Flag Boy Cellphone Pouch

I took a break from Maxine's quilt and decided to stitch up a little patriotic cellphone pouch. Here's what it looked like before I started:



My husband worked late last night so I had plenty of stitching time and actually completed it:



I'll get this sewn up next week sometime and add it to my Etsy shop.

I'll be seeing Maxine later today so I should have a update for you tomorrow on what we're going to do with her quilt.

Are you finding the progress on that quilt interesting or boring? I'm assuming that you prefer to see my original creations. I would love to hear your thoughts.

I'll admit, I'm a bit all over the map these days with so many projects going on. I never got any flowers planted in my yard this year. Thank goodness for my perennials! At least I have some flowers.

I still have to paint the steps, the interior front door and do some stenciling in my living room. And I want to order my valances for the windows. That will be awhile yet as I have x stitch work to do too. Other than my room here being a bit messy, my house is clean so I am a happy camper!

Announcement

I have had quite a few requests lately, to re-publish several of my previously discontinued counted cross stitch designs. I'm pleased to announce that these designs are now available in my Etsy shop.



If you're a cross stitcher, please check my shop to see what I have available.

If you're not a cross stitcher but would like to have one of these designs stitched for you, stitching services are available. Please email me to inquire.

Highlights

Again, I worked on Maxine's quilt most of the day yesterday. I did quite a bit to it but I thought I would share with you just a couple of highlights today.

First, I did this flower bunch motif using some crocheted flowers and vintage mother of pearl buttons:



My next highlight is this crocheted piece which I used as a basket and filled with flowers:



This was a little crocheted purse that came in a bag of flea market finds. I'm assuming that it was supposed to be lined with fabric and then ribbons used for handles/closure. Anyway, I sewed it to the quilt and then made some Yo-Yo flowers, added some silk leaves and then the vintage millinery forgetmenot flowers.

I'll be seeing Maxine tomorrow to re-evaluate this project. In the meantime, I need a bit of a break so I'll start a new little cellphone pouch later. Tomorrow, I'll have photos for you.

Embellishing Maxine's Quilt

I spent almost all day yesterday working on Maxine's quilt. I spoke with her on the phone yesterday afternoon and I'll be meeting with her on Friday. We're going to re-evaluate this project a bit. I'll let you know over the weekend where this will be going.

In the meantime, here are the things I did yesterday. First, I had a lot of trouble with the velvet pansies that I made. I've made them before and they always worked out great but for some reason, they didn't this time.

Instead, my mom crocheted a few pansies for me:



I love these! They look so old-fashioned. I sewed them onto a large patch and added a few vintage velvet millinery flowers. The leaves are the ones that I bought in Galena on Monday. I sewed them on and then added a few sequins down the centers for sparkle.

Next, I did some Yo-Yo flowers. Ladies, if you enjoy working with Yo-Yo's, this is the way to go! I made 3 Yo-Yo's in less than 10 minutes using the Clover Yo-Yo Maker that I mentioned in yesterday's post:



This patch has a "ready to stitch" design printed on it. It's velveteen and was printed in white. Some of the design was under the patch above it so I stitched the leaves and then added the Yo-Yo flowers. I made these from Panne Velvet. Not easy to work with as it's stretchy but with the Yo-Yo maker, it was a piece of cake!

Using some of the Chenille thread that Sharon sent to me, I did some big Lazy Daisy stitches and then beaded inside of those.

This was an interesting piece. The design was painted onto this silk patch:



The paint however, was starting to crack so I followed what was there, stitching the stems & leaves and then added my signature bugle beads to the centers of the Lazy Daisy leaves. I then used some vintage velvet Forgetmenot flowers from Maxine's collection of things that she gave me to use on this quilt.

Last but not least, I added some silk flowers to this already couched on vine:



Again, I added some beads to the center of these.

I'll be working on this again most of the day today. What I think we're going to do is to balance it out a bit more, adding just a few more "points of interest" here and there and then adding a new back and binding. I'll explain more on that over the weekend.

Goodies From Galena

We had a lovely day yesterday. We drove to Galena, had lunch and did a bit of shopping. I found a few things that might work nicely on Maxine's quilt.

First, I found the silk flowers and leaves in the Rubber Stamp store:



They were on sale and I thought I could sew them onto the quilt and then embellish them with some beads.

Galena also has a fabric store called "Phat 1/4's". Cute name huh? Anyway, we looked in there and I found these Yo-Yo Makers:



In the past, when I've made Yo-Yo's, I've just used a saucer from my dishes for large Yo-Yo's and the lids from my Tupperware cups for small Yo-Yo's. I thought I'd give these a try and see how they work. Some velvet Yo-Yo's should work nicely on Maxine's quilt.

These are made by the Clover MFG Co. If you would like to visit their website, you can find it here. And this is the direct link to the Yo-Yo makers. It looks like they have several different sizes as well as heart shaped makers and flower shaped makers. Oooh, I would love to have those!

It was a busy weekend and I feel that I need some quiet time so I'll spend the majority of my day working on Maxine's quilt.

Stop by tomorrow to see my progress.