Back To Stitching

 Dear readers of my blog,
I know the break was a little too long but it was so much needed. When you come back home after a long trip, you need some time to readjusted to a new pace of life. It is not a simple thing I should say. Those of you who went through this once will understand me better. It is really a strange feeling: you are happy to come back home but there is a lot of sadness in your heart that you have left your family and friends...
It was a very nice visit with my family, which was so nicely extended lately. Catching up with my friends and colleagues was also in my plans but I spent most of the time with my mother and, of course, with my granddaughter Julia. The sweet little girl is happily spoiled by her parents and numerous grandparents and grand-grandparents. My DIL and I took  lots of pictures of Julia and when I came back home my husband and I spend 4 hours seeing all the pictures and short videos we had taken. 
Julia has already made some achievements, her photo won first place in a photo contest among kids of her age and she was awarded with a toy giraffe - the ugliest thing! - my DIL says :-)) .
When Julia was sleeping, DIL and I did some crafting. My DIL taught me macrame knotting and I taught her to sew and knit, and together we made quite a few  little things for Julia.

Before I left for home, I made this box for Julia, it is kind of a memory box, where her parents will keep her bracelets from the hospital, her first shirt, her fist toy, something which she likes now and later it will be interesting for both her parents and her to look through these things and remember the time when Julia was a baby.

              Olenka's Stitches Designs "Birth Record Sampler"
Julia was born in the year of Rabbit so I put a rabbit in her sampler. It took me a lot of time to find a pretty silver spoon and when I saw this spoon I thought it was just what I wanted.

 If you are interested in buying my designs, please contact me. My e-mail is in my Profile.

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When I came back home I finished Ellen Maurer-Stroh "Rose Sampler", one of my oldest UFO-s. It was stitched 1x1 on 22 ct. Hardanger. I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

It was always hard to get  true colors of this sampler , the second picture gives better presentation of the sampler:

As I did not feel like stitching these long several months, I punished myself and made me frame the finished pieces. For some of the pieces the mats and frames were already bought, for others - I used frames from my stash and slightly painted them to match the pieces better.

               "Mary Wigham Sampler", stitched 1x1 on 26 ct. Evenweave

             Bucilla "Wedding Sampler", stitched 2x2 jn 32 ct. Evenweave 

    "Windmill Landscape" for my husband, stitched 2x2 on 28 ct. Evenweave

               Mirabilia "Trick Or Treat Fairy" stitched 2x2 on 32 ct. Linen

I think I have started missing cross stitching and in the next post I will show to you something new.

This year we are having extremely high temperatures with almost no rain - drought. Everything and everybody are suffering from it. When I came home, my garden was in a poor condition and we lost a few of our pet chickens, duck and rabbits due to it - needless to say it was a hard time for me...

I have rescued most of my plants and we began to feed wild animals long before a state of emergency was declared in our parish. At first I used plastic containers from ice cream to give water and food to birds and small animal. But when we learned that the heat will last till November I made a few more attractive bird baths and feeders

I always place a few rocks inside the bowls for small birds.  In spite of the still continuous drought there appeared some flowers in my garden and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do:                                       

I'd like to thank everyone who kept coming to my blog, left comments, became followers and e-mailed me , I appreciate this.

Happy stitching to everyone and take care!

Exciting News

I have an excuse for such a long absence from blogging. About a month ago my first granddaughter was born.  We had worried so much about DIL's condition and the baby, now when these worries vanished we can feel our hearts filling with special love to our Julia (Юлька).
I arrived in Russia on the day when DIL and the baby were released from hospital and I can already tell you that I've fulfilled the main task of grandparents - the baby is completely spoiled! with our love.                                                                  

As far as cross stitch is concerned, I should say that I could not stitch during those months of worries, I only pushed myself into doing this but without much success. I turned to other crafts and started renovations of my stitching room which better kept my mind busy.
Worrying is not the best friend of creativity, I managed to finish only one of my desings. Now the Snowman from"Let It Snow!" has got a girl friend:

Olenka's Stitches Designs "Let It Snow! -2"

I wanted to finish my "Rose Sampler" which I started almost two years ago but I coudn't. I stitched a little more than it is in the picture, a couple more hours of stitching  and it will be finished.

 I started renovations of my stitching room but did not finish the job either. I gave a second life to some old furniture which my husband wanted to get rid of. He was very kind to help me sand it, then I painted, aged and sealed it.

This chest of draws will serve as a great storage for my craft supplies.

The bookshelf's got some changes and will be used for exhibiting my "smalls", collectibles, and books on crafts.

For the computer table I refinished this box:

I also made two pincushions, one is that round one in a wood frame. It turned out rather pretty and I thought of making something simple so I could stick in pins and needles without any fear. Somehow this "simple" pincushion turned into this charming Rat Lariska (крыска Лариска), now she will be guarding my cross stitch treasures in this box.

 I was packing for my trip in a great hurry, my cross stitch program was installed in the new laptop with an error and I do not think I can use it here. I only had time to put a few kits into my suitcase. I started one of them here. This is about one month job:

The kit contained Aida 14, I replaced it for Evenweave 25ct. and I stitch the pattern one over one using full crosses.

 

My DIL is rather good at some crafts. Since my first day here we began to make some blankets and shirts for the baby. Then we switched to knitting baby booties, hats, jackets, skarves, etc. Baby's little things are so pretty and we enjoy making them for our little girl. The picture on the top of the post and this one show the booties we made. I will post some more pictures next time.

I want to thank all my readers for your patience.Thank you for coming to my blog and a special "thank you " for those who finds time to leave comments, I always appreciate this.

Take care and happy stitching to everyone.

Merry Christmas Designs

 Knowing how busy you can be now, I'd like to thank everyone who left comments on my previous post.
I will try to be short today. First I will show you my new designs.
For a long time I have wanted to make a design with lots of snow in it. Why? Because for me it's hard to imagine winter holidays without snow?  When it snows,  everything is so beautiful, quiet and romantic. Did you notice that even in a blizzard people walk and smile? Well, you might think I love snow too much. :-)) OK, put on a broad smile on your face and let's take a look at what I've done.

When I showed this design to my friend  Olga  she wondered what I was going to make it into. The easiest way is  make an ornament or to frame it. The design fits well a usual photo frame.

 But my initial plan was to make a drawstring bag which can be used either for packing a gift or keeping tools and floss necessary for a project.

                                  "Merry Christmas" Drawstring Bag

The bag is reversible without raw edges. If you can see in the picture, there are no seams on the top and bottom of the bag. It took me a little while to figure out how to do it but I am happy  with how it turned out.
I also made two ornaments  based on this design to show what the design will look like in other classical combination of colors:

                

                             








                                        
 "Merry Christmas" Ornaments

 If you are interested in buying my designs, please contact me. My e-mail is in my Profile.
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A few days ago I got a Christmas gift from my dear friend Olga from UK. I told her that this is the most beautiful gift I have ever received. Just take a look at these beauties:

Olga stitched and finished the set so beautifully - I just love every little detail! And look, she sent me 2 baby booties!

She knows I will become a grandmother soon and will need lots of booties and blankets... oh my...
Olga, thank you very much  for your generous gift, you have spoiled me so much. Hugs!!!
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Thank you for stopping by and take care.

Gracious Era and more

Hello my dear friends and readers of my blog, thank you for being patient.
Again it has been a long time since my last post. You are probably tired of reading about my Internet problems and can you imagine how much tired, upset and angry I am because of these never ending problems? A couple of hours ago a cable technician left, they have not replaced the main cable as they had intended to and I am not sure if their "patch work" has fixed the problems. Well, I'd better  start writing  about my cross stitch finishes while the Internet is still working.
"Gracious Era" is finished and is waiting for the frame work now. 

I must say that I've made a few mistakes. You know, I stitched the piece during my trip to Russia and due to poor light on board the planes, in airports and hospitals I mixed up 4 colors, Dark Yellow - Yellow Orange which were used in the big windows on the left, and Pale Yellow - Cream in the cloud to the right from the tree. I noticed this when the picture was almost finished, it was not a great deal to restitch the places but I decided first to complete the picture and then to decide what to do with the mistake. With this kind of pictures it is better to look at them from a distance and when I did this I liked what I saw. My DH, my main critic, said that it is even better , more colors give some more depth to the picture.
One more little thing, I made the picture a little wider. Do you see two little women figures on the left? I kind of like them but they are so close to the edge that they would be covered by a mat.
While stitching faces, some clothes, horses I added some fractional stitches and instead of Back Stitches I mostly used Couching. The most enjoyable part for me was to "make these snowflakes" as I do not mind French Knots, that was something I was looking forward to while stitching the picture.
I have missed my favorite smalls so much that I first treated myself to a little needle book by Just Nan:

After this treat I continued working on my Girly Pincushions.
If you remember I promised to show you one. Well, I've made more than one, some of them will be presented to my friends for their birthdays and Christmas.
When making the pincushions I wanted to check if I still remember how to make roses. My mother taught me to make them years ago.

The last piece of this pretty vintage lace was used for one more round pincushion:

 I over-dyed the ribbon for the rose and made a strawberry scissor fob to match the pincushion.

One more set of pincushions:

I liked the two color scheme, it reminds me of bridal decorations.
I already do not remember who gave me a little vintage doily and said to throw it away if I did not like it. Well, to throw away is very simple, how about to give it a second life?  For the pincushion I used the fabric which can hardly be called traditional for this kind of craft.

Some vintage buttons were used for the pins to embellish the pincushion. I liked how the pincushion turned out and added one more strawberry which looks more girly.

And here is the last pincushion which I want to show to you. Isn't it funny? I have not finished it yet because I am still looking for a better fabric for it. If I do not find what I want, I will leave it as it is.

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To thank my customers and followers of the blog for staying with me, I offer you a complimentary  design which is called "A Russian Motif, Autumn". It is in soft autumn colors and can be used for making different smalls of your choice. It would be nice if you send me pictures of your finished pieces.

The offer will last till November 25. In order to get the design, please e-mail me. My address is in my Profile.Happy Stitching to everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving!