Wishing for a Tropical Vacation

With all the heat here this week I am wishing for a warm tropical vacation with lots of water to swim in.  I may live in Washington State but I am on the desert side and boy can it get hot and dry over here.  Since it has been hot it also means that it has been sunny and I was finally able to take pictures of this towel that I finished last month.

I bought this pattern back in February when I got my new tablecloth.  The sheet had two different flamingo patterns two deer patterns and some cute guest towel patterns with towels saying this if for you.  I have not been able to identity them so any help would be great.  Thank you bookwormbethie  it is a Vogart 207 Sixteen novelty designs for guest towels, scarfs, blouses, etc.  I had to squint to see it on the website because I had missed it before.  Now I wish I had the envelope to go with it but the patterns are the important part.

I also finished my napkins all four of them.  They turned out pretty nice I just wish I could photograph orange better than I did.  I decided not to fill in the blue or white flowers because each time I tried it seemed to make the napkin look very heavy. Thank you again all for your suggestions.

I have been in the house quite a bit lately embroidering and I am getting anxious to get outside and be in the sun but it has also been so hot that you melt.  Maybe for some of you the 90's is not to hot but for here and this early in the summer it is quite hot and we do not have much shade at our house go going outside it like walking under a heat lamp.  So tonight I plan to go bike riding with some friends at 7pm in hopes that it will be cool enough.   Wish me luck and hope I do not get heat stroke.  How do you beat the heat this time of year.

~B

What does it takes to make me happy.

On my way home today I saw some kids playing in the dirt and they looked so happy.  I remember those days when all it took was dirt pile, my barbie doll, my brother's metal tonka trucks and a hose with water.  Oh good times.

That got me thinking, what does it take to make me happy now?  Lucky for you all I have the answer.  Besides the usual. My hubby, cat and family.  I think I have narrowed it down to 3 or 4 things.

1)  The angry birds hat I made my brother, and my brother because he is as fun to be with as he was when we were kids.

2)  Making handmade socks for family members.  This is the latest pair for my Mom.

3)  Yarn my Mom saw and had to buy me from her friend who raises alpacas.

 

4)  Last but certainly not least.....embroidery, cross stitch, needlepoint and knitting supplies from my Grandmother-in-Law.  Man I do not even know where to begin.  At first I was on cloud nine then on day three of organizing I thought I was in hell and now I am back to cloud nine.  I now officially have all the DMC Floss colors except 28 of the colors.  Yes, I do plan to get the last 28 might as well it will be under $10.  This picture does not even represent my own supplies. 

I do have a question for all of you how do you organize your floss?  By color or number?  I have 6 boxes of my own and now I have added 6 more boxes from Granny.  I organized by color and she organized by number.  I am confused!  The floss in the baggies are perle cotton, rayon, rayon mix, hand painted, metallic, ribbon and wool.

The box in the back is full of needlepoint hand painted canvas and some half finished work and some I have no idea what to do with.  I will be researching needlepoint.

I did not take any pictures of the knitting supplies because they are not to organized yet.  She also gave me her Bernina sewing machine.  I see I will need to start reading up on lots of things and do not even know where to start.  Needlework?  Knitting?  Sewing?  Going Crazy?  I am thinking the latter. What do you all think?

~Bekah

Boring Day Continued

Even though Mondays are usual busy at work I was still able to squeeze in some embroidery time at lunch and finish.  I had originally hoped to finish this at home over the weekend but it turns out I left two of my key flosses at work so I was not able to finish. 

What is actually funny is I seem to have lost them and they were not left at work.  Go figure where they might be.  I have looked everywhere.  I just imagine that some bored person found my floss and decided to take up embroidery and now they are not so bored anymore.  Well, in my world that is how it would happen.  Needless to say I had to rip out some stitching and start over.  Oh well I think it turned pretty good except the pants.  I did not realize until I looked at it on the computer that the white does not show up that well.  I will have to re-think them.

I still think they are so cute kissing.  You can see the full towel here.  I do apologize for the dark pictures it has been raining I was not sure how long I would have to wait for some sunshine.

Hope you all have a wonderful day.
~B

Boy or Girl??

I believe this pattern is a workbasket but is was just loose along with the braids that you can attach.  I assume so this can be a little boy or girl whatever you would like.  I think it would be very cute both with braids or without.  It is also has a cute cat and puppy that seem to follow the same style.

I am not sure what to actually use these on but might be fun to try.

Hope you enjoy it.  Have a wonderful Day.

~B

Coats & Clark Book No. 180

This from the Coats & Clark Book No. 180.  It is a very simple patter but would look great with bright colors. 

Enjoy it.

~B

Transfer Tuesday

These two are ones I hope to actually embroider in the near future.  They are from Coats & Clark's Book No. 143-6.  I really like all the details on the flower just trying to figure out the best transfer method so I do not blur all my lines together. 

My favorite method is the sulky transfer pen but it is a bit thick.  I do also like the pencil but my hand always hurts after using the pencil and that is a lot of transferring. 

Does anyone else have a better method?

~B

Sorry this is late I had lots of problems trying to post this.  I lost it 3 times and finally gave up and decided to give it one last shot.  Crossing my fingers.

Transfer Tuesday

Here is a favorite Workbasket, Days of the Week Bears.  They are all so cute in the way they are dressed up and doing all shorts of cute things.  I just adore cartoon bears, there is just somethign about a cute cuddly thing that in real life could kill you I guess.  The full set can be found here. 

I am really not sure on the year of any of my workbasket patterns.  Last year I won a box of Workbasket patterns on ebay that weighted 8.5 lbs 8.5lbs!!  I was shocked when it arrived and at how heavy and full the box was. 

I do get a bit overwhelmed when I go through my pattterns and see how many I own and I wonder if I will ever get a chance to actually embroider them all or will someone end up buying them at a yard sale after I pass away and use them for her collection.

I have given some away on this blog and I probably will give some more away in the near future as a way to ease my mind so keep checking back.

I have several vintage cross stitch patterns please let me know if you are interested in having them posted on a Tuesday.
Have a good day.
~B

P.S. It was brought to my attention that people were not able to download my transfer last week.  I have since changed my permissions and it should not be a problem now.  Happy Stitching!

What a Weekend!

Friday night I worked on the the Robot Devil shirt for Brian.  He was pretty excited the whole night since every time I lifted the hoop to tie off the backside and switch threads he would peek over and smile like a kid on Christmas waiting to open presents.  So I ended up staying up until 2:30 am to get it finished.  So  he could wear it the next day.

It was not one of my brightest moments since I had to get up at 6am to get ready to go shopping with my Mom.  We had planned a shopping trip to spend some of my birthday money.  It was a fun and busy day even though I was still dead tired.  I did get some great deal and lots of pretty clothes and jewlery.  It was almost like going back to school shopping having trying on clothes and asking my Mom what she thinks.  Funny how it is the little things that make you feel young again.  I think I need more those feelings.  Because most of the time I feel a bit old. 

While I was in town I muster up the energy to go to Joanns and spend a gift certificate my work gave me for my birthday.  I was able to get 30 new skeins of floss and 4 new boxes for my floss.  The hinges on one of my boxes broke and I was just going to buy two boxes one as a replacement and one to hold extra but they were buy one get one so of course I had to get four.  I still have $6 left.  I guess I could always get more floss.  I only have 2 full boxes of DMC floss and one full of silk floss and one with hand dyed floss I am not sure if that is enough. 

I think I need to get cracking on a new project and stop hording floss.  What are you all working on?  Any ideas I am at a loss at what to do next.  All of my patterns are starting to look the same the more I look through them.

I will take pictures of the Robot Devil shirt once it is out of the laundry tomorrow. He wore it right away and I did not get a chance to take a picture of it. Brian now has plans for a Zoidberg t-Shirt. What have I started??

~B

A little bit of embroidery

I have not been embroidering for awhile.  We have been so busy going here and there I have not had time to pick out all my colors and prepare them to be toted around.  So for the last 3 weeks in my time at home I have been embroidering this pattern from Coats and Clark Book No. 143  I actually decided to use the colors they suggested.  In retrospect I would probably not use that much green it seems to overwhelm the piece. 


The deer was my favorite not to favorite part because I decided to tackle the long and short stitch.  I did not succeed.  It is very lumpy and wonky in lots of parts, but I am working on it.  If you have any tips please do share I can use all the help you can spare. 

One another note, my birthday was last month (we will not discuss age) it was fun and Brian was so sweet he bought me a universal craft stand.  I put it together but I have not used it much.  I think I will like it for doing french knots and other difficult stiches because it will keep my hands free.  Right now I see the only problem is I tend to move my hoop as I stitch and that might be difficult with the stand.  I do like that is it short and very compact we have a small house so space is a premium.  I plan to play around with it this week and I will let you know what I think later on. 

Does anyone else have a stand, if so any tips?

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow

It is suppose to snow this weekend so I thought I would help it along with sharing my Snowmen patterns. They are all from workbasket patterns. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend.

~Bekah

He's making a list....

Checking it twice gonna find out who is naughty and nice ... This song has been in my head all day!! I even started singing it at the top of my lungs today when I came home (trust me not a pretty sound). Copper thought it was fun and was wanting to play so that was fun. I found these three santa patterns I hope you enjoy them. Hopefully this will help get the songs out of my head.

 ~Bekah

I Gave In

Yes, you heard me I gave in to the pull of selling things you make in hopes to finance your craft projects. The lure was to much and I did it.

Check it out if you like. I still plan to make more things for swaps and gifts than for the shop.
If you have a shop let me know about it. I always need new things to buy.

Have a great weekend all you crafy gals.
~B

It is already December?

Where did the year go? Ever notice how fast time goes the older you get. I really do not like that thought. I do not want to get older. I want to stay forever at the age I am and never move, but I still want presents.

My tea towel has made it home. It took awhile but it was so worth the wait. Everyone did a wonderful job. I can not wait for the next one in January. Hope you all will join us.

The tree has been bought and the lights have been strung now on to the decorating. This year is our vintage tree only vintage and handmade ornaments are allowed on the tree. They look so wonderful. I can not wait to get started decorating it.

Now all that is left is finishing the handmade gifts and buying the last of the other gifts then Christmas will done and I can rest and enjoy it. I started the blanket for my SIL last night and I was surprised and how much I have already gotten done. It is half way done I think I might be running out of yarn so it will have to be a lap blanket. We set a spending limit on gifts and I am already slightly over. We all go over but we try not to too much.

I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas get-togethers and good food. I might be off and on a bit as my life is getting busy with music programs (7 of them in the next 2 weeks) and 2 work Christmas parties not to mention getting together with friends. I might complain but I love it. I love being busy.

Cheers

~B

Tea Towel Make-Over

What do you do when towels you embroider get stains? You work them over and cover them with fabric and rick-rack. It was a fun project and makes me wish I had done this originally. What things have you done to cover stains on your towels?

Cheers
~B

Christmas Swap

Now that Halloween is over I guess I can talk a little about Christmas. I really shouldn't since Thanksgiving is not even here but I must I love Christmas so much.

I am in an ornament swap and this is a test run to see if I should make these. Part of me says yes and the other is no keep them for yourself. I really like the patterns from Sublime Stitching.

I have become a swap addict lately and mostly embroidery don't get me wrong I like to sew and crochet but right now the embroidery but has bitten pretty hard and I have no will power to speak of so embroidery I must. Next time I type it will be with embroidery calloused fingers.

Cheers

~B

Embroidery Swap

I recieved my buttons on Friday. They were all so beautiful and wonderfully made. I am so glad I joined the swap. Enjoy while I go get some rest. Think I might be coming down with a cold.

Cheers
~B

I figured out who these wonderful buttons came from
Owl - Sarah
Apple - Amy
Tea Cup - Joy
Crown - June
Robot - Michelle (the organizer)
Orange buttons - Maitreya they are not pictured yet due to the lack of noticing the bottom of the package held a sixth button for me. I will be taking a picture of that soon. It is very pretty.
Thank you all for your hard work.

Sleep Crafting

Have you ever fallen asleep while doing a craft project only to wake up and think that maybe you were "craft sleeping"? That happened on my last project I was rushing to get it done and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. I was even doing that one eye open to rest the other one but I am still awake I will get this done. I did not get it done on time I took an extra day because I just could not get the face to look right without her looking possessed. You will have to tell me if you think she looks a little demonic in the eyes.

I am torturing myself a bit. I have signed up for 2 more swaps and I am going to be making presents for my side of the family. We decided that we were going to do a homemade Christmas . I am so excited about this. I have not done one since the Christmas where my parents did not have any money to buy us gifts and my dad had extra wood in the garage and he made my brother an x-wing fighter and made me a little kitchen. My mom had extra fabric and made my brother some huge pillows that were stuffed with worn out clothes (boy I hated pillow fights with him after that. One hit and you were down for the count) she made my existing doll bed into a canopy to match my canpy bed. My brother and I still say that was the best Christmas. We thought we hit the jackpot no way did we know that we were broke.

Hopefully this Christmas will be as memorable.

Cheers

~B

New Vintage Embroidery Pattern Blog

I have deleted this blog. Now all patterns will be found here.

Cheers
~B

Next Installment of the Tea Towel Tour

I finished another towel this weekend now only 2 more to go then it will all be done. It is always sad to get to the end. That just mean that we get to start a new swap.

I made her a Pineapple Cooler. On her towel she originally put a girl in shorts with the phrase it is getting hot in here. Well I decided that the Pineapple needed to cools things off before well, you all know the song. He really likes Blue Hawaiians (or I do I can never remember).

If you are interested in this pattern it can be found here.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Cheers
~B

Tea Towel Tour 2

Well, we ship on Monday. I decided this time to start off the tour with my own embroidery. Last time I was just to excited to send I did not put anything on it. Now I want it to be Monday so I can send!

This week has been going fast and this Friday is T's first Football game of the season. His kids are getting excited to play and march at the game. I will be there early so I can help the girls get fitted into the uniforms. I promise to post pictures.

We went camping for labor day and now we are like we need a little camper. We are going to look at one tonight so we will see what kind of shape it is in. If it is just cosmetic I can do that. I hope it is not to bad. I really really want one so I can fix it up. Well back to the grind of work.

Cheers

~B