Favorite Posts of the Month

I've been playing with the pages that Blogger has allowed us to add to our blog.  The truth is, I lead a very boring life and sometimes I can hardly come up with a post that isn't a total snore.  So I don't really have anything to fill up additional pages.

But you?  Now you're a different story.  I use Google Reader and I can't even tell you how many of your posts that I've "starred" to keep.  Sometimes I just want to go back and read something again.  You write so well and can be so thought-provoking that I want to remember your words.  Sometimes you've posted about a great design or your interpretation or finishing idea is so wonderful that I want to keep it around for a good long time. 

So I've added a new page to my blog, called Favorite Posts of the Month.  I've been working on a September page, but since I didn't think about this until late in the month, I know I've omitted several great posts from earlier in September.  But a girl has to start somewhere.

Anyway, it's a static page, so it won't update in your blog readers like a regular blog post.  I guess I'll just post here at the end of the month when I've completed the page and then you can click over. 

You all are so talented.  And I'm really happy that you all share your work and your words with the rest of the blogging world.  And now I have material for a second page!  See?  It all works out.

Things to pack for camp

So let's get ready for Stitch Camp Season!  Now, maybe you're not a veteran camper like some of us.  And really, even an experienced camper may get to camp only to find out that she's missing some important piece of equipment.  One of the pleasures of camp is that they are usually out in the countryside and so your camp is probably miles from the nearest Whatever-Mart, so it pays to be prepared.  Seriously - check out the list prepared last year by Ms. Stitch Bitch, because it's surely the best one I've seen.

But if you want to be a truly memorable camper...one that the other campers will talk about for years to come...you'll want to consider MY list, too.  (I just love the fall catalog season)

First of all, nobody will remember you if you are a wallflower.   Sure, you can try to be the Funny One, but that's a lot of pressure.  You can be the Loud Voiced One, but that gets you nothing but a sore throat (and sometimes dirty looks).  So here's your solution:  You can be the One Who Knows Everything.  Personally, I like to bone up on my knowledge about everything before I go to camp, but you can pack this book and then set it on your table so that everyone will realize that YOU are the one to ask about everything.  In fact, don't wait till they ask you.  People love a person who knows everything, so why make them wait?  Speak up!  Everyone is probably just waiting to know where they can order their salmon skin bikini.  (Wait...it's probably in this same catalog)

Then we have our clothing.  Comfortable clothing is a really big deal at camp.  So make sure that you pack your comfy shoes and I even like to take slippers that can double as a shoe for a quick trip outside.  Say....do they make pajamas like that?  Why yes, they do! Pack your double-duty lounge pants and nobody will know that you've spent the day in your pajamas.  So I've decided to switch from this, which was my usual outfit: 

To this outfit.  Because you know I love a cowboy theme.

Ok, we've covered conversation and comfort, now we can finally address our snacks.  Personally, I always begin my day with coffee, and everyone else usually has some neat-o mug with a stitchy saying.  Why not make their mornings memorable with YOUR mug.

Fellow campers love it when you give them too much information.

Besides our meals (and they're usually fabulous!) campers like to bring snacks to pick at through the day.  You can be a real Debbie Downer and remind your stitching companions about the dangers of over eating, or you can just give them a set of these!  Everyone will thank you.

Oh and finally, a truly memorable camper will probably end her evening with cocktails.  But you don't have to worry about spilling your cocktail on anyone's lovely stitching when you have this handy accessory.  It's also helpful because I don't like to share.  And don't think I won't know if you come around and steal one. 

I'm partial to the pink one.

Now go pack for camp!

Stitched last year at camp

This was my project from the 2009 Camp Gottastitch.  It was a wonderful and low key camp, and even though part of our camp fee included several kits of freebie designs with fabric and threads, most people were working on their own projects.  We had several finishes in our group, including my finish of Prairie Schooler's Book 132, Autumn Leaves. 

But then (and this will come as no great shock), I came home, put it in the cupboard and forgot about it.  And last week while I was hunting for some stitching to use for the flange pillow tutorial, I found it again.  (One nice thing about being so forgetful is that sometimes I give myself a pleasant surprise.)

I started to finish this as a bell pull, even adding the fabric to the back, but lately my bell pulls have seemed a little wonky to me, so at the last minute I changed my mind and decided to use a simple pinkeep method.  Very simple.  I figure that if I decide that it's too simple later, I can always add to it.  But right now I'm liking it just like this.

I bought this as a kit a handful of years ago from Theresa at Shakespeare's Peddler.  She had converted the threads to Crescent Colours, and I think you can still buy her conversion here (scroll down the page a bit)

And now this has me thinking about stitching camps.  Fall is THE time for so many camps.  The weather is still decent for traveling, and we're spending more time indoors.  Spring seems very popular, too,  but I guess I'm tuned into Fall camps.  I'm not going to an organized camp this year, but I am going to a stitching getaway, and I'm starting to think about what I'll be packing. 

More later!

Easier than pie flange pillow

This flange pillow is best suited to designs that are horizontal, like this sampler.  So I went through my stitched stuff and took out this JBW designs sampler from 19-something-or-other. 
OK, so your stitching is going to be the flange (flap) part of the pillow.  I like at least an inch all the way around my stitching, and that means that I must measure out 1.5 inches from my stitching (because we have to consider our  seam allowance).  In this case, my stitching is about 5” x 8”, so I cut the linen 8” x 11”.  Make sure that all of your corners are nice and square.  Now cut a piece of plain fabric (ie. muslin) the same size as your stitched piece.

Sew these two pieces together, joining them at the bottom of your stitching.  THE BOTTOM.  That’s very important.  Add the muslin to the BOTTOM.  Unless you enjoy looking at your pillow while standing on your head.
  Now fold the assembled piece in half, right sides facing out.  It will form a rectangle. Find your main pillow fabric and lay your stitched flap on top of the body fabric and eyeball how much fabric you want showing at the bottom of the pillow.  This is totally up to you. 
Hmmmm.  I liked the look of 3 inches showing at the bottom.  Measure from the top of your stitched fabric to the bottom of the pillow.  I measured this at 11 inches.  Now, add 1 inch to this measurement and double it.  So for the body of the pillow, I needed a piece of fabric 24 ((11 + 1) X 2) inches long and exactly as wide as my stitched panel- 11 inches. 

Make a 1/2 inch hem at one end of the pillow fabric. (no photo) Then place the folded flange on the other end, right sides together and matching the raw edges of the body and the flange.  (The right side of your stitching is facing the right side of the main pillow fabric.)  Sew together at the top.

Then fold the hemmed edge at the bottom of the pillow fabric up to almost meet the seam you just sewed. Make sure the flange is tucked inside the folded fabric.
Now sew up the right and left sides of the pillow.  You may want to clip the corners a bit to eliminate some bulk.

Then reach in from the top and start flipping and unfolding and you’ll have this!

Now you can either create your own custom sized pillow form and insert it, or you can just stuff it as is.  I’ve become lazy and I don’t fuss with the extra step of making a pillow form anymore.  And be careful about overstuffing it.  That’ll kind of distort everything.  You can also add buttons or a bow or whatever and ta-dah!  Finished!


Oh - no luck with yesterdays Daily Number. It would have been crazy good if 777 had hit!

This is so weird

Today is the seventh anniversary of my blog.
And this is my 777th post.

I really must go play the lottery today.

Little finish

This was my in-car project from our LONG car trip to San Francisco in the Spring.

I finished it as a very basic cushion.  For some reason the design has the apples kind of floating above the basket, so I added a ribbon.

I started my fall decorating on Sunday, and I think it fits in well.

I'm working on showing you how I put together my flange pillows.  I think they're really easy, but you could get a very similar effect by just piecing your stitching to a strip of fabric for the front and adding a back and stuffing it.  So there's always that option.  I kind of like the way that a flange pillow creates some depth, though.

Anyway, once I get a bit more organized, I'll post something about that.

Pillowed

Here is Summer Basket finished as an envelope style pillow. I used some fabric that I had on hand, and the more I think about it, I'm pretty sure that it's some BBD Moda fabric. I didn't have quite enough, so I had to add some muslin to the back, but who's looking?

This had become one of my favorite pillow finishes. These envelope pillows are super adaptable and very forgiving.

I took this picture this morning on our back deck. Sheesh.  I didn't realize how much of the back driveway would be in the photo.  Please ignore the dead plants and scrap wood! I've been a terrible gardener this year.  There were times that I had more dead baskets than living ones.  It was so hot and dry this summer, and that was part of it.  But maybe I've been channeling a little Morticia Addams, also.  I've always admired her housekeeping style, so why not mimic her gardening style, too?

My September Answer

Do I do anything weird when I'm stitching?  Hmmmm. 

I don't have an odd habit, like turning around three times before I sit down or tapping a stitching totem or anything like that.  I'm not devoted to a particular chair or table or gadget. 

So what do I do that I think is weird?  Well, I'll tell you that my focus is all over the place when I'm stitching something.  Because I tend to stitch samplers, there are usually lots of motifs and breaks and sections.  I almost never complete a section before moving on to the next one.  I skip, hop and jump all over the place.  Sometimes I can't decide if it's because I'm bored or if it's because I'm so excited to move on to the next part.  I'm going to go with the latter.

And that's my answer!

Things I did over the weekend

Well, besides read, stitch, sleep, eat and have drinks on the beach and by the pool.

We went to see the new Clooney movie, and let me start by telling you...I would have not have read, stitched, slept or eaten all weekend if I had found this hunkaman in the pool.

Yup, George Clooney totally does it for me.

But not his latest movie, The American.  Good lord, what a snore!  How could someone that I've adored so much in other movies produce this movie?  It was less exciting than watching paint dry.  It  was beyond boring.  And I don't say this lightly, because I'll put up with a lot to see two hours of Clooney.

Do you remember the Warner Brothers cartoon with the singing frog who won't sing in front of an audience?  And the fellow would put the frog on stage and open the curtains and there would be nothing there but a scowling frog and the sound of crickets?  Well,  this will be one of those "you had to be there" type of anecdotes, but there was actually a cricket hiding somewhere in the movie theater and listening to its occasional chirps was oddly appropriate.  And a guy down front was yawning loudly from time to time, but nobody shushed him.  We didn't have the heart.

So don't go.  It'll just make you sad.

September SBQ!

You know, I was all het up for this last week!  Then I came to realize that last week wasn't the first Monday of the month, but rather the LAST Monday of the month.  So what's the inevitable result?  That I forgot to post this on the correct Monday.

But hey...On Monday I was at the beach, where I was enjoying the sun and fun and way too many cocktails.  And you wouldn't have wanted me tipsy and near the water with anything electronic, now would you? 

So...September's question actually comes from another blogger who left me a comment asking about this.  I have to apologize to her...I've gone through all of my comments and emails and I can NOT find her correspondence so that I can give her proper credit (If it's you, step forward, please!) Her question was:

Is there anything that you do while you are stitching that is kind of weird or unusual?  A quirky habit maybe?  Or anything that you do that makes you think, Hey...I wonder if anyone else does this?

So that's it, stitchers!  Now we'll wait to read your answers, so we can say to ourselves, "Well, I may be weird, but at least I don't do that."  (Just kidding...we're all friends here...)

Finished Summer Basket!

Summer Basket is finished! It was close, but I finished it before we left for the weekend and I took it to Salty Yarns , where Sally was generous with her compliments.  Salty Yarns was exactly as I had remembered it from last year.  Stuffed to the brim with charts and fabrics and threads and don't even get me started on all of the wonderful tools and doodads.  But anyway, here is my version of Blackbird Designs Summer Basket, purchased last Labor Day and stitched this summer:

 

I had to make some changes to accommodate the variations of dye lots in both the threads and fabric.  So I used the recommended fabric - 30 ct WDW Baby's breath, but I had to substitute Gentle Arts Old Brick for the GA Clover (pink letters and flowers) and I had to substitute GA Gold Leaf for the GA Brandy (gold stars and letters)  So my sampler isn't as soft and muted looking as the model photo on the leaflet, but it's because the dye lot of my piece of fabric wasn't as pale pink as the model fabric.  Stitches done in Clover and Brandy were all but invisible.  

I have to say, I did NOT like this WDW fabric.  I doubt that I'll ever use it again.  It had absolutely no body to it.  There are some nice colors, but it's like working with a wet noodle. 

Here are a couple other little changes that I made, too.  (Changes = Mistakes that I was too lazy to frog and restitch). The top line of my alphabet was about 5 stitches too far to the right and I didn't realize it till I was way into the stitching.  Luckily, I wasn't using it as any kind of jumping off place for placing other stitches (phew), but it meant that I couldn't fit the letter "G" in at the end of the line.  So since XYandZ were all tiny, I decided to use a tiny G.

But then I had to balance the left side of the alphabet line. Handily, in most BBD designs you can always have a couple extra birdies at your disposal!

So now I need to decide if I should frame it or make it into a pillow.  I'm actually leaning towards a pillow.  It would look great made as an envelope-type pillow in my wicker couch, and BBD has put out a new fabric line recently....Something tells me that a trip to the quilt shop is in my future!