Author Archives: alisonshirley

About alisonshirley

My true love is cross stitch, but I also dabble in a few other needlearts and love to quilt and craft in general.

February YOTA

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For the YOTA challenge hosted by Pull the Other Thread, I have been stitching on my UFO “Home Sweet Home” by La-D-Da.

This was my progress when I pulled it out of hiding in mid-January:

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When it is finished, it will hopefully look something similar to this:

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And, drum roll please, this is my progress to date:

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Not as much as I would have hoped considering the amount of hours I have put into it in the few weeks.

Once I started stitching on it, I remembered why I put it down.  I am having problems with the vines.  I don’t like how they are spaced.  There are some that are all bunched up together and then there are random blank spaces.  I don’t like it at all.  And I can’t just stitch them as the pattern calls for because it will drive me absolutely bonkers staring at it on the wall knowing that the vines are not evenly spaced.

So, what am I having to do?  Alter the pattern.  As I stitch, I am having to figure out which spots have too many vines and then trying to figure out which ones I can remove to make it look better.  And it is taking FOREVER.

In order to not drive myself too crazy, I think I am now going to switch to my other YOTA project I dug out of the bucket of cross stitch stuff.  It is “The Legend of the Dogwood Tree” by Praying Hands.  I will stitch on TLOTDT until the next YOTA post in March.

Needlebook

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I have seen some wonderful needle books out in The Interwebs and have become very jealous of them. I want one!

My needle storage up to this point has been super unorganized and it is difficult to find needles that I know I have.  But, oh, wouldn’t it be so wonderful to have them all in one place!  Organized, labeled, neatly sitting there in rows upon rows of beautiful needles – ready to create amazing things!

So, off I went to figure out what I wanted my needle book to look like. I saw cross stitched ones, patchwork ones, felt ones, fabric ones, large ones, small ones, some that fold, some that roll, ribbon closures, button closures – boy, the list goes on and on! There are endless possibilities. But, what do I want?

This one is from Domestic Doozie.  I really like this one.  She has a great tutorial (which I plan to use with a some slight modifications).
 

Love, Love, Love the pocket!

 

These are some other cool ideas for embellishing the pages.

  

Here is what I decided on:

  • I want a printed fabric cover – maybe with some beading.
  • I want it big enough to hold lots of needles, but not too big to carry around in my project box.
  • I’m thinking embroidered labels – maybe ribbon.
  • I want a button closure.
  • I want some lace accents or maybe some ric rac. Just for smiles.

Now, off to dig through my stash to find a beautiful fabric to add some beading to.  I’m sure I have something that will work.

Artemisia Update

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I’ve made some progress on the Artemisia butterfly.  I took this picture on Jan. 15.

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And this picture shows my progress to date.  I would guess that I am about 70% done with this one.

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The finished piece will be about 6 inches wide by about 4 inches tall.

There are a total of 14 charts in this series, but I only plan to stitch 8 of them.  Once I finish all 8, I want to frame them individually to hang on a wall.

Hopefully, I can finish this one soon so I can start another project.  My next start will be Loose Feathers by Blackbird Designs and I am super excited about it!

Little Stitches

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It is always great to think that your children are following in your footsteps.  For years, I have tried to get my daughter interested in needlearts.   I have tried to teach her cross stitch and there was one disasterous event that involved crochet.  But alas, she has never taken to any of it.  Her creativity lies with pen and paper.  She is an excellent artist.

I thought all was lost – I would never pass my love of cross stitch on to either of my children.  Until this past weekend.  My son (who is 6 years old and a boy’s boy – very rough and tumble) showed interest in cross stitching.  He kept asking for me to teach him, so we went to the craft store and I let him pick out his own thread colors and hoop so he could do his own project.

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He wanted to stitch a Christmas Tree, so I lightly drew one onto Aida cloth and he used that as a guide.  It took him some time to get the hang of it, but he ended up doing very well.  It wasn’t actually “cross stitch” – it was more of a running stitch, but he did a good job and I was so proud!

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I know he probably won’t love it as much as I do, but I can hope!

 

 

 

 

Quilt Finish! (only 6 months late)

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Yay!!  I finished my daughter’s quilt!  And it’s ONLY 6 months late.  Better late than never.  (I have another one for her I began about 4 years ago that is still not finished.)

I was supposed to have this quilt ready for her when she went to school in August.   Obviously, that didn’t happen.  But I’m sure she will be happy that she will get it now – just in time for the cold weather.  It is her school colors – Navy and Gold.   I’ve been debating on it’s name – School Colors or Blue&Gold.   Pretty inventive, huh?  I think I am going to go with Blue&Gold.

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FRONT
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BACK

I didn’t use a pattern for this.  She had seen a picture of a quilt in a magazine and like it, so I had to “wing it.”  I hope it is the right size to fit her bed.  I think it may actually be a little big.  But I would rather it be too big than too small.

It just has straight “stitch in the ditch” quilting.  I tried to keep it simple so I could actually finish it in this century.

I am really happy with how it turned out.  I just hope she likes it!

Now, I have to wash it and then it is ready to be mailed!