Thursday, December 20, 2012

Good thing I prepared

I am blessed to have electricity, heat and internet right now. There are homes around town right now who are out. I also don't have to be at work. 

I woke up to this.

We got a foot of snow overnight and this afternoon we have high winds to create blizzard conditions. We even got thundersnow last night. I am glad to be home. My door decoration flew off. I will need to retrieve it after things have died down. 


I knew the storm was coming so I stocked up. Megan from Canoe Ridge Creations was doing the same thing. I got to meet here this weekend. I was up in Decorah for a wedding and stopped at the LQS. I thought I recognized her, but to be sure I kept staring. I am pretty sure they noticed my staring. I mentioned to my friend that it was a blogger, but wasn't sure if I should say something. Well I did and I'm glad I did. It was nice to meet her in person after reading so much on her blog. 

I have today to work on my cross stitch. I won't make it for Christmas but that is ok because season 3 starts on January 6th. I HAVE to have it done by then.Yes, I know I sing that song a lot. 


My plan is for 2013 to be the year of 'not buying and finishing'. I am little burned out on quilting. Over stimulated and burned out. Does that make sense. It seems like I see something and everybody has it and I want it. It is also an expensive hobby. I'm going back to my general crafting and cross stitch roots. I signed up for The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery 2013 Sampler. I lurked last year on flickr so this time I decided to join. It is on sale right now so check it out.


The fabric they suggested was tea dyed linen. I do not like linen; I am sticking with aida. I picked oatmeal because it was the darkest before beige. Beige seemed a bit too dark and flat. I hope the light colours show up. From looking at the picture it should be ok. 

OK, off to cross stitch. May have an update later tonight.


Friday, December 14, 2012

Make a demo

If you are making a gift for someone, make a demo. I found out the hard way. There was much unpicking and redoing for this project.

It is a baby height chart. I picked up the idea from this post. The link to the tutorial had been broken. Anyway, here are some pictures of my version. There is a wonk to it and  my first attempt at machine binding did not go well. Now the whole world sees my mis-mitered corners. The back though looks fantastic! I used the Frixon pens for the straight lines at inch increments and really like them. I would make this again. . . now that I've done it once.





Friday, December 7, 2012

Christmas, Christmas time is near

The Chipmunks Christmas song has to be the most annoying song ever, but it is catchy! I find myself wanting a hula hoop every time I hear it.

Christmas time is near and I have been cross stitching like crazy. I HAVE TO GET THIS DONE. I am terrible about keeping project/gift deadlines. I figure it is because my work life is run by deadlines so what do I care about my hobby deadlines. This time though I do care and I WILL get this done.


So I still have to add the people in and I haven't done that yet because I would have to keep looking at the pattern. I have been schlepping it around everywhere for the last week. I have cross stitched in several different libraries as I kill time for wherever I need to be that evening. Does it look three dimensional? I am worried now that the contrast isn't working well enough to make it look 3D.

I have started doing some Christmas decorating. I used an idea from Pinterest to make my door hanger. I love the stitched ribbon. Is there a term for that? I have a pair of shoes that are black and the stitching shows. I really like that look. The pine cones came from Emily's yard. I'd had them for a year in my garage, but then realized that they may have been full of bugs so I washed and baked them. The smell in my kitchen was lovely. True woodsy smell. Speaking of Emily, she has done a ton on her deer. I don't have pictures; I keep forgetting my camera.


Last weekend I was at Home Ec in Iowa City. Cute store. Very eclectic for lack of a better word. One of the sales staff had a cute scarf and she said she had made it from fabric in the store. Very cute fabric, but it is jersey. I bought some and want to make an infinity scarf out of it. I have never sewn jersey before. A friend of mine said I probably have some hand sewing in my future. I anticipate that as well. The fabric is from somebody up in Minneapolis called Ten14 Textiles. It is organic, blah blah. I don't care about organic. I just thought the pattern was nice.


I thought my last picture of the yarn didn't do it justice, so I took another one. I think this one turned out better. As you can tell, I still haven't started on the scarf. I will get there.