Monday, February 23, 2009

Catching My Breath

Okay, so after stitching my brains out in the insane rush up to Christmas, I was kind of off the stitching for a while. I just needed a breather. Whew! I feel better now, and I'm itchin' to move onto my next project.

In the meantime, however, here are a few more items I stitched for the holidays....

These napkins were made for a dear friend at work, who loves leaves. Her favorite time of the year is Fall (hey, mine too!) and her crafty (in a manly way) husband even stamped a leaf pattern right into the mud on their walls. She also has the most beautiful red hair, which reminds me of the vibrant Fall colors, and these leaves made me think of her right away.

But you know what I love more than the Fall? Tea! There is nothing like a good cuppa tea in a pretty tea cup. And while we're at it, how about some cake?



The sprinkles on the cupcake were actually my husbands idea. He's far too manly to "craft", but he can still embellish pastries vicariously through me. Marriage...it's all about compromise.




I'm not super in love with how this cake turned out. I think I could have done better with the cherries. But it's not too bad for my first attempt at a design like this. I'm told that bundt cakes can be rather challenging to bake; seems that's also true for stitching them.






I matched this kitchen towel with a pretty blue spatula and a new wooden spoon...essentials for any kitchen...all tied together with a clean, white ribbon. Then I gave it to my mom.







I had a lot of fun hand making all these gifts for the holidays and I'm excitedly looking forward to doing the same this year, with one small adjustment: START MUCH EARLIER! Like, maybe tomorrow?

On a different note, I posted previously about how Tide-To-Go seriously saved my ass two days before Christmas. Well, someone from Tide got wind of my little adventure and left me comment. I just thought that was so fun. Made me smile anyway, to know that from time to time my little blog is getting noticed.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Cat...It's a Kitty Cat!

Hello friends. Did you have a nice holiday? Me too. Time to share more projects!

Remember this little sneak peek?


This eye belongs to Princess McKittersons here, who I stitched on a shirt for my sister-in-law for Christmas. She loves animals, especially kitties.


The pattern was fun, but I'll think twice before stitching on a stretch cotton fabric ever again. It was a bit of a nightmare to keep the fabric taught (despite the use of a stabilizer) which made it difficult to pull the needle through and keep my stitches smooth.

You can see where one of her bottom whiskers got snagged. I tried everything except unpicking an entire section of stitching, which I didn't do because I was down to the last of that particular shade of thread. And it was Christmas Eve. So we'll just pretend that's a charming imperfection that gives this piece personality. A "happy accident" as Bob Ross would say.

Still, I think this turned out rather nicely, don't you?