A compendium of homespun endeavours.
Nothing outstanding today, sorry. This isn’t even the first time I’ve made them. But summer’s rapidly approaching, and nothing is quite as refreshing as a Pineapple Right-Side-Up cupcake from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Aren’t they adorable?
They look all fancy-like but are actually ridiculously simple. And straight out of the fridge…mmmm….that delicate blend of spice and fruitiness can’t be beat. And who couldn’t use a little extra Vitamin C?
When I worked downtown, I made the acquaintance of one of the – if not the – city’s remaining shoe shiners. He always has a smile and a hello for everyone who passes by his shop, and knows absolutely everyone who is down there on a regular basis. Heck, he knows me, and I don’t generally wear shine-able shoes.
Last year the newspaper featured a human interest story about him, how he got started, how he came to be in his present location, that kind of thing, and the one quote of his that really stuck with me is “You can’t make a deal with a dirty heel.” He’s probably right, but more than the accuracy, the saying appealed to me as a potential sampler, although it took me more than a year to get around to doing anything about it. With an alphabet from Better Homes and Gardens 2001 Cross Stitch Designs and my beloved PCStitch, I came up with this and stitched it up for him:
I tried to keep the colours masculine – doing “dirty” in a shoe-splattered brown was my dad’s idea, and I think it worked perfectly. When I went downtown for lunch the other day I stopped by his shop to deliver the finished product, and I think he was rather surprised by my humble little gift.
I don’t think I could let a Mother’s Day pass without making at least some small handmade item…that would be too weird. I knew I wanted to do a stitched card this year, and after flipping through my ample collection of British stitchery magazines, I decided on this one for two reasons:
1) Mumsy likes dragonflies (this sort of stems from the fact that the kitties like watching and chasing them in the back yard, and since the card was supposed to be from the kitties, well, that made perfect sense)
2) It was a welcome break from my latest project, a Charles Wysocki kit called “Too Pooped” which, though enjoyable, has possibly the largest tree ever and is primarily brown and more brown.
Bonus: Now that I’ve finished it, I feel confident that I can one day tackle the Frederick the Literate kit I’ve got stashed away.
Without further ado:
Happy Mother’s Day!
I say “vault” because this was actually a Christmas present for my mom, and it’s only now that I’ve gotten around to taking pictures and posting it. I had originally seen the Bugs Bunny fabric in Fabricland last summer, and knew I had to buy some without really having a firm plan for it; the plan fell very quickly into place shortly thereafter. [Internal monologue: “What would I do with that?” “I dunno, make a scrub top? He’s got the lab coat and stethoscope and everything.”]
With the fabric at home and the plan in mind, I dragged my wonderfully patient friend to WalMart’s craft department and flashed different pattern envelopes at him. “Okay, this…or this? Do you like the crossover style, or the one with the pocket detail? Hey, this one claims to be so easy, what do you think?” We agreed that Simplicity It’s So Easy 3633 fit the bill. I love when he indulges my whims like that.
Despite having everything picked out so far in advance, and even having cut the pattern pieces out well ahead of time, it was still 9:00 on Christmas Eve before I finished the blasted thing. Fortunately, she loved it, and thought I had bought it. On to the pictures! The front:
And a close-up of that awesome fabric (you may get a larger view if you click it. Go on, you know you want to):
A final note: I don’t have a serger, but to keep the seams nice n’ sturdy, I trimmed my seam allowances once they were sewn, and re-sewed them with a zig-zag stitch. This thing ought to be able to stand up to whatever she has planned for it.
I want it known that I am not a Trekkie. Never have been, never will be. Sorry, Bill, Sue, Rick, and anyone else who doesn’t get why I don’t get them.
*whew*
So, then: what’s a girl to do when her contract at work is up, and she’s grown rather attached to her coworkers, and wants to do something nice for one of them to remember her by? One doesn’t want to get extravagant, obviously, but to just leave having done nothing didn’t seem appropriate to the situation. The coworker, unlike the author, is a Trekkie, albeit a TNG fan (Philistine!). Enter black-lupin (http://black-lupin.deviantart.com) and her fabulous array of mini-Star Trek characters! This is what I came up with:
(What horrible lighting! His uniform is partly burgundy, I swear. DMC 814, if you want to check!)
I wasn’t quite sure I had done Captain Picard justice, but both the recipient and another coworker knew immediately who it was. I feel so validated.
So, over the winter I took a Swing Dancercise class through the city’s leisure guide…basically, an hour of aerobics with swing-based footwork and a little choreography thrown in for fun. I won’t be winning any dance contests anytime soon with what I’ve learned, since this was a no-partner-required deal, but hey, it got me off the couch for an hour a week. The instructor made it really fun, too, always kept things upbeat.
When I rediscovered Sublime Stitching’s Roaring Twenties patterns in my stash, I decided she needed a little goodbye present, since our last class was rapidly approaching. One of the dances we had learned was the Charleston, and that appeared to be just what this dancer was doing, so onto a tea towel she went! (Besides, no kitchen should be without one of these!)
Action shot on my stove:
And a close-up of the stitching:
It’s mostly backstitch, with a little satin stitch and a few French knots thrown in for good measure. Her dress and gold accessories were done in Petite Treasure Braid metallics, which are honestly the best metallic threads I’ve ever used. Pricey, but worth it.
And her garter matches her shoes….eeee!!
Somehow, National Embroidery Month (known to the non-crafty types as “February”) almost slipped right by me with nary a stitch in sight. Oops. I started this on the 27th, and although I did not manage to finish it before the month was up, that was easily accomplished this past weekend (the first of National Craft Month – that still counts, right?).
Nothing too fancy, I’m afraid. It started its life in my household as a rather plain white apron with inexplicably yellow pockets. The bib needed something, though. One Aunt Martha’s Animated Kitchenware transfer and a few old movies’ worth of embroidering later:
Action shot. The bowl is empty, but I assure you, I did bake cookies later on.
Close-up. Mostly comprised of stem stitch, with a little backstitch and satin stitch thrown in for interest. Please excuse the distorted colours; thin white fabric over a red t-shirt will tend to do that.
I can’t help but feel it would make a lovely accompaniment to Rachael’s tea towels. Too bad I’m not giving it up!
Update: I was finally able to give the birth sampler/card to my coworker last week, more than a month after the baby was born, but no matter…
My mumsie’s birthday was also last week; naturally, much home-made goodness was in the works. I made her blue velvet cupcakes (blue is her favourite colour) with vanilla-coconut buttercream frosting. It’s kind of hard to tell in the photo what colour they are, but trust me, they’re blue.
I think that icing may be my favourite thing that I’ve ever made…all coconutty and yummy…
She still collects hedgehogs, so a hand-stitched card was a must:
It’s from issue 216 (I think!) of Cross Stitcher, and originally said “Nice Cross Stitch”, but I took some artistic liberties with it. I still have a baby-sized callous on my finger from doing the backstitch on that. Uurgh. Trying to pierce the fabric where there’s no hole and it plainly doesn’t want to be pierced becomes old after a while. Still, I think the end justified the means.
For the next piece, you must understand that “Bork” is a verb in our household, and not just an interjection. In the kitchen, dropping, spilling, or mixing vigorously and flinging, well, anything, will cause someone to yell, “You borked the ice cream/potatoes/toast!” (Much as the Swedish Chef yells “Bork, bork, bork!” just before he sends his utensils flying.) She “got it” as soon as she opened it, and I daresay as custom designs/projects go, this was one of the best. Also simplest.
It’s on one of those awesome tea towels from Sublime Stitching which was an absolute dream to work on, and is currently brightening up the oven door.
As always, thanks for looking!
How appropriate that they’re for the same person, n’est-ce pas?
Okay, so when I found out in the summer that my coworker was going to have a baby, I was excited. Not because I like kids (I don’t), but I do like her, and this was an excuse to stitch something different! I chose a design by Cinnamon Cat called “Pitter Patter”, which I liked for its colours – she wasn’t going to be finding out the sex beforehand, and this one wasn’t full of your typical pastels. (It was a boy, by the way, born Boxing Day.) I finished the bulk of it in December, and just before we left work on New Year’s Eve, the e-mail came around with a name and date. It might be a sad comment on my social life that my New Year’s Eve was spent at home stitching, but to this I say, “Bah.” It was too cold to go out, anyway. I put in the final stitch just shortly before 10:00, effectively making it my final project of the year. I spent the next two days applying coats of purple spray paint to a black six-inch frame, and voila:
I cannot begin to tell you how glad I am that she chose a short name. “Ren” means “lotus” in Japanese, according to her e-mail, and I thought maybe a stitched card would be a nice touch. I Google-searched the Japanese symbol for his name, and hope against hope that I’ve charted it correctly and haven’t called him something offensive in the process:
First project of 2010, w00t!
And now…now it sits, wrapped in vintage baby shower paper, in a bag under my desk so that if she should swing by the office for an impromptu visit, I’m prepared!
The presents have all been opened…mostly, and the Boxing Day sales are over: at last, I can post what I made for my Avon lady for Christmas.
Around this time last year, you’ll recall, I posted pictures of all the handmade Christmas gifts I had managed to finish, and Heather was the lucky recipient of a Margaret Sherry cat posing with a green bauble. (I’ll pause whilst you scroll down and confirm this.) I was quite grateful to the good people at Cross Stitcher magazine for having provided the 2009 Margaret Sherry calendar complete with 16 new patterns, including this one:
Perfect choice for a purveyor of cosmetic products, eh?? Originally, the entire background was supposed to be stitched in pink, but I cut a much-needed corner and instead ordered pink opalescent aida from 123stitch.com – and I think it looks better. Now I need to start thinking about next year’s piece…
The Witty Child 