Hi Everyone!
My new project is the mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter. It's not too late to join in! I just finished the first clue! Since I didn't finish last year's quilt until August of this year, I'm doing much better on this one.
Here are my first "sets":
I didn't really have any grays or golds in my stash so I did have to buy some for this. Bummer, fabric shopping. ;-)
Happy Stitching!
Stacy
#grassycreekquilt #quiltvillemystery @quiltville_bonnie
Hello Everyone!
As I mentioned in my previous post, my next project was going to be a Santa. Well, I worked on him. Here he is "built" and finally clothed a bit:
He's fairly large at 22" (55.88cm). The kit came with everything except the material for the gown and coat. I chose silver and purple, partially because the accent pieces would go with those colors and I didn't have a Santa dressed in purple in my collection.
Here is the completed Santa:
Behind him, you can see a few of the other Santas in my collection. I've got my Christmas decorations up already. It's early, even for me, but...2020. 'Nuff said.
Here are a couple of my trees. The first one is in our living/dining room.
My next project, which I've already started, is a Christmas wall hanging quilt. Hopefully, I'll have it finished before November 27th when Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt starts.
Happy Stitching!
Stacy
This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something, I may earn a commission. Ooh, a little more money for craft stuff!
Hello Everyone!
While 2020 has been a bad year in many ways, at least I'm getting projects done!
My most recent start and finish is called Spin City and it is a small wall quilt. The quilt measures 31" square.
I used (2) 5" charm packs from this fabric line:
This was the first time that I actually used any of my precut collections! I felt sort of guilty for even opening one up, so I chose one of my least favorite sets. ;-)
The binding (and backing) are a Moda marble fabric that I already had. The small inner border was just another fabric from my stash.
The pattern, Spin City, is from this book (Kindle and paperback versions):
Hey Everyone!
I have another finish! This one is Sweet Peas from The Lilac Studio.
This one is OOP (out-of-print) as the designer switched her artistic talents from cross stitch patterns to baby dolls (or baby doll items? I don't know.)
I'm not going back to my usual rotation, I'm actually starting something new. I have two train patterns from Elizabeth Spurlock that I purchased online. After looking, I've discovered that they are no longer available! Bummer! If you want to search for them (like on Ebay, Etsy, etc.), they were published by StitchWorld. The one I'm starting is Night Train II. I finished the original Night Train back in March 2008 but never framed it as I want the frames to match.
Here's Night Train:
If I get this new one done, that will give me 5 items to show in my local fair next year (hopefully!).
Happy Stitching!
Stacy
Good morning! (It's 11am here)
I have another project that I just finished. This one is for the office area of my room. I took my ugly filing cabinet and made it pretty!
Here's the beige, boring, beat-up, before:
At this stage, I had already removed the handles and label frames. If you look closely, you can see the little slider buttons are still there. I didn't like them and didn't want to bother painting them so I removed them.
No matter how much I Googled it, I couldn't find directions on how to get rid of them so I just stared at them from the inside until I figured it out. For my cabinet, you had to slide the button to the right to unlatch the drawer so you could open it. I'll admit, my floors are uneven and slope slightly to the rear of the cabinet, so I don't have to worry about the drawers just coming open.
I didn't think to take photographs, so I'll try to explain it. The button slid to the right to release a bracket on the inside left of the drawer. The bracket and button were connected to the drawer with a spring. Removing the spring was easy and I did that first. The button was attached to the bracket with a little piece of metal that looked like this \. I took a pair of vice grips, adjusted their jaws to a little smaller than that piece and clamped them around it. A simple twist broke the piece and the button came off the front of the drawer. All I had to do was then jockey the bracket out. It was an L-shaped piece, so it just needed a little bit of maneuvering.
I used Krylon Chalky White paint to paint the beige away. It took three coats. I gave the handles and label frames a fresh coat of silver paint. I used Rustoleum metallic silver. I didn't paint the entire drawer fronts but did make sure to paint a border of at least 1" on all of them.
Instead of painting the drawer fronts (all white would have been too boring still), I decoupaged scrapbooking paper on them. The drawers are 11.375" x 13.5" so regular 12" x 12" scrapbooking paper needed to be trimmed so I'd have an even border around the paper.
I haven't decoupaged anything in decades, so I started with the bottom drawer because it's the hardest to see closely - in case I messed it up. :-)
I didn't have 4 sheets of identical paper that I liked, so I opted for 4 different, coordinating pieces. While the whole room is white with dark blue-gray trim, the sewing area has an accent of Tahitian Breeze (sea-glass green). The office area ended up with a purple accent. That wasn't really planned, but I like it. Because of that, I chose purple scrapbook papers.
Well, you've made it this far so here's the finished project:
I do still have to make labels for the drawers. Maybe I'll do that today. Basically everything in the cabinet is related to my genealogy research. Photos, paternal side, maternal side, research/correspondence, etc.
Happy Stitching!
Stacy
Any links in this post are not affiliate links. They are just there to help you if you are interested.
Yo!
I finished my most recent project: bobbinating, sorting, and storing my DMC floss! Yes, I know bobbinating is not a word, but I'm using it anyway. :-)
Here are all my skeins and cardboard bobbins put on plastic bobbins:
Here's how they look in a box. They are all sorted by number including the duplicates. To me, it just makes sense to have them all together.
Yes, I have a lot of DMC 800. No idea why. I left room for the bobbins that are in use on my various projects.
I also entered my entire stash into my XFloss app by Coffee Shop Works. While this app covers DMC, Anchor, Gentle Art Sampler Threads, and Week's Dye Works, I only use it for my DMC. I have so many other companies' threads that I keep the rest of them inventoried in AirTable. I use AirTable to inventory my charts as well.
Here's my collection of DMC. It only took 7 ArtBin Super Satchel Slim cases to hold it. ;-)
I bought my plastic bobbins (1,000 at a time, twice) and the Slim cases from Joann's.
My next project will probably be to finish the small quilt on my design wall.
Happy Stitching!
Stacy
Hello Everybody!
I've started a new project for an old addiction: organizing my DMC floss.
I just bought 1,000 plastic bobbins and 2 ArtBin Super Satchel Slims from JoAnn's. I'm starting to take all my loose skeins and wind them onto bobbins.
Hello!
Due to the lockdown, I have another finish - a fabric wreath. I got the form from a storage unit that hubby bought (like Storage Wars but real life). The form is 18" in diameter. When I started on this one (after the jewelry letter!), hubby asked me if I was "trying to foo foo up the room" because it's now MY room. I told him, of course I was.
I really didn't know how to do it, but thanks to Pinterest, I figured it out. Oh, if you want to follow me on Pinterest, my ID is stacy27c.
Since most of the tutorials were for 14" wreaths, I knew I was going to need more fabric. I ended up using 468 strips that were cut 1" x 8". I used 13 different fabrics; 7 whites/creams and 6 blues/greens. Most tutorials I read said to tear the fabric for a raggedy look. I'll admit I was lazy and used my rotary cutter.
My form had 9 sections like this:
Here are the fabrics I used, in the order I used them:
I started at the top left pile and tied a strip around the outer 2 rings of the wreath form. I then went clockwise through the piles tying the next strip around the middle 2 rings, then the 3rd strip around the inner 2 rings, then back to the outer 2 rings. For each of the section on the form, I went through my piles 4x for 52 strips per section.
When I finished the 1st section of the form, the last strip was tied on the 2 outer rings. When I started the 2nd section of the form, I kept to the pattern and started on the middle 2 rings.
I only did one tie per strip, like this:
That was sufficient to keep them on the form, plus left them longer for a fluffier wreath. I decided to hang it on my closet door so that I could see it from pretty much anywhere in my studio. Here's my finished wreath:
I do have one more wreath form that I'm going to do up for Christmas. I'll post when I get that one done.
Happy Stitching and Crafting!
Stacy
Good Morning!
I had another finish recently, a crocheted sweater. It had been so close to being done for awhile. It needed to be sewn together and then the neck, sleeve, and bottom ribbing had to be done. I finally knuckled under and did it!
This was a free pattern from RedHeart called Delicate Coral Tee. Obviously, I didn't use coral. I used a lavender yarn that I already had.
Happy Stitching!
Stacy
Hello, All!
I finished another project that I'd been wanting to do for years: a jeweled letter. I had this letter S (for Stacy, of course) for years but never got around to starting it. I think I bought it at Michael's.
Hubby helped me by spray painting it silver on the front and edges. Spray paint and I don't get along well. ;-)
I put a hanger on the back before I began:
You can see some of the bling that I had available to glam it up with. Hubby buys storage units and this was some of the left over costume jewelry that he had. Don't worry, none of it was really worth anything. He'd already had a jeweler go through it. It has the necessary shine though.
I used E6000 glue to attach the pieces. There was really no rhyme or reason to it. I had the hemostats to hold on to the littler pieces and to poke things into place. My table is protected by a couple of sheets of industrial vellum.
I started with a couple strings of pearls and then just started layering some of the bigger pieces. As I found gaps, I poked in some smaller pieces: loose pearls, glass beads, etc. This is the finished project waiting for the glue to completely se-up. The letter is about 8" tall.
Hi Everyone!
I hope you are all staying safe. Thankfully, we are (hubby, me, and our cat).
For good and bad, I've had a lot of time on my hands. The bad part is that means no work is coming in - the joys of owning a trophy shop when all the events are cancelled. The good part is that I've had time to work on and even finish projects!
This first one is the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, Frolic. I have the top finished! I had nearly given up hope, but I pushed through and got it completed. It won't be quilted for awhile because that's a whole different project.
Here's the finished top:
This one definitely took the most time, for me, of the mystery quilts that I've done. Work on my quilting studio took precedence.
As you might guess, this was taken in my new space! The cutting table is a temporary one and I need new flooring, but it's mostly done.
Happy Stitching!
Stacy
