Finally, some finishes.

Ohmigosh.  I can't believe it's been a week already since I last posted about my adventures with my sewing machine.  This month is FLYING by.  Next Friday is 1 July, and I can't believe it.  I just can't.

Anyways.  Now that I have a sewing machine, I decided it was high time I did some finishing work on projects that have been lying around the house.

First up was one of the baby gifts I did for Katie, which I gave you a preview of way back when.  Well, this weekend, I finally did the finish work on it.  Since I'm having Katie and the baby over tomorrow night for a lil' visit, I figured I should mayyyybeeee have at least one of the two things I stitched for the baby ready for her when they come over. (The other one is awaiting a frame.  Stay tuned...)

Ok so here is the "Sleep Tight" Mill Hill Sticks project all done up into a pretty pillow:

Sorry if it's a little dark - I was trying to eliminate glare off of my super shiny freshly semi-glossed bookcase :-)  Didn't it turn out great!?  I love how the small amount of green fabric that I put around the edges just brings out all the colors of the stitched piece.  It really makes the green stitching pop!

Here's the back fabric:

A starry night, perfect for a little one sleeping :-)

Up next is one of the Cricket Collection seasons, each of which I've been showing you my progress in this bliggity blog.  This one is "Summer", which I stitched on 32 count somethingorother.  I can't remember what the name of the color is, since it wasn't labeled on the package when I bought it.

Anyhooter...here is the finished piece:

Sa-weet, right?!  It is a smidggggggggge larger than I anticipated, but I still love the way it turned out.  I used a plain yellow for the border right up against the stitched piece, which was a remnant from Joann's.  The outer border is from a Moda jelly roll that I got from Cloth & Bobbin in Narberth.  I think both complement the stitched piece rather well, if I do say so myself :-)

For the back, I didn't have a piece of fabric quite big enough to cover the entire surface area, so I made panels to cover it.  Voila! -

I thought all three pieces that were in my stash were very summery, and therefore perfect for this project!

For those of you working on the Cricket seasons pieces, the finished stitch size of mine is 17"w x 4.5"h - I stitched all of them on 32 count linen.  Adding the border fabrics to this piece made it closer to 24" long, so it's a daggone good thing I have big bookcases to display these!!

I'm currently working on the final Cricket season - "Spring", and attempted to take pictures of it, but the fabric just isn't picture friendly.  I'm stitching this one on 32 count Silkweaver Buttercream linen, which is a-ma-zing, but again, not very photogenic.  Hopefully as I progress, the stitching fibers will be a little darker and conducive to photographs so I can share it with you all.

That's all I have for now!  Do something creative today :-)

April Showers

This winter just does NOT want to let go.  Quite frankly, I'm straight up sick of it.  I'm not a real big fan of spring, since the weather just cannot make up its mind.  Winter has its act together -- always cold with a splash of blizzards here and there.  Summer's job is to be hot and humid (at least in Philly), which it does quite nicely each year.  Fall's job is to hang onto that summer warmth for as long as possible before winter finally kicks it away.  Spring, however, is trying to be everyone's friend.  It's staying cold for winter, since it's not ready to give up its job for the year, and it's trying to be warm for summer's job to start.  I'm over it.

Today, in the Philly area, it's cold and rainy.  Some areas even got SNOW.  Earlier in the week they were talking about a Nor'easter.  Thank GOODNESS that didn't happen!!  I might've made good on my threat to flee to Costa Rica.

To brighten up my day, I took a little trip to the nail salon to treat myself to a "beginning of spring" pedicure.  Pedicures never fail to brighten my spirits :-)  Next stop: Joann Fabric.  Hoooo boy that store is dangerous.  I went in to get a ruler to use with my fabric cutting board, and came out with two pieces of fabric, a fabric marking pen, some scrapbooking stickers that were on clearance, and Easter ribbon.  Good news, though, most everything was on sale, AND, what I didn't get on sale, I had a 40% off coupon, so it all came to around $26.00.  Woot!

This is the ruler I got for my cutting board - I apologize for the glare, but this is the best pic I could get.  It's pretty awesome.  It's 6.5" x 24.5", and will be perfect for cutting linens for stitching projects and other fabrics for backing and finishing.  Who knows...maybe I'll take up quilting or sewing and it'll be even more useful than I anticipate!

This dark blue fabric caught my eye as I searched through the remnants stack, and I'm hoping it'll be perfect for the Sticks baby gift I made for my friend, Katie.  The starry night it portrays should be perfect :-)

No matter what time of year it is, I'm always on the hunt for fun holiday fabric, Whether it be for fall or Christmas, I'm always looking.  I haven't been able to find any fun spring fabrics yet, but my eyes are peeled.  This fun Christmas fabric caught my eye, so I picked it up to throw in my stash for Christmas project finishing.  I love the shiny green squares :-)

After all the fun I had in the fabric section, I thought I was about done for the day.  As I approached the checkout, I saw this totally cute reusable tote hanging on a fixture, and just had to have it!  I love that the handles are rulers!!  I will definitely make sure this is in my car at all times in case I have to make an unplanned "I have to go in here" stop at Joann's! :-) 

Now, that old saying "April showers bring May flowers" may be true, but there's one other thing it brings...OPENING DAY OF BASEBALL.  I cannot even tell you how excited I am for the baseball season to finally begin.  I do feel bad for anyone who went to today's game at Citizens Bank Park, since it's downright nasty outside.  HOWEVER, those who did go, saw an awesome game!!  Our Phillies pulled out a win in the 9th!  Down 4-2, they tied the game, and John Mayberry, Jr. singled to bring in the winning run!  A walk-off 9th inning run at the season home opener is a great way to start the season!  GO PHILS!!!!

Yahoo!!

First of all, my biggest news -- I'm officially a homeowner!!  YAY!!!!  I made settlement on an awesome house and I can't WAIT to move in!  I especially can't wait to have a special area just for my stitching and crafts!!  I don't have any pictures yet, but I will very, very soon, and I'll post some just as soon as I take them! :-D

Second, I finally finished the "Sleep Tight" Sticks project I posted in my Sneak Peeks post.  Here is the finished product (I still have to do the finishing work, but all the stitching is done) -



Now, I'm not sure if you can tell or not (maybe if you click on the pic and enlarge it you can), but there is absolutely no square unstitched - the entire project is sheer stitching.  I honestly thought I'd never be done, and it's only 7.5" x 7.5"!  I've done Miribilia projects that are 3x this size (pics of them to come, so keep an eye out!)!!  I think this will be my last Sticks project for a good long time - the other one I did (Grow) was exactly the same way.  You'd think I'd've learned my lesson with the first one.

Below are some additional shots I took to give you a closer look -

This moon has the right idea -- nighty night!

If you can get a closer look, there are petite seed beads all throughout the moon's surface...

...and if you can get a closer look here, there are more beads in his hat, in the stars, and on (what looks like) Saturn in the upper right corner...

For as much of a pain in the neck this project was, it turned out pretty cool!!  I love the colors - they're so bright, and a far cry from the pastels which you normally see for baby gifts.  I plan on making this a pillow, so hopefully Katie can find a spot for it atop a shelf or bookshelf in her baby's nursery :-)

I do have one gripe about these Mill Hill Sticks projects....they don't give you the correct supplies.  In Grow, they left out one of the browns for the tree trunk.  In this project, they left out two colors, and didn't give me enough of a third.  Luckily, being the stitching freak that I am, I have almost every DMC color and was able to finish the project without a hitch.  However, for those cross stitchers who don't have an entire Michaels DMC display in their stash, this could prove difficult when trying to complete the project.  My advice -- before you even think about beginning to stitch, separate all the threads, and make sure you have everything.  Use master cards to help separate the threads for the project.  There were PLENTY of beads, so you don't have to worry about that for this kit...just the threads.  And fear not -- this crazy stitcher plans on sending a "heads up" letter to Mill Hill, so hopefully no one else will have this problem!