We have no idea what this girl in the shoe is holding up by her ears.
Here she is from the back. Still no idea what she's holding up that's so alarming her. I'd welcome your ideas and suggestions!
Here's a Western theme one.
And a cute dog--looks a lot like Betty Boop's dog to me.
This one just makes me chuckle, so here it is again.
I spent one evening watching Bing in "The Bells of Saint Mary's" and glittered these pressed paper pine cones (Martha Stewart via Michael's from a post-holiday sale several years ago). Glitter is still everywhere, in spite of my best efforts. It's so much fun to play with glitter! They open. I'm not sure what will be tucked inside. Ideas?
I spent my extra time off stitching and knitting away, but I can't show any of it yet.
Merry Christmas to everyone. I wish you joy and happiness. Thank you very much for joining me here and for your comments.
Here are more photos from our trip to the Oak Park Conservatory a couple of weeks ago.
I'm going to be away from a computer for a bit. I'll be back after Christmas.
Back in the 70s I made a bunch of these hangings for friends and family. It was probably in Better Homes & Gardens or McCall's. The letters are felt with embroidery. I've been putting "Loy" up each year since I made it.
I'm not sure when I made these puffy pixies. They're some sort of stretch synthetic, with polyester knit faces and hands and fake fur. Again, I made dozens to give to everyone (at one point I was making about 100 ornaments each year for friends and family. That did not last long!) The Elves are red or green and I kept two to hang from our bookcase.
I found a pretty cool new product, just in time to do exactly what I want for a couple of Christmas gifts. My niece is into the Muppets big time, but it's really hard to find her something she doesn't already have. Lately I've been stitching all of these towels and thought--perfect!
Over on Needle 'n Thread, Mary is also having an interesting discussion about transferring a design to fabric and the things you need to think about beforehand.
I also received some lovely gifts from friends: This luggage tag was stitched on finer linen than I can see. I love the quiet colors and traditional design. I think it's going to hang in my office for now.
I love this sparkly holiday temari ball from World Embroideries. She is so very ambitious!
Here is a Brazilian embroidery ornament from a good friend--she used a pattern book from the 70s for the design. Many many techniques were featured in the gifts and ornaments exchanged at the party. I was great fun to see what everyone was getting!
My draw in the ornament exchange was the charming embroidery below--I got a bonus. I adore the little beaded ornament that was in the bag with the ornament. I am so very lucky! They were made by Karol of Rosebud's Stitching.
The room where we had our dinner was beautifully decorated and looked out over snow covered fields. This is the best start to the holiday season possible!
I am really delighted. I won a recent giveaway from Kelly Fletcher, from the Materialstic blog! The prize was her Celtic Stems pattern and a packet of fabrics to stitch it. She e-mailed the pattern and then mailed a lovely collection of fabrics, which arrived last night. Wow! Thank you so much!
I made these white felt ornaments over the last couple of weeks. They're very simple but all my own designs. They feature felt holly leaves and silver and white embroidery. It's always amazing to me how whites can vary! One was my exchange ornament and the other two gifts.
I made this angel for a friend. It has holly leaves too, and buttons. (The washed out picture of the oblong ornaments and the picture of the angel and wreath were taken on the same day in the same location. The only thing that changed was the strength and angle of the sun. I think it's very hard to see the oblong ornaments--I should have waited--but as I was doing it I was mostly worried that the angel and wreath would be too dark!)
More antique buttons adorn this wreath, made for another friend.
This little pincushion, given last night as a gift, began its live as a napkin ring for the YMCA kids. We'll be teaching it in March. It was just sitting there, waiting for March, when I unearthed a large felt bead. I wasn't sure where I wanted to keep the bead and in the meantime it kept rolling off the shelf. Finally I popped it into the napkin ring to keep it in place and, voilá, pincushion! I stitched it in place and added a felt bottom. I'll stitch up another napkin ring model before March.
After my good news at the doctor's last week, hubby and I drove up to one of our favorite places, Oak Park Conservatory. The tropical house has been newly rehabbed and we hadn't been there in a while. The bright colors, flowers, and birds all contributed to my celebration. I didn't even bring my cane inside (it's a small place and I managed fine).
The warmth inside was very pleasant--we have winter weather in Chicago now. We watched them put out the annual poinsettia display (I'm saving that pic for later on).
The koi seem to like the renovated room. They were active.
This is the scarf that matches the cable hat, here. It definitely will need to be blocked but it's coming along. Each cable twist is just about one inch.
I've also made some progress on my crewel piece. The green leaf at the top is coming out, though. It's too skinny. I was so concerned about keeping an open space in the middle that I went overboard. Hopefully, I can just pull out part of the middle section and not the whole thing.
On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, I started off my project with this turkey. I stitched all of the towels with DMC perle 5. Probably not my first choice, but it was handy and I really ended up liking it. The stitching, mostly outline, is very dimensional. For this design, I stitched the leaves in backstitch and the rest in outline.
February came next. For this one I stitched the ruffle around the heart in split stitch. It is not the best stitch with perle in my opinion, but I wanted the line to be less firm and more, well, ruffly, and the split stitch did that. It was also easier to maneuver around the curved shapes.
July gave me fits. So far, I'd gotten away with outlines, but if I just outlined the stripes, they would just be a mass of confusing thin lines. And the stars were gray, the color of the transfer. So I outlined each stripe, staying to the "inside" of the line for each red stripe. Then I filled in with chain stitch. It's pretty heavy but okay. I tried doing the stars in white and outlining them or filling in the background in blue but it was awful. So, I pulled it all out and made the stars in blue.
October came last. I liked this one a lot and had fun with it. The turkey's eye is a French knot but I stitched the eyes of the doves in February and the cat's eyes with a granitos stitch and I like the shape it gave. Just not quite round.
My sister-in-law is showing off the baby had she had just finished. They set the baby on the floor with all of the yarn and let him choose the colors.
Everyone's waiting for the feast.
I didn't get any pictures of the turkey or trimmings...
... or the equally laden dessert table--my brother made a yummy caramel cheesecake with chocolate sauce. It looks like he's in a bit of post-dinner stupor below.
Dolly stayed and supervised the clean up. I took the carcass of the bird home to make soup.
It was wonderful to gather together. I sat in the dining room and talked with my sister as she worked and just listed to the ebb and flow of the conversations in the living room (everyone talking over everyone else most of the time). It was great.
There are so many things to be thankful for! I am very happy that we have a tradition of setting aside a day to focus on them--and friends and family (not to mention good food!--as I said, a lot to be thankful for!)
I added a lacy edging tot he bottom of the pin doll's skirt. I took some perle 5 that I found nearby--sometimes it pays to not be neat and put things away. I had a crochet hook to hand, too, and made up a lacy edging. I am so much happier with it now.
I finished the cable hat. I've just barely begun the scarf. The yarn is really nice, but I did not see it in Knit Pick's newest catalog (the kit was several years old). The hat went quickly--I'd do it again.
I also finished the first washcloth. Along the way I lost one of my knitting needles and substituted a double-pointed steel needle that looked about the right size. I put tape on one end to keep the stitches on. This was the easiest of the washcloths, but I really like the spiral pattern. I'm approaching the half-way point on the next washcloth, but the last time I tried knitting I ripped more than knit so I just gave it up. It's #2 in difficulty. I'm doing them in order. Next I'll cast on for #3, but first I think I need to get another pair of bamboo needles. I like them best with this yarn. (I think part of my problem with the second cloth is that I'm using harder to manage cable needles that are slippery.
While I'm waiting to be ready for physical therapy, I've been indulging in some retail therapy. I'd actually ordered this book a couple of months ago; it arrived after my injury. Exile is a graphic novel telling part of the story of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, the first book in the series. It tells the story from a totally different perspective than the book. This tale is told by Jamie's godfather and is very different than the book. Way cool.
This is some woolfelt from Vintage Vogue. I have a couple of Japanese books with patterns for making pastries, cookies and chocolates from felt and that's what I plan to do with this. I may also make a companion for Dolly--lots of skin tones here.
More from Vintage Vogue, this time from their sale page. Glass leaf charms in two shades of green and clear and 1/2" shisha mirrors. There was a project a while back in Stitch with the Embroiderer's Guild (UK) that I liked and it featured shisha. (issue #66) I have no purpose for the leaves other than I thought that they would come in handy. (holiday napkin rings with some red ribbon perhaps?)
