Thank goodness for projects prepped in advance

It has been a busy few weeks. I flew back to Rhode Island at the beginning of the month, and since getting here, work has been busier than usual. In our spare time we have been meeting up with friends and prepping the dining room for wallpaper and paint. This is a long weekend, so we hope to have the walls done by Tuesday, but there will still be trim to put up and new curtains to make, which I won't be able to do until I return to Denver. Even so, it is fantastic to be making progress on the house.

 

As a result of all this activity, I haven't had much time for either stitching or writing, but I have finished one of the four projects I brought with me, a tea towel for my neighbor. She invited me to tea at her house next weekend and I thought it would be fun to make her a little gift. She has three boys, so something girly is definitely in order.

 

My husband challenged me to use different stitches this time, instead of just outlining the crayon figures. I took his challenge to heart and used stem, back, chain, buttonhole, satin, cast-on and bullion stitches. I like it, but I like the wine towels better.

 

Now that we've been watching the Olympics every evening, I'm making progress on a second project. It isn't the project I wanted to do second, but it was ready and waiting. That's the beauty of prepping projects in advance! I should have it done by next week and will try to get my third project prepped so I can start it right away.

 

It is amazing that with so little time, I am still getting so much done! Thank goodness for the little planning I did back in Denver. It has kept my stitching on track.

 

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Final bits and pieces from my retreat

Today I'll show you the final bits and pieces that I finished during my stitching retreat. I did a lot and will be in good shape for birthdays this spring and summer all the way through Christmas!

First are the wine-themed towels that I started early because I was so excited about the retreat. I finished three of them for my sister. Here they all are! You likely recognize the one in the middle already.

Second, and finally, I stitched this wonderful design from the Etsy shop Wellington House Design. This will be a perfect pillow for my brother-in-law who loves to winter hike in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York. I hope to finish a companion piece of a bear in the woods for him for Christmas as well.

So that's it. My retreat is well and truly over and I am fully back into my 40-hour work week. Even so, I have several more projects prepped and ready to go, so even if I don't finish them all in a weekend, I know I will finish them as time permits.

 

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I got ahead of myself

Over the weekend I did cleaning and cooking, and embroidery prepping, just as I had planned to get ready for my stitching retreat. But at some point on Sunday, I started getting lazy, and with so many projects prepped to work on, I started stitching.

 

One of my projects is a set of kitchen towels for my sister's birthday (next November). I had three washed and had applied the iron on transfers (Aunt Martha's Wine Country set 3998). They were even colored and the crayon set. So this is what I started stitching, and I even finished one!

 

I'm excited to get more done over the long weekend as well as the other projects I've prepped. I have all sorts of ideas for Christmas and birthday presents this year, and if I spend the first few months of the year working on them, I should be able to get a lot done without really killing myself.

The retreat starts tomorrow, and stitching this towel has really wet my appetite!

 

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A pillowcase for Simon

Earlier last month I gave you a sneak peak into a project I was working on with crayon and stranded DMC cotton for my nephew's birthday. Simon turned 6 on Friday and here is the pillowcase I made him with all of his favorite things embroidered on it to encourage sweet dreams!

 

As you can see, he really loved it! So did I. It was one of those rare projects that turns out even better than the vision in your head.

I first conceived of this project last year with a poem I made up:

Simon says, "It's time for bed!"

Simon then lays down his head.

Simon will have happy dreams

'til the sun again does gleam.

I printed the words on my computer and then embroidered them in back stitch with 3 lengths of stranded DMC cotton.

 

Then I looked on the internet for coloring book pages of things Simon likes. Trains were his favorite thing for years, but they now pale in comparison to tigers! And since my sister and brother-in-law own a cottage in the Adirondacks, hiking is a big part of his life. I traced these images onto the pillowcase using a light stand. Because the pillowcase was white I was actually able to see the lines through both layers of fabric.

 

I then colored the images with regular crayons. At first I colored too lightly and had to go back and color them again. Some people have told me to color with a white crayon first or with fabric crayons, but regular crayons work well. The pillowcase went through the laundry once with no loss of color.

 

Once they were colored, I sandwiched each image between two pieces of printer paper and ironed them on the cotton setting to set the color and melt out the wax. Then I embroidered each motif.

 

Sleeping Simon is outlined with two strands of cotton in stem stitch, with details in chain and back stitch.

 

The mountain lake is just stem stitched, with back stitch for the sun's rays.

 

The train was going to be outlined like the rest, but I got carried away! The freight cars and caboose are satin stitch with straight stitch and french knot accents, but the engine body is mostly stem stitch, with some chain stitches thrown in for accents. It took longer to do than I envisioned, but turned out so much better than I had hoped.

 

Finally, the tiger is all stem stitch. First I outlined him with two strands. Then I filled in the stripes with three strands. I really wasn't sure how he was turning out until I put in his green eyes. Then I knew he would work.

 

This was an extremely fun project to stitch. It was like being a kid myself to color these images. AND since two pillowcases came in the pack, I gave the second one to Simon to color for himself. I'll embroider it and send it back to him.

Happy birthday Simon!

 

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Wednesday's work in progress

I'm traveling for work this week and crossing my fingers that I may have some time for needlework, although it seems unlikely since the days will be busy. Even so, I brought my latest project with me--one of my resolution projects done with crayon and DMC floss. I spent much of my guild meeting working on it last weekend. It must be done by the end of the month for my nephew's birthday. Here is a glimpse of what I am working on. I'll show you the rest after I finish and find out how well Simon likes it!

 

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