Beautiful Button Box

It is a lovely sunny day here in central Iowa and I am getting ready to do a long walk in the sweet sunshine....by the time I finish this quick post, it should be about 40 degrees and I am ready for some fresh air! Yesterday I walked 6.5 miles in 30 degrees and that was a bit chilly - I had some very rosy cheeks....but today we are supposed to hit 47 degrees and I am excited to do a 10 mile training walk outdoors. I want to do a special thank you to those of you who have made a donation supporting my Komen 3-Day (60 mile) walk in  November - I am almost to $900.00, which is AMAZING (15% of my goal) - and I truly appreciate your support! This is such an important cause and I thank you for your encouragement and very generous hearts...

Today I have a couple fun tings to share with you - I received a lovely birthday package from my dear friend Terri - inside was a gorgeous Shaker button box (and you all know how much I love and treasure my Shaker items). This beautiful button box was filled with tiny wrapped presents (shown top right) - including a wonderful embroidered wool pincushion and some very fancy scissors (which I have never seen before!). I have already started filling the button box with various vintage buttons and trims and have it sitting in a place of prominence in my stitching nook. Terri also included a lovely scarf she knitted herself - isn't it great?! I do not do any knitting or crocheting to speak of, so I feel very blessed to have friends that are so talented and gift their yarn creations to me (again, I'm a very lucky girl)!

Also to share today - I managed to get quite a bit of sewing done over the last few days - finishing up some fun St. Patrick's Day items! I have been working on wool applique pincushions and several L.U.C.K. pillow sets. These have all been listed in my Etsy shop. I also cut up several yards of special sampler fabrics and I am working on new needlebooks, stitch starter sleeves, and stitching pockets....so look for those to be posted in the next week or so...

For now, I am off to do my lengthy walk...enjoy the rest of your weekend...I hope you have a chance to get outside and/or be creative!

Sewing and Celebration

I've been having trouble sleeping lately...so, late last night (or early this morning) I managed to get a little more sewing completed - I have been working on some more St. Patrick's Day items...I finished up six fun wool appliqué pincushions that are filled with crushed walnut shells...and I embroidered up a couple more batches of lace shamrock ornaments to replenish my Etsy shop (the first batches sold almost immediately). I had fun doing the blanket stitch appliqué on the pincushions - using green shamrock cotton fabrics and shades of green wool felt...and I used my AccuQuilt Studio Fabric Cutter to cut the four-leaf clovers and small hearts...a great project to work on when I was wide awake at 3:00 in the morning. I also had time to cut out all the pieces for several sets of L.U.C.K. pillows...I'm hoping to complete them in the next day or two....

...and I have a few fun, creative, and inspiring things to share with you today. As some of you know, I am celebrating my birthday this week (thank you to everyone who has sent me birthday greetings) - my dear friend Mary gave me an early gift bag last week during our road trip with all sorts of goodies, and I just had to share some of them with you...the treasures she gifted me included a couple wonderful books (including Zakka Style which has been on my wish list for quite some time!) - some quilting fabric fat quarters - an adorable owl charm (it is a scrabble tile) - bee magnets - and a wonderful sketch pad portfolio (which is already in use)! I have paged through both books several times and I am quite inspired for some future projects...and one will use the lovely fat quarters (which are definitely my colors). I am so blessed to have friends that spark my creativity every chance they get...I always get the most artistic and inspiring gifts (just wait to see what I have to show you over the next couple days)....

Well, I am hoping to get a little sleep tonight - but if not, I will be playing with all my fabulous birthday pressies in my studio - creating something new! I have some beautiful stitchy gifts to show you in the next day or two...and the most creative pincushion I have ever received - so stay tuned....

Shamrocks & Stitching

I managed to finish quite a few machine embroidered lace ornaments over the last couple weeks...I know you have seen my hearts and snowflakes...and now I have been working on shamrocks and heart shamrocks. I made them in several shades of green and in white...and I listed what I have finished up in my Etsy shop this afternoon. These ornaments are made on my embroidery machine...and are technically called "free-standing lace"...they are made entirely of thread!

For those of you unfamiliar with an embroidery machine, here is a little idea of how these shamrocks are made - using digitized designs, the machine embroiders the ornaments on water-soluble stabilizer...once the design is completely stitched, you put it in water and the stabilizer dissolves, leaving you with a beautiful piece of lace made completely of embroidery thread. I like to loop a piece of 1/8" ribbon through the hanger on each ornament before placing it in a card or on a gift. Each design can take anywhere from 45 minutes to well over an hour to make, so I usually set up my machine and let them embroider while I am working at my desk or on various other crafts in my studio. In the photos you can see a selection of my embroidered shamrocks...average size of the small heart shamrock is  is 2.5" W x 2.625" H...the larger heart shamrocks are approximately 3.875" W x 3.875" H...and the large shamrock is approximately 3.91" W x 3.80" H. Many digitizers offer designs for machine embroidery, but if you are interested in these particular shamrock designs, they are designed by Criswell Embroidery & Design....you can purchase digitized designs from this designer on a disk at your favorite quilt shop or by downloading them from their website.

I have several fun St. Patrick's day sewing projects cut and ready to compete this week, as well...and I will share those with you soon! I just love sewing for the seasons and holidays...