Throwback Thursday - 2001 (Part 12)

Here are a few more projects I completed in October and November 2001


Best Witches

This project was stitched from a free chart found on the Waxing Moon website. It's a cute little witches hat surrounded by stars and magical bursts. The chart calls for a couple fibers from Gentle Art, but I didn't have them in my stash, so did some substituting. Instead of using "Soot" for the hat color, I used a DMC variegated (#53) Steel Gray.

And instead of using "Hyacinth" for the words, I used another DMC variegated (#102) Dark Violet. I also used the Steel Gray for the outlining instead of using a stark black. I'm really pleased with the results! I display this piece each Halloween. 

The framing on this piece is noteworthy because it was a new framing method for me. One of the gals in my EGA showed me how to do this method. It involves using a needlepoint canvas frame, some strips of mat board, batting, quite a lot of fabric, and staples. I do like the finished result, but the method is too convoluted to do often.

Here's a current photo of Best Witches

He Loves Me...Loves Me Not

This was a kit I bought at a close-out price from Annie's Attic, I believe. I just liked the concept of this one, it was cute, and the price was right, so I bought it.

This is one of the Button-Ons by True Colors Crafts. It's a square of aida with the edges finished (hemmed) and button holes in each corner. The idea is that you stitch the design, then can use it to embellish a tote bag, sweatshirt, pillow, framed piece, etc. by buttoning the stitchery onto the background. If you stitch more than one of the Button-Ons, you can change out the stitchery each season (or at your whim).

The kit came complete with the buttons and other embellishments, too. Since this was a fairy/angel, the kit came with a button-like face, ribbon for her hair, and curly hair as embellishments.

I decided to finish my Button-On as a pillow. This is a real casual pattern, so I made the pillow out of my husband's old jeans. It's the first time I've made a sofa pillow, too, and was very pleased with the outcome. The pillow was too big to fit comfortably on my scanner, so only I have this (sloppy, pieced-together) scan of the stitchery. 

I took my pillow to my local EGA's Christmas party, just to show it off. One of the gals, Alice, really seemed to take a shine to it. She says she collects angels. Since I stitched this piece with no recipient in mind, I offered the pillow to her. She gave me the best reaction! Really made me happy to give it to her. 

Count Your Blessings

The next two pieces are related. I stitched the same piece twice, once for my dad's cousin and again for my own family. This is a very simple and fun-to-stitch primitive piece from Sisters and Best Friends.

The pattern calls for a combination of DMC floss and Sampler Threads. But I decided to stitch it with fibers from my stash. On my cousin's, I stitched the pumpkins with DMC variegated floss #51, Burnt Orange. On mine, I stitched the pumpkins with blended colors of DMC floss. I like the way both of them turned out.

This is my cousin's piece.

I framed both of these with the same wooden frame/batting/fabric sashing/stapling method that I used on Best Witches. This time I did "double matting" with the fabric in two shades of green. (The framing was still a frustrating experience!) But I do like the way they turned out. Once again, the pieces didn't fit well on my scanner, so you get to see most, but not all, of the framing.

Here's a current photo of the one I stitched for myself. The pumpkins are stitched with blended shades of orange from the DMC floss line. The variations in pumpkin color in mine are not as noticeable as in the one I stitched for my cousin. I display this piece every Autumn.

Pat's Flower Bookmark

My next small project was a bookmark for another of my Quilt Group ladies. She likes pink and flowers, so I found a nice border chart of flowers for her. I changed the chart's flower colors from purples to pinks.

DMC Colors Used:
602
604
987
989
White