Vintage Pup

Here is a valentine treat for you.

I took a vintage valentine and enlarged it, then I traced the important lines to get a pattern suitable for embroidery.

I got the great idea from HERE.

I am embroidering the pup right now and am almost done.

I have a Dutch girl almost ready from another vintage valentine.

I'll try to post it by Monday.

Have a great weekend!!!  :-)

Christmas in Stitches

A little holiday stitching project for you!

You'll find the pdf HERE.

Please let me know if you have any troubles accessing the pdf. 

I made a wee pillow when I finished stitching.

I had the hardest time finding a fabric in my stash that made the embroidery POP! 

The back of the pillow is dotted (yeh!) from the same fabric line.

Have Fun!!!  :-)

Note Taking

Here is a little notebook for you to print out.

You can keep track of your plans for Thanksgiving.

I'm going to keep a grocery list, guest list,

and notes on equipment needed (dishes, chairs, etc.)

for our Thanksgiving get-together.

This little notebook is small enough to carry with me,

tucked into my wallet.

After you print it out,

 slice an opening along the center line between the center two blocks.

Fold to make a small booklet.

Please see my past post HERE to see pictures how.

***Sorry if you tried to print this picture and couldn't get it

--I had it as a PNG file and not a jpeg.

Hopefully changing it helps--let me know if you still have trouble.

Polly's Pumpkin

I drew this with great plans to stitch it up and make a mug rug but I haven't gotten to it.

I spent time today re-working some curtains in the bathroom.

I cut the full length panels into a cafe length and a strip gathered up at the top of the window.

This way we get our privacy but still get some natural light.

If one of you manages to stitch Polly and her Pumpkin up--I'd love to see it! :-)

Halloween Goodies

Make this pumpkin bag for a Halloween treat!

Just click HERE

and a PDF will be at hand with the pattern pieces.

Chocolate, It's Good For You!

Little chocolate felt bunny for Easter. 

These are mini-clothespins in the picture.

Click on the pattern and it should come up larger so you can print it out.

Have fun!!

Happy, Happy Easter!!

Ichimatsu

A little ichimatsu (friendship doll) to stitch as my thoughts are with the Japanese people whose strength, endurance and civilized behavior is so admirable in these horrible days.

Please stitch along with me if you want.

I am planning to stitch the finished work (a redwork square) to the front of a little work bag. 

To grab the image above, click on it, copy to your hard drive, and print the image.

Then use a window as a light box to lightly pencil the picture onto a piece of fabric.

I like to use a sharp pencil because it is a thinner line than the water soluble pen.

I don't see the pencil line when I'm done because the red thread covers it well.

The flower on the blouse and the mouth are to be worked in a lazy daisy stitch so be careful penciling that in.

The buttons on the blouse are french knots so just make a pencil dot there instead of the round circle.

Finger Puppet

A knitted finger puppet I whipped up the other evening.

I have no idea what animal? it is....

Finger Puppet

I used variegated sock yarn on size one needles.

Cast on: 20 st.

stockinette stitch 18 rows (give or take)

(K2, SSK) 2 times, K4, (K2tog, K2) 2 times (16 st)

purl

(SSK) 4 times, (K2tog) 4 times (8 st)

purl

K1, SSK, K2, K2tog, K1 (6st)

pull the working thread through all stitches, gather

and stitch the puppet's back up using the mattress stitch.

Pointed ears (make two)

Cast on 2 st.

Kfb, K1 (3 st)

purl

knit

purl

(Kfb) 3 times (6 st)

cast off

Fold ear in half and stitch along the long cast off edge,

then placing onto puppet, stitch one to each side.

This ear could easily become a bunny ear by continuing to knit,

before casting off, until the length is pleasing.

Nose

Cast on 3 st.

Knit one row

Thread the working thread through all three stitches,

gather roughly into a triangular shape

or circular blob and stitch to face.

You could always knit one more row to get a bigger nose.

(each nose is guaranteed to look different) 

Soft-boiled

I have been meaning to get on here and share the knitted egg that I made last week. I used the free pattern shared by Julie at Little Cotton Rabbits. I fiddled with her pattern because I couldn't make the number of stitches come out right. Dummy me didn't realize that different ways of increasing produce different counts. So I re-figured the increase part of the pattern to work with knitting into the front and back of the stitches. The first one I made Em absconded with and I haven't seen it since. She is planning an egg hunt for her father and I and she needed a prize egg. :-)
Anyway, the bluey one above and below is the second one I made with varigated yarn from knitpicks. I wish I had time right now to make more.

The crocheted egg is from a shop in Evanston.

Threadwork or Redwork

Here are a couple of thread work patterns from a baby quilt that my great-grandmother made in the 30's. I posted a picture of the quilt and a couple of the other patterns a while back. If you follow the patterns tag under Labels along the side bar it should get you to the other ones. It was originally made using all different pastel threads...just beautiful! :-)

Brownies and Scones--only one being food

Here is an ice cream mold featuring a brownie character. I haven't been molding any ice cream but I did try black Fimo clay on just the face part. The result is kinda buggy-eyed, huh?

At Christmas, my daughter got a scrapbook sort of a book based on The Spiderwick Chronicles books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. The scrapbook is said to be put together by a character in the book that is a brownie named Thimbletack. The book is a lot of fun, with little flaps and letters to open. I have always loved lift-the-flap books anyway. :-) A movie based on the books is supposed to be coming out soon.

I made a small cloth bag several years ago that was redworked with a Brownie. I took one of Palmer Cox's illustrations and enlarged it. After enlarging I used a light box to trace it onto the cloth using a pen with water dissolving ink. This is the pattern that I used if you want to use it. The Palmer Cox images are copyright-free I'm pretty sure. :-) Let me know if you can't save the image and I'll try to figure out a different way of posting it.

On another note, I tried my new recipe for the week and this one turned out a whole lot better than last weeks chicken fiasco. This morning I made Cherry-Almond Scones. It uses dried tart cherries from the Cherry Republic in Michigan. We love eating these cherries, which two very thoughtful people have given us, right out of the bag but cooking with them is great too. The scones just were so yummy. :-)

I started with a recipe from Martha Stewart but I couldn't resist meddling with it. I made the scones a bit lighter by using skim milk instead of cream and I like almonds with cherries, this time I just added the flavoring but next time I'll add sliced almonds too. Here is the picture of the scones and the recipe I used follows.

Cherry-Almond Scones
1 3/4 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
6 Tablespoons salted butter-cut into pieces
1/2 cup dried tart cherries-chopped slightly
1/4 cup sliced almonds-optional
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon almond flavoring
1 egg
5-6 Tablespoons skim milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine flour, baking powder and sugar. Cut the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse meal. Add chopped cherries and sliced almonds, toss slightly.
Beat together egg and milk seperately and add almond flavoring and lemon zest.
Stir together the liquid and flour mixtures until it just comes together. If it is way too dry a little more milk can be added.
On a lightly floured surface pat the dough into a circle 6 inches round and an inch thick.
Cut into 8 wedge-shaped pieces and place onto prepared baking sheet.
Brush with a little milk and sprinkle the top with a bit of demerara sugar.
Bake for 13-14 minutes until golden brown.
Serve while warm.

Jackie--thanks again--I enjoy hearing from you! :-) My daughter is a Brownie right now--a part of the Girl "Scouts" here in the states. I never was one--Girl Scout or Brownie that is--I was in the Camp Fire Girls when I was young which had a Bluebird group for the little girls. More on this next time...... :-) Take Care!!

Redwork quilt pattern

Here is another block from the baby quilt. I like the french knot flowers in this one.

As before--personal use only--Thanks! :-)

Redwork

A beautiful splash cloth I found in an antique store. It roughly translates from Czech "Good fortune will come to you if you clean your stovepipe" These splash clothes were hung above the dry sinks or kitchen table to keep the wall behind them clean. I've got this one way above my sink as a window curtain/decoration in the kitchen.

This picture is of a little thing I made for Emily's room when she was a baby. The redwork pattern came from a library book which I'm sure is still under copyright. The calico buttons are reproductions ordered from a CA company named Chile-n-Crackers.

And finally this baby quilt that is from my family. I have started to copy the patterns from it and want to share, so keep checking back (one is below). I have to post them in jpeg format because I can't figure out any other way right now. Feel free to right click and save, print or whatever. I don't know where the patterns came from so please don't use them for commercial purposes. They are mostly mother goose oriented with some sunbonnets and babies thrown in. You might be able to tell from the photo above that the quilt has some serious mildew damage and browning. Does anyone have advice on how to safely remove any of this?