Smalls Stichalong Check - In

I am a few days late for this check-in as I had a work trip after a my FIRST EVER stitching retreat which was amazing. The two smalls I finished were Jar topper patterns for a Just Cross Stitching Issue. I stitched them on a scrap piece of Linen with the called for DMC.

My thoughts and memories from the stitchaway retreat will be in a future posting.

Happy stitching everyone!

Word for the Year - LEARN!!!

I have seen a few posts over the weekend talking about a word for the year and I think this is an absolutely wonderful idea. The word I have chosen is: LEARN. I have always loved to learn new things but I have also learned that I need to learn from my mistakes, new experiences, and just everyday life in general. I have started a log for a few things that I have learned this year already (i know...it's been 4 days)!

I wanted to highlight one: I use Microsoft Excel everyday is my job. I can even program the cells to do amazing things but for some reason in all my years I never learned how to insert a line break while within a cell. It was easy to Google it which is what I did when my dear mother asked for help on something. But then I thought...Oh No...I use a MAC at work and not all functionality is in the office Suite for MAC. Hence, another round of Google and the command was ingrained in my brain. I have already used it twice today :)

Here's to a learn-y and crafty year everyone!

Tie Pillow Part 2

And for the second and final installment of the Tie pillows:

Father-in-Law: My father-in-law chose to have the brown tie's for his pillow. We had facetimed with him and he asked if I could do a light to dark like theme. I decided on Diagonal Stripes and a brown pocket back from my stash.

FIL Front

FIL Back

Mother-in-Law: My MIL was VERY SPECIFIC on the ties she wanted in her pillow and she also wanted a pheasant she had stitched on one of his shirts in her pillow. I am glad it came out as well as it did. She also wanted some of the labels on the ties because her father was color blind and they specified the color to wear the ties with.

MIL front

MIL front w/label

MIL Back w/label

Dear husband: I made my husband's pillow first as a test case. I kept it to the red family. I really love this one.

DH front

DH back

I will have a few more projects I finished on the next few updates I hope.

Happy stitching!

Tie Pillows Part 1

This past summer my Dear Husband's grandfather passed away. He was an executive who wore a lot of ties even when he retired. He was very distinguished. My dear grandmother-in-law asked me if I would make pillows out of his ties for her, my Mother-in-law, father-in-law, Uncle-in-law, Husband, brother-in-law, and cousin-in-law. I was finally able to finish them while I was off between Christmas and New Year's. I am going to be blogging about these in the next 2 posts. (warning this is Picture heavy). All of the backs were made with fabric from my stash and finished pillows were 14".

Grandma's Pillow: I used all of the Silk ties from Grandma's Pillow. All of them had to be interfaced so that i could sew them. I quilted 1/4" from each of the seams on the pillow front.

Grandma's Pillow Back

Grandma's pillow Front

 Uncle-in-law: John's pillow was blue and green. I stuck with 4" in squares and quilted in the ditch. The back was a pocket closure and was a blue Fabric.

UIL Pillow Front

UIL Pillow back

Cousin-in-law: My CIL is in the US Air Force as it his wife. I kept them on a Blue theme on the ties.
Again, I used squares, 5" this time.

CIL back

CIL Front

Brother-in-Law: This one was a fun one. These were the ties that were the most interesting (read: so ugly I couldn't Believe someone owned them). They were also stained in a a lot of places. So I went with a window pane design. I was actually really happy with how this one came out. The sashing was a piece of navy fabric with some bubbles on it that I picked up at a local quilting store remnant area over a year ago.

BIL Back

BIL Front

I will post the last three in my next post.

Happy Stitching Everyone!

Fabric Boxes

I was able to finish three fabric boxes for friends for Christmas gifts. I filled them with corresponding Keyfobs (not seen in the pics) and some dishrags per their requests. They like to have homemade dishrags for their use. All of these were made 100% from my stash.

Fabric Boxes

Close-up fabric Box

I am currently stitching on One Nation. I should have a progress pic soon.  I have completed 5 pages of 8.

Happy sttiching!

2016 Goals

I decided to do some Blog cleaning for the new year just in time for setting goals for 2016. Those goals for 2016 are as follows:

2016 Goals:
Overall:

• Inventory
• Organize, Organize, Organize
• Make an album of Completed Projects
• Bog at least once a week :)

Stitching:

• Take Part in a Stitch Retreat
• Only Stitch from my Considerable Stash
• Make progress on - Brigid's Shamrock and Noah's Submarine
• Finish: ABC's of Family, Santa from H*LL, One Nation, 99
• Ornaments for the kids

Quilting and Sewing:

• 4 quilt tops: A&P, K&C, Mom's and Noel's
• Zipper Pouches
• Organize Scraps
• Farmgirl Vintage and/or Tula Pink's 100 quilt blocks

Yarn:

• Learn to knit Socks
• Complete 2 pairs of Socks
• Complete 3 hats
• 4 baby blankets
• Brother's Quilt
• Dishrag a month
• buy no yarn 

Some of these are going to be rather stretching at this point with my workload from my regular job but I am hoping that I can meet them.

I will be posting updates this week with what I have been working on over the holidays.