Another year of stitching, creating, and dreaming, has come to an end

and I find myself looking over at what I  finished, and 

pondering on whether I achieved all I had hoped.

Here is a glimpse back over the things I made this past year 2017

I love to embellish clothing with hand embroidery

I love to restore lovely embroidered linens that

that have had their original embroidery worn out

I love Victorian ladies and  wanted to thread paint

one with my hand embroidery

the flowering trees are so beautiful this time of year,

I had to design and embroider my own version

I love the ladies illustrated on old dress patterns,

and made a "pattern lady" by appliqueing and 

hand embroidering her 

a lovely vintage coat made me want to hand

embroider roses on it

hand embroidered dish towels and matching hand 

crocheted dishcloths took up 2 months 

of time for making Christmas gifts and items for

my shop

a lovely vintage design that I just had to embroider

I restored and made clothing for a vintage Horsman doll

for my great niece's birthday

I started hand crocheting snowflakes in October and 

finished them November to send to friends and loved 

ones in Christmas cards

for our holiday table, I gathered our backyard pinecones and 

made miniature Christmas trees out of them 

As I put the Christmas tree away, I am already focusing my 

attention on my work box.......which is waiting........over-full of things 

I want to stitch, to paint, to create...........

not sure as to what I will start to work on this new year............

Tell me, what have you accomplished this year in your dreams and creations?

What are your dreams and plans for the new year?

Farewell, Old Year! the rustle of whose garment,

      Fragrant with memory, I still can hear:

      For all thy tender kindness and thy bounty

      I drop my thankful tribute on thy bier.

What is in store for me, brave New Year, hidden

      Beneath thy glistening robe of ice and snows?

      Are there sweet songs of birds, and breath of lilacs,

      And blushing blooms of June's scent-laden rose?...

~Julia B. Cady (d.1869), "New-Year Thoughts," in Sabbath at Home, January 1870

Wishing you a very blessed new year!

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,

for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away

like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.

The good you do for others is good you do yourself.

Peace on Earth, good will to men,

kind thoughts and words of cheer,

are things we should use often

and not just once a year.

Remember too the Christ-child, grew up to be a man;

to hide him in a cradle, is not our dear Lord’s plan.

So keep the Christmas spirit, share it with others far and near,

from week to week and month to month, throughout the entire year!

~Norman Wesley Brooks (1923–2002), “Let Every Day Be Christmas,” 1976

From the backyard.........to our Christmas table

I gathered the fallen pine cones that had blown from

the trees here on the grounds and created little 

Christmas trees to decorate our table with. 

They were quick and inexpensive to make. If you would like

to do the same,  and you use your backyard pine cones, make  sure you bake the pine cones in a 250 degree oven for about an hour. ( place them on a lined cookie sheet)  

This gets rid of any bugs and sap that is inside of the cone.

----you can also purchase pine cones in a bag----

I used tiny terra cotta garden pots for the base, and just painted them with craft paint.

I then used a permanent glue......not super glue....but E6000® Permanent Craft Adhesive, 3.7 oz..

It holds the pine cone and each bead into place and dries clear  and strong.

I used craft/jewelry beads and just used a spot of glue on each pine cone

petal.

This year, for our Christmas dining, I have decided to use a vintage kitchen tablecloth

draped over our dining room table. 

It does not have a Christmas design, but the flowers in muted 

shades of red and green give a perfect nostalgic charm to the table.

I placed the pine cones straight down the middle of the table,

this way, each guest can see one,

I am using vintage dinner plates, and different homemade

cloth napkins made from Christmas fabric

as well as a few newer Christmas dinner plates. 

I also  made a few pine cone trees to sit along the back  door

window.  They look so cheery!

So tell me.............do you use a lot of linens at your Christmas table,

or is it easier to use the lovely decorative paper and plastic holiday

plates and napkins?

Do you have any great ideas in creating things from pinecones?

I would love to hear!

Do what you love,

love what you do...........

I have always loved this quote.

For me, it is hard to say just one thing I love to do

as I find myself drifting from one project to another,

I once thought that the only  thing I loved was embroidery, 

from designing embroidery from nature, 

making embroidered linens for the home

and to match vintage dishware.

but there are times, I love to make a little quilt,

work up some crochet items,

 create some mosaic work

and then there is ................. cross stitch.......

I love it all!

So I guess a saying for me would be.........

Do all that you love.......

love doing it all!

How about you?  Do you have several things

that you cannot pick favorites over the other?

or do you have just one wonderful thing you 

truly love to do?

I would love to hear!

Thanksgiving is upon us.........and I have a wonderful

large crowd to cook for!  I always love this holiday the best!

A simple time to gather with loved ones and to be grateful 

for all that we have!

Here's wishing you a very blessed and happy Thanksgiving!

Snowflakes are gathering at the

back door window, 

the back entry window,

along the wall, 

and drifting down on the old piano.

I found a "snowflake crochet" booklet at  a junk store

and fell in love with the lacey snowflakes on the cover.

These pretty pieces are made with cotton bedspread crochet thread. 

I have only made a few and need a lot more practice to 

make mine look as pristine and perfect as they do 

in the booklet. 

I really enjoyed the process of  crocheting them and 

have several plans on how to use them.......

which I will show at a later date.

Do you like thread crochet over yarn crochet?

I also came upon a pattern of crocheted roses.

These are also fun to make

as well  as crocheted flowers. I am not sure what 

I will use these for...............any ideas??

Along with that I am still busy stitching Christmas and

birthday gifts that are coming up in a few weeks.

Are you creating Christmas gifts.......or do you 

prefer to purchase gifts?

I would love to hear!

I have made a " tradition" for my great niece..........

who is turning 2.

 I plan to send her a baby doll and

a set of play dishes each year on her birthday.  As the 

years roll by and she grows into a young woman,

the dolls will change and the play dishes will become

real pieces of dishware.

I collect and restore vintage Horsman dolls.  Usually the rubber body ones

with the sculpted hair.  Once in a while , I run across lovely vintage 

baby dolls with soft bodies and friendly faces. 

 This is a 1972 Horsman , once loved , years ago, by some little girl. 

I wanted my niece to have a soft bodied vintage baby doll of her own

and picked this doll out of my collection to prepare for her.

I had these sweet little doll shoes that fit the doll perfectly,

so I decided to make her outfit to match the shoes.

She has such a friendly face and she looks so life- like!

I also made a little doll quilt out of fabric 

left over from when my children were small.

I bought a small set of play dishes........

and decided to also make her a zebra from a

kit I had stashed away for  years. 

They all traveled away to her in a big box.........

as you can see, the doll now has a new life,

with a new little girl, who will love her

all over again!

Though care and trouble may be mine,

As down life's path I roam,

I'll heed them not while still I have

A world of love at home.

J.J. Reynolds, "A World of Love at Home,"

 in The New Monthly Belle Assemblée, October 1844

This embroidery transfer made me think of a dear friend of mine,

who, instead of letting grass grow in her yard,

she kept it all dirt.........and in all of the yard were flowers.

In the early spring through the summer,

there was always something blooming in and around the grounds of

her home.

She passed away several years ago. The other day I drove by 

her old house to see if there might be some lingering flowers.........

but no.  The house was still standing

but the yard was overgrown with weeds.

The flowers seemed to have left........

sensing she was no longer there for them to 

brighten her day.

I often think about trying to get rid of the grass in my 

yard .......to make it all flowers........just as my dear friend had done..........

But no matter how hard I try.......the ground will not 

cooperate.

Where I try to grow flowers..........grass grows,

where I try to grow grass.........wild flowers take over.

I think my friend must have spent hour after hour

with her hoe........getting rid of the grass

to make room for the flowers.

How about you?  Do you have a yard full of green soft grass?..........

or full of blossoming flowers?

I would love to hear!

Butterflies

Another pretty towel..........and a design to share with you!

 This embroidery design is so pretty that I just have to share the design with you!

I think it is a bird cage perhaps?  Anyhow, the flowers spilling 

out of it are just lovely!  

I embroidered the cage in black and chose burgundy and purple for the larger flowes

surrounded with gold yellow daisies.  I embroidered the leaves in two different colors of green and the vase I embroidered in a gray blue. 

Just using basic outline stitch, lazy daisy stitch for the leaves and French knots for the centers of the flowers. 

With this design , anyone can pick any color combination to make it stunning!

This is a vintage pattern 

I hope that you can click onto this design and will be able to save and print it 

off for your own stitching.  

I embroidered this on a dish towel and paired it with a hand crocheted dishcloth with a purple accent stripe.

So ..........if you decide to use this design........

happy stitching everyone!