Stitching Up Valentine's Day

I am in the middle of making bookmarks for my grandchildren for Valentine's Day. (I am trying to stay away from candy!)

Melissa gets her February pillowcase. 

From left: Trinity's (JC is getting a gift card), Titan, Cambria, Braden, Addie, Corinne, and Whitney.

Again, from left: Ian, Mila, Lukie, Julie, Kate, and Susie.

I also made myself a Valentine table runner. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Christmas Ornaments - in Russian!

I forgot to take photos of these when I made them, but luckily they weren't yet packed away when I asked Cole and Emily for a photo.

I embroidered their gingerbread castles with the Russian spelling of their names!

Cole helped me out by sending me a text with the correct spelling.

And my embroidery machine has the Cyrillic alphabet. (I'm glad I sent this photo to Cole - I was using the wrong backwards E. He says that is a common problem.

It was a bit of a challenge to figure out where to put the names. I was modifying what was actually a Christmas count down calendar.

Julie's was the first. 

This is Kate's. Before stitching out the names, I sent Cole a screenshot of what I planned to embroider. I didn't want to misspell a name on the final product.

Susie.

"...and Emily"

Cole and Emily

I am so pleased with how they turned out.

Haversacks Business is Flourishing

 My haversack business continues to flourish. I have a pretty good inventory at the moment, so instead of being new ones, I've been posting the new fabrics that I have and then sewing them into haversacks when someone asks me to.

Pastel Unicorns - you KNOW I am NOT a unicorn lover, but this flannel fabric is super cute!

Flannel Ponies - another unusual flannel fabric. I generally stick to cotton, but flannel works equally well.

I went to a virtual embroidery seminar, and when I went shopping on the fabric store's web site, I discovered that they had an aqua version of one of my favorite fabrics ever!

And, they had more of the pink, the original fabric I'd found last fall elsewhere!

This is Golden Horseshoes. With those four leaf clovers, it would be nice for a 4-H hobbyist. (Or, a 4-H alumnus like me, haha!)

Last week I was asked to make two traditional haversacks from Running Horses. That fabric is all gone now.

And, I made a donation for Anne Field's upcoming spring show out of Mini Flamingos.

More Embroidered Blankets

 Shannon Call won a blanket in my 50th anniversary celebration over on Horsiemama and asked me to make two more of them.

I charged her $10 for each.

I think that they turned out nice.

More Christmas Ornaments

 After doing the felt ornaments, I moved on to free standing lace. 

Lisa's class read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol together and then had a Victorian Era Christmas party (her principal played the reformed Ebenezer Scrooge.) I made each of her students and "Mr. Scrooge"  lace Christmas tree ornaments.

For Kathy Nimmer and Sarah Larose, my blind friends, I always try to give them tactile gifts. I made several of this snowflake for them.

This bell is pretty in colors.

Or all in white. I haven't put a ribbon on it yet - I think I will use a sparkly silver or gold ribbon. It's for Heather James (Isaac's mom) who is battling brain cancer and she got some really good news this week. Since historically bells have been used to share good news, I made her a bell.

I don't visualize how colors will look together very well so it helps me to experiment.

All in all, I have made over 150 ornaments. I think I am done, but then I thought that a couple of days ago and ended up making two more since then! 

Melissa's Christmas Pillowcase

 I forgot to embroider Melissa's Thanksgiving pillowcase, so I made sure to embroider her Christmas one!

It was REALLY hard to choose a color for the embroidery thread. 

Still, she will be able to see it, so I won't worry too much about it.

Embroidering Christmas Ornaments

 I have been sewing since November 12, frantically trying to get the grandkids' Christmas ornaments made and to them before Thanksgiving. I missed that deadline, but they will go out tomorrow so they will still be able to enjoy them much of the holiday season.

I made a sort of "spread sheet" on the table as I made them - that helped me keep track of who I still had to sew for.

Sarah's family.

Jessica's family.

Kyle's family.

Lisa's ornament. She made the sign that quotes Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, "He uses his keys, his Santa Claus keys!"

Curt's family.

Cole's family. (The flamingo's legs are supposed to be ridiculously long.)

Some individual look at the ornaments ( mostly so I will have reference photos in the future):

The first practice one - I like it so much I'm going to hang it on my own tree!

I wasn't happy with the neon green when I made Addie's so I made a second one.

Kyle said he liked the darker one and I agreed with him.

So, Addie is getting that one.

I experimented with background color a lot on Baby Yoda.

The pattern called for the pink outline and the pink by the eyes but I did not like those and left them off.

Trying a charcoal felt for Baby Yoda's pram.

Since the blaze on the gingerbread pony looked a lot to me like a unicorn's horn, I made unicorns!

Experimenting with colors.

I am going to make this flamingo for Anne Field and Jennifer Buxton, my Flamingo Pond buddies.

I absolutely love this gingerbread owl.  It is from Memories in Stitches, a UK virtual store. 

Not an accurate photo of Julie's cat - lighting is WAY off.

See what I mean?

Some of these are for family while others are for the sisters I minister to as well as my ministering partner and the woman who ministers to me.

The kids' ornaments, all wrapped and ready to go.

Talk about a marathon stitching project!