TUSAL Dec 2012

Pictures

Here's the completed Autumn Row by Bent Creek.
I tried using that new "panoramic" tool on my phone to take this picture - the result is less than straight!

Autumn Row, Bent Creek, Completed 11/2012

I did finish the scrunchie closures for the school puzzle mats.  Of course, there's no picture.  That's a running issue for me, isn't it?  Here's an in-progress view. Fabric tubes.  There are two of each color so they will be in pairs on the mats.

Here's the start of "Circus Row" - also Bent Creek

Circus Row, Bent Creek, started 11/2012

no pictures, finishes, need to take notes, new start

Thanksgiving was lovely, and made more so by a finish!  I finished the stitching on Bent Creek's Autumn Row which I'll put in my DS1's room.  He was a fall baby so it's fitting.

I also finished-finished the Lori Birmingham basket.  It's not as great at I'd hoped.  The finished stitching was larger than the flat part on the top of the basket.  So, I had to make some adjustments.  It's still cute, but I need to find a way so the stitching stays glued down and I can't see the underside.

I volunteered to help out in my DS1's classroom by making scrunchies.  The teacher bought puzzle mats that roll up so on snowy days the kids can work on something.  The rubber bands that close the rolls were so tight that the little fingers wouldn't be able to make them work.  So, I thought scrunchies would be great.  They need to be bigger than what we used for our hair all those years ago, but it's simple enough for me and my limited sewing skills.  I got a prototype that worked and set out to cut my fabric - from memory.  It was so simple - who needs notes.  Apparently me.  I made the strips half the width they needed to be.  So, I managed to salvage the fabric and need to cut some new.  But all in all, I hope to have 7 pairs of these things soon.

Finally, I started Bent Creek's Circus Row - for DS2.  It looks like fun.

Tonight I'll get some pictures and post them in the next few days.

November update

Not to many posts lately, but I have been stitching.  I am almost done with the autumn alphabet I am dong for my son.

In October I attended two workshops by Ellen Chester of With my Needle.  The classes were great. I don't have too much to show yet, but all in good time.

The weekend I started the finishing of the Nantucket basket. It turns out that the stitched piece is bigger tat the template provided for the top.  

TUSAL November 2012

Kind of blurry this month.

TUSAL October 2012

The picture has been taken, but for some reason won't synch to this device. Argh!!

There it is. New fall colors in the jar from Autumn Row I am working on.

Next project

Alphabet for son1
Bent Creek
Autumn Row

Card

I stitched up a quick card the other night.  It was from an Erica Fortgen kit I've had forever.

Stitched card

Finished bookmark

This was a class I took from Carol Pedersen at the Heartland region EGA Fall 2011 workshop.

Completed Bookmark - before I cut it out

Close up of the bluebell flowers

All cut out and complete

TUSAL September

TUSAL September

tusal aug 17

A finish - or at least stitching complete

I finished the basket top last week. 

The best part was figuring how to do the Edelweiss stitch. 

When deciding what to pick up next I chose a hardanger bookmark I started at a EGA region class taught by Carol Perderson. It took a few reads through the directions to get back into the groove,  but I was able to complete the second flower today. I want to keep up on this as I think I can do the next knd better now that I have refreshed my memory. 

Wow, there was a garden in there!

My veggie garden has never been much of a success.  My garden is pretty small, and I don't grow much.  Just enough to get a few tomatoes and things.  I just don't put the time into it that I should, and I have a very "live and let grow" philosophy about it.  But this year the weeds just got the best of me over two weekends I tackled the project. 

Me, in the garden, at about the half-way mark.
The far side is how it all looked before I began.

Finished!

Once I had it all done I took out the trellis that I had intended for the peas, as some critter munched the plants away.  I had guessed that the same fate had fallen to the beans, but I was surprised to find three plants still surviving.  They probably won't do much, but we'll see what happens.  I have sprayed down some liquid fence since this critter also took some bites out of the first zucchini!

Pumpkin

Zinnia

Tomatoes

Zucchini

Cucumbers

The beans that survived

Home Stretch!

All the stitching is done, so it was time to start cutting!  The motifs actually are going quite well, and they are quick.  I am looking forward to finishing this one up!  I do like the change in the initial.  The ones I had in there before just didn't work for me.  I changed to an alphabet that I stitched over 1 and chose a lighter color.

Lorri Birmingham Eidelweiss Basket - Progress 7/22/12

TUSAL July 2012

TUSAL July 2012

My Fear of Queen Stitches Overcome!

Hey, I finally completed the second time around on the queen stitches I had to rip out from the basket topper.  Then I also got the ecru ones done.  It looks really cute.  I started the vines around the outside, and then did some more after the picture.

Lori Birmingham Basket - progress 7/8/2012

Last night I went to a bonus summer stitch-in with my EGA Chapter.  We made fabric rolls to hold our stitching to keep them clean and from being folded.  It was so easy, even for me who does not sew.  Too bad the lace I chose kept breaking the sewing thread on the machine and mucking things up.  I ended up sewing the last bit on by hand.  I finally just had to give up the fight with the machine.

Stitching Roll - Closed, and partway open with pocket

Blue birds

Some of our baby blue birds this morning

Baby Bluebirds

While I wasn't stitching....

Summer has begun.  I have been planting a garden, and maybe we'll get something good out of it.  It's too weedy to post pictures of.  I like to say my garden is "natural".  I keep the weeds away from the veggies, but that's about as far as I go.  I built some trellises for my beans and peas, but I don't know if they'll do well enough to grow up them.

I haven't been doing much stitching.  I did a bit on vacation, and then nothing for more thank a week.  I think once you take a break it's tough to get going again.  This weekend I did pick up that Lori Birmingham (sp?) basket top again.  After I tore out all those queen stitches I was pretty much ready to put it down for a while.  So Saturday I picked it up again and put in one queen stitch. Then on Sunday I did two more.  Maybe I'll get ready to really go at it again this evening.

We had some bluebirds fledge from one of our boxes this weekend.

Small, and fuzy, but here's Momma with a snack for three little ones (they are all in a pile there on the right)

Two little bluebirds on the railing

Baby number three

 We went on vacation to Northern Minnesota this month. It is so lovely there.

Gooseberry Falls, MN

View of Lake Superior

 Lastly, here's a lovely sunset as seen from our back yard.

Sunset June 9, 2012 SE Minnesota

TUSAL June

TUSAL June

On vacation

Some nice quiet time on vacation is hard to come by with two little boys. They are off tossing rocks into the lake with Dad and I got to hang back and stitch!

I finished up my button for my EGA guild's needlework show this fall while listening to the water lap the shore.

Bookmarks completed

I finished a couple of bookmarks I made from the extra fabric I had left from my biscornu. I'll send these to the guild boutique at our Needlework Show this fall.

Two new bookmarks.  Assisi Stitch.

Darker Colors, Hem stitch edge

Lighter colors, Four-sided stitch for edge

TUSAL May

Might not be too much different from last month as I haven't been stitching much lately.

May ORT Jar