Three more finishing projects..1 completed 2 in the works

I posted on Facebook last week that I had finished stitching my Debbie Stiehler Timeless Tomato and what was the consensus that I needed to block it before I finished it? Overwhelmingly was no, I did not need to block. It was stitched on a frame and it is a 3D piece…so I am not blocking it and it jumps to the top of the ready for sewing finishing.

But I have found that many of the pieces I want to finish are not just sew and go pieces and are going to require a bit of thinking and pre-work before actual finishing will take place.

For example I have the perfect buttons for my Timeless Tomato, but they are not the right color. So I colored them with my Copic marker and that means the buttons have to dry and then be sprayed with a sealer…better safe than sorry. So I have colored the buttons, waiting for them to dry and then I will spray with a sealer to set and more drying time. Okay so I haven’t begun to sew the tomato together but when I do I want everything ready to go.

I also want to make a box out of another piece of needlework, I’m going today to look for a box but I think I will have to make the box. I have this idea in my head, I can see the finished box. But this project will require some research and study, not to mention design time. My problem is I want it finished yesterday and I don’t have a lot of patience waiting…I’m thinking finishing is going to teach me to slow down. I’ll keep you posted.

Are you getting the picture? I have these ideas in my head on how most of my the needlework pieces should be finished and now rather than slapping a piece of fabric on the back and moving on to the next…I have some pre-work to complete before I can begin the finishing. Hopefully I will not get overwhelmed by all these ideas and can keep on track to finish my needlework.

But again with all these cool ideas brings up the subject of needlework finishing costs…Lets use the buttons as an example. The package of buttons cost me $3, the Copic marker was $8, and the Krylon was $3.  I had most of this from other projects, but if I were a professional  finisher I would have to add these to the cost of finishing. Remember even though I have a package of 25 buttons I may never use them for anything else. Of course if I were a finisher, I might have found plain green buttons that I didn’t need to do all this work (I’ll look today for a button that will work, but now I have this idea in my head so I am going to look for a special button that will be as cute as the ones I want to use)…but I might still have left overs and that’s how stash starts…and I have enough stash for several people.

Also the difference between a finisher and an innovative finisher is the one who thinks outside the box. She makes your needlework unique and you want to use her again and again. Like I said, my friend Patty said her favorite finishing pieces were the ones that she got to think outside the box and make her finishing complement the needlework while making that piece uniquely its own piece.

And in the meantime, I stitched and finished another piece. Last week-end was a bar-be-que contest my husband and 3 sons enter, so I needed something to occupy my time. They set up Friday afternoon, and then friends stoped by Friday evening and we artied, Saturday was the contest part and so most of the day was spent sitting around while the boys   (middle son, Hugh) cooked and youngest son (Edward) ran the entries to judging. More friends stopped by and of course we had food and libations.  My job was to socialize and keeping the boys and husband informed as to who was coming our way…I always wonder if the boys would know me if they didn’t see me regularly. So I needlepointed this little tukey. I originally thought I was going to finish it as a scissor fob but then I remembered I had this small box from Romancing the Past (http://romancingthepast-lowery.com/finds/small-treasure-boxes/); it’s walnut over black. And I just had to add the Diagonal Gobelin around to make the turkey fit. So….

Piece of batting cut 1/4 inch smaller

 

 

 

Mitered the corners

 

 

 

Turned in the sides

 

Placed in box and

 

 

 

Voila…finished needlepoint! 

We didn’t win anything at the bar-be-que this year, but we still had a good time. How can you beat good friends stopping by and staying most of the day, good food and a finished needlepoint to boot.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you find time to stitch today! ttfn…sue

Inchies turned ATC

  The first inchy is made for the Heart Association Red Dress Pin. A friend of mine gave this to me and I think it deserves to be dressed up for all of us. I probably will put a small cording around this before I wear it.

The second picture is my #8 inchy from Inch by Inch (http://inchybyinch.blogspot.com/) turned ATC (Artist Trading Card.) The inchy parts are the #8 sampler completed as a color wheel arrange in complements. The attached people with stars were a bracelet from a dear friend. I loved wearing it, but it was very fragile and one of the stars had become very weak and I was afraid I  would lose all of it.  I am going to have this framed and place it somewhere I will see it daily to remind me to reach for the stars and that friends are heaven sent.

I went to the craft evening at my church Monday and there were knitters, scapbookers, quilters, cross stitchers and me doing Temari Balls. There were only a handful of ladies but I have been assured that usually they are a large group . Of course everyone was interested in the Temari Ball and if there is enough interest I may put together a small class for them but I am going to wait another month of so to give everyone the opportunity to show an interest.

I have been going to the YMCA everyday for the past couple week and doing water exercises. I just love the water and have decided in my next life I want to be a mermaid that stitches. Of course all my threads would be water proof and would really never get wet in my fantasy. I exercise and then spend a half hour just floating around the pool. It is like meditating to me. I am so relaxed the rest of the day and I can really tell the difference in my muscle tone in just a couple weeks.

Tonight I am going to veg out with a cuppa ice tea and read your blogs.

ttfn…sue

Inchies to catch up

 

 

 

My inchies for inch by inch (http://inchybyinch.blogspot.com/ ) I’ve had these completed for about a week, but with other commitments didn’t get pictures taken until today.

My favorite of these is #9 Black and White…I don’t know why but when I first read the challenge I thought, “Black & white and red all over.” So I decided to take out and replace canvas threads to make the black and white canvas, then I put red stitches all over. If nothing else it has given me ideas for larger needlepoint canvases.

#11 Using a key was easy. I had been looking through a box of old family keys. I want to go something creative with them. So I knew I had a small one. Since then I though it would be cool to do the inchy of a gate or key hole and hang it from a longer key. When I get a round to it, I’ll post a picture also.

#10 Thank you is an adaptation of a car I received not long ago.

I have enjoyed doing these and have one more in the works but I think for now (unless something really speaks to me), I need to just watch and not take on another project for a while. I will keep watching and I may pop up now and then, inchies are just no trouble to make and a great way to use up scrapes of canvas. They will make great scissor fobs, magnets, or just add to a card for a friend.

Tonight I’m off to a craft night at my church, I’ll report back tomorrow.

ttfn…sue

Doing Laundry…

Since I am doing laundry and still playing catch-up I thought I would post my inches from Challenge 7 (http://inchybyinch.blogspot.com/). Yes I am behind…with my inches an my laundry too, so what’s new…

 

 

 

 

And I like them in the order shown. I can hardly wait for someone to have a baby so I can use this on a card for them.

Off to change the real laundry.

ttfn…sue

Home…heart to follow

 

This is my inchy for the week. At first I was not going to participate this week but since I have spent my whole week home with some nasty bacterial infection, it just seemed natural to do “home” for a place.

This is not how I planned to spend the first truly beautiful week we have had in the Midwest (despite the tornados, that come with the season.) On April 10th I wrote Spring in the Midwest (https://sudukc.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/spring-in-the-heartland) and we have not had a warm week since. Oh we’ve had days but nothing like a true spring.  This past week was that week and I shared it with some nasty bacteria! Every part of my body ached, had low grade fevor and then a sinus infection to top it off. Two antibiotics later, I am on the road to recovery but am as weak as a kitten, tired and feel like a wrung out towel. It will probably take me a week to be hitting on all cylinders again.

I did make some interesting discoveries while I was out of commission and as soon as I sort out my thoughts on these discoveries I will write about them.

Hope everyone in the US this week-end will remember all of our heros who fought and are fighting to preserve freedom. May those away from home come back safely soon!

ttfn…sue

Inchy: Face

Last night I stitched my inchy for the week, and I might add my least favorite. I know I have seen a similar idea somewhere else, but for the life of me don’t know where. I even did a Google search but came up with nothing. The other design I think I’ve seen is just one closed eye, nose and mouth. Mine of course has two eyes complete with Turkey Work eyelashes, a blue Jessica iris and a Smyrna Cross mouth.

I like these inchies, but I just have no idea how I am going to finish them. They could become pins, they could be put together in a collage of some kind, I may applique them to another canvas, or I could use them as embellishments on other things (needlepoint) included. Time will tell…

You can see other inchies at: http://inchybyinch.blogspot.com/

 

S is for…

   The challenge was to stitch an inchy using everything with the first letter of your first name.

                Sue’s second inchy.

Stitched silver threads on silver flecked canvas. Stitches used: Scotch Stitches, Spider Web & Stem wrapped. Added a silver strawberry, silver scissors, and silver star.

S is for Silver and sue.

For more inchies: http://www.inchybyinch.blogspot.com/.

 

Inchy

I have been wondering how I was going to incorporate inchies into needlepoint since I saw them in Issue 29 of Quilting Arts Magazine http://quiltingarts.com/qamag/qahome.html. I could have just stitched up some inchies but I really wanted something that would speak to me.

This week I found out a friend of mine has been diagnosed with cancer and I wanted to give them something that would let them know that I am thinking about them. A HOPE inchy was born. I made a mat and backing from Ultra Suede and sent it on its way.

     And then I made another inchy followed by and couple other ideas too. And since I made these I have fould out that many cancers have their own color designation..i.e. Pink is Breast Cancer. You can Google for “Cancer awarness colors” or visit here http://home.earthlink.net/~hope.4.tomorrow/id20.html . Also Kathy Moss at Count Your Blessings http://www.countyourblessingsxstitch.com/default.aspx?Page=CANCERAWARECOL has listed DMC colors to use. These were just two that I found. One thing just leads to another so it seems..so know I’m going to make an ATC using the cancer color.

And then I came across Inch by Inch http://www.inchybyinch.blogspot.com/. The instructions to play are: “How TO PLAY: Please link your entry back to this blog. It’s as simple as that” I ‘ve added it to my blog list and am going to try to link to it, remember I’m new to this blogging and it doesn’t take much to leave me very confussed, bewildered and consulting the Dummy book. I hope it works, but to be on the save side I’ll add a comment too.