Not very creative this week......

 I've been cleaning and clearing out but my cross stitch mojo has waned.  I want to sew project bags now so I ordered some supplies for that.  I did final finish the February Bitty Bowl pillow but haven't wanted to start March.............

Here's the entire thing put together except for the key charm which I still can't find..........

I did work on the applique heart and it is a disaster!  The wool is shredding apart and the blanket stitch looked terrible so I started using a whip stitch.  I'll finish it but it is a disappointing project.  I used to do blanket stitch all the time...evidently at my age you totally forget everything you ever learned!

I did work on Anniversaries of the Heart for February but I don't think I'm going to finish before the end of the month.........

Spring is here in the Ozarks for sure.....85  today but then a cool down with freezing tonight...but the flowers are blooming and the Bradford Pear is getting ready to burst forth....all the bushes I planted last Fall are all full of buds too.........

Happy Trails!!!
 
 
  

Crafting Happiness..........

 Last week I worked on cleaning the living room and will continue this week.  I loaded lots of boxes into the Tahoe for dropping at the thrift store later this week.

  I've been very troubled by what's going on in Gaza and I have spent  time writing "those in charge" although they justify their actions with the same old talking points that the major news stations make.  "Israel has a right to defend itself" which is true but genocide is a whole different matter.  I watch Democracy Now on You Tube which to me is one of the most accurate and fact filled news reports.  I also listen to BBC and Al Jazeera to get the perspective from people outside "our bubble" we call the United States.  Last night I listened to a cardiologist in Falls Church, Virginia who has lost over 100 relatives in Gaza....all civilians and I cried with him as he showed the photos of the children, the babies, the  mothers, the aunts and uncles etc. that have been killed just in his family alone.  Here he is, a cardiologist whose heart was breaking and he couldn't fix his own heart.  I am going to go get a sympathy card today and write to him.  It's the least I can do.  If I was younger I would be out protesting as I used to do back in the day.  I will donate to Doctors Without Borders and Direct Relief and a few others but of course Israel is not letting them in to Gaza.  We are on the wrong side of history on this one and someday the history books will talk about how the U.S. contributed to genocide of an entire civilian population.  I am talking about civilians, not Hamas.  Anyway,  I'll get off my soapbox for now.  

Here are the "creations" I made this past weekend.........I still have a little XS pillow that goes in here also but I am still working on that.....I cross stitched the bag and sewed it up, curled the book pages, and put it all in the little bowl they provided.  You fill the bottom of the bag with rice and then fiberfill and put in the artificial greenery they sent.  They also include a little vintage Valentine.  They sent the ribbon and a little key charm which I have misplaced.  Hopefully it will turn up.  I will show you again when the little pillow is done.

This is the little pillow so far..........
               

I finally finished my little acorn watercolor.  This is from a book I bought to teach me how and the pages are all watercolor paper and this was lesson #1........I was pretty pleased with it for my first time working with water colors.........this is the original..........

and this is mine............
 

I also did some sketching over the weekend and this was one......just colored with colored pencils.....

I had a sketch I did a while ago and decided to try and use water color pencils on it but unfortunately it was not watercolor paper and it got warped out of shape.  I may try and iron it and see if that helps at all.  I need to get some watercolor paper obviously.........I'm not very good but I try to do more primitive sketches not really going for reality per se. I would love to draw/paint like Mary Engelbreit and/or Susan Branch.  (BTW, do you know Susan Branch has a blog and an online shop and she has cross stitch kits!!!  of course, I had to order one.....you will see it next week.  WARNING......she is not cheap!)   I think I like the real watercolors as opposed to the pencils but I will try them again when I get the watercolor paper.......

Here is the other pillow I made last week........

 

I also have been wanting to make these wool paperclip bookmarks I've been seeing and I finally found some instructions on how to do them.......I tried...it's not the best but hopefully with practice I will get better.............I had a dickens of a time with the blanket stitch as the wool kept tearing....I may try the whip stitch on  these.  I used to be so good at the blanket stitch but evidently not any more and definitely not on small circles.....

This is my progress so far on February's Anniversaries of the Heart...........

The only stash or haul I got was this wool applique book which is beautiful....I want to make everything in it, of course!

That's all for this week...have a good one.

Happy Trails!!!

 

Another creative weekend...........

 These creative weekends are working out great for me.  I am able to be more motivated during the week for cleaning and clearing knowing that my weekends are just for  me to do exactly what I want, regardless of any housekeeping staring me in the face! LOL!

During the week on breaks I still work on Anniversaries of the Heart and my morning stitch which right now is the February Bitty Bowl club kit.

Here is the Anniversaries of the Heart for February so far..........

I finished the February Bitty Bowl Club XS #1 and I've started on #2.....I have not fully finished though...

I did fully finish 2 older XS projects............here is one and the other one didn't show up....I took a photo of it but it didn't download evidently....I'll show you next week.......

I also worked on my Valentine wool applique............this is a picture of how it will look when done...

This is mine so far.......since you last saw it I cut out all the pieces and pulled the freezer paper off of them.  I then used a little bit of craft glue to set them in place.  The next step is sewing them down with a whip stitch or a blanket stitch........I also need to hem the backing, and attach the tongues, and line the back of it......oh, and there is a vine that I will embroider connecting all the leaves together.........

The only happy I mail I got this week was a wax strawberry scissor fob or charm for whatever from Lisa at Prims on Greenway bought  through Hobby House. 

Next week, hopefully, there will be more XS final finishes, work on the wool applique, and the other XS's plus I am gathering up fabric for a few sewing projects so we'll see what transpires.  Happy Valentine's Day and Go Chiefs!!!

Happy Trails!!!

My weekends are for creating...

 I've decided since I work pretty hard during the week, cleaning and clearing, that I would reserve the weekends for creating and crafting.   I still have my daily chores but by afternoon I am ready to "rock and roll"!

I'm still slow but I made some progress.  I worked on The Bitty Bowl project for February and it is slow going.  I'm not sure I'll be ready when the March kit arrives........plus, this is only 1 of 2 projects....

I started a Valentine wool applique project....not too big.......I got out my wool, washed it and felted it, and got it cut into sizes for the project and traced the pattern pieces and ironed them onto the wool using freezer paper.......next will be cutting out and pinning to the backing............this was a free pattern that came with that little quilt kit I got from Blackbird Designs............spent $0 on this project..........

I'm keeping my projects that I am currently working on in tubs so I don't lose any of the components.  Plus, it helps to keep things neat without making big messes as I am prone to do! LOL!

I also got to work a bit on some cross stitch "finishing"...at least the pieces are trimmed and the backing fabric cut out.  Now, I need to iron and sew them up and apply some trim.

BTW, I've decided to watch some movies (which I never do) but I was hearing all about the runners up for the Oscars so I thought I would give them a try.  I was very curious about the movie Barbie as it was up for an Oscar in many categories.  Barbie was before my time plus I wasn't into dolls except my cousin and I would play with paper dolls.  When my daughter came along I didn't let her have one and I'm not sure she ever asked.  I felt Barbie was not a true representation of a doll for a young girl....she got an American Girl doll instead.  So, I paid $6 on Amazon Prime and I watched Barbie last night and I watched the whole thing.  It is beyond me what anyone sees of value in that movie.  To be honest, I thought it was the stupidest  movie I ever saw....up  there with The Three Stooges!  I'd be interested if anyone else has watched it and what they thought.  Maybe I'm just too old to appreciate it but really?  I can't believe anyone ever thought it was a good idea in the first place much less award worthy.  On top of that there were big name stars in it! Maybe this is why I don't watch  movies.

Happy Trails!!!