictures are limited because this literally stitches so quickly that I forgot to take pictures in between!)

Start with a left-hand diamond - mine starts by covering 2 threads, and it covers 6 at the widest part.

Run the needle behind the stitches, and come up 2 threads away from the right edge of the bottom stitch. Work a right-hand vertical ship.

(To make a right-hand curve, start with the left-side vertical ship - curve to the right - then work the right-hand diamond.)

Run the needle behind the stitches and come up 2 threads down from the right edge of the bottom stitch (turning the corner). Work 1 left-hand diamond and 1 right-side vertical ship on each side. When it's finished it will look like:

If it goes the opposite direction, it will look like:

And a look at the whole Tutorial Sampler so far. I want to do something interesting in some of the diamonds - instead of cutwork, I mean. And I need to finish the wrapping and filling on the sides.

My Weeks In Stitches

2011-04-22T11:58:00.000-06:00

A very happy and blessed Good Friday to you all! It's a very good Friday for me, because I am almost through with Easter dresses! Yay! No midnight sewing for me on Saturday night!

I have not done an update in forEVer, I know. I have been very busy figuring and sewing and crocheting. Not a lot of x's being crossed right now, I'm excited to get back to that tonight and tomorrow.

So here's a sneak peek at oldest's dress - I cut the top pieces yesterday and sewed them together, but did not get them fitted on her after school. So I will attack her when she walks through the door and finish this baby! The crocheted piece is going to be a strap-sleeve (there's one for the other side, too) - it will fall gracefully over her shoulder. She's 8 now, so she needs a little bit of a different look from her sister. The skirt is the same butterfly fabric - it's a circle skirt, so I'll attach it after I figure out where I'm putting the closures and hem the edges of the bodice. It's all about "easing" with these dresses. :)

The "granny squares" are modified from a pattern I found on line, I'll look it up and add it. The original was an eight-petal flower - I modified it by slip-stitching to skip a ch-3 loop, which made it "pop" in the center. So there's a diamond of "pop" between each petal, it's kinda cool and textural - but really hard to see. 15 squares on each strap - my fingers are tired!

And here's a look (okay, more than one look) at my dress! I'm super-thrilled that I made myself do this between the girls' dresses, otherwise it would not have been finished. Some of you may recognize this print as the knit I got on clearance last year? I was in agony over cutting this, sooooo scared I was making a mistake. After some Facebook reassurances, I did it, and I'm happy with it. Yes, it's a horizontal print. No, I didn't look that closely when I bought it. But it also has a vertical ripple in the pattern. And I think the brown lines break it up enough that it doesn't look THAT horizontal. I'm also cracking up at the exact match of the brown knit to my curtains.

Whole dress from the front (taken at night, sorry about the weird overhead light glare) - kimono sleeves, and a snap-closure at the waist and bust. The front of the bodice and the skirt are lined with the same brown knit.

Close-up of the hem (in daylight, so you can see the colors better) - I'm really proud of this. Because I did a circle skirt, this was a loooooooong hem. I didn't want to hem the lining and the skirt separately and have it look weird, and since the skirt is attached to the band...I decided to sew the lining to the skirt first, then flip it and make the waist work. It's so fun and swishy! It has a really nice weight to it, too.

And here is the finished Spooky SAL biscornu I made ages ago. I figured as long as I was taking pictures, I'd add these in - front and back of my candy-lovers biscornu:

And one more photo of my sweet Annie who followed me around this morning while I took pictures. She was kind of over all the running up and down stairs.

An Easter Preview

2011-04-11T13:34:00.000-06:00

Here's a look at what's been occupying my mind for the last couple of weeks - Easter dresses! Youngest is modeling her not-quite-complete dress.

There are some crochet elements to be added, and of course better photography to be done (I took this with my phone - fortunately for all of you, the mobile blogging failed, and I had to transfer and edit the photo anyway). But I'm so thrilled that this fits and is done - it's a patternless-dress. I wasted all of spring break and an entire bedsheet trying to figure out the math to make these dresses work! Now that it's done, I can safely say that this is a less-than-one-day dress. For me, that's incredible!!

Tutorial Tuesday

2011-04-05T10:45:00.068-06:00

This week I'll show you how to make a heart-shape out of 2 Ships. (Again, click on the highlighted "ships" to go to the original lesson if you need a refresher.) Here's the finished Heart:

Begin by stitching a left-vertical ship. This time we're covering threads horizontally - begin with covering 2 threads. Your longest stitch will cover 6 threads, then begin your decrease. Remember to keep your right side (center) parallel as you're increasing, and your left side (outer) parallel as you're decreasing.

Make that long arm with 5 parallel over-2 stitches. After the 5th stitch, bring your needle up 2 threads to the right and 2 threads above the previous stitch (leaving that blank).

Fill in your blank with a 4-thread stitch, then do your final 2-thread stitches in the curve. Now you have a choice. You can run your needle behind the threads as we've done before, and stitch the other side the reverse of what we've done. Your other option - stitch from the top down. To do this, bring your needle up 2 fabric threads to the right, but still parallel to your final stitch from the first ship. You will then bring your needle down another 2 fabric threads to the right to make your "final" over-2 (except you're doing it first this time.)

Then you'll bring your needle up in the same hole as the edge over-2 from the previous ship. Cover 2 threads to the right (away from the previous ship).

Now we skip our over-4 and work our top over-2 by coming up 2 fabric threads directly above where we brought the needle down. On this ship we're stitching from left to right instead of right to left, so this will feel a little awkward at first.

Then work the over-4 we skipped, and stitch your 5 parallel stitches for your long arm

Begin increasing your diamond shape to the left (keep your right - outer - side parallel). Your 5th stitch will cover 6 fabric threads. Then begin your decrease on the right - your left (center) will be parallel, and will share holes with the first ship. (Sorry, I didn't take pictures of all of this because it's the exact reverse of what we did before.) Again, here's the finished Heart shape:

And the Heart Cross I promised you - you can see that by working up one side and down the other you'll position yourself to easily work the other sides of this motif, without wasting thread. It also is conveniently 4 Tulips put together, so it would work well in a design that also incorporates Tulips.

And, finally, a look at the Tutorial Sampler so far. I'm really enjoying putting these shapes together. Believe it or not, this Hardanger piece was something I started in January of 2007 - I didn't know what to do with the big empty space after I did the Kloster framework!

Tutorial Thursday

2011-03-31T15:43:00.000-06:00

Hey, it kind of works. Today's Ship variation - the Tulip!

Obviously, it gets it's name because it looks like a tulip. :) You could easily incorporate this shape into cross-stitch pieces to add a little different texture. I love to do that.

This is really just 2 ships stuck together. If you need a refresher in creating the left-flat Ship, click on the highlighted "Ship" above.

After stitching the left-flat ship, run your needle under the stitches, and come up 2 fabric threads to the right of the top of your first stitch (remember that these Star-based satin stitches create an open box in the middle). You will increase each row to the left (toward the already-stitched ship) so your parallel stitches are on the right.

Then you'll decrease on the right, making your left side parallel - this is how we get that nice squared void in the finished picture. (You may also notice that I painted my nails for you all.)

Work your 5 parallel over-2 stitches to elongate the arm UP, then begin your curve. The curve goes away from the square-void, toward the center of what would be the star. Remember to bring your needle up 2 threads to the right and 2 threads above the edge of your previous stitch.

Then fill in your space and complete your curve, and you're done!

Next week - Hearts! And a very cool Heart Cross, and another look at the Tutorial Sampler!

Tutorial Tuesday

2011-03-22T10:50:00.060-06:00

I hope you all enjoyed practicing the Ship last week! If you haven't looked at last week's lesson, you will need to read it before attempting this week's.

So, I think I invented this variation. I'm not sure. I haven't come across anything like it on any Hardanger websites. I was thinking about the idea of a scroll border, and pulled out my trusty graph paper to think it through. Then I stitched it, and L-O-V-E-D the results. I love it so much that I'm going to give you a look at the finished motif BEFORE I give you the stitching instructions.

See how much I love you guys? I think it looks like a Viking ship on the ocean, thus the name.

Okay, so here we go (nervous typing). I started by stitching the standard left-side, flat Ship (instructions here). After completing the curve of the first Ship, I started the curve of the Ship that is reversed and to the left. (Note: you could start with the "upside down" one if you were doing a whole row and didn't want to stop and start your thread. I did that on the other side of the Tutorial Sampler. But for teaching purposes, this is easier.) To make it easier to understand, the "Ship" is in light blue, and the "wave" scroll is in dark blue.

Counting from the bottom of the final 2-thread stitch of the first Ship, bring your needle up one thread down and to the right. Cover 2 threads (this will parallel the "outside" stitch from the first Ship). Bring your needle up one thread UP and to the right and cover 2 threads (parallel the last stitch of the first Ship).

Then we do our skip to tuck the carrying thread: Bring your needle up 2 threads down and to the right of the bottom of the previous stitch, cover 2 threads. Then comes our 4-thread "fill-in-the-blank" - bring the needle up one thread down and to the left, and cover 4 threads.

Now we begin our long arm (working the Ship upside down). Bring your needle up 1 thread down and to the left of the bottom of the previous stitch, cover 2 threads. Make 5 parallel stitches. Increase like a normal satin stitch diamond. The final stitch of the "arm" is the first stitch of the diamond; increase each column by 1 fabric thread. The fifth stitch will cover 6 threads. Decrease in the same manner - your final stitch in the diamond will cover 2 threads. You can stop here, or you can work another arm and curve to continue the scroll.

When designing with this border, remember that it is deeper than just the normal Ship or Star. Count carefully to make sure you have enough room! I love that this actually looks like the rolling waves of the sea. I want to stitch this all the time, now!

Next week's variation - the Tulip!

A chart for yesterday's tutorial

2011-03-16T16:37:00.000-06:00

Somebody's in charge of her computer this week, and I think that somebody is me!! :)

I know some of these things are probably easy to figure out, but I finally figured out how to get a PC Stitch chart into another format, so I can share my charts on my blog (or in other electronic formats)! Combine this with figuring out how to add text to the pictures, and watch out, world! LOL

I hope this is helpful in figuring out the text and image directions from yesterday. If you're like me and you need to see the whole thing at once to understand, then you may like this. If it doesn't help you, then I'm sorry to confuse you!

Please let me know in the comments if it helps or not!

Tutorial Tuesday

2011-03-15T20:28:00.004-06:00

It returns! I have at least 3 weeks of pictures ready to go!

This week I'll expand on the satin stitch shape called the Star, and show you the next basic shape, the Ship. It's called the Ship because it reminds people of the prow of a Viking ship.

There are a lot of variations in how to make the Ship. I'll show you some of those, too, in the next couple of weeks. I had fun yesterday playing with shapes AND the camera! And then today, with the photo editing - adding text to the pictures for the first time! I hope that will be helpful.

To get ready for this lesson, you may want to review the Star lesson.

The Ship follows the same increase and decrease pattern, and then has a longer "arm". I always do things from left to right, so I'll show you how to do the left, flat Ship. So we'll be stitching vertically, not horizontally.

Begin by covering 2 fabric threads, bottom to top. (Remember to secure your thread end with each of these satin stitches). Bring your needle up one thread to the left of the bottom, and cover 3 fabric threads (bring your needle down one row above and to the left of the previous stitch). Continue to a total of 5 stitches (fifth stitch covers 6 threads) - each stitch should line up along the bottom, and increase along the top. Decrease each row in the same way, but line up along the top, decreasing the bottom. Again, your shortest stitch covers 2 threads.

Now we elongate the arm - work a total of 5 stitches over 2 threads (this includes the final decrease stitch). It should look kind of like a shelf with a slide.

The next 2 stitches you can do in any order. (I do them this way to avoid carrying thread on the back on top of my stitches.) Counting from the bottom of the previous stitch, go down 2 threads and to the left 2 threads. Make a 2-thread stitch from bottom to top (top of stitch is on the same row as bottom of previous stitch, with a space between). Next, we're going to fill that space with a 4-thread stitch - bring your needle up one thread down from the bottom of the previous stitch and one thread to the RIGHT. Bring your needle down one thread UP from the top of the previous stitch - you're filling in the space and completing the angle.

Just 2 stitches to go! We continue working our way back from left to right. Bring your needle up one thread down and right of the bottom of the long stitch. Cover 2 threads. Bring your needle up one thread up and right of the bottom of the previous stitch. Cover 2 threads. Done!!

Run your needle down the underside of the stitches to secure (if only stitching this part) or set up for more stitches. To stitch a right, flat Ship, the instructions are the same. Your diamond lines up along the bottom first, then the top, and the arm will elongate to the right, then curve back to the left. If you want to stitch them together, skip 4 fabric threads before starting your other side:

Here's another way I like to stitch this shape - I think it kind of looks like a more complete "ship", with sails. I just stitched the center portion like a normal Star.

Next week - how to use this flat shape to make a scroll border!!

A Spooky SAL in Memory of Lisa Roswell

2011-03-01T12:36:00.002-07:00

I've heard some very sad news. Lisa Roswell of The Primitive Needle died when her car was swept away in flood waters this weekend. In her memory and honor, several members of the online stitching community are organizing a "Spooky Stitch-Along" for today, Tuesday, March 1. Halloween was Lisa's favorite holiday. I don't currently have any Halloween-themed patterns, so I'm searching right now for just the right one to stitch. If you would like to join us, please do so, and spread the word. Let's turn this tragedy into an opportunity to celebrate the things that the people around us love.

http://cyberstitchers.com has several free patterns - search "halloween" and you'll come up with 8 pages of patterns.

I've decided to stitch this and this, and finish as a biscornu.

Moving Quaker-ly forward

2011-02-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

I started the final large diamond motif (lower left) on the Quaker Diamonds piece this afternoon. Sort of. Because it covers parts of 4 pages, I actually started it over a week ago. But now I'm doing the diamond-y part. I also only have 4 and-a-half letters left. I am very hopeful to be able to finish this week and send it back to GhostStitchers, so they can send it back to it's owner. And then I can go back to personal stuff. I have beads screaming at me from downstairs (anyone remember the bracelet I started? Yeah, it's not a bracelet anymore), and a scarf I started while we were at the hospital last weekend.

Oh, yes, the hospital. Saturday afternoon, my younger daughter woke up in a very-unlike-herself fashion - she's normally full of energy, bouncing all over the house. She walked out of her room looking like she was in tears. She had a low-grade fever, and said her tummy hurt, and was really acting out of sorts. We gave her something for the temp, and told her to rest. Then she said that the pain had moved from her belly button down and to the right. *heavy sigh* I was at a women's retreat planning meeting, so dear hubby took little one to the hospital, afraid she had appendicitis, calling me in a panic to leave the meeting and meet them in the ER. Fortunately, we live very close to the hospital, so we were able to take turns running home as needed for, say, the shoes that DH forgot to put on the child when he took her out of the house. Or the laptop and assorted cartoon movies. Or my stitching. I took Quaker Diamonds, and got some x's on that, but I also grabbed a ball of yarn because I figured it would be easier to crochet if the lights were dim than cross stitch (yes, easier, kinda doable, but not recommended).

ELEVEN HOURS, a blood draw, an ultrasound and a CT scan later, little one did not have appendicitis. The lymph nodes in her lower abdomen were inflamed in response to a SOMETHING her body was fighting off - the next day we discovered it was a plain old respiratory flu. What's even better, is that this is just the way her body fights infections and viruses, and she'll probably have this kind of problem for the rest of her life. Super-cool. And in case you're wondering, no, we didn't know that there are lymph nodes in the abdomen either. She is now completely fine, a little bit of a cough, but back to normal.

I hope you all have a fantastic week, and I hope to have great, FINISH news on Saturday!

February Stitching Blogger Question

2011-02-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

So, I've seen other blogger's talking about the "question of the month" - and I finally found out where it comes from! I'm happy to say, I'm now following Lee from Lake Stitcher. This month's question is:

We like to stitch things for people we love. Show us and tell us about one (or more) of your favorite needlework projects that expresses your love for someone.

So I've made a few projects specifically for my daughters. When I first learned Hardanger, the first thing I designed was a name and birthdate pillow for each of them. This is the one I made for the little one - LOL, I had to put this one up in a closet, because she kept trying to use it as a doll pillow!

Hardanger Birthday Hearts - for Katie (designed by me)

Another special project I stitched was for my mother, and I posted about this on the blog when it was finished. For her birthday in 2009, I made her a picture frame for her office:

Lizzie*Kate - Ask Me About My Grandkids

And who could forget the family tree book I made for my grandparents? I cross stitched the cover, then each page on the inside was embroidered muslin (including all the names of my family members, so I won't show those pictures here).

AAN - Dove Love (freebie)

So now it's your turn - what have you made for someone you love?

Go Red!

2011-02-01T12:00:00.001-07:00

I'm going red for February! Not in my clothing, at least not all the time. I have 1 truly red shirt, and it has horizontal white stripes. Not horrific, but my children would begin to think I was a candy cane if I wore it every day.

No, I'm going red on the blog, because February is the month that houses the national Go Red! For Women day. This year: it's this Friday, February 4. Everyone is encouraged to wear red to remember that heart disease kills women, too. Both of my living grandparents have heart disease - my grandfather has had 2 bypass surgeries, and my grandmother is now living with a pacemaker. I'm acutely aware of my need to watch out for my cardiovascular health. 32 (almost 33) is too young to not have enough energy and have out-of-balance cholesterol.

But changing a blog background and wearing red on one day out of the month will not make a difference. I'm working on my own health by making a commitment to myself to lose an average of 1 pound a week - through diet and exercise. Not just a weight loss goal for me, it's an overall health change goal.

To learn more about how you can get involved in this great movement, click here. You'll find ways to donate, a link to tell friends about this important issue, and retailers who donate proceeds of sales to the American Heart Association.

I hope you'll join me on Friday by Going Red!!

Quaker Elation!!

2011-01-31T11:17:00.000-07:00

I just thought I'd check in quickly with y'all. No pictures, since my focus is still on a GhostStitchers piece. I started it last Friday, and I'm already about 25%! I have to say, this Quaker is everything I hoped it would be. I hope you've all had an experience where you waited and waited to stitch something, and it exceeded your expectations - as far as stitching satisfaction goes. For me, it wasn't necessarily this specific pattern (I put the "Y" in this morning) - I've seen Quakers on other blogs and drooled over them, but this is the first time I've stitched a large sampler like this. It's totally keeping my attention, and I'm loving the colors, and the feel of the fibers, and even the sound of the thread moving through the fabric. Do you know what I mean?

And just a quick note - this piece I'm working on was a UFO. If you've lost interest in a piece, or want to whittle down your UFO pile, please consider using the GhostStitchers service. You never know, I might get to work on your piece for you!

My 2 Weeks in Stitches

2011-01-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

Whew, what a whirlwind! As of last Saturday, I really hadn't made a ton of stitching progress. I'd started a new sock, then ripped it out and re-started. Then I suddenly had a burst of stitching energy on Sunday, and, as you'll see from my sidebar, I crossed 3 items off my January goal list this week alone!!! I didn't get a picture of Fairy Sisters after I passed the row 60 mark - oops. It looks the same as it did 2 weeks ago, just a little bit farther down.

3 squares for my 15-sided biscornu - you can see, I'm playing with the positive/negative idea. It looks really good so far.

My striped socks - I bought this yarn on sale at JoAnn a few months ago, and had to wait until I'd finished some obligatory crochet before I worked on them. Yarn - Premier Yarns, Deborah Norville collection Sock Weight in Teal Tease. It took about 1.5 balls to make a pair. It's almost all half-double crochet, with a single crochet short-row heel. I found the directions on a forum, and promptly lost the address, but it was one of those "figure it out as you go" kind of patterns.

So other craziness from the last 2 weeks - my elder daughter was baptized on Sunday at age 8. We're so proud of her for making this choice. I also have had a little minor health scare - well, not really a scare, more of a worry. I think it's resolved itself, but I go to the doctor on Thursday anyway, just to be sure.

I was also contacted by GhostStitchers again this week, asking if I was ready for another project. With 3 goals crossed off my January list, I felt really good about saying yes. So I will be working on finishing someone else's UFO, Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor. I've been wanting to do a Quaker sampler for a long time, and as I told hubby, this way I get the fun of stitching it without the worry of what to do when it's finished! There will not be photo updates of this, as it belongs to someone else.

Review coming!

2011-01-14T16:49:00.000-07:00

I'm thrilled to say that I'm working with CSN again, this time on a review. Thanks to everyone who participated in my giveaway last fall, it was a lot of fun. I know a lot of you enjoy shopping CSN stores. If you haven't heard of them, CSN has over 200 online stores, where you can find everything you need, whether it be swingsets, fitness equipment, or even cute cookware. I'm very excited about this opportunity, and I'll give you more details when I have them!

My Week In Stitches

2011-01-08T20:45:00.031-07:00

Monday - another infinity scarf for my Etsy shop. This is Lion Brand HomeSpun in Harvest, the second half of the skein used for a scarf for my aunt's Christmas present. It's listed now and available!

Tuesday - I started beading again! This is from the December/January issue of Beadwork Magazine - a square bezel for round beads. It calls for 12 mm rivolis, which I couldn't find, so I used an 8mm, and tweaked the number of beads on the upper part of the bezel - and it works! I've been throwing this thing all over the house, and the 8mm doesn't come out! (Mine's the purple component, the gold one is a photo from the mag.)

Wednesday - the start of my 15-sided biscornu. I'm using scraps of black 28-count Monaco and DMC 841. It will be monochromatic. :)

Tuesday and Friday - HAED Fairy Sisters progress. I think I'm on row 52 or 53, with a goal of reaching row 60 this month, finally. As I've said before, Page 2 starts the moon, and it will start to get more interesting.

Some recent finishes!

2011-01-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

I promised you finishes! I'll start with the socks. If you were following me in November, you know about my saga-like search for blue and orange yarn. Blue and orange are the team colors of our local university, Boise State, and my hubby has gone Bronco crazy since moving home. He saw my brown socks and asked for some wool-blend slipper socks for himself. I was told by the LYS owner that whoever comes up with a blue-orange variegated yarn in this area will be very, very popular. In other words, I had to order a blue and an orange, and she did an amazing job of matching the colors just from her computer screen.

Please ignore the Christmas morning mess. You can see, I chose to alternate the colors. And one foot is the exact opposite of the other. So one has an orange heel, and the other has a blue one. They're a little "trippy" to look at in person, LOL. Yarn - Patons Aran weight - Shetland Chunky in Royal and Tangerine. 1 ball of each did 1 pair of men's socks.

Before I worked on DH's blue and orange socks, I made a pair of black and gray for our neighbor. He and DH are fans of Jack Daniel's, so DH thought he'd enjoy some slipper socks in the appropriate colors. DH will get his own pair of these as soon as he fishes my E hook out of my chair. Yarn - Lion Brand WoolEase in black and the lighter gray (I don't remember the color name).

And now for Book of Ink Circles - first, proof that I finished it in 2010.

The whole thing, completed. Not yet pressed. I'm still deciding how to finish it. I'd like to make it into a bulletin board cover. I realized I don't have any of my work displayed in the house!

Just a quick drop-in

2011-01-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

Hello! I hope the holidays were fantastic for all of you. They were busy and fun here. I just stopped in to move some things around, update finishes (yes!) and change up the side bar. I've added a link to my Etsy shop again. I have some things expiring soon, so be sure to go take a peek (or buy) before they come out of the shop. Some of these things will not be relisted, but will be put aside for craft fairs next fall. I will be back tomorrow with pictures and updates. Did I mention I have finishes???

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T07:18:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe more than a month has gotten away from me. For the first time in a few years, I've actually been in the Christmas spirit - it's amazing how much better you feel about family time when you're family is entirely together. I'll do more updates later - I've been busy!!! So for now, I'd just like to wish all my readers a very merry Christmas, and a safe, healthy, productive New Year.

Freebie Friday - Winner!

2010-11-19T16:31:00.000-07:00

The winner is...
List Randomizer

There were 9 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

Raggedy Ann
Pixie
Kimberly R.
Ashley
Liz
Blu
Karen
Robin
Tim

Timestamp: 2010-11-19 23:16:59 UTC

Congratulations to Raggedy Ann! I've been following her on Twitter pretty much since I joined, and she has a great blog as well. I'll send your e-mail address to the promo person at CSN, and she'll e-mail you your gift certificate code.

For today's freebies, I thought I would share a great cross stitch and needlepoint designer I found (yes, again) on Twitter - http://happythreads.com.au. Her posts are full of happiness and joy, and so are the freebies she frequently posts. Here's one I love - a blue sky and a green meadow. And if you're looking for a quick stitch to put you in the Christmas spirit, here's her newest freebie. She has designs for sale as well, and she makes gorgeous cards.

Thanks to everyone who entered the CSN giveaway. To my new followers, I hope you'll stay with me even though this giveaway is over. There may be others in the future! :)

Beauty Day!

2010-11-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new followers! Last call for the guest giveaway - I pick the winner tomorrow!!!

So today we come to talking about anti-aging products. There are a lot out there. The fact is, a lot of them have really good science behind them. The key is finding what you like, in your price range, that works for your skin. Another important point I want to make is that you should treat your throat and hands the same way you treat your face. The eyes, throat and hands are the first 3 areas of a woman's body that shows aging. So be sure to use whatever skin care products on your throat and hands.

Like I said last week, I'm all about botanical products. Aloe Vera is one of the best botanicals in the world, because it penetrates to the inner layers of the skin, and carries with it anything that's mixed in. It's a unique plant, and that's the reason it's been used for centuries to heal burns and other wounds. There, now you know why mom (or grandma) always told you to put aloe on your sunburn. ;)

Now for some science stuff. Some of the most cutting edge products include peptides, hyaluronic acid, and even nano-technology. I'll leave the nano-technology alone, because it's way too much to understand. But I will talk about the other two. Actually, both peptides and hyaluronic acid are naturally occurring in the skin.

Peptides are simply a chain of amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of cells. What these chains do depends on how many amino acids are in the chain. Some chains (hexapeptides) specifically tell the skin to make more collagen. Collagen production in the skin drops off around the age of 35. Without adequate collagen, we lose firmness in our skin, and it starts to sag. By applying an anti-aging product that contains these peptide chains, you can tell the skin to make more collagen. These are the chains that skin care manufacturers put in their products. (The most common brand name of hexapeptide is Argireline.)

Hyaluronic acid is the primary ingredient in some injectable wrinkle treatments. But it is also found in topical anti-aging products. It can also stimulate the production of collagen, but has a side benefit of causing the skin to hydrate itself.

These are both ingredients that work very well at reducing the signs of aging. But like anything else, if you want results you have to keep using them. Skin care has to be a part of your daily routine in order to see lasting results.

Tutorial Wednesday

2010-11-17T19:48:00.000-07:00

It just doesn't sound the same, lol. I am feeling much better, thank you. I even had a fun stop-in at my LYS, looking for the elusive blue and orange yarn. She will order them for me, and I should have them by December 1.

In keeping with last week's Hardanger theme, here is a link to a post I did in the past about the star motif common in Hardanger. This motif can be incorporated in any number of designs. I know I promised a tutorial for the ship, and as I'm sitting here trying to write it, I realize I don't have the pictures for it that I was sure I'd taken. So I will show you some examples of how I've used this motif instead. A ship is basically a star with 4 funky arms.

This was my first attempt at understanding the directions I found. You'll see that I put them together to make a cross shape. To make an actual ship-shape, the "funky arms" should be on the side portions, with the star points at the top or bottom.

This shows another use for those "funky arms" - flowers! You can also see what can be done by making only half of the star motif.

I am motivated now to stitch a ship and take pictures of it - I can't believe I lost those!!!

Tutorial coming tomorrow

2010-11-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

We'll just swap out Family Day and Tutorial Day this week. This week's family update - the stomach flu hit my older daughter and me last night. She got it worse than I did, unfortunately. It looks like she's going to miss another day of school tomorrow, while I hope to be feeling close to 100%. I was even well enough this afternoon to go help my friend with the baking. Hopefully my brain cells will be back to 100% as well. I'm having a hard time focusing on anything right now.

Stay healthy, everyone.

Heavy Sigh

2010-11-15T20:06:00.001-07:00

Sunday is my downfall. Which is why I was going to do Wordless Weekend. But I didn't have a pic in mind. I had all kinds of time yesterday afternoon, too. DH and the girls went on a swimming party, and I had 3.5 hours of peace and quiet. Plenty of time to catch up on the DVR and crochet some sleeves.

I've finally decided on a yarn for DH's socks - he wants black and silver, he's getting black and gray. I finally convinced him that it is in fact difficult to find solid/metallic worsted yarn that is an 80/20 acrylic/wool blend - in enough quantity to make 2 pair of slipper socks, for less than $50. So Lion Brand Wool-Ease in 2 different colors it is. I'll also be making him a pair in blue and orange (Boise State colors). So I need to finish up my sweater so I can get onto the rest of the socks.

It's the start of a busy week...which is really the start of a busy season. Tomorrow I will spend the day with a friend from church, baking items for our bake sale on Sunday. Then it's Thanksgiving (I'm not cooking this year!!!!!!!), then decorating, and deciding on birthday party plans, and at some point DH's cousin is coming to visit. I'm getting excited for the holiday season this year. I haven't been excited about it for a couple of years.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Remember, the drawing for the CSN gift card is this Friday!!

My Week In Stitches

2010-11-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

No pictures this week. It's too dark in my house this evening, and I'm too lazy to turn lights on just for pictures.

Monday - I finish-finished my brown socks (you've already seen pictures of them).

Tuesday - I put in about 1.5 rows on Fairy Sisters.

Thursday-Friday - I finished the "skirt" portion of my blue sweater. I wish I'd taken a picture earlier, because it's been a while since I posted any pictures of it. I also started the sleeves, and I'll work on them some more tonight.

I'm feeling really good about my sweater progress - like I might actually finish it before snow flies (and sticks). It's still a little big around the middle, and I'm trying to figure out where else to tweak it. I was worried that it would be too heavy, but when it's on it doesn't feel bad.

It's true, I skipped BoInk this week. I'm hoping that when I finish my sweater, I'll be motivated to finish BoInk, too. I'm really close. What would I do with only one real WIP????

Freebie Friday

2010-11-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm getting ready for dinner and the BSU/Idaho rivalry game (go Broncos). Just a reminder, if you haven't entered CSN's guest giveaway yet, you only have a week left! Someone's going to win a $45 gift certificate, just in time for holiday shopping!

This week I thought I'd share some of my favorite crochet freebies. I've said before, the online stitching community has given me so much, and I try to give back in my own way. One of the ways I can give back is to share links to their projects.

The brown socks I just finished came from Mrs. D Crochets - they are her Intuitive Shell Socks. I made them with a worsted weight yarn that was 80% acrylic/20% wool, so they're bulky, and more like slippers. Awesome if your ankles get cold!

Another favorite crochet designer of mine is Kristine from Ambassador Crochet. She is a Ravelry designer, she has a great Etsy shop, and she does free stitch tutorials on her blog. It's so fun to learn a new way to "bend" yarn. Her most recent blog post is "Tips for Teaching Children to Crochet". Kristine is a great writer. If you crochet, you should follow her!

Last one, because the smell of my chicken is making me hungry!!! I follow Rachel from Crochet Spot on Twitter. She has a ton of free patterns, including a sweater pattern designed by a 13-year-old crocheter.

Have a great weekend!!!! Did I say "Go Broncos" yet? ;)

Thursday Beauty

2010-11-11T17:01:00.050-07:00

So, I take it y'all like giveaways? LOL

Happy Veterans' Day to my grandfather, cousin, husband, and many friends who have served or are serving in the US military. Thank you for your service and your sacrifice.

This week, we're going to talk about the basics of skin care vs. make up. One of the lessons I learned early on as a skin care consultant is that "no amount of make up can hide a poorly cared-for complexion." Make up is designed to enhance. That's all. If your skin is in great condition, it will enhance your gorgeous skin. If it's less than perfect, make up will enhance your flaws.

The only way to actually improve the condition of your skin (to make the flaws go away) is to wash your face and moisturize. Start a regimen early enough, and you can prevent the signs of aging. If the signs are already there, then you should consider using a firming serum. As we age, our bodies don't make as much collagen, and without collagen our skin sags, forming wrinkles. Next week I'll talk about anti-aging products, because it's going to take some research to make sure I'm providing truly up-to-date information for you.

So let's talk about cleansing and moisturizing. It's super-duper important to wash your face morning and night. Super-duper. Even if you don't wear make up. Our skin acts like a magnet for all the bad stuff in the air, and that bad stuff breaks up the bonds between skin cells. Skin that isn't strong develops wrinkles. Cleansing is the number one thing you can do to prevent the signs of aging.

Moisturizing is the second most important thing you can do. Even if you have oily skin. Oily skin is dry skin with an identity crisis. Meaning, it thinks it's dry, so it produces more oil. Use a moisturizer that is appropriate for your skin type - lightweight for oily skin, creamy for dry skin. Moisturizers that include sunscreen are great for daytime use. Make sure your moisturizer includes anti-oxidants - Vitamins A, C, and E. These will help to provide a barrier against the "bad stuff" and protect your skin.

I always recommend a botanical-based product. Stay away from anything that has "petroleum" or "petrolatum" in the first 5 ingredients. Petrolatum is a by-product of processing petroleum - the oil companies sell it to skin care companies because it makes the products feel "nice". But it doesn't actually provide any benefits to your skin. Your skin is mostly water - petrolatum is mostly oil. They don't play nicely together. Plant-based products, on the other hand, have a lot of water in them. They will talk to your skin in a way it understands. The goal is not to just change the "appearance" but the condition of your skin.

If you're looking for a good botanical product, the line that I've used for over 10 years is called Aloette. They have an aloe vera-based formula, and cleansers and moisturizers at different price points. If you'd like more information about Aloette's products, please visit their website or leave me a comment (or both).

Wednesday is Family Day

2010-11-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

This pic is for Cole - finished socks! They go in family day because DH has decided he wants me to make 2 pairs for him and a pair for our neighbor. Of course, he wants specific colors, and I'm having a hard time finding those yarns online. Finishing these socks was the perfect way to end my Monday - you can see the empty bookshelves beyond my feet. We spent the afternoon and evening rearranging the living room, and my feet were so tired! All I could think about was sitting down and working on those socks!

Here are some more pictures of our rearranging (ignore the scarf and mitten mess, please...and the vacuum, and the blue painter's tape, and the lack of crown molding *sigh*). We have an odd shape to our living room - it's long, with a 3-pane sliding glass door in the middle of one wall, and an opening to the dining room/kitchen on the other wall. We used to have the TV where the white cabinet is, and my chaise where the brown cabinet is, and the couch angled out between the 2 halves of the room. I had to walk around the end of the couch to get anywhere!

It's much cozier for sitting and watching TV, and I can look out the window from my desk and watch the squirrels run on the neighbor's fence. An unexpected side benefit - there is no longer room for the girls to dance in the middle of the room. All joy-filled dancing must take place in the open space behind the seating area - out of view of the TV.

Welcome to my new followers! I hope you're enjoying what you find!

Tutorial Tuesday

2010-11-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who expressed sympathy over my foot yesterday. It's feeling much better. A bandage really does make it better! Also, if you haven't yet, please go sign up for my giveaway!

Now, on to the tutorial(s). I'm providing links to the Hardanger tutorials I've done over the past few years. You can start from the beginning, or jump in wherever you'd like. As I've learned different forms of needlework, I've discovered that many techniques cross over. Enjoy!

Lesson #1 - Hardanger Background and Shopping Info

Lesson #2 - Can You Count To 5? (Klosters)

Lesson #3 - Larger Kloster Diamonds

Lesson #4 - Cutwork

Lesson #5 - Wrapping Bars

Lesson #6 - Woven Bars

Lesson #7 - Basic Filling Stitch

Lesson #8 - Filling Stitch #2 - Twisted Cross

Lesson #9 - Edging Technique - Satin Stitch

Lesson #10 - Edging Technique - Buttonhole Stitch (part 1)

Lesson #11 - Edging Technique - Buttonhole Stitch (part 2)

I Hate Computers Sometimes

2010-11-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

My internet connection has been intermittent all evening!! I almost didn't make it today! Whew!

We had a self-inflicted busy day today. DH and I rearranged the living room, moving my desk to the same wall as our sliding glass door. This way, the sun won't beat down on my back. And at some times of the day, I'll be able to open the curtains and look outside. The rest of the furniture was arranged to make a more cozy seating arrangement. It's also arranged in such a way that I don't have to move anything for Christmas. :)

So one good thing and one bad thing from today. Bad thing first - while we were moving furniture, I found one of my tapestry needles with my foot. Ouch. It was apparently embedded point down (eye up) in the carpet, and I stepped on the eye with my heel. My husband's comment: "That's a big hole." Good thing - I finished my brown socks!! I'm wearing them right now, and they're so snug and warm!!!

Wordless Weekend - Fall Beauty

2010-11-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

My Week In Stitches

2010-11-06T21:35:00.000-06:00

Sunday - Book of Ink Circles. This is the 3rd "row" center motif. And I think the end of my darker blue color.

Tuesday & Friday - Fairy Sisters. I actually got 5 or 6 rows in this week. The tops of the green threads are at row 50, and my goal for this month is to get through row 60. Once I get to page 2, it actually starts to look interesting.

Wednesday & Saturday - brown sock #2. Yes, that's a paper towel tube behind the sock. I had to go looking for the second end of the yarn, and things got messy. I was using a remote control to tame the yarn for a while, LOL.

Thanks to everyone who's entered my guest giveaway already - please click here to check it out and enter!

Freebie Friday - Guest Giveaway

2010-11-05T13:00:00.049-06:00

I'm very excited to announce my first guest giveaway! CSN stores has over 200 online stores where you can find anything you need, whether it be a chic handbag, children's luggage, or even cute cookware! As I was browsing their sites, I found Christmas decor and beautiful wall art as well. These sites will be a great resource for your holiday shopping this year, whether you're looking for the perfect gift or the perfect accent piece. And one of MY readers will win a $45 gift certificate, good at any of CSN's stores!!!!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment here, including your e-mail address, please. Of course, I would love if you would become a follower here and on Twitter, and write about the giveaway on your own blogs. But I won't make it a requirement this time. :) This giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada. I will announce the winner on Friday, November 19.

Good luck!!!!

Beauty Day!

2010-11-04T13:17:00.000-06:00

Happy Thursday, everyone! Most of you may not know, I've been a skin care consultant and make up artist for over 10 years. I thought I'd share some of the tips I've picked up over the past 10 years.

The biggest problem people complain about (men, too!) in the fall is chapped lips. When the air gets colder, and the heat is on inside, our skin is constantly exposed to dry air. The skin on our lips is actually very thin. When it's damaged, we notice it so much more quickly. But you can heal the skin...and prevent the damage...with just a couple of easy steps.

To prevent chapping - the best tip I ever learned is to exfoliate your lips! You can purchase products with granules that will slough the dead skin and moisturize at the same time. Or, you can do something that's free. ;) When you brush your teeth, take your damp (fully rinsed) toothbrush and gently massage your lips with it. Just one pass on the top and one on the bottom, every day, should help to prevent the skin from cracking. My younger daughter is more prone to dry skin, and I've used this trick on her since she got teeth, and her lips rarely chap.

Another tip to prevent chapping - stop licking your lips! Your mom was right, you know. Licking your lips will actually cause them to chap because the moisture will evaporate from the surface of the skin, and will also pull moisture out of the skin, leaving it drier than it was before. To moisturize, use a non-scented, non-flavored petroleum-based balm. You will never see me recommend petroleum-based products for any other area of skin. But because the skin on your lips is so thin, you need something to seal them. Avoid scents and flavors because a) they could irritate damaged skin and b) you will just be tempted to lick your lips more.

What about healing? When my kids have chapped lips, I always have them use a damp wash cloth VERY GENTLY on the skin, to remove the damaged, peeling skin. Then we apply a first aid cream. We use an Aloette product called Visible Aid - you only need a tiny bit of this, and it moisturizes and numbs the area a little bit. But you could also use a triple-antibiotic cream as well. The point is to seal in some moisture and get the skin healing.

I hope this helps! Next week we'll get into some more skin care tips. If you have a skin care or make up question, go ahead and leave it here, and I'll try to answer it in a future post.

Wednesday is Family Day

2010-11-03T20:47:00.000-06:00

For "family day" this week I thought I would show you our recent family project. Every year, our church hosts a Harvest Party on Halloween, and the highlight is the Trunker Treat, where everyone lines up their cars and the kids go around the parking lot collecting candy. Some people decorate their trunks, and it's a lot of fun. My creative daughter came up with this idea last year:

So for this year, she wanted to make a garden. Fantastic idea, we thought. The kids will make flowers, it'll be fun. *sigh* What I failed to realize is that no one in the house likes to think about executing these ideas until the day before Halloween. (When you're making a shark, you really only have to make the teeth. Thanks to my aunts, we already had the fish and the felt water.) Anyway, I sat the kids down a week before-hand to try to make a plan. We were able to figure out how many pickets a fence would need, and that we would need to make "lots" of flowers. *sigh again*

Fast-forward to Thursday night, when Mommy has been crocheting flowers and handstitching yo-yo flowers, and cutting cardboard pickets, and no one else has done anything. We realized we would have to change our plan, that we didn't have the time to make "lots of flowers" and figure out how to stand them up in the back of the car. So we decided to make:

A teddy bear picnic! I even downloaded the obnoxious song, and DH set up his laptop and played it over and over again. We cut sumac leaves from the jungle in our back yard, and wrapped old curtain fabric around the hydraulic post-thingies to make trees. My mom and the girls made the paper flowers - my mother decided the spare tire should be a Gloriosa bush. We packed a picnic from the girls' play food. You can see my crocheted flowers at the base of the "table" and my yo-yos at the base of the "bush".

Tutorial Tuesday - picture heavy

2010-11-02T08:28:00.000-06:00

Before we get into the tutorial, just a quick reminder for those in the U.S. (as if you could forget) - today is election day. Make sure you get out and make your voice heard. No political recommendations coming from me, the great thing about craft is that we can set those differences aside and just work in common. Hmmm, maybe we should send congress some yarn and crochet hooks??? Okay, enough of that - on to the fun stuff!

Some of you may remember MONTHS ago I was looking for a tutorial for a scissor pocket. I found one that I really liked, but it was mostly text and not a lot of pictures. So as I finished the project, I took a ton of pictures and promised to put them together for you. Hey, at least it's coming in the same calendar year!

Scissor Pocket Finishing Tutorial

You will need:
- stitched piece
- lining fabric
- cording or lace for trim
- 3 pieces of cardboard
* 1 slightly smaller than your stitched piece, 2 larger. Because my stitched piece was a 4x4 square, I cut the small cardboard 3x3. The larger pieces were cut 6x3 each.
- small piece of batting
- glue
- ruler
- box or craft knife
- scissors
- iron
- needle and thread

Instructions:

1) Cut your cardboard so that it is proportionate to your design. I wanted 1/2 inch allowance on each side, so I cut my small cardboard 1 inch smaller than my stitched piece, then doubled the length for the backing pieces. I suggest labeling the cardboard so you know which piece is which. You will have one for the pocket, one for the very back, and one for the batting.

2) Glue batting to one of the large pieces of cardboard. Set aside and allow to dry.

3) Cut 2 pieces of lining fabric 1 inch larger than back cardboard. (My cardboard is 6x3, so my lining fabric is 7x4)

4) Cut 1 piece of lining fabric the same size as stitched piece.

5) Turn stitched piece wrong side up and center pocket (small) cardboard over design. Trace around cardboard on fabric, checking your centering.

6) Place stitched piece and small lining piece RIGHT sides together (stitched piece on top) and pin along the top only

7) Sew seam (thread color doesn't matter). Trim & press seam open, flip right sides out, and press seam.

8) Center pocket piece, making sure to tuck it into seam. Leave cardboard inside.

9) Fold side and bottom edges of both fabrics toward lining piece and press (these edges will be tucked between the 2 larger cardboard pieces).

Set pocket piece aside.

10) Center "back" piece on one piece of lining fabric (writing side up - if your fabric is light colored, the words might show through). Press edges of fabric around cardboard. (I like mitered corners, and I find pressing with an iron makes it easier.) Run a line of glue near where the raw edge of the fabric will be, and press fabric in place with fingers, using a little extra glue at the corners. Allow glue to dry.

11) Center front piece BATTING SIDE DOWN on the other piece of lining fabric. Press edges of fabric around cardboard. (I like mitered corners, and I find pressing with an iron makes it easier.) Run a line of glue near where the raw edge of the fabric will be, and press fabric in place with fingers, using a little extra glue at the corners. Allow glue to dry.

12) Lace the back sides of your pocket. Thread color doesn't matter. Be sure to tack down the corners, then pass the needle back and forth between the edges, like lacing a shoe. Wrap/weave the thread down the center of your lacing to secure bottom edge. Slide the front piece inside the pocket so the lacing is against the exposed cardboard.

13) Place your trim on the back piece - pin in place so the pins are pointing out, and GLUE, GLUE GLUE!! Glue the trim in place, then apply glue to the exposed cardboard. Center your top on your back, press hard, then find something heavy.

I like my husband's drill case. :) Let it sit for an hour, then you can remove the pins. Leave under the heavy object at least overnight, to be sure the glue dries thoroughly and bonds the front and back together.

DONE!!

Welcome to November!

2010-11-01T13:20:00.000-06:00

I'm trying NaBloPoMo again - posting every day for the month of November. I told you on Saturday I have a plan. Really, I do! So, here's what you can expect from me this month:

Mondays - will probably be my fly-by day (like this) - just checking in, maybe a thought provoking question if I have one. :)
Tuesdays - tutorials - I have one finishing tutorial ready to go, and I'm thinking about reviving the Hardanger tutorials
Wednesday - family day - for those of you who want to see how our trunk turned out, and things like that
Thursday - beauty day! Way in advance of the holidays, because if you're like me, you find the tips you need 2 days after your event.
Friday - freebie day - I will look for some great designs or ideas and post links
Saturday - My Week In Stitches (of course)
Sunday - wordless weekends - I promise, I'll try really hard to NOT type something to go along with the pictures!

Is anyone else participating this month? Or have you been successful in previous years?

My Week In Stitches

2010-10-30T20:55:00.000-06:00

Book of Ink Circles. Proof that I've finished the bottom-right corner. Of course, I did that last week. And I didn't manage to stitch on it more this week. I started a tension headache on Sunday afternoon, and dealt with it for 5 days out of this week. We finally decided that my desk chair was set too high, and I was slouching at my desk. So I lowered the chair, and now I feel about 2 feet tall.

So I mentioned earlier this week the work on our trunk for Trunker Treat. I crocheted some flowers - the center one is a 3-D rose, really pretty in person. The surrounding ones are a flower pattern for using up scrap yarn from Ambassador Crochet.

Yo-yos! When I finished stitching around, they didn't look the way I liked. So I took a large one and a small one, matched up wrong sides, and stitched through the center. They're super-cute. I may need to learn how to make headbands, so that I have another use for these.

I've signed up for NaBloPoMo - which is officially November. Last year I failed. This year I feel more prepared. I'm planning some different posts on getting ready for the holidays - and it won't all be crafting!

A finish!

2010-10-28T11:37:00.001-06:00

I know I didn't do MWIS this weekend. I wanted to wait until after dh's birthday to post this pic, just in case he actually reads what I write.

Lion Brand Wool-Ease in "Denim Twist"

Click here for pattern

I finished his fingerless gloves! I went with the half-finger style, and as you can see, they're way too big for me, so they fit his hands just fine. He loves the color, he loves the fit, now he's just waiting for it to actually be cold enough for him to wear them. So I'm really proud of these because a) I finished them before his birthday; b) he likes them a lot; c) they fit him well; and d) they are exactly the same size. Okay, I'm probably most excited about that last one.

If you check my October goals, you'll see that I did finish the bottom-right motif on Book of Ink Circles. However, I forgot to take a picture of it. So this weekend you'll get 2 shots of BoInk in one post. I know, you're excited. I may actually be able to date this project 2010.

The rest of this week will be spent making a garden in the back of a vehicle. Every year our church hosts a Trunker Treat event during the Harvest Party, and people decorate their car trunks. Last year we were a shark, this year we're going to be a flower garden. My agenda for today is cutting cardboard pickets out of fabric bolt cores and making yo-yo flowers. I may spend more time on the yo-yos than the pickets. Just sayin'.

My Week In Stitches

2010-10-16T17:41:00.000-06:00

Fairy Sisters - I did the rest of the confetti on page one and one more row. Because the main color right now is so dark, it's hard to see when I leave spaces for the confetti stitches. So from now on I think I'll do them first. At least that's what I think right now.

Blue Sweater - this received quite a bit of my attention this week. I'm so happy with myself - I remembered to note on the pattern not only where I stopped, but how many more rows of that section I had left. It saved me sooooooooo much frustration! I still feel like it will need more reshaping, but I'm going to wait to do that until the skirt portion is finished.

Brown Sock(s) - I finished one! I need more yarn to make the second one! LOL - fortunately, the Etsy seller I purchased this yarn from still has the same dye lot in stock. In my defense, I did the math based on the yardage of the yarn, and it was more than the pattern called for. So, I was good. Maybe the pattern only gave the amount of yarn needed for one sock instead of one pair, but that seems kind of silly.

My crochet pattern obsession continues...last night I downloaded 2 fingerless glove patterns one for DH and one for me - because sometimes you need to be able to use your fingertips when it's cold outside. DH's birthday is coming up at the end of this month - I may try to surprise him with his. Not hard, because he works evenings. Honey, if you read my blog, now would NOT be the time to tell me. ;)

A Great Giveaway to Enter

2010-10-11T13:33:00.000-06:00

Kathleen at Grosgrain Fabulous is having a fantastic guest giveaway - a $50 gift card to Magpie Lovely - good on sewing patterns for grown ups or kids, or sewing books. Check it out and enter - Magpie Lovely Patterns Guest Giveaway

Kathleen writes a fabulous blog - follow her to find out about her next "Frock By Friday" - start a dress on Monday and finish it by Friday with her helps and tips!

My Week In Stitches

2010-10-09T21:43:00.000-06:00

Pictures are back! I've started a new project (surprise, surprise). See, I'm addicted to Ravelry's pattern directory, LOL. I can't help it, I find myself searching for things to try. So I found this pattern for socks to crochet. This is my progress as of Friday afternoon. I planned to take them and work on them at the retreat, but I got drawn into the games instead. They were laughing at my sock!!!! I think they're just jealous, lol. I like them, and I'll be very happy to finish them.

Our retreat was a great success - we stayed up until 12:30 playing games, talking and laughing. I ate too much sugar and didn't drink enough water, and came home and took a nap before heading to the neighbor's house for a Boise State football party. I was glad when the planning phase was done, and I was able to relax and enjoy time with my friends.

The other project to show is a finish - a quick-stitch infinity scarf listed in my Etsy shop. I love this vibrant red, and the Lion Brand Homespun Yarn is so thick and squishy to work with. I've been playing with my camera, trying to get better looking pictures for my shop listings. I was contacted by a blogger about featuring this item in an article. If it happens I'll cross-promote - her blog is well-written, and she does articles about different items on a theme.

Happy Dancing!

2010-10-05T15:05:00.002-06:00

My GhostStitchers' project is in the mail back to them! Yay for getting back to personal projects! But did I pick up a WIP? No! I'm starting something new, of course! LOL But I swear, it'll be a quick project!

My Week In Stitches

2010-10-02T12:31:00.000-06:00

More GhostStitching this week means no pictures again. But have I mentioned I'm making progress, and this part is going much faster, and I hope to be back to WIPs next week? I'll get some concentrated stitching time tonight while we watch the Boise State football game. So proud of this team and how they're handling the national spotlight.

In the meantime, I'm also working hard on retreat plans - our retreat is this coming Friday, and I'm so looking forward to a night away! I had a chance to tour the retreat center with other committee members, and it was good to see where we'll be eating and sleeping and doing activities.

Going pink for October

2010-10-01T16:40:00.000-06:00

I'm not someone who changes things up a lot - I've had the other background for a year, I think. I don't even change it for Christmas, and I love Christmas! But since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I'm changing the blog background to pink. My hope is that every time you visit you'll be reminded to take care of yourself and those you love. Talk to your doctor about your mammography needs (because the recommendations keep changing, and nobody's happy with it). Do your self-exams. Drink your water. Exercise. Eat right. Enjoy your family. Look for a way to give back. If you're a stitcher, please visit the Stitching for a Cure blog (in my left sidebar) to find out about the current project to help raise money for breast cancer research.

Thanks for visiting.

My Week In Stitches

2010-09-25T16:00:00.000-06:00

I've passed the half-way point on this GhostStitchers project. I do wish I could show you a picture - it turned out pretty cute. The second half has more solid blocks of color and fewer small motifs - and fewer French knots!! After the first knot I was feeling very positive - I was happy with how it turned out. Then I did 10 more - I'm not sure that practice actually makes them easier. This part only has 4 French knots and fewer partial stitches and straight stitches. I'm still very hopeful that I will finish the first week of October - we'll see what my progress report tells them.

Plans are moving forward for our church's first women's retreat. I've been working on the devotional item, and I'm very excited. Last Sunday I helped the coordinator pick out colored card stock. :) We now have less than 2 weeks to finish getting everything ready. I'm glad we're starting with a one-night retreat - I think it will be a good way to get people into the idea of doing one every year.

Have a great week, everyone - fingers crossed that I have smoking needles this week and make amazing progress!!

My Week In Stitches

2010-09-18T14:19:00.000-06:00

Still focusing on this GhostStitchers' project - I'm almost to 50%. I really hope to be able to finish by the end of September.

Other than stitching and keeping the house basically running, I've been spending a little time at the computer doing projects for church. I'm on the Women's Retreat Committee, and I've been working this week on a devotional take-away and also a confirmation/information letter.

I also added some new items to my Etsy shop. Now that we're past the half-way point of September, and the start of autumn is around the corner, I'm thinking about scarves. I started with an infinity scarf that I finished last winter, and I'll be adding more once I finish this stitching project and can crochet guilt-free.

I won!

2010-09-13T22:50:00.000-06:00

I won Kristine's giveaway over at Creative Crochet - she was giving away 4 books, plus she threw in 4 of her patterns, for a total of 8 winners. She drew my name for....a bead crochet book! (I put in at least twice for that one, I really wanted it.) I've always wanted to learn how to do bead crochet, so I'll be watching my mailbox very diligently. I've put in for PIF's, and I've received RAK's before, but I think this is the first time I've ever won a drawing like this!

BTW, if you're not following Kristine, you really should be. She's a Ravelry designer, and she gives incredible tips and tutorials on crochet stitches - and she has 6 kids. She's kind of a stitchy-blog rockstar, at least as far as I'm concerned.

K, back to happy dancing!

My Week In Stitches

2010-09-12T19:31:00.000-06:00

A non-photo update.

Stitching this week was primarily for GhostStitchers. This design is cutesier (Blogger says it's a word!!!) than what I usually do, but I feel like I'm making great progress, maybe even finishing ahead of deadline. Which is always a good thing. I did a few more rows on my sweater, but it really doesn't look any different than it did last week.

I'm looking forward to doing some more smalls soon. I'd like to get some more finishes in. I enjoy the bigger projects, because it's a bigger reward at the end, but there's something about finishing a project in a day or two. :)

Oh! I almost forgot - I've reopened my Etsy shop! I have 2 items listed right now...this might be the reason I want to do some more smalls. Please visit! I appreciate feedback!

My Week In Stitches

2010-09-06T17:43:00.000-06:00

Happy Labor Day in the U.S.! This will be super-quick, because we're getting ready to watch the Boise State Broncos take on Virginia Tech. I'm the only one in the house without official Bronco gear, so I found some orange felt in my stash and made a 3D flower to stitch on a blue shirt (strategically placed to cover a bleach spot). Blue & orange are not colors I usually wear together, lol.

The only stitches to show are on my blue sweater. I'm working on a cross-stitch project for GhostStitchers, so I won't be showing WIP on that obviously. I'll be working on the blue sweater during the game tonight, so that my hands will be covered in the appropriate color. :)

So, the sweater. I got it stitched together, and finished the waistband, and it was TOO BIG!! That never happens to me! I had to put darts in the back to compensate (see below). There won't be any sleeves for a while, but it's supposed to be long-sleeved.

Back, and a better shot of the waistband color scheme. My chair makes a lovely model, doesn't it?

Another fantastic giveaway!

2010-09-04T23:00:00.000-06:00

I just entered a giveaway Kristine is having at Creative Crochet for International Crochet Day (which is September 12). She's offering 4 new books - 3 for different styles of crochet, and 1 for the absolute beginner. Click on the word "giveaway" and enter! Drawing will be 9/13.

Blogoversary - Year 3 in Review

2010-09-02T20:43:00.000-06:00

No giveaway this year, it kind of crept up on me. So I don't have anything ready. And I've kind of over-committed myself (you'll see that on Saturday's update). It took me all evening just to make this:

Finish-finishes!!!! - I found 30 projects that I've completed in the last 12 months, I know I'm missing some(not all are pictured, of course). 6 of those were wearables for ME (huge pat on the back - I've been wearing my black capris almost constantly since I finished them). I learned 5 new finishing techniques, how to do blackwork (which I still love, by the way), and how to crochet my own lace. I'm becoming more confident in crocheting with yarn, too. I like to crochet useful things and stitch for fun. Sewing is becoming less of a chore, too. I learned how to do gathers, pleats, zippers and PANTS.

Exchanges, gifts, SAL, RR and WIPs - I participated in 5 Tiny Treasures Exchanges, and sent off 2 PIFs. I made a gift set for a giveaway for a Facebook group. I have finished all the framework on Book of Ink Circles, and had hoped to finish the motifs by now. I should have been able to, if I hadn't skipped some Sundays. I finished and mailed off Pixie's round 6 of the 3 Ladies RR, (but I'm still waiting for mine to come home). I started HAED's Fairy Sisters, which is my main WIP, and will be for awhile. The advent calendar has been an epic fail - remember when I was going to complete one pocket a day in November? HA!

I was accepted as a GhostStitcher, and finished one project for them (I have another WIP currently). It's fun to be able to make a little extra money through stitching. I'm also now doing contract work for some friends. It's also fun to be able to make a little extra money at home on the computer. :)

In blogging, I created 107 posts (including this one) - that averages a little over 2 each week. Not bad considering I skipped the entire month of July. Most comments - 6 - a 3-way-tie between my wine-dyeing experiment, my HAED decision and one of my weekly updates. I currently have 41 followers (I didn't record how many I had last year, but I know it's up a lot).

My husband moved home!! Thank you to everyone who was praying for us for the last 2 years, we are settling into a new pattern that includes Daddy. I'm fully convinced that part of the reason I stitched and blogged so much the last 2 years was because I needed to keep my mind and hands occupied. Thanks for your support, for following, for commenting, and even those of you who just stop by to read.

My Week In Stitches

2010-08-28T11:38:00.000-06:00

All crochet stitches this week...and some finishing. :)

Here's the latest biscornu pin-cushion-let. A silver combination of star and ship I call "Celtic cross" on some of my wine-dyed fabric. The bracelet part is denim with flower accents, cut on the bias. And a little silver bead

And the blue sweater I started Monday evening. I finished the back Thursday evening watching Project Runway. I'm using Caron Simply Soft in Country Blue - no dye lot, totally washable. I stopped by the library on Thursday as well, and found a book I'd placed on hold waiting for me - Everyday Crochet: Wearable Designs Just for You. I want to finish my current sweater really fast so I can try some of these designs while I have the book. :)

So I had an idea...

2010-08-24T20:35:00.000-06:00

...and then I got distracted, lol. That happens a lot! Before I tell you about my first idea (which I'm still really excited about), I'll tell you about the distracting part. I've found (wait for it) a pattern to crochet a sweater. Not a cardigan, not a pull-over/wear-over-a-turtleneck, not a vest. I truly didn't know you could crochet a keep-you-warm-and-still-be-cute kind of sweater. But that's why there's an internet, to teach us things. :)

I'll be making this in blue. I found it in Ravelry's pattern directory. To see the pattern for yourself, go to http://www.caron.com/projects/ss/ss_simple_tunic.html. Cute, right? Let's see, empire waist - check, v-neck - check, tunic length - check - yep, perfect for me, lol. I started it last night, and I'll be adding it to the weekly WIP pix post.

You have to go here to see this other amazing idea. (The picture on the site is of the actual designer, not a paid model, and I didn't want to use it without her permission.) She took an existing, blah T, crocheted different sized circles and then attached them freeform to make new shoulders and neckline, as well as the bottom edging. I'm playing around with the idea in my head. I have a couple of long-sleeved Ts that are stretched out and not fitting properly (the sleeves have shrunk a bit, and I'm always adjusting the neckline). But the main part of the fabric is still usable. So I'll think on one and see what happens.

My Week In Stitches

2010-08-21T11:37:00.000-06:00

Well, "weeks":

BoInk - I'm finished with the green. Completely. 100%, no more green is required for this project. You can see the last little bit in the motif to the upper left. I also really like how the dark blue in the lower motif turns the weird red shapes into hearts. :)

Fairy Sisters - 1/2 of page 1! And some lighter colors starting to make their way in - the little nebula thing is made up of navy blues. And a little confetti near the bottom of the page to mark my progress. And because it's HAED and you have to have confetti with HAED.

This afternoon/evening I'll finally be finishing another biscornu for a pin-cushion-let, and pictures of that will be coming next week. And my printer hasn't been working for a really long time - I have one that works now and I can print off more patterns. :) I spent some time on Ravelry yesterday, and I found a cute idea for a crocheted top. More details on that to come as I figure out how to do what I want.

Thanks to the ladies who commented yesterday, I appreciate you! And welcome to more and more people who are finding me, it's very exciting!

So what's up with all of you?

2010-08-20T19:55:00.001-06:00

I've been busier lately than normal. Since hubby finished his academy and received his posting, I've been looking for part-time work. It's been frustrating, since most jobs won't pay enough to even pay for child care (which is pointless anyway, to just be working to pay for child care), and hubby's schedule was all over the place. It's a little more normal now, and the girls have started school. I was fortunate to get some from-home contract work for a friend's company, and I think I kind of like the working-from-home-for-someone-else thing. But it means that I haven't had the time to do any stitching or sewing. Remember when I used to get like 6 hours a day of stitching in? Yeah, I probably won't see that again for a while. I'm setting little goals for myself every time I sit down to stitch, so that I feel like I've accomplished something...even if it's only one row.

Something else going on with me - I finally joined Twitter. LOL, the giveaway I posted about earlier this week pushed me over the edge, and I've been fully and truly sucked into it. As soon as I figure out how, I'll add a "follow me" gadget to one of the sidebars so y'all can find me! The 140 characters or less is kind of tough for me - if you've read my blog at all you know that I like to use a lot of descriptive words!

So, things have been quiet in blog-land - what have you all been up to?

Giveaway!

2010-08-17T16:44:00.000-06:00

Not mine, lol. I can barely get enough stitching done these days to post updates. But be sure to check out Blue Ribbon Designs - she's having a fantastic giveaway of a project bag, a tool pouch, and some of her designs. And she says if there are lots of entries there might be more surprises! Enter by Sunday!

Tim Gunn is a guru...

2010-08-11T17:35:00.000-06:00

...and not just for the designers on TV. "Make it work" - it's so simple, but it's profound, isn't it? So some of you will remember that this spring I decided to try working with knit. Not knitting, but sewing a garment out of knit fabric. I got some gorgeous Missoni on clearance, and then chickened out and bought some white knit to practice on. And then I stopped talking about it. I finished it a couple of weeks ago, after much repeating of Mr. Gunn's wisdom - " Just make it work."

This is the front - nice, right? The periwinkle at the middle was an addition to my stash from our church rummage sale, and I found I needed to use it when I realized I'd forgotten to cut 2 sets of middle pieces (one for the pretty outside, and one for the facing). I was very fortunate that I'd picked up this knit thinking to make tank tops or something for the girls. I stitched up the front with a herringbone-style stitch on the inside to make it a little more decent for me.

(Please forgive the blurriness of this shot - I was standing on my bed). This is where you see that I really followed Mr. Gunn's sage advice. Okay, first of all an admission - there are not supposed to be buttons on this top. It's supposed to be all one stretchy piece. I may have mis-measure my rib-cage. Maybe. None of you have ever done that, right? I didn't think so. So I tried it on the first time, after attaching the periwinkle piece to the top pieces...and had to cut the side seam to get it off. After some phone calls and discussions with friends, I decided to 1) let out the side seams, 2) cut the middle of the back and 3) increase the middle of the back slightly and add buttons. And guess what - it works!!! And I've worn it, and I got compliments on it!! Click here to see the original pattern as McCall's intended it.

And now, something that didn't take me weeks, and worked exactly the way the instructions said it would:

Not the child of course, but the pink ruffle top. A friend gave me this pattern, and I put it together for the little one, who is a very bubbly, pink-loving girl.

My MONTH in stitches

2010-08-01T13:20:00.000-06:00

Wow, July, where did you go? Come back, please....no? Fine. To my new followers, I apologize, I normally post at least once a week. But thank you for joining me and sticking with me. I look forward to getting to know you better. :)

As you will see, I've been busy. DH finished his academy for his new job, graduated, and is learning how things work. I've been working on clothing for myself and the girls, and I'm also looking for part-time work. It's kind of funny that the looking for work takes more time than I actually will be available to work. I have just 3 more weeks (EEK!) until the kids go to school, and the little one isn't even registered yet. So I've been slacking in more than just the blogging arena. August will be productive, it has to be!

So....stitching is the reason you come here, and stitching updates you shall have:

BoInk - I've finished all the yellow borders!!! I now have about 2.5 motifs to complete. I'd hoped to finish by the end of July, but I'm really happy that the borders are done and I just have the fun colorful motifs left. BTW, I'm loving this bottom right. It's like a combination of all the other corner ones.

Fairy Sisters - I'm moving down page one, and you can start to see where there will be something other than inky-darkness.

I also accomplished another little teacup (crochet) for the little one's friend's birthday present. Sewing pictures and updates will come later this week. They will take more explanation than I feel like giving today!

A Book Recommendation

2010-07-01T20:58:00.000-06:00

I met an author playing games on Facebook, LOL. If you've followed me all along, you know I love mystery books. I'm very excited to let you all know about Jenny Hilborne's first novel, Madness and Murder. It's currently available in e-book form for Kindle, or Kindle for PC if you're like me and don't have a nifty electronic-reader-thingy (click on the title to go directly to Amazon to buy). To see an excerpt, click here. I read the first few sentences of this excerpt, and was super-excited to read the rest! I know of some people who've finished it already, and it's only been out for a week! And in that week, it has already reached #2 on Omnilist's best seller list - if you would prefer to read it in PDF, click here. (Same price for either Omnilist or Amazon, the only difference is the format.)

While you're visiting Jenny's blog to see the excerpt from her book, take a look at her crochet and knit projects - when she's not busy becoming a best-selling author, she channels her creative energies (or maybe just her stress) into fibers and needles.

Congratulations, Jenny - already #2 on a bestseller list, and 3 5-star reviews on Amazon - that's pretty amazing!

New routines and a Before and After

2010-06-26T22:49:00.000-06:00

Wow, so adjusting to DH being with us full time has thrown off my normal schedule more than it ever did when he would come home on visits! Y'all, I don't think I've crossed a single x since my last post. And that was only boring yellow border on BoInk. I don't think I realized how much I used stitching to keep my mind off of him being gone. I mean, intellectually, I knew that's what I was doing, but I didn't realize how much I relied on it. There were days when I would stitch about 6 hours. Plus housework and kid-stuff and church stuff...

So now that he's home, and I'm settling into a new routine, and trying to remember to take my anti-depressant, and trying to figure out what to do with 2 kids at home all day, and thinking about looking for part-time work...I'm exhausted just thinking about it! I've been reading a lot, and doing a little bit of crochet. But none of my WIPs have made their way into my fingers.

I did accomplish something pretty amazing this last week - I turned this:

(downstairs closet - I know it's hard to see, that's kind of the point)

into this:

Yay me! I can finally see all my fabric for sewing clothing and for finishing. I can see how much yarn I ~~need~~ have. I can get to my wrapping papers without digging through coats! The ironing board needs to find a new home, and I still have a bunch of "organizing clutter" on my finishing table. But I think I'll be able to get back to sewing things during the days on Monday. And that makes me very happy. Because my children need summer clothes, and I have piles of fabric and patterns to accomplish that feat.

That was fast!

2010-06-08T11:12:00.000-06:00

Somehow, I thought postal service to Australia would take a couple of weeks. Pokua let me know that she's received her TTE2 pincushion I stitched for her. She actually commented on my post about the wine-dyed fabric, saying that now she knows what the "something special" was! LOL

front

back with her initials

The first thing I learned about Pokua from her blog is that she loves all things Quaker. I chose a freebie from Tempting Tangles, who is a northern Idaho designer. I stitched her Panoply of Posies Biscornu, and finished it as a mattress pincushion. The second thing I learned from her blog is that she loves to make pinkeeps out of her Fair and Squares exchange pieces, so I thought I'd make her a different finish. I charted the side pieces - actually, I charted 2 designs and let my littler one decide which one to stitch, LOL. The Quaker-style alphabet was another freebie, but I can't remember where I found it right now. It seems like it was a French blog. So fabric was originally 28-count Monaco, dyed in Shiraz (there was some shrinkage, so let's call it 30-count now). Fiber is DMC Blanc.

sides and close-up of the heart pins

Pokua - I'm so glad you like it, and I'm glad I had you as a partner! It was fun to stitch for someone I'd already been getting to know, and fun to use my pretty wine-dyed fabric for such great piece! :)

My Week In Stitches

2010-06-05T11:17:00.000-06:00

...or not. As in, no pictures of things I've stitched this week. I did a couple more rows on the thread crochet bowl, but it doesn't look that much different from last week. I've been gone every evening since hubby arrived last week - all of it church related! VBS planning, praise team rehearsal, and a rummage sale. While I was out being social and raising money, hubby has been building a new closet for us, so he has room to hang his clothes. As I type, he's putting the final shelves in so I can put my clothes away now. When it's done I'll post a pic so that we keep the renovation before-and-afters coming. :)

I said I didn't have any pictures of things I've stitched. But I do have a picture of something I received:

This is my TTE2 Pincushion exchange piece from Lynn S. She stitched me an adorable little pin pillow, with a crystal dragonfly charm. The back is pink dragonfly fabric. She included the chart for me, which is great, because I'd love to make a little scissor fob or floss tag that matches. She also sent me a beautiful fat quarter of swirly green fabric - it's already in my stash, and didn't make it in front of the camera. So you'll all just have to see it when it gets used. ;)

My Week In Stitches

2010-05-29T13:13:00.000-06:00

And I'm back on track! LOL

The only x's crossed this week were on my TTE2 piece, it went to the post office yesterday, so I'll just have to wait while it makes it's long journey to it's new home. Yes, I remembered to take pictures this time! Sunday was not a stitching day for me - we had a church rummage sale the day before, and I took the afternoon to catch up on my sleep, and then I was groggy from a too-long nap. Hate that.

But I did stitch - crochet!

I made teacups for the girls like the pincushion I sent Pixie a couple of months ago - they've been begging me for them, so when I finished the TTE2 piece I whipped these up. They're really not hard to make, I just hate sewing things together. Katie wanted purple, Hallie wanted the rose color.

Then I started my second thread crochet bowl - and managed to finish the "feet" last night. This is my first attempt at joining circles, and I'm really happy with it! I'll probably start on the sides this afternoon.

My aunt and uncle are in town for a graduation, so they'll be with us for the rest of the weekend. I've spent the morning vacuuming and washing and trying to declutter a little. Then no rest for me because after they leave - HUBBY COMES HOME!!!

Last week in stitches

2010-05-27T17:10:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry this has taken so many days to post. This last weekend was a little crazy, and things haven't slowed down. I'm getting ready for a visit from my aunt and uncle this weekend, and then my husband's RETURN HOME!!!!! next week. Yeah, I'm a little excited. We still haven't told the children that he's moving home, and it's getting really hard. But we don't want something to come up at the last minute and disappoint them.

My focus has been on completing my TTE2 pincushion - it goes in the mail tomorrow, so I'll be back on schedule again, for a little while at least. But here's an update on BoInk - you can see that I have just a few stitches of yellow left for the center bottom motif.

Sunday - BoInk

I hope you all have a great week, and a safe Memorial Day weekend - we have just a few days left of school here in Idaho, and then we'll be set to enjoy summer - with Daddy living with us full time! YAY!!!!!

My Week In Stitches

2010-05-15T12:13:00.001-06:00

Hello!!!! I feel like I'm finally getting back into my routine for stitching, and so I actually have pictures of progress!

Sunday - BoInk. 2 colors achieved in one day - shock! I love the swirly-ness of this right now.

Tuesday & Friday - Fairy Sisters - guess who made her goal of 1/4 page? Me, that's who! Not all in this month, but you know, you have to celebrate when you finally hit those goals.

In real life stuff, I have good news and bad news. Bad news first: I've been told I have high cholesterol. Normally they don't even test women my age for cholesterol levels, because you kind of need the extra fat during your child-bearing years. But my paternal grandparents have both had cardiac "events", so I'm considered higher risk. Anyway, they aren't putting me on meds for it yet - they want to check again in 6 months to see if diet and exercise get these numbers back in the normal range. FYI - I'm about 50 pounds over the high end of my BMI, so this may finally be the motivation to get me eating right and moving.

And....good news - it looks like my husband has a job in Idaho! He received a conditional offer of employment last week, and as far as he knows, he has satisfied all the conditions. He would start June 7, which is amazing. Thank you so much to those who were praying for us - this has been a long 20 months of uncertainty. But it looks like we will finally be able to be a whole family again!

My Weeks In Stitches & Happy Mothers' Day!

2010-05-09T14:33:00.000-06:00

Happy Mothers' Day to all the mommies and step-mommies and stand-in-mommies! Because of our crazy Sunday schedule, I didn't get breakfast in bed - I was gone to church before the kids woke up. But they surprised me with a cafe experience at home - they made the menu by themselves and everything. It was priceless. The girls were so polite, somehow it went from them being my waitresses to a tea party, where everyone was very proper, lol.

I'm not sure how many weeks it's been since my last WIP update. I've been stitching, but on random things, I was kind of unfocused for a while. I think I'm starting to get back into my regular schedule, though. I spent the majority of this week on my TTE2 pincushion, so no pictures of that. But here are some unfinished goodies from the past few weeks.

First, a little thread crochet. This is the first project from the pamphlet I picked up at my LYS - Crochet Cut Glass Bowls. (I cannot believe I found it on Amazon. Yes, they really do have everything.) So this is the "Venetian" bowl - it's completed, but not starched, so I still call it a WIP. There are 6 really beautiful patterns in this pamphlet. I'm thinking of doing the "Sunburst" next - it has feet when it's done!

Here's my latest progress on Fairy Sisters. I feel like I'm making progress, I think I'll finally make that 1/4 page mark this month, LOL. Nothing much interesting happens on this pattern until page 2. I'm very proud of the fact that I can now move my Q-Snaps onto some of the stitching now. :)

Finally, here's where I left off on BoInk. I think this motif looks so cool right now, like a basketweave. As soon as I click "Publish Post", I'm off to work on it some more. I promise.

Wine-Dyeing Experiment - Success!!

2010-05-05T11:22:00.000-06:00

So I'm not a big wine drinker. I know some people who have wine with dinner most nights. It wasn't part of how I was raised. I will occasionally pick up a bottle, and I try different varieties to see if I like it or not. Well, now I know what I can do with wines that I just don't enjoy. :) I saw on Patti's blog (Tapestry of Dreams in the left sidebar, and you'll have to scroll down a few posts on her blog) a picture of fabric a friend of hers had dyed, and I wanted to try it. But there were no instructions anywhere. I looked at a couple of sites dedicated to helping people dye fabric properly. One cautioned against using wine, because it doesn't really "dye" the fabric, it just stains it. But since I'm planning to use this fabric for unwashable smalls, I'm not worried about the potential fading. I had to just kind of guess how I wanted to do it, and I'm really happy with the results.

Yesterday's experiment: Shiraz. It just hit my palate wrong, I think. It's a very strong, dark red wine. And it dyes fabric to a beautiful rosy-purple. There was about half the bottle left, which I poured into a plastic container (large enough for fabric to get in, but narrow enough to make the wine kind of deep). I wish I'd taken a picture of that part. After soaking, I rinsed the fabric in cold water until the water ran clear (it didn't take long at all), squeezing and scrunching the fabric as I rinsed to try to increase the variations in color.

I used 28-count white Monaco for dyeing - I got a quarter cut (18"x30") from 123stitch.com and used half of it (so, 18"x15") for wine-dyeing. I did cut that piece into 2 pieces so I could try different effects. Shrinkage - about 1/2 inch each piece, each way. My 9"x15" pieces are now about 8.5"x14.5". Oh, and look who remembered to zig-zag her edges first!!

Piece #1 - this one I scrunched up and put in the bottom of the container. It soaked for 4.5 hours. The overall effect is very subtle, with delicate variations in color.

Piece #2 - I rolled this one, and it sat on top of the other piece. It soaked for 4 hours with the occasional swish to make sure the whole thing was coated. You can see some of the roll lines, which is what I hoped for.

After letting it dry overnight, I gave each piece a good press with a hot, steamy iron, then stretched them a little. So anything that looks like creases in the picture is actually where the fabric dyed darker. :)

The other half of this fabric will be tea/coffee-dyed, probably later this week. I just love having custom fabric on hand. And this Shiraz-dyed fabric is going into something special very soon!!!!

Update - finishes

2010-05-03T16:18:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I've slacked on the blogging, especially about my projects. Thanks so much to everyone for reading/listening about my little banking scare. It's all been sorted out. One piece of good news - I found out that the bank had discovered it 2 days before I did, and THEY deactivated my PIN. Not the bad guys. I just hadn't updated my phone number with them, so they were unable to reach me by phone. I got the letter the day after the whole fiasco. Okay, on to the reason you stopped by:

FINISHES!!!

This is the finished biscornu I made for my secret sister at church - I finished it into a pin-cushion-let (does it have an official name? Besides "a pincusion you can wear on your wrist"?) I wanted to show the super cute little corner detail I made for the bottom. Which had actually started out as the top, until I realized the thread I'd chosen for the heart outline didn't show up. It's adjustable with Velcro, and I managed to stuff it very firmly. So it's a nice plump little biscornu. There's no button or bead embellishment - I kept breaking the thread so I gave up on that part. And I'm very happy with my bias-cut strip for the bracelet. I included some cutie-pie heart-topped pins - really long, so she can actually use them on the quilts she makes for charity.

This little purse was so much fun to make. I used 2 different colors of Vanna's Choice (Charcoal and Linen, if you care). The free pattern can be found here. The upper part can be tucked down inside, and it's just a cute little handbag, or if you need it taller (like I did today), you can pull it up. The handle loop goes through a space in either part of the bag. It's so clever, I wish I'd thought it up! It ended up being exactly checkbook width (perfect timing, too), and has enough room for my checkbook, phone, keys, a powder compact and a lip gloss. I took the girls to a goat farm today, and stuck my camera in, and extended it so it wouldn't be so crowded. :)

Someday in the near future I'll have to update you on my WIPs - I've been so terrible about taking pictures lately! Grrrrr! Have a good week, everyone!

Learn from me, please!

2010-04-23T13:22:00.000-06:00

I'm one of those people who never changes her password, and uses the same password for every website or account. I know, I know, "bad Andrea". Lesson learned, y'all!

So I went to JoAnn today to get fabric - purple linen blend to make another top like my teal one, and some neutral bottom weights to try making capris. Because I love dresses for summer, but I need separates, too. I was shocked when my card was declined, reneged on my promise to the little one of McDonald's for lunch and drove home to find out what the you-know-what was going on. Even more shocked to find ample money (but less than I thought there should be) in the account. As I was scanning through the transactions, I found 4 or 5 that had Euro conversions - and then I saw "Marseilles". CRAP!!!

Somehow, someone got my card number (just mine, not hubby's) and was able to change my PIN and make over $1,000 in purchases over the last week! All the purchases were made in France (which is really kinda unfair - I mean, if my money is going to be stolen in France, I'd like to at least be there). My bank is on it - fortunately and unfortunately, they're very efficient at replacing stolen money like this. I have no idea how the numbers were stolen, since the card has never been out of my possession and even if it had been, the paper with the PIN on it was shredded after I memorized it. I'm not that dumb.

So follow the advice of all the anal-retentive financial security people out there - rotate your passwords, choose things that are randomly alpha-numeric, and be aware of everything you've actually done online!!!

I blame it on getting older...

2010-04-16T17:24:00.002-06:00

I am 32 now, after all. :) And also, my husband was in town last week, which kind of puts a stop to my stitchy thoughts and stitchy actions. Anyway, Bonnie posted in TTE2 that she received the Altoid Tin I sent her (like last week, seriously, I'm terrible), so here are a couple of pics:

The top - this is a modified freebie from Nordic Needle. The pattern is "Autumn Border". Honestly, the modifications I made make it more "inspired by" than modified, but I started with her pattern, so I'll give her the credit. :)

The inside - with her name and the contrasting fabric

There was much glue-age involved with this - while it finally turned out nice and she seems very happy with it, well...you all read how I feel about glue in my previous post. Anyway, I just realized I didn't take any pictures of the gluing, lol. There's a bead border on the top, and contrasting green ribbon around the sides, and the same contrasting fabric covers the nutritional info on the bottom of the box. I glued in a couple of strips of magnet for pin control, and I had some Little Gem scissors (purple, of course) sent from Down Sunshine Lane. You can see Bonnie's pictures on TTE2 here.

This was project #2 out of that small cut of Silkweaver Solo - project #3 (the blackwork biscornu) will be delivered tomorrow morning to it's new owner, so no pics until she has it in her hand - just in case. But I'm really happy with the results, and especially happy that I finished it entirely by 4:00 p.m. today. :)

Crafty Thoughts

2010-04-14T18:06:00.000-06:00

Do you consider yourself to be a "crafter"? I don't really, and I'll tell you why. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

To me, a crafter is someone who looks at chaos and sees order. She loves to get her hands dirty - whether it's with glue, paint, or clay. She's all about the finished product, but she enjoys the process. "Technique" is a technicality - if she can make it fit/work/match, then she will. She doesn't necessarily worry about the "correct" way to do things, or go looking for tutorials on ways to finish her projects. She's always looking for the next new thing to learn, is quick to buy/make new tools for her new craft, and has almost anything you will ever need for anything you could ever think of.

I don't like to get messy. I hate finishes for my stitching that involve glue, and I'm dreading the day when I'll have to Google instructions for paper mache volcanoes. I like to learn more about my chosen fiber arts - more techniques, more finishes, color theory, etc. I like to follow instructions. I like the process of watching something emerge from nothing, whether it's in yarn or on blank fabric. But I don't have an insatiable need to learn how to do everything possible with my hands. Does that make sense? I was talking to a dear friend about this and she said, "I'm the opposite of you - I don't have the patience for what you do." She's the "fun mom" with all the great ideas - who's actually willing to get her hands dirty to realize said great idea.

The other part of my "I'm not a crafter" argument is simple: Painters don't consider themselves crafters. I've never met a quilter who called herself a crafter. Clothing-sewing-people don't consider themselves crafters. Even scrapbookers are "scrapbookers". So why do cross-stitchers/embroiderers get lumped into the craft category? What do you think?

The other thing on my mind today - it's my birthday. :) I'm 32 - birthdays always make me introspective. I'm not looking for a ton of "happy birthdays" - I've had my fill on Facebook today. :) Just sharing!

Last week in stitches

2010-04-12T10:50:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure I like the picture upload changes Blogger's made.....I still can't move them around the way I want, and now it won't add them all at once. Hmmm. Whatever. But I did notice the "strikethrough" font option at the top, and that makes me happy. Now if they'll just add it to the "list" gadget, it would be perfect.

Sunday - BoInk - a little more yellow frame

Tuesday - Fairy Sisters - very little accomplished, but at least I pulled it out this week

Blackwork Biscornu - Secret Sister gift

I'm pretty sure my secret sister doesn't read my blog...if she does, well, her gift isn't finished yet and the reveal is on Saturday, so I guess it's all good, lol. She does a lot of crafting and quilting, so I'm making her a biscornu for her pins, featuring the blackwork design I stitched for Karina's scissor pocket (although I'm using a different filling stitch in the hearts). Purple is one of her favorite colors, and she always dots the "i" in her name with a flower. :)

We did get a car Saturday! Thanks for the thoughts and prayers - we got a 1995 forest green Jeep Grand Cherokee. It actually had the fewest miles on it of any of the cars we looked at, even though it was the oldest. There are a few things that will need to be repaired, but the engine is solid, and that's the biggest thing. And we discovered that an adult and 2 booster seats will fit comfortably in the back seat, so that makes longer car trips for our family much more likely! And now I can make mid-week post office runs and all those kinds of things, so I feel less "trapped" in my house, lol.