CQ Progress & Time Change

Ok, I do wish they would leave the clocks alone! I get up early to begin with, but today, I was wide awake at 3:00 am! Honestly, I like the early morning hours, before the dogs start barking, before the kids start screaming and running up and down the street and before the motor tools start running but 3:00 is a bit early.

The good thing about it, is that I did alot of stitching already today! And as you can see, I made some serious changes to this project. I took the ribbon off and moved the necklace. Visually, this looks much better to me. I also re-dyed the lace appliques. I made them darker and gave them a brownish-yellow tint which makes them look vintage and more suitable to this design.



Speaking of dyeing textiles, I'm always floored when I read how-to books and magazines where they suggest actually using tea and coffee to dye fabric, lace and other items.

Tea & coffee have acid in them!!!! I cannot stress this enough, please do not use tea or coffee for dyeing anything!

RIT makes a color called "Tea Dye". I strongly recommend that product as a safe alternative. There are also other fabric dyes and paints that will give you the same look and without the acid which will eventually cause your fabrics and laces to deteriorate!

Ok, I'm off to switch loads in the washer and dryer and then I'm back to stitching!

Fractal Fabric Sheets For Sale

I took Susan's suggestion and printed up several fabric sheets of my fractal designs. One sheet has all new designs on it and the other 2 are designs that you've seen here.

They're nice and bright, just like they looked here on my blog, photography is just not my medium:







These are printed on commercial inkjet fabric sheets (cotton). They're ready to cut apart and use in your crazyquilts, altered art, scrapbooking and other mixed media projects. If you're interested in them, you can find them in my Etsy Shop.

Also, if you're looking for beautiful hand-dyed ribbons to use in your projects, hop over to Pat Winters Etsy shop and take a peek at the pretties that she has to offer.

Mom's Block

Well, I feel like I'm moving in slow motion on this block:



I've done alot of ripping out on this one. I know it's the necklace that's throwing me but it has to be on here so I'm just taking my time and trying to be sure of what I'm doing before I do it.

I think I'm going to get my fabric dyes out and give that 5 rose applique a bit more of an antique look. I think that's looking little too bright to me.

I hope to have another update on this tomorrow.

The Midnight Peacock Handbag

I've had so much trouble posting to my blog! Yesterday, Blogger was down for maintenance but today, I just couldn't get it to load in Mozilla no matter what! So I'm trying in Explorer! I hope this works because I really enjoy blogging!

Ok, enough whining for now! I'm sure my readers who have been with me for awhile remember this peacock design:



Well, I decided to finish it into a handbag so this is what it looks like now:



I'm not sure why, but this took me hours and hours to do the finishing on. I guess I always choose to do things that require alot of handwork. The handle is wire which I wrapped in braided metallic cord (yes, I did the braiding) and then I felt it needed beads so I hand-strung the beads and wrapped them and then I added some twisted cording just because I liked the way it looked.

The fuzzy yarn is hand-worked too. I can only do very simple crochet but couldn't figure out how to crochet with this stuff at all! So, I hand-sewed some braided gimp around the crazyquilt piece, then I attached the fuzzy yarn by weaving it in and out of the loops on the gimp. It took a long time but I love the way it looks! It's so pretty and very sparkly!

I've listed this in my shop. I know many of you liked this piece so maybe someone would like to have it.

I plan to do the finishing on the Rose Garden Peacock and the Autumn Peacock next week sometime.

For this afternoon though, I think I'll go park myself in the middle of my sofa and stitch on my mom's Christmas gift. I did work on it a bit last night but didn't get very far. Had to stop several times for laundry and dinner. Too bad we have to eat! I'd always rather be stitching!!

Cross Stitch Booklets For Sale

Been cleaning out some things again and decided that I've probably stitched everything out of these pattern books that I ever will, so I've packed them up and listed them in my Etsy shop:



Here's a huge lot of cross stitch booklets, a couple of kits, and a few leaflets. There are 27 booklets, 2 small kits, a couple of chartpacks and a few small pattern cards. Also, a hard covered book titled, "Gifts Of Good Taste" published by Leisure Arts.

Most of the booklets are by Sam Hawkins but there are a few others in here as well including a Stoney Creek. There are 2 Valerie Pfeiffer chartpacks, a Lizzie Kate leaflet, a Mill Hill Bead kit and a few cards by The Sweetheart Tree.

Lots of stuff here to keep you stitching for months on end!

I think I can ship this Media Mail for about $5.00. If you'd prefer Priority Mail, just let me know.

I'm hoping maybe one of my cross stitch readers can use these. I do accept PayPal too.