69 posts tagged “cross stitch”

I have been standing by my vow not to buy any crap for 6 months. That's not to say I haven't bought anything; "crap" is defined as "essentially useless gewgaws whose only real purpose is to collect dust".

Merona framed tote bag

First of all, a large and surprisingly non-ugly handbag was procured from Target just before I flew to Louisiana.

Mossimo black border print skirt blue

While looking for the friend who accompanied me, a few amazingly cute and inexpensive (doorbuster Christmas sales) clothing items were spied, which simply had to be purchased. They included the skirt at left ($9.98!), a teal blue long-sleeved knit shirt that went perfectly with it, a plain black (finally!) skirt, several pairs of hosiery (including a delightfully bright pink pair of cable knits), and this tunic/dress:

Mossimo black & white swing tunic

While in Louisiana, I used a Christmas present Hobby Lobby gift card to buy cross stitch sampler software:

Our wedding

<----- This will be used to make a wedding present for my sister.

Our family

<----- This will probably be used in conjunction with my eldest brother's genealogical research to make something interesting.

And finally, on my last day in Louisiana I managed to squeeze in a visit to the Rosary House in New Iberia. I didn't get to go last year because they were closed for inventory when I went. I've been looking for a particular rosary since 2004. The beads are made from Job's Tears, and the crucifix is a live, flowering Dogwood tree instead of a cross. I found those things, but not together; the Rosary House sells parts for hobbyists who make their own rosaries and I had to purchase the crucifix and center piece seperately for a few extra dollars. Luckily my mother's cousin is one of those hobbyists, and she swapped the parts out. It took a pair of needle-nosed pliers and less than 10 minutes.

Job's tears rosary

I love this rosary, the fact that it's made from seeds and contains plant imagery reinforces the idea that Christian mythology is part of a long tradition that is not seperate from paganism, merely the latest incarnation of it. There is very little in it that is truly unique.

And yes, once again: I am an atheist. I just really like certain kinds of religious iconography, especially Catholic and Hindu. I started buying rosaries a few years ago and have quite a few.

blue & green floral picture frame

It's a frame within a frame! 8 X 10 matting inside 11 X 14 frame, little frame inside is 2.5 X 3.5 and is sewed onto the design. The whole thing can be easily taken apart to put anything inside the little frame.

moleskine #1

Eyelet stitches, hot glued to the inside front cover.

I  worked feverishly all weekend and finished Phil's gift and made a good start on my next present.

handkerchief 3

It sure is hard to iron all the wrinkles out of cotton handkerchiefs.

blue & green floral picture frame wip 1

This is for my aunt. The centers of the flowers were supposed to be blue seed beads; but I wanted something bright that would contrast, instead of blending in, so I used some orange beads I had.

I went to Borders on Saturday to get some Moleskine notebooks. I'm going to make covers for them and give them to various family members. And they had the City Notebook for San Francisco! I've been wanting one but I never see them in stores. I kept putting off ordering one because I don't really NEED it, but I couldn't resist buying one when I saw it on the shelf. I have some tutorials bookmarked for hacking a regular Moleskine and turning it into a City Notebook for any city, I want to make one for New Orleans. Too bad I won't have time before I go to Louisiana; next year maybe.

And now here are a couple of photos I took of the Christmas tree on the Newark police station lawn as I waited for a bus on Friday night.

newark christmas tree 2007 1

newark christmas tree 2007 2

water lilies wip 6

The only thing left to do is the backstitching; however, that will have to wait until after the holidays. I decided to make a lot of my Christmas presents (again) this year, so I'm going to be working on that for the next several weeks. (And even then I might not finish everything; luckily my family members are used to being shown a halfway finished piece--or just a picture--and being told "You'll get that in March.)

butterfly pillowcases wip 1a

First up, a pair of pillowcases for my grandmother. When I'm done, I wash them, and the stamped pattern washes out, so all that's left is the thread. Satin stitch used to be one of my least favorite stitches, but I'm getting better (and faster) at it.

butterfly pillowcases wip 1b

The entire design.

I got 2 more pairs of pillowcases, one would be good for any of the girls in the family and one would be good for any of the guys--it's a paisley pattern in blue and green, so it's not girly. And I got a blank monk's cloth afghan, which I could use for pretty much anyone and let them pick out the pattern. And some embroidery transfers. One of them is a set of letters and I was thinking of making my step-father some monogrammed handkerchiefs, but the letters turned out to be too big for that, it would cover the entire handkerchief. I'll have think of something else to use them for. Any ideas?

I really wanted to finish the main stitching this weekend, but the leaves are rather large and are going to take at least one more weekend.

water lilies wip 5

Most of the main stitching is done, there's just some leaves on the left side that remain. The flowers have a bit of backstitching on them... I may need to make some color alterations to allow for the fact that I went with a black instead of white background. I'm really happy with that decision; initially I was afraid the dark green wouldn't show up enough but I think it does, and I LOVE the way the blue looks against the black.

water lilies wip 4

I didn't take a picture last weekend because I didn't get a lot of stitching done. I wasn't feeling well and spent most of the weekend lying in bed and watching Futurama on DVD.

water lilies wip 3

stained glass peacock

Completed September 8, 2007.

rene bookmark

Completed September 8, 2007. This is for a LJ swap.

water lilies wip 1

As of September 9, 2007. This was supposed to be done on white, but I thought it would be more interesting on black. It's another Art Nouveau piece. Normally I only use 2 strands with 14-count, but I thought the dark background would show through, so I'm using 3 strands, even though working with odd numbers of floss is a huge pain in the ass.

Everything's done except for some backstitching around the head.

stained glass peacock wip 3

p.s. For the second Friday in a row, I couldn't do a weekly links post (we lost the internet connection in the afternoon). I think the universe is trying to tell me no one cares. If you do, go to my Tumblr (link in the sidebar), which is where I post all that kind of stuff.