Stitching

I have been working on several projects lately but nothing is completed. I'm working on my Block of the Month April quilt blocks and only have a week or so to get them finished before the May videos are up. I'm also trying to get back to my collaging. This past week I saw that Amy Powers was going to do a Happy Go Lucky Stitchalong in June. I really want to do it!!  It is on sale right now for only $10.00 on the Big Picture Classes website. I haven't picked up my embroidery for a long time so my deal with myself is that I can take this class as long as I finish the other stitching projects I started. Well, I have to finish two projects. I'm not counting the long ago abandoned projects like this one my mom found that I started when I was a little girl.

I think it's funny that I signed it when I hadn't done much work on it.

I finished this tulip today but still have a long way to go on my Stitch Sampler from Rebecca Ringquist. She has several pretty samplers you can buy. I want to finish this in the next week or two then I'll only have one embroidery project to do so I can do the stitchalong.

Sometimes you just have to discipline yourself if you want you to get anything done. Ha!

I'm having a hard time getting bright pictures today. The sun here in Pittsburgh needs to eat a Jimmy Dean sandwich. It's supposed to snow tonight.  What??????!!!!!!!

Have a creative week and join me in the stitchalong. It will be fun!!!

Grandma's Housecoats

I come from a family of savers. This is good and bad and you understand that if you are a saver too. It's great to have special items from the past but where do you put all that stuff? I definitely inherited the saver gene which is why I still have my childhood toys even though they aren't in mint condition or even close to mint. If I just would have saved my Mr. and Mrs. Mouse House I'd be a happy girl!

My Grandma Norwood died back in 1999. She was the sweetest lady!!  She was a saver too and I think all of us grandkids have something special that used to belong to Gram. One thing she saved was a box of old dresses and housecoats. Maybe to some that wouldn't be a special save but it was to me. One of my saver sisters collected them and held on to them before sending me some of them. I spent a couple years trying to decide what to do with them. Finally this year I put them to use making something for each of my sisters.

This apron was made for my youngest sister. My Gram was such a huge spirit but when I looked at her tiny dresses I was surprised how small she was physically. So all the aprons are pieced together with several fabrics.

Each apron has a flower with one of Gram's buttons in the center.

This next apron was made for my oldest sister.

This blue fabric was a dress and I was able to keep half the skirt together to use as the skirt of the apron. The bodice is actually the back of the original dress. It had a large complicated collar so I removed that and added some housecoat fabric into the V and used the same fabric for pockets. This fabric and the pink straps fabric was used in the first apron and also in the next. I liked how the fabrics went together so I wanted all three aprons to coordinate.

The third apron is for the sister that saved the dresses and housecoats.

The ruffles should be one long piece but I had to piece them together to make it work.

That is how I re-purposed Gram's housecoats and dresses. There are only teeny tiny scraps left now but the saver sister that saved Gram's things says she will make me an apron too. Um, Karen, you forgot to get the scraps when you were here. 

I love you, sisters!!

and

I miss you, Gram!!!

April Collage Challenge

I decided to try something different for Mary Green's Collage Challenge this month. For this challenge, you need to use at least a part of each of the three images that Mary provides. They are always beautiful images! I stuck some muslin to an 8 1/2 by 11 label and ran it through my printer. Then I cut out the images and made a fabric collage.

 I used two different shades of linen for a background and sewed the muslin letter onto my background.

 I used an old lacy doily as a ground for the two children. I decided he should give her flowers instead of a box of whatever that is. They are lightly stitched on.

I stitched down the tulips with some embroidery floss and also used that to sew on the mother of pearl buttons. I am happy with the way it turned out.

Check out the images here and see what creative ideas everyone else comes up with. I can't wait to check them out!!

Thanks for the fun challenge, Mary!