May Flowers

Happy May, stitching friends!

I have several projects in the works right now, including some fall projects. What is it with me and the seasons? When it's winter I want to work on spring projects, when it's spring I want to work on fall projects.

The design bug has bitten me HARD. I have been working on a series of little seasonal houses, but they are still not quite where I want them to be. Just when I think I have them nailed, an "Aha!" moment comes to me when I'm driving or in the shower, and back to the drawing board I go.

Here's a sneak peek....

I sketch something out on graph paper, go to my floss collection to pick out potential colors, then stitch it up, changing my sketch as I go. Sometimes when I'm finished, I think, "Meh," I argue with my internal critic, and I start over. And sometimes I gush with joy, and I think, "YES!!" Then I chart it online on Stitch Fiddle, export a PDF, fine-tune that in Photoshop, then create a pattern with instructions and a key in InDesign. It's a lot more work than I ever imagined! But fun every step of the way. I'm looking into design software for my Mac, but I haven't committed to anything yet. Do you have a recommendation?

Oh, on the stupid cancer front, I have good news! My latest scans showed some improvement (improvement! yes!) and showed that some of the bone lesions in my longer bones have actually gotten smaller. I didn't think that was even possible, to be honest. And my tumor marker, a measure of a protein that cancer cells emit, was actually in the normal range! How about them apples?

Remember the Country Cottage Needleworks monthly cottage series I've been working on? I have been using the same glossy black frame for each month, swapping out the framed piece to save money. I decided I really don't like the black frame. I adore the frames the models are displayed in, the ones by the Family Tree Framing Co., but I haven't been able to locate one. So.... I thought, "Why not make my own?"

I started by sanding down the black frame to remove the finish and to give the paint a gritty surface to cling to. I think the black frame already looks better sanded, don't you? I purchased the little ornate wood onlay from Fullretrovegas on Etsy. (I measured my frame a couple of times to make sure the onlay would fit without being overwhelming.) Because the onlay shipped from China, it took a few weeks to arrive, but it was well worth the wait. So pretty! I bought a base grey chalk paint, white chalk paint and some clear wax from Michael's, and some Elmer's wood glue.

First I painted the frame and onlay in my base grey and let them dry several hours. Next, I followed this tutorial on YouTube that showed how to distress with glue. I painted the frame with a thin layer of Elmer's glue, let it dry a little bit until tacky but not wet, then painted the white chalk paint over it. As it dried further, the glue shrank, revealing my grey base coat through little fissures and cracks. Once the white chalk paint was dry, I glued the onlay to the top of the frame. Once that was dry and secure, I brushed a layer of clear wax over everything, let it dry, then buffed it. The result?

Ta da! How do you like it?

I finished framing Country Cottage Needleworks' May cottage today (better late than never!), and I am just so, so happy with my "new" frame. The antiquey cracks aren't very big, but that's how I wanted them. If you want deep, big, dramatic cracks, just paint on a thicker layer of glue. By the way, aren't the colors in this month's cottage sweet? I just love the pop of that green ("Frog Legs" by Classic Colorworks) and the bird, the bees and the birdhouse. They make my heart happy.

Before I got back into cross stitching, my passion was cardmaking. I haven't been doing much of that lately, but in the spirit of spring flowers, I got in the mood to do a little watercoloring. Bear in mind, I am NOT a painter. I like to play around with watercolors, though. I love their unpredictability. I never know what I'm going to get when I put brush to paper.

I stamped some flowers and leaves on watercolor paper with clear ink, then heat-embossed them with white embossing powder. Then I put on some paint and waited for the results...

They're messy and wonderful!

Next I cut them out (in the papercrafting world, they call this "fussy cutting"!). I try not to stress about the cutting part. They don't have to be perfect to be pretty.

I saw a YouTube video of someone painting leaves, and she used blue. It never would have occurred to me to use blue to paint leaves. But when the blue and green flow together, don't they create a delightful palette? So unexpected.

So now I have flowers and leaves to embellish cards or make magnets or do whatever else comes to mind. I made a card for my brother...

A little luminescent gem in the middle of the flower gives it just a little bling.

Wishing YOU a day filled with happiness and a very wonderful Mother's Day. I just returned last night from spending several days with my mom. She had surgery on her ear canal (I won't go into gory detail). She has lost almost all hearing in that ear, and this surgery will hopefully restore some of it. Fingers crossed!

Happy stitching!

Oregon Coast, April and a Freebie!

Hi, stitching friends!

First, before anything else, I wanted to share with you another little pattern I designed. I know Valentine's Day was SO yesterday, but this is more of a love note to my husband and my son. It is for every day. I wanted to design and stitch something to show them that no matter what happens, I will be in their hearts. You can get the pattern here.

"Keep Me in Your Heart" stitched on 32-count country French cafe mocha linen with overdyed and DMC thread.

We're back from our Oregon Coast vacation, and I am just now starting to feel like myself again. We had a wonderful time with our friends Rob and Kristin, and we toured, ate, shopped, ate, walked on the beach, ate, and relaxed. And ate. But after just a few days of go, go, go, I was zonked!

When we left Portland and started our drive to the coast, we were hit with a huge snow storm! We left Idaho to get away from the snow! It was bad for just a couple of miles, though, but we did see someone stopped in the middle of the road putting on chains. Quite the overreaction, and definitely not safe. Rob did the driving, and he was a champ.

One of our first stops was Canon Beach. Some lovely beach photos.... but it was SO friggin' cold. We had rain every day except for a couple of hours one day. I'm glad I brought a hat, scarf and my wool coat.

Haystack Rock at Canon Beach

On the left, waaaaay out there, is the lighthouse, perched atop a lonely rock

The seagulls were feasting at low tide

On the way down Highway 101, we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory for ice cream. Then, just south of Tillamook, we spotted the huge air museum (rather hard to miss, as you can see in the photo). The museum is housed inside a blimp hangar that was built in 1942. It's 15 stories tall and covers more than 7 acres inside. You could have 6 football games going on at once inside.

The Tillamook Air Museum just south of Tillamook, Oregon

The hangar is 15 stories tall. Those doors (6 total) each weigh 30 tons! The plane parked out side is a "mini guppy" cargo plane designed in the 1960s. They told us they call it the pregnant guppy. The back part of the plane opens on a hinge.

The hangar is built of wood. Lots of wood. There is enough timber here to build thousands of houses.

While the hangar typically housed 2-3 blimps at a time, it could hold up to 8. The blimps were used during World War II to patrol the coast and spot enemy submarines.

Inside the hangar today, you will find lots of cool planes...

trains...

and automobiles!

I loved the drive along Highway 101. There were so many beautiful, old barns, and the daffodils were blooming everywhere - in yards and in the forest. One of my favorite things to see were a couple of free-range chicken farms. Chickens everywhere! Cluck, cluck, cluck!

After a long day of touring, we checked into our condo in Depoe Bay. Our view was amazing! We watched the whale-tour boats go out every hour, and while we did not see any gray whales up close, we could see them spouting about a half mile out.

Our view right off the balcony in our condo

We took Rob and Kristin to see the lighthouses in Newport. The first one is the Yaquina (pronounced Yuh-quinn-uh) Bay lighthouse. It was the first one built in Newport.

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, built in 1871 and decommissioned in 1874

The other lighthouse in Newport is Yaquina Head Lighthouse, built in 1872. It took more than 370,000 bricks to build! It is still operating today.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse, built in 1872, still operates today.

We also took Rob and Kristin over the Yaquina Bay bridge, just south of the Yaquina Bay lighthouse.

The Yaquina Bay bridge in Newport

We went for a long walk on Nye Beach, and we found something....

Poor little guy washed up on the beach during low tide! He looked so sad and helpless (and a little gross), pleading with us with those beady little eyes to help him. I think I heard him say, "Don't eat me!" I wasn't going to touch him, but Rob wasn't afraid.

As soon as Rob picked him up, he came to life (and thankfully didn't pinch Rob).

Shawn, my husband, is such a big softie, that he walked the little fella out into the waves. I kept hollering at Shawn to get back - one of these days my dear husband is going to be swept away by a wave, I just know it. But he is stubborn! He saved the little crab, at least for another day.

On our way back to Portland, we stopped in Corvallis so I could visit Friendship Crossing, a cross-stitch store recommended to me by sweet Beth, a friend I've made through this blog. The shop was heaven on earth, and the owner, Ann, was so sweet. I could have spent the entire day there. Shawn promises me that it will be a regular stop on future trips. Yay!

Since it's finally spring (hooray!), I finally got around to framing a spring piece I finished last winter, while I was dreaming of spring. It's "Simply Spring" by The Drawn Thread. I stitched it over two on the recommended fabric, with one thread, and I have to tell you, that was a weird experience for me. I'm so used to stitching over two with two threads. I wasn't sure I liked it at first, but now I do. I picked up the perfect frame on Amazon. What do you think?

"Simply Spring" by The Drawn Thread. Frame from Amazon.

The little buds on the tree are made with satin stitches.

While we were in Oregon, I spent a lot of time stitching the April cottage from Country Cottage Needleworks. When I got home, I realized that after stitching the parallelogram (math!!!) part of the roof, I had somehow turned my fabric 180 degrees and stitched the cottage upside down!

I had stitched the entire cottage and the tree before I realized my mistake (I was getting too close to the edge of the fabric - that's when I noticed). I had to take out all the stitches except for the roof and start again. That took nearly three hours (just pulling out stitches). Three loooong, hard, heartbreaking hours. I rinsed the fabric in cold water and pressed it to remove all the holes where my thread had been, and I started over.

And you know what? Several more times I made mistakes that required a lot of "unstitching." For a simple design, this thing sure threw me! That shows you how tired I was after our vacation.

April cottage by Country Cottage Needleworks, stitched on 32-count lambswool linen with called-for threads

I love that little bunny!

When I learned to cross stitch, I was taught to start in the middle. I notice that a lot of you start in a corner. Were you taught that way, or did you change at some point? If I had started in the corner, I would have saved myself a lot of work!

Happy April, stitching friends. I have another design in the works that I'm anxious to show you. It's a Christmas ornament, and I think you're going to love it. Until next time... Happy stitching!

Dabbling in Design, Freebies and Spaghetti!

Hi, stitching friends!

I am so, so, so excited to share with you a new adventure! I've been wanting to design my own cross-stitch patterns for a while now, and I finally did it. Before I "retired" last year because of stupid cancer, I worked as a graphics designer, first for my hometown newspaper in central Idaho doing ad and page design, then in ad design and layout for a sports fundraising company in Boise. About a hundred years ago, I worked as a rodeo photographer and a web designer. I've had the design bug for as long as I can remember.

I wanted to do something that I could say was from me, from my imagination and from my heart. When I stitch a pattern I've purchased, it's so much fun, but coming up with something on my own has been such a rewarding, fun, fulfilling experience, like taking cross stitch to the next level.

It's a lot of work! Thinking, "How can I make this idea work? That's gonna be tough!" Silencing the internal critic. And trying to balance colors... phew! I've found that what looks good on screen often does not translate when I pick out colors, stitch the piece and find out that those colors are just... meh. Back to the drawing board again and again, but loving every second of the challenge. I remember reading on a blog by Seth Godin about approaching every challenge with one thought: This might work. Remember that: This might work. It's a great way to overcome self-doubt.

So there you have it... on to the designs!

I started by checking out a book from the local library called Charted Folk Designs for Cross-Stitch Embroidery, a selection of pattern snippets collected by Maria Foris from old samplers. It is a wonderful book. I charted some of the patterns as is, then changed them to fit my layout, changed colors (the book's original designs are in red and black only), and flat out changed some things until something in my brain went "yes!"

I stitched it once and decided that my colors were all wrong, so I chose different colors and stitched it again. That's the hardest part - choosing colors. There are just so many beautiful overdyed threads out there, it's hard to pick! But I am really happy with my final color selection. I sewed it into a little pillow, backing it with the fabric shown behind it, and attached some handmade cording - first time using my Kreinik cord maker, so be kind! It takes some getting used to.

If you would like to stitch this, here is the pattern.

Next, I wanted to try designing something more original. For inspiration, I turned to Charles Wysocki, one of my favorite artists. And, I used words from one of my favorite poets, E. E. Cummings. His poem [in Just-] is one of my favorites, and the words "Mud Luscious and Puddle Wonderful" are from that poem (and are a great example of assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds - I was an English major!).

This was so much fun to design! And that little piggy really threw me. It's hard to design itty bitty things! I finished it into a little pillow, backing it with the brown floral fabric in the yo-yo, and embellished the yo-yo with a brad from Stampin Up.

If you would like to stitch this little fella, here is the pattern.

If you stitch either one of these, would you please send me a link to a photo? I would love to see!

My son is 15 now, and it has been a goal of mine to make sure this young man knows how to cook. He knows how to make the basics, like pancakes and scrambled eggs, and has even attempted Philly cheese steaks with beer-cheese sauce. I bought him The Culinary Bro-Down cookbook by Josh Scherer for Christmas. It's full of F bombs and recipes that use beer - apparently a staple in "manly" cooking. He loves this book. If you have a young man in your life who thinks cooking is woman's work, get him this book!

He is taking "teen living" (what was called home ec when I went to school), and his teacher taught them how to make spaghetti with meat sauce. He made this for us last week, and it was so good, and so much better than any sauce out of a jar. Psssst.... don't tell him you saw his photo on my blog. When I started this blog, he said, "OK, Mom, but keep me out of it!" Whoops. Hey, proud mama here. Couldn't resist.

Later this week, my wonderful husband and I are heading to one of our favorite spots on earth, the Oregon coast. (Our son is not into scenery, so he will be home over Spring Break with Grandma. Going out to movies and dinner and staying up late to play online games - that is his idea of vacation.) When we go to Oregon, we usually stay in Newport in a hotel on the beach, but this year, we are going with friends and staying in a condo in Depoe Bay. So looking forward to showing them our favorite sites, including Nye Beach (photo above... it's impossible to take a bad photo with that light), Nana's Irish Pub and the Christmas shop in Lincoln City.

Until next time, friends! Happy stitching!