Tag: aunt martha

Cross-stitch and Embroidery, General Sewing

Tangled Up in Blue

wittychild

When I signed up for the 2019 edition of the Colour in a Box Swap on Craftster, my mind danced with possibilities. I had done it a couple of years ago, when it was the Sunshine in a Box Swap, but everything was in sunny shades of orange and yellow. This time, I had limitless options. I chose pink as my colour, and couldn’t wait to see what bright hue my partner had picked. Ooh, or maybe that would be hues, plural! When I saw her colour was navy, I was temporarily flummoxed.

It’s so dark. Wasn’t that akin to sending a big box of gloom?

Still, if navy was what she wanted, navy was what she was going to get, and I scanned her Pinterest for ideas (gleaning a few Christmas ornament how-to’s along the way), until I hit a pocket of beachy Pins. Something sea-y would work well! A quick trip to Michaels later, I had two packages of iron-on embroidery transfers and a set of blank, navy-striped tea towels.

I’m pretty sure the lighthouse design is bigger, but it went more quickly than the beach chair one did. Weird.

Close-ups:

I kept things super-simple, and used a basic backstitch to outline everything. Partway through the first one, I panicked – although I knew I was using navy thread, it looked almost black. (Though this clearly didn’t panic me enough to stop stitching and switch colours. Go figure.) It must have just been a trick of the light, because when my partner received her package and posted pictures, the lines were definitely navy. *whew*

I also made her the Poochie bag we all know and love from a couple of posts back:

I stuffed the bag with some navy goodies: blueberry-scented votive candles, a tin of blueberry mints, some washi tape, navy gel pens…

I couldn’t wait to see how she ran with my request for pink, and I wasn’t disappointed!

I can’t knit, and so I’m in utter awe of the cabling on the hat. The texture…oooh! (The unicorn lights, of course, went straight to work with me to brighten up my cube.)

Thanks for looking! 🙂

Other Crafts

And don’t get me started on bad spelling…

wittychild

Hidely-ho, grammarinos!

For the past few years, National Grammar Day has come and gone without my even noticing.  This had to stop!  I’m a huge grammar geek, and knew that this year I would have to do something to commemorate this holiest of holidays.  On Sunday, I took a break from my math lab (more scholarly and less financially productive than a meth lab, for what it’s worth), and came up with this:

bad grammar towel

The wording is hardly original, but I try not to let that bother me.  I typed the text out in Word, then traced it onto my towel and went over the words with Aunt Martha’s ball-point paints.

Now I just need another grammar quote so that I can make a partner for this one…

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

Hey, good lookin’ – whatcha got cookin’?

wittychild

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!