END OF MAY UPDATE, GARDEN, FINISHES AND WIP!

In april I decided I wanted a little peice of the yard to myself. The rest of the yard is for the repair service. I also have to mow the grass around these big trees and the trees roots made that difficult. Decided to cover them up with plants, pete moss and pinebark. We have a third tree and I was not going to extend my little piece of the yard that direction until next spring. Well... dear husband had other ideas and brought home more edging tiles, pete moss and potting soil. He decided to leave the choice of plants up to me.

For mothers day dear hubby brought home hybiscus trees! They have brightened up the yard after an early may storm damaged the plants in my new garden. The rose bushes lost all their flower petals and mum's had a big tree branch in the middle of them. They are recovering and the mums will bloom in another week or so. The roses are not so lucky and I have been triming off broken pieces and old blooms.

Now to stitching! I stitched this on the trip to Corpus Christi for truck parts. Had most of it stitched, before we returned home.

This is an old project, stitched years ago, that was stored in a box. Decided to make a wall hanging for the laundry room. My sewing is, a best, passable (if you don't look too close!)

This a birthday ornament I made for my friend Michelle. The chart is the May Cake from Brooke's Books bbinteractive group. Brooke has designed and given us 12 birthday cakes, one for each month of the year. They are all adorable! The only thing I changed on this design is subsitiuted the color yellow for the original color of pink. I thought yellow would fit my friends brille soleil personality.

And speaking of my friend Michelle! She has emailed me pictures of more of the amazing mice (petit souris) that she has so patiently knitted. These mice are just under 3 inches tall and the mice holding the brides train are even smaller! Michelle found a toy moble to use for furniture, stoller and baby buggy. And, is currently knitting a boy mouse for a tiny skate board, she found. I still can't believe Michelle has knit a hot water bottle for her nurse! The detail in the tiny flowers, Michelle has knitted for the brides bouquet, are absolutely incredible. Michelle's so talented and her sweet mice always brighten my day.

This one is a reframing. The roof leaked when we first moved into the old house we rent And this one was damaged. Took me awhile to get the fabric cleaned and find a frame, as the original was beyond repair.

A sewing finish from a freebie chart from the gazette94 blog. Blog link is in the march posting with the quaker heart.

Once again, when I was searching through boxes, looking for something else, I found another UFO to finsh. In this case 3 of them. I don't remember where the patterns come from and they are long gone in another box somewhere. But, the ornsments needed beads, felt backing and ribbons for hanging. Another set of UFO's finished!

This another freebie chart from the gazette94 blog. Originally a one color design. Couldn't resist adding pink!

Decided to make a big ornament out of this one. The shape was somewhat of a challenge!

I like using foam board, rather than card board. We rent an old house and dust accumulates daily. Have not a clue where the dust comes from! So I craft things with the thought in mind that it will have to be washed at some point. Used pins to center the design on the foam board and to hold in place while I sew the back in place.

Sew ribbon to back.

Cut backing fabric to shape. Fold the edges of the backing and iron/press with steam iron.

Sew the backing and front together by using a thin needle and catching just the inside of the backing fabric, not letting any stitches go through completely through to the back side.

  Sewing completed with no stitching showing on the backside. Well....maybe one or two....

This turned out to be about 5"x7" in measurement. Not including the ribbon hanger. I bought a wrought iron peice to hang on the wall. Has many "swirls" and curves for hanging ornaments. Got this idea from Joyce, when she pictured all her lovely ornaments on her wrought iron piece. Mine is black and does not show the ornamnets very well. So, next on the list is to paint it a lighter color. Will update later with the new color and ornamnets perched on it.

Last week I picked up the Joan Elliotts Wizard, again. Have made a bit of progress.  I really like this design and the colors. I don't know if you have ever experienced this. But, I find this design calming to work with. While other, larger, projects can become a chore to finish.

The challenge for our Margaret Sherry group was to stitch a biscornu with one of MS designs. Having never stitched a biscornu before, I soon realized that this cute kitty is centered and a button in the middle will distort the design. I haven't decided what to do with this one.  Probably end up as an ornament for my new wrought iron hanger.
Well kitty ended up in a scrapbook embelishment frame with a 3x3 opening. And, I had some brand new, handy dandy, Penny Black stamps for stamping the cloth frame. The foam board for backing with a ribbon sandwiched in for hanging.

SOME FINSHINGS AND A STRAW BELL PULL!

OKAY! It may seem to you that I have waaaayyyy to much time on my hands. I don't! But, I did have a whole pile of stitchery to finish into ornaments, wall hangings and pillows. Well....after the first few "ruffled" finishes, I was tired of sewing by hand and too many holes in my fingers. I was finishing this santa amd decided to make a wall hanging with NO ruffles or poofy ribbons. Then had the quandry on how to hang it. After looking around and deciding I didn't want to paint a dowel for a hanger, or buy one, I had a bunch of straws fall out of the cupboard(AGAIN!) and while I was picking them up to wash, wondered if I could use one for a hanger. I already had sewn ribbon loops on the top of santa. The red straw is from a fast food restaurants extra large drink cup. I save the styrofoam cups and reuse when working out on the repair yard. I cut off the straw's end to fit the finished piece. Then used a sharp needle, 4 strands of black thread and some Debbie Mumm ceramic buttons to cover the open ends. Then I strung a 3mm wide ribbon through the inside of the straw, poking the ribbon out the other end of the straw,  so it could be hung on the wall. One way to recycle large straws!

This is some of the mess I started out with and am working to finish. Kinda scary...

There is a small story behind this cat. This is a Bent Creek designs called The White Cat. However, when I sat down to stitch him, he was not white,but a muddy light gray brown. Wanting a white cat, I stitched kitty with white. Then realized that I used too lightly colored of fabric and stitched light blue half stitches arround kitty's edges. Which actually filled him in more and I ended up liking his shape better. I changed his eyes and added eyebows. Then, why stop there.... I changed the shape of the nose and stitched it pink as most white cats have pink noses! I added ribbon roses in place of the round stitched flowers. Used 1/2" wide ribbon and it folded over on itself. But, liked the effect, anyway. The red ribbon has a gold metalic stip running through the center and, after it folded over in half, the gold ended up on the outer edges of the rose. The roses are a little larger than a nickle. I guess the moral of the story is that I bought a chart and thought it was cute, until I started stitching. Never be afraid to make changes in a design. After all ,it is mass produced and everyone has it!

And here is the finish with the Quaker Heart Freebie chart! My walls are getting soooooo full!


I have a wonderful friend in France. She is a special person and uses DMC #8 and #12 perle cotton to knit the most amazing mice. DH and I have been imortalized in mousedom. Michelle uses knitting needles the size of hat pins. I have so many pic's that it was difficult to choose which ones to post. These tiny mice are about 3 inches tall and just wonderful!

With cross stitch we have a pattern to follow or use as a guide. My friend had one pattern and had probably created well over 400 chrarcters on her own. With much experimenting and tearing out, until she knitted a perfect hat or piece of clothing. She knits these little mice in pieces, then sews together(seems like sewing is in every craft...) Michelle has even knitted a viking, policeman with tiny knitted handcuffs and tiny flowers for her tooth paste vases! I emailed one day and she was painting tooth paste caps, so they could be used as flower vases for her "petit souris".  Her tiny mice always brings a smile to my day as Debbie mouse and Willie mouse are on a shelf in my kitchen. A hand made gift is a preciuos gift and I will always treasure my petit souris.