Box update

Hello everyone.  I received a few emails asking that I not list all the boxes for sale at one time.  Several readers were not able to make a purchase because of obligations.  I have eight box sets shown on the Boxes page for you to view and I have two more unpainted sets that will be duplicates of the listed, or who knows, maybe something different.  My arms are really giving me problems and I need to stop for a day or two so if you are interested in a set, I will open comments allowing purchases for #1 through #5 on Monday night at 8pm, and #6 through #10 on Wednesday night at 8pm.  Hopefully, I will have the other two completed by then, and maybe a few 4" round A&E since you all seem to prefer the duo.  I need to suck down a bottle of Advil while bending from the waist to hang my heavy (full of knowledge) head.  Some times this helps relieve the compression.  So I will open the Box page for purchases tomorrow night, and then add the other boxes on Wednesday.  I don't think there will be a problem if some of you want a set - I doubt if they will all sell that quickly!!!  Have a great evening.

Thanks for visiting.

Just some stuff

Greetings!  If you are living close to the tornado and storm areas, I hope you and yours are all safe.   The May 31, 1985 F5's that went through several states, swept right down the road from us and took our best friend.  A surreal scene when going through the destroyed areas.  So whenever I hear of these, my heart goes out to the residents.

I've been working on boxes and will hopefully have seven sets for sale this Sunday evening.  Most of my time has been taken up with redesigning the kitchen.  I'm finally getting around to redecorating and will bore you with photos and details of progress.  This time, we will not be DIYers.   I also hired a young man (a gorgeous young man whose family adopted the dog I rescued) to make the cupboards and furniture pieces that I should be making myself.  I will eventually, but for now, this recent trade school graduate (carpentry) will make some extra cash.

I wanted to show you these baskets I got at Pat Catan's during their 50% sale.  I love the size and will find samplers to fit.  They hang nicely on doors or doorknobs and are really a good size  Ready....$5.00!!!  $4 for the smaller one.  So I bought several.  I plan on brushing them with paint and aging them a bit.  But a bargain, no???

 

I also wanted to show you this grapevine tree.  I've seen them in shops this size for several hundred dollars.  Are you kidding me?  So if you would like one, here's how to do it cheap.  Decide the height you would like your tree, and purchase two heavy gauge tomato cages that size.  Stack them on top of each other, wire the loose ends to a point.   You can wire cross members of scrap wood on the inside but I don't.  I put a few rocks on the bottom of the cage to secure and then started wrapping the vines.  You'll need a lot!!  I used fresh and stripped the leaves as I was wrapping.  You can use them in the fall after the leaves drop too.  Secure with wire where you think you need to as you move up or down the cage.  I don't think it matters where you start.  I've made small ones, and this is the largest.  You will need to put felt or tape on the bottom so it doesn't scratch the floor, or set it on a rug.  I added the lights, but it's not necessary.  This was made for my front porch and it may make it out there this summer.

Oh, one other thing.  Here's my new ort bag.

There's no room for threads.  I really need to stop this chocolate addiction.

Hope you have a great weekend.  Hopefully, I'll have the time to catch up on your blogs tomorrow.

Thank you very much for taking the time to visit.  I'll be back Sunday evening. 

  

Until then, here's the herd enjoying the nice weather.

Sweet little Thread Catcher

Hiya!  I've been seeing these little quick stitch bags on several blogs and decided to make a few.  Here's mine.

Of course, mine is the version for those of us with the least patience,

too lazy to thread the machine with matching thread,

 and carrying a bottle of Liquid Stitch.

That's right. I glued it. 

And of course I had to use a lightweight fusible interfacing.  I'm really hooked on it.

 The tutorial can be found here and here. 
When I got to the part of topstitching the edges and sewing the sides, I realized my sage green thread was somewhere it shouldn't be. 

So I glued the area left open for turning with a tiny line of Liquid Stitch directly on the edge, and proceeded to glue the sides to form the shape.  The lazy lady's ort bag. 

On the green one, I used a tiny dab of glue at the base of the flaps so I could stick my seam ripper and tweezers in the roll.  I may add another drop of glue to make the flap's opening a little tighter for the tweezers.  I can never find them when I need them so this will work well for me. 

On the other, I used safety pins and would like to hang a few charms from them, when and if I find the tiny box they chose to hide in. These flaps aren't glued and the more I look at it, I think buttons would be nicer on them.

Quick and cute little project.

 If anyone is interested in Prairie Schooler Santa or Christmas charts, there is a nice lot coming up on Ebay here.

That's it.  Just wanted to show this project in case you haven't seen it.

Hope you're all having a good week - talk to you soon - thank you for reading!!!

Surprisingly easy finish

Hello people.  Thanks for all the great comments on Overshot Heart.   It sure didn't look this small when I was stitching so I'm glad I used the 28 count for that reason also.  The linen shows through the floss just enough to resemble a woven fabric and I'd like to do another in black and a lighter mustard.  I can't believe I didn't have more trouble with finishing since heart shapes usually make my hair curl.    Here's what I did - which is probably the same that you do!

First of all, I had to extend the design to make a rounded top.  You can see this on the left side compared to the right.

I decided on Craft Fuse and I gotta tell ya, I am so glad I'm storing the interfacings in these folders.  They were always mixed up along with the wrong directions.  The last one I used was dry iron - no movement, and this one was circular motion and steam.  Go figure.  The craft fuse really gives a stiff look and feel and is quite heavy.  After fusing the linen and the backing, I ran my finger nail along the stitched edge and it created a line for my machine to follow since I wanted no linen showing.

I stitched around the entire heart and made the point square by one stitch instead of a sharp angle.  Then I slit the back open!   I couldn't use the envelope method with this shape and for more primitive pieces I some times would slit the back and use a muslin patch.  The heavy fused facing prevented the fabric from tearing open even more when trying to turn it right side out.  Before doing that, I pinked the seams instead of clipping/notching, and I cut a piece of quilt batting to fit inside the stitches, and then cut the edges on an angle to bevel the bulk.

Once turned right side out, I inserted the batting and used a few more pieces where needed, made a patch, and used the double fusible (Trans-Web) to glue it.   

You can see that it's not very puffy, but enough, and I steamed it when completed.  So where do I put it now?  I still may attach a hemp cord and hang it but started playing around to see where I'd like it. 

Why I did this, I don't know.  But if you have some beautiful smalls you want displayed, this may not be a bad idea.  Fill a glass cylinder with the pieces and something pretty in the center to hold them.  Those large glass beads used in floral arrangements?  Wood somethings for rustic?  Honeysuckle vines and pussy willows?    Too bad I like beat up dirty looking primitives cause I'm picturing some beautiful displays!

I'm working on Santa now, stuck on Lucy, and will pick another sampler.  I saw a few must haves that just came out and Threadwork Primitive's Chelsea's Pinkeep is certainly one.

I'll leave you with the two little devils sticking their heads out of their cat condo.   The baby has a white spot on his mouth that I always thought was a piece of the styrofoam box they live in.  It's not.  He's an odd little guy.  I never saw round eyes on a cat before.  One more thing - Bath&Body Works' candle sale is today.  I got my Aromatherapy Orange Ginger - amazing fragrance. 

 Have a great week - a big thank you to all who participated in the drawings - and for taking the time to visit with me.  I will have a few of the small oval sets for sale probably the end of week and will let you know.  Thank you again! 

The last winner - for a while!

Hi everyone.  Just a quick post - my internet is going in and out.  It started right after I used the Random generator and before I could print the results, I lost the service.  Sooooo.  The winner was #39 and the generated random list gave that number to Rugs and Pugs.  To Rugs and Pugs - I will try to email but if it doesn't go through, please email me with your address. Thanks to everyone once again for participating!

I want to quickly show you my finished heart - I just love it.  The rest I will post tomorrow - right now I have company but wanted to get the winner posted between the service interruptions.  

Thanks for visiting - be back tomorrow!!

El Cheapo went shopping

Hi everyone.  I haven't decided if I want to use one of Vonna's finishing methods or to just sew the Overshot Heart into a flat pillow.  I did find the fabric for the back but will I use it?  Or linen?  When I was in JoAnn's complaining that I can't find nice fabrics, she suggested a quilt shop.  ????  Are you kidding me?  I can't believe how brain dead I am sometimes.  Just because I don't quilt is no reason to not realize they have great fabrics that I could use.   While I was looking for fabric in New Wilmington, I decided to continue into Volant to James Creek.  My husband was driving and I am white knuckled whether behind the wheel or a passenger because of neck concerns.  This time, someone pulled out and we had to slam the brakes.  Not really that hard, but enough for the head to whip and my arms immediately went numb for a few minutes.  Scares this old lady.  I recouped!  Here's my purchases. 

This darling little wall box (I have a thing for wall boxes and cupboards), which holds 3 x 5 cards perfectly and will probably end up hanging over a desk.  The sconce (I also have a thing for sconces) can hold dried berries and such in the bottom, and I bought the grungy candle to go with it.  I have them, can't find them, bought another to avoid a scene.

And here are my fabrics.  Love them all.  I'm starting to make pincushions for the top of my boxes.  I found a few more quilt shops that I want to visit and my husband just rolled his eyes.  Am I the only one that doesn't quilt but has a thing for fabrics?

Today we went to Jimmy's Italian Store in Ohio for our weekly visit and stopped at the Apple Basket.  I had a coupon!!!   My purchases there included a lamp (25% off) and another sconce that will hold dried berries.

Those "rags" you see are the Bliss and Hinckley samplers I finished not long ago and haven't framed yet.

And finally, this basket which is a Linda Searcy design and copyrighted.  The basket's material is the type I find in shops, sprayed with something that makes it very stiff and obviously mass produced.    

A battery operated candle looks great inside  which I will eventually purchase.    Everything still has its tags - part of my Queen of Returns habit.

I'm sure everyone is drooling over some of the new needlework designs and I found several I will be stitching.

That's it.  I'll be drawing a name tomorrow night and will post then.   Have a great Sunday.  Thank you for visiting!

Winner and final offer!

Hello all.   I want to thank everyone for participating in this anniversary offer.  The Santa charts offer is finished, and the second part ended last night.  The winner of the gift certificate is Penny from Larkspur Lane.  The last and current offer is for the set of three little boxes, celebrating new followers and reaching 250.  Seems like I've been doing offers for quite a while!  This will be the last one for now.  Some of you have already left an entry in the prior post and I moved those to the offer folder.  Any one wanting a chance for the boxes, please leave a comment on this post, stating you want to be included.  Please make sure all anonymous messages have a first name.  I think this one will end on Sunday, Feb.26 at 8 p.m. EST.  I will post the box photo at the bottom of this post.  Good luck!  And again, thanks to all for participating.

I've been spending a lot of time at the computer resizing all the labels and creating a few new ones for this small size so I didn't get the heart finished.    And as I post this photo, I see an error.  I plan on using a stiff facing and quilt batting for an even low loft.  The heart peak and bottom point will be too distorted with pouf.

Look at this darling old wood ironing board I found at the mall.  I plan on turning it into a little shelf, or maybe a sconce.  I never saw one this small in wood and the ironing side isn't in bad shape. 

This really beat up large one will be cut into a horizontal whale or goose silhouette, or maybe paint it to look like a large old sign.

The nightly news had a lead story of another dog found.  I turned it off right away before I heard details.  In other news, I got a haircut.  I told her to cut it a little shorter this time.  I need weight to hold down the wildness and this cut is way too short on top and thin on the bottom.  I look like a poisonous mushroom.

Here's the winner and the boxes.

Sunday, February 26, 8 p.m. EST

Penny, let me know which shop you prefer.

Thank you all again, so much, for welcoming me into the stitching blog world.  I am finding so many more to read through the offers and my gaming score is pretty good.  You know, the new verification game.  I've got 20 in a row right!  There better be a prize.

Have a wonderful day - thank you for taking the time to visit!

If you hear a small child say "mommy that lady's head looks like a mushroom",  stop and say hello.

Please make sure to specify you are entering the giveaway!