Ah Christmas!

Christmas has come and gone way too fast!!! We all had such a wonderful time and I was able to finish my granddaughter Kensley's new needle point stocking!! So pretty and of the eighteen or so my sister and I have worked this one takes the cake here it is and some close ups! Happy new year!

Yikes !!! Christmas is coming too fast!!!!

I am stitching like mad trying to finish my granddaughter's needlepoint stocking...once it is stitched, I will block it and finish the embellishments ( ribbons, special stitches I don't want to wet when blocking the piece) and then I will make the cording and finish the lining and the backing...stay tuned for that ...maybe in a week..... Since Christmas is so close to Thanksgiving this year our tree is up and most of the decorations are hanging/sitting/etc.......why not look at them for the next 20 some days..............they are all so pretty and festive!

When planning a stocking for a new born even if you know the gender it still is kinda generic.....you od'nt know their interests yet but it still "fits" 33 years later!!!!

Here is another generic...twenty-seven years later, precious
and still pretty after all these years.

Here is a typical novelty stocking using the person's life interests.
My new son-in-law is from SC, was in the Navy, graduated from college, drove a truck and loves our two
Portuguese Water dogs Dewey and Ozzie. KC also loves to shoot, play golf and bowl.....he's in medical school now but that didn't make the stocking!

Not Enough Time!!!

A few days after Halloween I wake up and think of all the "things" I want to make for Christmas. I have ALL year to craft and a mere 6 weeks before Christmas I get crazy trying to sew, paint or whatever! Pinterest has been the death of me....lots of cool ideas right at your fingertips. Before Pinterestfor years I subscribed to craft and "ladies" magazines and would pour over their pages for hours when they would arrive at the house. The magazines would sit piled on the coffee table for months until their stack height blocked the direct line of the tv remote beam. Sitting with a nice hot cup of coffee and a stapler I would rip out pages and pages of recipes, craft, gardening and decorating ideas. Those ripped out pages would then be piled ( by category of course!) and sit for a few more weeks before being filed in nicely labeled file folders in a file box or file cabinet wherever there was the most space available. Besides designing, painting and working needlepoint I also quilt and knit. I don't crochet but love looking at colorful crochet designs so crafting is a broad umbrella catch phrase for LOTS of things...decoupage, wallpapering, furniture painting, felting, license plate art, old dish art, pottery...I've tried it all...there aren't enough hours in the day or days in the week to try everything. I love doing chalkboard signs and decorating old broken window glass panes, and have helped several of my daughter's friends with crafty things for their weddings. I LOVE designing fun wedding maps for brides to include with save the date or wedding invitations.

my daughter's wedding was on a lovely dune over looking the ocean this one was fun to draw....

a Fall wedding along the water under a beautiful old tree.....

another wedding near the beach

a country wedding was extra fun to draw with all the little garden and farm accents

Needlepoint Fun

I love to design and paint needlepoint.....I like working needlepoint and embellish the worked piece...sometimes the embellishment is as much fun or "funner" than working the basic needlepoint...it's a real toss up for me! My dear friend Donna has a lovely daughter who got married several years ago and I made this tree ornament for her and her husband.....it can be adapted for almost any wedding details......

plan the design, keep it simple, gather your materials

work your needlepoint, decorate, block it and sew together or frame

Tee Shirt Quilt

When my husband suddenly passed away 7 years ago our family was devastated. When I plow through old pictures I can now smile at things that were so raw only a few years ago. The holidays are always difficult and I suppose always will be. I have two wonderful children and the most difficult thing I ever had to do in my life then and probably forever was calling them on the phone and tell me their dad had died. Horrible thing to have to do...but as I said looking back at some pictures brings some warm feelings.

When  my husband died my sister and her husband came all the way from the far west coast  ( my sister flew from a one small building airport in Washington and my brother in law drove their RV and towing their car to the Jersey shore ) to be with me. They stayed for 8 weeks helping me try to put some of the splintered wood back together. My sister gently took all my late husband's tee shirts and some shirts and blue jeans and I never really asked why but that Christmas the following wonderful things appeared a few days before Christmas!!!! She had loving photographed, cut apart and sewed quilts for my children and myself ....here they are...the small lap quilt she made for me used all the sleeves from his favorite tee shirts while the quilts she fashioned for my children included the tee shirts he wore over the years the kids played sports or traveled with him. She took pictures of each tee shirt front and made a photo collage for each of us. She's so smart and so creative......

a softball tee shirt in my daughter's tee shirt quilt

football tee shirt from son's quilt

check the background and all the free motion quilting

great free motion quilting

tee shirt sleeves lap quilt with flower free motion quilting

son's "Dad tee shirt quilt"..neat off-set block very masculine ..background fabrics great for guys 

close up of "sleeves" quilt quilting

daughter's "Dad tee shirt quilt"

daughter's tee shirt quilt

...and the quilt is warm....

photo collage of tee shirt fronts used in quilt

Christmas Past

here are a few more Christmas stockings…I used this as a Christmas card one year!  Between my family and my sister's and my two brother’s there are 10 other stockings hanging out !! opps…maybe 12 counting my own mom and dad’s……

Getting ready for Christmas

I have made custom novelty Christmas stockings for my family for the last thirty-eight years. My sister, mom, aunt and I owned a needlepoint shop in Spring Lake NJ  for a couple of years ..... I learned a lot , painted and designed a lot and wish now I still had the shop ! Oh well, now I just design, paint and stitch when a special person comes into our family. When my daughter married her love he waited patiently for his ... Here it is ..... You can see what his interests and accomplishments are!!!!! The backing is a bright orange camp and it is lined in a plaid homespun .... I'll take better pix later. The next picture is the painted canvas for my new six month old granddaughter!!!!!! Have to get great Aunt Chris to stitch with me she's in charge of all the figures.... I do the back ground,embellishments  and blocking and sewing it all into a stocking...... Got some great small wale corduroy in white and hot pink chevron !!! Check back in two months to see the finished project!!!