The Stitch Up

Art Quilt Wrap Up

I finally finished what I'm calling my "art quilt" project.  I learned a lot with this one.  I knew that I wanted the background to be a crazy quilt style, but because there were some additional pieces I decided to use appliqué.  This was both a good and bad technique for this piece, but I learned a lot.

So on the pro side - layering the fabrics together and piecing the girl and the wagon with fusible web made it easy to work with this as one piece.  The con side is that the layers were hard to stitch through and in some places, like the hat, the fusing is showing through the fabric.  

I think the better method would have been to mark out the spots I wanted to place the girl and the wagon and just make the background with regular crazy quilt techniques and then use minimal fusing to place the girl and wagon on after the background was done.  I'm not sure if I'll make some additional panels in the same design or just frame this for now, but the whole project was a good learning experience.

In case anyone is looking for good resources for crazy quilt stitches, I've been using two books since the late 90s for reference on ideas for combining embroidery stitches on crazy quilts: Floral Stitches: An Illustrated Guide by Judith Baker Montano and An Encyclopedia of Crazy Quilt Stitches and Motifs by Linda Causee.  At this point there are so many resources on pinterest and stitch sites but I tend to go back to these books despite the fact that they are falling apart a bit from use over the years.

I know we move into Fall this week and I really didn't have a Summer theme with Summer WIPs since the projects I picked for Spring are taking me SO LONG to finish.  But I did change out my Salt and Pepper shakers for Summer.

None of these are vintage - they're just fun.  Summer is usually the time when I go see my parents in the desert.  This year, with the extra restrictions on flying due to COVID and my concern over catching something while traveling and bringing it to my parents, I'm skipping my Summer visit.  But the cactus makes me think of them and I'm counting the days until it feels safe to be back there for a visit.

I'm still plugging away on the needlepoint bag and the knit shawl.  I think realistically the needlepoint bag may take me through the end of the year, but I'm going to aim to get the shawl completed in the next few weeks so I can work on a few Fall themed WIPs before it's time to plan for Christmas.  

Hope everyone is staying healthy and enjoying the change in weather.  Bye for now!

Spring Spiffing Up

I like the tradition of changing up decor around the house each season.  Spring has meant much more to me since moving to DC  then it did in California.  It feels so good to see gladiolas and tulips start to bloom after months of grey skies and cold weather.  

Right before Easter I break out the table runner I embroidered years ago from a kit I bought in Germany.  The lambs and flowers always make me smile.  

I changed up the mantle as well - I used a framed piece of embroidery with birds and flowers that I made years ago to tie all of the Spring colors together.

The change in season is also a good opportunity to change up my salt and pepper shakers.  I picked the shakers that I thought had a "Spring" feel - birds, bunnies, pigs, chickens and a John Deere tractor.

I didn't have a ton of Spring themed salt and pepper shakers so I used the extra space to house some storage jars.  I've decoupaged these with Amy Butler scrapbook paper to make them a little prettier.

Several of these shakers are older and I picked them up at thrift stores, however, I couldn't find much about them other than they are usually referred to on eBay as "vintage".

The other salt and pepper shakers are new but I think so cute!  I love the John Deere tractor and I think the chickens are so pretty.

In addition to spending time decorating inside, I've also been getting outside quite a bit.  We're doing some gardening and the strawberries are already starting to grow!

I've also been bringing my stitching projects outside to enjoy the sun while I make a little progress on the WIPs.

I figure the extra vitamin D can't hurt!

I hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather and the opportunity to get outside.  I'll be updating on my WIP progress soon!

WIP Progress

I wanted to check in with my WIP progress.  I've knocked out a good bit of the embroidered tea towel:

I've also got a plan for the tablecloth and I think I'll be able to finish that this week, so more exciting progress updates to come!  I also thought I'd show off the salt and pepper shakers from my collection that are getting sunlight during this "cozy" winter period.

I don't think I really have any winter themed salt and pepper shakers so after the blow out at Christmas, when all of the holiday themed shakers get their time to shine, I have to search around a bit for a theme to start the new year.  This year I decided to put out all of my cat shakers:

These are a mix of vintage finds and new purchases.  The set of siamese cats at the top are vintage although I haven't been able to find out too much about them - just that the set dates from around 1960 and is from Taiwan.

This is a cat and dog team.  My aunt found this set for me in a thrift store in Arizona.  These were a midcentury promotional set put out by Ken L Ration (a dog food company.)  They used a yellow dog named "Fido" on their ads and I've seen this set referred to as Fido & Fifi so I guess the cat is named Fifi!  The set was made by Fiedler & Fiedler (F&F) Mold and Die Works of Dayton, Ohio. 

This is a mix of vintage and brand new.  The blue flowered cats date from about 1970 and come from Thailand originally.  The happy cats are a recent purchase from World Market because I just thought they were adorable.

And speaking of cats, here is my kitten enjoying the small amount of snow we've had so far this winter:

For anyone else working your way through a WIP pile, I wish you luck and productivity!  I hope winter is treating you well. 

 

End of Summer - Here Come the Holidays

Summer was legitimately great and as usual, not long enough.  I did a little homage to Summer and road trips with my salt and pepper collection.  These are a few that I've picked up on vacations.  As usual, I realized I need MORE shakers to fill in the "vacation" part of my collection

Technically these ladies aren't salt shakers, they're solar powered hand wavers but the Queen is always appropriate.

Next up - holiday shakers and Christmas crafting!

 

Christmas Doings

We kicked off Christmas this year right after Thanksgiving with a trip to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for the Christkindlemarkt.  It's a pretty impressive Christmas Market with a bunch of great vendors, local wineries and distilleries, and really good food.

The coolest thing about the market though is that it's located in the old steel works factory which was pretty amazing to see.

When we got back home we got to work on decorating.  The husband took over decorating the mantle this year.  In past years I have broken out my deer collection and gone deer crazy on the mantle.  For reference, my mantle from a couple years ago:

Peaceful and enchanting right?  This year the husband designed what he called "Christmas in Deadwood":

It's a little more violent than the deer display but it's pretty awesome.  There is, in addition to the culturally inappropriate shootout, an impending bear attack.  I'm choosing to believe that all participants stop fighting and sing Christmas carols before anything really dark happens. 

I also designed an ornament pattern this year!  It's a little rough and hand drawn, but it gets the job done.  I'm still working on my adobe skills so maybe next years version will be a bit more polished.  In the mean time, the pdf for this year is here Download Cactus Ornament.

It's a pretty simple ornament - just two parts.  You can really just decorate it however you want.  I took a few pictures as I put it together:

Feel free to get someone to help you with this project -

In addition to my own creation I made ornaments for my nieces using the first of the 12 days of Christmas pattern from mmmcrafts.  This is the partridge and pear tree pattern set:

These were fun to make and the pattern was easy to follow.  I'm not sure I'll make it through all twelve of the  patterns but they are so cute I"m going to try!

I've packed in a bunch of crafts so far but I'm still hoping to knock out a table cloth this weekend.  I do tend to overload my craft schedule around Christmas but there are so many fun things to make I just want to do it all.  

Of course my Christmas preparations were not complete until I broke out all my Christmas salt and pepper shakers.  I did get a little crazy and decorate my little display case to give it some extra holiday pizazz.

Now I'm just down to sending out cards and doing some holiday baking.  Putting this all down in one spot makes me feel kind of productive - but I'm ready for a little relaxing by the tree.  

I hope everyone's holiday is wonderful and peaceful.  Merry Christmas!

 

 

January Salt and Pepper Shakers

I don't really have any holiday themes for January, so I thought I'd highlight what I hope is just the beginning of the deer sub-collection of my salt and pepper collection.

So cute, right?  These are magnetized so they look like they are kissing until you separate them to do something mundane like season your food.

These two have a bit more of a realistic look.  I bought them in a little after Christmas sale binge but I think it was a good choice.  

I'm now on the look out for some deer shakers that are a little more off beat.  Deer playing poker?  Deer dancing a jig?  Hit me up if you see any crazy deer possibilities out there!

November Salt and Pepper Shakers

I'm not sure if I've mentioned my fairly amazing collection of salt and pepper shakers.  I pretty much can't pass by any set that I find in a vintage store.  I regularly scour Etsy for new arrivals and my favorite type of salt and pepper shakers are holiday shakers.  I love being able to break out the perfect pair for every season!

For Fall and Thanksgiving - I have two pair.  I could just rotate them each year, but they're both cute, so I end up putting one pair in the kitchen to use when cooking and put the other set on the table.  Both sets were gifts from my parent who enable my fairly insane collection and I love them for it.

These two are adorable pilgrims. He has a musket to shoot turkey with and she has...a bunch of other stuff.  I really can't tell.  Is it supposed to be a pumpkin?  It really looks like a couple of apples, which is maybe not historically accurate, but still - very cute.

And most crucial to this time of year?  Pumpkins of course.  I'm never quite sure which one is salt and which one is pepper.  It adds excitement to the meal!

So now it's just a count down to making delicious Thanksgiving chow with the salt and pepper shakers.  The holiday season is in full swing!