Update On Green Valentine Pillow

Finally, a day that I can stay home!  At least that's the plan for now.  I've been running like crazy lately and can feel that I need some down time.  If all goes well, I don't have to leave the house today!

Here's an update on my Green Valentine's Day Pillow:

This is ready now for beads and other embellishments.

My to-do list for today includes cleaning my bathroom, getting laundry caught up, baking some chicken for salad and stitching, stitching, stitching!  Wish me luck!

Another Valentines Day Pillow

I started on a new project yesterday.  This will be another Valentine's Day pillow:

As you can see, I'm getting ready to stitch another seam!

Marjolein asked a few questions about my Pink Valentine's Day pillow:

I thought I would answer her questions here in case anyone else was wondering about them.  The silk ribbon work is simply French Knots worked with 7MM silk ribbon that I hand dyed myself.  French Knot cluster flowers require a lot of silk ribbon so be sure you have enough of whatever color you choose.

The large, light pink flowers are vintage millinery flowers that I took off of an old hat.  I just sewed them on.

The small, dark pink flowers are new.  They're just silk flowers from a floral stem that I got at Michaels or Walmart at some point.  I just popped them off the stem and sewed them on then added beads for centers.

A quick note to Gail, I tried to reply to your message but I don't have your email address.  Thank you for your comment on liking my tall cat dolls and thank you for "Pinning" it on Pinterest!

Pink Valentine Pillow and Seam Embroidery

I finished up my Pink Valentine Pillow yesterday:

It just needed a few hearts and some butterflies.  I added a bee too! 

And here are the seam embroidery photos:

If you click on the photos, you can see them closeup!

These will be permanently available to view in my ongoing series page of Crazy Quilt Seam Treatment Inspiration photos found at the top of this page.

It seams that the vote for my tall cat dolls is unanimous!  Everyone seems to like the tall ones.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to let me know.  I will plan on a series of tall cats for 2012.

For now, I'm off to start on a new project.

Crazy Quilt Valentine Pillow Almost Done

I didn't have too much in the way of stitching time yesterday so this is almost done but not quite:

This just needs a few little hearts and some bugs.  I love bugs on crazy quilts! 

Flea Market Beads

I mentioned yesterday that Scott and I were going to Grayslake Flea Market and Antique show.  I really enjoy that one because it's all indoors!  Many of my favorite sellers weren't there which surprises me.  We've been going to this flea market for years and years and December has always been a "productive" treasure hunting month.

Anyway, onto my treasure.  Now I usually don't find cool beads at the flea markets.  Vintage hankies, vintage lace, vintage jewelry pieces, old cook books yes, but not beads.  I think I hit the mother load yesterday!  LOL!!!

These are all all vintage glass rice beads from Japan.  They were still on the original strings and had the old paper "made in Japan" tags on them.  Check out all the colors!  And they were not all from the same vendor!

These are all vintage glass seed beads and vintage glass pearls.  Again, still on the strings with the "made in Japan" paper tags on them:

Those aqua blue ones on the right are absolutely gorgeous!

There was a new vendor there who had some strings of crystals so of course, I had to have a few of those too:

I usually find tons of pretty vintage handkerchiefs at Grayslake Flea Market but yesterday, not too many.  I only found this pretty one with pansies on it:

In other news, thank you to everyone who left me comments regarding my cat dolls.  I will definitely plan on a series of the taller cats for 2012.  I personally like the little ones but the taller cats definitely give me more room for stitching!  LOL!!!

After our trip to the flea market, we stopped at Kohls.  I needed a new pair of shoes.  After that Bubba wanted a Christmas tree so we stopped for one of those.  I could have lived without it but we haven't had a tree in 3 years so I conceded.  We decorated it last night so I'll take a photo of that later today.  It is pretty and does smell good so I guess I can live with it in my living room for 3 weeks.

Finally for today, here's an update on my Pink Valentine Pillow:

I can stitch on this for about an hour before I get ready to go into town.  I think I'll use a few of my new vintage beads on it!