Twilight Duel Update #25

This month, I only added 348 stitches to my Heaven and Earth Designs (HAED) Twilight Duel cross-stitch. Most of that was filling in the white dragon on page 14, which makes the progress very difficult to see. I really do love this piece, based on the amazing artwork of Ruth Thompson.

This photo shows a close up view of page 14, the next section I plan to complete. 

I hope to have more progress to show in March.

(Click on any photo for a larger view.)

Percent Complete:
Project:       35.41% (It was 35.18%)
Pages 1-2: 100%
Page 3:        32.92% (It was 32.26%)
Page 4:      100 %
Page 5:          1.83%
Page 6:          0%
Pages 7-8: 100%
Page 9:          2.73%
Page 10:        0.25%
Pages 11-12: 0%
Page 13:    100%
Page 14:        9.09% (It was 5.02%)
Pages 15-18: 0%
Page 19:    100%
Page 20:        3.72%

Thank you for visiting!
Renee

Another Snowman Mug Rug

While having my tires rotated today, I finished sewing the binding onto this mug rug. 

I printed the "Snowman" digital stamp from The Paper Shelter onto fabric and colored it at the same time I printed the mug rug I finished last month. And I am happy to say that the black ink from the inkjet printer washed beautifully. 

As part of the 1 X-mas Item a Month Blog, I am striving to complete at least 12 Christmas items this year. You may see what others are creating here.

Block of the Month Progress

I finished another block from Sun, Sand, and Sea Block of the Month. This was block 10 - "Making Waves" - and it was designed by Amy at Sew Incredibly Crazy. You may find her post here and the pattern here.

If you have followed my blog long, you may already know I love hand embroidery, but still consider myself a novice when it comes to machine sewing. I am doing better with getting my seams to line up, but clearly need more practice...

I only have one more block to make from this BOM before I can sew the quilt top together! This BOM has been so fun that I decided to participate in the It's a "Wild" Life BOM being hosted by Sew Incredibly Crazy and Friends this year.

Block 1 "Maple Leaves" was designed by Amy at Sew Incredibly Crazy. You may find her blog post here.

The pattern is available here at Craftsy. It is free throughout February.

Thank you for visiting!
-Renee

You may see the other blocks I made for the Sun, Sand, and Sea BOM here.

TAST Weeks 7-8

Week 7: Feather Stitch

The feather stitch was added to my messenger bag with a green strand of size 8 perle cotton.

To dress it up, size 8 variegated pink perle cotton fly stitches were topped with French knots, creating flowers.

Next, detached chain stitches were added with the same shade of green to make leaves. 

Week 8: Stem Stitch

This heart was embroidered using the stem stitch.

First, I outlined the shape from one of Sharon B.'s crazy quilt templates. (These were given to me for an honest review and I just love using them.)

Thank you for visiting!
Renee

TAST stands for Take a Stitch Tuesday. It is a personal challenge hosted by Sharon B. of Pintangle to learn a new embroidery stitch each week. You may learn more about it here and find the Facebook TAST group here.

QS Red Hearts Update - February 2018

My goal this year is to add at least 1,290 stitches to my Heaven and Earth Designs "QS Red Hearts" cross-stitch project, based on the artwork of Ching-Chou Kuik. As of January 1st, this would have finished the project by the end of December. With my current stitch count, this goal will complete the piece in November. 

This is how she looked at the beginning of the month.

I added 582 stitches to her before International Hermit & Stitch Weekend (IHSW), so she looked like this on Friday morning.

And another 1,473 stitches were added during IHSW. A total of 2,055 stitches were added to her this month. (And putting her away until March is going to be hard! She's getting so close to a finish.)

The parked threads were driving me a little crazy, so I worked them in. So, it may not be as easy to see, but I did finish another diagonal row of the chart.

I passed the 75% complete milestone on Saturday. (I'm sorry you missed seeing my happy dance!)

The project is now 76.11% complete. (It was 71.74%.)

Pages 1-4: 100% complete
Page 5:        74.64% complete (It was 65.15%)
Page 6:        32.86% complete (It was 17.71%)
Page 7:        73.65% complete (It was 56.13%)
Page 8:          2.30% complete (It was 0.11%)
Page 9:          0.00% complete

Thank you for visiting!
Renee

IHSW stands for International Hermit & Stitch Weekend. This event takes place the 3rd weekend of every month and began at Random Ramblings. You may learn more about IHSW here, find the Facebook group here. Save the dates and join us the weekend of March 16th-18th. It is simple, take a before picture of your stitching project(s), stitch as much as you can over the weekend, and take an after photo to show off your progress.

Happy InCoWriMo Mail!

I am feeling so spoiled! Just look at the happy mail I found in my mailbox this week.

When my friend, Christine, agreed to swap letters with me through InCoWriMo this year, I had no idea I was going to receive such a treat. If you click on the photo to see a larger image, you may be able to tell Christine sewed the patches together on the card she made for me. I love her "patchwork" - it is absolutely darling! 

You may have noticed my favorite shape is a heart. So, the card of heart buttons is a wonderful treat. And I cannot wait to play with these gorgeous threads!

Thank you so very much, Christine!

If you would like to see some of Christine's pretty quilting and embroidery projects, you may find them on her blog, Patchwork Allsorts, here or on Facebook, here.

Thank you!
Renee

February is International Correspondence Writing Month (InCoWriMo). You may find more about it here. Or search #incowrimo on Instagram to see what others are mailing and receiving.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wish you all a very happy Valentine's Day!

This can be a rough day for many people.

I am sending big cyber hugs your way!

If you would like to enjoy a bit of eye candy,

head over the Crazy Quilting International blog.

The ladies made beautiful fabric Valentine postcards.

Just click here.

Embellished CQJP 2018 February Block

My 2nd CQJP 2018 block is now complete! The theme for my CQJP 2018 project is "My Favorite Things" and I love trees, flowers, butterflies, birds, hearts and snailmail.

Click on any photo for a larger image. 

A snail was added by couching size 5 variegated brown perle cotton in a circle. Size 8 brown perle cotton straight stitches created the snail's body.

My attempts to embroider a mailbox this small did not work out, so I drew one on the block with a black Micron pen, colored it in with a crayon and heat set the pigments.

Next, size 8 yellow perle cotton created a yellow butterfly with detached chain stitches and a straight stitch. Running stitches created a flight path. 

Size 5 variegated blue and purple perle cotton and detached chain stitches were used to make a flower border around the heart. Size 8 pink perle cotton French knots were added to the center of each flower.

Size 8 green perle cotton stem stitches created flower stems around the base of the tree. Small detached chain stitches were added to create leaves. Tiny straight stitches filled each leaf. 

Size 8 variegated pink perle cotton straight stitches creaed flower petals.

A detached chain stitch, 2 tiny straight stitches, and a French knot made with 2 strands of blue embroidery floss created the body of a bird. A tiny straight stitch with a strand of light orange floss made the beak.

Straight stitches with 2 strands of floss (one light and one medium brown) made the nest.

Running stitches created with silver metallic thread made a snail trail.

To keep these flowers subtle, I used a single strand of light green floss. The flower stems and leaves were made with a fly stitch and a straight stitch. The flower petals were made with 2 strands of a light variegated yellow and pink floss. A French knot was placed on the tip of each stem. And a tiny fly stitch was added just beneath the knot.

This completed block 2.

Thank you so much for visiting!
Renee


CQJP stands for Crazy Quilt Journal Project. It is a challenge to complete a crazy quilt block each month that is at least 8-inches square in size. You may learn more about it and see blocks others have created for CQJP 2018 here.

Related posts:
CQJP 2018 Block 2 - here
TAST Weeks 5-6 - here
Embellished CQJP 2018 January Block - here

TAST Weeks 5-6

This post is a day later than I intended, but for fun reasons. :) The time I scheduled to blog last night was spent planning a vacation later this year with dear friends. 2018 has a lot of big milestones for our family and this trip will celebrate one of them.

Week 5: Herringbone Stitch

Inspired by the work of Annie Bowers on the Facebook TAST Group, I used the herringbone stitch as a filler on my tree. It was a fun idea that I would not have come up with myself.

The outline of the tree was added to my Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2018 February block with a stem stitch, but I did not like all of the open space. This was a great solution!

Week 6: Chain Stitch

This arched seam was created with size 12 black perle cotton and chain stitches.

First, I traced the arches from one of Sharon B.'s crazy quilt templates. (Regular readers may recall I received them in exchange for an honest review. I still love using them!)

Next, I whipped the chain stitch with a variegated pink size 8 perle cotton. 



Working with these stitches was so much fun, I kept playing!

Using another stencil, I marked the foundation fabric on the back of the block. 

I used these dots as guides to create another herringbone stitched seam.

On one side of the herringbone stitched seam, I added small bullion knots. Small fly stitches were placed beneath each bullion. These were all made with size 8 variegated pink perle cotton. Blue seed beads were added to the other side of the seam.

For the motif, I used another stencil from Sharon B. to trace a stem with 2 leaves.

Using size 8 green perle cotton, I chain stitched the stem.

Next, I whipped the chain stitches and couched the same thread around the shapes of the leaves. Herringbone stitches filled them in.

A pink lace flower that I purchased from Raviolee Dreams a couple of years ago inspired me to create the stem and leaves. I couched it onto the block with a matching strand of pink floss and filled the center with blue seed beads.

Thank you for stopping by!
Renee

TAST stands for Take a Stitch Tuesday. It is a personal challenge to learn a new embroidery stitch every week.

You may learn more about TAST here and find the Facebook group here.

CQJP stands for Crazy Quilt Journal Project. This is a personal challenge to complete a crazy quilt block each month that is at least 8-inches square. You may learn more about CQJP 2018 and see the beautiful blocks other participants have created here.

InCoWriMo 2018 Days 1-6

InCoWriMo 2018 has been fun so far!

For Day 1 I wrote a note to a dear family friend on the 

postcard in the photo above. 

(You may recognize it as one I began last 

February - here, and finished in October - here.)

For Days 2-6 I am sending Valentine cards out that I printed using the digital stamp "You Have Mail" from The Paper Shelter.

I love that these digital stamps come with an outline you may color and with a colored image that you may just print.

In Picasa (free photo software), I added text to personalize each image. The images were then inserted into a Microsoft Word document and printed onto blank white cards.

Have you written any "snail mail" letters or cards recently? It is kind of fun knowing the recipients are not expecting them!

Thank you for stopping by!

Renee

Love You! Mugs on Etsy

I am trying something new! There are 11-ounce and 15-ounce mugs in my Hand Stitched Treasure Etsy Shop that feature a photo of the "Love You!" block I created for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2018.

The image is printed on both sides of each mug. So, whether you are left-handed or right-handed, the image will be visible!

The image is printed onto mugs that are made in the USA. This makes them a little more expensive than mugs made in China, but I love supporting jobs here at home.

The company that prints the mugs for me ships them from North Carolina or California. The mugs are made to order. It may take 7-8 business days to print a mug after it is purchased. Usually, it will take less time. However, during busy seasons it could take longer. Shipping may take 7-8 days. So, they may not arrive in time for Valentine's Day, but they would make a great Mother's Day or Birthday gift.

I am incredibly excited to offer these in my shop! You may find my Hand Stitched Treasure Etsy Shop here.

Due to the small size of my business, items are only sold within the USA. 

Thank you for stopping by! -Renee

Update September 2018: The company I went through to have these mugs made discontinued their Made in America mugs, so this item is currently unavailable in my Etsy inventory.

CQJP 2018 Block 2

Earlier this week, I pieced the second block for my Crazy Quilt Journal Project. 

Click any image for a larger view.

First, I colored white cotton fabric with crayons and set the color. (Coloring fabric was explained in this post last year.)

This month, rather than using raw edge applique, I cut the heart a little larger than needed and ironed the edges under. I used HeatnBond Lite (one of the prizes I won from ThermOWeb last year through the Sun, Sand, and Sea BOM) to iron the heart in place. Then, I hand appliqued the edges to the block.

A buttonhole stitched seam, connected with straight stitches along the top, created a fence.

I lightly sketched the outline of a tree on the muslin backing of the block and embroidered it with stem stitches using size 5 DMC #4140 variegated brown perle cotton. 

The second seam was embellished with back stitches using size 8 DMC #954 green perle cotton.

Now to see if I can actually embroidere the ideas I have in mind for the rest of this block...

Thank you for visiting!
Renee

The Crazy Quilt Journal Project (CQJP) 2018 is a personal challenge to create a crazy quilt block measuring at least 8" x 8" each month of the year. You may learn more about it here and see the beautiful blocks other participants have created here.

Related post:
Embellished CQJP 2018 January Block - here

My CQJP 2018 progress is being saved on this Pinterest board.