Friday Finish!

 

This week I wanted something small to work on and I do need some new lavender pillows, as I redo boxes and storage. It really helps to keep the musty scents away. I took two patterns from my Fraktur design booklets, Horses and Rooster. These two make nice stitcheries and fun to color in. 

To color on cloth, I use freezer paper. After coloring, I use a paper stylus to rub the color into the cloth. With these two stitcheries, I used two new threads. The horse was done with cheap black floss, not the best floss and a bit fuzzy. The rooster was done with Anchor cotton floss, that comes on a spool. I like the Anchor on a spool, so much easier to use and no messy skeins to store. It is a bit thinner, but nice if you want more defined lines. On the horse, I used antique ink, spattering it on with a brush.

The cold has settled in and that makes it hard to get out for walks. We do enjoy driving around the beach areas. You never know what you will see and the water views are always nice, especially in a warm car.

The Breachway was a nice spot to see a few birds, but it was so windy and cold, I hate to take a few shots from the window. The gulls across the way, were feasting on something that must have died in the storm. Most beaches still have debris and damage, but slowly rebuilding the beaches and cleaning up.

At home I enjoy watching the birds who come to visit. The Red-bellied Woodpecker is very shy, so he stays in the tree and waits for me to leave. I have also spotted a few hawks this week, this one was checking out the grounds, behind our RV.

A few of the birds who visit the porch. The Sapsucker is making holes in my maple tree, he will have some nice sap, come spring.

And the ground feeders. Since the ground is frozen, I can throw some feed out, so they don't have to find scraps that fall to the ground. They have been coming up to the porch more, with snow on the porch, it is more natural for them, to forage. I noticed the White-throated sparrow is missing a toe.

I hope you all enjoyed your week and can enjoy your weekend. We have bitter cold coming in, so car rides will be all I can handle. 

Friday Finishes!

Well, I was able to finish all my pillows today and use up the last of the balsam. A few trips to the post office and a few more next week and I can relax. I do have boxes of cards, think I go carried away, so those will go out too.

I also finished off a stitchery, I had made earlier in the year. The box behind them, I found last week and plan on using it for my newest snowmen pillows.

With the new month, I also got the new stitchery from Kathy Schmitz. She also gave away an extra freebie and I had to make that for some quilting friends. I photoshopped the initial out of the heart, so that wouldn't show. They also have lavender in them, so the person can put it with their quilts or fabrics to keep them fresh smelling.

And, I finished the stitchery of the month. I was hoping for something for Christmas, so I went with brighter colors, but that didn't work, so it is more of a fraktur style bird. The fabric is crackle print with and I aged it to look like old parchment. Hard to see in the photo.

And another freebie this month was by Michelle Palmer, for her Artist's Facebook Group. She also has a fun snowman to do, as well. Of course I added a few of my own touches.

I hope you all are enjoying the holidays, whether with family or quiet time to create, what brings you peace and joy, is truly what matters. For me it is always bitter sweet, Danielle loved Christmas and I will always miss her, but I still keep her close to my heart. I found a beautiful ornament with a saying, it is at the lower right and the saying is on the photo. The other I found and put in a photo from one of our last hiking trips. My tree is covered in silly cat ornaments, but these two remind me that she is with us in spirit. May you all find peace this holiday season.

Monday UFO Finishes!

First I want to thank everyone for your comments and support. I have been trying to keep up by mailing each one, so if I forgot someone or you are a no reply, I do read all the posts and appreciate each one.

Today I decided to do some old pieces, that were sitting in a box. I wanted another pillow for my chest and knew I had a star piece and found the perfect one to offset the square pillows. It was a block for a nautical quilt that I was making and now that I have seen the other blocks, I will not finish, I will start over.

I realize how bad the stitching was on the appliqué, bad choice of backgrounds and the lighthouse is crooked, lol. I rather chuck the ugly blocks and make a new one. This piece was good enough to make a quick pillow and nice to have one more thing out of the box.

The pillow is 20" long and I stained the light fabric, when I finish stuffing it.

While I was going through the box, I found two more pieces I never finished and I had the perfect use for them. Two more lavender sachets. The pattern is from Sandra Cadwell of Babycake Designs. I won the design, years ago. Then I made these two pieces, years ago and they have been sitting, ever since.

I colored them in and then stitched around them, I like the outline look with color. Not sure how I colored them, looks like marker and maybe some watercolor. These I did not wet since I am not sure what is on it, and for sachets, they will be fine. I was thinking, this design is so fun, maybe I should paint it on some rocks.

Speaking of unfinished pieces, this is another one, I did years ago and it has been sitting in a closet. I have given up using hooked rugs in the house, the cats destroy them. I am not sure if I should continue with my rug hooking, I need to cut back on things, or I will never get anything done and I still want to quilt and sew, as well as punch and needle felt and now painting and rock art. I really have a problem, lol. So, I may start selling off my rug equipment, I have regular hooking materials, punch rug and locker hooking supplies. As much as I love them, there is not enough time in the day, so I may sell all or keep some to make small rugs and mats.

This rug is 52" x 24".

Oldies but Goodies!

Nothing new this weekend, Bill had to work and I just crashed, so I rested most of the time and redid my drawing to get the rocks right and straighten out the buildings.

I also wanted to color in the design to see how it looked but I couldn't find my colored pencils, they seem to have disappeared. So, I used my watercolor pencils which are limited but it gave me a general idea of how the lighter green and rocks looked against the sea, much better contrast.

I over painted on the right and top, was just fooling around with colors and contrast but I do like how the light green pops and then the rocks will be more defined. Now to start the new punch, though I may change something else before then, we never know;)

One of the reasons that my pencils are limited in colors is because I use them for frakturs. I like using the pencils to start and then I use the better water colors for definition and shading. I thought I would show you some of my old frakturs, something I used to love doing but not so sure I can keep a steady hand now.

I like to find old designs and redo them into something new, this was a fun one to do. I used to write sayings in fraktur style, now I forget what it meant;)

This one was done for a friend, for her anniversary. I always enjoyed making custom pieces for special dates.

This one was based on an old fraktur with a few of my own touches. I usually sold them on eBay or gave as gifts.

And I also enjoyed painting boxes as gifts. This one was made for a friend who had collies. I think it says friendship. With the script I used, not sure what letter that is, my brain is mush. I hope you enjoyed seeing my pieces, another creative side of me.

Friday Finish!

I finally finished my new punch needle piece, but I finished it with sore joints and fuzzy brain, so I messed up a bit on my piece. I had an idea for a border and added the braided look, after I punched the piece, so it is a bit off. The actual pattern will have it drawn on paper so it will be done right for the pattern;)

On top of that, I tried to unscrew a top that did not want to open and bruised my old injured fingers, so no drawing for me right now, the pattern will be done next week. I tried to write today and it was basically scribble, so not enough control to redraw patterns.

Of course the flash, brightened up the colors, even though I antiqued it with walnut stain. I was trying the fake lilacs to get the camera to see the colors better and it did help. The finished pillow is 7 1/2" x 6 1/2".

Hopefully I can get back to normal after this weekend, time to cut off the meds, they mess me up more than the lyme, it seems.

Today I posted a photo of Danielle and thought I would share it with you and the poem that I found. This is her great grandmother at Easter. Kids tend to shy away from the elderly and Billy would keep busy elsewhere, but Danielle always sat and gave her grandmother lots of love. She had a good heart and truly cared about other's feelings.

Turn Again To Life

If I should die and leave you here a while, 

be not like others sore undone, 

who keep long vigil by the silent dust. 

For my sake turn again to life and smile, 

nerving thy heart and trembling hand to do 

something to comfort other hearts than thine.

Complete these dear unfinished tasks of mine 

and I perchance may therein comfort you.

Mary Lee Hall

With her birthday coming up, I wanted to give a gift in honor of her kind spirit. A friend of mine is doing a walk and a raffle to help raise money for MS, in support of her daughter in law. She is offering a beautiful log cabin quilt for the raffle and each 20.00 gets you one entry into the drawing. I think it is a wonderful thing that she is doing and if you are interested in contributing to her team and getting a chance to win the quilt you can visit Team Triple Threat. The walk is on the 16th, Dani's birthday, so it makes it even more special for me. The quilt is no listed on the website, but she is taking all the names from the donations and entering them into the raffle.

Friday ( un) Finishes!

This week I have been working on and off, on different projects. One is a new punch needle design that I am working on, today I finished the main design, now I just have to add a border. It is always nice to see a piece in a photo, then I can decided what I do and don't like about it and of course, it always looks better when I antique it;) I think the hands need more definition, but overall I am happy with the piece.

A bit late for Valentines, but I was inspired by an antique fraktur and wanted to make this piece.

Another thing I have coming up is, my son's birthday. We gifted him money to pay for some things for his house and a loan to do the rest, so no big present, but I wanted to give him a little something. I found a nice frame and made up photos of Nicholas to hang in his office, he can change the photos when the new baby comes, but I liked the idea of doing 3 of Nick, just being a boy and having fun. The photos are 5" x 7", so today I learned how to adjust my photo sizes in photoshop;)

I always found some beach frames for my new room. Someday I will use the room, but for now, I am happy just decorating it and making things for it. I found a nice barn wood frame and a large beach themed framed for multiple photos. I will put pictures of all of the family with beach themes. I put one of Nick's photos in the white frame, he just makes me smile, so it is a perfect photo to put in that room.

I had to buy some extra fabric to do the baby quilt, now if I can just get it made. One more week till the shower so if nothing goes wrong, I can have it done, I work well under pressure;)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, filled with family and new memories.

Friday Finishes!

I am slowly getting back into creating again, sitting and relaxing is just not in my nature. Relaxing to me is working on projects while I watch tv and with the cold weather, I will be doing more of that for a few more months.

I wanted to try a punched kitty, like the ones I did with cross stitch. I used one of my cats for this piece to see how it worked. I am not thrilled with how it came out. I used 6 strands on all of it and a higher height for the designs and face and It came out too sloppy looking and the design is too big for the area. So, I will make some new ones with new ideas and designs that I thought of, while I made this one.

I was thinking of making a pair and they could be used as Christmas ornaments or stand alone. If you have any ideas of what  you would like to see, in new patterns, let me know and I will see what I can create. If I use your idea in a pattern, you will receive the pattern for free!

I am also fighting off lyme symptoms again, so my joints and nerves ache, which makes it harder to do nice work, but I will still create. And my brain is on hold most of the time and I just noticed, I forgot to add his bell in the front, duh. I think for the next kitty I will make a collar to go around his neck.

I also finished another block from the garden stitchery. Only one more to go and then I can decide on borders and how it will go together. It takes me longer to stitch since I mess up a lot and have to take it out to fix stitches that are spaced apart, ones I didn't notice at first;)

I hope everyone has a nice weekend. I am hoping to get out and enjoy a ride to the ocean, even if I have to sit in the car, it is nice to just be at the ocean. We may get a warm up, over 40 is going to feel warm.

Old is New Punch Needle!

This week I decided to work on a pattern, I have made before. The original one was done with colors that washed each other out, so I wanted to try it in bolder colors with a dark background. The design is based on an antique red ware plate.

I was going to do it in 3 strands, then decided it was large enough to do in 6 strands and a faster way to finish it. I am debating on wether I want to do more rows around the piece, or I may do a braided cording. Not sure if I want to keep it as is, or maybe mount it on a box or basket. My niece got a giant dollhouse and I was thinking this might make a nice rug for it.

I haven't worked it into a pattern yet, hopefully I can get that done this weekend. I still have to clean some areas up and a few fills where I missed, then I can finish it off. My hands have been bothering me and my brain is off a bit, so my punching does not match the actual design, it is supposed to be oval.

I also found a fun free tutorial for a Valentines quilt. I wanted to make one with some pastels that I have and try out my new rag die to see how it cuts. I had an idea of doing a rag quilt and adding a heart, here and there and today I stumbled on a quilt, exactly like that, so now I can follow her guidelines. You can find the pattern and tutorial at, Sew4home.

Friday Finishes!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a nice dinner and a quiet day, just what I needed. I finished one punch needle piece and started another one, so I am enjoying working on that. It is a piece done with the nativity scene, so hopefully I can finish it this weekend.

This piece is a free pattern from The Old Tattered Flag, for use on the Facebook group, The Out of Hand Rughookers Group. She said we could use it for punch, as well as hooking, so I made a punch with mine. I want to take it further, so I have something else I will be doing with it and I have to go in and fill those little gaps that I missed when I was punching. That is what  happens when you are tired and finishing the last rows;)

I was being lazy and used my little camera, so not the best quality compared to how it looks in person. I used scraps from my floss box on this piece.

Another piece I started was the spencerian birds, and decided it would make a nice pillow. I added a border that will work for Christmas but also prim enough to use all year. This and the sheep will be aged when they are finished. I am just wondering about adding an edging and what type. I had some old cream cotton lace and it didn't look right, so thinking on it, but needs to get done by next week.

My fur babies enjoyed the holidays too. Moki and Bean, in the spirit of the holiday, shared a meal together:) I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Friday UFO's and Winner!

This has been a long, tough week. I finally crashed and my rib went out, so no baby today and hopefully they will have day care set up for next week. I would love to have him but my body doesn't want to cooperate.

I have been working on a new stitchery from a design I found on Barbara Brackman's blog, Material Culture. Barbara did a post with Spencerian Penmanship and this one spoke to me, I just had to try it and she was kind enough to give me permission to use her photo.

I tried to keep the original as best as possible, but I changed a few things to make it easier and more stitchery friendly. I still have more to do, but I love how it is coming out. I still have to decide how I want to finish it, should I make it into a pillow, a mini quilt or frame it?

Another unfinished project I have is a rug I started years ago, I guess it is time to finish it. I was making this one for the bedroom, but I might use it in the dining room, it will all depend on where it fits and looks best. The design are elements that can be found in my Angel Blessings booklet. I see there are some spots where I did some bad hooking so I will have to fix those. I also have to find the wools that I had set aside for it. I kept the background lighter, it is a tan that I over dyed lightly to mimic the parchment in fracturs.

The photo makes it look shorter, it is 52" x 24". 

And now for the winner...... The winner is Kim, congratulations Kim! Please send me your choice of pattern from my ecrater site. I had fun reading all of your comments and captions. Tomorrow is our local quilt show, so I am hoping to get some nice shots of the quilts at the show and I can share them with you monday. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Friday Finishes and Postcard Giveaway!

This week I wanted some eggs to fill a basket and love the look of speckled eggs. I didn't like the ones in the stores or the prices, so I decided to make my own grungy eggs. I found paper mache eggs at Jo anns and I had coupons, so I got a couple of packs at half the cost.

I painted them with acrylic paints and let them dry for a day. After that I tried watered down walnut ink on them but it kept dripping and sitting in a box left some blobby spots, so not the best way to age them. I think the best way would have been to sponge it on and use less water with the ink. After I aged them, I used black acylic paint and splattered spots on them with an old toothbrush. The trick to getting a speckled look is to not over load your brush with paint and keep the paint at the top of your brush.

Not perfect but not bad, nice prim look for Easter. I started out with an eggshell white but decided I wanted colored eggs. I have my little bird sitting with it and a bunny next to it, but moved them so I could get a clear shot of the eggs.

I also made another postcard and want to share this one with my readers. I forgot to stain the card first, so it got done after I painted the design. I wanted to add a saying but there wasn't enough room, so I added "Friendship Flowers" in German with fraktur font.

To enter for the postcard, you must live in the US, 48 contiguous states. To enter leave a comment and if you have ever sent a postcard out of the US, what area did you send it to, and what was the cost to that area. Or a card sent in an envelope, which is what I would do if I sent it that far;) I will pick a winner on monday night. If you have never sent something overseas, that is ok too, just leave a comment to let me know you are interested.

I have not had time to make up the new pattern, so hopefully that will get done next week. Hopefully a nice weekend and some outdoor exercise will relieve some of my stress;)

Postcard is done in watercolor pencils and antiqued with walnut ink.

Friday Finish .... New Pattern in Process!

I started a new pattern last week and it has been slow going this week so the pattern won't be ready till next week. It will be a two part pattern including the punch needle which you can see below and a small wall hanging with applique and stitchery.

Tonight I am showing the punch which I kept simple because I know many of you enjoy punch needle but not always the small details so I try and design them so they are easy to punch but still work into a nice design.

The original design was adapted from a fraktur but it turned into a crow piece. The accompanying piece will also have a saying. I also did a special border on the punch as well as a twisted yarn edge, and I will include the basic how to's in the pattern.

This punch is messed up, I traced the pattern backwards for punching and then traced it from the right side and didn't realize it until I saw that the letter was backwards. I redid the letter but left the crow as is, so it might seem a bit off. The crow should be facing the other way and the C on his left. I did not antique this piece yet so I could get a clear photo of the piece for the pattern.

Postcard Winner and some Oldies!

I have enjoyed reading all of your comments and appreciate everyone wanting to help me out with testing a postcard. I love the idea of sending out postcards for fun and this will be a good test before I do more. I think I will have to have a giveaway once in a while with a postcard so those of you who didn't win can have another chance.

And now for the winner..... Jennifer768 is the winner! Jennifer, please email me with your address and I will get your card out to you.

Since we are talking frakturs and some of you have not seen my older work, I thought I would post a few frakturs that I did years ago and sold on ebay or giving as gifts.

These are two birds that I did from antique frakturs. Sometimes I like to add sayings to mine. The photos are old and got corrupted, thus the discoloration on the bottom.

This fraktur is one I did from various fraktur designs and added a saying. One of my favorites.

Another thing that I used to do is Scherenschnitte, the art of paper cutting. I can't remember if I sold this or gifted it. I haven't done these in ages, getting hard for me to cut with precision with my nerve pain.

This weekend I got lucky at the thrift store. I found a quilting book so I have patterns I can use on my quilts and a yard of General's Wives fabric, a nice addition to my civil war stash.

Friday Finishes giveaway!

This week I worked on a wall hanging, using a design by Jennie of Elefantz. She offered this design on her blog and you can still find the free design, along with other inspirational sayings. They are wonderful designs to make for a friend who could use some comforting words.

I wanted to get an outdoor photo but it was too windy today. The fabric I used is a dark red/purple, so it all depends on your computer screen. I did the fabric appliques with raw edge fusible.

Another thing I did was a small fraktur piece. I found a pack of watercolor postcards and wanted to try one with a simple design. I used watercolor pencils and then I used a bit of gloss medium on the colors so I could antique the background and it kept the colors from running but with flash it cast off too much glare. I was thinking this would be fun to do and send to friends, but not sure how well the card would hold up, especially if it got wet or torn. I usually use regular watercolors so I can get better colors and shading, but this was a practice run to see if I could keep my hands steady for the ink outlines and painting, not too bad for a rush piece.

For the next one, I will antique the paper first, then use a spray finish to protect the whole card. Would you like to be a card tester? Leave a comment that you would like to receive this card and I will pick a winner and announce it on Monday night. I will mail the card to the winner and we shall see if it holds up or gets ruined in the post. Sorry, but this giveaway is for US post, only.

Friday Finishes and a New Pattern!

I am finally getting more done and finished two pieces this week. The first piece is a punch needle design based on an antique fraktur and my own touches. I loved the naiveté of the rabbit and it is a fun design to try with different color schemes. I wanted mine to stay in neutrals except for the pops of color in the flower.

The original piece is 6" x 4" and was finished with walnut ink to give it an aged look. The design is for sale in my ecrater store, or you can click on the link to the left. This is an E-pattern so you receive a pdf pattern with a color photo, line drawings and a basic color chart. Mine was done for a punched piece, but you can also use it for rug hooking, stitchery or appliqué.

I did not add an edge to this piece, I liked the simplicity of a raw edge. The back was done with a dark green wool. I took a photo outside today, and I got a lighter piece, but I still lost the antique look of the walnut stain.

Another piece I finished was Hearts and Vines by Kathy Cardiff. The pattern was in Primitive Quilts and Projects, Spring 2013. The original is done in wool and it is a beautiful piece, but I thought it would be fun to make it into a quilted piece.

On the original she had her initials and date, so I added a saying and the quilted keys to mine. I also used watered down walnut ink, so the piece is much darker and yellowed in person.

Pattern Winner and Oldies but Goodies!

I have been blogging for five years on Blogger, but I had a blog, previously, on Yahoo. At the time I didn't think and lost of the postings and photos, but I did save a lot of things on my memory stick, so I do have a few of the old things that I had posted about.

I used to sell on a regular basis, on ebay and I may start selling things again. Today I was looking through the stick to find a photo for my sister and found a few things I had forgotten about and things that bring back wonderful memories.

This is an older rug that I made years ago, I think it was for a challenge swap, I have no idea. My short term memory encompasses the past few years too. I really like this pattern but see things I don't like and ways to improve it, so I would like to redo it and make it into a pattern, but I can't remember where I got the idea from.

Here is a box I painted with one of my designs. I used to make them and add a matching item to go with it, usually a punched piece or a needle keep.

And thinking of summer vacations, this was the first trip Bill and I took after we started kayaking. We were paddling around an island and came upon this house, that was built on a rock. Talk about a house on the water, lol.

I was also looking for simple penny rug ideas and found this Penny Wreath. I love the idea, but I think I would make it more prim, maybe one in fall colors and one for Christmas. Not sure if I would use styrofoam, I would rather use a flatter back for them. Maybe I can have Bill cut me out a thin wood circle for it. 

And now for the winner of a free epattern. The lucky winner is Glenda! Glenda, please email me with your choice of epattern from my ecrater site. Today I started going through my patterns and found a couple that I could share in my anniversary giveaway. I will take some photos and give a sneak peak of some of the goodies, next posting.

Oldies but Goodies!

I am working on a new project that I got from a freebie, so nothing to show yet.
I took some photos of a couple of items that I made years ago and hope  you enjoy seeing them.
I had to do these without flash to reduce the glare, so they colors are a bit yellowed.

This is a cross stitch that I made about 30 years ago, when I could still see well, lol. I still love this piece as much now, as when I made it and hangs on my bedroom wall.

These are two of the first frakturs, that I ever made. One is for my wedding date and the other is when we bought our home.

And this is an item I bought about 20 years ago. I love to collect unique cat items and couldn't resist this one. I am thinking of using the design as an idea for an art quilt.