Sew Crafty Friday for October 17

For Sew Crafty Friday today, I don't have time to take any new photos, but thought I would just share this one which my daughter sent me.

Remember the child's dress I was working on from an older pattern? I think I showed it more or less finished, but this is a much better picture. You can see that it suits Julia perfectly and will still fit her next summer!

If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

I should add that I'm not sure if Shereen has been able to do much blogging since their recent move. I believe she has had some difficulty accessing the internet. But you will find inspiration in any of the Sew Crafty Friday posts from the past.

Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for October 3

Well, it's Sew Crafty Friday again. I don't have a lot to share today, but wanted to show the progress on a second cookbook and on the "Snow Angels" cross stitch.

This cookbook has an apple theme for the cover, since the couple I'm giving this to is having a fall wedding.

And here's what the back cover looks like.

I only have a few pages in this book so far. I have many printed out, but only a few embellished and in place. Here are two of them.

Now for the cross-stitch. Here's how it's coming along. It's a relief to have the two children mostly completed. They are definitely the most complicated part of the design. Lots of shading.

And this will give you an idea of how the completed piece will look.

How about you? If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for September 19

Finally I have a moment to share something for Sew Crafty Friday.

First, here is the dress I've been working on for my little granddaughter. It's from an older (1980) McCalls pattern I originally bought to make for my own daughters, but never did. I still need to add buttons, buttonholes (3, in the back yoke) and hem the dress. It should still fit her next summer, thankfully! The weather is a little too cool to wear a sleeveless dress now.

This is the cookbook I have nearly finished for a very belated wedding gift.

And this is a look at two of the cookbook pages. I embellish them with cutouts from catalogs, etc.

Last but not least, here is the "Snow Angels" cross stitch I recently started working on. This kit, which is on 18 count Aida (gulp!), was given to me by one of my daughters. It reminded her of herself and her older sister and winters long past. You can see that I have a good start stitching the older child. There's a lot of shading in it, but I think it's going to go quite quickly once the two children are stitched.

How about you? If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for August 22

Here's just a quick post to show what little bit of craftiness I've been up to this week. On Saturday, I needed a quick hostess gift to take to a friend. I wanted it to be a nice gift, but a consumable one. I came up with the idea of packaging my homemade laundry soap as a gift. I put enough for 6 loads of laundry in a quart size zipping bag. Then I placed it in a brown paper lunch bag and -- using red thread -- sewed the folded-down top of the bag in place, attaching a label with the instructions/ingredients in the process. I was really pleased with the way it came out. I was striving for a sort of old-fashioned general store look, but one could change the look of the packaging entirely by making a prettier or more whimsical label and changing the thread color.
By the way, if you are interested in reading about how I did this, along with the formula for the soap, check my Christmas blog -- the link is in the sidebar. I just did a post about this.

I made this pretty summer tag to give to my friend along with the laundry soap. I'm quite pleased with the way it came out.

In other crafting, my blueberry potholder is nearly finished. Just a tiny bit of green back-stitching left to do.

How about you? If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for August 15

Not much new to report today, but I thought I would show you the progress on my blueberry pot holder. The one bunch of berries (on the left side of the holder) has all the back stitching complete. I've begun back stitching the berries on the second bunch and should complete the back stitching soon.

How about you? If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for August 8

Here are just a couple of items to show for Sew Crafty Friday. The first one is my blueberry pot holder. All of the cross stitching is done now, and I have started the back stitching. You can see several of the completed blueberries to the left of the photo. I think they look so real!


And these are two tags I made... one to keep and one to give to a special friend. This is my second attempt at tag making. I used a photo my friend had sent me of a favorite place in New England. I then added part of Psalm 23, because the road in this picture made me think of the Lord leading us. The only thing I wish I had done differently is that I think a smaller size font might have looked better. I wanted to make the photo look like a screened window, so I covered it with a small piece of self-adhesive vinyl screen "repair" patch. We've had this stuff kicking around for ages and it didn't work for its intended purpose, so I thought I would try it for this tag. The frame around the window was cut from a Susan Branch sticker bookplate. The tiny dragonflies (stickers found at the dollar store) add pretty much the finishing touch. For my friend's tag, I used a ribbon in an unusual shade of blue that just matches the dragonfly wings. For my tag, I used some silver-gray cord I had on hand.

How about you? If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for August 1

Today I have just two things to share.

This bib was something I acquired unfinished. It was accompanied by a partial package of bias tape. I bought more, with an eye to finishing this and two matching children's aprons that were with the bib when I got it. Unfortunately, the new bias tape doesn't match the old (faded, I guess) so I had to just use up the older tape on the bib and hope that the ties will be long enough. They still don't look quite long enough to me, but other than that I like the way it came out.

And here is how my cross-stitch pot holder is coming along. I wish I had put the lettering just a little bit higher up. (Adding it was my own idea, it wasn't part of the pattern or chart, so I had to decide where to put it. I'd like it better if it were placed higher up on the holder, but I'm not about to move it now! I still have a few berries and leaves to stitch, and then the back stitching to do. The letters are finished; they will not require back stitching, which is exactly why I chose that particular alphabet!

How about you? If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for July 25

I have just a couple of things to share today.

This is the cross-stitch pot holder I am working on with a design of blueberries. The design is a border and goes just across the top. I want to camouflage the age spots on the holder itself, so I am going to cross-stitch the word "Blueberries" further down on the pot holder.

This craft is something I made a long time ago. But with canning and jam-making season upon us, people will have their canning jars out, and so I thought it might be a good time to show this candle holder made from a Mason jar. I saw something like it in a catalog and decided to try making my own. I started by painting the jar a cream color. It takes several coats to coat the glass completely. Then I chose a suitably-sized stencil and stenciled the house design on both sides of the jar. When the paint was dry, I thinned out some black paint a little and spatter painted the entire jar using a old toothbrush. I found a clear glass votive holder that just fits in the top of the jar (Wal*Mart has these) and set it in there and added a votive candle. A strip of homespun tied around the threads of the jar top is the finishing touch.

How about you? If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share. Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for July 11

Well, it has been some time since I've been able to participate in Sew Crafty Friday, but I am going to try it today. In addition to the things I'm showing, I also managed to complete a flannel jumper I started back in the winter for one of my granddaughters. Hopefully it will still fit her or her younger sister by next winter.

Here is the completed apple pie potholder I've been working on, plus the second one in progress. I only need to add the bias tape. (These potholders were among my many UFOs -- they've been languishing in a tote for years!)



Also languishing in the large drawer where I keep most of my cross-stitch supplies were 3 Christmas guest towels with aida inserts. I decided to start stitching those for Christmas gifts, and have only gotten this far on the first one. It's going to have a design of 3 colorful Christmas ornaments decked out with greenery, and the words "Holiday Wishes!" stitched in red.



A dear friend I met through blogging was recently in New England and we were able to meet in person! What a treat that was! My friend is talented in paper crafting (and many other crafts as well!) and brought a whole box of her lovely cards and tags to show me. I was inspired! I have not done much paper crafting at all, other than a few gift tags. But since her visit I decided to try a couple of simple tags using a favorite verse to place in different parts of the house. Here's the result:



This last craft is not mine, but I just had to show the beautiful anniversary card my daughter Carrie recently made. The illustration is a stamp of Betsy and Joe from the book "Betsy's Wedding". Didn't she do a nice job?



How about you? If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for May 30

It's been awhile since I posted anything for Sew Crafty Friday. Life has been so busy that I really have done very little crafting in months. But lately I have been finding a few minutes in the evenings to work on my Country Baking cross-stitch sampler. As you can see, I have a good bit of the back-stitching done. Just a few more items to outline in the lower right area, then I have some words to stitch in that book-like area left of center.


How about you? If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for March 21

For Sew Crafty Friday today, I thought I would share something I made several years ago. This unusual cross-stitch was made for my daughter in remembrance of her dear friend Emily. Emily died not long after their high school graduation. I saw this design in a stitchery catalog and longed to make it for my daughter, but the kit was beyond my means. The saying reads, "They thought we were sisters... but we were closer." I loved the colors and the scene itself. To me, the buildings in the distance look like a university, perhaps. The two girls met and became friends while at boarding school, so it just seemed to fit. One day I joined a craft book club, the type where you can choose several books for $1 or so each. One of the books I chose featured on its cover the very design I had wanted to stitch for my daughter! Needless to say, I was elated to find the design so inexpensively. I stitched it on Aida cloth rather than linen (otherwise I'd probably still be working on it) to save even more money.


My husband made the frame, as the design was an unusual size. I told him how I wanted the frame to look and he produced it for me. Then I painted it with metallic gold paint to get the look I wanted. This photo shows the completed stitchery hanging in our daughter's first home in SC.

If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for February 29

Most of my projects this week are works in progress. First, here is the Country Baking cross-stitch sampler. I'm still working on the back-stitching. I don't work on this too often, but yesterday I got quite a bit done while my hubby was in the dentist's chair and I waited for him. The "book-like" area down near the bottom left is going to contain a list of the fruit of the Spirit.

Next is the scrap afghan (a UFO from many years ago). This afghan is worked in 2 pieces and then joined together. This is the first piece and is almost complete. I just have a few more rows to go which will include one more color -- maroon. Then I will need to make the second piece and join the two. It's a project I work on only at home at this point because it is so large and heavy.

And last, here is the completed framed cross-stitch of a little verse from Psalms -- also a UFO of many years' duration. I apologize for the blurry photo. I took one with the cross-stitch leaning upright, but that picture didn't show the frame as well, so I decided to use this one. I was going for a rustic look with the frame and think I succeeded pretty well. It was an ugly dark brown frame I found somewhere. I painted it with several coats of a linen color, then several coats of navy blue, before sanding and sealing it. I was pleased that when I sanded it lightly, not only the linen color, but also some of the original dark brown, showed through in places, which really helped to give it the worn old look I was aiming for.


That is about it for my crafting efforts this week. If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share. Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for February 22

For Sew Crafty Friday today, I decided to do something a little different. I got very little crafting done this week. It has been a tough week for me emotionally and spiritually. I feel as if Satan is trying to render me ineffective. So as a result I have spent much more time in God's Word and in prayer this week. Crafting is important to me, but my spiritual condition is far more important.

So, for Sew Crafty Friday, I decided to share a craft I made quite some time ago. It's the tea towel wall hanging I posted here for Show & Tell last week. At the time I made this project, I also wrote up the directions and a little bit of why it was such a meaningful craft for me. So I'm going to share that here as well. Here's what I wrote:

"For me, one of the most comforting themes for decorating involves continuity. The two themes I find myself returning to again and again are seasonal decorating and decorating with family heirlooms or just 'old things' -- and both reflect continuity. "Decorating for the seasons is a reminder of the comforting Bible promise found in Genesis 8:22 -- 'While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.' No matter what else may be happening in our lives, it's a comfort to remember that the seasons will go on just as they always do. As an old poem puts it, 'a day is always coming/when the birds go north again.' Seasonal decorating is a wonderful reminder of this.

"Using old family things to decorate my home is also very comforting. It gives me a real sense of continuity to see and use these things that belonged to previous generations. We have many old things, including diaries, old furniture, partial sets of dishes, etc. But probably the most inspiring in terms of decorating would be some things I inherited from my grandmother -- many of her kitchen utensils and the contents of her sewing basket.

"Recently I came up with a way to combine both of my favorite decorating themes into one craft project: a set of seasonal wall hangings. For each, I used half of a homespun dish towel, narrow-hemming the cut edge so that each finished hanging measured about 11x16 inches. Using fusible web, I ironed an 8x12-inch pieced of old sheet or white muslin to the center of the hanging. Then, with a fine-point permanent marker, I lettered a seasonal recipe onto each one. For winter, I used the recipe for Snow Ice Cream; for spring, a strawberry pie; for summer, Sunflower Cake; and for fall, a pumpkin dessert.

"Then the fun of decorating each hanging really began as I trimmed them with colorful fabric shapes ironed on with fusible web. I used snowflakes, fir trees, snowmen and hearts for winter, strawberries for spring, sunflowers for summer, pumpkins and maple leaves for fall. Then came the family-heirloom touch as I added buttons I'd saved for years, sewed on with beautiful vintage threads.

"Of course, the variations on this theme could be endless [and one of mine was published in a Gooseberry Patch cookbook!] depending on the recipes and fabric cutouts one chooses. For me, these wall hangings will be a wonderful reminder of the continuity of the changing seasons, and of family ties. And my grandmother -- who loved the seasons and faithfully decorated for each one -- would be proud."


How about you? If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for February 15

Here are my crafting efforts for the week. There are also a couple of projects I've been working on -- the Country Baking sampler, and a crocheted scrap afghan -- that I didn't take photos of. These are the projects that actually got completed this week.

First, this Valentine banner. I am so pleased with how this came out. Everything in this banner is something I had on hand. It's so satisfying to be able to create something pretty without having to spend a penny!

I finally finished this set of scented coasters in a winter fabric. I wasn't pleased enough with these to give them as a gift which was my original intent. I'll keep these to use myself and make another set for my friend with my *new* sewing machine.

These barley hot packs are another project I finished this week. These have been on my list for a long time, so I'm very happy to get them done.

I wanted something red & white to go under some china displayed on my hutch. I came across this very small remnant in a red/cream toile. Someone gave this to me ages ago, and I found it in my stash while looking for flannel for the barley bags. I decided to make this toile into a small runner to use on the hutch or on my kitchen island. Here's a photo which shows the print -- very pretty, it really tells a story.

And this photo shows how the runner looks under the china on the hutch. Not a perfect sewing job -- I used my old machine -- but I'm still pleased with the results.

How about you? If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

Happy Crafting!

Sew Crafty Friday for February 8

For Sew Crafty Friday today, I have really just one thing to share. I finally finished the last flour sack towel in the "Fine Chinaware" set of day-of-the week towels. It's the one for Sunday:

I mentioned last week that I was embroidering this towel with 3 strands of floss (rather than the 2 strands I used on all the previous sets). It really seemed to me to look richer and brighter than the others. I was afraid there would be a huge difference seeing the two towels side by side. As you can see, although the Sunday towel's embroidery does look somewhat richer and brighter, it really isn't a stark contrast next to Wednesday's towel. From here on out though (and I do plan to do a set of these for myself) I think I will use the 3 strands.

I also managed to finish my last belated Christmas gift this week! That feels like a great accomplishment. And I've also spent some time backstitching on my "Country Baking" sampler.

What about you? Remember, if you’ve done any crafting this week, even if you haven’t actually completed anything, head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. It’s such fun and so inspiring to see what others are working on.