Working Around the House This Week

Happy What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday everyone! I have been a busy bee all around my house. There are simply things that need to be done...no more ignoring it or I'll end up on Hoarders! Yesterday, I was a cleaning fool. But at least I ended the busy day at one of my favorite places: my sewing corner. It needed a cleanout too. After I tidied up, I started stitching a couple of mixed media projects.

If my sewing corner still looks messy to you, remember, it's all perspective. I did have a stack of fabric piled up, and everything needed dusting. When you sew a lot, a sewing table gets dusty. Plus, my machine was acting up. Turns out that a little tightening of the bobbin case was all it needed. But still, my machine is pretty basic. Since my birthday is in November, I'm asking Santa for a birthday-Christmas combo gift: a fancy new sewing machine that embroiders. How fun would that be!

In the meantime, I'll never give up hand embroidery. It's just so easy, fun, and fast. Believe me, I'm a cross-stitcher. No I'm a cross-stitch-aholic. But embroidery is so much faster.

So, here are a few closeups of what's on the sewing table.

Mixed media project w. pic of my /Aunt Sis, and an owl embroidery for my daughter.

My favorite pin cushion!

I keep a lot of storage on my tiny sewing table!

I love to stitch on pretty much everything. I don't think a day goes by that I don't pick up a needle. One of my mixed-media projects is going to be a fabric wall hanging with a very old photo of my Great Aunt Sis who looked a lot like Kate Hepburn in her day. Aunt Sis and I shared the very same November birthday. She was twenty years older than her sister, my grandma, and so she was in her eighties when I was born. But I remember her very well. She was a beautiful, wealthy woman at that, and dearly loved by her family. So I wanted to create a beautiful little wall hanging with her photo in fabric. It will be special.

Eat, Write, Dream, and Stitch your heart out.

Stitch and Sip

After a string of extra-warm and sunny February days--it's a little gloomy here in the Ozarks today, but at least now I know where to find my hot coffee!

This little rustic mixed-media fabric sign now hangs over my coffee making area in the kitchen. I love it. Most of the elements came from stash--and some things from a trip to Michaels yesterday! I'll show you what's what.

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The whole thing began with the cross-stitched Fresh Hot Coffee letters. A few years ago, my daughter attended a school that was out of our district, and quite a little trip, so I had to leave early to pick her up each day, and consequently had to sit in the "car line" for 30 to 40 minutes (I know, oh what fun). I was never without either some knitting, reading, or cross-stitching. So one day I took some old aida cloth, tea-stained it with tea bags for a rustic, aged look, let it dry, and planned to create a cute coffee sign. I cross-stitched letters that used regular DMC floss and DMC Light-Effects floss--and the overall effect was exactly what I wanted. Day after day in the pickup line, I worked my little design, and one day I finished it, put it away, and then a few years went by. Don't you love that? Not too long ago, I was looking through a stash of flat-stored finished cross-stitch pieces, and found the sign again. I had to let it lay around on my craft table for several days before deciding exactly how I wanted to embellish and finish it.  

I found a cute blue-patterned fabric in my stash, for a heart applique, and coffee-colored fabric remnants for the backing, and a country-heart fabric piece to finish both the front and the back with a same-size piece of muslin sandwiched inbetween--kind of like quilting the whole thing. I wanted to sew it with a double zigzag around the edges as part of the rustic look. I decided I needed a cross-stitched coffee mug--made up my own little design for one--and appliqued it to the sign. Sewing a frame of pink beads really set it off.  

Then, I had a great trip to Michaels! Not only did I have a 50% off coupon for one item, but I also had a 25% coupon to use on a shadow box (for a future project) that was already on clearance. Score! Then, I had just activated my new Michaels membership card (they have just come out with those, and they are free) and so everything I purchased went on my rewards card. Double score! I used the 50% off coupon for another one of those fabulous Martha Stewart punches. I  also found the new DMC Memory Thread! So, back at home, I added more cute buttons and beads to my coffee sign, and tried out the Memory Thread--I am going to have so much fun with this stuff, plus it is acid-free, so also great for paper projects. I used the technique they suggested on the DMC website, couching, and added a squiqqle of silver memory thread to the top of my sign. 

Around the sewing machine with some zigzag stitches, attaching a ribbon hanger, and it was done! I guess you could say it took years to do, in a way, but considering I only did the cross-stitching in the car, and then spent a couple of afternoons on it, years later, that's not too bad! It's coffee time!

AND, the verdict is in on this Memory Thread stuff--I'm going to get every color! It adds dimension and shape, and in handling it, I can see it's made really well to last and last. These are the things we discover when we are doing a project, and we don't really know what we're doing, and it just all comes together!

So here's a little pic of some of the charms on my Valentine Pandora bracelet! My hubby was so sweet to give it to me, and I think it will have me dreaming of more and more charms for years to come. :D

A Little Rustic Cross-Stitch Quilt

I love sewing collage. A little quilt hanging seemed like the perfect way to put together a scrap here and a scrap there.

On a trip to visit family last summer, I went overboard cross-stitching hearts. I had no idea what I was going to do with them. I just created a big aida cloth square filled with hearts, because I didn't need to look at a pattern, and I love hearts, and then I put it away. This, however, was the beginning inspiration piece for my little rustic love quilt. From there, it all seemed to come together. During our trip, my mother-in-law gave my daughter and I some precious vintage brooches, and one of the brooches--a flower--found its place on the little quilt, holding down some scraps of ribbon.

 This little Amish cross-stitch couple says their I-do's at the top of the quilt--an old broken strand of pearls was sewn on underneath, in honor of the bride.

A tiny lovebird cross-stitch which used to hang puffed in a little wooden frame had fallen apart, so it was stuck in my cross-stitch drawer and found its new place on a little quilt about love.

The quilt is made of three layers of fabric ticking--no batting--and is quite sturdy. Little ribbon loops are sewn at the top for hanging. The bottom area features another little cross-stitch of our couple's Amish closet, and the letters for Home. Other fabric scraps, sequins, old-old buttons, and trim were added to the collage until it felt to me like it was finished. I love it!

Eat well. Write often. Dream happy. Stitch a little love.



The only way to travel with your needlework!

The Comforting Cloth Between Stitching and Cooking: The Apron

The word, Homemade, is long--at least when you are embroidering it! Thirty minutes later, I have finished rusticly writing Homemade onto some polka dots, along with a little heart and a button. This will be a cute pocket on my first homemade apron.

There is something sweet and comforting these days about tying on an apron to create food and art, plant seeds, or sweep the kitchen with my new broom (handcrafted from real broom corn and oak by a local artisan--I love sweeping now). An apron connects me to Mom, the aunts, and Grandma. It gets me ready to stir up a batch of cookies or can fresh garden tomatoes. In an apron, I'm CEO of my little homemade world--a nice place to be sometimes. (that's my Grandma, Mary, on the right)

So, it occurred to me, why not stitch up some special aprons? Artistic, creative aprons. I could also embroider Homemade on an old piece of cross-stitch linen I found, for a pocket that could be attached to vintage fabric from one of Mom's old old tablecloths. For another apron I could use the topiary fabric, found in an expansive fabric shop last summer in North Carolina (the textile capital), for a confident bib. Colorful ribbon will make a nice shortcut on some of the aprons for ties. I have a stack of cross-stitched angels, which were part of an ornament-making frenzy in 1997--could be cute appliqued to a few aprons (angels in the kitchen).

So there, I have a plan. Why didn't I think of this a few summers ago, when I played a "Who Mom" in Seussical the Musical, and I had to embellish an apron for my costume (The Who's were in all yellow--I knitted my headband too)! Anyway, I am going to stitch SEVEN DAYS OF APRONS!!! They will be inspired by that little saying that once guided homemakers everywhere in their weekly chores: the old Monday Is Wash Day saying. I'm going to revise it a little as I go.

I have to remember that back in the day before automatic washers and dryers and dishwashers, chores were hard labor. People had to wear their clothes more than once before washing, even their work clothes, and so aprons were not just a fashion, but truly a necessity. And it really did take at least a whole day to do the laundry.

Starting Monday, Laundry Day, I'm going to produce an apron a day. I guess that will, in my world, make every day sewing day. But that's okay. I'll probably end up selling these in my flea market booth. In the meantime, this weekend, inbetween fireworks, I'm pulling together the material from vintage fabric and scraps (my favorite thing to sew from), along with what to applique (I LOVE to sew things onto things). So we'll see what happens from there. I'm making up my own pattern too. But, if I do this, my reward will be this lovely book I saw at Barnes & Noble all about aprons, with patterns.

This is a project to celebrate our homemade past and the independence we have now, to buy it or make it. Happy 4th of July everyone! Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch! (Today, I just did a little writing and dreaming.)

Thanks Mom and Grandma.

Fabric Dream House No. 2

My second mixed-media fabric themed house is a little cottage called, Good to Bee Home.

It is themed after the big fat garden bees that I love to see tending to my flowers, herbs and veggies.

This little garden cottage is stitched together with a fabric roof appliqued with ribbon, old broken jewelry, buttons and sequin pieces. It has a gardening angel charm hanging on the side, looking after the bees and their busy work.

Instead of using four squares for the house this time, I used an old quilt square as the base. I had found a stack of old quilt squares at my flea market. Onto a quilt square I attached a cross-stitched garden on aida cloth, made just for this piece, featuring a couple of butterfly buttons, and my fat cross-stitched bees. I found this flower cross-stitch pattern in an old Ladies Home Journal magazine! I substituted some sparkling DMC floss for some of the colors in the pattern.

After sewing on the door, with a button doorknob and heart patch, I added a piece of knitting over the door, made from colorful ribbon yarn. The words Good to Bee Home are embroidered in sparkling DMC on the side, and more ribbon and jewels are attached as a bell pull to decorate our cottage.

It's so fun to combine cross-stitch (probably the thing I'm addicted to the most) with my love of fabric, knitting, ribbon collecting and applique. This piece is going to be framed and someday (a girl's gotta dream) it will be part of my gallery showing of 20 themed fabric houses! Woo hoo!

In the meantime, I'd like to thank the big fat beautiful bees in my real cottage garden for inspiring me and making my first zinnia bouquet of the year possible. 

I hope you enjoy eating well, writing often, dreaming big, and stitching happy!


Here's how I keep my DMC Floss organized:
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Keep stitching and have your aida cloth delivered:
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