I hope everyone had a great holidays. We had a good christmas! After visiting family for gifts and dinner we came home to water plants and play in the garden. The day was a very balmy 74 degrees and absolutley beautiful. UNTIL about 6pm that evening. Winds picked up and we had a blue norther come in. In our part of the country, when one of these come in, the clouds actually look mid to dark blue and the cold wind just bites right through a person. At 6pm it was 74 degrees and by 7:30 pm it was in the 40's and heading down into the 30's. I have thermometers in the house. This lets me adjust the airconditioning accordingly. Sometimes it is just me that is warm and the temperature of the room is fine. Well...the wind was blowing in the north wall and it was 47 degrees F in the bedroom.... Next day wasn't much better and I became depressed. I HATE being cold! Then I started to clean house. When I am depressed, the first thing I do is start cleaning up any chaos around me. I cleaned cupboards, closets and anything else that looked like it needed it, including the dryer (well...it was dusty...) Then I decided to kit up a HAED project I wanted to start. I was trying to find DMC colors, looking through bags of floss, and realized they were driving me nuts. Digging through bags was just taking too long and dumping floss everywhere. I decided to take the gift of money, that DH's father had given for christmas(he hates to shop), and put it to good use. Went to Hobby Lobby and bought $1.99 floss boxes, plastic bobbins and WHAT do my eyes behold! It is a hand cranked floss winder. Never used one before and decided that, for 0.99 cents, would be nice to try. I would waste only 99 cents if it didn't work. Worked like a charm and would highly recommend one to anyone who has floss to wind.
So I piled my floss explosion on the dining table we never use and set to winding bobbins. Then decided to wind all my current HAED projects , too. I immediately found this to be a great time saver when stitching. Plus all those lucious colors, arranged in the boxes, looked pretty inviting for stitching.
I set up a box for each color number sequence and as they were wound, I threw them on(okay at) the box the color would be housed in.
This was all the regular DMC all bobbined up!
And this little gem was a lifesaver. Was looking at a Kreinik cord winder. Then started thinking that maybe this bobbin winder could have something attached to it and use this for winding decorative cording. Maybe use a hook earring and use the bobbin pin to hold the cord. Will have to try this!
And these are the HAED WIP's all bobbined and snug in their boxes! This adventure took nearly 3 weeks. So I guess the cold weather did me a favor.
I managed to have DH's chinese birthday dragon done in time for his special day. He never pays much attension to what I am stitching in evenings. I could not keep him away from this... Maybe I telepathically transmitted that I was stitching something for him...
Being in a hurry, I was looking for a fast way to finish this. I literally put the last stitch in just before the cake was ready to decorate. I had some birthday scrapbook paper, an old piece of cardboard(I had thankfully been procrastinating about throwing away) and some gold pins. I lucked out and the cardboard was the perfect size. Wrapped the cardboard with the birthday paper Took a piece of foamboard and wrapped that with mr dragon. Then used sewing pins, with gold heads, to attach dragon to the covered cardboard.
Took jewelry nippers to the backside and nipped the pins off. Then used some foamboard scraps, and glued them in place, to cover the backside pins. Since the dragon is only pined in place, by four pins and no glue, I can always change it and sew into a finish if something happens to the paper.
Another thing I wanted to do, for 2013, is start a TUSAL(totally useless stitch a long) So here is my TUSAL. You can stop laughing... Amibitious? Not really. You see, I can NOT hit the broad side of a waste basket with my thread scraps... So this barrel sized plastic container, that sits next to my chair, has been working nicely. And my vaccume cleaner thanks me profusely!
Some finishes!
Merry Deer is stitched on 14 count clear plastic canvas.
I finally found a little hanger for Lemonade. By accident. I was sorting through some little freebie magazine kits and found this little hanger.
I have been having fun with the French Country designs from JBW designs. Made this for mother in inlaw for christmas. Again needed a fast finish and chose the scrapbook paper avenue.
Found a new friend for finishing ornaments. White felt works wonderfully as a filler. Keeps the bigger ornaments flat, and will hang on the wall, and not bend or wrinkle.
Did pretty good with stitching and finishing UFO's for 2012. 14 of them in total. And this was one of them.
Sewn into a spring pillow.
This is my moms butterfly sewn into a finish.
This is a Just Nan design, finished years ago, and finally found a frame for it. The design is 2 1/4" x 2 1/4" square.
Dh's birthday dragon is from a Joan Elliott cards book. So are these celtic designs.
This one is a celtic thistle.
And from the same book this is a celtic wedding knot. The piece in the middle is a button with the back loop cut off and invisable thread to secure in place.
This is one of Brooke's Books Brides Tree ornaments called Eternity. After christmas I found a white fuzzy stocking with a quilted cuff. Thought this would be pretty put together with the ornament.
Some more fun with JBW French Country Designs.
Machine embroidered a denim shirt for DH's brother in law
Sisiter in law tells me her DH loves wolves. So this is what I embroidered.
During the gift exchange SIL exclaims that it was EAGLES that her husband likes.... Thankfully her husband looked horrified and said he did like wolves. And thought the shirt was beautiful.
Have some new WIP's
As it took nearly 3 weeks for me to "bobbinate" all my DMC threads. So I was late in starting the HAED 2013 SAL. This is Mystic Garden with white tigers and a peacock feather in the corner. Haven't made much progress and hoping to keep up with this one. Only have the first page and it is all confetti stitches.
This is my "I can't sleep" WIP. This was supposed to be an October SAL with the Margaret Sherry group. I couldn't finish this one due to holiday stitching. So now has become a WIP again. I want to keep cleaning up my UFO's and not create any more of them.
Michelle gifted us so many knitted mice. I wanted to find a cabinet for them. Work has been so hecktic and I didn't have time to look. Sister in law found one for me at the local thrift shop. Turned out to be just what I was looking for!
2012 was a good stitching year with 39 finishes and 14 of them were UFO's. Here's hoping 2013 is even better!
Now that I am not so electronically challenged I will be able to update my blog a little more often. Thank you for visiting and, as always, happy stitching!
Deb
