Cross-stitch Leftovers Pillow

Instagram user @craft_n_relax recently reposted an image of a pillow made by @wonkyandwonderful. The pillow is made up of lots and lots of 10 stitch by 10 stitch squares of cross-stitch. This was wonky's way of using up floss that was left over from kits. I find it beautiful in its randomness.

There are a lot of more elaborate designs to be found on Pinterest using this same concept of ways to use up leftover floss. But I liked the simplicity of this pillow. To me, it's just the kind of stitching I like to do while watching TV. It's fairly mindless, but allows me to keep my hands busy. I only need to be able to count to ten, then I can go into autopilot.

So I looked through my floss stash and found some leftover-from-kits floss, and a whole bunch of "one off" skeins or floss from oddball companies or other floss that I wouldn't ordinarily use. I found a whole bag of partial skeins of variegated floss. Most of these extras have been around for many years because what am I going to do with it when no pattern calls for that brand or color?

So with my year of Whittle a Little in mind, I pulled out some extra white aida and lots of the oddball, leftover floss, and started stitching. This project has no deadline. Not even a firm idea of what kind of pillow -- or other finished item -- I want to make with it's done. Knowing me, it may become a journal cover or framed piece. We'll see how much I've completed by the time I get sick of making these squares.

Also knowing me, it will be a test of will to keep from making some kind of pattern from the colors and simply allowing this project to be random.

I'll keep you updated on my progress. That will probably happen on days when I can't think of anything else to blog about.
😉

Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland is the third puzzle by Galison that Dale and I constructed in the last month. It's another 500 piece puzzle that becomes a 20" x 20" square when complete.

In previewing the image on the box, I thought this puzzle might be a bit of a challenge to put together due to the large swaths of snow and of star-lit sky. It turned out to be quite the opposite. Dale and I generally take a couple days/sessions to put 500 piece puzzles together. But this one was completed in one night.

When it's snowing and gloomy outside, we don't get decent picture-taking light at the table. I've only got overhead lighting. That's the reason for all the glare at the top of this photo. It's disappointing that Santa's sleigh doesn't show up well here.

I realize I've been posting a bunch of puzzles lately instead of photos or crafty projects. I've been preoccupied with concerns about an upcoming appointment. Thankfully, that will be over tomorrow. I hope to get back to more creative endeavors in the near future. I have continued learning to draw each morning. Perhaps I can share some of that along with a cross-stitch piece I finished, and two others that I started. We'll see.

Tonight Dale and I began a puzzle that came from a painting by Thomas Kinkade that depicts Disney characters in dark, beautifully lit places. We have four of these puzzles to put together. This first is of Lady and the Tramp. Much of the image is quite dark ... hard to see the images under the glare of the dining room light. The pieces have quite unusual shapes. That part looks fun!

I'm looking forward to trying them out.

Cupcake Time

Dale and I have been putting puzzles together faster than I've been posting about them. These cupcakes were completed at the end of last month.

We're putting the last pieces in another puzzle tonight.

I haven't had a lot of "umph" the last few days. Today it was due to unsettling dreams right before I woke up. When I'm feeling like this, and the weather is cold, all I want to do is a quiet, focused activity that doesn't require much of me and has no dicey consequences. Putting a jigsaw puzzle together while listening to a Hallmark movie is just the ticket. Jigsaw puzzles are their own kind of meditation for me.

This week's *Whittle a Little*

I made another pass through my closets and drawers. I no longer need:

• two hats
• a fluffy robe
• a trench coat
• three shirts (sad to see that embroidered one go, but it's time)
• a pair of black pants
• three pair of fuzzy slippers
• two pair of socks
• one pair of shoes

Some will be donated. Others were tossed.

Plus, I found a better way to store my winter scarves, hats and gloves.

#onepersonstrash

For a Good Time

This may be the most fun Lady of the Evening I own. That's likely because I *think* this lass was made for a young girl, rather than a grown woman. She tickles my fancy.

I used her earlier this week when Dale and I had a night out on the town to see a Broadway production of The Lion King in downtown Spokane. (It was astounding!) One of the security women, and one of the ushers each commented on how much they liked it. Unsolicited praise!

The front of this lass is jam-packed with plastic beads. The back has no beads, but the texture of the fabric is a little like a black-on-black jacquard. It has a horizontal stripy effect.

Though the beads have a silverish tone, the handle is more gold-toned. The handle attaches to the fabric with these long stitches through the perforations in the handle.

This handle is unlike others in my collection. It's a single solid handle at the top. Then it divides on the bottom with the hinge meeting the fabric. I like the way it opens and clasps. But I admit that it's a little tricky to put item into the evening bag because the opening is smaller than the base of the bag, and the top of handle made me have to shimmy my wallet into it.

The inside is fully lined in a slinky polyester fabric, and it has a pocket. As you can see, this lady was made in China.

The star of the show on this gal are the tightly packed beads. There are so many fun shapes including butterflies, flowers with rhinestones, flowers without rhinestones, globes, leaves, diamonds, and even dominoes!

I've been wracking my brain on how this little lady came to live with me. I may have purchased it at a souvenir shop near the Montana/Idaho border. Unfortunately, I don't have the sales slip to help give me a clue.

19 in 2019 - January Update

We're already through the first month of 2019! That went quickly. Here's my first report on how I'm progressing on my 19 in 2019 goals and my year of whittle a little. I've started off with a bang!

Goal #7: Learn to use my pompom makers

Done! They're pretty snazzy little tools.

Then I created a heart-shaped Valentine wreath completely made of pompoms.

Goal #11: Watch the DVD about Lake Missoula

The DVD is called Mystery of the Megaflood. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about how much of the geography in my neck of the woods was formed. After I watched the DVD, I did some more research. If you ever have a chance to visit the Scablands in eastern Washington state, I highly recommend it. Fascinating.

Goal #13: Reach a specified weight by the time of my February doctor appointment

I'm well on my way! My appointment is next week. I made excellent progress on reaching this goal in January. Weight is one of several markers I'm monitoring. All are on track.


Goal #15: Purge and organize storage shelves

This will take quite some time. But I did sift through the Christmas decorations as I put them away, and was able to give quite a number of them away.  This is one spot where Whittle a Little comes in.

I also took several boxes of donations to a thrift store.


Goal #16: Use up my tea stash

I'm getting in the habit of having a cup of hot tea each morning with my breakfast. I've already used up my first box from the stash, Cranberry Apple Zinger from Celestial Seasonings.

Goal #17: Blog at least 25 weeks of #throwbackthursday posts of my 1997 - 2007 projects

I put up posts on all five Thursdays in January. It's rare to have a bonus Thursday!

.

.

Goal #18: Blog at least 10 of my Ladies of the Evening collection (mend as needed)

I've blogged about three so far. One needs to be mended, but I didn't do that yet.

Goal #19: Finish one of my eight courses

I started The Creative License by Danny Gregory. I'm learning to draw!

Alternate Goal: Watch 50 movies from my Netflix/Amazon queues.

I watched two in January:

     1. A Wrinkle in Time

     2. Loving

I'm so pleased!

In January, I completed two goals and made progress on nine. Go me!

Throwback Thursday - 2004 (Part 3)

The Year of the Small Project continues with these late February finishes: four ornaments, one lapel pin, and a bookmark.


Woodland Christmas Snowman

Here's a continuation of Heart in Hand's Woodland Christmas series.

Because the Fiddler's Cloth I used as the ground fabric was lighter than the fabric called for in the pattern, I had to do a lot of color substitutions to make the snowman "pop" off the background, including filling the space around the snowman with light yellow half-cross-stitches. I also did some extra outlining to increase definition.

I chose a pretty Christmas fabric with a holly print for the "pillow" and a red satin ribbon for the hanger.

Woodland Christmas Candle

I made some color substitutions on this ornament, too. The candle is yellow rather than brown. Then I used DMC 108 Yellow Orange variegated floss for the flame. I also added some red seed beads for the berries that are nestled in the holly at the base of the candle. The "pillow" is a fabric that's dark red with off-white polka dots.

Woodland Christmas Reindeer

I gave the reindeer's fur some dimension by using an overdyed floss by Weeks Dye Works, 2238 Sweet Potato. The rest of the ornament is stitched with regular DMC floss. I did add a black seed bead for the reindeer's eye. The "pillow" is a brown plaid fabric. A bold choice for a Christmas ornament!

Woodland Christmas House

This is the last in the Woodland Christmas series. The entire ornament with stitch with DMC floss, but I substituted colors again. Instead of a brown house, I painted mine green. Then I substituted red seed bead for the berries in the wreath instead of using French knots. The "pillow" is made from a two-toned green fabric.

Santa-Corn

This acorn-shaped Santa was a freebie chart that I found on a cross-stitch shop's website. It's fun to see what these black & white charts look like all stitched up when you haven't seen a model. Surprise!

I stitched the Santa on perforated paper. I like his jaunty checkered hat. I then sewed the design to red felt for a backing, trimming the felt about an eighth inch from the paper to give it a nice outline. Then I added a tiny jingle bell as the hat's tassel. I finished it as a lapel pin. The finished size is about 1-3/4 inches by 2 inches.

Assisi Bookmark #1

My embroidery guild introduced me to Assisi work. This technique is usually stitched with a single color of thread, allowing the void area to form the design. For this bookmark by Dunmani Designs, I used a variegated thread, so the color gives the stitched area some movement. The dark part of the variegation surrounds the crossbars, and the lighter part of the thread surrounds the crosses. I used DMC 69 Terra Cotta for the main work, but added DMC 3777 for a solid border and the backstitching. I chose to make this bookmark on Ribband that has a scalloped edge.

I quite like that bookmark design. That would be fun to stitch again. The hiccup is that I rarely have use for bookmarks anymore since I primarily use my Kindle while reading books.

National Jigsaw Puzzle Day

I'm not quite sure how I missed this, but yesterday was National Jigsaw Puzzle Day. So I'll post another puzzle today in honor of the designation ... and maybe a puzzle tomorrow, too!

This puzzle is called New York City Subway. The artwork is by Michael Storrings. Check out his website for more fun art!

This puzzle was also manufactured by Galison and has the same great quality as Winter Lights. With all the details in the people, the subway car, the buildings, and the street, this was a fun puzzle to put together.

I See You, Valentine!

I decorated our home for Valentine's Day. In the box with more traditional decorations, I found this gem that one of my daughters made for me. It's stuffed like a sachet. The back has giant sequins (that are falling off) and a pompom. The love of crafting begins early, my friends!

There are some things I am not ready to release in this year of "whittle a little."

Winter Lights

Dale and I are in puzzle mode, alright. We completed this one on January 20th.

It's a 500 piece puzzle by the 'galison' company (they use lower case letters on their logo). The puzzle pieces are nice and thick and feel good in your hand. If you try and pick up several interconnected pieces to move them into place, they stay together fairly well. That makes jigsaws much more enjoyable to work with than flimsier puzzles.

The "Winter Lights" artwork is by Joy Laforme. Her website is worth your time to take a look at her lovely paintings.

This puzzle was a lot of fun to put together because of all the details of the people and the storefronts and, of course, the lights.

Dale and I finished another puzzle by this company yesterday. He's completing a Dollar Tree cheapie puzzle right now as I type this post. I guess cold days and bad news gives us good reason to hole up and mess with a jigsaw. It's a cozy activity to do side by side.

Quiet Pastime

Dale and I have been in jigsaw puzzle mode again. We finished one this morning (I've yet to take a picture). We put this one together in the first week of January. It's called Magic Jungle.

I like how I got the puzzle box topsy-turvy in this photo.

Diamond Burst Lady

There is everything to like about this Lady of the Evening. She's a stunner!

First, the shape. It's a modified heart. By now we all know that a heart will catch my attention every time. She measures eight inches at the widest point, and six-and-a-half inches from the top of the bag to the top of the fringe. The fringe adds another two inches.

Second, the colors. The base of the evening bag is a wine colored velvet. The seed beads are iridescent with a base of the wine color. The bugle beads are solid, rather than iridescent. Then there's the gold braid that undulates as it forms the diamond shapes.

The bead pattern on the front of the bag is wonderful. Bugle beads form "petals" around center clusters of coiled and knotted seed beads. Each bugle bead ends with a single seed bead. This gives the impression of bursts (or flowers) within each gold diamond. Between the gold braid are rows of seed beads, facing in the direction of the braid that surrounds it. Where the braid intersects, there are four sets of two bugle beads which each have seed bead tips. Those intersections look a bit like butterflies.

I've mentioned before that my Ladies of the Evening are often beaded only on one side. For this lady, even her backside is covered, though the pattern is not as elaborate as the front.

Instead of the diamond shapes and bursts, the back is covered in seed beads, grouped in sets of five, and applied in a random pattern. This photo gives a good look at the texture of this velvet and the many hues and tints in the iridescent beads.

The fringe extends from the bottom of the bag and up the sides about two-thirds of the way to the top. It appears to be one long strand of seed beads which were formed into two inch loops, then sewn into the side/bottom seam. This photo also shows the various tones of the beads as well as some of the oddball shapes and irregular sizes of the seed beads. That variety adds to the beauty of this piece.

The side/bottom seams and the top of the bag have two additional lines of beads covering the seams. The handle is quite long -- about 42 inches.

It is made of strands of seed beads that are formed into a tight simple braid.

Here you can see the two lines of beads that cover the top seams. This lady is fully lined in satin and has a small pocket. She keeps her contents safe with a snap closure.

My Diamond Burst Lady doesn't have a very interesting purchase story. I found her on Amazon.com and fell in love. I rarely buy new Ladies of the Evening. I simply couldn't resist her, and bought her as a Christmas gift for myself four years ago. She only cost $17.00!!

I so appreciate the craftsmanship in my Ladies and think about the hands that created them every time they are used and admired.

Wax Seal

In my year of whittle a little, I've decided to use more of my pretty things. Things I've been squirreling away and meaning to use "someday." I've decided this is my year; this is my day.

I wrote a letter to a high school friend today. For no good reason than I felt like it, I sealed the letter with a wax seal that I've had for :: mummblemummble :: years. I bought it because it looked like a CameoRoze. I don't know what I was saving it for. Some special occasion?

But what occasion is more special than a handwritten letter to an old friend?

Throwback Thursday - 2004 (Part 2)

Let's see what I made in February of 2004, shall we?

It appears I made a dozen small projects. Here are the first six:


Woodland Christmas Tree

This is the first in a series of twelve ornaments called Woodland Christmas. They were all in a leaflet from Heart in Hand. Each ornament is about 25 stitches square. They have a somewhat primitive aesthetic and are quite sweet.

I stitched the designs on Fiddler's cloth. After the stitching was complete, I finished each of them in a similar manner. I sewed the stitchery onto a piece of gingham fabric in a coordinating color. I sewed a matching piece of gingham fabric to the back, creating a little pillow. A piece of ribbon was inserted into the top seam to create the hanger. The ornament was stuffed with fiberfill, then I sewed the opening closed by hand. Finally, I fringed the edges of the Fiddler's cloth.

Woodland Christmas Noel

Woodland Christmas Bird

Woodland Christmas Poinsettia

Woodland Christmas Star

Valentine

I took a break from the Christmas ornaments to stitch a Valentine for Dale. The cupid chart was an online freebie which I embellished by adding "Be Mine" in my own handwriting.

Because I chose a red ground cloth, I stitched the cupid with ecru DMC perle coton #8 so it would stand out. Then I used a darker red for the hearts, DMC 5270 which is a red metallic. I outlined the hearts in gold. The tip of the arrow is actually a little red heart charm.

Inspired by an online friend, I attempted to create a special embellished frame for this simple piece. First, I altered a 5" x 7" frame I had on hand with gold spray paint.  I repeated the heart elements in the stitchery by painting balsa wood hearts, each with a unique design. All the hearts have a red base with white and gold designs, painted with acrylic craft paint. The hearts were attached to the frame with wood glue.

I padded a piece of foam core and covered it with the stitchery. After framing the stitchery, it seemed like it needed just a little something else.

I found a cupid charm in my stash, and glued it to the top right corner of the frame. Then I draped the cord until it looked pleasing to my eye, adding tassels to the cord ends. These elements were hot-glued into place.

As a last step, I made this label and glued to to the dust cover on the back of the frame.

Overall, I was fairly satisfied with this embellished frame experiment. From a design point of view, it's a little clunky in that the stitched image and the embellished frame don't seem to have quite the right proportion. The visual weight of the frame overpowers the stitched design a bit. The thin line of words feels particularly skimpy, so that the words nearly disappear. But it's not bad for a first try.

A Favorite Bracelet

My experiment for getting my photography mojo back continues. The Everyday Matters challenge prompt I'm using this week is

#8 Your watch or other piece of jewelry.

This is the beautiful bracelet my daughter Jeanne made for me as a birthday gift last November. She's learning to make chain mail jewelry. She knows I like pearls. So she makd the bracelet and wired some pearl beads into the center of the chain mail. So pretty.

I used a black velvet pillow sitting atop a hexagonal mirror, which was sitting on a black velvet background. I propped the bracelet up in hopes of catching the reflection. Unfortunately, the photo is slightly out of focus because the camera was hand held. Time to get out my tripod for the next time I use my macro lens.

Pompom Finale - The Valentine Wreath

This pompom project has come to a close. My final steps included making 21 of these small multi-colored pompoms.

I used the smallest of the four pompom makers for the inside row, which created a ball approximately 1-1/4 inches in diameter. Here are the three sizes I made, side-by-side. For my wreath project, I used only the two smaller sizes.

I used a heart-shaped wire wreath form from Dollar Tree as the base. It's approximately twelve inches wide at the largest point. I simply tied the pompoms onto the wires with the hanging strings. It couldn't have been easier. And because I used leftover yarn from my stash, the entire project cost only one dollar. I bought the pompom makers last year for about seven dollars. If you were to buy yarn for this project, you'd need about three skeins.

Ta-Da!

Since I ran out of the cranberry colored yarn, I made eight of the maroon pompoms and dispersed them evenly among the lighter pompoms in the outer ring.

I'm delighted with the various levels the convex curve of the wreath form and the two sizes of pompoms create as the wreath hangs on the wall in our dining room.

Strawberry Lady

This sweet Strawberry Lady was purchased at a local craft fair. She's about 4-1/2 inches tall and 4 inches wide at the top. So about the size of a large-ish coin purse. She is fully beaded on the front.

And mirror-imaged on the back! That's unusual. Most of my Ladies are fully beaded on one side only. Her handle is a 4-1/2 inch wristlet made of cording that perfectly matches the red beads.

The top is zippered. She has a full lining of red satin.

The leaves are made of bugle beads. They are first outlined, then filled in using a loose chevron pattern that contributes to the illusion of the leaves having veins.

The strawberry seeds are made of jet black seed beads, and surrounded in red seed beads in a pattern that looks a bit like fish scales. If I had to guess, the strawberry seeds were sewn into place first. Then starting at the top, the seeds were surrounded by the red beads, with each succeeding layer forming the U shape that makes the scales. Additional beads are tucked into any "holes" created by that U shape.

The beads are nice and densely packed and firmly attached. There's very very little ground fabric showing through. That, plus the lining, gives this beaded bag at least six layers. It feels plush ... really good and substantial in my hand. It doesn't feel like it's so delicate that it will easily fall apart.

Inside the Strawberry Lady I found three surprises. First, the business card. At the craft fair, I didn't get to meet the designer, but I did meet her husband who gave me her card.

My second surprise -- that I honestly never noticed until today! -- is this lovely designer label. It's a gold-colored label with red embroidered wording. It was difficult to take a good photo of it. The light bounced off the red lining and reflected back on the gold label.

The final surprise is that I kept the price tag. It's so difficult to believe that this incredible craftsmanship was available to me for only $15!

In an article from 2005, I learned designer Rina Fairchild is a native of Singapore who said she learned from her mother how to make beautiful hand-beaded purses. I couldn't find any indication that new beaded purse designs are available, but some used pieces periodically come up for auction on ebay. I feel blessed to have this wonderful piece of craftsmanship.

The current website does not appear to belong to the same artist. Instead, it shows beautifully crafted and photographed jewelry: rings, pendants, and earrings. Well worth checking out.