TUSAL for June

Tonight is the New Moon so that means it's time to post my June Totally Useless SAL photo. Come join the fun over at Yoyo's Dragon My Needle! The floss ball from last month has been flattened (via tamping down with the eraser end of a pencil) and more orts, a bit of belending filament, one DMC band and a broken finishing needle have been added to the stash. The needle met its demise while I was finishing the peacock chair. The scissors are my pride-and-joy Dovo's with the blue blades. I love my Dovos!

First day of Summer

...and boy, was it a hot one: 97 and muggy. Yuck. I take comfort in knowing this, too, shall pass and fall will come again in due time.

Don't have any finishes to share today. I've been piddling around on a couple of minor projects but nothing to show for it.

So instead of finished projects, here are a couple of pictures of Bob from this weekend. Two of his favorite places: in the bath tub and snoozed out on my bed. I just adore the way he sleeps with his feeties all curled up. :o)

44 Cent Swap, part II

Mama made a contribution to the envelope going to my swap partner: three chicks in sunglasses and calico cloaks. She did not stitch this; it was in a container of stuff she got for $2 at a garage sale. The original piece was a bit larger and would not fit in the envelope, so I thought to cut it down into a bookmark. A bit of Stitch Witchery later and it was done. The backing fabric also came from Mama's stash.

I'm planning on including several skeins of overdyed floss, some trim, a tiny pastel striped binder clip, some beads and a beading needle, and a magnetic smiley face. Some of this may come out if the weight is over 1 ounce.

[Note: The tiny binder clip had to come out. :o( The envelope was just a smidge over weight. How much is a smidge? The weight of a tiny binder clip. The envelope and contents, sans binder clip, was 1.0 ounces.]

[Note II: Partner received her envelope - with postage due! :o( Seems the contents shifted during the mailing process and it no longer met the 1/4" thickness requirement. Just like cereal, some settling ocurred during shipment. Guess I need to remember to tape everything to the inside of the envelope next time.]

44 Cent Swap

I've signed up for the 44 Cent Swap over on Craftster. The idea is to put as much as you can into an envelope to send to a partner and still stay within the limits of a single 44¢ first class stamp. One of the goodies that I'll be sending to my partner is a needlebook I made this evening. It's about 2.5" x 2.25". I designed the chart for the owl this afternoon at the office while I was waiting for a test to complete. (Busy hands are happy hands!) I'll also be including some over-dyed floss, some ribbon and some hand-tatted trim. No, my hands didn't do the tatting.

This is the inside of the needlebook. Have I said how much I love Stitch Witchery? It really saves a lot of time putting a backing on a piece. It doesn't take a real long time to do a nun stitch or a buttonhole/blanket stitch around a needlebook, but the Stitch Witchery is fast. And the fused fabric really does look good.

Wine and Hearts

Yesterday was a milestone birthday for my dear friend RL. I got her a nice bottle of wine but was unable to find a suitable wine gift bag, so I made one for her from some ultra-suede I had in my stash. The gift was well received and R had a very happy birthday and a great party. It was good to see many members of her extended family that I hadn't seen in many years. You wear it well, R! Many happy returns.

Today I finished stitching on a piece called Heart Quartet. It came from a 1997 kit designed by Studio B with Nancy Whitley and put out by Anchor. This has been my recent take along project when having to sit and wait at doctors' offices and/or hospitals. Once it is framed, it will probably go to my sister since she admired it while I was working on it. The original design did not call for widgets in the cutwork kloster blocks, but I thought they looked nekkid and in need of some widgetry. You can click on this picture (and others on this blog) to get a closer look at the details. C'mon...go ahead and click it! You know you want to. *wink*

Make it and take it

This is the make it and take it project from the Moonlight Stitching event at the LNS from two weeks ago. It's a needle park that can be draped over a couch or chair arm. The original design didn't come with a backing fabric but I could not resist this batik print.

Some catching up

Here are some smalls I've completed within the last month or so.

First, this initial M was stitched on perforated paper for M (a stitching buddy and scrapbooker) for her birthday. The pattern was taken from a kit, whose name I forgot to note, and the initial was stitched using Kreinik #16 Cable and Silk Mori from my stash so I was able to give her the whole kit for use as she pleases. She also received the whole pack of perforated paper as I stitched the M in the lower left hand corner on one sheet and did not cut it out. This seemed to be the best way to let her scrapbook with it.

Oh,and this needlebook was also gifted to M. The chart came from one of the many cross stitch books in my library and was stitched over one on a scrap of linen using flosses from my stash. Don't you love Stitch Witchery? I find it is invaluable when finishing things like this where you don't want the back of the stitching exposed.

Next, this is my first attempt at making a floss tag. This project was inspired by all the cute ones out there on the web - a great source for inspiration. The patterns were taken from Debbie Draper Designs "A Cat's Life" - with the exception of the mouse I added and a bit of modification to the yarn ball from the original chart. This was stitched on linen with an over-dyed from my stash.

This needlebook was made on a whim because I came across some colorful stash floss that made me happy. It just moved me to do something with it so I went along for the ride. A bit of Hardanger and some buttonhole stitching later (and some finishing) and this was the results. The material that was used for the lining is about 40 years old. It was a remnant from a piece of material Mama used in making a dress for me back when I was in grade school! It's amazing she has hung on to that material for so long and it looks like it just came off the bolt.

This scissor fob was stitched over one using DMC on linen from a design charted by Jean Smith. Look familiar? Yes, it's the flower basket from the Whitman's Sampler box. This will go with another project that I've got waiting in queue for finishing, one that involves a Whitman box.

Finally, here is a lining I made for a little basket that I have. The bottom staves were just a little wide-spaced and needed some help keeping things from leaking out. The fabrics were cotton scraps from Mama's fabric stash.

Peacock chair and a new tape measure

Well, I missed posting on Saturday by a few minutes. So shoot me. :P

It's been a busy day. I finally finished the finishing on The Cat's Whiskers Peacock Chair that I had begun back in October, 2008. *happy dance all around the house* Wanna see? Of course you do!








So many folks are making cute decorated tape measures I felt like hopping on the band wagon, too. Here is the one I put together today. In the future, I may do some embroidery with perle cotton on the button (plain felt) side.




I'm still working on the make-it-and-take-it project from last weekend's Moonlight Stitching at the LNS I shop. It should be finished by tomorrow and then I'll post pictures;it just lacks nun stitching and fringing. That should be easy to complete while watching the race on TV, or I should say listening to the race. Please tell me I'm not the only one who mostly just listens to the television.

Time to say good night, Gracey. "Good night, Gracey!"

Where have you been?

It would take a very long time to explain the lack of posts for the last *cough* six months. To quote a friend, "I could complain but it wouldn't do any good." So, let's pick up like nothing happened.

I've joined the Totally Useless SAL hosted by Yoyo at Dragon My Needle. This is a first for me but she's been so sweet and kind, it should be a lot a fun. The idea is to keep all your stitching orts in a clear glass container and post pictures of it on the new moon of every month. Since Flossy Lady (the blog, not me) was inactive last month, she posted my entry for May's new moon. Now that FL's going again, I felt it was only fair to post May's picture, too. Thanks for the help, Yoyo!

The huge ball of orts came from the massive frogging that took place with the SGD practice piece. A lot of perle cotton and Watercolours went into that ball. And then it was just the usual orts from stitching using the Jade Watercolours. Lots of scraps for a lot of stitching. When the finishing is finished I'll put up a picture.

What else has been going on? Well, stitching buddy AS was in dire need of a needlebook, so I made one for her using her favorite colors. I'm happy to report she was delighted with it.











NA in Germany was a Craftster swap buddy back in the winter. She was a sweetie and sent along some extra goodies so I made another little pin cushion/box to send along to her. This was one of those unfinished blond pine boxes from the craft store. I stained it using green neon food coloring, added rub-on transfers and then varnished it. Then I stitched up a circular poof and ta-da! pin cushion/box. She should be receiving it tomorrow; the post office said it would take about a week. Hope she likes it!

'Nuff for tonight; I'll post more pictures tomorrow.