Here goes nothing...

Good morning to you all!  So far, so good...my computer is behaving for the moment, so I'm trying to do this little post as quick as humanly possible in case anything happens.

I've been doing quite a lot around here lately, but you'll have to see it in installments, thanks to my ancient technology.  Bear with me!

Ok.  First up - I fixed the binding on my nook cover.  I got a lil' tip from my mom (thanks, mom!), and it was WAY easier this time around.

Holy guacamole, does this look a million times better or what?!?!  I also think I like the blue I chose this time around better than the yellow I'd originally put on there.

Yep.  This is eleventy billion times better than my first stab at binding.  Pretty sweet, if I do say so myself.

Next up - my Cricket Collection "16 Men on a Dead Man's Ship".  I got this a few years ago, and just didn't have the opportunity to work on it.  I don't particularly care for the fabric used in the model (it's a hideous pea green color.  blech.), and was on the hunt last year for the perfect fabric to do this on.  In my mind, this is a ghost ship.  It needs to be SPOOKY, which pea green is not.  That color just makes me ill.

So, I searched and searched and found THIS.  I hope the link works, but if it doesn't, it's called Haunted by Picture this Plus.  It.  Is.  AWESOME.

Now, I had the fabric, but had other projects going on at the same time, and couldn't fit in a giant project since I was already doing "Sabrina" (stay tuned for her story...she's still waiting for a spot on my living room walls...), and couldn't find time to do another big project.  Not to mention the fact that I was not thrilled with some of the floss color choices, but again, had no time to figure out alternatives.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I found that time about a week ago, when I decided it was high time I got the ball rolling on this one.  I headed down to The Strawberry Sampler and picked out some faboo WDW and Crescent Colors as alternatives to some of the DMC that is called for in this graph.

In this section, I've only changed one of the colors.  I'll give all the details when I show you the finished piece, but I had to give you a glimpse of this so far, since it's just SO cool --

To really get the full effect of this fabric, you need to see it close up, but it's really dark grey with PURPLE in it.  Absolutely perfect for your Halloween projects!!!

On a separate note:  this past weekend was my birthday, and to save myself from having to eat an entire gluten free birthday cake, I made these coconut muffins instead.  They are to. die. for.  If you like coconut, then these muffins are for you.  Amy Green over at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free is amazing.  If you haven't tried her recipes, you must.  She's extremely talented, and I'm so happy I found her site!

I hope to keep you updated as my computer allows!  I've been keeping the craft room busy lately, and I'm eager to share with you all...it's just that my computer hasn't been friendly.  Thank you all for understanding my plight and being patient!

Do something creative today!  It's supposed to be a gorgeous day!

Just a heads up.

Good morning, everyone.  I hope you had a wonderful, relaxing holiday weekend with your families. 

I just wanted to let all of you know that I'm having some serious computer problems at home.  I think my 6-year-old computer has finally given up.  It wouldn't even recognize my camera in order to download pictures that I'd recently taken.  So, you'll have to bear with me as I'll be sporadically posting when I get the chance, or get my computer to cooperate for long enough.

I really hope I can be back on track sooner rather than later, so please bear with me!  I hope I don't lose any of my faithful followers in the process!

Stay tuned...

These days are just flying by.

It's almost not fair how fast these days are going.  Last week is a complete blur.  I didn't do anything out of the ordinary -- I just feel like time is flying entirely too fast recently.

Hence my reason for not posting a goshdarn thing for an entire week.  Again.

There are some exciting things brewing in my craft room, and I hope to be able to share them with you before the week is up.  Until then, enjoy the beautiful summer weather we're going to have this week, and get those creative juices flowing!

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 :-)

I put down my needle and thread, and picked up...needle and thread...

No, I haven't been drinking.  That was at the work picnic on Thursday...and Saturday night at the bar.

This weekend, I put down that cross stitch needle of mine, and picked up (ok, figuratively picked up) my sewing machine needle.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I finally procured a sewing machine.  I got it a few weeks ago, right before I got really sick, and haven't had the chance to do anything with it.  Well, this weekend I decided to get to it.  I had to break it in sometime, and there's no time like the present.  I figured I'd do a little project I'd been dying to try before finishing Katie's baby gift into a pillow.  Kinda warm up the sewing machine, if you will.

Moda fabrics has some fibbity faboo patterns in their Bake Shop, and that's where I found this little ditty.  It's called the "Bookkeeper", and is a cover for your B&N nook or your Amazon Kindle.  It could also fit a journal or a paperback book for those trips to the beach, or anywhere for that matter!

I already have a leather cover for my nook, but it's boring black.  Bleh.  When I saw this "recipe", I knew I had to try it!

Here's the finished product --

It looks like a lil' clutch, doesn't it??  Now, if any of you are quilters, I am profusely sorry that I cannot, at this time, do proper binding.  This project was VERY easy, especially for someone like me, who is not nearly as proficient with a sewing machine as I am with a cross stitch needle.  The only thing that was difficult for me was the binding.  If any of you are quilters, and have some pointers for me as to how to do that part of this quicker and EASIER, I'm all ears.  I wanted to stab someone with my straight pins by the end of the night.

There are some things that I know I'll do different the next time around, if it's another one for me, or if I do it as a gift, but I think it turned out pretty darn good for a first time pattern-follower!  If I do say so myself!  Ha!

Here's a peek inside --

You can kinda see the leather of my nook cover peeking out overtop the pouch.

Here's my nook outside the "bookkeeper" so you can see it in perspective --

I'm not sure if the iPad would fit in here -- but this pattern is definitely easy enough to alter it to make it wider if need be for a tablet.

The fun thing about this project (besides the fact that I was doing something new!) is that I got to try out the decorative stitches on my machine.  Here's a close-up of the top stitches on the cover --

Fun, huh?!?!  Again -- quilters, turn a blind eye to that binding.  Hooo boy does it need  a helping hand.....

Anyways, that was my creative fun this weekend!  Hope you all were able to get your creative juices flowing, too!!

I think I may carry this around with me at all times...just in case I need it...

Monday, Monday

Can't trust that day...

Well, here we are at Monday already.  This weekend went whizzing by without even stopping to have a leisurely cup of coffee!!

I made some bold promises on Friday, which I was unable to keep.  I did not remember to take a picture of "Pumpkins Three".  I almost finished "A Stitch in Thyme", but won't post a pic until it's completely done.  I will do my best to get a pic of "Pumpkins Three" up before the end of the week.  I know there were a few of you interested in seeing that one finished.  It turned out great :-)

Saturday I spent most of the day in my living room painting the trim.  I did the crown molding, the door frame (from the foyer to the living room), and the window frames.  I didn't have enough time to get to the chair rail or baseboarding, so that's a project for after work this week. The previous owners didn't paint correctly (as I'm sure you'll all remember from my previous rantings about the hideous green paint, etc.), so instead of just one coat of semi-gloss on the crown molding, I have to go back and do a third.  I'll do that tonight, and then hopefully be able to get at least one coat on the chair rail.  I would love to be able to get two coats on the chair rail tonight so I can do the base boarding tomorrow night, but we'll see how quickly I move tonight.

One final quick note -- Blogger has been a pain.  I was having a heck of a time posting comments to other people's blogs this past week -- every time I would try to post a comment, it would try to post it as "Anonymous".  That's a bunch of hooey, so I just cancelled my post.  Then, I found out from one of my friends that she couldn't post a comment to my blog, and suggested I change the format for how the comments show up.  I did, and apparently it's working again, so hopefully your comments will post!  I love hearing from you all!  Thanks for the tip, Catherine!! :-)

I'm off -- have a fabulous Monday, everyone!  It's supposed to be hotter than the center of the Earth by the end of the week (yahoo!!!), so enjoy these cool breezes while they're here -- we probably won't have them again until September!!