Crafts of My Past & Present

I was just browsing the weekly sale at Herrschners, specifically the Hot Buys, and got a blast-from-the-past feeling.  I am amazed at how many of the different crafts that are on sale that I have tried.  I thought I'd share the crafts that I've done and see how many of you have at least attempted some of them. 

I've added a poll on the right side of the page.  I'd be thrilled to see your responses! 
Update:  For some reason, the poll never worked correctly so I removed it.

Here's my list:

• Latch Hook - never actually finished one in the past but just bought a small one that I'm going to do for DH for either his birthday or Christmas.
• Felt kits (not felted) - I made a felt Christmas ornament for DH a few years ago
• Sequin Art - I finished a horse head and one other though what it was escapes me now
• Mosaic Art - two Christmases ago, I did an eagle head for DH.  Last Christmas I bought him a kit to do for himself and he gave me a small one that he made for me.
• Doodle Art - this really brought back memories!  My sisters and I used to buy these at our local PayLess store (now Rite-Aid).  I remember doing the plain paper and the flocked (velvet) kind.
• Paint-by-Number - the only one that I know I did was of a puppy and kitten.  My grandmother had it  hanging at the end of the hall in her house.
• Stamped Cross Stitch/Stamped Embroidery - I've tried both of these.  To say that I stink at doing them would be an understatement.  I could never get the stitches to look neat.
• Plastic Canvas - I made a coaster set.  I have no idea where it went but I remember the coasters were bees.
• Découpage - had a kit when I was about 9.  My mom told me not to attempt it without help - I did anyway; made a mess; got in trouble; haven't attempted it since.
• Needlepoint - a couple of small ornaments.  Never had the urge to attempt anything larger though I do drool over some of the canvases - they are so lovely!
• Tatting - a couple of ornaments, a pair of earrings, and a bookmark.  I've mastered needle and shuttle tatting techniques but not well enough to be willing to do anything larger.
• Knitting - I can handle knit and purl but I'm not comfortable with it.  I did make a couple of scarves; a sweater; and an afghan
• Crochet - I can and will tackle anything crochet.  I used to love making afghans - now I'd much rather do thread crochet.  I've finished at least 40 afghans; a couple of sweaters; a few doilies; over 50 snowflakes (so far)
• Bobbin Lace - I bought the basic supplies and have the twist and cross movements down.
• Cross Stitch - I've been doing this for over 30 years and it's still my greatest passion!
• Quilting - I am self-taught.  I started my first quilt in 1995.  I've completed at least 9 quilts; have 1 that only needs binding; 1 being hand-quilted now; and at least 3 tops that need to be quilted.

Happy Stitching (or Crafting)

Stacy

I'm so proud of myself!

I know, I know, pride goeth before a fall.  ;-)

I am proud of myself though.  I've had PatternMaker (cross stitch) software for years and I'm good at using it but I'd never attempted one aspect of it before.  I have created my own font!  It's a back-stitch font.  Now, when I want to chart a saying, names, etc., all I have to do is type in the program!

Since I'm working on my own version of a Mother's Tree, this is going to be great!  I was inspired to do a Mother's Tree when I saw the one from Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum.  Her idea was great, but the font was definitely masculine and I couldn't bring myself to stitch it.

So far, I have the tree charted (my own) and now I can get to work on inputing the names and dates that I'll need.  If it looks as good as I'm anticipating, then I will eventually make the chart available for purchase.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Cross Stitch Magazines for sale

Over the weekend, DH bought a bunch of cross stitch magazines at a garage sale.  Do I have him well-trained, or what?

After looking through them all, I kept ones that had patterns I'd actually stitch.  A couple were missing pages so I double-checked them for possible things I'd do, then tossed them in the recycling bin.

The rest of them are posted for sale in my Etsy shop.  Hopefully, this way, they'll all find great homes with someone who will stitch items from them!

Here's the link to my shop:  XedStitches

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Blog Shop #17: Stitching Footwear

Here's the question for this round:

What is your favorite footwear for stitching?  Or perhaps I should say your favorite lack of footwear when stitching...

I hate wearing shoes...ever.  My footwear of choice for my daily life is:  socks.  This carries over to my stitching time as well.  If it's a cold night, then I do have slippers that I wear.  DH got me the best slippers ever for this last Christmas.  They are Cosy Soles and you microwave them! 

Most of the time though, I stick with just my socks or maybe a fleece blanket draped over my legs as well.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy


Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
Find the instructions on how to participate in this round by clicking here.

And yet another project begins...Update

I've made it through all the paper stuff!  The only thing I haven't looked at yet is the slides.
All of the photos are out of their albums/envelopes.  Whoever invented those stupid magnetic page albums should be shot!  Better yet, stuck inside a person-size version of their own album - let them try to get out of that!  Thankfully, there are only a couple of photos where I didn't recognize anyone right away.  Even with those, I have enough other photos that I should be able to compare them with to pinpoint at least some of the family members.

The newspapers have all been gone through to see if they were just kept for historial events or if there were family members mentioned.  Any family stuff has been clipped from the paper and marked to indicate the paper's name and issue date.

Now comes the Herculean task of scanning all of this stuff and getting it into scrapbooks!  I'll start with the scanning and then call in one of my sisters to help with the actual scrapbooking.

Oh, guess I need to look at the slides first to see which ones of those need to be scanned and printed so they can be scrapbooked as well.

Happy Everything!

Stacy

And yet another project begins...

No, it's not cross-stitching.  My grandmother recently moved out of her house into a senior's apartment complex.  All of the family photos, documents, papers, etc. are now in my house.  Since I'm the family genealogist, this was always expected.  I just didn't have a clue how MUCH stuff that encompasses!

Right now, I'm just sorting through it all.  Things are getting put into categories:

Photos
Newspapers/clippings
Documents
Correspondence
Miscellaneous

Once I have all the boxes sorted, I'll "attack" the photos and get them all identified, scanned and scrapbooked.  Thankfully, my grandfather and I had gone through most of his family's photos before he passed, so I do know who's who.  My grandmother's family doesn't have as many photos and I went through them with her just over a year ago.

The bugger is really going to be the newspapers/clippings.  My grand aunt was a school teacher for 40+ years and kept stuff relating to her students so I'm really going to have to pay attention there.

Happy Stitching (and sorting)!

Stacy

HAED BB SAL Progress

This year, I decided to do the SAL on the HAED BB.  The pattern that I chose is called Mystic Garden which is a QS taken from Peacock Garden by Ciro Marchetti.  For the SAL, the pattern is a total of four pages.  I've just finished stitching the first page!  Here's the picture:

 

The second page just arrived this past Friday.  Even though, I've got the next pattern page, I'm taking a break from this to do another WIP.  What did my randomizer choose?  La Belle Dame Sans Merci.  I'm going to be doing 2 pages this round (7 & 8) 'cause page 8 is a partial page.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy