Friday Finishes!

I was able to spend time working on projects this week and it was a great stress reliever, as well.

The first piece I finished was my Christmas wall hanging. The pattern is called Hang The Stockings by JoAnn Mullaly. 

For mine, I added some star quilting, in some areas. I also stained it, then let it sun dry so it got more of a splotchy effect. As the sun pulls the moisture away from the fabric, it leaves the walnut stain behind, so it is not as controlled but gives it more of a true aged look. It is hard to get a true photo of the piece since some colors pop and others darken too much, it is more blended and yellowed in person.

I needed something else to keep my hands busy so I made up another punch needle star. This time I used the cat design from Renee Mullins and extended the scarf into the bottom of the star. I was trying to raise the loops on the scarf but it didn't work out the way I wanted, I would have to go higher on the loops, so I will have to try another piece and practice my sculpting.

I still need to clean it up and fix some spots, then I will do up all of the stars, into ornaments.

Another thing I did this week was to antique a wooden cat, that I found. I can't pass up a .99 cent deal and will a little sanding, some antique medium and a rusty bell, he is now a primitive kitty. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and hopefully I will feel good enough to get out and enjoy the good weather, we are  having.

Birds..Hearts and Winners!

First of all, the correct answer was 32", yes he is a big cat and his head was bent. I tried to measure him while he was laying on the bureau, but he thought I wanted to play and tried to eat the measuring tape.

So, the winner with the closest guess was Paulette!
The winner of the random number generator was #2 Tubilinha Tiacarminha!

You can choose a pattern or ebooklet from my ecrater site, link in the left hand column.
Email me with your choice and I will send it to you.
Congratulations! Look for another giveaway on Friday, something for the quilters.

This week I have been fighting off the flu, and the weather has been rainy, so it is a good time to relax inside and work on small projects.

I love Kathy Schmitz's designs and she has some free designs on her website that you can enjoy making. This one was for a tea towel, but I loved the design and wanted to make a pillow. I kept it simple and antiqued it, but the camera really didn't want to give me a good shot, and I had to use flash since it is dark out.

The pillow is tea stained muslim and stained again, by me, but it looks shiny in the photo. I forgot to add details to the body, that is what happens when you are sick and dense, lol.

Another design I found for free, this week is, Valentine hearts. I loved how the word love looked and had to try it. I made flat ornies out of mine, using two pieces of batting to fill the middle and just stitched the back on, leaving the edges raw. I over stained these, so I rinsed them out and re-dried them to lighten them back up. The pattern is by Cheryl Fall and can be found HERE. There are two others that you can do, as well and the actual pattern, that I didn't see until tonight. I found the design and now I see how they were actually done.