august ADVENTure

we've been busy tying up lots of loose ends in the home deco area this week, but I didn't want the 25th to slip by me without an ADVENTure update. Christmas is only four months away! can you feel the excitement and anticipation in my voice? here are my current completed projects:

Pattern: Dashing, by Cheryl Niamath

Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed, color 147- Dragon (green); 1 ball

Needles: US 7 dpn

Mods: I made them a few rows shorter than the pattern.

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back in february, lisa sent me these for my birthday. I feel in love with them immediately and have used them on every trip away from home since. we travel... a lot. and these shoe bags were the perfect gift. in fact, I think they're the perfect gift for anyone on your list. there's something so special about putting your items into beautiful fabric bags instead of gallon ziploc bags, don't 'ya think?

with lisa's recommendation, I followed betz's tutorial for the bag and larissa's tutorial for the french seams. my fabric was purchased at joann's, and I used cording instead of the cotton twill tape. do you know how hard it is to find 100% cotton twill tape in black?? H A R D.

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seems like my cross stitch projects scream for me in the summer. during july and august I was able to stitch up these additional santas for my collection. I'll be sewing these into pillow ornaments just like the others. have I said how much I enjoy the small project size of these santas? perfect for toting around and stitching while I'm waiting for this or that. if you haven't picked up a hand stitching project in awhile, I encourage you to find a favorite and begin!

I'm anticipating a spectacular september, hope you are as well. blessings to you...

the collection:

finished gift count: 9

finished santa count: 5

finished home deco count: 1

april ADVENTure

we're only 244 days away from Saturday, December 25th! can you believe it? if you enjoy creating gifts for the holidays as much as I do, I hope you'll join me as I journey to a calm, crafty Christmas.

this month I created these two gifts:

Pattern: Men's Rustic Scarf from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts

Yarn: Nashua Handknits Vignette, 2 skeins, color: 007, Earth

Needles: US 11 circular

Pattern: Thermis by kris knits

Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool, 1 skein, color 00225, Dark Grey Mix

Needles: US 6 Circular

Mods: I only knit ten repeats (instead of twenty) of the cuff pattern to start the project.

finished gift count: 4

finished santa count: 3

finished home deco project count: 1

sharing love

for most of you, valentine's day has come and gone and so have your posts about the holiday. I may be a week behind, but I'm excited about the projects I created for love day and want to share a few.

my handmade valentines started as a sketch in my list notebook:

then step by step the pieces combined into a card:

step 1: cut hearts from read felt.

step 2: sew on a button with pearl cotton floss.

3: stamp the inside message.

step 4: sew a straight line down the front of the card to dangle the heart by.

step 5: trim thread on the inside of the card.

step 6: glue heart to the end of your sewn line.

step 7: write your personal message and send off to bless another.

when I realized I didn't have very many valentine decorations, I decided to sew up a few hand towels using this pattern book. I made a total of three towels (two for me and one for a bff). I found the towels at Home Goods and the fabrics at my local quilt shop.once the fabric had wonder under ironed on, I cut out the pieces and ironed them onto the dishtowels, then began the blanket stitch around each section. with the addition of a few buttons, they were ready to decorate the kitchen.I'll be back tomorrow with my words for wednesday and an exciting framed creation for you to try!