New holiday stockings

Here are my most recent Christmas stocking creations.

In the past, I have made stockings mainly for the cats, but this time they were made for two of the kind humans who take such good care of the cats,  just like Dave and Wendy do.  (See their stockings seen HERE.)

Detail of Patrick’s stocking

 

Shannon’s was a lot of fun to make and is the only one on which I’ve used different colored flosses for the name.  This fabric was so fun and wacky that I thought the multi-colors would work well.

Detail of Shannon’s stocking

Since I’m always keeping count, these two bring the total count up to 15.   I hope Santa fills these and all the others with treats and fun every year.

New Kitty Stockings–‘Tis the season

Well, it’s happened again.  Hang on for the story of Cat Stockings Numbers Ten and Eleven.

In 2015 I welcomed two new members to my extended family and here they are:  the charming brothers, Joliet Jake and Elwood, who are fortunate enough to live with my brother Dave and his wife Wendy.  They have been best buddies with each other since day one.

So, of course, they needed stockings for the Christmas holiday.  Luckily for them, I love to make these.

Love Jake’s font, just perfect for him.

And a special stocking for Elwood, or Woody, as he is known in his territory:

Woody’s detail:

 

Happy Christmas to all the humans and the wonderful animals they invite into their families!!

 

Fabric Postcards: more new ones

My guild members of East Bay Heritage Quilters are again taking up the task of making fabric postcards for the show in March of next year, and some of the finished ones are already coming in.  I LOVE seeing what other fabric artists will do with this same 4″ x 6″ empty canvas.

I hope you are inspired by their work.

Here are six by Orna Pascal:

 

And seven from Claire Sherman:

And just a few of the ones I am playing with.  I have had barrels of fun using this pre-WonderUndered fabric donated by Marion Ongerth.  I think they were the leftovers from her projects, and I LOVE leftovers, even those from someone else.

 

I can barely begin to describe how much I love this cat fabric!

And sometimes the fabric speaks for itself.

HOT TIP  for making the postcard process easier:

My new favorite sewing machine foot, called an Open Embroidery Foot, which makes applying decorative stitches to the body of the cards and the zigzag stitches to the edges of the cards SOOOOOO much easier.  You can actually see exactly where you are sewing.

The foot for my machine looks like this:

 

Have fun making these yourself.

See the Postcard Gallery tab at the top of my Homepage and/or click Here to view the postcard tutorial.

Cross-stitch II: more fabulous flowers

Continuing the cross-stitch story from the previous post . . .

Before I discovered all the roses,  I had discovered other Lilac Studio designs for wonderful flowers and groups of flowers.  These were all delicately shaded, artfully composed,  challenging to complete, and very attractive to me.

A Bouquet with Hydrangea

One of my all-time favorite flowers, this hydrangea is one of the ones still on display in our home .

Hydrangea detail

Freesias

My next favorite—these freesias have a mix of both bold and muted color palettes.

Freesia detail

Sweet Peas

Loved the blues in this design.

Poinsettias

And, on display during December

 

Some of these patterns are available online on occasion, most likely on Etsy or eBay.  I recommend this as a meditation exercise or a compact travel project.

I just did a search and found two more patterns that I had not seen before;  am desperately trying to resist the urge to start another of these fun projects.  Don’t know if my eyes can handle it anymore.  Alas. . .

Photography by Paul Hennessey