Throwback Thursday - 2007 Part 01

In 2007 I was hoping to finish up a lot of my works in progress, projects where I'd gathered the supplies but hadn't yet started, and projects where the stitching was done, but they needed to be finished and made ready for display. This seems to be a perennial goal of mine which never quite gets done.

The Wayback Machine showed me that I started off 2007 with four small finishes in January.

Centipede Bookmark

At the beginning of 2007, I started participating in a challenge where each week I'd learn a new stitch and incorporate it into a small project. I didn't stay with the challenge very long, but here's my first week's attempt.

I couched a strip of orange ric-rac in yellow floss, tying down the stitches with a light shade of green. Next I added some fan stitches, as centipede legs, using a darker green. I found a button in my stash with a funny nick in it that sort of looked like a mouth and sewed that on as the bug's head. Finally, I gave my bug some antennae and added French Knots for eyes.

I backed the bookmark with a green fabric that has leaves on it ... as if it's the bush where this bug lives.

I don't think this was a very successful project, but I did learn some stitches. That was the intent.

Skating Reindeer

This is a pattern that I stitched just for fun because I saw it in an old volume of Cross Stitch and Country Crafts and loved it. It stitched on a fabric that has silver glittery threads running through it.

I eventually turned it into an ornament that was donated to charity.

Rose Lady

This is one of the projects I had all the materials for, but hadn't started. It's the first I completed that year going towards my personal goal. This design by Just Nan had been awaiting my attention for about nine months.

I bought this kit because it had a finishing technique that I'd never tried before. The little satin frame came with the chart, the padded center to attach the stitching to, and the cording to go around the edge of the stitching. It's called an Easy Easel. Unfortunately, this easel is no longer available for purchase.

I like the design, but wasn't all that thrilled with the finishing technique. The padded center, covered in the stitching, didn't want to tuck into the frame as the directions indicated it should. So instead, I used hot glue to adhere the center in place, as well as hot gluing the cording around the edge.

The finished result is pretty and I display this piece each Spring.

Georgie

This happy flower design by Bizzi Creations was stitched for a charity quilt with the theme of "Flowers."

The silver metallic thread used in this piece caused a bit of trouble. It was twisting and knotting as I pulled it through the fabric. Once I shortened the length of the strand in my needle, it worked much better. 

The lavender half cross stitches in the background allow the flower to really "pop." It's a great effect. 

Black Beauty

Another painted rock from the Hearts & Dots series. I like the silver and gold on black. It does sparkle in the right light.

A little sweetheart pebble.

Four-Legged Critters

I spent more time with the sticker mosaics last week and finished all the designs in the book. Here are two of them.

I love the vibrant colors and how, when completed, it's hard to tell where the print ends and the stickers begin. On some pages, I have to run my fingers over the design to tell what I did and what guided me.





#20in/2020

Friday's Sunset

Ever since we moved to Oregon and have a home that allows us to watch both sunrises and sunsets, I make a point of checking the sunset almost every night.

In Post Falls, we lived in a gully and couldn't see sunrises until they crested the hill behind our house. Neighbors houses blocked the sunsets. So having the ability to witness the day's start and end from inside our home is a real treat. (Face it, there are many more sunsets than sunrises for this girl).

Having the school field behind our house gives us lots of open space to watch the light show with an unobstructed view.

Pretzel Bites

Happy National Pretzel Day!

We're celebrating another minor holiday today. In honor of this auspicious occasion, I baked some homemade pretzel bites.



They came out beautifully and smell divine.



Ever since Dale's stroke at the end of February, our doctor gave us a meal plan to follow. Pretzels from the store are not on the plan. But I found a recipe that is, so I gave it a my best attempt.

Unfortunately for me, I'm a bit of a pretzel snob. Next to popcorn, pretzels are my favorite snack. The texture of these bites is all wrong in my mouth, even for a soft pretzel. They are made with Fat Head dough, so they are very cheesy. And though the outside has that nice color and crust, they don't *snap* when you bite into them. But Dale likes them, and that's what counts. We'll try dipping them in pizza sauce and see if that helps.



They sure are pretty and I'm darn proud of myself for giving the recipe a try. I'll find another recipe and try again.

Flyaway

This pebble in my Hearts and Dots series has many hearts, and one dot. It's one of my favorites. Simple. Sweet.

Fly away, fly away, fly away home

Mountains

This rock was a bit of a challenge to paint because of it's shape. It's a bit like a cone ... or a mound ... or a hill ... or a mountain!



So I decided to paint it on all three sides, and put a snow cap on top. Since it's Spring, I added wildflowers. It's one of the few rocks where I added words, "You can move mountains." No hearts this time.



 This rock is about the size of a 1/2 cup measuring scoop.

I hope it inspires the person who finds it and lifts their spirits.


#flowersforfriday

Throwback Thursday - 2006 Part 16

Besides all the needlework projects I completed in 2006, I also made some craft projects. Several of them followed my 2006 theme, Year of the Ornament. I do wish the photos were better. I no longer own most of these projects.







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Beaded Snowflake Ornaments

In July, I took some time to put together a dozen beaded snowflake ornaments. These came as a kit from Mary Maxim and were quite easy to put together. They used five sizes of clear beads, chenille stems, silver braid and a tiny bit of glue. The kit had clear instructions and plenty of supplies.

Crazy Chick

In August, I was introduced to the Kleines Flitze-Huhn website where I found a pattern for these nutty, fun birds. I used Google translator (a new internet tool, at the time) to read the German directions. The birds were quite simple to make.

I used some twisted cord for the legs on this one, but I've seen them made with chenille stem legs, too. That way the legs can be easily posed.

He's about the size of a golf ball. The birds were fun to make and only took about an hour, so I made several.

To fit my Year of the Ornament theme, I suppose I could turn them into partridges in pear trees. Or I could dress them up for Christmas with funny elf hats and pointy shoes. I could add a fancy plume for a tail or make them in bright jewel tones with gleaming beaded eyes and embroidered wings. The possibilities are endless! Seeing this funny guy again after all these years gets me itching to make a whole flock.

Ashlee's Memorial

In the Fall of 2006, we had a sadness hit our family. Jodie's cat, Ashlee, died. Julie and I made this memorial shadow box for Jodie. It contains several photos from various stages of his life, some of his fur, his collar and tag, and some toys he liked to play with.

This is the first shadow box I'd ever put together. I mounted some of the photos on various thicknesses of foam core so that they stand in the box at different levels.

The collar and fur are mounted on scrapbook paper that looks like watercolor. The same paper was used to cut out the letters of his name. All the pieces are held in place with velcro dots and strips.

On the back of the memorial, we wrote several paragraphs about the kitty we all loved.

Pom Pom Candy Cane Ornaments

Inspired by images on the internet, I designed this candy cane ornament. I made a couple dozen of them to give as gifts to the women in my quilt group.

The candy cane combines pompoms, fabric greenery, chenille stems, ribbon, and beads, giving the ornament a bit of glitz. They look very pretty when the light catches them. They are fairly light, so don't drag down Christmas tree branches.

Christmas Wreath

On Christmas Eve in 2006, I made this wreath for our front porch. It's a combination of real and silk greens attached to a straw wreath base.

My daughter helped me gather fallen branches from our pine trees in the yard. I used floral pins to attach them to the perimeter of the wreath.

I then used some silk ivy sprays that were left over from my daughter Julie's prom party  decorations. Those were attached with floral pins to the front of the wreath form.

I used bells in pretty jewel colors of red, green, blue and a glittered blue. I tucked them into the greenery wherever they looked good, and pinned them to the straw base with floral pins.

The bow is made of wide ribbon that had the same pretty jewel tones as the bells. The ribbon has a very pretty sheen, and a wired metallic edge. The bow is attached to the top of the wreath with floral wire.

Finally, I made a hanger from a short strip of floral wire which I braided and attached to the back of the wreath with floral pins.

That's it for 2006! 

In 2007, my goal was to complete a bunch of unfinished abandoned projects, works in slow progress, and projects that I'd gathered the materials for, but hadn't begun. I do believe that when I moved to Oregon in 2019, some of those same projects were still looking for attention! 

I'm fairly sure I became distracted with new projects and shiny objects rather than picking up items in my stash. We shall see.

There were over 50 finishes in 2007!

Tree of Love

What if you were feeling down, could go out in the back yard, and pluck a little love from a tree. I'd love to feel better that easily.

This is the largest rock I painted a couple weeks ago. This one could do some serious damage if thrown through a window. But, why would anyone want to throw a tree of love through a window.



My mind is a tad wonky today.

Stickin' Around

Here are the other two sticker mosaics I put together Sunday. Such a meditative activity.

Lion

This, I enjoyed least because it used only two colors of stickers.

Tropical Fish

This is my favorite so far, I think. It's the most detailed.



From this book:

One!

Look who turned one year old this weekend! Our little granddaughter, Annalee.



We had a Zoom birthday party, so we didn't get chocolate all over our face and arms like Annie did.

Stickin' It Down

I needed another very low-key down day today. So I returned to the sticker mosaic book and completed four more designs. Here are the first two:

Turtles ... all the way down.
(Anyone get that reference?)



Peacock
(That's a lot of eyes lookin' at me).



They are from this book.

Heart of Hearts

The next rock in my Hearts and Dots collection:

It's about the size of two quarters, side-by-side.

Sticker Art

I'm feeling a little 'meh' today, so decided to listen to some YouTube videos while doing an easy soothing activity. Today I picked sticker art. It's like paint-by-numbers, but using stickers. I completed the tropical birds.



The book comes with partially colored pictures with dots and triangles and half circles and circles and squares, numbered to coordinate with the sticker numbers. You fill in the shapes with these vibrant shapes.



As you can see, some of the shapes on the birds are printed, the others are stickers. I find this to be the kind of meditative activity that helps calm my agitated mind and gives me focus.

This is the book that my daughter Julie gave me: The Original Sticker by Numbers Book of Animals. The cover shows what the designs look like before filling them.

The back of the book says it's for ages three and up. I guess I qualify.

Throwback Thursday - 2006 Part 15

This week the Wayback Machine takes us to December 2006. These are the final two stitching projects I made that year.

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Swirl Star Stocking

I chose to give a gift certificate from a local yarn shop as my present in the annual gift exchange at my quilt group. I wanted to give a little something more than just an envelope, so I made this stocking to hold the gift certificate. 

The adorable pattern came from the January 2007 issue of Cross-Stitch & Needlework magazine, page 34. The stocking designs are cute and funky, shown in very non-traditional Christmas colors. Funky and non-traditional are two words that describe my friend Susan pretty well! So I chose her favorite color, orange, for the background and some vibrant shades of #5 perle coton to stitch the design. (This is the same Susan that is the best doggy mommy I know, who inspired yesterday's rock).

I increased the size of the stocking a bit from the pattern so that the gift certificate would fit more comfortably. The finished size is about 8". I stitched the front of the stocking to the back with a buttonhole stitch. I sure like the effect.

Susan did, too!

p.s. Everyone should have a friend like Susan!



Wannabee Fish

This quilt square was made for a charity quilt distributed in 2007. For this quilt, stitching participants all used patterns from the same book so that the quilt had a very cohesive appearance.

Next time, I'll share craft projects I completed in 2006.

Woof You!

I painted this rock in honor of my friend Susan.



She's the best doggy mommy I know.



This rock is nearly the size of a softball!




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Inspired by this image. I don't know the original artist.

Thinking of You

I made this card for a friend from college. He lives alone and has a physical disability. I imagine this Covid-19 isolation might be hard on him, so decided to send him some cheer.

I dug through the cardstock and paper in my stash to find some that could coordinate and would be suitable for a man. I am so pleased with the combination I came up with.

I used a buff cardstock for the base of the card. The border pieces of cardstock are from the reverse side of the plaid paper. The brown crackle print worked beautifully with the plaid. Then I found a scrap of muted green with a swirl to use behind the sentiment. The "Thinking of You" was stamped onto the green with black ink.

I wrote a short personal letter on plain white paper and adhered it to the inside of the card. One the back, I signed it in my usual way.

Once again, I decided to personalize the envelope flap. I repeated the brown crackle paper there. I love the pro finish a lined flap gives to the card set.





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I was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest by Greeting Cards by Lasheila