Knitting and Crocheting Two Earwarmers and A Hat

 I bought some pretty red yarn with metallic thread running through it  to crochet a winter hat for myself.  I needed a project to work on in case I had to report for jury duty last week.  I needed a project that didn't include sharp knotting needles or scissors.  I didn't think I could get any scissors or knitting needles into the courthouse.  My bamboo crochet hook would be a better choice.  I didn't have to report for jury duty but I did finish my hat last week.  

  I had an dark blue earwarmer on the needles since January so I finished that and made another with the red yarn with metallic thread running through it.  

    

 

Patchwork Christmas Stocking

    My daughter gave me some beautiful fabrics for Christmas last year.  I made a pillow cover and a patchwork stocking with them.  I love the touch of blue with traditional green, red, and white.

Little Embroidered Holiday Pillows

 I've  been busy making some more small embroidered holiday pillows for me and dear daughter.  Here are two that are my favorites.

Blue and White Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt Update

    I've been working on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt pretty steady.  I have 17 full flowers and two halves sewn up.  I'm going to get all 36 flowers and 6 halves put together before I start sewing my rows together.  

    The quilt will have 6 rows with 6 and a half flowers in each row.  Here is a picture of the flowers and the hexies ready to make more flowers.

Crochet Towel Holder

   I love the look of crochet towel holders with wooden rings sewn to them.  I made up my own pattern for the crochet part.

  I used cotton yarn that I use for dish cloths.  Size 4 cotton yarn worked well. 

    I started by leaving a long tail about 24 inches to use to stitch this end to the wooden ring.   I chained 12.   Row 1 -  sc in the second chain from hook and sc in the next 10 chains, (11 stitches) chain 1, turn.  Rows 2 - 24 sc in 11 stitches across, chain 1 turn.  

   After securing the last stitch, I left another long tail about 24 inches to stitch this end to the wooden ring. 

   I bought 3.5 inch wooden rings from Amazon to use in this project. 

   There are several tutorials on youtube to make some very pretty crocheted towel holders.  My pattern is super simple and quick to make.  

Witch's Broom

 I found a youtube tutorial on how to make a witch's broom with a stick and Cinnamon brooms bought at the grocery store.  I found this large stick in my yard, it fell from the pine tree in the backyard.  I bought three Cinnamon brooms to fill out the bottom and I attached them by winding twine around the Cinnamon brooms.  It was easy to make and it looks creepy enough to be real.  I put this out with my Halloween decorations.

One More Halloween Cross Stitch

 I found this cross stitch in the free patterns listed on a website that was included on a youtube video showing free Halloween cross stitch patterns.   I loved the cat on this one.  Of course I stitched two, one for me and one for dear daughter.

Fully Finished Halloween Cross Stitch

 I put borders on the small cross stitch and made a hanging ornament with a backing and a little bit of Fiberfill.  So cute and such an easy way to finish a design for decoration.

Small Halloween Cross Stitch

 I found this cute cross stitch pattern on pinterest.  It took me about 2 1/2 hours to stitch.  I'm going to make it into a small hanging ornament with a fabric border and backing.

  

Christmas Decorations, Wall Decorations, Start A New Quilt

 My dear daughter asked me to make her some Christmas decorations that would match some fabric reindeer she purchased a couple of years ago at Hobby Lobby.  She has two Reindeer made with white and red ticking fabric.  She bought the materials and I made her three stockings and a Santa hat to match her reindeer using easy tutorials I found on youtube.  

    I found these embroidery hoops that I filled with some of my favorite fabrics.  I did these a couple of years ago but I never finished them.  I looked up a tutorial on how to finish them and decided to add a piece of white fabric behind the favorite fabric.  Trim the white fabric flush with the embroidery hoop ring on the back then trim the favorite fabric leaving about three quarters of an inch to glue to the embroidery hoop on the back using hot glue.  It was easy and I had all the materials I needed in my stash to finish my hoops and hang them.  

I'm starting a new English paper piecing hexagon quilt.  I want to make it with blue flowers with white and blue framing.  I'm having fun cutting up my blue scraps. 

Patriotic Embroideries Framed

    I finished the second patriotic embroidery last week while I was pet sitting.  I received my sticky boards that I ordered to use in framing the embroideries on Saturday.  Yesterday I laced both embroideries onto the non-sticky side of the sticky board (I placed a piece of pretty scrapbook paper on the sticky side since I didn't want any of the glue on my fabric).  I used the sticky board so I would have an acid free 8 x 10 board to lace the embroideries on.  There might be another option, that was the cheapest and easiest for me to use for this project.  It's the first time I have framed any of my embroideries.  Here are pictures of the embroideries.  You can tell the difference between the two finished because I accidentally used red thread on the stripes of the letter I in liberty on the one I'm keeping.  Those stripes should have been blue.  The stripes are blue on dear daughter's embroidery.

Patriotic Embroidery Finished

    I bought this Kathy Schmitz embroidery pattern in April, 2021.  It was a fun stitch and she gave very clear instructions for specialty stitches.  I will frame this in a 8 x 10 frame.  This will be given to dear daughter.  I have to make a second one for me.  

Thimble Pips For Storing Antique Thimbles

    I found this cute little case I could make to store my two antique thimbles.  I used materials from my stash.  The pattern and YouTube tutorial to make these little thimble cases are here.  They were fun to make but a little labor intensive.  By the time I got the sides ready to sew together I had almost lost interest.  I put them aside for a week then I took an afternoon and sewed the two thimble pips together.  They would make a lovely sewing gift for a friend who stitches.

My First Small Cross Stitch Project Fully Finished

    I found this chart on the Country Living website under free patterns.  I thought this would look great with the hand made strawberries that I finished last week.  It took me about 12 hours to do each cross stitch piece.  It was the first time I ever did cross stitch.  I stitched these on size 14 Aida fabric that I have had for awhile.  The chart gives you the color numbers for DMC floss and I had all three colors  in my embroidery floss stash.   So I made two of this chart and made them into a pretty pillows.  Dear daughter got the pink one and I kept the green one.

    About my DMC floss stash.  About 8 years ago I went onto the 123stitch website and ordered one of each of the regular colors.  I don't know how many colors I got, but it was a lot. My stash isn't very organized so I'm taking time to organize it by color number since doing it by color was not working very well for me.  I'm just going to put groups of numbers in plastic bags and put those bags in a big plastic box for safe keeping.  

Pretty Fabric For A Quilt And Thimble Pips

      One of my next quilts will be made with this lovely Anne of Green Gables Fabric fat quarter bundle.  Insert pictures of of Ann of Green Gables fabric.  I want to make the Bisection Quilt from storiedquilts.com, link here.  I bought a lovely light lavender fabric for my sashing.

     I'm in the process of making two thimble pips for my antique thimbles I inherited from my mother.   The YouTube tutorial is here.  I have all the sides put together, I just have to sew them up.  I'll post a picture when finished.

Fabric Strawberries Are Done

    I'm going to use these strawberries as decoration during the spring and summertime.  I found the pattern for the strawberries, leaves and stems here.  It was fun to make these but very time consuming.  I started these two days ago.  I spent a lot of time cutting out enough leaves (140) for 20 berries, then I had to sew 7 leaves together for each piece of fruit.  It took some time.  I love the end result.  I made ten berries for dear daughter and ten berries for me.

Chandelier Quilt Finish And New Projects Ready To Start

  I finished the chandelier quilt.  I love this backing and binding fabric.  I found it at Thousands Of Bolts online.   

   I used the leftover 2.5 inch pieces from the charm squares to make the middle strip in my backing.

   

    Now I have a couple of Christmas items to make for dear daughter.  I also found a pattern and fabric to make fabric strawberries.  I will also be working on the next  four quilt tops that I have fabric for.   And I  pulled out my strip scraps to start a scrappy quilt top or two. 

    I stumbled on a 20 yard bolt of cotton batting that is 90 inches wide for $89 at Joanns, so all I will have to buy for the next ten quilts will be backing/binding fabric.  

It's Been Awhile Since I Last Posted

   I wasn't sewing, crocheting, knitting, painting or doing anything creative so I didn't feel much like posting.  Last month dear daughter and I went to Disney World for a family reunion of sorts.  There were only ten of us and it rained two of the park days but it was still a fun time to meet up with family.  After we left Disney I came home to host my big brother and his wife at my house for 4 nights.  They are both allergic to cats so I had spent several days deep cleaning my master bedroom and bathroom for their use.  I also cleaned up the living room, kitchen and dining room including shampooing carpets and taking drapes down for cleaning.  It was a production but all of my spring cleaning is done now and I can make quilt tops.

  

   I've had the material for this quilt top since 2018.  I bought several charm square packs of Home Sweet Home which shows Goldilocks and the three bears on several of the prints.  It's a cute line and I've been dying to work up a quilt top with it.  I found the chandelier quilt top tutorial by Missouri Star and decided to use two of my charm packs for that quilt.  Here my quilt top.  I framed the squares with an aqua mini dot.  I love it.  It's not the best picture but once I get it sandwiched and quilted, I'll get a better picture of it.

   I have three more quilt tops I want to make now.  I'm going to take 10 inch squares and make 7 rows by 7 columns for a nice size quilt top.  It's an easy way to get my sewing fix without a lot of cutting.