Erica's Stitches

My thrift store Christmas continues.  As well as the potholder kit, I also found a Candlewicking ornament kit for 50 cents.  I've heard of Candlewicking before, but I've never tried it so I grabbed the kit as well. When I opened it up I discovered the stitches where mostly french knots, with lazy daisies, stem stitch and padded satin stitches.   Nothing new, I've done all those before. A quick trip to Wikipedia revealed that Candlewicking is traditionally done on muslin with a thread that could be braided into candle wicks.  So, the name is more for the materials and style and not the stiches themselves. So, while the dog slept I started stitching.  I didn't get the ornaments completed, but I made a good start.  I'll get my ornaments for next year done early.  Maybe. Those are padded satin stitches and I've only done the first pass, so they will look better when complete.

Christmas is the time for crafts.  Making looped potholders is one of those childhood pasttimes that I had forgotten.  Over the summer I attended a cookout and one of the hosts daughters was busy making her own potholders.  I was instantly taken back and wanted reach my hand in the bag of loops and grab a loom.  I restrained myself. Flash forward till a few weeks ago.  On the shelf at a thrift store was a lonely potholder kit for a dollar so I snatched it up for some Christmas fun. Things have changed.  The loom was plastic, not metal and the loops seemed skimpier.  The following warning was printed on the back: Great, potholders that you can't even use as potholders!  Somethings haven't changed.  Some of the loops, no matter how you tugged and pulled would never be big enough to fit on the loom.  There weren't even enough of the full sized ones to complete one potholder so I had to work in 5 loops that where an inc...

One of my favorite things to do is visit the new books shelf in the library.  Besides fiction, I look at cook books and craft books among others.  I find many great ideas in these books.  Last week I spotted Origami Card Craft: Clever Cards and Envelopes to Fold by Karen Elaine Thomas.  The project that caught my eye was a Jacob's Ladder.  The picture above is my first try.  I messed up the folding so you will see some creases where there shouldn't be.  Next time I'll do better (and I'll find brighter paper).  I've made Jacob's Ladders before and I was doubtful how the paper version would work.  Except for having to divide the paper in thirds, it was easy, and the result is very sturdy. For those who haven't seen these before, it is a book that is hinged on both sides and can open either way due to the clever arrangement of the ties (in this case the white paper).  If you put a sheet of paper on the left half, close it and the...

  I started this blog to record information about my cross stitch designs.  Last weekend I covered the last of the designs that I have finished and are for sale.  So, no more "new" material until I have another design out (don't worry, there are many in the works).    Now is the time to get creative if I'm going to keep this blog going.  I am horrible at paper diaries and never managed to keep one for a few days.  I've been doing this for months and having fun.   Luckily, I have many things going on so I should be able to keep going: A color class based on some earlier designs  is now a Petite Project for chapters of The Embroiderers' Guild of America.   I am working on another color class for the StitchMAP Yahoo Group. Yesterday I got a rejection from a Cross Stitch magazine and now need to decide what to do with that pattern. I want to make heart for Piecework Magazine's 2010 Contest. I will be releas...

Here is my Snowflake Sampler.  It is available for sale from http://www.patternsonline.com/ This time, instead of making up the snowflakes as I stitched, I drew them on graph paper.  Since I wanted the snowflakes to be reproducible, it was much easier to graph them first and stitch them second. The only thing I didn't design in advance was the bead placement.  It's much easier deciding where they go on the actual stitched piece instead of a pictoral representation. One of the hardest things about designing your own sampler is deciding on colors.  I started with 2 doodles.  One on off-white linen in light blues and one on lavender with white and darker blue snowflakes.  It was a hard decision, but I finally decided to go with the off-white and light blues.  The result is low-contrast snowflakes.  I now think my model should have been in the higher contrast colors.  Whenever I decide to go with the safer colors I end up deciding that...