Been Cross-Stitching again….

June 3, 2010 By Katherine Pritchard Leave a Comment

Just so you know I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth…I’ve been doing a ‘little’ cross stitching…and I do mean a LITTLE!

The pattern is from Ewe & Eye & Friends and is Leaping Rabbit Scissor Companion #123

It is stitched  over one,  on a sweet piece of 32 count;  something or other I can’t find what I cut it out of :) ! (I chose it for the soft color)

I used Gentle Arts Sampler Threads in Tarnished Gold to stitch the piece.

It is framed with an alternating block border of offset cross stitches and the edges are highlighted with Mill Hill Glass Seed Beads #02011.

The pattern does not come with a back item to stitch and thinking my little rabbit looked kind of  hungry I drew and stitched him a carrot! :)

I thought the fob would look nice with my  Sajour Hare Scissors that were looking rather lonely in my stash.

I love stitching small pieces in between continuing work on larger ones, it gives you a sense of completion, and it’s nice to get something done!

Summer’s in full swing around here and hope yours is off to a great start as well.

Blessings on your upcoming weekend! Katherine


Filed Under: Most Recent, Needlework

Traci’s Baby Quilt

December 12, 2009 By Katherine Pritchard

Several posts have referred to the busy-ness of life right now and here’s one of those projects that have been a work in progress and finally accomplished because of that…now mind you the heir-apparent to this cuddly quilt, Lawson, was three months old when I finally got it done, but still, he can enjoy it for a considerable amount of time, so a little grace here eh?!

Traci's-Quilt

If I remember right the dimensions of the finished quilt are something like 72 x 54.

A couple of things I learned on this project that will benefit the next one are:

1.)  Start early!  A project like this needs lots more time than you think!
(Doesn’t everything come to think of it?)
2.) Don’t try to quilt following seam lines when you haven’t sewn one in
how many years?? Even though 90% of all those corners matched
really well, the 10% that didn’t quite match up were pretty
conspicuous when quilting in the straight lines…diagonal lines or
shapes within the squares would have been much preferred.
3.) No matter what the directions call for, always buy ‘EXTRA’ lengths of
fabric because when you need more and go back to the store, guess
what?…they’re sold out! Trying to match a fabric with what you’ve
previously bought is time consuming and difficult and can affect the
overall color scheme of the whole project.

Traci has worked for my sweet hubby for nine great years and we have watched her grow and mature and now she and her husband Jason are parents of a sweet little boy that they adopted. Just like our son Brandon, I know he will fill a special place in their hearts and lives with much love and joy that come with all children. If others should come, they too will have their special places…that’s why God made the hearts of moms and dads like stretch pants…one size fits ALL! LOL!

I hope you’re having a wonderful month, thanks for stopping by!
Katherine

Filed Under: Needlework

Making Memories…

December 5, 2009 By Katherine Pritchard

The other day, Tuesday in fact,  my dear friend Barbie and I enjoyed a frantic time of running around Waco, finishing up errands, fixing mishaps, and generally “I can’t believe we’re ever going to get on the road” kind of day as we were trying to leave town for our monthly girls-day-out Tudor Rose Sampler Guild meeting in the Dallas-Ft Worth area.  Now keep in mind we usually leave around 9:30-10:00ish for a day of shopping and lunch followed by fun, sharing,  and stitching a bit at guild that evening and returning home around 11:00.

This month however we were both stressed by the busy-ness of our lives and, to make matters worse, we had decided to participate in the Christmas Ornament exchange at guild, which meant stitching and finishing an ornament suitable for peer review at guild.

We did finally make it to guild and at the end of the day we had a wonderful trip as usual.  I was very delighted to end up with an ornament that complimented a piece I had stitched back in 2001 for Christmas that year.

2009-TRSG-Christmas-Ornamen

You can see how the two go together so well.  I’m looking for one of those curvey stands to hang the ornament from so I can keep the two of them together.

All-in-all the experience has taught me that I need to make that extra effort to de-stress my life and, maybe plan things out a little better, and possibly lower my expectations of what I can get accomplished in a given time frame.  I’m hoping to get a picture of the ornament that I created from the sweet gal who ended up with it…since I forgot to take a picture before I wrapped it!!!

Oh well, in spite of our protestations to the contrary, life goes on!  I hope you’re going to have a great weekend and remember to enjoy the simple pleasures of the season, the music, and the crispness in the air, the shining faces of the children.  But,  remember most of all to tell them of the story of the One who made it all possible!

Blessings to you for stopping by!

Katherine

Filed Under: Needlework

Busy times…

October 7, 2009 By Katherine Pritchard

It’s been really crazy around here, lots going on, changes coming down the pike and we haven’t even started thinking about the holidays yet! Whew! I don’t know about you but I’m ready for a break. It’s been good though, here’s a peek at what my BFF Barbie & I did a couple of weekends ago…

Finished-project

This lovely project was the culmination of a Jane Timmer’s Finishing Workshop held in Keller TX. We received our patterns and materials to do the pre-stitching before the workshop so we’d be ready to learn the construction techniques. The whole weekend was so much fun, and because of Barbie’s super Priceline skills, we were able to stay at a really nice Micro-tel for just $38 a night, which made the weekend so much more enjoyable not having to drive back and forth to Waco.

The needle book turned out really lovely…

Needle-Book

Being a very inexperienced stitcher it was interesting to work on a piece that was not ‘symmetrical’ the Biscornu was much more comfortable since it was a square piece originally…

Biscornu

I’m not sure of the history behind the Biscornu, but I think it can be used for a pin cushion. It seems to get it’s name from the finished shape that it takes when two squares are stitched together with the corners in the middle of the straight segments. Very peculiar at first when stitching piece together, but then it seems to ‘fit’ nicely as you round the last corner.

The finishing of the needle book was much easier than I expected thanks in large part to a wonderful teacher, Jane Timmers. I’d definitely take another workshop of hers if she comes back to our area, I believe she is from Atlanta.

Needle-Book-Inside-Detail

Of course working with the Maderia fabrics was really wonderful, I have the strips from the Jelly Roll Tin and the fabrics to make the quilt that they were designed for and “one of these days” that will be another project!

Take a closer look at the top picture and you’ll see that she even taught us how to line the inside of the tin for a very finished look. We even twisted the cording with a hand drill. That was so easy you wouldn’t have believed it could be so simple. It makes all the difference when you have the correct tools!

Needle-Book-Cordnig-Detail

I couldn’t wait to use my Michael’s 40% off coupon to get one, now I just need to build the cup holder that is used to hook the thread onto the drill. I’ll show you that in a future post when I get it put together.

Well, I hope you’re having a great week! Mine’s looking much better since my cold/allergies are a little better. Thanks for stopping by.

See you around the corner!
Katherine

Filed Under: Needlework, Stampin' Up!

Happy DAD Day

June 24, 2009 By Katherine Pritchard

happy-dad-dad-day

I hope your Father’s Day was a good one! There always seems to be a ‘rush’ around Father’s Day…I think it has something to do with coming just after kids are out of school and their summer activities getting cranked up, but maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, I completed this great little piece for my darling hubby just in time for Monday night’s dinner. (We were out-of-town for Sunday so had planned ahead of time to have our Father’s Day celebratory dinner on Monday.)

The piece is from the Triology folks and is called Happy Dad Dad Day, I’ve worked it on a 40 count Abecedarian Blend Linen with one floss over two threads using Gentle Art and Weeks Dye Works Over Dyed fibers. I was grateful that I not only got it finished in time but also was able to mount and frame it. WHEW! You should have been around on Monday afternoon! Stuff was flying…

tree-card

Of course there were the cards that needed to be completed. Once you’ve created hand made cards and such, there’s just no going to the store and buying anything along that line…so of course the guys wanted one of my cards for dad as well…and there you go! Yes, stuff was indeed F-L-Y-I-N-G!!!

saw-card

The Tree Trio card uses the Trendy Trees Stamp Set with Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Yo Yo Yellow and Old Olive Classic Ink, The center of the Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware is a piece of Chocolate Chip card stock with ‘father’ stamped from the Wonderful Favorites Stamp Set using White Craft Ink. A Chocolate Chip 5/8″ Grosgrain knot is alongside. (A design element to take note of is the use of a strong accent color, Chocolate Chip in three places on the card…ribbon, tree trunks, and medallion.)

The Dad Sawed card uses the great Totally Tool Stamp Set, in Chocolate Chip classic ink. The Large Star Punch is accented with one of the small circle brads to repeat the dots in the upper portion of card. I dyed a piece of the Very Vanilla 5/8″ Grosgrain ribbon with a few drops of Only Orange re-inker and topped it off with a knot in the Chocolate Chip 1/4″ Grosgrain.

Both cards use scrap pieces of Designer Series Paper leftover from other projects.

Dad’s are vitally important in the lives of their families and many times are the unsung heroes behind the scenes. It’s hard to know what to get dad for father’s day, most of them don’t really ‘want’ or actually need anything of a material nature. Rather, they generally speaking, just enjoy the opportunity to spend some time with their family.
I hope you got the chance to give your Dad, or your kid’s dad that time this Father’s Day.

Have a great week!
Katherine
(Oh Yeah…I’ll tell you about where we were last week in the next post, it was AWESOME!)

Filed Under: Cards, Family, Needlework

Because you asked!

June 12, 2009 By Katherine Pritchard

I’ve had lots of you ask how my Williamsburg Remembered stitching project is coming, and here it is:

2009-06-09-williamsburg-pro

I have one more bar of stitching and this side of the outer case is finished! I think I’m doing pretty good in moving right along. I need to start practicing some specialty stitches that are challenging on the front cover rose arbor. I’m sure that will slow progress a bit over the summer, but I’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I’ve started a piece for my darling hubby :) for Father’s Day that has my attention right now. You’ll have to wait till then to get a peek at it, but I think you’ll love it!

Remember what your grandmother used to say (at least mine always did!). . .”Idle hands are the devil’s play toys!” so keep busy!

Katherine

Filed Under: Needlework
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