Sunday Craft Update -- December 18

Every year, my sister-in-law Jill and I exchange Christmas ornaments. Finally, I finished the one started in 2010 and will send it on its way to Singapore shortly, only a full year late! I did start the 2011 ornament and, though it will not be ready for this Christmas, I hope it will be done well before next Christmas.

This design is from Teresa Wentzler's 12 Days of Christmas pattern. I don't know what made me crazy enough to tackle this challenge. Teresa Wentzler projects are tough enough without the added difficulty of working over 1 thread on 32-count linen. I haven't sworn off doing another over-one project, but next time, I'll go for 28-count linen and invest in a good magnifying glass.

Sunday Craft Update - June 29

I've been doing nothing but knitting and crocheting lately, and I've got way too many projects on the go. This is the latest finish. Kate had requested this puppy from my new book, Amigurumi World by Ana Paula Rimoli. Pretty cute, eh? Next up will be a pink elephant, requested by Julia.

Sunday Craft Update - December 30

OK, so Christmas has passed and I'm still working on the 2007 Christmas ornament for Jill, but I'm getting there .... the stitching is all done and I have just the finishing to do. In the meantime, Julia asked for a new scarf and I did a quick 2-hour crochet scarf in pink and white to match her coat. I also started knitting socks this week, using my new Christmas sock yarn from Laura. Our sock-yarn exchange was so successful last Christmas that we decided to do it again this year.

An Ornament from Jill

I've not made much progress on needlework projects this past week, so instead of the usual Sunday Craft Update, I'll post a photo of the gorgeous ornament I received from Jill. The photo doesn't do it justice. In real life, the beads are very sparkly and you can see the subtle shading in the hand-dyed linen. When we opened the package, Kate wanted to put it up on the tree right away and she found a very special place for it where it would be seen by everyone who passed by!

Sunday Craft Update -- December 9

Did more Photoshop layouts this week, like this one of Julia that I'm posting just for fun. I'm still working on the Christmas ornament for Jill. It's almost done, though I've given up hope of getting it to Singapore by Christmas. (Sorry, Jill!) I also finished sewing Julia's new skating dress today. Spent more time cursing at the serger than I'd care to admit.

Layout credits: Papers from "The Grunge Factor Just the Solids Ma'am" by Dana Zarling. Frames from "Snap Frames Brushes-n-Stamps" and title from "Snap Frame Alpha", both by Katie Pertiet. Labels from Dec. 2, 2007 Ad Freebie by Lynn Grieveson. All materials from www.designerdigitals.com.

Sunday Craft Update -- December 2

I've been playing with Photoshop a lot this week. I won't post all the layouts here but you can see them in my scrapbook gallery. However, since it's Sunday Craft Update, I'll show one about a craft I haven't done in a while. I finished these a few years ago and have not had the urge to make another Winnie-the-Pooh character since. I also worked on Jill's Christmas ornament this week, and it's about two-thirds finished.

Layout credits: Papers from "Mail Room No. 1 Paper Pack" and "Notebook Paper Pack". Frame from "Doodled-n-Curled Photo Frames". Alphabet from "Messy Stamped Alpha No. 2 Brushes". All items by Katie Pertiet, www.designerdigitals.com.

Sunday Craft Update -- November 25

I worked on Todd's sweater this week. After the marathon knitting sessions with the red and gold yarn, it was nice to knit with some other colours. (As you've probably guessed, I am not making a Gryffindor sweater for Todd.) I'm also making good progress on the Christmas ornament for Jill, though I have fears it will not get to Singapore in time for Christmas. The final news is that I was very pleased to have received a letter from St John Ambulance thanking me for the three tea cosies I sent to England, even if they didn't make it onto the Tea Cosy of the Week page.

Sunday Craft Update - July 29

Here, finally, is Part 1 of Chatelaine's Taj Mahal. It's taken me about 35 hours to complete this part, so I have ... um ... 200 hours, give or take 10 or 20, to go before I finish the entire thing. No problem! The Chatelaine designs use plenty of silk fibres and Delica beads. I really detest the beading but the beads give a wonderful effect, which isn't captured all that well by the photo. You might notice that there are a large number of empty spaces in the stitched piece. These are reserved for Swavroski crystals that I'll stitch on at the very end. If I put them on too early, then my threads tend to get snagged on them.

Speaking of beads, my friend Chantelle makes gorgeous jewellery from beads and crystals. Today, I met with her and received three pairs of earrings I bought from her Etsy store. You definitely should check out the Web site. The photos are lovely, but the earrings are even more beautiful in real life.

Sunday Craft Update - July 22

I am taking the briefest of breaks from reading the Harry Potter book to write my usual Sunday update. I did not manage to finish Part I of Taj Mahal as I'd hoped, but I have only a few specialty stitches and the beading left. I also continued making progress on the Louisa Harding sweater; the second sleeve is about half done.

I completed another layout in Oliver's first-year scrapbook, and I finished another weekly challenge from The Scrapping Turtle. This one had to satisfy a "puzzle" theme. A couple of years ago, I had scanned a bunch of childhood photos for my parents' 40th anniversary scrapbook. For this layout, I enhanced and cropped them in Photoshop, printed them out on my printer, and trimmed them with the white border to retain that "vintage" look.

Sunday Craft Update - July 8

Todd and I took a small vacation on the weekend, which I'll write about later. This meant that I made good progress on my travel projects. I started the second sleeve of the Louisa Harding sweater. I also worked on the Fleur-de-Lys sampler, designed by Jeannette Douglas.

I finished another layout in my nephew Oliver's "First Year" scrapbook album. This is going slowly but I'm doing better than I did on Julia's first-year album. She was 12 before I completed hers. Oliver is not quite 3 so there's still plenty of time! At the left is another layout I completed this week, for the Scrapping Turtle's July Mystery Kit contest. The photos were taken at Wasaga Beach, near Todd's parents' home, in 2001.

Sunday Craft Update - July 1

After the marathon sessions on Deco Spirits, I'm now trying to cycle through all my cross-stitch UFOs (Unfinished Objects) and do a little bit on each, just to reacquaint myself with them. This week, I made some progress on Taj Mahal by Chatelaine (Martina Weber). This design has 12 parts. I'm still on Part 1. (Part 1 is the largest of the 12, so it's not so very bleak.) I also worked on the Louisa Harding sweater; the first sleeve is almost finished.

Deco Spirits

Yesterday, I finally finished "Deco Spirits", designed by Mirabilia (Nora Corbett). I'd been working on this off and on for the past five years and had put in over 160 hours. I love the colours but stitching was very tedious at times, with those big patches of white and gray. I learned a good lesson: I will never stitch on 32-count lugana again. I'm OK with 28-count lugana or 32-count linen, but the holes for 32-count lugana were too small for such dense stitching. It gave good coverage but was very tiring to stitch on. Now we have to decide on how to frame the piece and where to place it in the house. Fortunately, Todd likes it too (or at least he felt it was prudent to say so yesterday), so we can display it on the main floor. The cute fairies tend to get relegated to the kids' bedrooms.