Sinister Craftiness

2010 humbug series:  Winter Hearts by Just Nan
White Opal Cashel linen (28ct)
Stitched with DMC and GAST

Thanks to El Niño, we are having one of the warmest winters on record in the Pacific Northwest while the rest of the country is solidly snowed in.  Just Nan’s Winter Hearts humbug is as close to snow and ice as we’re going to get around here.  (Not that I’m complaining:  last winter was our big one for blizzards, so it’s good to have a year off.)  Assembling a humbug is simple enough, but the design was intricate with a few specialty stitches to keep me busy.  The chart comes with the pretty snowflake pin.

Aren’t these scissors great?  If you haven’t seen it already, Yuko has set up a special scissor blog where she’s selling these and other scissors.  They are all adorable (look for more of her scissors to show up in my future stitching photos), and mine arrived about one week after placing the order.  Not bad for shipping from Japan!  Thank you, Yuko!

First, here’s a peek at Floral Fifteen.  The five green panels are complete, and I’ve stiched nine out of the ten white borders.

Not as far along as I’d hoped, but I thought it might take a long time to stitch all these panels, even if they are very small.  (The arrival of two new Just Nan kits, Grow and the Anniversary biscornu, were also distracting.)  This darling felt pincushion, and many more like it, can be found at the The Daily Pincushion on Etsy.  I have a poinsettia one for Christmas and a few other flower/color combinations; they brighten up my stitching area.  Most pincushion designs are available in two sizes and a matching emery can also be made to order.

Last week Bestemor, Thing Two, and I went to Ballard in search of this year’s Syttende Mai pins and discovered a sort-of-new (well, new to us) quilting shop!  The Quilting Loft is small, but it’s packed with beautiful, top-quality fabrics.  We are fond of backing quilts with flannel, and were happy to see a good selection of pretty flannels in patterns suitable for baby quilts or more grown-up projects.  Thing Two was intrigued by the antique sewing machine on display.  There weren’t very many notions or books, but what they had was very good; I found a lovely pattern book which I’m looking forward to using.  We’ll definitely be back!

Inspired by our visit, Thing Two made a set of rotary cutters for himself out of his construction set:

He’s hard at work on the Petits Fours table runner, and eager to get started on a quilt kit just for him which is on its way in the mail.  I had hoped to keep it a surprise for his birthday later this year, but he’s too excited about the quilt; it will be much more fun to make it with his help.  Stay tuned …

English Christmas cushion by Shepherd’s Bush
Natural brown linen (32 count)
Stitched with DMC

Here’s the second stocking stuffer kit I treated myself to last Christmas.  At the time, I was so busy with handmade gifts that I wasn’t able to make any of the holiday decorations I had hoped to stitch.  This year I’m starting early, beginning with this needle roll, and there are two larger projects by Victoria Sampler and Theresa Wentzler which I’m hoping to begin soon so they’ll be ready to display come December.

This needle roll is a little different from the Tudor one in its use of a few specialty stitches:  herringbone, pattern darning, and pulled thread.   I also like the beads sewn to the lace points.

By the way, this is my favorite dish for keeping beads handy while I’m working.  It’s curved just right so the beads naturally gather together and stay in the center, not threatening to escape all over the table.  It’s originally a sauce dish; I bought it and several other different ones at Shiga’s Imports.  They’re the perfect size for holding beads, blending filament, floss bobbins, orts … pretty much everything.  They look great, too!

Last spring (May to be exact) I began working on a scene from Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat, as a gift for Thing Two, who loves the poem.   Soon, though, several other bright and shiny projects like my niece’s band sampler and Hardanger Christmas presents distracted me from this one.  It also didn’t help that I had stitched all the interesting parts, leaving only the moon to do:  a vast expanse of white, and not nearly as exciting as … well, pretty much anything else I could find.  Before I knew it, Owl & Pussycat had become a UFO, a WIP, whatever you call those long-neglected projects.  (I prefer WIP (work-in-progress) because I really, really want to believe I’ll finish them some day.)

So I’m delighted to report that I finished Owl & Pussycat this weekend!  Thing Two is thrilled, too:  he watched intently as the last few French knots were stitched and was reluctant to let it go for photos before settling into its place of honor in his room.

Even though it took so long to get around to completing, I still like this scene quite a bit.  The color scheme is delightful and the characters are cute.  The night sky is all half cross stitches, so it’s not as difficult as it might appear; that section was completed much more quickly than the moon.  The backstitched characters and boat, set against half cross stitches and pale moon and sea colors create almost a three-dimensional look.  I added Kreinik pearl blending filament to the stars to make them sparkle; they also “pop” out a little more from the night sky.   Last year when I began this project, I was worried about all the back stitching, but after completing the chickadee tablecloth for Christmas, this back stitching was a breeze by comparison; I finished it in no time.

The design is by Sue Cook and can be found in Cross Stitch Collection, issue 128.  I bought my issue from eBay, and have seen a few offered since then, so it isn’t too difficult to find.   Owl & Pussycat is one of a four-part series of nursery rhyme charts by Sue Cook, all of which display the same vibrant colors and charm, and would be great additions to a nursery or to a fan of nursery rhymes.

While I’m showing off, how do you like these owl and pussycat stitching accessories?  The pussycat pincushion (which the Gimlet calls “Voodoo Kitty” for reasons best known to himself) was a Christmas gift from a local farmer’s market.  Its stuffing includes lavender, so it smells wonderful.  The owl and mouse tape measure (featured in the September/October 2008 issue of Victoria magazine) is carved out of cow bone with an amazing amount of detail — the feathers and talons are especially intricate.

It was starting to feel like handmade Christmas gifts were too ambitious of goals, but the first project is done!  Follow the jump for a few teaser pictures and cryptic details. (more…)

In addition to my niece’s band sampler, I spent the summer working on several small kits by Just Nan.  These projects are so cute:  lots of color and intricate stitches packed into a small space, and each could be completed in a couple of days.

This sparkly pair of enamel boxes are my new stitching assistants.  Lady Scarlet and Bella Bee (aka Barnabee’s Bride) preside over the dishes in which I keep small stitching odds and ends.  They’re surprisingly heavy, which makes them perfect for holding down the page in an instruction book, or pressing folds into place to mark the center of a piece of fabric.  But that’s not all:  each box opens to reveal a tiny needle book or needle roll.  It’s no surprise that Lady Scarlet and Bella Bee are Thing Two magnets, but he may only play with them with careful supervision.

Equally appealing is this year’s Over the Top/In the Tin series:  four small tins with embroidered lids and a stitching accessory to store inside.  The spring and summer tins were Hop and Sizzle, with a coordinating needle book scissor fob and pin wheel, respectively.  (I didn’t attach the cord to the needle book because I don’t have a pair of scissors tiny enough to fit inside the tin.)  I’ve also completed autumn’s Boo tin, but haven’t started its needle book yet.  Jingle, due to arrive in November, will finish out the series.

Finishing is not my strong suit but I’m improving with each project.  These kits are not very difficult to finish; very basic stitches and careful application of glue are all that’s required.  The Gimlet has been pressed into service to help wind the embroidery floss twisted cords that border each tin lid; enlisting a helper worked a lot better than trying to wind the cord alone using a door knob.