Summer is Going Fast and A New Endeavor

 Some Counted Cross Stitch Too

Here we are, the first day of August. Most of summer is already behind us. It certainly has flown by fast. I didn't get to plant many flowers this year, but what I have are looking so pretty. How I wish flowers could bloom all year long, ouside, in Kansas.

Here are some of the flowers on the deck. It was very hot the day I took these pictures, so they are a bit droopy. 

The Rose of Sharon bushes are blooming now along with this pretty little blue flower ground cover. Sorry I can't remember its name. 

I love Kansas wildflowers. Here are some that I have transplanted from the pasture. I didn't get a picture of the ones that bloomed early, but are now gone for this year.

It's been so hot here that the roses don't look very good right now. Maybe next time I will have some good pictures of them.

I finally got my Blackbird, Red Sampler done. This is my first sampler, and I can't wait to get it framed. It is worked two over one on 14 CT Aida cloth that I dyed with tea. I have found that I like doing the letters, they go quickly.

For my 'Christmas in July' stitching I just chose one thing to work on. It is the Prairie Schooler 2005 Santa. I haven't gotten very far on him but hope to get him finished pretty quickly now that I am done with the red sampler. 

I have several vintage linen table clothes, etc that I have been going thru and sorting out. I was looking on Pinterest and got some ideas of how to repurpose them, so I made a few things for my Etsy shop.

 Here is one that started out as a small table scarf. I had so much fun playing with different lace's, ribbons, buttons and fabrics for this project. I am very pleased with the way it turned out. 

I have some more repurposed linen items in my Etsy shop, fabraholic4.etsy.com

they are selling rather quickly so hope you hop on over and take a peek at what is left. New items will be listed in a couple of weeks. 

Hope you all have a great August and are able to get some stitching and/or quilting done. Enjoy the outdoors also with a nice cup of coffee while watching the sun come up, early morning walks, picnics, horseback riding, playing fetch with your dog or just sitting on your porch or deck with a friend and having a cup of tea. 

Take care and blessings to all.

 A Graduation Quilt, Some 4th of July Projects and a Free Tutorial

 I want to share with you the quilt I made for my son's niece for her high school graduation. It was so out of my box! The pattern and the fabrics were not something I would have chosen for myself, but it was so good for me to experience something different. I have to admit I struggled at first, but as I worked on it, I found myself really enjoying the pink color. I have always liked pink but just never seemed to be able to work it into my color scheme in my home. (Except for when my daughter was a little girl, her room was in pink). Here is the finished quilt and I am really pleased with how it turned out. The quilter did a really beautiful job of picking out the perfect quilting pattern.

The name of this pattern is 'Chandelier' 

I learned about it from a Missouri Star Quilt Co video.

The 4th of July will be here very soon, so I thought I would try and come up with a few items for my Etsy shop. fabraholic4.etsy.com, I made a couple of hot pad holders, a star swag, four mug rugs and a large pillow that can also be used as a table topper. Stars are one of my favorite shapes, so I had fun making these items up.

The little flag mug rugs are very easy to make. 

Here are the directions:

Materials needed are one charm square or 5" square of a star fabric.

One fat eighth of a small white on white patriotic print.

One fat eighth of a patriotic red fabric.

A piece of batting about 10" by 10"

You will use the charm square as is, cut two strips of the white fabric 1 1/2" by 5 1/4" and 1 1/2" by 9 1/4".

From the red fabric cut three 1 1/2" by 5 1/4" and two 1 1/2" by 9 1/4". These will be trimmed down to size after you get everything sewn together.

Sew the shorter strips together, using a 1/4" seam allowance. Now sew these strips to the right side of the charm square.

Next sew the longer strips together and then sew these to the top portion. This is where you will want to square your flag up to about 8 1/2" by 9", or what looks good to you. Choose one of your left- over fabrics for your backing about 1/2" larger and layer your pieces in this order: from bottom up. batting, backing face up and then your top face down. Pin or wonder clip together and sew around perimeter with a 1/4" seam allowance, leaving an opening for turning. Turn, push out your corners and press. Sew 1/4"all around your flag. You may want to go back, and hand sew where you're opening for turning was. All done, enjoy!

All of these 4th of July items are my designs.

I have been working on my red work counted cross stitch sampler. The pattern is a free one from Black Bird Designs. This is the first sampler that I have made so it is worked on a piece of 14 ct aida cloth that I tea died. I am anxious to start on my next sampler which will be on linen.

As you can see I am not quite done stitching this. Just need to finish the border. Since I worked this on aida cloth I had to adjust the bottom a bit. Can't wait to get this finished and framed.

I have a few more finishes that I will share with you next time.

It is very HOT here in Kansas, so it is a good time to stay inside and work on sewing and stitching. Hope you-all are having a great summer.

Blessing to you all!

Valentines Day Will Be Here Before We Know It!!

Getting a few heart swags made for my Etsy Shop.

I had some left over pieces from a cutter quilt that I had made some wreath's out of and a few other items. I was thinking of how I could use them and that's when I came up with the idea of making heart swags for Valentines Day. So I gathered them up along with some other supplies and started making them. What fun it was to design them and then put them together. I embellished all six of them with vintage buttons. I LOVE vintage buttons! Here I am getting started...

I ended up making three of the three heart swags and three of the seven heart swags. I mentioned that I was getting low on my cutter quilt scraps to a friend of mine and she offered me a few of her's. That was so kind of her, now I can maybe squeeze out another seven heart swag.

These six swags are now in my Etsy Shop. If you would like to check them out here is the link fabraholic4.etsy.com.

I have a couple of other ideas going around in my head that I would like to get made up for this year. Guess I better get busy and get them started and made. Valentines Day will be here very soon. I will post them as soon as I get them done.

My cross stitching has suffered a bit while making these swags, I did get one valentine chart done, now I have to figure out how to finish it. I'm thinking about just putting it in a frame because it turned out too large for a bowl pillow. I am getting a lot of idea's from flosstuber, mamalovesyouGBMichelle. She shares a lot of free charts offered by different designers.  If you need a positive pick-me-up check out Anna of Stitch Roadies. I love to watch her video's in the morning after my scripture reading. She is so nice and very positive. A wonderful way to start the day. 

Looking forward to tomorrow, my daughter is coming over and we are going to make Valentine Cards. We haven't done this since she was a little girl.We might even bake some heart shaped sugar cookies!

Take care everyone!

Blessings to you all.

 The New Year Has Begun!

Here we are already in the second day of the new year! This last year was a really hard one for everybody the world over. Now is the time to gather up our strength and look towards a better year ahead for all of us. We, as a nation need to put our trust back in God and hold tight to our faith in his son Jesus who can and will make all things new again, we need only to believe.

One of my goals for this year is to finish up some UFO's both in quilting and in cross stitch. Along with that I will also be starting my granddaughters HS graduation quilt. I have all of the fabrics for the front and should get started cutting it out in the next couple of weeks. I will have to get all of the Christmas decorations down, packed and back up to the barn first.

Another goal is, I want to try my hand at stitching on linen. Up to this point I have only stitched on Aida cloth. Sure hope I will be able to see well enough to do it. I love the look that linen gives to cross stitching. I will start out on something small and then hopefully graduate to doing my first sampler. There are so many wonderful ones out there, having a hard time deciding which one to do. Does anybody have a suggestion for me?

Sorry no pictures this time, I am having trouble with the camera on my phone. Actually this has me thinking about getting my digital camera out and start using it again. My brother left me a really nice, fancy, digital camera that I would like to be able to take a class on how to use it this spring. 

Hope you all have some goals you would like to get accomplished this year too. Goals, to me, sounds so much better than resolutions.

Continue to take care and stay safe!

Happy New Year Everyone and Happy Stitching!!

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 A Few of The Santa's I Have Made Over the Years

Here it is the day after Christmas 2020. It seems with all of the time it takes getting ready for this special day, the day it's self goes by so quickly. I know this year was a very different one for all of us. Many were not able to be with loved ones which really put a downer on celebrating this year. I had a few friends that didn't even put up a Christmas tree or any decorations at all. I find this so sad. We choose to go ahead, as always, and put up our little tree and decorations thru out our home and even some outdoor lights. It did me good to have the house look so cheery with the greenery and other decorations. I do have to admit that I didn't put out everything. This was not because of the covid19 issue, but because I am getting older and what comes out, must be packed up and put back. This week between Christmas and New Years is a time for me to just relax and enjoy some reading, catching up on flosstube and getting some stitching done. Oh yes and eating those yummy leftovers. 

I know this is rather late, but here are a few pictures of some of the Santa's I have made through out the years. It is so much fun getting them out each year and remembering the fun I had making each on of them. 

This is the little tree I have in kitchen. I decorate it with dried apples and oranges and of course popcorn.

This pattern is called Santa Barry, he is one of my favorites.

                                                         

                                             I wish I had not used the jute for this ones beard! 

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.

We now can look forward to a new year and pray that it will be much better than this one has been, and that life can get back to normal once again. 

BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU AND  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 We Are Now Officially in the Christmas Season!

Getting a Few Things Ready for my Etsy Shop

Well I was unable to hardly get any cross stitching done these past two weeks. Life just got in the way. That happens sometimes. I did get a few items made for my little Etsy Shop though. There was a beautiful horse panel at the quilt shop where I work (one day a week) that I just had to buy and figure out something to do with it. The artwork on it was beautiful and I couldn't figure out a way of quilting it or even what to make out of it to quilt. One evening as I was about to fall asleep an idea popped into my head. Apply the pictures onto a stretched canvas. I have been going thru all of my Mom's art supplies and found several canvases. So the next day I tried it. There is definitely a learning curve to getting them on nicely, but I think I finally have it figured out. Here are the four that I have in my shop.

I am finally pleased with how they turned out. They measure 16" x 20".

Being a horse lover and owner myself , I just love all of them.

I did manage to make up a small Santa with his stick reindeer, called a Bean Bagger Santa from a very old pattern book called Kindred Christmas by Kindred Spirits. It is full of really cute primitive items to make for the holidays. Santa is made out of wool and his sidekick reindeer is out of wool also These are so much fun to make.

 Several years ago I made my brother this angel bean bagger. She is really cute too!

I also found another older pattern book called Santaberry Sauce by Joan Vibert &Gail Caso. These little guys are made out of an old cutter quilt. Several years ago I made up several Santaberry's out of wool and homespun, in different sizes. For some reason they just speak to my primitive heart.  

And last but not least are little primitive wreath ornaments that I made out of left over's of a Dresden Plate cutter quilt. I tea dyed these and the Santaberry's to make them look really old.

There are a few more things I would like to get made up, but time is already drawing nigh and I need to get my house decorated!

Hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving and were able to be with some of your family and loved ones.

This has been such a hard year for all of us. Let's continue to count our blessings and look forward to the best season of all - Christmas, in celebration of our Lord's birthday.

Blessings to you all❤

My Re-found Love of Counted Cross Stitch

I've Found Cross Stitch...Again!

 Gosh here it is November, 2020!!! This year has certainly been a strange one with all that is going on in the world today. During this time of a pandemic,  I have rediscovered counted cross stitch. I follow Quilt Roadies on You Tube and she was talking about flosstube and what a wonderful community of stitchers they are. Well I went over to check it out since I had been thinking about starting cross stitch again. Oh what a wonderful place I found in them! I am hooked! I have done a few small projects to get started again and am loving it. I have never stitched on linen and I am gathering up my courage to try it. There are so many sampler patterns out there that I love, so trying to choose which one I want to start on. I have to admit I am a bit intimidated about working on linen, but I am going for it. Shanda of ShandaQuilting&StitchinginIdaho has given me some advice as to what count to start on. I love her flosstube channel. She is also a quilter and I love that too. Another stitcher/quilter that I really like is Bonnie of logcabinstitcher, she is also on Instagram. I am starting a new fall stitch for Thanksgiving. Getting a late start, but it is small and maybe I can get it done. Let me mention one more flosstube channel I really like and that is Country Stitches with Liz and Deb. They both do such beautiful work and are just fun to watch.

Here is the one that got me started again. I saw Kimberly on Fat Quarter Shop show her houses of the seasons and I loved them. So far I have only done the winter, can't wait to do more. I was a bit disappointed in this one because my snowflakes didn't show up hardly at all.

I have only gotten two bowl fillers done so far, just about to get one more done. I love the little bowl pillows, they are a quick stitch.

Pillow on left is a free Aurifil chart and the one on the right is from a very old calendar from the 80's. 

Here are two small finishes that I need to decide how to fully finish.

The one of the left is a Lizzy Kate Pattern and the one on the right I found in my old cross stitch patterns from many years ago.

 The pumpkin  has been a real challenge! Every time I would work on it I would end up having to frog out stitches. I have stuck with it and now it is almost done and ready to be made into another bowl filler.

This is from the same 80's calendar as the bee hive above.

And finally here is the new chart I just bought for Thanksgiving. It is so cute and trucks are so popular right now. I love turkeys, so I couldn't resist. I haven't gotten it kitted up yet. It calls for a lot of Weeks Dye Works floss and all I have right now is DMC. Trying to figure out if I want to invest in the Weeks. We will see.

 

This is all I have for this time. I hope to have some good progress to show you all in a couple of weeks.

Until then, take care and blessings to you all.