Valentines

As I mentioned last week, I'm working on a few little Valentine gifts. I finished up this little cat over the weekend:



I decided to stitch this all in Ecru and then embellished with red & gold. I may make a cat for my mom too. She's more of a dog person, but she likes these little cat dolls.

My next Valentine is a cellphone pouch:



I'll start on this later today.

I've often been asked how I get so much stitching done. Honestly, I make it a priority. Just like with cleaning and laundry, I make the time to stitch. I also make time to read and sew. It has to be a scheduled event. Many people don't set aside time for themselves. They take care of chores, kids, meals and errands but when it comes to themselves, they put it off. I don't do that. Yes, there are days that don't quite work out to my scheduled plan, but for the most part, the reason I get so much stitching time in is because I schedule it.

If you're having trouble getting some stitching time, set aside just 20 minutes today to start with. Find a quiet place, take your things and insist on having that 20 minutes of peace and quiet to yourself. If the TV has to babysit for that 20 minutes, then so be it! The world will not stop turning if you take a little time for yourself. My philosophy is this: if we don't take care of ourselves, we're no good to anyone else.

Goddess Cellphone Pouches

I finally completed these little cellphone pouches:





I don't know which one I like more! I think the Ocean Goddess is my favorite. I love doing seascapes!

These pouches are available here.

After doing my January Take It Further Challenge Block, I decided to do just a few small things for Valentine gifts. I'll start on this little cat later today.



I think I'll stitch and embellish this one all in white.

For now, my mom is coming over and we're going to run my beautiful antique treadle machine! Yep, I finally get to learn how to treadle and I can't wait. Once I get the hang of it, I want to piece some blocks just for the charm of it!

Take It Further -January - Day 5 & Redwork Cats

I was able to use all 12 of my vintage dyed Mother Of Pearl buttons on this piece:



I really wanted to keep them all together so it worked out great!

I didn't get too carried away in beading the lace and trim. Because those pieces are antique, I wanted the beauty of those pieces to stand out. The vintage buttons and simple pearls seemed to be just enough to highlight the lace without overpowering it.

I'm almost ready for a few larger embellishments and I still want to add some pansies to the patch on the right of the tea lady.

In other news, the long awaited Redwork Cat designs are now available:



You can find them here.

Take It Further Challenge - January - Day 4

I started the beading on this yesterday:



I still have a way to go on it. I want to add some pansies to the right of the tea lady and of course, it needs some butterflies.

I remembered that I had these vintage dyed Mother Of Pearl buttons that Scott's mom gave me a few years ago:



On one hand, I hate to take them off the card because they are old and the card is complete. On the other hand, I've been saving these for something special and I know this project is perfect for showcasing them. I will use them because they aren't doing me any good sitting in a drawer. I do think they're perfect for this block.

Take It Further - January - Day 3

After spending several hours yesterday afternoon reorganizing the drawers in my rolling carts, which my husband did indeed fix for me, I finally got in some stitching time on my Take It Further January block:



I have all of the seams embroidered now so today, I'll start beading.

I added to the border at the top right using another of Carol Samples Dream A Seam Templates. Those are really fun! The templates offer an endless variety of border possibilities. You can find them at Carolyn's Evening Star Designs website. And don't think of them just in terms of crazy quilting. Some really lovely band samplers could be created using the templates as well!

I did the Maidenhair stitch in the center right, the Cretan stitch with some fans to the left of the Tea Lady and then above the lady, is a new border which I've never used before. I did Lazy Daisy flowers with Eyelets in between the flowers.

I've decided that it would be fun to offer you the charted patterns for any new borders that I come up with during the Take It Further Challenge so I charted this border out:



Just click on the image to go to my Flickr site where you can download the large version. I used 8.5 count Waste Canvas to stitch my seam but I'm sure you can free-hand it if you like.

So that's my update for today on my January block.

On another note, I've been tagged by several bloggers for the "You Make My Day Award". I'm quite flattered and so happy to hear that my blog is enjoyable to my readers. I must say however, that every blog I read has already been tagged. So I will simply say thank you for tagging me.