Blackwork Fun

I've been toying with the idea of a blackwork project for a while now. They appear so elegant, but understated, and as much as I hate that final step when working on a cross stitch, it really does just make the whole project beautiful. 

Yesterday I was scrolling through Pinterest and found a site that had over 250 blackwork patterns!! I was in awe just staring at how they all looked, even though there was no "picture " to it, just the fill patterns. So I decided to start small and just go for it. 

I looked through a few of the kids' coloring books and found a picture without too much detail but enough to showcase a couple designs. Then I traced it on to a piece of graph paper and got to work making it into a pattern. (Please note this is only the second time I've made my own pattern so I am by no means an expert- honestly, I'm no expert in anything really, just a dabbler in all things.) 

After I had the pattern made, I decided that since the coloring book I choose the picture from was a color by number I would do a colored blackwork piece. So I just filled in the background of my pattern sheet to know what color to use when stitching. Then I used a regular pencil to find a few designs I liked and felt "fit" the picture and drew them in also. 

I'm sure that reads completely confusing- sorry. It all makes sense in my head. 

Here's how it all turned out: 

There is a yellow patter in the body of the fish (it's diamond shaped, but with some filling) I know it's hard to see, I thought about pulling it and using a darker color and then remembered that this was all for fun and just to test the waters. (Haha, get it- because it's a fish!)
I looked for designs that were scale-like in look for the main sections- the others I just looked for designs small enough the fit the small spaces. 

I think it's kind of cute! KL loves it for some odd reason that I don't understand. 

That's all for now, 

Jo!

Let's Get Real

Alright guys, so I'm just going to be honest here for a moment. I'm in a bit of a rough spot- more specifically, the three youngest aren't sleeping well.
I've tried everything I can think of and it's just not working!
The twin Ks have been day time potty trained for over a year, but are still wetting at night. I recently got rid of pull ups over night because it's taking so long I figured they're using them just because they are there (and judging by how they've been doing I was mostly right). So they're enjoying the fact that they've been given a little freedom to get up through the night, although meant solely for potty breaks, it usually comes with a little play and a lot of loud noise.
And then, the baby is getting her molars, and they seem to be terrible! She never really had a lot of issues with teething before, but these molars, which are coming in one at time, one right after the other, leaving no breaks for a good night's rest. Aaahhhh!! It's horrible, she's waking up and spending a good 2-3 hour chunk of the night awake.

So, now that you know that I'm a zombie- I will tell you, I'm only surviving on coffee and snark! That's it- I got nothing else keeping me going. Remember that when I show you the newest cross stitch I've completed (I put the packaging in so you can see how it's supposed to look).

To be fair, it's the same sentiment, kind of. I mean you make a wish on a dandelion by blowing it- right?

Side note, this is part of what I like about cross stitch. Even from a kit you can personalize it, mix it up a bit if you want; or, if you're not feeling creative, just crafty, you can stick to the plan given to you. I know that I don't often show when I've changed things (because they're usually because I've made a mistake) but today I felt it necessary.

That's all for now,
Jo!

What's New

Here's just a quick update on what I've finished lately- it's not much.

Here's a few cross stitch kits I've finished (left is Bucilla bought from Walmart, right is some Russian company I can never remember the name of bought from Hobby Lobby).

I love the beaded dandelion!!

I finally finished the quilt I was working on (in July). Here's the final product:

I used bandanas for the binding, because my uncle always wore bandanas while riding his motorcycle. My brother loves it (and I've even seen a few picture with his little girl playing on it).

That's all for now,
Jo!

Cross Stitch

I finished a kit last week. This was a Dimensions kit bought online from Walmart (because I prefer them cheap of course).

I also just finished a few found online patterns to help complete our MLP collection:

The twins have recently discovered My Little Pony and they are in love! I found Apple Jack, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash online. I couldn't find a Princess Celestia in any form other than perler beads and it was HUGE!! So I used the charts for the other ponies and a picture in the same heart shaped form courtesy of some awesome fan art and made my own. I'm super proud of it and the girls love it! This was the first time I've done anything more than just fudging a purchased kit's chart because I made mistakes. There's definitely not the same amount of definition in the hair as the other ponies and she's missing the outline around the hair as part of that, but I still love it.

That's all for now,
Jo!

What's New

Hello, I know I've been gone a while, but I promise I have good reason:

Meet Baby KO. She was born July 1st, late at night, and has been a wonderful addition to our family!! We are all so in love with her.

Since baby is here now I can tell you how I feel about the booby pads I made. Honestly, there fine for day time use but they cannot stand up to overnights. They are too small and don't hold enough liquid to stand up to prolonged periods of leaking, but it happens that way sometimes. Some projects work, others don't quite. Oh well.

This is my newest finished project:

Here are about 20 (and 2 not in the picture because my girls stole them already) headbands made from old tshirts. You can find instructions on Pinterest a million times over for the Celtic Knots. The chevron style ones I adapted from a scarf tutorial (found here).

I know that seems like a TON of headbands, even for a family with 5 daughters. That's because it is, but they were made to give away to Operation Christmas Child, and they all came together in no time. I found the idea one day and made one of each style to try them out (around 2-3 PM) and within about an hour I had made 8 more. Some are sewn together in the back, which takes a little longer; others are knotted, but I think that gives you the opportunity to turn it around and wear that side as the decoration if desired. I made the first 10 out of 2 old camis that had stretched and I no longer liked the way they fit. Later that night (after putting the twins to bed around 7) I cut the strips for the rest, I think I did 6 strips from 4 different shirts and knotted them all together before I went to bed that night. When I came back to it (a few days later) I spent about an hour and a half sewing and knotting the tails together. And that was all she wrote. It was quick and simple and for a great cause.

I also made this patchwork headband, but felt it was a little too stiff to make more of. (Meaning I gave it to my girls to try and KL said too tight):

I also finished a few needle points in the last week of waiting on KO to arrive.
Here is one, I can't find my photo of the other (it was a hummingbird crewel embroidery), this one was bought on sale at Hobby Lobby, like usual, and I've included the packaging in the photo so you can see brand, because I thought about that this time.

Here's hoping it's not too long before I get time to do more crafting again. Now that school is starting back up and even the twins will be in I have hope, but it depends on how much KO wants to snuggle.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Cross Stitches

I admit, most of my time right now is being spent making sure that everything is ready for baby's arrival so I haven't done too much crafting. I have still been sitting down to cross stitch to help relax at night. I've recently finished 2 so I thought I'd share them.

The first is baby KO's birth announcement, although not technically done since I don't have a birthday or weight to put on it yet, but everything else is done.

I bought this Dimensions kit from Walmart (one of the few that I've bought that wasn't on sale). I didn't want to repeat themes from my other kids so I avoided farm animals and nursery rhymes. KK was born before I was doing cross stitches, or at least in a period of me not doing them. KL's is a stack of cute, characterized farm animals and the twins' has nursery rhyme illustrations around the announcement details. So I thought the alphabet & numbers, even with animals, would be just fine.

After finishing the birth announcement I started a small embroidery project, bought on sale from Hobby Lobby and also a Dimensions kit.

This one was quick moving, I think I spent 2-3 days total. It was super simple.
KL was using it like a story to tell KM this morning. Something about the key to the house with the flowers in the window, and it went on but I don't remember. The twins like to point out all the hearts and of course the cupcake also, because what almost 3 year old isn't attracted to cupcakes.


That's all for now,
Jo!

Some Finished Projects

Here's a few things I've finished over this week.

First, I finished a cross stitch kit this week. It's from Bucilla and it was called "Fall Flowers". I picked it up from Hobby Lobby on sale (for like $12, but months ago).

I absolutely love the colors in this piece. The vibrant blues and orange/reds just look gorgeous.

Second, I realized earlier this week that next week is Teacher Appreciation Week. So I went ahead and threw together a few more coffee cozies, like I did last year.
The school colors are red and black and both of my Big Ks have coaches for teachers, so I went ahead and used school colors for theirs. Also, you can probably tell by looking that there was only one female teacher this year, and honestly I'm not crazy about the way that hers turned out, but KK liked it and it's for her teacher. The last one is for a student teacher in KK's room, but he's been there since the middle of the year so I figured he earned it.

I picked up some Starbucks gift cards to go with them, also like last year. Lord knows I need coffee to get through the day and I only have my 4, not a full classroom.

I have an idea of what to do for the SLP, since she got a cozie last year but I haven't gotten anything to make them yet. I'll show you when I do though.

That's all for now,
Jo!

MLP Hair Bows

Here's my most recently finished project:

I found this adorable heart shaped My Little Pony (Rarity, they also chose Pinkie Pie but you'll see her later) on this cross stitch sight, along with several others. And knew that my big princesses would love them... the question became what to do with them.

I figured since they're small-ish in design I would try my hand at making some hair clips out of them, although, I couldn't find any directions on how to do it. I couldn't find anything like them. So I decided to wing it. I looked for instructions on making pins and ornaments out of cross stitch designs but all of them seemed to included perfectly square designs, that pulled the excess material behind and I knew that wouldn't work for me. Anyway, here's how it came together, and I'll include "instruction" as I go.

My mother gave me some Aida cloth that she had found on sale but never used, so here's the finished cross stitch.

After that I thought I would add a little interfacing to secure the stitches and stiffen them up just a bit.

After that I found a site that gave instructions on turning a cross stitch into an applique. It seemed to be the most secure way of cutting around the shape. As I cut, very carefully, around the design, I used some Fray Check to secure the Aida from unraveling, which was my biggest fear.

Then the problem was attaching the hair clip piece. I use alligator clips with all my other hair bows, so that's what I had to work with. I decided the safest bet would be to use felt over the back and secure the clip to that. I ended up cutting a few slits in the felt (after deciding which corner of the felt the design best fit and glued it there. Here you can see how I just slid the clip through the felt, and I put a dab of hot glue on the back side.

Then I glued the cross stitch to the felt over the clip.

Then I cut off the excess felt, and as an extra security measure I back stitched around the design through the felt (although if I would have thought of that before I wouldn't have used the glue all the way to the edges).

(I hadn't done the back stitch yet when I took this photo but you can see it in the first picture of KL with it in her hair.)

And here's KL at school this morning, fake smiling because I told her I wanted a picture of her with the clip in her hair.

That's all for now,
Jo!

A Few Updates

Here's a few updates on the long term projects I've been working on.

First off, I just finished a cross stitch that I started last August.

At first I was little upset with just how long it took me and then I realized just how much else I did while working on it. (I went back through my Facebook pictures and realized that I finished the downstairs bathroom, including the refinishing projects, made a TON of bows, along with several other Christmas crafts, skirts, etc, etc, etc.- It was a busy 6 months.)

Next is an update on my quiet book. Here's what it looks like (mostly) right now.

Since this picture was taken, I did push the corners out make them nice and neat and then ironed the pages to help them lay flatter. It's finally starting to look like a book!! All I have left is a few activity pieces to attach.
You've seen the patch work pages, here a picture of the unfinished color sorting page.

I took the picture at this stage to show you just how I did it. I printed a font that I liked (and thought wouldn't be too hard to hand stitch) to the paper side of freezer paper and then ironed it onto my felt pieces where needed. I will admit that removing the paper proved harder than I thought it would, but I still managed to do all this stitching (even what's not done in this picture) in one night (that included a school art show and cooking fried chicken for supper too). The little pieces were attached to the crayon shaped pieces of felt to look like a crayon label and help with color word identifying (I believe there are pictures of those on my last update).


Last I have made progress on my first quilt, although it's not much.
I received all the shirts from my brother and took measurements for the designs on them all (minimum size and preferred max, to not have too much empty background). I decided due to the placement of some of the decals (several over one side of the chest up the shoulder), it would be easier to just cut the decals out. Since I'm not a quilter, and therefore don't have the tools that go with, here's what I did. (I know there are computer programs to help with placement of odd shaped squares, that is the tool I don't have.)
I went into Microsoft Paint and turned on the grid lines (through the "View" menu).
Then I used a thick black line to mark the minimum size (one square/inch). Then I went over it with a thinner red line to mark the maximum size. Last I labeled them with what shirt it came from. (I tagged each with a number when I initially measured.) When I was done with all of them, I printed it off, cut it out, and after much trial and error was able to find a way to fit them all together.

I started by sorting them out by similar sizes, but that really didn't help. Eventually, I just started with the bigger ones and fit the others around.

This is the finished placement of the pieces, and to make sure I can keep track of what went where, I made a new Paint picture with the full size and sections. Labeled with what number and final size they would be cut to.
I know it doesn't look like much but to me it feels like progress.

That's all for now,
Jo!

My Summer Projects

You saw everything me and the K girls did together over the summer, here's a quick catch up of what I did on my own this summer.

While the girls were sewing their felt birds, I was working with felt myself making this cute little coffee cozy courtesy of Disney's Spoonful.

I also finished a few cross-stitch purchased kits.

(I love this one I think it's absolutely beautiful. And I got it 75% off when I purchased it.)

And, finally, I bought a pack of Bucilla "wood stitchers" that I bought on sale at Hobby Lobby after Christmas and I stitched those up in about 36 hours and finished them off with some Mod Podge to secure the thread to the back of the wood and then glued some card stock paper over the back (because of course I have Christmas themed card stock paper). 

That's all for now, 

Jo!