Tag: gift

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

Last project of 2009/first project of 2010

wittychild

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!

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

Glamour Puss

wittychild

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…

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

Onesie, twosie…I love you-sie?

wittychild

I took a break from my many U.F.O.s (on which more at some later date, assuming I actually manage to finish one) to work up a couple of onesies for a girl in my bowling league who is very, very pregnant – due April 22, our last night of the season.

What else but Sublime Stitching’s Bowling Betties pattern sheet would fit the bill?

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And since I managed not to screw that one up, and had a spare one (get it?  Spare?) left over, I found a cute kitten pattern from the Sublime Stitching book, and made it as gender-neutral as possible.

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If nothing else, this experience has taught me that although they may meet the length/weight requirements outlined on the hang tag, cats are not crazy about being stuffed into onesies (this was before I washed them, before I got to the actual embroidering).  It does something to their balance, much like putting a harness on one for the first time, and will cause them to fall off the couch onto the floor, and they will not understand what they did to deserve that.  She’s okay, she was just a little surprised, I think.  🙂

Oh, but back to the subject at hand: I presented them to her on Wednesday, in case she decided to pop early, and she loved them!  Her teammates were cooing over them, and they couldn’t believe I had done the embroidery by hand.  I love it when a few stitches can wow an audience.

craftmas, Cross-stitch and Embroidery

Christmas Presents Ahoy!

wittychild

Happy New Year!  I could offer the standard excuses for not updating sooner (I spent the entirety of November pounding out a novel!  I stitched my little fingers to the bone!  I got abducted by a herd of rogue Simmentals!), but instead, I think I’ll just show off all the stitchy Christmas presents I managed to finish.

For my friend Rachael in Eng-er-land, some easy-to-stitch, easy-to-ship Animated Kitchenware tea-towels:

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There they are, posing sweetly on my oven door.

Avon lady and dear soul Heather got a small Margaret Sherry design:

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I was so happy to have an excuse to use my opalescent aida cloth!

My parents each got a custom shirt from me.  My dad used to work for the railroad and is still very much into trains, so I made him a Chessie shirt using a pattern that I found online:

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It was stitched onto the pocket of a denim shirt using waste canvas…I do like the colours!

My mom collects all things hedgehog, so I used the Sublime Stitching Forest Friends pattern to come up with this:

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It’s just a plain blue t-shirt from Michael’s, but sufficiently jazzed up now.  Also, Sublime Stitching’s T-shirt Stabilizer is a godsend!

Last but not least, this Subversive Cross Stitch pattern (I tweaked the colours and omitted the border) seemed just too perfect for coworker and co-conspirator Sue.  It’s now sitting on her desk, spreading sunshine and lollipops to all who venture past.

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Thanks for looking; as always, if you have any further questions, please feel free to leave a comment!

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

A picture is worth a thousand words, I think…

wittychild

Really, there isn’t anything I could say about this piece that it’s not already saying itself.  Oh!  Except that it’s for the same lucky, lucky individual for whom I made the “Bite Me” trivet as seen in my maiden post.  He got such a kick out of the first piece that I brought my Subversive Cross Stitch book to work to show him, and he started laughing when he saw this one.  Knowing his birthday was coming up, I figured I could swing it, and make his day…..twice in just a couple of months.  Go me!  Without further ado, I present to you:

See what I mean about the picture saying it all?  😛

He comes back to work on Wednesday (from Vegas, the lucky bum…), and I think this is the perfect way to welcome him back!

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

Naughty or Nice?

wittychild

I do apologize for the long-time-no-posts….I’m going to blame work for this one, but I’m hoping to be posting a lot more soon, what with the holidays rapidly approaching.  At any rate, on with the crafty goodness, yes?

I had purchased the Lisa Petrucci designs from www.sublimestitching.com some time ago, though I hadn’t yet committed them to fabric.  Then my friend Dan got her own place, and decided to go and have a birthday shortly thereafter (inasmuch as one’s birthday can be determined by free will, of course :P), and somehow, a set of hand-embroidered tea towels seemed like the perfect housewarming/b-day pressie.  Especially when they’re this cool.  I particularly like the devil – clearly, being bad is more fun than being good!

Hanging side-by-side on the oven door:

And close-ups:

And now, of course, I want to do the devil again…for myself!

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

Maiden post: Bite Me

wittychild

So: when we found out at work that our operational support clerk was leaving our team for a different position on a different floor, I decided I needed to make him something to remember us (or, well, me) by.  For some reason, Subversive Cross Stitch sprung immediately to mind, and I thought the “Bite Me” design was safe enough that he could display it at work without being hauled off for a refresher course in Creating a Respectful Workplace.  You can see the original here: http://www.subversivecrossstitch.com/kits/bite.html, but I thought I’d make a few changes and kick it up a bit.

The finished product:

I framed it in a handy-dandy trivet kit from Michael’s:

And he seems pleased!

The lettering and snowflake-y bits are done in DMC Fluorescent Effects floss, which was kind of slippery to work with, but nothing I couldn’t handle.  I’m tough.  I think I may have to do one for myself, yet; I was sad to see this one go despite the warm reception it got (maybe black fabric with white floss…?).