Category: craft

Old Dog

There’s that old saying, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Well, I’m an old dog and I’m trying to learn a new trick! I haven’t embroidered in years. And when I did embroider, it was very very basic stitches. Then I stitched up Drew’s drawing using a new stitch I’d never done before and I found it to be fun. So while scrolling through Pinterest the other day I stumbled upon some darling designs that I thought would be fun to make for my granddaughter’s bedroom. I showed them to my daughter and she agreed. So, I ordered hoops and thread (I have tubs of thread but I don’t have all those pretty little girl colors) and then realized I should probably practice a little bit before jumping in. So I found a couple of patterns that contained different stitches that I didn’t know and off I went.

I like how this one turned out, it’s called Helen’s Garden. I loved doing the Wagon Wheel Stitch and the Spider Wheel Rose Stitch although I wasn’t supposed to do the Wagon Wheel Stitch. I watched the wrong video and stitched it before I realized that mistake! And forget the Colonial Knots. I absolutely could not master them so I went back to French Knots, which I do not enjoy but I can do. As you can see, the piece is covered in pencil marks. But since it’s a practice piece and just for me, that’s okay.

Then there’s this piece. More my primitive style. It’s a Lori Brechlin with Notforgotten Farm design. I love her designs and have done many of her cross stitch pieces. I’m really enjoying learning a new craft and I’m looking forward to making a couple of pieces for my granddaughter’s bedroom. But, I’m ready to get some cross stitching in before I get started. It never fails, no matter what I do and no matter how much I enjoy it, I always go back to my cross stitching!

Stitching Keepsakes

Now, a few months ago my uncle gave us a vintage camper. A very very old, very very well used vintage camper. It has a whole story behind it. And it’s going to take lots and lots and lots of work to get it usable. Well, Drew absolutely loves it. He talks about it all the time, reads about vintage campers, asked for vintage camper books for Christmas, I think he dreams about vintage campers! So when I told him I wanted him to draw me a picture of course he drew one of the camper that he named Ruby.

Here’s Ruby, the little vintage camper. She’s been spiffed up with the power washer and Drew and Rambler decorated her for fall! Oh she needs soooo much work!

A friend of mine shared an article with me about taking a child’s drawing and turning it into a keepsake. I had seen this before and at the time I thought it was a good idea but then I totally forgot about it. Well, I’ve joined a group on Facebook that is more of an embroidery group versus cross stitch and I have been wanting to try my hand at this form of stitching. Specifically the split stitch that Lori Brechlin uses. (Lori is an absolutely brilliant designer of all things handiwork and primitive!) So all the stars were aligned and I jumped in! Here’s Drew’s drawing:

That’s Drew – relaxing in his hammock!

And here’s my progress so far:

This has been such a fun project. And Drew is loving it! He’s planning on hanging this in Ruby when we get her done! I think I’ll have to have the grandkids draw me pictures next so I can make keepsakes for Abby!

Taking the Day Off

Creativity and chaos go together in my world! This looks good today. Some days it’s sooo much worse! There will come a point where I can’t stand it any longer, I’ll put everything away, pull out only what I need for the project I’m working on and promise myself I’ll put each thread away as I go. And then before I know it – it’s right back to this. Creative chaos and a cup of coffee!

School is back in session today. Two full weeks is a long time off and Drew was so ready to go back and see his friends. Joe is gone until Wednesday. And I’m taking the day off. I’ve been to the grocery store, there’s laundry going, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is on the iPad and I’m stitching the day away. I still have a pillow to stuff, trim and post for sale, chicken feed to purchase after I pick up Drew from school, outside chores to do since Joe won’t be home tonight and supper to fix. I’m thinking Sweet and Sour Chicken since Joe won’t be here. I try to fix meals that I enjoy but he really doesn’t when he’s gone. Plus I’ll have leftovers for tomorrow night. That’s my day off. I’m not going to clean the bathroom or pick up the messes around the house or tackle the myriad other things that need my attention today. It will all wait until tomorrow. Do moms really ever get a day off when they’re home? I think not. But that’s okay. Having a bathroom to clean and supper to prepare, chicken feed to purchase and messes to pick up mean I’m needed. And that is a wonderful feeling – being needed!

It’s A Little Froggy Around Here!

Little Miss Bayah is turning one! It’s hard to believe that that little four pound peanut is going to be a year old! Her mommy gave me a list of ideas for gifts and I always try to follow the list. Things like a hooded bath towel and a soft baby doll. But I think she needs something special from grandma too! A couple of years ago I made Braxton and Drew frogs. I remember having a frog like this that my grandma made for me and I loved it. The boys really loved theirs too. They’ve been played with enough that they’ve had to be stitched back up in places. So, I thought maybe Bayah would like one too! Drew picked out the fabric and helped me stuff it with beans so it’s been a labor of love for a sweet little grandbaby/niece who has us all wrapped around her little finger!

Witchy Stitches

Even when I’m feeling “under the weather” like I have been the last week or so, I can usually still stitch and it’s a good thing. I had orders for 16 pillows after posting my last grouping. That’s a good thing of course! But 16 pillows – that’s a lot to get done.  I’m getting there though – only 2 1/2 half to go! Lots of pumpkins and witches. It’s getting to be that time of the year!

Planning Ahead

I was wanting to embroider a couple of pillowcases for the bedroom and/or camper when I ran across this adorable pattern of an old red truck. So I’ve put the pillowcases for me on the back burner and started on Christmas gifts instead! I ordered two of these thinking I could do one for Braxton and one for Drew. I changed the license plate to say IA and personalized it with Braxton’s name and I really like how it came out. But my plan for Drew’s pillowcase has changed as he saw this, asked for one for himself, but of course he wants a train on his. So, I guess I’ll be looking for a train pattern or at least a train picture that I can modify to fit on a pillowcase. Since I won’t be able to work on it until school starts when Drew won’t be around to see me working on it I’ll need to find something for Bayah to work on now. That shouldn’t be hard and it will be fun to work on something girlie in pretty pastel colors for a change!

Just Because

I’m finally getting caught up on orders. I love this time of year because it’s so nice to finally get to be outside and out of the house but we get so busy that I don’t get to stitch as much as I’d like. I told Joe I’m going to have to stop taking orders for now becuase I just can’t dedicate the time to stitching like I would like. It’s hard to not stitch. But by the time we get into the house of an evening and settled in for the night, it’s getting late and I’m just plain exhausted and too tired to stitch. This time will pass and we’ll get settled into our summer routine and I’ll be able to bring stitching back into my days but for now, I’ll just have to grab a few minutes here and there when I can to keep me grounded.  Stitching is my relaxation, my calm during a storm, it’s just what I do. I think maybe my next project will be something for me. Something I won’t feel pressured to finish. It’s been too long since I’ve stitched just because.  Now to pick the perfect pattern from my every growing stash!

Monday

Today is a cold windy Monday at 1 degree and the wind makes it feel even colder! I just came in from cleaning out the chickens. They are happy campers now. Clean coop, fresh water, feed bowl filled and banana peels for a treat. As happy as they can be I guess being cooped up in the coop. They sure don’t like the snow and cold. The kitties have fresh water too and a bowl full of food and a nice warm insulated doghouse full of straw.

Today has been busy. A two hour delay at school due to the cold and wind. That means keeping Drew entertained and yet ready to go to school when it’s time. He doesn’t sleep in and he gets all settled in at home when there’s a delay and then it can be a fight to get him out the door. Today we played with legos and talked about school. I think that helped.I made chocolate chip cookies when I got home from delivering Drew. Eric goes back to Iowa today and I wanted to send him off with something yummy from home! Then I spent some time on the phone with my mom who is trying to help my aunt learn how to use her new iPhone. Mom doesn’t have an iPhone so it’s quite comical trying to get her to understand over the phone so she can explain to Aunt Konnie over the phone what to do. I think we might be running to Konnie’s house tomorrow afternoon. It’ much easier to explain in person than doing it this way.

 

I did manage to squeeze in a frugal pantry craft though. Am I the only person who will buy a product at the grocery store just for the pretty label? I loved this label on the store brand flour at our local grocery store. Now, in this instance I would have bought this brand anyway due to it being the cheapest. When you shop at the local grocery store in a small town, you tend to buy the store brand. It still many times is more expensive than anything you can buy at the bigger name brand store. But sometimes it’s just cheaper and much less time consuming to run to town which is seven miles away than it is to run to the closest Fareway or Hy-Vee which are 30 miles away.

I was in need of flour and when I saw this label on the flour bag I fell in love. It’s blue for one thing and I love the old time feel!  I thought it would be perfect glued to my flour jar. Now to find similar labels for my other jars – sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, powdered milk, rice, macaroni noodles, etc. I’m not sure that will happen at the store so maybe I can find something on Pinterest I like that will coordinate. I like the how cheery this looks sitting on my cupboard and would like to have all my jars look pretty. And I used wheat paste so if I need or want to I can take this off and replace it with something else down the road.

Linen and Needle and Thread

I’ve stitched for so many years I’ve lost count. My aunt taught me when I was a young girl and I’m so grateful to her for taking the time to teach me. I stitched on and off over the years and then for some reason I stopped for a few years. I just had no desire to pick up the needle. I did lots of other crafts and did lots and lots of scrapbooking for a time. I never thought I would get tired of scrapbooking but for some reason the desire just slowly went away. I have some beautiful books and we love to pull them out and look through them but now I hardly ever even print a picture.  I have so many pictures of Abby and even Aaron. Not as many of Eric but I still have way too many. And then Drew comes along and I had stopped taking and printing pictures. I started taking pictures again but I just don’t print them like I should.

Anyway, back to stitching. I picked up my needle again a few years ago and discovered stitching on linens and developed a love for the primitive patterns and the designers that are out there. Good bye Aida cloth and bright colors and cute designs. But along with this new love and more time to stitch again now that I only have Drew at home, I have run out of room for my creations. And I’m a pack rat and feel the need to keep everything so of course I can’t get rid of any of my creations!

Then I started following some primitive and country decorating pages on Facebook which led me to some primitive selling pages and I took the plunge. Joe has been pushing me for years to try and sell what I stitch but if it wasn’t for Facebook I don’t think I would ever have even tried. And low and behold – my creations sell! I’m not going to get rich by any means doing this but I can at least justify my stitching now. I’m not filling the house with unneeded creations and it’s not costing me anything to make what I do because I’m selling what I make. And now when I sit and stitch at night not only am I enjoying myself immensely I’m making others happy too! It’s a win win right??!!

Stitching is a form of therapy for me. To just sit quietly and pull thread through linen. The feel of it, the sound of it, and the creating process.  The beautiful colors of the threads and putting those threads together to make beautiful designs. And there’s something about the primitive designs that just tug on my soul. Their simplicity and dark muted colors. And then dying them in a coffee bath when I’m done stitching to make them even more muted. Picking out the perfect baking fabric – Civil War reproduction fabric is my fabric of choice. Just one more thing to draw me to the past just like these little pillow tucks, cupboard keeps, whatever you want to call them do. I like to think that even back in days gone by, even when our ancestors didn’t have much and they had to sew by hand out of necessity that they would stitch a little pin tuck and put a little primitive design on it to make it pretty to help lighten their load and have something pretty to adorn their home.  My stitching draws me to the past and gives me something pretty to adorn my home too – a little pillow tucked into a little bowl or the corner of a shelf. Just a little something to brighten the day!