Summer in the Sewing Room

Finishing Hat Trick: Inexpensive, Easy, Adorable

Isn't it fun when you find the perfect fabric for a design? Or the perfect frame for a finish? Or the perfect trim for an ornament? It's even better when you don't even know what you're looking for, and then your eye falls upon it, and your stitching brain hollers, "That's it! That's what I was looking for!" 

So in my last post, where I showed this finish, I mentioned I hadn't yet put a backing on it because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. I wanted to do... something. I was out running errands the other day and happened to be in Michael's and spotted this little chalkboard tag. I recognized the shape of the top of the tag as pretty much the identical shape I had just cut around on the top of my lantern ornament. And I thought, "There it is! There's my finish!" And for a whopping $1.99! I love it when that happens!

If you're wondering what a "Hat Trick" is, it's when a hockey player scores three goals in one game. Pretty hard to do. The fans celebrate by throwing their hats onto the ice. Not sure what I should be tossing for my finishing hat trick. Maybe skeins of floss?

This makes my heart happy! The best season is almost upon us! 

News You Can Use

Another wee Halloween finish! This is a Mill Hill kit called Moonstruck Manor. There's a companion kit with a kitty that's also in the to-do pile for this summer. I haven't done one of these in years but I was reminded of how fun they are to do. Haven't finished the back yet as I'm not sure what I want to do with it. 

Next project is on the Q-snaps, all ready to go!

Couple bits of news. At long last, Brooke Nolan has made her monthly birthday cake freebies available on her website. These are gorgeous freebies from years and years ago that were originally available through her members-only Yahoo group, then moved to the now-defunct Craftsy site. I have seen some of these stitched up and embellished with beads and other goodies and they are really lovely. Check out her other freebie pages while you're there. She has some great stuff for free.

Also, designer Teresa Kogut has created a series of 15 designs with 100% of the profits to be donated to each of 15 different needlework shops around the country. They're available in her Etsy shop. To see which shop each design benefits, click on the design and then on "learn more about this item" to the right of the picture. Your favorite shop may have a benefit design, but even if it doesn't, whichever one you choose helps out a small business owner. I am partial to that gardening cow!

I want to thank y'all for all the well-wishes during our quarantine. We were set free on Sunday, a couple days earlier than we expected, and we're trying to get back to a normal routine. Hope all of y'all are well and enjoying summer as much as possible. 

Bonus Tiger Lily!

Summer of Hallo-Quarantine

Welp. My Summer of Halloween hasn't gotten off to the start I had hoped for or expected. We're in quarantine. Real quarantine, not voluntary stay-at-home. *sigh* Mr. Wonderful had a sorta-kinda "exposure" to a person who he later was informed is positive for the virus (both were wearing masks, no physical contact, brief encounter). He had to be tested, and even though--thankfully!--he tested negative, both of us have to remain in quarantine for the full 14 days. Since this is a happy place, we'll skip the part where I share what I think about that, and just move on to Summer of Halloween cheer!

As you may imagine, things have been a bit weird here so I didn't get off to a great start on my Halloween stitching, but I have managed one little finish. Isn't this cute? It's available here and the only change I made was to stitch the two darker kitties in black instead of dark grey. I stitched it on PTP Dawn. I love the way the oranges glow on the dark fabric. 

I also treated myself to a new pair of scissors because why shouldn't our scissors match our projects? I can't think of a reason. This pair has a black oxide finish and snips nicely at the tips. Even Mr. Wonderful thinks these are cool.

While I was digging around and pulling supplies for Halloween projects, I took a quick picture of several of my darker fabrics for comparison. Thought I'd share in case you're going to be doing some spooky stitching of your own. Top to bottom (all Picture This Plus): Dawn (linen), Haunted (linen), Mirage (lugana). Different fabrics take dye differently, so keep that in mind if you're going shopping.

So that's the latest from our house. Quarantine (it's day 8, by the way) and Halloween stitching. And weirdness. What a year. And it's only June!