Mermaid & Hand-dyed Threads

I spent yesterday afternoon hand-dying some embroidery floss. You know, I'm not sure I enjoy doing that. I love to do lace, fabric and ribbons but I've never had great luck with embroidery floss and ended up with quite a few imperfect skeins:



These either didn't take the dye right or I just didn't care for how they came out. So I put them all in a ziplock bag and added them to my Etsy shop. Maybe someone can use them. The colors are permanent and they're perfectly usable, they just didn't come out the way I intended.

When I finished up with that, I started on this little mermaid:



This design is from Aunt Martha's. I believe it's a current design but transfer is vintage. Anyway, I plan to add some sequins to the tail and I have some little orange sequins for the little fish. I thought this would cute worked into a CQ down the road.

I was going to sew this afternoon but I'm feeling more like I want to stitch so I'll work on this and then I plan to start stitching on one of the cats to send to Pat. Maybe I'll do some sewing tomorrow.

Blue Santa Ornament

I sewed for hours yesterday! In fact, I ran my sewing machine for so long, I never did get to any stitching!

The first thing I did on my machine was to finish up this Santa Ornament:



I then did a ton of foundation piecing including 2 more Comfort Cats to send to Pat:



I really love making these so there will be more!

I sewed up some more purse blocks, a couple of ornaments and another cellphone pouch for Margaret, my mother in law. She loves them! This one will have an Autumn theme.

Ok, so speaking of sewing, can anyone tell me what happens to my brain when I get into a fabric store? I swear, I either need a 12 Step Program or Hypnosis! If you could see my stash you would wonder why I keep buying more fabric. I have absolutely no control!

So, I've decided to put together some more pre-sewn crazy quilt block kits. I could never just part with my fabric and I love to sew blocks so doing some more kits will be fun and I'm sure there are tons of stitchers out there who would love to stitch a CQ but either can't sew or maybe doesn't have a machine.

Anyway, I figured I'd do my 9 inch block kits at $6.00 and some 5 inch ornament blocks at $4.00. I'll include some lace (as I have no control in that department either) and some other do-dads from my stash. Ok, so I have no control at all when it comes to stash! Ha, ha, ha!

When I get back from running errands tomorrow, I'm going to put some heavy duty miles on my sewing machine! Because I must make room for stash!!!

Goody Package From Gina

Just look at what Gina sent to me:



Gorgeous laces, trims and buttons and a piece of fabric! I'm in heaven!!! Thank you so much Gina for thinking of me. I can't tell you how exciting it is to see a package from Australia in my mailbox!

Since I have all sorts of new things to play with, I will be sewing up some new blocks today. I already have a pile of things that are ready to stitch but my new stuff is calling to me! I might even get some stitching time in later today.

Patriotic Love Birds Design

I have had several requests recently, to re-release this retired design:



I have added it to my Etsy shop and will make it available for the next couple of days and then it will be permanently retired.

BTW - I only list 1 at a time so if you want it and don't see it, check back in a little while.

Antique Cutwork

Another article from my collection of antique patterns & designs. This one on Cutwork is from a women's magazine titled, "The Designer". It isn't dated but it is an early 1900's periodical:





Enjoy!