Sunday, April 27, 2014

A Giveaway??

I'd love to have a giveaway!!  But I think I need more followers first!  I have some fun ideas and I think it would be a blast to make up a fun package of goodies!!
Let's hope that I'll get more followers soon!  Then I'll post some giveaway details!
Thank you all for reading and scanning my new blog!!!  This has been great fun!
Back with more details soon!
Frances

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Spring Tree!

After Easter, I removed all the bunnies, carrots & Easter eggs, leaving Spring ornaments!
                                       
Prairie Schooler Spring Miniatures little flower basket.  I added a twine hanger and some braided twine edging.  This green fabric reminded me of basket weave.  I stitched this a long time ago and apparently ran out of the green border thread, so the lower corner wasn't complete!  I added a couple of buttons there!

           
This precious sheep ornament has a clever story--I stitched it years ago from a long-lost "country" pattern book.  It was made to be a dishwasher magnet--white sheep up for CLEAN and black sheep up for DIRTY!  I stitched it, mounted it on stiff board with a magnetic strip, put it on the dishwasher, and it fell off because magnets don't stick there!!! It's been in a drawer for years and I got it out last week and made a cute little sheep ornament!


This sweet peacock was stitched a long time ago, also.  I added a strip of burlap and peacock feather ribbon.  The hanger is braided twine and I love the bright mother of pearl buttons!  It's from a freebie by Jenny Rasmussen located at BirdCrossStitch.com.

I think you can tell by my descriptions that I had stitched up a stack of really cute smalls and just had them in a drawer!  I went on a "finishing frenzy" recently and got everything finished from the stack! What a great feeling!  Now I want to stitch another stack!!!


Two close-ups of the fun, including flowers & butterflies!
            Thanks for visiting and come back soon!  Frances

Thursday, April 17, 2014

A spring finish!

This is a sweet little "Tulip's a Buzz" freebie from Lilybet Designs.  I changed up the colors to go with what I had available and what I was trying to use up!  I love these beads, but it called for a bee charm, which I did not have, so I used a little red ladybug button! Too cute!  Since it's for Spring/Summer, I used bright colors in the fabrics and ribbon.  I'm thinking ahead about what to display when all the Easter fun comes down!  Decisions, decisions!!

Saturday, April 12, 2014

An old favorite!

What a busy time of year this is.....as a church musician, I am in the busiest time, but the most beautiful!  Also, I'm finishing up this school year, working on my masters, and it's almost the end of the year!  YAY!

I was looking around the house and spied this old favorite, a music sampler I made for my mother in law quite a while back.  She's gone now, and this came back to me.  I've always loved it.  I know it's stitched on Aida--or maybe this is called fiddler's cloth?--and I know the colors are probably from "yesterday"!  (And I actually changed to those colors from the chart--you should have seen that!!!!)  Anyway, I love this and have it in my living room near the piano.  I've always used green in my home--I feel it's a neutral, like the leaves in nature.  I think these colors blend with what I have now and I enjoy seeing it when I'm in there!

Psalm Sampler #1 designed by Barbara Stoop

Do you have any old favorites, still hanging around, that make you happy?

Saturday, April 5, 2014

I think I LOVE blogging!!!

Wow!  I am so happy to get a good response to my little blog!  It really is exciting because I have wanted to do this for so long, and just didn't!  I don't even know why!
Thank you for your kind words and comments!  I am having a blast!  I hope you're enjoying, too, and I love looking at your blogs, also!  I intend to spend more time on that tomorrow!

I've always loved wisteria and this bush in our back yard is full of blooms!  (excuse the leaves piled up around the  base!!)  The only bad thing is the large number of giant bumblebees soaring around it!  You run outside quickly to look and run back inside, dodging those bees!  It is supposed to rain and storm tonight, so the flowers will be not so full tomorrow!  I'm glad, though, because the pollen has been everywhere and we are all coughing and crying!!  I always know Spring is really on the way when this wisteria blooms! 
 I love the color.

I've got to finish a couple of little smalls--I'll show you when I'm done.  And, I have a number of cute patriotic ornaments I want to make, so I'm looking forward to that!  I really love all the cute patriotic charts that are available!  The designers are so creative and the designs just look "happy"!  Do you enjoy stitching patriotic designs?

Have a nice, relaxing 'rest of the weekend'!
Thanks for stopping by!
Frances

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Time for an Easter Tree!!

I love fixing a tree for each holiday.  I got my Easter Tree finished and want to share it with you!  In addition to my cross-stitch ornaments, I have many different kinds of cute Easter things on the tree.  I added silk wisteria to the top this year.  Below are some photos of individual ornaments.



Many of these were precious freebies--some are rather old and I'm not even sure who designed them. But, the "hatchling" with the purple dotted bow above is by Sharon Welch.  I don't know who designed the cute carrot, but I think it must have come from a larger design.
The green bunny at the right is from Alexandrina at matryoskabiscornue.  The cute little peach flower is from Prairie Schooler Spring Miniatures--I added a little bee button! The two turquoise bunnies with the ruched ribbon are by Noveau Encore Designs.

When I began making these ornaments, I was trying to use up all the little fabric scraps I had. You know--they're too good to throw away and not good enough to keep???  Many of these are on various colors of Aida.  Some, like the cute bunny at the right are on linen.


The egg shaped bunny is from a freebie by Val's Stuff.   I don't know where the pink PEEP came from--it was in my freebie notebook, so I'm just not sure!  The sweet sheep is from a larger freebie by Jardin Prive.  I put cute button edging across the bottom and a little sheep button on the right side of the edging.
  

This sweet pink bunny is one of Homespun Elegance's eggs in Spring Eggs I.  I didn't think I could make the egg shape at that time, so I just made a rectangle with ribbon on the edges.  I don't know what lovely thread I used...

The tiny yellow bunny is by Kirsten Schmidt and the hot pink Easter egg with ruched edges is by Sylvia from syku66 blog.
I must have liked this bunny because this is the second time I stitched it!!!  This is some type of Christmas thread on pale green Aida.  I had some leftover pillow fringe that I ran across the bottom, for something unusual!  The bunny chart was a freebie by Cheryl A. Smith.


I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my Easter decorating!  Please tell your friends about my new blog and help me get some followers!  Thank you for your visit, and please come by again soon!
Frances