When The Pig Flys: Halloween Pillows

I listed all of my new Halloween stitcheries on my selling blog. Check them out here: When The Pig Flys!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!!!

 

~ Jennifer ~

 

Hey Guys!!!

Not much happening on the home front.  Have a couple stitcheries I wanted to show you. I finished them up the other day. I still need to distress them but I thought I would show them off. Both are from Notforgotten Farms designs.

I received my copy of this today:

The one project I know I am going to do right away is this one by Lynda Hall of Primitive Pieces by Lynda. It is awesome. If you do not get this magazine (this is the second edition) you have to get it. Awesome magazine!

I did get a text from my co-worker and her mother loved the pillow done with her stitchery – that makes me so happy!! Well that is all for now, just stopping in to say hi. I hope you guys are having a great week and getting a little stitching done. I am going to be finishing up that baby quilt the next couple days so hopefully I can show you that quilted by Friday. Happy stitching!

~ Jennifer ~

A Baby Quilt

I have stayed busy and finished up a couple more projects. I feel really good about it. Nothing like the feeling of accomplishment!

I worked on the special order baby quilt I did the embroidered duck blocks for.  I had to include everything she sent me in the quilt.  My quilt room floor went from this:

To this:

I was able to include a piece of fabric from every dress she sent. I just have to quilt it and it will be finished. It measures 44” square, I think that is great for a baby quilt.

Speaking of babies, Baby Tiger had a successful surgery.

She once again has two eyes and is ready to have some fun!

I hope you guys had a great weekend and were also able to finish up or start some fun projects. I would love to hear about them!!

~ Jennifer ~

TheRustyThimble Harvest Blessing Giveaway

You have to sign up for this awesome giveaway.

Head over to The Rusty Thimble and check out all the great prizes she has lined up.

Oh to be that talented!!!

Click here to sign up!

This Giveaway is to celebrate many milestones, 

In August it is her blog Anniversary, 

In August it is her Etsy Shop Anniversary, 

And she has reached over 800 followers on her blog!!!

Congratulations to Brenda and Good Luck to you!!

The guys are done!

I have completed the two special order dolls and a couple other projects.

Here is the “Scrooge” doll, I am loving this little guy! He is from a pattern by “My Primitive Saltbox.” I wasn’t so sure I liked him until he was finished and now I have to make one for me!

I had to include the picture of his back. He looks like a real grumpy old man walking away!

I also finished the “Santa Shepard” doll, like I said this guy is huge! I love his little sheep, I think I will be making more of the sheep for sure. The Santa is a little pricey to make though, he is made entirely by wool except for his hands and head. The pattern is by Cheswick Co. I gave the sheep rusty nail legs and rusty bells around their necks, they are so cute!

I also finished the stitchery for the gal at work. I decided after much frustration to make it into a pillow. I searched everywhere for a frame and could not find one that suited it or the right size. I did not have the funds to take it somewhere to be mounted. I love how it turned out though, I put it on my bed and it will make a beautiful bolster type pillow. I stabilized the stitchery to protect it. I ended up soaking it a couple times in water and it was so fragile the thread was coming out more and fading so I did not make anymore attempts to clean it. You can see the size of it in this picture, I have a queen size bed.

Here is a close up. The fabric I used as the border and backing is one of my favorite Civil War reproduction prints. It is so hard for me to use those fabrics, but the colors were perfect with the colors in the stitchery.

I also finished up four more pillows for the Rusty Bucket. I have decided from now on I am going to border the smaller pillows in the homespun also. I like that much better.

Okay I am off, I am on a roll finishing up projects. I have two more very important ones to finish, the baby quilt for a customer and we finally found eyes for Baby Tiger’s "eye replacement surgery”.  She is currently in “Post Op” awaiting my arrival. You can read about Baby Tigers injury here. I have tried to operate a couple times but they were quick fixes that did not work so well.

Try to stay cool, it seems we are all in this heat wave together!  Have a great weekend and I hope you find a little stitching time.

~ Jennifer ~

More Stitching

Have some more stitcheries to show you guys. All are from Notforgotten Farms. The first two I have not over dyed yet. They are about 5” X 7”.   Typically I  over dye first but since I was using a brighter DMC floss I decided to wait.

I really like how they turned out with the exception of this one. If you notice on the roof of the house on the left, it is supposed to be an X and a Y, the house on the right is supposed to be a Z. I need to pull those threads out and stitch them in blue also like the other letters.

This one is one of the real small ones, about 3” X 4”.

I also have found a new use for my Bowflex Treadclimber besides holding dust. It works great for the Littlest Pet Shop crew to work out on.  I have been enjoying walking outside so much I never use it anymore.

More pillows finished for the Rusty Bucket.

When I dropped off the pillows today I saw someone special I have not seen in a very long time. She is working at the Rusty Bucket and had this box for me. Thank you Lynette!!!

She is so generous. It is full of primitive and country patterns for dolls and quilts! It is amazing. I love them all. There were so many they covered my entire bed and I still had some stacked in the box.

I have told you guys before my son Gordon loves to have a tomato plant during the summer. We planted it a little late this year and today he was able to pick his first tomato.

Isn’t it the goofiest thing ever. But it is well loved!! I am a little scared to taste it.

I am off to try and get some sleep. I wasn’t able to sleep last night, not because of doing anything exciting but I had a little taste of insomnia, eyes were too tired to sew but the body wouldn’t cooperate!

Have a great night and I hope you were able to find a little stitching time today!!

~ Jennifer ~

Saturday Night Sewing

Today I had a meeting with the planners and participants of the “Porch Sale in the Barn” that is going to be October 14th and 15th of this year. It is going to be a great handmade craft show, I am very excited. I will give you more information about it as it gets closer.

I am working on the Santa Shepard and Scrooge dolls tonight. Having a little fun with that. I like this picture. It really shows the size difference between the two.

I like taking pictures of the process of the doll making.  It is amazing how you can look at it at different points and go through all these different emotions. You like it, you hate it, this is too bright, that is too stained, not stained enough or whatever it may be.

I love working with these patterns. I have never purchased from these two designers before and I always enjoy learning different techniques. I can make a doll on my own but it is nice learning everyone’s little “secrets”.

Well, I better get back to the guys, they aren’t going to make themselves!

I hope you are having a great weekend and finding a little stitching time!!

~ Jennifer ~

I have completed four more burlap pillows. I need to move on to something else for a few days so I am going to work on the Santa doll tonight.

This one is my favorite pillow so far. It says “V-C crops grow for it”, I think it is a pretty cool looking one.

My daughter and I were taking a walk last night, a little late,  and a lady drove up and said she had something for us. I sort of looked at my daughter and was about to say start running. The lady didn’t look like she was up to no good or anything but you never know right? Then she said “Well actually Natalie, Kaniya has something for you.” I breathed a little better since Kaniya is a friend of Natalies. This is what she gave her.

She sketched a picture of Natalie. It is huge, about 11” X 16”, it is amazing.  I put a picture of Natalie on the right so you could see how awesome her sketch is. She did not have a picture of Natalie when she did the sketch.  That is one talented young lady. Her mom said she has been out all day delivering sketches that Kaniya has done of family members. What a treasure. I told Natalie will have to get it framed.

Okay I am done on the computer for tonight. I have to get something finished tonight! Have a great evening!!

~ Jennifer ~

Is it my Birthday??

Oh my goodness, what a week I have been having. And it is not even my birthday! Today I received a package from my friend April in Japan.  She is the most fabulous shopper ever, always has been. Lots of piggies!!

I got two totes, a coffee mug, rice molds, stuffed pig, pig wash cloths, pig salt and pepper shakers, a notepad, two fat quarters of pig fabric. This one is a linen type fabric, very pretty!

This one is a cotton, isn’t it so cute!

She also sent this pre-stuffed bunny. I think I will have to decorate it up for her.

He kind of looks sad laying in that plastic bag doesn’t he?

Tonight Alice has a double hitter softball game, I am not sure if my lingo is right on that, basically she has two games. The weather is cooperating today, it is only about 88 degrees and the humidity is not terrible. She had to leave practice on Tuesday because she could not handle the heat after only 20 minutes. It was about 100 degrees and the humidity could be cut with a knife.  I felt so bad for those girls, I was dying just sitting in the dugout.

I finished up a little stitchery last night. It is also from an adaptation of one of Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farms’ patterns.  Can you tell I have her stuff out in my studio. Sometimes I get hooked on a designer and have to stitch their stuff until I get it out of my system. Be fair warned I traced about 10 more of her designs just for Fall, they are all the about the same size. I made them all about 6” X 8”. Sorry the picture is crooked.

I am thinking I might want to make a quilt with them. But I don’t know if time will permit this year. We will see. I am hoping to finish up the rest of the pillows for the Rusty Bucket tonight. I am out of stuffing again, hopefully my hubby is going to pick some up for me.

Well, I gotta run, I hope you guys are having a great day and maybe finding a little stitching time!

~ Jennifer ~

Awesome Prim Friends!!

Today was a great mail day. My oldest daughter has been saving since Christmas to get an IPod and last week she was hired by a neighbor to watch their dogs for a week where she earned the rest of the money. She is so excited. She received it today and is beside herself!

I am also excited because I received an awesome box from my Prim Patty at Raspberry Lane Primitives!

Look at all those goodies!! The picture below is something I really need. I hold all my tension in my head and neck so this will be great!

She made me this awesome Prairie Bonnet. I love it, I love the fabric!

And check out all of this. A notepad, Sugar Plum Mist, Candy with holder and all the fillings, sunflower, prim fireworks, prim eggs and nesting!

Thank you so much Patty I love everything so much!!! You made my day girl!!

We are currently getting a pretty bad lightening/thunder storm, not a ton of rain but some. But I am going to close down the computer just to be safe!

~ Jennifer ~

Hey All!

I have been doing a lot of stitching so I have a lot to show you. I do not have them into finished products yet, but that will come. This guy is a small block, about 4-5” square, his “pinkness” doesn’t show up well in the picture. He is for me, I think I am going to make it into a pin cushion because I don’t think I have enough of those!!

This one is pretty cool looking. I am going to make it into a laundry pin bag. This will be the bottom front of the bag. I have not figured out how I want to construct the bag just yet.

Next I have started on my Halloween/Fall stitcheries since I am so far behind on that. They are turning out great I think. The first three are from Notforgotten Farms and they are about 3”x5” each.

This one is from Buttermilk Basin and the one under it I cannot remember, but it is not my design. I did them both larger. They of course, will be pillows.

Lastly I finished up three more pillows for the Rusty Bucket. I used a stabilizer on the back of the burlap this time. It was much easier to work with.

I have been doing something besides playing Frontierville. I was able to cut my ties with Cityville and Farmville so I am feeling a little better, baby steps, baby steps.

I hope you guys are having a great week and finding a little stitching time!

~ Jennifer ~

Making Progress!

I have a project that has been put on the back burner for some time. I have been a little afraid to attack it.  A co worker of mine brought this embroidered piano seat cover in and asked if I could clean it up and frame it or make a pillow with it. Her mother had embroidered it and she wanted it restored. I have been afraid because it is very fragile. She says she can remember as a kid riding down the stairs on it with her brother, can you imagine.

So I finally attacked it, I took out the cushion and soaked it in water in the tub. You can see the stains on it better when it is wet. I have been to numerous chat rooms reading posts about cleaning and I have found more than not they recommend soaking in Oxy Clean. I believe the floss is colorfast, I soaked it for a couple hours and had no colors run. If anyone has any ideas I would love some feed back. I am going to have her get it framed I think, it seems to fragile for a pillow, or maybe I could use a fusible on the back. A lot of the stitches are out also, do you think I should touch up the stitches. I have “creative freedom”, I guess you could say to do what I think is best.

I came down stairs this morning and my husband said, “Look at the counter, that is one sad sight.” I saw this:

Funny thing is, we don’t really drink anymore. We cook with the Jack Daniels and only drink on a rare occasion. I had to post it!!

Here are the embroidered blocks for the baby quilt I am doing. They look so cute. The colors are vibrant but they didn’t scan as true to color as I was hoping, or maybe it is my eyes that are not true to color.

I forgot to show you guys what my family brought me back from their beach trip to the Outer Banks besides laundry. This yummy bag of Dirty White Trash! It was so good. I am not a huge candy fan but I loved a little sneak of that stuff.

I didn’t eat too much, I still lost 3 1/5 pounds this week – yippee!! Finally back down to my weight of last year. Now I have to work on the previous four years.

I have also been working on a Santa for a customer. She had a couple patterns she wanted done for Christmas. This guy is huge, he is about 22-33” so far.

It is a pattern called “Santa Shepard” by Cheswick Co. I cannot wait to see him finished!

Thank you for the well wishes about my allergies. They are a lot better today, usually it lasts about a day or so. I am telling myself I will make an appointment for it this week but I always say that.

I hope you guys are having a great weekend and finding a little stitching time!

~ Jennifer ~