Holiday Package Ready To Ship

Ta-Dah!

All finished :) My little holiday ornament turned out even better than I could have hoped and I'm seriously going to have to make one for myself now *grin*.

Here is everything that I'm sending to my secret swap partner for the holiday edition of the potholder pass. Both of the potholders have the appliqued bird design on the front and the candy cane striping for the backing. I wasn't sure how I was going to add the potholder hooks but I decided on using red rik rak and embellished them with a tiny red heart and to accompany the potholders is my little stumpwork ornament.

I sure hope my partner will enjoy it as much as I did making it for her :) The whole package is all wrapped up and ready to be dropped off at the post office tomorrow morning and I can't wait to see what I get *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Nature's Larder

I've been putting the finishing touches on my special stumpwork ornament that I'm giving to my Potholder Pass partner :) I had mentioned in my last update that it was out of one of my older inspiration magazines and here is a photo of what the original projects look like. Aren't they amazing?! Mine is considerably larger since it is an ornament for a Christmas tree but these ones are not even 2 inches in diameter.

Everything has to be in the mail by Sunday and I'm right on track to get it all shipped by the last day LOL. So much for this being the fastest swap I've ever completed! Somewhere along the way I got sidetracked... thus is my life *grin*.

The above photo shows a side view of the raspberry that is covered completely in french knots and the accented with little beads :)

For the leaves I used a special satin floss that sort of shimmers depending on how the light hits it. It's a DMC floss number S700 and I think that it gave the whole project the little extra glitz that I was looking for :)

So tonight I'm going to finish attaching my little red berries that are awaiting me all pinned in place and figure out exactly how to anchor my acorn without shifting the satin threads surrounding it. I find that the instructions in the magazine are a little vague which makes finishing the project a little tougher but it's coming together nicely and tomorrow I should have a completed photo to show you along with the potholders that are finished to :) Yay!! Then I can move on to new projects *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Stumpwork

Part of my holiday potholder swap requirement is to send along an ornament and in one of my old Inspirations magazines is a beautiful stumpwork pattern by Jane Nicholas that I have been dying to try out.

By covering the piece of felt with floss I'm going to end up with a super sleek acorn shape and I've got a real acorn top to put on it :) I've made some little red berries and a raspberry that is made up of nearly 100 french knots but I need some little beads for embellishments. I thought that I had some seed beads I could use but unfortunately they won't go over the eye of my needle :( Don't you just hate it when you start a project and you don't have everything you need to complete it?!

I'm going to have to raid my mom's craft cupboard tomorrow and see if she has anything that I can use otherwise I'll have to wait until I head into the city later this week. I'm off to let my poor fingers rest as my fingertips are burning from all of the pinching and pulling of my needle today *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Umbrella Blessings

Ooh, I'm on a roll! Two blocks in two days *grin*.
Thank you everyone for all of the kind comments you left yesterday on my Clothesline Blessing Block :) You're all so sweet!

Today it has been raining like crazy and it made me think about my umbrella and how blessed we are to have such a thing so that we can venture outdoors and explore nature even while the heavens are pouring down on us.

I have been smitten with bunny rabbits ever since creating my white rabbit embroidery and mixed media piece for the Alice in Wonderland swap I participated in so I just had to make my little person a bunny *grin*. A pretty little girl bunny dressed in a ruffled sundress amongst the flowers.

This is exactly where I could have been found today.... stealing moments in the flower beds between rain squalls LOL.

Happy stitching,
~ Rosina

Clothesline Blessings

Hooray! I finally have another block or in this case 4 more blocks to share for my Count Your Blessings stitch along :)

I am crazy about my clothesline and can often be found actually searching for things to wash during the summer months just so I can bring in the scent of sunshine *grin*.

I wanted to keep with the three dimensional theme that I started with when I made my garden block so I sewed some miniature clothing to hang on the clothesline :) An apron and a little pair of pants blowing in the breeze. I stitched the little pink socks and then added little french knot flowers just to give it a little more pizzaz. Can't you just feel the breeze blowing as the apron flaps in the wind? Heehee, I love it *grin*.

Happy stitching,
~ Rosina

First Block Finished

I did it! I finished my very first block *grin*.
I decided that my first one was going to be about what a blessing my vegetable garden is to our family :) Every spring we start seeds indoors and outdoors, growing radishes, carrots, beans, peas, broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes and more. We try to eat as much organic produce as possible and being able to grow some of it to save money is a great help. I love to can our vegetables as well and my pantry is quite low this spring so I'm really counting on the garden to bolster our winter supplies. Plus it is so gratifying for myself and my children to watch those little seeds sprout and fruit before our eyes :)

As I created my block I thought of those aerial scenes of farmland that you see with the perfect little square patches of greens and browns and thought that would be a great way to do my mini garden. Of course you can't have a garden without something growing in it! So I used french knots for my little veggies and then ran knotted green thread through the finished french knots to create the green tops on the veggies. I really like how it turned out :) Now I need to come up with a new block!

Don't forget that you can find all of my stitch along blog entries in one convenient place on the special Count My Blessings Stitch along page I created!

Happy stitching
~ Rosina