Nursery

Most of my creative energy has been focused on getting the nursery ready. The finished project turned out adorable. I still have a bunch of ideas that I want to do (it probably won't happen though).

My first project was my teddies. I have been working on this collection for years and years. Whenever my Dad went out of town he would bring me back a teddy. When ever I went on vacation I bought a teddy. I found a lot of them in great little shops and boutiques. When I got a little older I wanted to use them in my children nursery.  Justin was not too thrilled with the idea, but I pretty much told him he had no choice in the matter. I think in the end he's OK with them.

Next was the big cross stitching project. I make so many things for other people, trying to decide what to make for my own children was torture! I had no idea what to do. I had bought the ABC Beatrix Potter patterns years and years ago. I finally decided that I wanted to use that, and I could not find the patterns anywhere!! I looked online again and I could only find 2 and they were super expensive. I was so mad. I decided to look again. Luckily I found them, and they were exactly where I thought it was, I just missed them the first time I looked.

The patterns technically have a character for each letter but I did not want it to be super huge.I decided to do every other letter with a character, and it turned out nice because Wilson and Stella have the same number of letters in their names, and they turned out pretty close to the same size.

For the charectures I just picked the ones I liked. I had to have Peter, and Jemima Puddle duck. The rest I just chose because they were cute.

Putting together the pattern was pretty time consuming. I had to map out each letter, and then insert the character where they would best fit. I also had to make up some of the patterns. They were missing corners and such because the animals were technically paired with different letters.

I was in the hospital a lot, so I was able to finish these pretty quickly. My Mom helped me out and got them framed.

Next was my small cross stitching project. These cute little animals were in an issue of CrossStitcher. They were in a free kit to make little ornaments. I thought they were perfect for my woodland creature themed nursery.

Years ago I saw in a magazine hoops wrapped in ribbon. I did that for another project and it turned out super cute, so I wanted to do that again.

The other obstacle was there was only 5 patterns and I needed 6. I like things to be symmetrical. I decided I could probably design my own. I created the little bunny. He was good addition. And I think I was not too far off so it looks like it was not designed separately from the group.

 The memory board my awesome sister-in-law made. She had made me one before, and she has some cute ones in her house as well. Each button she covered herself with a little owl from the material. She also stitched there names on it. I absolutely love it. It is the perfect addition to the nursery.

My mother is amazing, but you all know that. She made these adorable quilts for the twins beds. She also made the bumper pads. They originally started out as just the little yellow and brown owl material. And then they evolved into the quilts you see here. My mother never does anything half a**.
She also crocheted adorable granny square blankets.

The rocking chair belonged to Justin's Grandma Stella. I think it is a great addition to the nursery. The crocheted blanket my Grandma Wilson made for me years ago. I love seeing it in the nursery now. It always makes me smile.

 I love love love this growth chart. My cousin Lisa made it for me. It matches everything so perfect.

One of our wonderful nurses in the hospital started stamping the kiddos feet each month. Justin and I really liked this so we wanted to keep it going when we came home. The first 3 cards were made in the NICU, and the last one by me. I thought each month I will stamp there feet and make a card for their wall.
I have an extra set of stamped feet, so when they are 1 we want to put them all next to each other to see how they have grown.

 So that is my sweet nursery. I had a lot of fun decorating it and to see my kids in it is a dream come true. I love them so much. I can't even imagine my life without them. And I'm so grateful that families are forever.

More Baby Gifts

On top of the projects I have been working on for my own kiddlets, I have done two other projects for friends and family.

The first project was for my new niece, Ingrid. She is a total cutie! I have made her two older brothers blankets, so I had to make one for her. I was extremely upset about the whole project I almost didn't even start one. I went to go buy the blanket at Joann's and they didn't have any. OK, no big deal, I went to Michale's. They did not have any either. Not the end of the world, I got online to find one. NO ONE HAS THEM. I looked all over for one, and apparently they don't make the baby sized one anymore. I could of bought a normal size blanket and cut it to the size I needed, but it would of been twice the money.
I now had to find something different. Joann's had another style, its just not a pretty as the other ones. And the blocks go around the edges instead of the whole blanket being blocks. I know I totally over reacted about the whole thing, but I was pregnant, and that's my excuse and I'm stickin' with it.

I found the alphabet pattern in a book I recently bought. It is a Joan Elliot alphabet book. I love Joan Elliot designs, they are my absolute favorite. Thanks to Facebook, Joan even got to see the finished project. (its really not that big of a deal, but I thought it was pretty cool that she told me she liked it).

The next challenge was sewing it together. I am by no means a master seamstress, that is my mother. I have totally piled on the projects for her since I found out I was pregnant. She is making quilts, and bumper pads, she crocheted adorable granny square blankets for them, plus on top of it all she alters wedding dresses. When the baby was finally born, our babies were only a few weeks old and we were at the hospital all the time. The day before I was going to give it to her it still was not done. I felt terrible asking my mother to do it for me, so I tried to do it myself. I was up until one in the morning trying to get this sewed together. It to FOREVER! but, only due to my poor sewing skills. I have the knowledge, but not the skills.
I had some minky for the back, and I got it all pinned together, and in the end I swear I sewed and unpicked each side at least twice. It kept slipping and turning out terrible. I finally got it done, and it turned out alright, but it took way to long.

 This is the blanket as I was trying to pin it together. I have a nice big kitchen counter that is the perfect size, so that was helpful.

 Close up of one of the letters

 ALL DONE! and wrapped up.

The second project is for my best friend Monica and her new baby boy Luke (aka Wilson's new best friend). He is such a cutie. I got to go over to her house the other day and he just cuddled me for almost an hour, it was great.
Anyways, I got the pattern out of Cross Stitcher Magazine issue 232. It was from May of 2010. I have been wanting to stitch this design since I first saw it. When I found out Monica was preggers I knew exactly what project I wanted to do. It is really simple, but really cute.

The design in the magazine was stitched on a cute pok-a-dot aida, but they unfortunately don't make that any more either. I had to settle with plain blue. It was a breeze to stitch up, and I have had this finished for months thankfully. All I had to do was stitch the name and date and frame it and it's all ready to go.

Gifts for Grandparents

Last night I was very productive, and I got two projects framed and ready to go.

One of those projects is for Justin's Dad and his wife. Justin asked me many many months ago to make something for his Dad.  I got it done quite quickly, but then all hell broke loose with getting pregnant, and all the fun that came along with that, and the fun we are having now in the NICU everyday.

Christmas is getting closer, and I remembered this project that I have had stashed away. I got it washed and pressed, and my Mom got a mat cut for me, and presto! We now have a nice gift to give them for Christmas.

It is a Lizzy Kate design, and I think it is pretty cute. I added the "Grandparents for all Seasons" onto the bottom, that was not originally in the design. I had made something like this for Justin's Grandma a while back, and that is what was on it, so I reused the wording.

I Promise I Have Been Stitching

The last little while has been a crazy time for me and Justin. I have not posted anything for a while, but that does not mean I have not been stitching. (I admit though I have not been stitching as much).

The reason we have been so busy is because I got pregnant in March thanks to modern medicine and IVF. I was a pretty big mess all around so I did not do much for a while. Starting at the end of June I was in and out of the hospital quite frequently because of all different sort of things. And then finally on September 8th I had two precious little ones come into the world. (You can read all about it on my other blog if you feel so inclined http://infertilityandivf.blogspot.com/)

They were 3 months early, but they are doing fantastic. Baby boy is Wilson Floyd. He was 2.7 lbs and was born at 2:32am, and Baby girl is Stella Grace. She was 2.4 lbs, and was born at 2:34am.

I am working on projects for them, and when those are all done I will post about those. I also did a project for Justin's dad, but it has not been framed either, so I will wait to show that until it is complete.

The only other projects that I have finished are ATC's since they are super fast, and I run one of the groups on Facebook, so I am always participating each moths. I thought I would show some of those off. my favorite one is probably the frog prince.

Giving Thanks

Justin and I have an incredible family. We recently had a reason to offer some of them lots of thanks. I felt like a plain thank you card just didn't show how much I was truly grateful. I wanted to stitch them all a card.
I feel a little bad that they did not receive them as fast as I would of liked, but I hope they appreciated the sentiment in the end.

All the patterns came from one of my favorite books, "Joan Elliot's Cross Stitch Greeting Cards"
Only one was an actual thank you card, I just changed the wording on the rest.

New Year, New Technique

I had a whole Saturday where I did not have to do ANYTHING! No work, no shopping, nothing. (ok I cleaned the bathrooms, but that was it). So I decided to try something new!
I subscribe to Cross Stitch and Needlework Magazine. They have some awesome patterns, but they usually have a punch needle pattern in each issue. I finally decided to give it a go. I already had a punch needle, I had bought it months and months ago because I knew I wanted to try it eventually.

The latest issue had a really cute Spring/Valentines pattern. I decided it looked simple enough, and would be a good pattern to start out with.

Cross Stitch and Needlework Magazine also has a great website. They have a Tips and Techniques link, which is where I found instructions on punch needle. (they also have free patterns)

 The instructions say to use weavers cloth. I really don't know what that is, and I really didn't want to venture out to buy some. So, I just found some fabric in my stash of stuff. I figured it would work. It also said you need a hoop. Luckily I still had one plastic hoop stashed away. I don't normally use them anymore. I have some antique ones from my Grandma, but that is about it.

First I needed to transfer the patterns onto the fabric. The fabric was light enough that I just placed the fabric over the pattern and traced it on with my favorite tool ever, my fine point black sharpie, I never leave the house without it. I'm actually serious. Most of the time I have one in my purse.

If you noticed the pattern is backwards. With punch needle you work from the back of the project. That was something I didn't realize until I got started.

The actual needle is pretty cool too. The ones in pictures I had seen look different then the one I have, but its pretty slick. You use the long needle threader and pull the floss (2 or 3 strands, I used 3) through the tube, and then thread it trough a little hole at the hop of the needle. The process is really fast, which is nice, it does not slow you down to much when you have to stop and re-thread.

 The technique is super fast. That is why I was interested in punch needle to begin with. I read that you can finish a small project in 1-2 evenings. SOLD!
I did learn a few things as I went, the number one thing is to make sure your floss is not caught on anything as you go. I noticed when I was holding the needle I did not realize the floss coming out of the end of the needle was underneath my hand a lot, BAD! Don't let that happen, it was seriously frustrating because I did not realize it and was mad because it was not working right. I then figured it out why later on. It went a whole lots smoother once I figured that out.

Hear are a few progress shots..

This is the back after I was all done. The other thing I learned is pick a logical pattern to punch in and stick with it. It makes it much more neat, and makes it a lot less frustrating. You can tell I started with the grey, its more messy. I then moved to the A and B, not quite as messy, and then the C and the heart are A LOT better. I then did the little details like the flowers and the hearts. And then in the end filled in the white.
The other thing about punch needle, it uses TONS of floss. I used about a skein and a half of white. I also used all the grey I had in my stash.

In the end I think it turned out pretty cute. Its by no means perfect! And I had to do a little trimming hear and there because of snags and other things. But for a first try I think I did alright. I definitely learned a lot along the way. And the next project will be better.

How am I going to finish this off? I have no idea. I think I want to use it on my Valentines wreath somehow. I will post again with the results.

Happy punching!