I'm Making Progress on A Little Girl's Fancy

The dollhouse is my favorite part of A Little Girl's Fancy. It's the whole reason I wanted to stitch this chart. And it's making me absolutely crazy! 

All of the furniture is there, except for a vague picture over each fireplace, and I've finally put my finger on what's making this part of the project so tedious. The walls of the rooms are half cross stitch and the symbols on the chart are solid squares of color. Some of them are extremely similar to others. It's the same with the lines for the back stitching -- the same color on the chart can represent a few different floss colors and there's a lot of explanation to read to even try to figure out which is which. 

This same pattern is in a book I own (I'm stitching from a thrifted copy of the chart) and I'm hoping the colors might be clearer if I dig it out. Because this is getting more and more frustrating. If I can figure out what color to stitch the bedroom wall in, I can start to figure out what colors to outline the furniture with. 

Moving the project to a larger frame has made a huge difference. I can see more of the design and I'm not constantly shifting the fabric. This project has such big elements that to get all of the trunk, or all of the rocking chair, I'd have to readjust. That's a definite improvement.

Red Chili Socks

Yarn: Drops Fabel, Red Chili

I started knitting these with Valentine's Day in mind and wound up finishing them a lot later than that, but the nice thing about knitting for myself is that there's no deadline. And I've got pretty red socks that will keep my toes warm...and a fair amount of leftover yarn to incorporate into a future pair! 

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/29/19}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

I Could Stitch a Large Needlepoint Piece

I keep falling absolutely head over heels for vintage needlepoint pieces. Just look at what I  found at the thrift store for four bucks! 

The yarn isn't the brand the packaging calls for, so I'm not sure which color is which or if there's enough...but I'm willing to see if I can make it work. I'm sure I'll have to add something along the way and it's not like I haven't improvised before.

Someone, who must've been a smoker, started the project but didn't finish. I couldn't tell that from the packaging but it's not a lot of stitching compared to the entire piece and I'm willing to share the credit if I ever start stitching on it myself.

Eight Little Loops of Yarn

Do you see the six loops of yarn around the crochet hook? That represents an hour of effort. 

And, despite an hour of effort and multiple attempts, it's not the right number of loops. I'm fairly confident that the loops I do have are looping the right way and doing the right thing...but I'm going to have to start over yet again if I want to get through the cast on and onto the knitting part.

The Magic Circle Cast on is hugely popular and probably everyone but me knows how to do it...but I don't and I can't and the whole point of Sock Madness is to learn new tricks, but my fingers aren't dexterous enough for this and the whole doing a right hand thing left handed, which is almost never a problem with my knitting, is kicking my butt today. (I did find a video showing the cast on left handed if you need the same thing I did.)

I'm not on an actual team this year so no one is going to enforce rules against me if I use a different cast on. Do I let eight little loops of yarn stop me from going any further? It sounds like such a silly little thing, but after trying to get those loops to loop, I can assure you that it's not as easy as it sounds.

{I've Been Reading} The Hidden Corpse and Antiques Wanted

The Hidden Corpse by Debra Sennefelder

Food blogger Hope Early agrees not to mention the mishap in her elderly neighbor's kitchen, when Peggy fell asleep with a pan filled with onions and peppers still cooking on the stove. There was no real harm done and Peggy promises not to do any more cooking. But a day later the house across the street goes up in flames and Hope feels responsible for not taking action sooner. Then a second body is discovered in the house and it becomes clear that the cause of the fire was arson and not an old woman's failing memory.

Although Hope's stint as a reality television chef is mentioned in the cover copy of both this and the previous book in the series it doesn't come up in the books. What we do get a lot of detail about is her life as a  professional blogger. I enjoy the way cozy mysteries give me a glimpse into someone else's life, but there's a lot here about Hope's daily routines. It works with the plot (in this book she's taking a course to improve her photography skills) but if you're not interested in social media or SEO, it might get a bit tedious.

This is the third of Debra Sennefelder's books that I've read and I definitely want to spend more time with her characters.



Antiques Wanted by Barbara Allan

Vivian Borne, born to be sheriff.... Her daughter Brandy helped come up with the slogan, but the thought that Vivian could actually win the election is a scary one. The two are visiting a local nursing home to collect items for a white elephant sale when an oxygen tank explodes, injuring Brandy and killing the nursing home resident. There's nothing for Vivian to do but schedule that bunion surgery she's been putting off and check herself in to the home facility where she can investigate the death while she's recovering. It shouldn't interfere with her campaign too much.

The Trash N Treasures series is always fun, with both Vivian and Brandy telling the story and arguing with each other and their editor on the pages of the book.

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies. All opinions are my own. 

{Tutorial} Make Your Own Needle Minders from Vintage Hot Iron Transfers

I haven't stitched any new blocks for my Garden Party quilt in quite a while, but I'm still in love with vintage hot iron transfers -- the quirkier the better! 

Over the weekend, I used some of  the patterns from my collection and some Shrinky Dinks to make needle minders for my stitching. (If that little bird with the scissors looks familiar, I've stitched him before.) 

You can see how I made mine -- and learn from my mistakes -- in my video tutorial.

Happy Trees?

The two pine trees on the right keep reminding me of Bob Ross. They also look more like what's going on in my yard right now. 

Every last trace of snow has melted and we got a couple of gloriously sunny and warm days before the rain moved back in and the temperatures dropped. It's not cold, but it's not nearly as nice as it was.

I'm so ready for Spring!

Embroidered Lettering

There is so much gorgeous embroidery on Pinterest and Instagram that it makes my head spin. I want to make all of those gorgeous things, but my needlework skills are pretty much limited to little Xs and outlines. Not that you can't do a lot of amazing things with little Xs and outlines... 

Embroidered Lettering by Debra Valencia is the book I didn't know I was looking for. It starts at the beginning, with what to stitch on and how to transfer the images and how to mount a project in a hoop and finish the back. There are clear instructions for the different stitches used. I think that someone who hadn't tackled needlework before could do a lot with this book. (It even reveals the mystery of how to embroider on the pocket of a pair of jeans!) 

The Painted Word by Caitlin Dundon will help you create collages with all of your favorite words and sayings. Detailed instructions and lots of photographs explain a wide range of different techniques using found or stamped or stenciled letters to. Whatever thought you want to get out onto
a piece of unique artwork, this will show you how to do it. (Although it's worth nothing that all of the projects are on flat surfaces.)

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy. 

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/22/19}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Exclamation Point -- a New LNS in Oregon

I found a new place to shop, and the best thing about it is that it's really close to home. Closer than I could've ever hoped for....I mean except for the old house where I had an LNS and a LYS within easy walking distance, along with Hancock Fabric and Michael's. I didn't fully appreciate that until a few years ago when I added up just how many crafting options were on our daily walk. Michael's and Hancock are both gone...but now Joann and Hobby Lobby are now closer than they were.

There was a lot wrong with that house and its location and I'd never want to live there again,  but it sure sounds attractive when I list out all of those shopping options.

The house we live in now isn't near anything at all, but I've suddenly got a fully stocked needlework shop on the way to the grocery store and that makes me more than a little bit giddy.




Exclamation Point's Website -- http://www.shop-exclamationpoint.com/
Exclamation Point on Facebook --  https://www.facebook.com/expointstore/

Smock Madness and Snakes

My single sock was done in time to qualify me as a Sock Madness cheerleader. That's the best I could hope for this year, and it means that I'll keep getting the patterns and be able to learn new skills along with everyone else. 

The sun was shining enough for me to open all of the windows and to take pictures outside. (Those little smocks are HARD to get clear pictures of!)

And it's warm enough for the local wildlife to cross paths with the teenage boys and my knitting...

{Estate Sale Temptations} Lots of Stitched Pieces, But No Supplies

This is going to be a picture heavy post, but it was a  fun sale -- mostly because I didn't need anything!

The steamer trunk was forty bucks and in great shape...but I have one at home. And mine has the hangars and little suitcase missing from the left hand side of this one. 

I also have a wringer washer that works...

And an old vintage sled in my attic....

Remember those antique school desks I was drooling over at the thrift shop a few weeks ago? This one was a tenth the price...for obvious reasons. As I type this, I'm telling myself that I absolutely will not go back on Saturday when things are half price to see if it's still tucked in the corner of the attic.

Ever seen elegant door knob covers? To make it even weirder, they were squishy foam. Did being squishy make them more elegant than just the gold swirls would have?

There was some absolutely gorgeous needlework hanging on the walls. I couldn't get a picture of the Paula Vaughn piece because the room was too crowded, but these give you an idea...

You'd think that I'd find some craft supplies, but nope. There was one old crewel kit (which is mine now) and a Whitman's Sampler Box with a couple of skeins of floss and some blurry hot iron transfer pieces inside. Which makes me suspect that these were gifts. Or there was stitching stuff and someone else beat me to it.

{Guest Post} Second Chance at Faith Releases Today! by Joanna Campbell Slan

Today marks the birthday (release date) of my newest book, Second Chance at Faith. This is a new (never published before) book, and the fourth episode/book in the life of Cara Mia Delgatto.

Writing about faith presented a challenge for me because I did not want to write an overtly religious book. In fact, I didn’t want to write about organized religion at all. That said, misplaced faith is an important part of this book. We often put our faith in the wrong things—and my characters did exactly that, over and over.

Cara puts her faith in her business acumen. She’s a savvy business owner, but she’s gotten a little too big for her britches. Lou puts his faith in a medical procedure. The Sabotinis put their faith in superstitions. These are three examples, but as you read the book, you’ll find more instances of misplaced faith.

My Second Chance books are contemporary and set on Florida’s East Coast, otherwise known as The Treasure Coast. Every Second Chance book includes a touch of history. Usually, I have to go out and do research for my stories. This time, my information was (literally) next door.

My neighbor, Bill Brisben, owned the rights to the sunken Spanish Armada of 1715. If that sounds familiar, this particular shipwreck was immortalized in the movie Fool’s Gold with Matthew Mc Conaughey and Kate Hudson. Bill’s wife, Dr. Lori Hamilton Brisben, and I are good friends. Lori told me about a coral and gold rosary that she wore to a few fancy events. The image stuck with me, and with the Brisbens’ permission, I used the piece in my book.

My books also include everything I love about life, and in this case, I tossed in a scene at Sweetie’s Ice Cream and More, a local ice cream shop. Sweetie’s was once owned by a man named Tony, whose lifelong dream was to retire and own an ice cream shop. That Tony sold the shop to another Toni, Antoinette Norris. Toni scoops up the best tasting salted caramel ice cream ever, produced by a Florida company named Laughing Cow.

I love crafting. In the book, EveLynn creates quilted pillow tops in the shape of shamrocks. I decided to try my hand at one in miniature. The paper piecing method works pretty well for miniature quilt making, but once I got the shamrock done, I realized a plain muslin background would not look good. I hand-sewed strips, cut them, and sewed them back together for a block pattern. Unfortunately, I didn’t make a pattern first. ARGH!! But I hope that well it’s all done, I can disguise my mistakes.
My books also include food I love, and in this case, I chose to focus on ice cream. I tossed in a scene at Sweetie’s Ice Cream and More, a local ice cream shop. Sweetie’s was once owned by a man named Tony, whose lifelong dream was to retire and own an ice cream shop. That Tony sold the shop to another Toni, Antoinette Norris. Toni scoops up the best tasting salted caramel ice cream ever, produced by a Florida company named Laughing Cow.

Tell me: What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? I’ll pick one lucky winner on Wednesday and give that person a digital copy of the first book in the series, Second Chance at Love.

More about Second Chance at Faith
The fourth book in a clean, romantic, mystery series set in Florida that focuses on love and friendship with a touch of history, too.
A priceless coral-and-gold artifact intended for a queen disappears from a locked hotel room in Stuart, Florida. The item was on loan as part of a charity event--and Cara Mia Delgatto was one of the first people who entered the empty ballroom. Who else could have stolen it but her?
The situation seems impossible! The philanthropic community of South Florida is blaming Cara for the loss—and the charity event is promptly canceled.
The backlash could hurt sales at the Treasure Chest, Cara’s store specializing in upcycled, recycled, and repurposed goods. She moved to the Treasure Coast of Florida for a second chance at life and love. Now it looks as though Cara's business might be caught in the undertow. In the meantime, her good friend MJ is battling with breast cancer, and Skye is having serious problems of her own. Cara's support system is seriously shipwrecked.
With all this going on, Cara's life is in turmoil. Can all this stormy weather sink her just like it did the Queen's Treasure Fleet of 1715?


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What Would You Sacrifice for a Frame?

The end of the hedgehogs is in sight and, since my daughter has claimed them they're going to be finished instead of tucked away in my box of stitched projects.

A few weeks ago I found this frame for fifty cents at an estate sale. It's nice wood and absolutely gorgeous and it comes soooo close to the right size. Another inch or inch and a half would make it perfect. I could use it the way it is....

But then I'd lose all of that pretty foliage around the edges. I could almost convince myself that's a good plan, but maybe I should start watching for a larger round frame.

When's the Last Time You Played With Shinky Dinks?

I'd forgotten how much fun these are. The shrink plastic and Sharpies are doing exactly what they should, but I ran into a little snag that I'll have to figure out before I have a finished project to show you.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/15/19}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Slow Smocked Socks

I don't know why I'm knitting so slowly these days. Smock Madness is going much more quickly than Finding the Yellow Brick Road, but it didn't seem like I could possibly get them done in two weeks even under the best circumstances. This past week hasn't been the best circumstances.

I'd forgotten about the Sock Madness cheerleaders. As long as I can get the first sock done (properly) by the deadline, I'll keep receiving the patterns and can keep knitting along. I just won't be in the official competition.

Half a foot an a toe in four days. That should be easy.... Any other time it would be easy....

{I've Been Reading} The Gun Also Rises

The Gun Also Rises by Sherry Harris

Sarah Winston is sorting through a client's extensive collection of mystery books, hoping she might stumble across some 1930s Nancy Drews, when she opens a suitcase and finds an unpublished manuscript by Ernest Hemingway.  Just a few minutes after she shows it to her client, the suitcase has been stolen, the thief has been murdered, and Sarah is shot at.

Things only get more overwhelming when the media and a group who call themselves The Literary Treasure Hunters show up, all wanting to talk to Sarah.

This one is really good. I'm not a particular fan of Hemingway, but that didn't keep me from loving the book. The mystery twists and turns as Sarah finds herself hiding out from reporters and tweed wearing treasure hunters and I read it almost straight through. Sarah is organizing the mystery books for a sale and coordinating a fund raiser to reunite a veteran with the dog he bonded with while deployed, but there are two brief scenes that almost felt like they were tacked in there to remind the reader that the book is a Garage Sale Mystery. It was the garage sale element that made me pick up the first book, but at this point I'd keep reading just to spend time with Sarah and her friends.





A Vintage Death by Mary Ellen Hughes

Music box shop owner Callie Reed is getting involved in Keepsake Cove by planning the fall decorations and an appearance by a popular author. When the owner of the local bed and breakfast is found dead, stabbed by a pair of vintage scissors from one of the local shops, she also finds herself investigating a murder.

The second book in the Keepsake Cove mystery series, this one didn't pull me in as deeply as the first one did. The mystery kept me wondering who the murderer was  and it all made sense at the end. That paranormal element is still there, but it's extremely minor and doesn't add much to the plot beyond being a cute touch.

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an ARC. 

Adjusting My Plans

I had a plan for the next few weeks. It was going to be big and hard and I thought I could do it. Then I had the opportunity to add something really neat, which would make things harder to pull off, but maybe just maybe I could make both things work. If the first plan had to suffer a little bit to make the second plan happen, it would be okay. And it really did look like I might be able to manage them both along with all of the other stuff that's usually going on.

There was another little thing that I wanted to add because it was going to be fun and involved my stitching friends. It would take a few hours away from the time I had for that first plan...

Then life happened and sometimes all of the plans have to go out the window.

It also doesn't help when two feral cats who don't belong to you spend the day trying to kill each other outside your window. One cat has been around for more than a year and is nice. She'll jump in the open window and crawl in bed with you (which we discourage) The other cat has been skulking around for a couple of weeks and suddenly the two can not co-exist. We've already got a cat in the house who can't exist with the cat in the yard. I cannot deal with a third cat right now.

But I figured out what to do about plan number one which is going to make it all work. Not the way I originally thought it would, but I'll accomplish what I needed to.

B is for Back Stitching and Banister

It's my friend Bendy Stitchy's birthday and we're having a stitchalong to celebrate. Friday's letter was "B" so I did the back stitching on the banister...

The last time I pulled this project out and worked on it, I had to force myself. With the stitchalong as motivation, I got quite a bit done and only put it down because I have to get moving on those Smock Madness socks if I have a prayer of finishing before the deadline.

Someday, I Will be Better at This....

After I found that Teresa Wentzler unicorn at the thrift shop last week, I wanted to pull out The Best of Teresa Wentzler Fantasy Collection and see if the pattern was in the book. It isn't...but there is another equally gorgeous unicorn and I was able to find the book exactly where I thought it might be. I'll count that as a win. 

I have a lot of her charts that I've collected over the years and a few weeks ago I thought I might start stitching the mermaid. Then I looked at how many blended threads there are (one strand of each color) to keep track of...and the over one sections...and how complicated the whole thing is going to be.

Someday, I'll feel up to tackling these and when I do I'll be glad I have the charts. Or I'll sell them on ebay. That book is worth a lot more than I paid for it back when it was new.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/9/19}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Inlinkz Link Party

Smock Madness

I don't know if there's any chance that I'll finish these before the deadline, but I'm going to keep knitting and see what happens. 

Pattern: Smock Madness

Yarn: Drops Fabel 

I hadn't done smocked knitting before. It's reasonably easy and looks pretty once it's stretched. Just hanging from the needles, it didn't pucker nearly enough to get the right effect. 

{Thrift Shop Temptations} I'm Almost Outraged

Outrage is a strong word, probably too strong for the way I feel about this vintage cross stitch piece. But I'm definitely distressed. 

Look at these pheasants... 

Aren't they absolutely gorgeous?  The colors and the vintage feel of the picture and frame make me swoon a bit. They're in front of the cash register at a very nice thrift shop so I'm sure they'll find a good home with someone who isn't me.

I'm not upset over the fact that they wound up in the thrift shop to raise money for the local animal shelter. What has me outraged is what's been done to the back...

Someone took the time to label this with who made it, and the approximate date, and then someone took a sharpie and obliterated the information. WHY would someone do that? It looks like her first name was Rose and the date was 1960, but I honestly didn't try too hard to figure the rest out. With patience someone more determined could probably decipher more of it.

I wonder if the person who donated it decided to obliterate the name in an attempt to preserve privacy. Again, WHY?! It's not an address on a magazine label.  We hear so much about how we should label and date our work and then, sixty years later, someone does something like this.

Someone else donated a fully stitched Teresa Wentzler unicorn which they'd stretched  over cereal cardboard with packing tape. It was in a frame, but the glass was loose and sharp and I nicked myself a bit trying to hold it all together on my way to the cash register.

I'm more baffled by this ridiculous framing job than outraged. All of that stitching...that fantastic workmanship...and then they used packing tape?

The unicorn, which cost a whopping $1.47 including the broken frame,  is at my house now and I'll pass it along to a friend who holds cross-stitch related auctions to raise money for charity. It will find its way into good hands. 

I don't tend to make up angry back stories for projects that wind up in the thrift shop, but those pheasants really got to me.

{I've Been Reading} Chocolate a la Murder

Chocolate a la Murder by Kirsten Weiss

The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum series just keeps getting better and better. In the first book, Maddie was tricked into buying the paranormal museum. Since then, she's fully embraced her role as a local businesswoman and is doing everything she can to make the popular attraction grow. Book three had haunted cowbells. This time it's a haunted molillino, an  antique wooden chocolate whisk that supposedly rattles when someone tells a lie in its presence. The museum is set up for Wine and Chocolate Days, complete with a psychic who reads the drippings left in  hot chocolate mugs.

When Maddie visits a local chocolate shop to pick up her order and finds one of the owners lying dead in a pool of his own chocolate, she finds herself plunged into another murder investigation. (I've got to admit, that was one of the creepiest murder scenes I've come across in years of reading cozy mysteries.) The molillino rattles and serves its purpose, but the story behind it is less interesting than some of the other exhbits in past books. The murder mystery kept me entertained and guessing until the end. It's a fun series that I highly recommend.

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy. 

Plans for the Week

I've got my week all planned. The pattern for the Sock Madness qualifier round has been released and there's no colorwork or beads and you get to cast on with whatever stretchy method you prefer...so I'm optimistic. 

I've also got ideas for new projects that I can't wait to share with you.

It's Getting Calmer

If it seems like I'm posting about All is Calm a lot, that's because I've been stitching on it a lot.  Lots of hours plus lots of half stitches make for lots of progress. 

I've got plenty of Dimensions Gold Collection kits in my stash, but I think this is the first one I've actually started. Village Serene, a Gold Collection Petite that I stitched last year felt a lot slower, maybe because there were so many color changes. All is Calm is nothing but blends, but once I get a thread started I can keep going until it runs out. There are lots of colors, but there's also a lot of each one in a relatively confined space.

The real snow in my life seems to be sticking around, but the roads are clear and anyplace I need to go to has already thawed out. And it turns out that having a layer of snow in the yard lets the kids see where the beaver has been walking and sliding down into the stream. So that's a plus.