Cuppa Love Napkins

I embroidered these napkins for my boss for Christmas.
She loves coffee!

I have a pretty unique situation where my boss also happens to be my friend; we've been working together for nearly
twelve years now.

I had initially considered stitching steam coming from the cups, but decided on hearts because she really loves coffee. And also she is a really loving individual. Hearts just seemed appropriate.

When filling in the first heart I used a horizontal stitch, but decided I didn't like it (see left heart above). I used a vertical stitch to do the next heart and it seemed to just "flow" a lot better with the shape. I used a vertical stitch for the rest of the hearts.

So I had this one napkin with the one heart stitched differently from all the others. I bet no one else would ever have noticed had I not pointed it out, but I notice. And it bugs me. Not enough to unpick the whole heart and re-stitch...I was in a real time crunch with these napkins. So don't tell my boss, mmkay?

These are very simple, and yet I find them so happy to look at! And my boss really liked them! She was completely impressed that I did these by hand and not with a machine. Truth be told, this was one of the easier designs I stitched this season and I got them done in a snap. But that's another one of our little secrets, k?

It's Over!

Another Christmas come and gone. With all the stitching projects I had planned out, it was a busy and hectic season indeed. I manged to get it all done, but just barely. I started my final gift at 11pm Christmas Eve and we were hastily wrapping presents just this morning. Whew!

Nevertheless, I completed the projects I set out to do this year. Well, all except for one. But they'll never know, so don't tell them okay?

And since my gifts have all been given, I can finally start sharing! First up, a dish towel I stitched for my mother-in-law who is just mad about Dachshunds.

As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have this pattern just for her. I'd been wracking my brains for weeks to think of a design and what to stitch it on. I finally settled on a dish towel because who can't use another dish towel and it's something that is easily displayed.
















I adored the girly Dachshund, with her precious little bow, and decided she needed a boyfriend.


"Arf arf, I love you!" Precious.


As a last touch, I paired this dish towel with a Fiestaware pie dish*. My mother-in-law also being mad about Fiestaware, it was perfect.


Merry Christmas, Deb! I hope these bring you years of dry dishes and pie. :)

*I should mention that it was my husband who picked out the pie dish. Good eye, honey!

How Tide-To-Go Saved Christmas

Okay, so maybe Tide-To-Go didn't save Christmas per say, but it did save me a whole lot of hassle, stress and about $17.99.

With Nick's recent surgery and the subsequent events that followed, my holiday stitching projects got pushed to the last minute and now time is of the essence to get these done by Christmas. Several days ago I began work on a piece for someone-who-shall-not-be-named, using an assortment of iron-on patterns for the design.

Long story short, I had the entire piece almost done and then decided that some of the smaller embellishment designs just weren't turning out as I'd hoped and I didn't want them on this piece after all.

Oh. But I already ironed them on! Experience has shown me that these iron-on transfers do not wash off.

Crap.

At this point I was thinking I may have to scrap the project, go buy a new piece to stitch on and start all over. What a waste of time and supplies. Not to mention at this point Christmas was only three days away. Panic!

Out of sheer desperation, and figuring it could hardly make things any worse, I decided to try the Tide-To-Go stick on the designs I wanted removed. I rubbed the crap out of them, tossed the piece in the wash and prayed to the craft gods to have mercy. Much to my surprise, my piece came out of the wash and voila...they were gone! The Tide completely erased the ironed on designs! I love you Tide-To-Go!

So that's the story of how Tide saved Christmas. Sort of. Saved me a big headache anyway. Doesn't this sound like one of those customer testimonials? I should submit this to their customer stories page. Apparently I could win big!

Sneak Peek

The suspense is killing me, people!

I'm itching to post photos of all my latest projects, but to do so would ruin the surprise for those who are receiving them as Christmas gifts. I hate keeping secrets!! But I just need to sit on them for a little while longer. It's only a few more days,
I can make it!

But while we're waiting, here's a sneak peek at a work-in-progress:


Oooh, I wonder who this eye could belong to!