Sealed with a Kiss Quilt

This adaptation from the pattern "Sealed with a Kiss" in the book Hearts Aplenty by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith just needed a label and a hanging sleeve.

I would love to thank those of you that let me know you have added hanging sleeves to smaller quilts without sewing them into the binding. You spared me a date with my seam ripper.

If you missed the details about the label, that blog post is here.

Today, I finished hand sewing a sleeve to the back of the quilt in case the recipient wants to hang it up.

Thank you so much for visiting!
-Renee

This is Day 26 of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge hosted by www.muppin.com. You may learn more about it and find other participating blogs here.

Crazy Quilted Christmas Stocking

Creating this stocking has been such a joy!

This was project #10 on my 2017 UFO Challenge through allpeoplequilt.com. It was the June project. Clearly, I took my time finishing it.

This is how it looked when I shared my 2017 UFO List last December. 

"Magical Ride" from the Stoney Creek Collection: Cool Friends Book 211 was cross-stitched in June. 

A woven zig zag chain stitch from TAST was added to embellish a seam of holly.

Oops! It looks like I shared the Christmas tree seam near the bottom on Instagram, but forgot to share it on the blog in October.

Chevron stitches were used to couch down a blue ribbon, straight stitches filled in the "trees", bugle beads became tree trunks, and yellow beads became stars.

Raised Herringbone Band from TAST was added in November. 

An angel seam, inspired by An Encyclopedia of Crazy Quilt Stitches and Motifs by Linda Causee, was added December 3rd.

A simple snowflake seam was next.

No stocking can have enough embroidered snow, so I added more snowflakes.

Every stocking needs a Christmas tree, right?! 

Inspired by the work of Nicki Lee Seavey's block featured on the Crazy Quilt Quarterly Magazine, a bit of JOY was added. 

More trees decorated a seam.

A wreath earring...

...and a button seam were next.

A poinsettia was inspired by the work of Michelle at Moosie Stitch.

A snowy night with a Christmas Star and a snowman were fun to embroider.

The crossed buttonhole stitched trees were inspired by TAST and the work of Anneliese at Stitching Lady. 

A few more snowflakes and a polymer clay snowman completed the stocking.

Thank you for joining me in my stitching journey!

If you celebrate Christmas, I wish you a very Merry Christmas. For those of you with differing beliefs, I wish you a wonderful holiday season!

Our Christmas is looking a little crazy (quilted!)

Warmest wishes,
Renee


The American Patchwork & Quilting 2018 UFO Challenge has been announced at allpeoplequilt.com. You may learn more about it here. The January project will be #12.

TAST stands for Take a Stitch Tuesday. It is a personal stitching challenge offered by Sharon B. of pintangle.com. The next round will begin in January 2018. You may read about it here. 

This is Day 24 of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge hosted by www.muppin.com. You may learn more about it and find other participating bloggers here. 

Note: I will not be posting on Christmas Day.

HAED SK Effects of Caffeine Day 21

My travel project went with me yesterday. A relative had an appointment that allowed me to put in over an hour and a half of progress.

This is the Heaven and Earth Designs "Storykeep Effects of Caffeine" based on the wonderful artwork of Randal Spangler.

Adding 230 stitches made a visible difference. 

The top 4 rows of the chart are finished!

2,985 of 23,660 stitches are done. Page 1 is 46.86% complete and the project is 12.62% complete.

You may see a photo of how it will look here. 

Thank you for visiting!
-Renee

This is Day 23 of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge hosted by www.muppin.com. You may find more details and other participating blogs here.

Polymer Clay Snowman Motif

The polymer clay snowman I made is now attached to my son's 

crazy quilt Christmas stocking!

After sewing him on, I added a few simple snowflakes 

with size 8 white perle cotton.

He looks so cheerful!

I added a few more snowflakes around the cross-stitched snowman at the top and that completed the embellishing for this stocking!

Note: for the cross-stitch, I reversed the "Magical Ride" pattern in the Stoney Creek Collection: Cool Friends Book 211, so the snowman would fit on the striped fabric.

Thank you for visiting!

Renee

This is Day 22 of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge hosted by www.muppin.com.

You may find more details and other participating blogs here.

A Snowy Night

A snowy scene with a Christmas Star was added 

to the crazy quilt stocking I am making for my son.

Click any photo for a larger view.

First, I used a strand of white and a strand of green thread to create snowy crossed buttonhole stitches trees. 

The trees were inspired by the work of Annelise, a member of the TAST Facebook Group. You may see the trees she made on her blog, here. My first attempt is here.

Next, using size 12 DMC B5200 perle cotton, I stem stitched a blanket of snow beneath the trees.

A large pearl bead and 2 smaller pearl beads created a snowman.

It was a little tall in comparison to the trees, so I placed it in the foreground to put it in better perspective.

More stem stitches were added beneath the snowman to make a little snowy hill.

A star bead went on next. Metallic sewing thread straight stitches were placed around the star.

Size 12 DMC B5200 was used to add French knot snowflakes.

I asked my husband's opinion and he agreed the snowy ground should be filled in.

Size 5 DMC B5200 perle cotton French knots were added to fill in the snowy hill for the snowman.

Size 8 Anchor white perle cotton was used to fill in the background blanket of snow with more stem stitches.

This completed the little scene.

Thank you so much 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 stitch each week. You may learn more about it here. A new session of TAST will begin in January 2018. It is a great way to learn new embroidery stitches and you may go at your own pace - no pressure!

This is Day 21 of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge hosted by www.muppin.com. Find more details and other participating blogs here.

Note: Edited 12/22/17 to add a link to see the inspiring trees Anneliese created.