End of year finish

Wow - can't believe it's been so long since I'd put anything on here. I've been stitching on a few items - none of which I've done a pic for. But I did want to post my last finish of the year. I am still working on Floral Retreat by Dimensions Gold - I guess I'm about 1/3 of the way completed.
This item is called Holiday Round - St Patrick's Day from The Stitchworks. It came with a green shamrock button but it broke. I really wouldn't have used it anyway - I put a charm in the middle instead. This took me way longer than it should have. I've been trying to do a week rotation between this and Floral Retreat. For some reason I had some major issues with the last leaf of the last shamrock I was doing. Don't know what happened but I had to re-stitch it 5 times - lol.

Anywho - thanks all in advance to anyone who reads this and leaves me comments - you all don't know how much it's appreciated and how it motivates me.

I also want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

July 09 finishes

Took me forever on getting my items posted but here are 2 I finished in July -

This is a small freebie that I recieved from my local shop by The Prairie Schooler. I finished it by folding it over a styofoam block and covering it in fabric - pinning the fabric to the block and pinning a ribbon over the seam. I did it on 16ct White Aida - I also changed the colors around - I just couldn't wrap my head around an eagle having a brown head - the arrows were supposed to be red and I made them gold as well as the little designs in each corner - and my bling are rhinestones I glued to the blue band of the shield.

My second finish -

Was also a freebie from my local shop. It was a handout from when they did Camp Gottastitch back in November (I didn't go). The design is from Handblessings (http://www.handblessings.com/) a Eileen Gurak Needlework Design (size 39 x 38) called Valentine Acorn Birdhouse. I stitched it on 14ct white Aida using Weeks Dye works Garnet # 2264 and Bubble Gum #2275A. My bling is the pewter heart charm in the middle. I'm having a hard time finding a frame that won't overpower the design.

And for good measure I thought I'd show you all a picture of a ceramic piece that I completed last week from castware. This was base coated in black, washed in green, dry brushed in lavender pearl then cranberry pearl and then drybrushed in copper. I'm making more to sell at a local hobby shop. If you all think I should also post my ceramics that I complete I will - 99% of it goes out for sale - I'll even sell to you all but I'd have my UPS store package so I would probably have $10.00 s/h for something this size. The piece below I'm selling for $20.00 - other items I do it would just depend on the size of the piece but you gotta remember these are very breakable.

Well that's all from me this month - I'm still working on the project for my son and doing another freebie from The Prairie Schooler.

May finish "The Hunt" SAL by Pelin Tezer

Wow - I did this as a Stitch-A-Long with an online Yahoo group. This was a fun project and I thought this was going to be a "no brainer" - lol What it taught me is I CAN'T COUNT - lol I've had more hiccups but managed to finish in (for me) a reasonable time.

The color I used for the fabric was a Aida blue (can't remember the actual name) and the floss was DMS 977 which is considered a light brown but to me is golden. One of the ladies at the LNS said it was an interesting choice of fabric/floss color - hummm not sure it that meant she like the combo or not. When I asked her if that meant she didn't like it she said "no it's just not something I would have thought to put together". I kept tossing colors on the fabric and kept coming back to the 977 for some reason.

Last week I went to Hobby Lobby to pick out the frame so I knew I had a deadline. It's just a plain brown. I was going to put a navy blue matte on it but nothing looked right.

This one actually has NO BLING - yep - NO BLING - unless I can find charms this is "as is" "au natural" "in the buff". Haven't decided where I'm going to hang it but I'm thinking my living room.

Hope you all like it.

April finish

This little thing was a freebie from my LNS. It's from The Prairie Schooler. Of course I changed it - lol I stitched around the edge of the egg in brown which was supposed to be used for the legs - wow what was I thinking (or not)- lol

I did the egg in a light green verigated and then brushed a light coating of light green glitter on it so the egg would have some sparkle. I had my ceramic teacher/friend Mary do the little bow as she does them best. I did the background as a peach felt which matches the peach of the stitching.

All in all I think it turned out pretty cute and it taught me I can make an ornament.

January finishes

I have 2 finishes for January. One was actually completed the end of December but I haven't gotten around to posting so I'm designating it a January 09 finish.

The first is Frosty Friends by Mosey 'N Me which comes from the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments issue. As usual I can't leave things alone - lol I added rhinstones to his hat (instead of stitches) and added a green/metallic pom pom to his hat (the original didn't have a pom pom)

The other is called Snow by Heart in Hand from the their Wee One's Collection. The designer is Cecilia Turner. This was such a small project and I thought I could complete it in 1 night - nope not me - I spent almost 3 months looking for something other than what was listed for the snowflakes. I even considered snowflake buttons. I finally took it to my LNS and decided on the Silver Kreinik Metallics. I also switched out the cardinal which came with the pattern for a glass one.

Hope you like what I've done!