When not working, cross stitching, pot painting or sewing… I’m still knitting.
Hemlock ring is now back to being a large blob of knitting. In fact, I’m past where I had to rip back, AND my stitch count is correct! In fact, I’ve only got two or three pattern repeats to go before I’m casting off.
I’d like to think I could have this off the needles by the weekend, but that’s probably too optimistic. It’s a safer bet to say it will be blocking by next weekend. Which is good, because I’m ready to start something new!
The bolt of white fabric finally arrived so the first thing I did was pull out my gnome quilt.
See those little white rectangles between the blocks? That’s all I needed to finish this one off! Six 4.5″ x 8.5″ white rectangles!
Once they were cut, it went together like the wind.
Of course, it needed some borders, but I had plenty of fabric for that!
And taa-daa!!!! It’s now a nice 48″ x 60″. A perfect size for hanging out in the garden with. Because as you may recall – this one is for me!!!
I have lots of fabric left too, so at some point I’ll probably make some matching pillows! It’s perfect patio decor, if you ask me!
For the back I’ve got some fun daisy flannel (shown recently in my post about my Joann score), and way back when I did my last Connecting Threads order, I’d picked up this diagonal rainbow specifically to make binding! I LOVE stripey binding!
It was another weekend of stitchy evenings. As as result I’ve almost completed the right side of the flower wreath. I just have some light green leaves to fill in among the top of that little flower blossom.
The top and bottom don’t have much stitching, so I’m confident with some diligent stitching , I should be able to get this done in a couple more weekends.
Dave is gone to his Grandma’s this weekend, so I may even do a little day-time stitching while he’s gone!
For a while now, Mom and I have been talking about making some smaller-ticket items for the shop. One thing we’ve been talking about doing is making some simple placemats.
The other day, I had some time so I grabbed a charm pack from the stash.
It was called Chili Smiles, and I bought it for no other reason than it was darn cute! I had no plans at the time and this seemed like the perfect use for it.
The idea for these placemats is really simple – just six squares sewn together, and then surrounded with a border. It’s the perfect way to show off some really fun fabrics!
And it doesn’t get any more fun than these prints!!!!
I had a few charm squares left, so I put together a little pinwheel for a hot plate holder.
These will all get quilted and bound, and then be ready for the shop sometime next month! Stay tuned!
Yep…. I’ve been dabbling with the pot again… plant pots that is! (not pot plants!)
A little while back I’d messaged Mom that I’d picked up another load of ceramic planters from Dollarama. They carry a particular style we both love. It’s perfect for house plants, and the price is VERY reasonable (between $2.50 and $4 depending on size). And every season or so, they get new colours and patterns in.
Whenever I see new ones, I buy a few, even if I don’t have anything to put in the yet, because I always have something eventually.
Unfortunately, they only go up to a certain size (comparable to a 6″ clay pot), and Mom needed something bigger for a spider plant she had. Lucky for her, I’d also bought a couple big 8″ terra cotta pots at Canadian Tire the same night! I offered to paint one up for her and asked what she wanted on it.
“Quilts hanging on a line,” was her answer.
So I got to work.
Like the gnomes I did recently, this one was fairly detailed. It took several evenings to get it all painted, then another couple for the outlining.
As you can see, I did four different quilts hanging on a line. And all around the rim, I split up into different “fabrics”. I’m pretty pleased with it except for one thing.
For the outlining, I used Pigma brush pens by Sakura. It’s an archival quality ink (it won’t lose its colour), AND it’s supposed to be water and smudge proof. And I’ve found, as long as you let it dry, it is. But, if you look at that quilt with the hearts….. apparently not anymore. My old brush pen was a little on the large side for this level of detail, so I wanted something finer. I made sure to order more just like it, only smaller.
It was great at first, until I turned the pot and started working on the side opposite the hearts. All that smudging is from it resting in my lap while I worked on the other side. And that’s not from touching bare skin where the oils from your skin my interfere with the ink. That’s just from rubbing against my leggings.
I don’t know if they changed their ink or what, but I am not thrilled. I told Mom just to turn that side to the back, because there’s not a whole lot I can do with it now.
I’ve got another pot to paint, and have a very special design in mind for Samantha. I promised her a piece of my mini Monstera, and I thought it would be nice to deliver it in a special pot this spring. Lets hope I can get it done without too much smudgery!
A couple weeks ago, I was just innocently hanging out on Facebook when one of the women in my quilting group posted about this…
… a little sewing machine bird house.
I had to check it out. A quick google search told me that it was sold at Joann. Bummer… Joann is a U.S. company, no good for me here in Canada. But I decide to take a closer look anyway.
And guys!!!!! JOANN NOW SHIPS TO CANADA!!!!!!
You have no idea how excited I got. For YEARS I’ve been listening to all my American crafting friends go on and on about all these great deals they got at Joann. But none of it was any good for me!
To make it even better, they show the Canadian price on the website… AND they offer free shipping on orders over $80 Canadian. This is HUGE!!!!
I wasn’t planning on placing an order right then and there, but then I scrolled down. There was a doorbuster deal… almost all flannel was $4.99 a yard. That’s crazy cheap compared to most places, especially around here! And you know how much I love putting flannel on the back of quilts.
I started filling my basket. However, I am very proud to say, I didn’t just throw in anything that caught my eye (thought I wanted to.). I asked myself what fabric I had that I could use it for. If, and only if I had a fabric collection that would work with it, did it go in my cart.
In the end, I ordered seven fabrics at 4 yards each (enough for a good sized lap quilt/small double)
The penguins will go with a penguin panel and set of fabrics I got recently
The lighthouses are for a lap-sized ship quilt similar to Brigantine Baby
The bees are for some bright, bee-themed fat quarters I have.
The black with pink hearts, stars and flowers are for a Barbie-themed fat quarter pack
The jellyfish are for another ocean themed fat quarter pack
The daisies are for my gnome quilt
The grey cat faces will go with my Mod Cat Fat quarter bundle
The multi-coloured cats will go with another cat fat quarter bundle with similar colours.
These should keep me going for the next few months without having to order more stash (or at least backs!)
Before I leave, a small story about picking this up from the post office.
Our actual mailbox at the post office is very tiny, it basically only fits letters. For any parcels, we have to go to the actual post office desk where they keep everything behind a counter.
With all the stuff Dave and I order, the post office ladies have gotten to know me pretty well in the short time we’ve lived her.
So as soon as they see me walking in, they are usually retrieving my parcels before I even show the the parcel card. This particular day she had it on the counter already and as soon as I walked in, she gasped. “Valerie!”
Thinking about the size of the box, I said “I know… I’m sorry, it’s a big heavy one, but it was a really good deal”
She said “No! I had no idea they shipped to Canada!” and pointed to the packing tape the declared the package was from Joann for all to see.
I laughed and explained to her how I found out. Apparently, she used to drive to Port Huron frequently (the border is only a 40 minute drive) to shop at Joann, but hasn’t been since COVID hit. She’s been missing those deals! She was very excited to find out she could have them delivered right to her!
Here we see the rare indoor cave cat in his natural habitat…
These fascinating, but elusive felines make their impromptu day-time nap spaces amongst whatever piles of home goods and textiles they can find. Though for this particular ginger breed, homemade quilts are much preferred.
Sunday afternoon saw Burton and I in the studio again. Since we’re still waiting on that white fabric, we had to get creative with our sewing.
I pulled out a small fat quarter pack I’d bought a while ago and got cutting.
This is a very simple pattern, and to be honest, I’m surprised I didn’t think of it sooner. Before I was blogging, I dabbled with a few quilts (baby quilts for friends) and with my limited skills, it was always my go-to layout.
And it’s funny, as your skills increase, it’s very easy to forget that there’s nothing wrong with keeping it simple now again again. Not only did this layout require no white background fabric, it’s the perfect kind of thing for large print fabrics like those mermaids
And even with cutting, this one goes together super fast. I started around noon and was done before three.
Beautiful in its simplicity!
And that coral solid around the border was total kismet. It’s from Tula Pink’s line, and I’d added it to a recent order from Lens because it was on sale. The online image made it look like a deep, but soft orange. I should have known better though – Tula’s fabrics are BRIGHT! I was a little dissapointed when I got it, but knew I’d find something to use it with.
And it obviously didn’t take long. It was just perfect to add a touch more width to this. It’s only 34″ square, and I had to keep it small. I had a special piece of flannel in mind for the back….
It was a clearance find, and there was only one yard of it, but that’s just enough for the back of a small baby quilt! The colours were too perfect to pass up. And look – more of those fishies for will work for the binding!
(What is with this ocean theme I’m on?)
Hopefully my bolt of white fabric will be here soon and can get back to my other quitls in progress!
It doesn’t really look like it, but I am making decent progress on Hemlock
I’ve already added a few full repeats, and I’m happy to say, this time around, my stitch count is 100% correct. Slower is just fine if I can keep it right!
We start this tiny needle Tuesday with a conundrum:
My sister-in-law’s (Jenn) birthday is fast approaching. And I have pretty much made her everything under the sun I could think of of the last 20 or so years… hats, mitts, cardigans, socks, cowls, quilts, bags, pillows,… and anything I haven’t made her (place mats come to mind), her daughters or Mom have. It’s gotten very hard to craft for her!
So I put my thinking cap on and realized, I’ve never cross-stitched anything for her. I messaged Miss Paisley, and together we came up with something we think her Mom will love.
This weekend, I started stitching:
I’m not going to show you what the finished project will look like, because I think it will be a fun surprise for you all. But I can tell you it’s a wreath of flowers/leaves with a fun saying in the centre.
I’ve got quite a ways to go on it, but I’m pretty confident I can get it done by Jenn’s birthday (on March 17th)
In other stitchy news. I’m not the only one who’s started cross-stitching again. Seeing my projects inspired Mom to pick up the tiny needle again. She made us both cute little project keepers to help keep our projects tidy when not in use.
And in typical Mom fashion, she filled it with a bunch of stitchy doodads. Including this VERY handy needle minder
Which is absolutely fantastic because I am forever losing needles and Dave is terrified of stepping on one. He cringes every time he sees me with a needle in hand or the pincushion out. But back to that project keeper
It fits my largest hoop perfectly and keeps everything safe from prying paws!
Wandering Cat Studio 