A New Corner of the World

I started this blog, and then my world went upside-down.  Here I am in 2017; divorced, three children away at college, and I have moved home to Oregon and live in a house I just bought in a small town.  It's been a tough ride through 2016, but when all is said and done, I'm happier than I have been in a long, long time.

Most of the house is unpacked, although my sewing room is still in boxes.  Christmas and house guests and unpacking and decorating and baking took up all of December.  But I have found my embroidery supplies so I've done a few little cross stitch projects.

My days are quiet without kids around the house, and although I miss them, I treasure the quiet and solitude. I am tired.  I am ready to restart. I am grateful for good friends and good fortune.

Here's to a happy 2017!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Just a quick little project to celebrate the day.  Pattern can be found free at Embroiderybee.  It looks a little like my tuxedo cat.  I had a hard time photographing it so the white toes show up.  You have to look carefully.

This one goes in my bowl of smalls for the month.  I clearly need some more St. Patrick's day themed smalls.

I hope you're enjoying some Irish fun today.  I've got a playlist of some of my favorite music going.  Looking forward to some festive food and drink later.

Linking up to Stitching Lotus today.

My Brave, Badass Piano Makeover

I painted my piano.  I woke up on Friday morning and thought about painting my piano, and by Friday night it looked like this.  To say I'm proud of myself would be an understatement.  This is definitely the most DIY thing I've ever DIYed.

Here's what it looked like before.  This is the piano my parents bought for me in 1970.  I have spent who knows how many hours on it banging out Bach and the Beatles.  But the last time the piano tuner was here she shook her head and said she couldn't really tune the bass any more, and there is a broken string that isn't worth repairing. 

I will be moving in a year or so, and I've been thinking about the things I will take with me and the things I will let go.  This piano was a bit of a toss-up.  Until I got the idea to paint it.  Now it's gone from eyesore to favorite thing in the house.

I even added little glass pulls to replace the old hardware.  So pretty.  So girly.

Doing this project gave me a lot of confidence.  I didn't know I had this ability until I tried.  Now I'm looking around the house wondering what I should paint next.

If you would like to paint your own piano, there are a lot of great instructions out there.  In a nutshell, you can buy the expensive chalk paint, or do what I did, and get a quart of latex paint.  Mix 1 cup water with 1 cup plaster of paris and then add 2 cups paint.  That provided more than enough to paint the piano and the bench with 4 coats.

I think my next project will be to hunt down the perfect fabric for a cushion for the bench.  Because this pretty piano deserves it.

Once Upon A Time

Today's start is a restart from last January.  Sad to say this has been sitting untouched and forgotten in my stash.  The pattern is from Cloudsfactory and is called "Once Upon A Time."  This first section is Snow White.  Its so cute, the fabric is sparkly and fun to work with, and I'm determined to not let another whole year pass before I work on this again!

Cross Stitch Crazy Progress

Just a few more days to go with new starts (and restarts) for the year.  This facebook group got me going on a lot of great projects last year and it's definitely getting my stitching mojo fired up this year.  It's a nice new tradition to look forward to after the craziness of the holidays are over.  The goal is to work on 15 different projects for the first 15 days of January.  Most of the projects should be new, but a lot of us have unfinished work from last year.  Ideally, 15 projects should be finished over the course of the year.  I included a lot of smaller projects so I'd be sure to finish some.

This will have cute Alice in Wonderland characters in each corner.  The colors are really bright and cute and I can't wait to get back to this one.  I just looked at my projects and realize that this is one of four this year that will include Alice in Wonderland in some way.  I guess I love to stitch story book themes.

Slow Stitching Sunday: Fans and Pansies afghan

Today I've been crocheting my "Fans and Pansies" afghan.  I love how it's turning out. The metallic yarn has a nice sheen and drapes beautifully.  My daughter told me it looks like I'm making chain mail.

This photo gives an idea of how far I am. It's pretty wide but I draped it over the sides of this table. The pattern is complicated for me, so progress is slow.  I can't watch television and work on this at the same time.  Too much counting to keep track of!  Any little mistake throws the whole thing off.

Linking up today with Kathy at Kathy's Quilts.

Tuffet!

I've joined in on the tuffet craze and made one from some of my Kaffe Fasset Collective fabrics in my favorite color of fuchsia pink.  It was so much fun to make and everyone in the class at my quilt shop had fun.  If your local shop has a class, don't hesitate!  It's really easy.

There are several patterns available out there, and I picked the one that has the option to make additional slipcovers.  I'm already planning to make variations for Halloween and Christmas.  I'll probably think of some others I "need."

My cat Dumbledore has already claimed this one.  I need to scotchguard it to keep it clean I think.

Here's a better picture, although I couldn't tweak the color to look exact.  Nonstop cloudy days here make photography difficult.  I used a mum in the fabric to cover the button.

Farm Girl Vintage Start

These are the first four blocks of my Farm Girl Vintage quilt.  My local quilt shop is offering it as a Saturday Sampler.  I'll bring these 4 finished blocks back to them on the first Saturday of February, and I'll get the fabric for the next four blocks for free.

I love the stack of bowls with the wooden spoon.  I'm not a country girl, but I love the colors and playfulness of this quilt.

Day 2 of my 15 day cross-stitch challenge is "Haunted Hotel" by Mill Hill.  I forgot how fun it is to work on perforated paper.  Makes a nice change from fabric.

I suppose I should have planned ahead which projects I would work on each day this month but I'm sort of flying by the seat of my pants instead.  Not sure what I'll pick up tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by.

New Year, New Starts

This is the beginning of a Jane Austen quote from the book "Persuasion."  The first of 15 projects I will be working on in the first 15 days of January.  Some of them will be new, some will be unfinished projects from last year.  I'm joining in with a group on facebook.  If you are up for the challenge, search on facebook for "crossstitch crazy 2016."  I learned a lot doing this last year and it made the craft fresh for me.

I finished my 2016 bowl filler and set up my January display in my front hall.  I couldn't find my nice wooden bowl - it must be stashed with the items that were put away for Christmas.  So I used an abalone shell I have.  All of the items were made from free patterns I found on the internet.

I hope you're enjoying the new year!

Slow Sunday Stitching: 2016

I like to keep a bowl full of small cross stitch projects in my front hallway.  This is today's project to add to my January display.  There are a few more borders to add.

This was my bowl last January.  You can see I found the same designer's freebie last year.  I love switching around my display for the seasons.

Linking up today with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Animal Advent 15

Just finished this little guy.  # 15 in the "Animal Advent" series of free patterns from Brooke's Books.

I have a stack of these now to turn into ornaments, and I'm trying to decide how I want to do them.  Hopefully I can finish up the whole series in 2016.  For some reason, I ended up stitching some of these out of order, so I'll tackle #14 next.  That one features the animal that is baking cookies.  Very cute.

I have signed up again this year with a facebook group to work on 15 different projects in the first 15 days of the new year.  It was a fun challenge last year and I ended up finishing more than 15 and getting to some projects which had been on my wish list for a long time.