The Olde Crow Inn

I came across a vintage Bed and Breakfast sign.  It was done in cross stitch.  That is what made me want to do cross stitch again after many, many years of my tools and supplies in a storage trunk.  I raced over to the website and bought the chart.

Chart: Kanikis

I could hardly wait to finish the unfinished piece  I had on the frame so that I could get started on this new piece.  I’m always attracted to vintage advertising and crows.  

This is stitched on 32 count evenweave linen.  A single thread over 2 threads.  Except for Baths and Meals is only over 1 thread.  That part was very hard to see with these old eyes, glasses and magnifiers attached to my glasses.  I hated stitching those but I love how they look with the standard stitching.

Not many thread changes in this chart.  Just enough for a vintage look.

When the stitching was finished, I sewed a frame around it.  I got one of those standing mini quilt frames to display it.

I like that I’ll be able to do more seasonal stitching and change the display as I desire.  

My crows are beginning to gather a murder.

Can you hear them chattering?

Sewing Storage Reduction

Storage reduction continues in my sewing space.

This cute bicycle printed linen was a gift.  As usual, the lack of ideas for what to do with it kept it in storage for a few years.  Time to come out and be something!

I love that fun novelty bicycle ads fabric.  Perfect to pair with the print.  I decided on a project pouch for my cross stitch floss.

I used a strip of selvedge to add interest as a small loop on the side.

The lining represents the many streets and paths I have ridden my bicycle over the years.

I can’t cross stitch on linen without adding those magnifiers to my glasses.  What a pastime life saver they are!

While I’ve been cross stitching, I thought about the pieces I have had stored for 30 years.  These football logos.  My son stitched these when he was 13 or 14 years old.  He’s 44 now.

I did not know what to make with them.  Even now.  I spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking for ideas and inspiration for what to make for a grown man.  The best idea was just a pillow.

The stripes made me think of the referees during football games.

The numbers made me think of the game scores.

When my son was a baby, 4months old, I noticed the TV caught his attention whenever football was on.  We didn’t have but 3 channels to watch at the time, so sometimes football would be on.  Not that anyone was a great football fan.  I wondered if he was really watching it.  I set him in his baby carrier in front of the TV and he actually watched the game.  If the channel was changed he lost interest in the TV.  When football was back on his attention was back on the TV.  To this day he is a big fan of football.

I’m shipping this pillow to him this week.  I’ll bet he thinks those cross stitched pieces were long gone somewhere years ago.  I wish I could be there when he tells his grown children he stitched those.  I wonder if they will razz him about cross stitching.  Even famous professional football players are known to have done needlework.  

Hooray for more storage reduction!

Are you happy?

And then one day I decided I wanted to cross stitch again.

But I had a project yet unfinished on the scroll frame.  Another 25 year old unfinished project!  With only this much left to do...how sad is that.

It was going to be framed and hung in my young daughter’s bedroom.  But she isn’t that young anymore and I lost interest in finishing it.  And, it was an area of so many color changes.

I forced myself to finish it before starting a new project.  I knew if I took it off the frame it would never get finished.

The quote is one of my favorites, by Abraham Lincoln.  The design is by Mary Engelbreit.

As I was working on that last bit of stitching I didn’t know what I’d do with it when it was finished.  Then I remembered the antique child’s rocking chair I have from my great aunt.  I don’t know the rocker’s real age but it is definitely well over 150 years old.  The cane seat was worn out and had to be replaced.  But the rest of the chair is in it’s original but not perfect condition.  I decided this stitched piece as a pillow could sit on that rocker.

How happy am I that another languishing project is finished and being enjoyed!

Also while working on that stitching, I found I wanted a pin cushion for all these cross stitch needles I have.  So I stitched a quick cushion top.

I stitched some x’s around the design and fabric frame.  I didn’t get them right, but I figured that out along the way.  They were good enough for this project.  Next time I do that I’m hoping they will look better when done properly.

Ah, much better than needles floating around here and there and everywhere.

Be happy!

Halloween Hauntings

Some Halloween sewing has been happening.

In the stash was a Halloween panel that I bought because I liked “parts” of the designs.  I took a couple of years to get to it.  I don’t always know what I’m going to do with a piece of fabric when I buy it.  Since I’ve been trying to use what I have, it was time for this piece to come out into the light of day.  I have cut it apart and used some of it.

First I made a couple of Halloween potholders.  I framed them with fabric from my massive (to me) Halloween stash.  Mitered corners are not the funnest to do and I’m not sure it made much difference with this particular striped piece.

This was a small image block that I added side borders to make it postcard size. Quilted just following lines in the image.

Then I took a “section” from one of the images I wasn’t overly fond of to make another postcard.  Again, quilting is just following the image lines.



This is the original panel piece (I had already started cutting it apart).

I have yet to make the crows, the skeleton and the tree into something.  Probably potholders/hot plate mat.

Hooray!...more stash reduction!

This next postcard is a section of a Halloween fabric and a section of paper piecing that I didn’t use for the Chillingsworth Wall hangings.

This Bat postcard is my usual style for fabric postcards, raw edge applique.  He is a Quilt Doodle Designs pattern called Going Batty Mug Mat.  I shrank the pattern to fit a postcard.

This spider I have made before but it has been many years.  This pattern is a Patch Abilities, Inc. called Eeek!  The pattern is a wall hanging of 3 spiders.  The medium spider is just the right size for a postcard.

This is my version of the pattern done several years ago.

It’s time to get my postcards in the mail!  Time flies by so fast.  Now that I am officially retired, dates and what day it is means nothing.  I have to make a point of paying attention to that now.

Happy Haunting!

Fall Postcard Sewing

It’s that fun time of year for sewing!

Fall!

I’ve made a few Fall fabric postcards

This design is a pattern from Bloomin’ Minds called Online Company

I shrank the design to fit a postcard.

This design is a pattern from The Whole Country Caboodle called Scarecrow & Friend

I shrank the design to fit a postcard.

A quilt on Pinterest inspired these next postcards.

I cut bits of scraps and then treated it like a puzzle fitting bits and pieces all over a base fabric.

That was somewhat tedious to do so I tried just cutting strips and weaving them together over the base fabric.  While it turned out similar, I don’t think it looks as creatively fun.

Hmm...maybe these two are more on the Halloween side than just Fall with the purple added in.



My September calendar journal...

Happy Fall!